Glee: "Prom Queen"

Season 2, Episode 20

Glee embraces serialization

Throughout the past week, I kept hearing this episode advertised as the “event of the year”; I don’t know if this phrase was meant to apply to the episode itself, or the events within the episode, but I either way I was unnerved. Such a phrase usually implies that a show is going to go large, and Glee is at its best when it stays on the smaller side of things. Throw in the fact that this episode is also meant to include a “shocking twist” (those almost never indicate a quality episode), and you can understand why I approached this episode with some trepidation.

Yet my fears ended up being unfounded, as Glee was actually able to pull a win out of one of the most stereotypical high school plots, mostly by – and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this in regards to this show – sticking to the characters we know. The prom queen plotline has been building for the past couple of weeks, as have a few of the other plotlines that saw some action tonight, and it all came together in Glee’s most serialized episode yet.

The other strong thing about tonight’s setup was that all of the songs in tonight’s episode, with two exceptions, were relegated to the back-half of the episode, all under the auspices of the prom. While it perhaps made the episode feel a bit uneven, it also helped to cure this episode of one of the show’s biggest problems: the shoehorned musical numbers. So often the show feels like the musical numbers have to relate to what’s going on, and often times this means that they actually have the characters say why such a song is being sung, when the audience would pick up on the subtext (or is it just “text”?) in the first place. Yet episodes like “Duets” (which also directed by Eric Stoltz) showed that the glee club members could sing songs just for the hell of it, and that such numbers could be fun. That attitude was on full display tonight during the prom scene (aside from Rachel’s number, which felt a bit off to me), which included an extremely tongue-in-cheek (and entertaining) cover of Rebecca Black’s “Friday.” (I’d say it was kind of like when the Beastie Boys would use rap music’s male posturing to comedic effect, but that would be giving the show too much credit.)

But of course strong structure is no replacement for good characterization. I’d like to start the character dissection of this review with the Kurt storyline, as it plays into my unofficial discussion of how to depict gays in the media (you can find the other pertinent pieces here and here). Now, I like Kurt; a think he’s a well-drawn character and he historically provides the show with its best moments. And while I understand that Kurt is meant to confront old prejudices against gays, I, like Burt and Blaine, am sometimes bothered with his flamboyance, as I feel having a gay character who is both meant to combat hate and still plays more toward the stereotypical depiction of gay men kind of defeats the purpose. (I also recognize that Kurt was a character created by Ryan Murphy after Chris Colfer tried out for another role, and so Kurt’s characterization probably comes from Murphy’s head and his own past as an openly gay teenager…but still.)

Yet luckily the show was brave enough to confront this contradiction through Burt, and it made the rest of what was to follow that much stronger. Though Blaine was originally presented as Mr. Perfect, the show has done a fairly good job in the back half of this season of breaking down the character and making him appear far more human. To that end, I liked that Blaine, who has been bullied in the past, would have some trepidation about flaunting his sexuality openly at a social gathering like a prom. And yes, I know that Baline used to be unafraid of who he was, but continuity be damned. This makes for a much more dynamic character pairing; by paring these two off with one another – Kurt the extrovert and Blaine the introvert – the show makes lays groundwork for the later moments in where the show explores the question of just how open somebody can be about themselves when they live in a world as vicious as high school.

Now, because this is Glee, it means that Kurt’s storyline eventually met up with somebody else’s; it’s just how things are done on this show. But luckily they had it paired David (he’s no longer a villainous character, so let’s call him by his first name, shall we?) and Santana, the latter of which wanted to exploit Kurt’s prom date with Blaine to earn her way to the prom crown. (Exploitive? Sure. Mean? Maybe. Santana? Definitely.) But the bigger connection here was David, who is still afraid t come out of the closet, and when at the prom….Wait. Let’s back up for a minute.

The other major plotline here was the return of Jesse St. James, who I know many people enjoyed last season, but was never a character I particularly cared for. A now, on his return, he’s a bigger douche than ever, reminding me of just why I don’t like him. So in that regard, it was a bit difficult to imagine that Rachel would want to go on a date with him, even a group date that was part of a Mercedes story that this show just kind of forgot about halfway through the episode. (And was it just me, or was his outfit in that first scene a little gayer than it should have been. It was kind of distracting. I know that Jonathan Groff is gay (thanks, Wikipedia), but Jesse isn’t. He really should dress the part.)

Yet his arrival did make for some interesting plot on the Finn/Quinn side of things. Now, I know that some people hate the kind of person Quinn has turned into, and I tend to agree. But like with many other missteps in plot development, I’ve just kind of learned to accept it, and it made this storyline much more bearable. I get, for instance, that Quinn would want to be prom queen in order to regain some of her lost glory, even if I don’t agree with the show’s sudden shallow characterization of her. Even more, I understand why Quinn would react the way she does, why she seems to blame Rachel for everything – love makes people think irrationally. (But what I don’t understand is why Finn picked up Quinn at her parent’s house. Didn’t she get kicked out and eventually move in with Mercedes last season? Is this just the show forgetting past plot, or do I not remember some small moment where somebody said that she moved back in? It’s so hard to tell with this show.)

Likewise, I also understand why Finn acted the way he did. Jessie is a HUGE douche; in my book Finn is in the right to tell Rachel not to date someone like that, regardless of how he feels about her. It’s just good form. But of course he does have feelings for her, and in what was a beautifully dark moment for the character, he takes his it too far and punches Jessie in the face. Not only did I vicariously get to live through Finn as his fist made contact with pretty boy’s visage, but such a development might boast some big dividends here in the next couple of weeks.

These two/three plotlines somehow all converged with the election of Dave as Prom King…and Kurt as Prom Queen. Apparently this was the shocking twist that all those ads were referring to, but I’m not sure that twist is the right word for it. Though I was certainly a surprised, looking back on the episode it’s not as if there weren’t signs that such a thing might happen; it was a natural extension of what we already knew. Anyways, this leads to three separate breakdowns, playing out simultaneously, in a sequence that shouldn’t have worked had it not been for Stoltz’s deft directorial hand. Quinn, says she transferring (???), Brittany calms Santana down enough to get her to go back and support Kurt (aww, isn’t that sweet), and Kurt realizes he must accept his award of hate so that he can move past it.

It’s this last part that’s a bit of a sticking point for me. Sure, Kurt had every right to be shocked and hurt by what his classmates did to him, and I’m glad that he eventually took the high road. But that it took him so long to do so, that he had to run out of the gym, and have a conversation about it before he made the decision to hold his head high rings false to me. Kurt is such a proud character, that I think it would have made more sense for him just to go straight up to the stage after the “award” was announced (with maybe a slight pause before doing so), in order to make a statement to all those who tried to shame him.

But the point that he did so eventually was enough, and it provided great contrast for David. Since moving out of the bully stage, David as a character has grown in fits and starts (I’m thinking especially of the original revelation that he was gay; remember how much we all hated that?), but he has come into his own, and I think it’s telling how moving that scene was where he was unable to come out in front of the entire school. Dave – who’s a crier, apparently – is far more sensitive than we might have given him credit for, and the actor plays it with such reality that we become invested in his plight. The only question now is how will the show handle his actual coming out? Because after tonight’s episode, it’s gonna have to be good.

There was a smaller, quieter plotline that stayed mostly removed from everything else, yet it might be my favorite one of the night. Though I initially had to get over the incredulous nature of the two of them hooking up, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the Artie/Brittany pairing. It’s always been the sweetest, purest relationship on the show, and I guess I’m just a sucker for that sort of thing. Anyways, in what was perhaps the most enjoyable performance of the night, as Artie, still trying to win Brittany back, performed “Isn’t She Lovely” (without Auto-Tune!), and Brittany is understandably impressed. But even then she has to turn him down, and it creates a heartbreaking scene for Artie. In the span of about two minutes, the show had me go from smiling to sad; that’s impressive. Though I doubt that the show can ever top a scene like this, it has ensured that I will forever defend this relationship, regardless of what comes next.

Now, of course, this all dissolved into a fit of silliness, as Artie, in an attempt to do anything to impress Brittany, spikes the punch bowl, gets caught up by Sue, and ends up in an homage to the most famous scene from Marathon Man. (Is that a reference Glee’s target audience would even get?) Though Sue had up to this point remained relatively normal, she once again devolved into cartoon villainy as she THREATENED TO TORTURE A STUDENT.

But let’s not focus on the negative, as this was a good episode for the show, something that has become increasingly rare in this increasingly disappointing season. Let’s just hope the show can keep this momentum going for the final two episodes of the season.

Next Week: Jesse St. James joins the glee club (again). Resume skepticism.

Quotes, Etc.:

Okay, so Stoltz also directed “Blame It On The Alcohol.” 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, right?

Anybody else see that ad for whatever product who was giving away the “prize” of being in the latest music video for that girl who played Sunshine? Because as we all know, nothing’s bigger than dancing behind that girl who was on Glee – twice.

“Kind of like a three-way date, but not the dirty kind.”

“I think you look delicious.”

“Go with God, Satan – Santana.”

“I just don’t understand the difference between an egg with an egg in it and an egg with a baby chicken inside it.”

“I thought this song was about a baby.”

“Dude, that rocks, it’s like gay Braveheart.”

“You are the worst POW ever. John McCain is rolling over in his grave right now.”