Chenoweth, O'Malley, and Colfer Do It Again

Ah, Glee night. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous this week. After all, how do you follow up one of the best episodes in TV history? Last week's Madonna episode was pure magic.

Luckily, they were off to a good start tonight with the return of Kristin Chenoweth as April Rhodes. I still get chills when I listen to the version of 'Maybe This Time' that Kirstin and Lea Michele performed during Chenoweth's first appearance on the show.

Her return visit was just as fantastic, musically speaking, and Cheno also got to demonstrate her excellent comedic timing once again. Still, I have to say that I really enjoyed that they didn't make the whole episode about April. This show should never revolve around the guest stars and I'm glad that the writers seem to get that. April's return was just one of tonight's plots and it didn't eclipse the other stories.

Kristin and Matthew Morrison performed two more duets, Springsteen's 'Fire' and, best of all, a mash up of Burt Bacharach's 'One Less Bell to Answer' and 'A House is Not a Home'. I can't tell you how much I loved the second duet! Those two just sounded so incredible together. I once again had chills.

Kristin, with the glee kids backing her, ended the show with 'Home' from The Wiz, another great performance. Her voice is just so very beautiful, I could listen to her sing all day long and never tire of it.

By the way, if you're a Kristin fan you should check out tomorrow's Live with Regis and Kelly. They're doing Broadway Week on the show and Chenoweth will be there tomorrow doing something from her new Broadway show, the revival of Promises, Promises! It's as close as I'm going to get to seeing her in the show, so I'm looking forward to it.

As I said, April's return was just one of tonight's plots on Glee. There was also a plot about Sue trying to make Mercedes lose weight to stay in the Cheerios, which culminated in Mercedes singing Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful', and there was the Kurt/Finn plot. I was especially looking forward to the latter story because Mike O'Malley was returning as Kurt's dad, Burt, and I've been blown away by every single scene he and Chris Colfer have done together so far.

I absolutely loved Kurt's rendition of 'A House is Not a Home', which he sang directly to Finn in front of the entire glee club. What a moment: sweet, sad, and heart wrenching. I've always wished that we'd seen Kurt sing 'I Honestly Love You' to Finn last fall in the episode entitled Ballad, but tonight more than made up for that.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want or expect a Kurt/Finn pairing at all. I do love the way they're writing this, though, with Finn uncomfortable with Kurt's feelings but not at all hateful towards Kurt about it. I think Kurt has to go through this sort of hopeless crush on an unobtainable straight boy before he can look for someone who is truly interested in him. We've all been there and it's more about us being ready for something than it is about the straight guy we think we love.

I really like Chris Colfer's voice a lot, his solo version of 'Defying Gravity' is my most played song Glee song to date and his rendition of 'A House is Not a Home' was beautiful. I love that Kurt is getting more solos at last!

The same goes for Mercedes. Of course, I'd still like to see Artie, Tina, Puck, Quinn, and Santana get more solo parts, too. One of the best things about this week was that Rachel didn't have any solos! I love Lea Michele, but Rachel and Finn get almost all the solos and it's time to spread the wealth a bit.

Anyway, tonight we found out that Kurt had set up his father with Finn's mother and the two had really hit it off. Kurt was of course envisioning himself and Finn sharing a room together (and was planning to decorate accordingly), but things took a somewhat different turn and Kurt was left hurt by seeing his father bond with Finn over sports.

Once again, O'Malley and Colfer's scene together was some of the best work I've seen, as Kurt expressed his hurt at seeing his dad bond with 'the son he always wanted'. I especially loved the following exchange:

Burt: Look, Kurt, I love you. And I am sympathetic to all your stuff. But come on, buddy, we've got a deal here, right? I don't try to change you, you don't try to change me. You are my son, and a little guy talk with some other kid isn't going to change that.

Kurt: Guy talk? I'm a guy.

Burt: Come on, you know what I mean.

What's great about this story is that it feels so realistic. Kurt has the sort of dad that many gay teens would love to have, someone who is very supportive and who truly loves him no matter what, and yet they're very different people. It makes perfect sense that Kurt would be insecure about their bond as father and son.

I seriously think that Chris Colfer should not only be nominated for an Emmy but take home the statue on the strength of Kurt's scenes with his dad alone. Mike O'Malley should get one as well. These two are doing some amazing work.