Thank You Rory Leprechaun: Damian McGinty on Glee, 11/1

By
Gwen Orel
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Ho It’s New York:  Glee is a Broadway lovers’ show, and there are tons of little musical kids in the area.
How It’s Irish:  Damian McGinty is from Northern Ireland, as is his character on
Glee, Rory Flanagan.  And the show is full of little Irish jokes, including Lucky Charms, “say U2 is overrated,” the words “top of the morning,” and many a green shirt.

In which Damian, aka Rory, gets pushed and shoved a lot, sings “It Isn’t Easy Being Green,” turns cat poop into candy bars, and does not kiss a girl.  Yet.

Related posts:

Damian McGinty is on Glee tonight!— our exclusive interview!  (more to come…)

Watch Celtic Thunder’s Damian McGinty on the Glee Project!

Damian McGinty made his first appearance on Glee last week, after his win on The Glee Project.  And to celebrate his appearance he’s got a central role in the episode and inspired its title “Pot O’Gold.”  We quickly find out that he’s an exchange student named Rory Flanagan.  He’s staying with Brittany, who believes he’s a real leprechaun, and if he grants her three wishes she’ll show him her “pot of gold.”  Heh.  He’s a virgin and he really wants to snog her, he admits later to Finn.  The show has fun with every Irish cliche they can think of, and I’m sure there will be more to come!

In the episode Damian just couldn’t look any cuter,blue eyes twinkling and shy little smile.  But it’s not only Brittany who has trouble understanding him.  It must be catching because half the time I couldn’t understand Brittany, either, or Santana, or even Sue.  Articulation, people.

But now to the Damian recap.

“Top o the morning, Brittany,” are Rory’s first words on the episode.  He’s wearing a green shirt and a green bowler hat.  He wears green in almost every scene.
She tells him he looks magical and amazing, but she doesn’t understand him so he’ll need to speak English.  Hee.  I see the writers went with an idea showrunner Ryan Murphy had during the Glee Project, about having Brittany never understand him.

A passing football player knocks Rory’s hat off, just for fun.  Brittany seems confused.   How can anyone else see him?  (she’s already asked how his first day of school was, so the question doesn’t make that much sense).  Then she answers her own question and says he must be wanting them to see him.
Yup, that’s it!  He twinkles.  Hell I’d be tempted to find him a leprechaun too.  He’s got an amazing ability to twinkle.

 Her first wish is for a box of lucky charms that is ALL marshmallows.  Brittany is a teenage embodiment of an inner child.

 “You’re in luck,” he says, “because Lucky the leprechaun happens to be my cousin.”

She thanks him but says she didn’t understand most of what he just said.
“Go back to mexico,” says a yahoo.  Finn looks on, alarmed.   
Meanwhile Sue wants to kill  government waste, starting with the Glee club production of West Side Story, which she says seems kind of gay.  

“If this nation wants to impress its future Chinese overlords, it needs to get its priorities state, “she says.  

The whole musical is a little over two thousand dollars.   She also says that’s the salary of a math teacher for a year, a little joke the writers snuck in there.
But Sue’s pom pom budget is over 4000 a month, Will tells the principal.  But she’s succeeded in making parents angry.  Will offers to get the money himself.
Meanwhile Mercedes has left Glee Club to form her own girl group, and she’s trawling for new members.  She reminds Santana how few solos she’s had. 
Rory and Finn have a scene in the cafeteria where Rory is pulling all the cereal out of a box of Lucky Charms and leaving in marshmallows (to get a whole box of marshmallows, he’d have to have several boxes of Lucky Charms ready, of course).  This is the scene we put in last week’s post.
Rory has seen Finn and admired him from scenes on YouTube.

“I love America, especially NASCAR, your half black president, and Victoria’s Secret catalogues.”  

Finn approves.

Rory explains the leprechaun/pot of gold thing.
But he’s really lonely.  He thought America was 

“about different unique people coming together and accepting one another.”

 That’s a pretty old brochure, dude, Finn says.

And Rory, aw, asks if Finn would be his friend.  And Damian is so innocent and sweet that he can totally pull that off.  Finn tells him that’s not manly, but then asks him to keep an ear out for anybody.
  
Rory walks along talking to his mammy (wearing a green shirt), lying that he’s made a ton of friends, when some yahoo throws his phone on the floor so that it no longer works.   

“Thank you so much, Rory leprechaun,” Brittany says.

 But she turns him down for dinner because he’s not supposed to eat anything but some kind of flowers anyway.
He’s already crushed when a bully pushes him literally to the floor.   Rory sings Kermit the Frog’s “It Isn’t Easy Being green.”  Which is very cute.  Do they get Sesame Street in Ireland?  I guess they do.
And as he continues to sing, in the cafeteria line, people randomly cut in front of him and take food.  Then he’s sitting alone, in a different outfit (but also green, a green hoody) watching basketball practice.
 He watches Brittany eating her marshmallows, in class.   She gives him a little wave.
The reason Brittany couldn’t go out with Rory is she was having dinner with Santana.  And Santana wants to know if they are dating.    “isn’t this a date?” says Brittany, “aren’t you paying, I ordered shrimp.”
“You think that great gazoo kid is a leprechaun?” Santana asks.  Brittany says “don’t you have any wishes you want to come true?”
Actually, she does.  Santana admits how frustrated she is in glee club.  She’d like to join Mercedes’ group, and have Brittany come with her.  But Brittany doesn’t really want to, and thinks it also would look bad for her student president campaign.
Puck is clearly having second thoughts about getting the baby back by forging evidence with Quinn to show that Shelby is a bad mom.
When Mr. Shue writes “the magic’s back” on the board Brittany worries “he knows about my leprechaun” to Santana.  But it’s only the news that they’ve gotten funding for the musical after all, from Kurt’s father’s mortuary friends.
Blaine leads the group in “last Friday night” just to make everyone feel better.  Santana looks on, unhappy.And afterwards walks out in a huff, saying something about sectionals.  Somehow this leads her to threaten Rory.
Santana says “here’s the deal pixie boy.”  She tells Rory he’s just to listen.  He nods when she praises Brittany. 

 “She thinks you’re a sprightly green mythological creature. But I know you’re a potato eating something poser. But since Brittany likes having a pet Irish I’m not going to explode you.

Here’s what’s going to go down.

Leprechaun, starring a young Jen Aniston, is my favorite movie.

But learn me two things.

1, leprechauns like fixing shoe buckles because they’re gay.

And 2, they grant wishes.  So you’re going to grant me a wish.

Rory looks on through all of this, just stunned.  The wish is for Brittany to leave Glee Club and join Mercedes’ group.
Chez Brittany, we see Rory putting a candy bar in the cat’s litter box.  Brittany stands in the doorway holding the cat.  She wonders how he got into her room.
 “I blinked”, he says.  Quick thinking there Rory!  (though since the door is unlocked I don’t quite understand the question anyway, but again, whatever).  “I made your wish come true,” he grins.
 And ick, she wants to eat the candy bar.  She must have wished the cat would crap candy bars.  Oh Brittany.
Which means I’m just one wish away from your pot of gold!  he’s so excited.
 He tells her Santana found out about him and only had one wish.  It was for her to leave Glee and join the new one. 
Will goes to see Kurt’s dad to encourage him to run against Sue for representative.  Well Mr. Hummell’s already on it.   “Your glee club saved my kid’s life.”  Kurt is campaign manager, and Will is going to be the adult supervision.
Shelby rocks Beth.  That is one very, very cute baby.  Puck knocks on the door, supposedly just to thank her for suggesting him for a pool-cleaning job at the condo.  He sneaks in to the bathroom and takes away all the stuff that Quinn planted.   
And since the baby keeps crying, he picks up the guitar that is helpfully on a stand and sings.  His voice sounds really sweet as he sings “I’ve been waiting for a girl like you”.   And it is nice to see, now and then, that these kids really are that good, and would have been winners on The Glee Project. Baby is very curious and calms right down.
And Amy admits that it’s very hard doing it alone, and the hardest thing is not having anyone to share the amazing moments with.
Back at school, Rory has a secret to tell Finn, but he won’t like it.
 Next we see Finn confronting Brittany.  “Is it true?”  Brittany says of course not.  But then realizes he’s not talkinb about Selina Gomez but about leaving Glee Club.  Yes, it’s true.
Santana comes up  and insults Finn.  When did she get so handy with the put-downs?
 Brittany says she has to leave because Santana made a wish on Rory the Leprechaun.
 He tells her she’s going to have to grow up and stop being such an idiot.
 She says that’s mean, it’s bullying and she won’t accept it.  You know, whenever she drops the little girl voice and says something sensible the actress gets way more attractive.  I swear her nose actually shrinks.  It’s curious. She and Santana catch up to Mercedes in the hall and ask who else is in this girl group?  Mercedes looks happy.
Why can’t they be in both groups? I was in more than one choral group in high school.  Why would a girls’ ensemble automatically preclude participation in a mixed group?  Why would they even compete with one another?
And readying for a television spot, Sue is surprised that Burt Hummell is her rival.  On his TV spot he supports the arts and says they are not the reason why your neighbor’s house has been foreclosed on. 
The girls decide to call themselves “the troubletones,” at Amy’s suggestion (Brittany thought “free beer”) was a good title.  It’s just the three of them, and the obnoxious rich girl with asperger’s (the way the writers have fun with her saying obnoxious things).  Santana also puts her in her place.   

They sing a kind of Andrews sitsters song which is not boogie woogie bugle boy but has vulgar lyrics like he’s a one stop sweet shop making all the panties drop.  Ick.  I looked it up and it’s Christina Aguilera’s “Candyman.”   They are so much better than everyone on The X Factor it’s not even funny.  Finn and Mr. Shue watch them rehearse (because it’s Glee, they rehearse in full costume onstage, with back-up singers and a band), and agree it will be trouble.

Finn goes up to them in the hall and apologizes to Brittany.  She forgives him and gives him a hug.
 And Rory comes up after Finn goes and says now that her third wish came true with nobody’s feelings hurt, he get to see her pot of gold.
And Brittany shows that really, she isn’t such an idiot, because Finn wasn’t smiling because he was happy.  He was heartbroken.  Leprechauns don’t exist.  It would be really cool if they did but they don’t.
Santana says she has one final wish, “would he do the school a favor and disappear? “
A yahoo pushes Rory down.
Then after a scene with Sue trying to intimidate Burt and his extended family with Kurt and Finn at a restaurant, by saying she’ll make the campaign about special ed (uh oh), and giving the man who had a heart transplant a huge cheese covered burger type thing,
We see bullies holding rory up saying 

“say U2 is overrated!  Say it!”

Heh.
Finn tries to stop them.  He threatens to  get support from Coach Beest (whom we haven’t seen this episode).  That stops them, so they put Rory down.  He thanks Finn, and apologizes for ruining the Glee Club.
Finn says he understands he was just trying to make friends.   I tell you what, I know you’re not a leprechaun, so I’ll grant you a wish.
The Glee Club looks dejected, when Finn walks in with Rory.
I don’t know how adding a baritone will account for the loss of three female voices, but it’s television, so.
He says he sings a mass every Sunday.  He dedicates the song to his family, whom he misses.
And everyone smiles as he sings a song that says “Take Care of Yourself.”  It’s the final song of the show, so while he sings there are clips of other threads, including some of the Gleeks watching Mercedes rehearsing and waving, and she waves back until Santana stops her.
 Rachel says of Rory “he’s magical.”  And as Rory goes into a falsetto, Kurt looks concerned.  He’s got competition!
Puck helps Shelby with Beth.
Oooh, and the show ends with Puck kissing Amy!  Ooooooh.

What did you think?  will Rory somehow save the Glee Club?  Is there hope for Rory and Brittany?  Will Rory get his phone fixed?  Will he become a Fighting Irish or get slushied?

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1 COMMENT

  1. I have a question …..
    on hte photo that Damian is sitting on a bank
    and wearing green
    In which part of Glee appears ?? Pleaseeeeeeeee
    explain meeeee this. I am confused ._.

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