Glee: Accept Yourself

No Sue, no problem: at least not when you have a cartoonishly nasty doctor around to pick up the villainous slack.

After Rachel got punched in the face by accident while the glee club was working on their dancing — I’m surprised none of the other characters had punched Rachel in the face on purpose yet — the spectacularly insensitive quack suggested that Rachel get a nose job. At first, she was insulted but when she heard that it could potentially improve her singing, she was quickly on board.

That was the springboard for this week’s episode of “Glee”, which was a cut above most of season 2’s offerings and managed to be mostly enjoyable, despite a bloated 90-minute running time.

On the surface, “Born This Way” seemed to be a continuation of this season’s worst instincts: i.e. cashing on the latest pop culture trend (Lady Gaga) regardless of if it made sense within the storyline. Instead, the episode was a return to the core of what this show is about…an exploration and a celebration of a group of high school underdogs.

Rachel told everyone else that she was thinking of getting a nose job and that ignited a lesson about everyone accepting themselves for who they are.

Unfortunately, this extended beyond the glee club and included Emma Pillsbury. While I liked the Will/Emma action we got last week, I wasn’t feeling the couple this time around nearly as much. In trying to get Emma to accept and treat her OCD tendencies — as opposed to her “Ginger” tendencies — Will was supposed to come off as caring, but ended up coming off a bit annoying. Sometimes I honestly can’t tell if Matthew Morrison’s performance is supposed to be a parody of the “earnest teachers” or if Will Schuester is really supposed to be like this.

Anyway, Emma ended up getting help from a psychiatrist (played by Oscar nominee Kathleen Quinlan), who prescribed medication. At first, I sensed some dark undertones about Emma taking medication (the next-to-last episode this year is titled “Funeral” after all), but everything seemed honky-dory after Emma joined the big group number at the end of the episode. Also, Emma taking pills seems like a bit of a contradiction of the “born this way” mantra, but whatever.

Back at the glee club (full of trouty mouths and self-hating Asians), everyone’s insecurities were magnified thanks to Santana’s rampant bitchiness. The irony, of course, is a source of Santana’s abrasiveness is that she can’t accept that she’s a Lebanese. Santana is still in love with Brittany and decided that the best way to get her back was to become prom queen and decree that Brittany leave Artie for her.

Every queen needs a king, so she enlisted jock/bully Karofsky as her king after she noticed him checking out Sam’s ass and realized she could blackmail him. Her plan involved getting Karofsky to apologize to Principal Figgins for bullying Kurt and getting Kurt to come back to McKinley. Sure, this move would probably get most of the glee club to support her bid to be queen, but why would the rest of the school care? Also, why would ANYBODY vote for Karofsky when the guy appears to be an a-hole to everyone? (Oh oh…I’m thinking too much about things again. Like my favorite Adam Sandler movie title, I have to remember to Just Go With It.)

The plan worked after Kurt forced Karofsky to level with him and Karofsky agreed to co-spearhead a Parents Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays group at the school. (In case you’d forgotten this season’s primary mission.)

Meanwhile, Santana has plenty of competition for the prom queen crown in front-runner Quinn and newcomer Lauren.

Former pageant baby/pull-up prodigy Lauren decided to run and dug up a deep, dark (and conveniently random) secret from Quinn’s past. It turns out that Quinn is Lucy Fabray’s middle name and that she used to be uglier and heavier (fat-suit alert!) before a makeover. I suppose that this revelation about Quinn’s past helps explain her obsession with being prom queen. The only problem is that she already HAD a motive for wanting to be prom queen. (To return to the stop of the school hierarchy after being bounced from the Cheerios.) I didn’t totally buy it.

Even more annoyingly, I didn’t buy Lauren’s actions. The Lauren we’ve seen doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who’d do something underhanded and certainly doesn’t strike me as someone who would sneak around and do anything. Fortunately, Quinn gained some new fans and Lauren apologized to her.

In the end, Rachel decided to not get a nose job and Lea Michele most got a break from playing a raging bitch. Everyone wins! Now on to the musical numbers!

“Unpretty/I Feel Pretty”…A: I’m usually not big on this show’s mash-ups because I feel like you lose too much of each of the songs being mashed together. However, I thought this slowed-down, acoustic take was absolutely lovely. I don’t know whether Dianna Agron stepped her game up or force-of-nature Lea Michele stepped her game down, but I thought their voices sounded wonderful together. Brilliant. I can definitely see myself listening to this on my headphones at work.

“I’ve Gotta Be Me”…B+: A very entertaining dance-heavy performance featuring great physical comedy from Cory Monteith. (Do we think Monteith is really a terrible dancer in real life? I suspect that he’s pretty bad, although it’s obviously exaggerated for his character.) There was an impressive final note from him too.

“Somewhere Only We Know”…A-: I enjoyed seeing the recycled outdoor set from this season’s “Empire State of Mind” number. I don’t think it quite reached “Teenage Dream”-level heights, but it was still a nice farewell to the Warblers that aren’t Blaine.

“As If We Never Said Goodbye”…C: Chris Colfer sounded fantastic (as usual) and I liked that he was pretty restrained, but to be perfectly honest I thought this number was WAY too long and that it could’ve easily been cut from the episode. (Kurt’s return had been covered by the “Somewhere Only We Know” scene.) I think it felt like padding for the 90-minute running time.

“Barbra Streisand”…D+: I (guess I) enjoyed seeing the recycled mall set from Artie’s “Safety Dance” number. This number — which convinced Rachel to not have a nose job and stay special like her idol — was supposed to be joyful, but I thought it was mostly pointless. More filler.

“Born This Way”…A-: True confessions time: I don’t really care for “Born This Way.” I think it’s pretty much the worst Lady Gaga song that has become a hit for her. (“Born This Way” is #1 for six straight weeks while “Bad Romance” never even topped the chart? Come on!) Anyway, I enjoyed watching this group number A LOT more than I do listening to the song on the radio, but that’s probably because I spent most of it trying to read everyone’s T-shirt.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why were the Bully Whips wearing berets? (Wait, who cares? It was awesome!) Do the writers have any idea what to do with Sam besides make jokes about his “Trouty Mouth”? Finally, what would your “Born This Way” white T-shirt say?