Glee-cap: Just Love Yourself And You’re Set

If there’s one song that more or less sums up the entire premise of Glee, it’s Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”  All the key messages of Glee are addressed in the most succinct way possible in this radio-ready song: self-love, equality, free will, and acceptance of others. Both the song and the show are basically a great big “eff you” to xenophobia of all kinds.

By Zara

So naturally, covering “Born This Way” on Glee demands special treatment: not only was the episode titled after the song, it was also a supersized ninety-minutes long – so I sat down with my Super-sized Slushie, anticipating something absolutely epic.

…and for the most part, “Born This Way” delivers the goods.  Last night’s episode had powerful moments for multiple characters, some fantastic numbers, and even a plot twist that genuinely surprised me.  So let’s get to it, shall we?

At the heart of the episode is a big decision for Rachel – after Finn breaks her nose (not a lover’s quarrel, it was totally an accident) she has a choice to make: fix the injury and go on with life, or trade in her signature shnozz for a petite little nose.  Much to the Glee Club’s dismay, Rachel decides to ask her doctor to make her nose look just like Quinn’s.  An entire debate is sparked: what’s the best way for a person to live: by altering imperfections, or by choosing to accept them?

Another character who faces this question in her personal life is Emma.  Will encourages her to seek help, but Emma says that she’s content with her disorder.  Still, their conversation inspires Will’s next lesson plan: he’s going to have the kids sing songs about loving themselves, culminating the lesson with a group performance of the anthem for self-acceptance: “Born This Way.”

So there’s the big issue of the episode: do we have a problem with the approach Quinn takes (more on that later)?  Is it right to – like Santana says – change the things that bother you when you look in the mirror?  Or, is it better to come to the decision that Rachel makes when she decides to go the Barbra Streisand route and forgo the nose job?   Rachel opted to keep her nose, choosing to believe that the things that make us different actually make us interesting – but Emma decides to work on her mental illness, hopefully even remove it from her life through treatment, therapy, and medication.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of Glee without some conniving.  On the one hand we have Santana, who thinks winning prom queen is the way to Brittany’s heart, and that the key to winning prom queen is by becoming a hero.  She kills two birds with one stone: she manages to cover her sexuality by pretending to date Karofsky (someone who apparently has real pull in the social stratosphere of McKinley High) while simultaneously blackmailing him into helping her get Kurt to return to McKinley.   Also resorting to some Blair Waldorf-type warcraft tactics?  Lauren Zizes.  She’s so desperate to win Prom Queen that she goes digging up information on her rival, Quinn.  And what she finds is shocking…

Lucy Caboosie.

The Quinn Fabray that we know and (sometimes) love is a product of reinvention, extreme weight loss, plastic surgery, and a name change – she’s actually Lucy Q. Fabray, a once unattractive girl from another school.    Lauren is so happy with this information that she does the unthinkable and posts a photo of Quinn during her “Lucy Caboosie” days for all to see…and for the first time, Lauren loses a little bit of my respect.  Quinn’s past makes her relateable and so much more likeable, and when Quinn defends her actions, claiming that she changed the things that bothered because she actually loves  herself, her rationale seems valid.  But Lauren, by taking down her enemy is such an underhanded way, reveals a new side to her personality – if you really feel so great about yourself, you don’t feel the need to sabotage others.

There was a lot of social commentary in this episode, which is to be expected from something entitled “Born This Way.”  Generally Glee tends to focus on one thing, but the increased time slot allowed them to tackle a few issues – and they did a great job with all of them.

There’s a ton of Emmy buzz surrounding Jayma May’s performance, and it’s totally well-deserved.   Emma’s therapist says that mental illness carries a huge stigma in this country, and it’s totally true.  It’s high time we learn that people with learning disabilities aren’t stupid, that bipolar doesn’t mean crazy, and that depression is entirely valid, even in people who lead seemingly normal lives.  Like the therapist says, these disorders are difficult to understand because they are so hard to diagnose and very nebulous in nature – but hopefully Glee’s discussion of mental illness will help people better understand all these things.

Surprisingly, it was the show’s two biggest bullies who delivered this week’s most powerful lesson about bullying when Santana and Karofsky come together to form “Bully Whips,” a club that works to end bullying at McKinley.  Karofsky’s obviously scripted apology actually made a really important statement: Karofsky said that he had no idea that his bullying could have such awful consequences.  There’s a mention of the gay teen suicides, and something becomes clear to the audience: bullies aren’t always monsters.  Sometimes the people who harass others are just misguided, or unaware, or completely oblivious to the fact that while they’re boosting their own egos, they’re actually tearing someone else’s self-esteem to pieces.    This is why Kurt, who has obviously come a long way in terms of maturity and insight, tells him that whether or not he chooses to come out, he needs to become aware.

Through Glee’s run, we’ve been forced to see Rachel and Quinn as polar opposites, but this week we learned that they share some similarities.  They’re two of the most confident characters on the show, and there’s no denying that they love themselves.  But by showing us their insecurities, Glee is sending out a powerful message: that EVERYONE feels vulnerable from time to time.  I mean, even Gaga, who was been hailed as the “queen of self-love” diets relentlessly to meet “pop star” standards.    The truth is, we all dislike certain things about ourselves.  Some of us, like Quinn, choose to change these things, but Rachel, who is a role model both in the fictional world of Glee and out of it, shows that it’s okay to leave our eccentricities as they are.  So is Glee saying that changing yourself is wrong?  No. But that’s the thing about glee – you see different ways of approaching the same issue and you draw your own conclusions as to what is right.  Maybe the line between loving yourself and hating yourself exists in a different place for everyone…and that’s totally okay.

Oh, and a few other things about this episode:

1) Santana TOTALLY ripped the one-liner crown away from Brittany (and Sue, who was MIA).

2) Finn and Quinn’s relationship actually seemed kind of legit this time around….but I’m still not on board.

3) Am I the only one who saw what looked like a hickey on Mr. Schue’s neck?

4) Am I the only one who felt uncomfortable by the level of cheese in the mall flash mob?

Best Lines:

Santana: “Hold on a minute – I’m a closeted lesbian and a judgmental bitch, which means one thing: I have awesome gaydar.”

Quinn:  “I’m surprised more people haven’t asked me to do this…my nose is AWESOME”

Santana:  “Only straight I am is straight-up bitch”

Santana: “Legend has it that when I came out of my mother, I told the nurse she was fat.”

Best performance:

No, I’m not going to say “Born This Way.”  Sorry, Gaga lovers, but the “Unpretty/I Feel Pretty” mash-up was totally genius.  The arrangement was unreal, the harmonies and performances sounded great, and I loved the way it was filmed, showing Quinn and Rachel going through their daily routines.  It totally drove home the idea that these two ladies feel “pretty but unpretty” every minute of every day…and I think we’ve all been there.