 The performance of the duet "Take Me or Leave Me" elicited praise from Brown and Fallon, who both deemed it the highlight of the episode. Brown noted that "it had that addictive Glee quality of actually feeling like high school, and watching Mercedes and Rachel have a blast blasting each other was a treat." Gonzalez gave the duet a "B", as, while there was "so much to swoon for", she is more partial to ballads because they "discourage oversinging throughout the entire song". Futterman wrote that while Mercedes had more sass than Rachel, "both ladies sang". VanDerWerff did not see how the song was relevant, and felt that Michele's voice was ill-suited to it.
