Nationals (Glee)

"Nationals" was first broadcast on May 15, 2012 in the United States on Fox, as the second hour in a two-hour special evening with "Props" having aired in the first hour at the show's regular broadcast time. It received a 2.5/7 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and attracted 6.03 million American viewers during its initial broadcast, slightly lower than the 2.5/8 rating/share and 6.09 million viewers during "Props" in the hour before, but a significant decrease from the 2.7/8 rating/share and 6.67 million viewers of the previous week's episode, "Prom-asaurus", which was broadcast on May 8, 2012.^[15]

In Canada, which also aired the episode as the second hour of a two-episode special on the same day as its American premiere, viewership rose significantly, by over 16% to 1.56 million viewers from the 1.34 million viewers for the first hour. "Nationals" was the tenth most-viewed show of the week as compared to "Props", which had been fourteenth most-viewed. "Nationals" viewership was still down by over 5% from the 1.65 million viewers who watched "Prom-asaurus" the week before.^[16]

Although the United Kingdom also aired these two episodes together, "Nationals" aired in the show's regular time slot, while "Props" aired an hour earlier than usual. Viewership fell in the second hour, though it remained higher than the previous week. "Nationals" first aired on May 17, 2012, and was watched on Sky 1 by 776,000 viewers. This was down slightly from the 795,000 viewers in the earlier hour, but was an increase of over 4% from the previous week's episode, "Prom-asaurus", which attracted 744,000 viewers.^[17]

In Australia, "Nationals" was broadcast on May 24, 2012, a week after "Props" aired, rather than on the same night as in the other three. It was watched by 618,000 viewers, up slightly from the 607,000 viewers for "Props" on May 17, 2012. Glee was the seventeenth most-watched program of the night for the second week in a row.^[18]

The episode was given positive reviews by most critics. Michael Slezak of TVLine described it as a "spectacular hour of jaw-dropping musical numbers and satisfying plot developments", and The A.V. Club's Emily VanDerWerff called it "one of the finest episodes the show's ever done and perhaps the best it's done since the season one finale". She gave it an "A" grade.^[19][20] Jeff Dodge of BuddyTV said that episode gave "quality to go along with some great music", and Entertainment Weekly's Erin Strecker wrote that the evening's two episodes were a "return to form for the show".^[21][22] Rae Votta of Billboard, on the other hand, said that by having "Props" and "Nationals" air back to back, "they both lose their individual potent high points and come out blander than they deserve", and characterized "Nationals" as "jarring and strange".^[23]

Both Huffington Post's Crystal Bell and Washington Post's Jen Chaney wanted to "be honest" about Vocal Adrenaline vs. New Directions in the competition: Bell said that Vocal Adrenaline "put on the better show" and Chaney wrote that they were "better than New Directions": "their dance moves were sharper and more in sync, and Unique's Minaj-esque magnetism factor sold the whole thing".^[24][25] VanDerWerff wrote that he "could quibble that Vocal Adrenaline had stronger choreography overall" or that he "found Unique a more engaging performer than Rachel", but that as "New Directions also used its whole ensemble better than Vocal Adrenaline did", he felt that "either outcome seemed reasonable".^[20] Dodge simply stated, "We all knew that New Directions would win and they'd get their happily ever after, but it was exciting to see it finally all play out."^[21] Bell wrote that "seeing the judges debate behind-the-scenes kind of takes away the entire title", though she appreciated Lohan's Freaky Friday reference.^[24] VanDerWerff said that the judging scene "wasn't very good", and Votta described it as "mostly waste[d]".^[20][23] Futterman wrote that there was "not really any emotion" in Lohan's lines, though Strecker thought that the "lines they gave her were pretty funny—if not a bit sad".^[22][26]

Reviewers criticized the lead-up to Will (Morrison, left) and Emma (Mays, right) having sex for the first time.

Reviewers were critical of what Votta called "a really regrettable sequence where Emma leaves a pamphlet about losing her virginity on Schue's desk and then they finally have sex".^[23] Bell characterized it as "weird and uncomfortable, and the reasoning was horrendously misogynistic", and VanDerWerff thought that making it part of the post-Nationals victory montage as "a little too creepy, at best".^[20][24] Votta thought that though the victory segment "should feel joyous", it instead feels "awkward and emotion-less".^[23] Will's being awarded "Teacher of the Year" was called "surprising" by Strecker, who hearkened back to him having "discovered that he wasn't so good" at teaching Spanish "a few months ago".^[22] Bell asked how it was "possible" for Quinn to so rapidly recover her ability to walk and then dance, something also touched on by VanDerWerff, who was again critical of "Fox's rampant abuse of the Twitter hashtag thing" by displaying onscreen hashtags during the episode.^[20][24] Strecker praised Jesse's scenes, and said she "couldn't stop cracking up".^[22]

As with the episode, the musical performances were mostly received with enthusiasm by reviewers. VanDerWerff wrote that the "big performances" were "all aces".^[20] Of the seven songs, the one that received the fewest comments was "Tongue Tied", which Strecker described as "montage music" and graded a "B".^[22] As Chaney noted, it "wasn't a number so much as a musical celebration of New Directions' championship status", but it nevertheless received an "A−" grade from her and from Slezak.^[19][25] Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman called it a "spirited take on Grouplove".^[26]

Of all the songs performed in competition, "The Edge of Glory" was given the most mixed reception. Chaney gave the song a "C" grade, and said that while it "started strong" the energy level was "lacking", a word that Futterman used to describe the performance as a whole, to which she added "emotionless and rushed".^[25][26] A diametric view of the song was evident in the "A−" grades given by both Slezak and Strecker, and the latter also complimented the "different" arrangement while both were enthusiastic about the entire set of three songs: Slezak said New Directions "completely killed it", and Strecker said this song "kicked off what was a truly an all-time great performance".^[19][22]

The singing of Rachel (Michele, left) and Finn (Monteith, right) was greatly praised by reviewers.

That performance continued with "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", which was widely praised. Dodge said that it, like the prior song, was "covered to perfection".^[21] Although Chaney said she hated that song, she wrote that Michele hit it "out of the park" and gave it an "A", the same grade Strecker gave with the encomium "outstanding", and added that she then "rewatched three times".^[22][25] An "A" was not sufficient for Slezak, who declared that it was "one of Glee's five best vocals ever" and gave it an "A+".^[19] Futterman "loved" the song except for its ending, which she described as "an abrupt cliffhanger".^[26]

The New Directions set closed with "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". While a number of reviewers, including Chaney and Dodge, questioned the choice of the song for a variety of reasons, they expressed enthusiasm with the final result.^[21][25] Jyll Saskin of MTV called it a "quirky yet catchy song choice" that "was the episode's standout", and both Slezak and Strecker gave it an "A" grade; the latter said it was the "real group number" of the three and added, "The vocals, choreography and energy were all top-notch."^[19][22][27] Chaney's grade of "A−" came with the declaration that "this may have been Finn at his absolute best" and Futterman said he did "a surprisingly decent Meatloaf"; Futterman added that the "already theatrical song is somehow made better by the show choir arrangement".^[25][26] VanDerWerff described it as "one of the better New Directions group performances".^[20]

The two Vocal Adrenaline performances were generally very well received; as noted above, Bell and Chaney used very similar words to explain why they thought Vocal Adrenaline was "better" than New Directions.^[24][25] "Starships", the first number, was also the more praised of the two: Houston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson said that it "stole the show" for him, and was the best musical number of the night.^[28] Flandez called it "an electric and sassy delivery" by Unique, and Strecker asked "is there anything she can't do" before she gave the performance an "A−".^[22][29] Futterman thought it felt "more subdued than the warp-speed of Minaj's hit" though she added that the "stage acrobatics trump everything anyone else does", and Saskin said it "was fun to watch, but the vocals don't add much to the original version".^[26][27] Slezak gave it an "A" grade and praised the "dazzling" choreography of both numbers.^[19] "Pinball Wizard" was called "turbo-charged from beginning to end" by Flandez, and both Strecker and Slezak gave the song a "B+" grade; the former's enthusiasm was tempered by the arrangement, which was not very "different from just karaoke of the original", and the dancing on the pinball machines as "a bit much for my taste".^[19][22][29] Futterman said that Unique "riffs the hell out the song", but added that "the robot dancers of Vocal Adrenaline make it hard to glean any personality from the performance".^[26] Dodge wrote, "This one I'm liking even less than the first", but Saskin said, "Mercedes needs to watch out, because Unique sure can belt it out!"^[21][27]

The episode's closing number, "We Are the Champions", received excellent grades: A from Slezak and Chaney, and an "A−" from Strecker.^[19][22][25] Saskin wrote that it was "a new Glee classic", and Chaney said it "worked wonderfully as an assertion of the New Directions' championship status".^[25][27] Futterman described the performance as "rife with emotion" and added, "It's moments like this that are pure and straight to the show's original appeal", while Strecker complimented the song choice and how "it really showcased the group's harmonies".^[22][26] In December 2012, TV Guide listed the rendition as one of Glee's best performances.^[30]

Two of the seven singles released for the episode charted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100: "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", which debuted at number 75, and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", which debuted at number 94.^[31] Neither song charted on the US Billboard Hot 100,^[32] but two other singles from the episode affected the charting there of songs by the original artists. "Tongue Tied" sold 22,000 copies in the Glee version, and did well enough in the Grouplove original to re-enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 74, close to the song's previous chart high of 69, while "Starships" sold 18,000 in the Glee version and 174,000 in the Nicki Minaj original, which moved from six to five on the Hot 100, matching its highest chart position to date.^[33] "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" charted at number one at the Bubbling Under Hot 100 on June 2, 2012.^[34]

• "Nationals" at Fox.com
• "Nationals" at IMDb