I Am Unicorn

Glee Episode Review

In which there is a unicorn metaphor. There should always be a unicorn metaphor. Glee gets back on track with some solid character work, including the return of Shelby and little Beth.

What Happened

Shelby returns, wanting to build a relationship with Rachel and offering to let Quinn and Puck be a more active part of their daughter's life. Puck is thrilled, but Quinn resists. She continues to blame everyone around her for how badly she's doing until Will loses his temper and tells her to grow up. When Shelby refuses to let her see Beth until she loses the skank routine, Quinn dyes her back back to blonde and announces that she's ready to rejoin glee club. She'll do anything to get full custody of the baby, she tells Puck.

Kurt worries that Blaine is auditioning for West Side Story, correctly guessing that Blaine's more manly persona will give him an edge. Though Kurt tries to prove he can act romantic with a girl by performing Shakespeare with Rachel, the efforts are in vain. His father advises Kurt to find roles more suited to his strengths - or write his own. The plan to redouble his efforts to get elected as class president hits a snag when his former campaign manager Britany decides that she is also running.

With nothing left to fall back on, Kurt is devestated when the lead role is offered to Blaine.

The Good

• Puck visiting Shelby and Beth. He was so sweet! And he was obviously really trying to build something rather than just half-ass it. I like that they didn't end the scene with Puck holding the baby and beaming. Like he said, we'll work up to it. (Though apparently they did eventually based on the photo Quinn saw.) But having that little hesitation demonstrated that both Puck and Shelby are committed to taking it slow and paying more attention to what the baby wants than to what they want. And by establishing this, it puts him on a collision course with Quinn and gives him something to do.

The Bad

• I am really uncomfortable with the way Sue treats Becky.

The Cliche

• Whatever you decide is okay except I really want you to do things my way. Rachel encourages Finn to become a performer and follow her to New York, telling him that he can be "better" than "just" being a mechanic. But - you know - whatever makes you happy...

What Did I Think?

I am happy. Coherant plot and theme for the win! And yes, Quinn suddenly deciding she wants her baby back kind of comes out of nowhere. But it's an established part of her personality to feel that if she can just get "this" then she will be happy. She changed her whole look and even her name once before, so dying her hair back to blonde is nothing. And I liked her line, "I'll even pretend to believe I'm special." Unpack that for a bit. It's like the dark negative of "Fake it until you make it."

Bonus points for Puck's "oh crap!" face.

I especially like that Quinn's issues nicely parallell Kurt's issues. They are both looking outside themselves for validation. If I can just get... If I can just be...

All of the characters have this in common. Will thought that if he just had a baby with Terri, his marriage would be fixed. Rachel said, "Being part of something special makes you special," and now pins her hopes on a particular role and a particular school. Sue talks a good fight, but what else is her insistence on enforcing her worldview but the fear that someone might be happy doing things differently? She's threatened by the possibility she might not be needed and keeps the cheerleaders - especially Becky - like pets to serve as her echo chamber.

Poor Kurt is going to be crushed, isn't he? I don't think he really wants to play Tony in West Side Story or be class president for that matter. He desperately wants someone to tell him that he could if he wanted to. Like the whole John Mellancamp / hissy fit over Finn bonding with Burt thing, Kurt still looks at "normal" and wishes he had what everybody else does.

As an aside, it must be exhausting to be Kurt. He's probably the tiniest bit tired of working to be fabulous while guys like Finn just get things "handed" to them. From Kurt's perspective, anyways - but try explaining perspective to a teenager.

I think that if Kurt really wanted to play Tony, he would have sung "Maria" and Chris Colfer would have absolutely soared. Instead, Kurt played to his strengths: funny, playful and cute. None of which are adjectives that describe Tony. It's understandable that he chose the song he did - and it showed off his massively impressive talents - but that's not what anyone needed for the role. What's more, there was a franticness that was a bit off-putting. I think that it's not about Kurt as an actor wanting to challenge himself with a role, it's about Kurt as a teenager demanding to be recognized as "the greatest star."

Of course, the deck was stacked against him. They were saving "Something's Coming" all along for Darren Criss. Who? O. M. G. Nailed. It. He just took a deep breath and exhaled that song. Plus, he broke the Ponyo scale of adorable hearbreak as Artie offered him the lead and he wants to but he knows that Kurt would be hurt but it's such a great part but but but... That is good story.

(Although... we always agreed that if Blaine broke Kurt's heart, we'd have to track him down and cut bits off him. What to do? Maybe just a couple of little bits he isn't using?)

Now we have a conflict between Kurt and Blaine that is so deeply rooted in the characters. That isn't reliant on a third-party coming in from the outside. And that - when you break it down - has nothing to do with them being gay. Even though it's using the language of sexuality, that crazyjealousfear that all your friends are moving ahead and you're being left behind is universal. Kurt is sure that he's having this trouble because he's gay, but you can see Rachel, Finn, Quinn and every other character on the show fumbling the same damn ball.

Now if the editors could just learn that a quick cut is not necessarily a clever cut.