Surfing Comedy: Glee – “Prom Queen”

All right, so I kind of like Glee, but I don’t usually deem it worthy enough to write about. One of our other writers said they were going to write about the show but hasn’t, and this week’s episode was just too good to pass up a chance to talk about it. Just be careful; these spoilers are going to prom alone and are going to dance with everybody’s dates.

A few weeks ago on Facebook, I was ranting lividly because of the treatment of Mercedes in the episode “A Night of Neglect,” which should have had a chance to give Mercedes a bit of character depth, but then just flattened her out into a blatantly two-dimensional character by making her act like a stereotypical diva. Then, a week later, on “Born This Way,” when everyone else had clever t-shirts depicting their differences that they were embracing (which, by the way, I absolutely loved Puck’s “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt with an arrow pointing at his crotch), Mercedes’ t-shirt said, “NO WEAVE!” Like… are you serious? Are you for real-real, Glee? I was starting to get really frustrated about this because I am so tired of Finn and Rachel drama; I want something more out of the other characters. Mercedes has the best voice on the show, and she has the potential to be an interesting character, if only they would let her…

That said, “Prom Queen” was an episode of Glee redemption. Not just because of Mercedes, mind you.

Junior Prom is only a few days away, and everyone is all about getting ready to have the night of their lives. Air Supply (I literally laughed out loud at that, by the way) canceled on the Junior Prom, so the principal hires the New Directions to be the entertainment. When Butt-chin — I mean, Will Schuester — breaks the news to the kids, Mercedes rushes out, visibly upset; she doesn’t have a date for the prom. Rachel goes to speak to her, and I very literally had tears in my eyes as Mercedes explains, “I just wanted to be Cinderella. Just for one night — one night where a guy would look at me under those corny crepe streamers and say, ‘You look so beautiful.’ Then he’d grab my hand and ask me to dance.” Oh, girl, you are breaking my heart! Finally nice to see some real depth out of her unlike that faux-diva B.S. a few episodes back.

Jesse St. James makes a return just in time to go to prom with Rachel and start a fight with Finn in the middle of prom. Dude, seriously, how old is Jonathan Groff? He’s gotta be at least 30… a little old to be trolling high schools for nice Jewish girls. I’m just sayin’.

Of course, the big part of this episode is that Kurt is crowned as prom queen by write-in-vote in a very cruel and hateful joke. This after he’s spent much of the episode fighting to be himself and saying that the students have stopped bullying him so that must mean that they are more tolerant of him and are beginning to accept him. Thankfully, Chris Colfer is a great actor that is able to fantastically portray Kurt’s shame and hurt over being crowned prom queen — and I was definitely rooting for him when he decided to own being prom queen and went back into the auditorium to accept his crown and scepter. “Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton!”

I was very happy with this episode. Who knows what the rest of the road to Nationals will bring — but I hope the rest of it lives up to this episode.

 
The songs:

• “Rolling in the Deep” (Adele) performed by Rachel and Jesse St. James – I love Adele, but this song is becoming one of those that’s way over-played. And when Rachel and Jesse sing it, it just lacks the power and the force of the original. 2/5
• “Isn’t She Lovely” (Stevie Wonder) performed by Artie – This is a sweet song, but it does nothing to make me care at all about the Artie-Brittany-Santana love triangle. Plus, Santana has actually sung really deep, moving love songs to Brittany. This just doesn’t compare. 3/5
• “Friday” (Rebecca Black) by Puck, Sam and Artie – You’re kidding, right? Okay, this was actually a really great cover. Not Stephen Colbert great, but still really enjoyable. 4/5
• “Jar of Hearts” (Christina Perri) performed by Rachel – Rachel really blew this out of the water, but it is a ballad, so this is no surprise. My only question is this: how is this song appropriate for a slow dance at prom? 4/5
• “Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance” (Black Kids) performed by Blaine – Oh, man. Blaine is so cute. This song was definitely a lot of fun, and had a great performance. 4/5
• “Dancing Queen” (ABBA) performed by Mercedes and Santana – Sadly, this was pretty much a throwaway song as it was performed for the prom king/queen dance song. It was still well done, though. 3/5

 
Best bits & quotes:

-When Sue pulls a list of New Directions-performed songs out of her pair of Spanx and tells Will that he should literally “apologize to America” for “Run Joey Run.” I love the writers poking fun at themselves.

-Karofsky’s apology to Kurt. I am so glad that they gave him so much honesty and sincerity in that brief moment; I’m glad that he really is honestly sorry for what he did to Kurt, even if he wasn’t ready to come out of the closet and dance with Kurt as prom king and queen.

-“Where does Lauren keep your balls? I’m sure you’ve heard the word on the street that you’ve been neutered by Miss Zizes. That she’s the one who wears the pants in the relationship.”

-“I don’t have a date. I’m just going to dance. And then all your dates are gonna ignore you and come dance with me. So your dates are really my dates.”

-“Devil in a red dress. Perfect, and it’s totally appropriate for your personality. I have no criticisms. Go with God, Satan. Santana.”

-”Isn’t this a song about a baby?” Thank you, Mercedes!

-“My ensemble is an homage to the recent royal wedding and the late Alexander McQueen. I had to make it myself. There’s simply nothing off the rack that is suitable for the young, fashionable man in Ohio.” “Dude, that rocks. It’s like gay Braveheart.”

-”You are the worst P.O.W. ever. John McCain is rolling over in his grave!”

-”They must have sensed that I’m a lesbian. Do I smell like a golf course?”