Glee: Taking the 'Fun' out of Funeral

When I heard last night’s episode of “Glee” was called “Funeral”, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to kill off Sue Sylvester.

Obviously that was never going to happen because Emmy winner Jane Lynch’s creation is the show’s breakout character. However, if you read this column on a regular basis, I must sound like a broken record every time I complain about how repetitive, obnoxious, unnecessary Sue has become.

“Funeral” was one of the two or three episodes per season when “Glee” shows us Sue’s softer side. As contrived and unrealistic as it can feel — this is someone who was threatening to torture someone with dental equipment just last week — I was mostly relieved to see Sue act like a like something resembling a real person for the first time in a LONG time.

That helped make “Funeral” the second consecutive strong episode of “Glee”, a streak that seemed unthinkable in recent months!

Sure, killing off Sue’s Down Syndrome-afflicted sister Jean — who was unfortunately more of a plot contrivance to humanize Sue than a real person — didn’t exactly raise the stakes as we head toward the season 2 finale, but it sure beefed up Jane Lynch’s Emmy reel. I really loved the way the actress modified her performance so that even her digs at Will or Herman and Eddie Munster (Finn and Kurt) had an undercurrent of sadness. (Even when she told Will that if she leaned on him, as Will had offered, she’d slide right off because of the grease in his hair, her heart wasn’t really in it.)

And the Willy Wonka-themed funeral (organized by Kurt and Finn after learning it was Jean’s favorite movie) wrecked me. I’m not afraid to admit it. It was so beautiful that it melted Sue’s heart: she decided to end her vendetta against the glee club and announced that she was running for office. As you probably guessed, I’m actually hoping Sue follows through on this promise because it would mean less Sue and her Schemes of the Week. (Plus, glimpses of Sue in the political arena would be good for some laughs.)

The main problem is that I believe Sue’s character has been taken too far out of the realm of believability to ever bring her back. (And I’m pretty sure Jane Lynch isn’t going anywhere.) Put it this way: if Sue went back to hating the glee club by the end of next week’s season finale, would you really be surprised? (I wouldn’t…not even a little bit.)

The other part of this strong episode had New Directions making their final preparations for Nationals. Will was packing up his sweater vests in preparation for his Broadway debut (I honestly couldn’t care less about Will or about this storyline since we know he’ll be back). More importantly, Jesse St. James joined New Directions as a consultant.

After bashing Finn some more — saying he sings and dances like a zombie who has to poop is cruel, but not COMPLETELY inaccurate — Jesse convinced the glee club that the way to win was to build their group around a star. (And to keep doing, “Weekend at Bernie’s”-style, even if someone died on stage.)

That set the stage for auditions to be New Directions’ featured vocalists. Once again, I like that this setup (from series creator/episode writer Ryan Murphy) allowed the musical numbers to unfold in a more organic way. (Same deal for the club’s song during the funeral.)

I’m pretty sure that we were supposed to hate Jesse for his criticisms of Santana, Kurt, Mercedes and Rachel…but I actually think he had valid points. That reality TV judging class really paid off, and Mr. Schue is more of a Paula (or Steven Tyler) anyway. Bringing a critical eye to the proceedings wasn’t the worst thing in a world where Mr. Schue thinks everything is wonderful.

Sure, some of the punch from Jesse’s stinging critiques was taken away when he all but admitted that he’d come back to make amends for egging Rachel by handing her a shot to be a star at Nationals. Still, it was an enjoyable turn of events.

Less enjoyable was Finn breaking up with Quinn, especially after Quinn’s initial refusal to acknowledge the fact that Finn was dumping her. Quinn even said she was willing to wait out Finn’s infatuation with Rachel. Earlier this season, Quinn told Rachel that she accepted the fact that Rachel was destined for superstardom, while Quinn was destined to peak in high school and settle for a life with Finn in Lima. Now, she doesn’t even get Finn. Ouch. Whatever she has a cooked up for next week’s episode won’t be pretty.

Let’s break down the musical performances:

“Back to Black”…A-: Rachel wasn’t the only one who admire Santana’s husky tone (thanks, cigars!) in this strong performance of “Back to Black.” Still, Jesse had a good point: Santana obviously has her guard up in a major way as a person, so why wouldn’t that extend to her performance on stage? It’s not that Santana can’t open up — we saw her do so in the Fleetwood Mac episode — it’s that she usually doesn’t want to.

“Some People”…B: Jesse was absolutely right on the nose again: personally, I think Chris Colfer/Kurt is remarkable, but it CAN be off-putting to watch a guy perform songs that are meant for women. This wasn’t even his best “Gypsy” performance. (“Rose’s Turn” was better.)

“Try a Little Tenderness”…A: From a storyline perspective, Jesse’s critique about Mercedes being lazy made sense since she claimed she didn’t even need to warm up right before she took the stage. But, DAMN! If she can sound this kickass without warming up (or doing anything else), who freaking cares?!

“My Man”…B+: Maybe I’m spoiled, but — while this was very good — I really don’t think it joined the pantheon of great Rachel Berry ballads. This wasn’t even his best Barbra Streisand performance. (Both “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “Papa Can You Hear Me” were better.)

“Pure Imagination”…A: The fact that I have a soft spot for this song helps, but I thought Finn and, especially, Kurt’s high, almost-angelic tones worked perfectly for this number.

So what’d you think of this episode? Don’t you kind of wish UCLA DID offer a class on reality show judging? (How fast can we sign Randy Jackson up for that class?!) How can one man own so many sweater vests? Do you think we’ve seen the last of Miami-bound Terri? Finally, is there a more perfect nickname than the one Sue gave Howard Bamboo? (Sue: “You’re Panda Express.” Howard: “I’m not Chinese.” Sue: “Neither is the food at Panda Express.”)