Born This Way
Glee Episode Review
In which Kurt is back, baby! Glee spends a super-sized ninety minutes on self-esteem issues and proves that Santana is indeed the most kick-ass girl in school.
What Happened
When Finn breaks Rachel's nose during dance rehearsal, the doctor starts talking up the possibility of a nose job. The rest of glee club doesn't seem too keen on that idea and Will is appalled that Rachel thinks she needs to "fix" herself.
Santana decides that if she's Prom Queen, she can make a royal decree that Brittany needs to be with her. Needing to attract the jock vote, she focuses on Karofsky as her Prom King. Even better, if she can get him to back off the bullying, then Kurt will return to school and glee club will be a sure-thing at Nationals. The task of winning Karofsky over to the idea gets way easier when Santana notices him checking out Sam's butt and guesses that Karofsky is gay. She pleasantly blackmails Karofsky into dating her and apologizing for his bullying ways.
With Santana and Karofsky starting up an anti-bully patrol (complete with berets), Kurt considers returning to McKinley. After Karofsky and his father swear he's learned his lesson, Kurt asks to talk to Karofsky alone. He demands to know what Karofsky's angle is and Karofsky explains Santana's plan. With compliments to Lady MacBeth, Kurt transfers back and rejoins glee club.
Will encourages Emma to seek treatment for her OCD. After resisting and explaining that this is just the way she is, Emma admits that she has a problem and goes to see a therapist. Emma spends most of the appointment disinfecting the couch. The doctor gently suggests that it's time for a change and prescribes a low-dose medication to start.
Puck spots Lauren eying the Prom crowns and promises to make her Prom Queen. Also campaigning for the title, Quinn is furious. But Lauren is determined enough to break in and steal Quinn's permanent records to dig up dirt on her rival. She discovers that Quinn was once "Lucy Caboosey," brown-haired pudgy girl with zits who transferred after getting a nose job in eighth grade. When Lauren plasters the school with old photos of Quinn, a surprising number of people start to sympathize with her transformation and Finn starts to understand why Quinn was supporting Rachel's decision.
And Rachel is clinging to her plans, even though just about everyone else is arguing against her. (Parents? What parents?) Kurt takes Rachel in hand, however, and reminds her that Barbra never got surgery.
The Good
- "Unpretty." Love that song.
- I liked Swing Finn and Mike. All the horns make me happy.
The Better
- Santana makes everything better. Even Karofsky. Love that he flat out tells Kurt what's going on.
- I like the truce that Lauren and Quinn come to and Quinn telling Lauren that she had to change so much to walk around school like a winner, while Lauren just does it.
The Best
- That Emma's problems aren't being treated as a joke. Well, there are a bit, but it was always a gentle humor that refrained from making Emma into a charicature.
- Puck's shirt.
What Did I Think?
The biggest problem with the bullying story for me was that quite a bit of Glee's humor was derived from equally cruel put-downs and "push the envelope" jokes like Santana's opening speech here. Casual cruelty and racism? Do we really want to be constantly dancing along that edge? Or the emotional whiplash that comes from cutting from Sue trashing some poor kid to a lecture about tolerance and acceptance. Sue's bullying was every bit as vicious as Karofsky's and that - to my mind - has never really been addressed. (Nor is the way she treats Becky like her pet.) Can't have it both ways. Well... you can... and in some ways they do. Because I have to admit that it can be a thing of grand entertainment when Sue or Santana cut loose one of their speeches.
That is one thing that Sue and Santana have over Karofsky: the cleverness and humor in their dialogue is dazzling. I listen to them because I can't imagine what they'll say next. Karofsky's unimaginative threats had none of that. And the lovely monologues also allow for little asides that give clues to Sue and Santana's characters. Karofsky's "Hulk Smash" routine didn't have any of that flexibility, resulting in him being rather shallow and repetitive.
Anyways. Using Santana and her own issues to force Karofsky into at least pretending to accept Kurt was a smart move. For one thing, it's always satisfying to see the bully under the thumb of someone clearly his superior. Which? Santana so is. Secondly, there may well be a fake it until you make it element to his arc. I'd say he was pretending to be contrite in the pricinpal's office, but I don't think Karofsky is that good an actor. For the record, Max Adler, who plays Karofsky, is doing a great job with the character. It's not his fault that the set-up required Karofsky to be just. so. toxic. that it'll take a lot more than a kicky beret to move him back to sympathetic. Hopefully, with Karofsky "defanged," we'll be able to see another side to him.