"The First Time" is the fifth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the forty-ninth overall. Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and directed by co-executive producer Bradley Buecker, it first aired on Fox in the United States on November 8, 2011. The episode features the preparations for performing West Side Story and the show's opening night, and the various events leading to the decisions by two of the show's student couples—Rachel (Lea Michele) and Finn (Cory Monteith), and Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss)—to begin having sex.
While an advanced copy of the episode was released to several reviewers and was highly praised by them, the reviewers of the broadcast were not as generally enthusiastic. In particular, some of the plotting and resulting characterization came in for criticism. The performance of "America", however, was widely acclaimed, especially that of Santana (Naya Rivera) in the role of Anita. While the advance publicity about the "first time" events drew some pre-broadcast condemnation, many critics were enthusiastic about the fact that a gay couple was being given such a storyline.
All six songs were released in five singles, available for download. Of these, "Uptown Girl", a song sung by the returning Dalton Academy Warblers, charted on the Billboard Hot 100, and also on the Canadian Hot 100. The remaining songs, all from West Side Story, did not chart. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 6.91 million American viewers, the lowest of the season, and garnered a 3.1/10 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership for this episode was down somewhat from the previous episode, "Pot o' Gold", though ratings were fractionally higher.
Plot Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) has taken charge of directing the school musical, West Side Story, and he tells the two leads—Rachel (Lea Michele), playing Maria, and Blaine (Darren Criss), playing Tony—that they are not conveying enough emotion in their rendition of "Tonight". He questions whether they can convincingly portray the roles if they are still virgins. Later, his co-director Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) confesses to him that she is attracted to football recruiter Cooter Menkins (Eric Bruskotter), who is at McKinley to scout potential players for Ohio State, though she is sure he would never consider her. Artie thinks otherwise, and acting on his advice, Cooter arranges a date with her.
Blaine and Kurt (Chris Colfer) discuss their decision to postpone sex. Blaine goes to Dalton Academy to invite the Warblers to see him in West Side Story and arrives as they are performing "Uptown Girl". Afterward, new Warbler Sebastian Smythe (Grant Gustin) makes a play for Blaine, intercut with Santana (Naya Rivera) and Rachel singing "A Boy Like That" from the musical. They later meet at a coffee shop, and Kurt arrives as Blaine is telling Sebastian that he already has a boyfriend. Sebastian convinces them to go with him to the local gay bar and supplies fake IDs. While Blaine and Sebastian are dancing, Kurt is surprised to see Dave Karofsky (Max Adler), who has transferred to another school. When Blaine and Kurt leave, Blaine is drunk and aroused, and urges Kurt to have sex with him in the back seat of the car; Kurt refuses, and Blaine angrily walks home.
Rachel lets Finn (Cory Monteith) know that she is interested in having sex with him, but he balks when she admits her reason is to be a better Maria. Later, she asks advice from the other girls in the show. While Santana and Quinn (Dianna Agron) both urge her not to have sex with Finn, Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) reveals that she and Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.) had sex over the summer and says how wonderful it was with the boy she loved—her words are intercut with Rachel and Santana singing "I Have a Love" in rehearsal. Mike's father (Keong Sim) confronts him about his participation in the musical, and Mike tells him he wants to be a professional dancer, not a doctor. His father disowns him in disbelief, claiming that as long as he wants to be a dancer, he won't be his son anymore.
Cooter recruits Shane (LaMarcus Tinker) for Ohio State, but not Finn, who is despondent about his future. Rachel comforts him, and promises that she will help him find a new future. Back at school, Blaine apologizes to Kurt for getting drunk, and says he cares nothing for Sebastian. Kurt proposes that they go over to Blaine's house for the night.
On opening night, Artie is assailed by self-doubt, but he is thanked by the cast for his leadership, and he thanks them for trusting him. They perform "America", which gets a standing ovation. Blaine and Rachel, waiting to go on and still virgins, are afraid they will not convey the necessary emotion, but Rachel reminds Blaine that they both have found their soulmates in Finn and Kurt, just like Maria and Tony had with each other. As they sing "One Hand, One Heart" on stage, they are also shown in scenes involving their first sexual encounters with their true soulmates.
Production The episode began filming on September 23, 2011, and ended on October 14, 2011. The last nine days were shot in parallel with the sixth episode, which began shooting on October 6, 2011, and briefly with the seventh episode, which began shooting on October 13, 2011.
Grant Gustin makes his first appearance in this episode, playing a new "major" recurring character, Sebastian Smythe, a "gay Dalton Academy Warbler who sets his sights on Blaine". Gustin won the role after "an exhaustive, weeks-long casting search", and the character is referred to as "promiscuous" and "scheming". Gustin's first day on the Glee set was September 26, 2011. He had been playing the role of Baby John in the touring company of Broadway revival of West Side Story since it opened on September 30, 2010, and left the show after performing on September 23, 2011 to return for his first day with Glee.
Although the Dalton Academy Warblers also return in this episode, they are not voiced by the Tufts Beelzebubs, who sang backgrounds for Warblers numbers in the second season. According to Curt Mega, who sings lead on the Warblers track in this episode, the backgrounds were sung by "Jon Hall, Brock Baker and Luke Edgemon and some others", with the three named men having played on-screen Warblers in the second season. Some of the actors who played Warblers in the second season, including Hall and Mega, returned for the third. After the Warblers were filmed on October 3, 2011, Dominic Barnes, who played Trent in season two, tweeted to Gustin, "very impressive moves today sir", to which Gustin replied, "Thanks bro! Fun stuff!!"
Another "major recurring role" debuts in this episode: Eric Bruskotter joins the cast as Cooter Menkins, "a football recruiter who comes scouting for talent at McKinley, but finds he can't take his eyes off the team's gruff but big-hearted coach." Other recurring guest stars that appear in the episode include football coach Shannon Beiste (Jones), the focus of Cooter's eyes, former prom king Dave Karofsky (Adler), exchange student and new glee club member Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty), and Mike's parents Julia Chang and Mike Chang, Sr. (Tamlyn Tomita and Sim).
This episode features six covers, five of which are from West Side Story, the stage musical being rehearsed and performed during the course of the episode: "A Boy Like That" and "I Have a Love" sung by Rivera and Michele, "Tonight" and "One Hand, One Heart" sung by Michele and Criss, and the number performed by the Sharks and Jets, "America". The sixth cover, "Uptown Girl", is sung by the Dalton Academy Warblers, with Mega on lead vocal.
Reception
Ratings "The First Time" was first broadcast on November 8, 2011 in the United States on Fox. It garnered a 3.1/8 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and received 6.91 million American viewers during its initial airing, the lowest number of viewers for a new episode in the third season. While the show's viewership was down by over 7% from the 7.47 million for previous new episode, "Pot o' Gold", which was broadcast on November 1, 2011, the rating in the 18–49 demographic increased slightly from the 3.0/8 rating/share received by that episode.
Viewership also decreased in other countries, and hit season lows in the United Kingdom and Australia as well. In the United Kingdom, "The First Time" was watched on Sky1 by 973,000 viewers, down 7% compared to "Pot o' Gold" the previous week, when 1.05 million viewers were watching.UK viewership data: "The First Time": "Pot o' Gold": In Australia, "The First Time" was watched by 660,000 viewers, which made Glee the fourteenth most-watched program of the night. The viewership was down almost 9% from "Pot o' Gold", which was seen by 724,000 viewers.Australian viewership data: "The First Time": "Pot o' Gold": In Canada, however, viewership was up slightly and 1.66 million viewers watched the episode, which made it the fifteenth most-viewed show of the week, up three slots and over 2% from the 1.62 million viewers who watched "Pot o' Gold" the week before.Canadian viewership data: "The First Time": "Pot o' Gold":
Pre-broadcast reception Like "Asian F" before it, screener copies of this episode were sent to a number of critics before the show aired. Michael Ausiello of TVLine called it "stellar" and a "standout episode", and Entertainment Weekly Tim Stack wrote that it was "one of Glee best installments ever" and an "exceptional episode". Both articles headlined the sexual theme of the episode, and made prominent mention of the fact that both couples would be "having sex for the first time".
Prior to broadcast, Colfer anticipated that the episode's sexual themes and content would prove controversial among television watchdog groups. He said, "I absolutely expect to hear from them, but I think it's handled very sweetly and very emotionally. They're expecting this big, raunchy, suggestive, brainwashing storyline when, really, it's very sweet." Before the episode aired, the conservative Parents Television Council called the show "reprehensible" and the Fox network reckless for "celebrating teen sex".
Critical reception
When the show aired, the reviewers were not as uniformly enthusiastic as the screeners. Bobby Hankinson of The Houston Chronicle called this "one of the better episodes in the show's three-season run, though not as good as 'Asian F. Time James Poniewozik weighted them differently, calling "The First Time" the "best episode, overall, of Glee season three". Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal said it had "tasteful restraint, subtle playfulness and smoothly woven storylines", and The Atlantic Kevin Fallon said the episode "treats its characters realistically and send an important message". Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a "good" grade of 7.5 out of 10. Rolling Stone Erica Futterman wrote that it was "clinical and awkward", and the "second flatline" episode in a row, though she complimented the four actors playing the two couples as "genuine and relatable". John Kubicek of BuddyTV said that the episode infuriated him "on a grand scale". Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the episode was "far more nuanced, gentle-hearted and romantic than it sounds—much more about love than about sex", and a number of reviewers agreed, including AOLTV Crystal Bell. For Hankinson, however, "the teenage lust was played a touch too safe, a bit too romanticized".