Yes/No (Glee)

After learning Coach Beiste eloped with her now husband Cooter Mankins, Emma (Jayma Mays) wonders whether Will (Matthew Morrison) is ever going to propose marriage. She fantasizes about their wedding, and in the fantasy sings "Wedding Bell Blues". She is mortified to discover that while fantasizing, she inadvertently and publicly asked Will to marry her, and immediately denies having done so. Emboldened nevertheless, Will gives the glee club an assignment: find the perfect song for him to use to propose to Emma. Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) separately recount their summer relationship to their friends, singing "Summer Nights". Sam suggests to Mercedes that they get back together, but she reminds Sam she is dating Shane (LaMarcus Tinker). Sam, hoping a varsity letterman jacket will impress her, joins the only sports team still recruiting: synchronized swimming. Later, while Mercedes sings "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" with Rachel (Lea Michele), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and Santana (Naya Rivera) for Will as their proposal suggestion, she mentally pictures Sam rather than Shane, and is distressed. Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter, with inner voiceover by Helen Mirren), decides she wants Artie (Kevin McHale) for her boyfriend, and asks him for a date. He later performs for her his idea for Will's proposal—a sexy mash-up of the songs "Moves Like Jagger" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash"—but she informs him that their date also includes dinner. The glee club fears Artie will be raising Becky's hopes, but Artie tells them he had fun on the dinner date, and that they should examine their own prejudices about people with handicaps. However, when Becky tells Artie that she wants to have sex with him, he panics and asks Sue (Jane Lynch) for advice on how to break off the relationship. She advises him to treat Becky like anyone else and tell her directly. Becky is disappointed, and is later comforted by Sue. Will asks Finn (Cory Monteith) to be his best man, and Finn tells Will that he is considering enlisting in the army. Will has Finn meet with him and Emma, plus his mother Carole (Romy Rosemont) and stepfather Burt (Mike O'Malley), who had not known of his army plans. Finn explains that he feels an obligation to his late father to be a good man and help people. His mother reveals that she hid from him the fact that his father did not die in Iraq, but instead suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder there, was dishonorably discharged, and died in Cincinnati from a drug overdose. The news is devastating to Finn, and he, Rachel and Kurt talk about how the future no longer appears promising. Rachel sings "Without You" to Finn, and the two embrace. Will asks Emma's parents (Don Most and Valerie Mahaffey) for their blessing to marry her, but they refuse as they doubt Emma could handle marriage and having children. Unaware of that discussion, Emma later asks Will about their progress toward marriage, and he also wonders whether she could cope with a family given her obsessive–compulsive disorder. Though distraught, Emma tells Will that her disease is a part of her: he must decide whether they should stay together. Will, realizing that he loves Emma regardless, stages a spectacular marriage proposal—aided by the glee club and synchronized swim team, who sing and perform a water ballet to "We Found Love"—which Emma tearfully accepts. Later, Finn surprises Rachel with a proposal of marriage, complete with an engagement ring, which leaves her speechless. ==Production==

Filming began on November 29, 2011, the same day the ninth episode, which had begun shooting on November 10, wrapped up filming. Eric Stoltz directed the episode, his third this season following "The Purple Piano Project" and "Mash Off", and it was written by Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk. Morrison was questioned about Will's rumored proposal to Emma, and said, "It's the most spectacular proposal I've ever seen." He added, "All I can say is it's wet. And it involves a big dance." Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren guest-stars in the episode, but is not seen on screen: she has recorded "several long and hilarious monologues" as the "inner voice" of a character in this episode, who turned out to be cheerleader Becky Jackson. The cast and crew did location filming at Venice High School on December 6, 2011. The school is where exterior locations for the movie musical Grease were filmed. Several members of the cast tweeted photos, as did students from the high school. Vanessa Lengies, who plays Sugar Motta, retweeted a student's photo of herself with some of the students, telling the student, "thanks for letting us borrow your school!" This episode is the last in Damian McGinty's seven-episode prize from his victory in The Glee Project, but he will be continuing in the role of Rory Flanagan beyond the initial seven. Other recurring guest stars who are appearing in the episode include glee club members Sam Evans (Overstreet) and Sugar Motta (Lengies), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Potter), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), Kurt's and Finn's married parents Burt Hummel (O'Malley) and Carole Hudson-Hummel (Rosemont), Emma's parents Rose and Rusty Pillsbury (Valerie Mahaffey and Don Most, respectively), football player Shane Tinsley (Tinker) and hockey player Rick Nelson (Rock Anthony). The episode features six performances, including a mash-up of the songs "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by The Rolling Stones sung by McHale, "We Found Love" by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris sung by Michele and Rivera, and "Summer Nights" from the musical Grease with lead vocals by Overstreet and Riley. Michele sings "Without You" by David Guetta featuring Usher, and she, Riley, Rivera and Ushkowitz perform a rendition of the Roberta Flack cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". ==Reception==

Ratings "Yes/No" was first broadcast on January 17, 2012 in the United States on Fox. It received a 3.1/8 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and attracted 7.50 million American viewers during its initial airing, an increase from the 3.0/8 rating/share and 7.13 million viewers of the previous episode, "Extraordinary Merry Christmas", which was broadcast on December 13, 2011. In Canada, 1.61 million viewers watched the episode on the same day as its American premiere. It was the twelfth most-viewed show of the week, up one slot and 10% from the 1.46 million viewers who watched "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" five weeks earlier. In the United Kingdom, "Yes/No" first aired on March 1, 2012, and was watched on Sky 1 by 805,000 viewers. It was the first new episode broadcast in the UK in two and a half months, and viewership was down over 15% from "Extraordinary Merry Christmas", which attracted 952,000 viewers when it aired on December 15, 2011. In Australia, "Yes/No" was broadcast on February 17, 2012. It was watched by 556,000 viewers, which made Glee the eleventh most-watched program of the night, up from fifteenth the week before. The viewership was up over 15% from the previous episode, "Extraordinary Merry Christmas", which was seen by 481,000 viewers. Critical reception "Yes/No" received mixed reviews from critics. Robert Canning of IGN gave it a "good" rating of 7 out of 10, and noted "hit and miss musical performances, random quirky and funny bits, and storytelling choices that kind of sort of work". TVLine Michael Slezak was more enthusiastic, and said it was the "best episode" of the third season; he credited both Helen Mirren and "some righteous plot development that stays true to core characters". John Kubicek of BuddyTV proclaimed, "Will desperately needs to make some grown-up friends", a sentiment echoed by HuffPost TV Crystal Bell. Lynch was critical of the scene where Will tells Emma they cannot marry because of her illness: he felt "using the phrase 'it's hopeless' in reference to her mental disorder" was too extreme. There was broad agreement regarding the scene where Will asks Finn to be his best man: not one reviewer approved. Lynch called it "questionable" and said it crossed a "line of weirdness", Slezak and TV Guide Kate Stanhope felt it was inappropriate, if not unethical, and Bell said the actual request was the episode's "biggest WTF?! moment". Finn's marriage proposal to Rachel at the end of the episode was controversial. Reviewers thought it was a bad idea—Kubicek declared, "No one in high school should get engaged"—but Poniewozik wrote that it "made a lot of sense for Finn" as a character, and VanDerWerff said the scene "worked" for him. Lynch thought that "Amber Riley and Chord Overstreet harmonize surprisingly wonderfully", and gave this "easily the most fun number of the episode" an "A−". Chaney wrote that the number "was a high-energy, cute way for the show to mark its comeback", but said that Rory "sounded flat" on one of his lines, and Sam "couldn’t quite hit" the ending high note in the song, and graded it a "B". "Wedding Bell Blues" was described by Bobby Hankinson of The Houston Chronicle as "the perfect combination of a great song, plot relevance, and Princess Beatrice hat". Stanhope agreed with him on all three points, and added that it was "a great pick for [Jayma Mays'] vocals". Lynch characterized the song as a "spunky diversion" and gave it a "B+", but he noted it was "not a good song for marriage proposals by any stretch of the imagination", a point also made by Rolling Stone Erica Futterman, who said the number would have "fared much better as a stand-alone performance". While Chaney liked Will and Mike's "moves", she felt there was "far too much quick cutting to shots of Morrison in a tank top" and gave the song a "B−"; Slezak and VanDerWerff were also critical of these shots. The same five songs charted in Canada on the Canadian Hot 100 and in the same order on that chart: "Without You" at number twenty-nine, "We Found Love" at number fifty-five, "Moves Like Jagger / Jumpin' Jack Flash" at number fifty-nine, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" at number seventy-eight and "Summer Nights" at number eighty-five. The sixth single, "Wedding Bell Blues", did not appear on either chart. ==References==