Kat with a K

Glee 2.3: "Grilled Cheesus"

It seems this episode was pretty polarizing, but I'm going to claim some middle ground: I thought the episode was touching and contained some good emotional notes, but I didn't like the treatment of religion or some of the other inconsistent plot elements. And I haven't been able to put this into any sort of coherent argument, so hey, bullet points!

* First, yes, of course, the story with Kurt and his father was touching. It seemed to be so deliberately playing on the audience's emotions, though, that it didn't actually make me cry the way a lot of more subtle shows do. (I cry at TV much more often than at real life. It's a problem.)

* Finn's whole "grilled cheesus" thing was . . . I'm trying to come up with a word other than cheesy. Hah. It played up the "dumb jock" stuff, and I really liked his characterization better the past two weeks.

* The 15-year-old girl in me who listened to Yentl on repeat completely ate up the whole "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" sequence, and really, Rachel is at her best when she's doing Streisand. (See also: "Don't Rain on My Parade.")

* I didn't hate Kurt's version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which is saying something, because my skepticism of Beatles covers runs bone-deep. I was not so wild about Mercedes's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," though, and I think I finally figured out why - I think of that as a very personal song, so the big group setting just seemed off. Well, that, and sorry, Mercedes, your voice is lovely but you are no Art Garfunkel.

* People seem VERY upset about Finn's "Losing My Religion." First, on a musical level, sure, his voice isn't as strong as some of the other voices on the show, but it's fine and I like it. And as to the common complaint that that song isn't actually about religion - sure, we know that, but I can totally buy that Finn would have taken the song at face value. So that didn't bother me at all.

* Writers, last year Rachel was taking down the abstinence club and practically throwing herself at guys. Don't ruin the characterization by making her suddenly weird about Finn touching her breasts just to give him something funny to pray about. Also, they never talked about the whole lying thing, so she still thinks he's a virgin and he still thinks she slept with Jesse, right? That makes that whole scene make even less sense.

* Puck doing "Only the Good Die Young"? Awesome. (I asked for that in my Billy Joel post, remember?)

* So, the actual religion stuff . . . apparently my thoughts are complicated. A list within a list!
1. I kind of hate that Sue was actually right about something for once, but she basically was.
2. At the same time, high school music departments do religious songs all the time, whether that's right or not, so why was this a big deal suddenly?
3. And on the other hand, I didn't think Emma was right, but I loved seeing her stand up to Sue and for the kids.
4. It doesn't seem surprising at all that most of these kids, when pressed, would identify as Christian, and that some of them wouldn't be sure how to react to Kurt when they suddenly found out he was an atheist while he was in the middle of a crisis.
5. As everyone else in the universe has said, it's unfortunate that they made all the atheism due to various childhood traumas. That seems unfair.
6. And there was no excuse for the bedside prayer service without Kurt's consent, especially since Finn's mom was there, so it wasn't just kids being clueless but trying to help.
7. Except - if Kurt's father is in fact religious, and Finn's mom knows this, does that override Kurt's objections? I am undecided.

* Ewwww, Finn ate a week-old sandwich!

* Finn's "I thought we were sort of family" reaction to not being told about Kurt's dad was perfect.

* Oh! And how perfect was the kid playing little Kurt? Amazing.