Glee Season 2: Born This Way Episode Review

Born This Way

Season 2, Episode 18

Yes, after the terrible episode last week, I'm not really expecting anything good to come out of this one. But yo know what, this was actually a good episode. I'm not sure if it was really worth 90 minutes - they could've cut it down to the usual one hour - but other than that, it was possibly the most coherent episode the show had in quite a while.

I enjoyed how everything was paced, I liked the storyline and it actually preached without being preachy - if you know what I mean.

THE GOOD:

- The first 10 minutes of this episode was already better than last week's. Haha.

- True, Quinn's storyline seemed random, but I surprisingly liked it. I actually thought it did give her more depth as a character. I just wasn't expecting it to be that drastic. Ha!

- What Lauren did to Quinn was rude, but I'm not condoning it just because it did help her. I think in the beginning she was out to hurt Quinn in the process and ruin her chances of being prom queen, but then when she knew that what she did wasn't the best way to handle things, she said sorry.

- I did find Emma's plight of her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder acceptance to be one of the most poignant moments of the episode.

- Rachel's storyline was both cute and depressing. And that's all I'm going to say about it. 

- It was really nice to see Kurt back in McKinley again. At first, I didn't know how his return will be played out, but the Santana and Karofsky angle made it more interesting than I expected. Who knew?

- Santana was pure love! Her bitchiness sure was over-the-top, but I just couldn't complain. For some reason, I think her terrible personality was actually quite endearing - at least to me. Besides, I find her funny as hell.

- LEBANESE was hilarious!

THE BAD:

- Not entirely a bad thing, but I just thought they were going to expand more on Kurt and Karofsky. I guess, there are still a lot of time in the next episodes maybe?

- Some failed continuity in terms of Quinn's storyline. I remember one episode when Quinn asked Mercedes when she was still pregnant, "How do you stand it? I’ve only had to deal with this for a few months, you’ve had it your whole life." How would it now make sense if Quinn apparently used to get bullied constantly before? Oh, and if she was indeed a nerd, overweight, and had no friends, don't you think she'd be nice to everyone because she doesn't want other people to ever feel the way she does?

THE MUSIC:

I FEEL PRETTY/UNPRETTY. This was gorgeous. I did like the context and it was just a delight to see both of them sing together. As I've said on my review of the song, their voices together sounds horrible on paper, but everything just worked stunningly. Yes, I want another Berry and Fabray duet!!

I'VE GOTTA BE ME. Finn sounded great and his dancing was (intentionally?) funny. The whole performance was fun, although I found Mike Chang's presence a bit over-the-top. Sure, he can dance but this reminded me of Make 'Em Laugh with Will Shuester. Haha.

SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW was heartbreaking. Shoot me, but the whole performance was heartfelt. Oh, and Blaine's acting was superb. So aside from the fact that a random piano sat in the middle of the school for some odd reason, I loved the whole number.

AS IF WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE. I'm not sure if this was actually Kurt's best solo performance on the show, but I thought his voice fit the song perfectly. The editing and camera work were great and I loved the context of him singing in front of the Glee club after being away from them for quite some time. Amazing!

BARBARA STREISAND was just fun to watch. It's quite refreshing to see them let loose and have a blast in a performance like this. This flash mob scene was quite entertaining, I must say. 

BORN THIS WAY. I admit, I didn't like the recording that much, but I liked the show's visual interpretation of the song WAY better than Gaga’s interpretation of it in her music video. They actually seemed to get the point of the song, which Lady Gaga’s video totally missed. Great.


Download music HERE.
Download episode HERE.