It's actually pretty tough for individual performers or other creative voices to make a major impact on an established TV show with just a guest spot. We're so used to certain people having such a distinct presence that we just assume they're going to swoop in and make their relatively brief amount of time really count. The truth is that it's not a guest's job to shift the show into their own little world, it's their job to fit into the world created by the show before they even got there. That in mind, the doubly exciting presence of Neil Patrick Harris as a guest star and Joss Whedon as the episode's director in "Dream On" has to be tempered with the understanding that Glee has been on the air long enough to not be swayed too hard in any direction by either of them.

Joss Whedon in particular has a really distinct voice in television, but that has as much or more to do with his writing as his directorial flare. He's a star, sure, but he's also a dedicated workman. Whedon has stood behind the camera of other established entertainments, most notably The Office, and while he certainly displays an eye for good, organic scenes, he also doesn't overstep his authority. In this episode, he was still working with a Brad Falchuk script, so no amount of good direction or creative camera work was going to completely overcome the substandard dialogue and silly plot twists.

Neil Patrick Harris fared a little bit better, I just wish he had been given a less hokey character. He dominates the episode as Brian Ryan, a former glee club rival of Will's who has found his way onto the school board and has a couple decades' worth of frustration to take out on New Directions. Like everyone and their mother, Brian wants to cut the show choir program and so the entire episode consists of Will convincing him to reconsider. Because you can't have Neil Patrick Harris on your musical show without him singing at every opportunity, it only takes one beer and a Billy Joel tune to rekindle Brian's love for the stage. He even ends up auditioning for a local production of Les Miz.

But the Brian plot was the least interesting of three plots in this episode. As is often the case on Glee, the entire hour revolves around one concept. This time around, it's dreams. In one thread, Artie reveals his impossible dream of being a dancer to Tina, which prompts a heartbreaking series of events on his path to realizing that he'll almost certainly never walk again, let alone do a tap routine. There's even a quick fakeout during his own fantasy sequence when it looks for a moment like some magical therapy techniques are reviving his useless legs. Thankfully, it's all just a daydream that blossoms into a mall-wide cover of "Safety Dance" (which is also incidentally Joss Whedon's most present moment, mixing handheld and traditional camera work to make a pretty fun routine).

The last of three "dreams" is Rachel's desire to find her mother, something that Jesse seems all too eager to help her pursue. I don't think we were ever supposed to trust Jesse, but I'm glad he didn't turn out to be an obvious spy for Vocal Adrenaline. Instead, he's VA coach Shelby's way of getting to know Rachel, her daughter. I suspected Shelby's connection to Rachel when she first showed up a few episodes ago, but her using Jesse as a way to circumvent surrogate motherhood laws is actually pretty novel. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this plot develop in the rest of the season.

Best Moment: Brian's meeting with Sue was pretty awesome, not just because of seeing Neil Patrick Harris spar with Jane Lynch but because it was a deadpan font of educational statistics.

Favorite Song: The "Safety Dance" routine was a lot of fun, but the dramatic gravity of "Dream a Little Dream of Me" put it over the top.

Episode Rating: 4/5- Yeah, so I'm giving a decent rating to a Brad Falchuk episode. Stranger things have happened. But it's also hard to screw up a duet between Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris. Also, hey, a little bit of long-arc plot development. I'm still upset that Dianna Agron is being treated like a potted plant, but at least Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz got some major screen time.