By LTG
After Emma enters a crazy person's fugue state and unwittingly proposes to Will in the teachers' lounge, Will decides he needs to pop the question. Which leads him to assign New Directions to find him the perfect proposal song. Man, I wish I could outsource my love life. Artie thinks he should lead with his hips and sing something that shows off his sexy dance moves. The girls propose a sweet, romantic number. Will makes the mistake of asking Emma's horrible parents for permission, and they fill his mind with doubts about how awful it would be to be married to someone with Emma's level of OCD. Will, ever the idiot, actually shares these doubts with Emma, and she grows a spine and tells him to shit or get off the pot. But not with those words, because that image would likely make Emma vomit. So he does, with a chlorine-drenched proposal that would make any germaphobe happy. And she says yes.
After Sam and Mercedes share the story of their summer fling with everyone else, Sam clearly wants to restart things with Mercedes. She reminds him that she's dating Shane, and Sam decides that the reason Mercedes is drawn to Shane is that he has a letterman's jacket. He wants to get his own jacket, stat, but there's only one team with open spots -- the synchronized swimming team. Which means (a) shirtless, wet Sam and (b) a kickass turn by NeNe Leakes as the synchronized swim team coach. (Really, what I thought was going to be some awful stunt-casting turned out to be a great performance.) Mercedes realizes she still has feelings for Sam while singing a romantic song.
And there's even more love. Becky has decided that she wants Artie to be her boyfriend. He humors her, and even enjoys their dinner at Breadstix. But things get a little more complicated when she decides that she wants to go all the way. Sue gives him some genuine advice, and he levels with Becky. And then Sue even gives her some love and comfort when she cries over her broken heart.
Finally, in a non-love-related plot, Finn tells Will that he's made a decision about his future -- he's going to follow in his father's footsteps and join the army. Will rats him out to Burt and Carol, and Carol is forced to tell him the truth about his father, which is that he was in the army, but didn't die in Iraq. Instead, he came out of the service with a drug problem, and died of an overdose. Finn is understandably upset, and thinks his life has lost all meaning. After Rachel sings a romantic song to him, he decides that she now gives his life meaning. And he proposes to her, leaving us with quite a cliffhanger.
Featuring: "Summer Nights," from Grease, performed by Sam and Mercedes as the story of their summer fling; a mash-up of Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" and the Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash," performed by Artie, with sexy dancing backup from Will and Mike Chang; "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," most famously performed by Roberta Flack, here performed by Rachel, Tina, Santana, and Mercedes; Rihanna's "We Found Love," performed by Rachel and Santana, with an assist from the synchronized swim team; the 5th Dimension's "Wedding Bell Blues," performed by Emma; and David Guetta's "Without You," performed by Rachel.