FINALLY!! Glee gives us an honest moment. The Mike Chang storyline was the most real thing about this show. It was believeable, it was well written and well acted/danced.
The Rachel/Mercedes clash was poorly written. If you want two divas to battle it out, you don't have them sing "Out Here On My Own" because the song doesn't have an emotional climax which every diva needs. Think how much better the competition would have been if they sang something like "On My Own" from Les Miz that has an emotional build to it. And no Mercedes did not perform it better than Rachel, IMO they were both equal (and I'm rooting for Mercedes).
The girls looked wonderful in the Dreamgirls sequence. Kudos to hair and costume people.
Unfortunately the writing is slipping in other ways. Mr. Shu tells Mercedes she's out of Glee? She has a hard time over something and he kicks her out after just having kicked Santana out the week before? A good teacher wouldn't be threatening Mercedes like that, he would be trying to help her through. Is Mr. Shu interested in keeping kids in Glee or kicking them out?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.