This week on Glee (Season 2, Episode 18), New Directions tackles self-acceptance and Lady Gaga. Also, Kurt returns to glee club! Check out our recap of “Born This Way,” which aired on April 26, 2011.
This week’s extra long episode (90 minutes instead of the usual 60) stemmed from Lady Gaga’s song ‘Born This Way’ and focused around the theme of self-acceptance. While practicing a new song, Finn bonks Rachel on the nose, accidentally breaking it. In order to fix it, the doctor suggests Rachel get a nose job. However, both Finn and Mr. Schu are outraged that Rachel would even consider this, telling her that she should accept her flaws.
Bully Whip
In an attempt to get Kurt back to McKinley High, Santana and Karofsky join forces and create Bully Whip, a club to prevent bullying. However, the whole club is a lie. Santana wants Karofsky to help her win prom queen, so she blackmails him into “pretend” dating her and creating the club. Regardless of the intent, the club works and Kurt (finally!) returns to glee club, just in time for Nationals!
Nose Job
Kurt appeals to Rachel’s love of Barbara Streisand to get her to rethink her nose job. He argues that Barbara was fine with her image, so why can’t Rachel be too. In order to get his point across he enlists a bunch of mall shoppers to participate in a flash mob dance to ‘Barbara Streisand.’
T-shirt Time
In order to get everyone to accept themselves completely, Mr. Schu hands out shirts and gets everyone to write down what they used to think was a flaw, but now accept. Emma writes down that her biggest flaw is being a ginger, but Mr. Schu confronts her and tells her to face her fears of having OCD. She resists, but eventually lets him help her. The shirts also demonstrated that Mr. Schu is self-conscious about his butt chin, Sam hates his trouty mouth and Quinn abhors her old nickname, Lucy Caboosey.
Set List
- “I Feel Pretty”/”Unpretty” mashup by West Side Story and TLC
- ”I’ve Gotta Be Me” by Sammy Davis Jr.
- ”Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane
- ”As If We Never Said Goodbye” by Sunset Boulevard
- ”Barbara Streisand” by Duck Sauce
- ”Born This Way” by Lady Gaga
