Glee/Headscratchers/Season 2

Discuss all issues with Glee's second season here.

You may also be interested in... General, Characters, Season 1 by Episode, Season 2 by Episode, Season 3 by Episode.

Britney/Brittany
=== In "Britney/Brittany", Santana tells Carl to put her under, because her father is a doctor and she has great insurance. Later, in "New York", we're told that Santana is from Lima Heights, with the implication that this was the poor part of town. Make up your mind! ===
 * There's no law that says that doctors HAVE to live in nice neighborhoods. Also there's a certain amount of bravado to Santana's persona and she could be completely blowing smoke up people's butts about her upbringing, or alternately she could have been born in a bad neighborhood and moved out later. After all she says she "from Lima Heights" not that she lives there now.
 * Maybe her dad was a mature student, or a chronically under-employed science graduate who decided to remedy his situation by going to med school.

In Grilled Cheesus, lighting a candle in a hospital room where oxygen is in use.
Television Is Trying to Kill Us. Kurt, clearly the Only Sane Man, did the reasonable thing and blew it out. Then again, he also thought that acupuncture would get his dad out of a coma.
 * He thought the acupuncture would help his dad's circulation, which would increase the flow of blood to his dad's brain, which would get his dad out of a coma. Which is scientifically sound. Also, clinical studies have shown that acupuncture can help people get out of coma's faster. Above Troper Did Not Do the Research.
 * The biochemical mechanism for potential effects of acupuncture is not understood; various hypotheses about neurological effects have been forwarded, but none have adequate research behind them. Ironically the method for choosing the points comes from traditional Chinese religion and was in order to maintain proper flow of "Qi." Also, the He study was looked at in the Acupuncture for acute management and rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury Cochrane review, and its data excluded from the meta-analyses (as was another 29 of the 34 considered studies), because the quality of the study was judged as being too low. The Liu study was not considered. The Cochrane review found no high quality studies suggesting the use of acupuncture for brain injury, though they did find that it was the prevailing trend in low quality studies, typically those were judged to have a "high risk of bias" due to the studies' methodologies (among other issues). Notably any mention of blinding (using sham acupuncture) was nonexistent in any of the 34 acupuncture studies, whereas double-blinds are the standard in allopathic medical trials whenever possible.
 * I thought that the acupuncture was for Kurt to try and de-stress.
 * I'm pretty sure blowing out the candle was a symbolic gesture rather than common sense. I mean, Kurt is only as smart as the writers can make him and these writers...well...probably wouldn't hesitate take a candle into a hospital room themselves. And Kurt did say the acupuncture was for his father. Though the weirdness of Kurt believing in acupuncture was probably another mistake on the writer's part.
 * The writers are pretty brilliant...
 * Writing brilliance has nothing to do with knowing common sense hospital safety protocol.
 * It seems more like Kurt was willing to try anything (except prayer) to save his dad.
 * A nasal aspirator doesn't put out enough oxygen flow to do anything but make a candle burn very fast, and that would be if it was completely disconnected from Burt's face and feeding directly towards the flame. The only way the oxygen would have exploded would be if Kurt suddenly decided to hold the candle against the tank for a very long time, or to turn the oxygen on full blast and disconnect the aspirator, neither of which he seemed inclined to do. Yes, it probably wasn't incredibly wise, but it wasn't exactly a ticking time bomb.

Finn's prayers in "Grilled Cheesus"
If Finn was so upset about Burt, then why the heck didn't he pray for Grilled Cheesus to save him?
 * Finn was too busy using his prayer as his "Genie in the Bottle." That and he was holding the Idiot Ball the ENTIRE episode.
 * That's pretty much the entire point, Finn completely misuderstands religion and the idea of prayer in general.

Kurt's guardian in "Grilled Cheesus"
In-universe, no one has any idea how long it'll take for Burt to regain consciousness or if he'll even make it, so shouldn't the school or the hospital call any contact of Kurt's to make sure that he's taken care of?
 * He was probably staying with Finn and his mom.
 * Kurt should be 17 by now (he was 16 at the start of Season 1), he can take care of himself, surely.
 * Wasn't that retconned?

Someone complaining about religious songs in a choir.

 * Seriously. Anybody ever been in a choir? Religious music makes up a huge chunk of choral literature. If people were to complain about use of religious music in a choral setting, that'd just be stupid, because it'd be severely limiting a choir's repertoire.
 * Wait, I'm confused. Are you refering to religious songs in ND? Because New Directions is a *show choir* and there's quite a difference between a church choir and a show choir. Show choir's not exactly limited in musical choices, the following of which are just few genre examples they can (and do) use the music of: pop, jazz, r&b and broadway. Their repertoire is not exactly limited when you take away religious songs.
 * I'm talking choral literature in general - religious music makes up a very sizable amount of the repertoire, particularly if you're doing classical works, or even more modern music like gospel. Your average high school choir is going to be performing that kind of material.
 * And again, you're right if you're talking about your average school choir, the kind that looks like this. But New Directions is a show choir, which is quite different and has very different repertoire.
 * Bach and Handel's works are justified in school settings by them being 300 or 400 years old, aren't religiously inflammatory, and are considered more in a culturally significant than a religiously evocative subtext. I think REM's Losing my Religion or something along those lines is definitely more overtly religious (and also in a bad way)
 * REM's song isn't about religion, it's referencing a colloquialism that's an analogue of "losing one's mind".

Rachel telling Finn she's not having sex until she's 25
Whatever happened to the Rachel from the start of Season 1? You know, the one who announces to Finn and the entire Celibacy Club that it's unrealistic to wait until marriage (that's what protection is for), and that, and I quote, "Girls want sex just as much as guys do!"? Now all of a sudden it's "When I'm 25 and I've won a bunch of Tonies and I'm ready to have intercourse and babies..." Seriously? I have a hard time buying that. (Unless this is a case of Executive Meddling...)
 * In-universe answer: Teenagers aren't exactly known for being steadfast and logical. Real world answer: Glee isn't exactly known for its fantastic continuity.
 * Character Development?(Or Derailing) Remember that between the whole "Push it" thing and this one, is "Like a Virgin" where she realizes she's not ready yet.
 * You can believe that celibacy is unrealistic for EVERYONE and wrong to make everyone be celibate but still want to be celibate yourself. That was Rachel's point to the Celibacy Club.

Sue being considered the bad guy in this particular episode.

 * I'm pretty sure Sue's attempts to get the Glee club to stop singing religious songs was, in part, an extension of her wanting to destroy the Glee club. However, it was also clearly done in an attempt to help a kid who, when asked, did tell her yes, he would like it done. And then, later, Emma demands Sue justify her attempts to help Kurt, defending the Glee kid's obnoxious, isolating attitude towards their friend's polite, firm request they don't shove their beliefs down his throat. Sue makes several good points, one of which is that Burt could die, and Emma really should be doing her job and helping him deal with that fact. Yes, prayer and faith can be wonderful for people who believe, and if Kurt did believe, Emma should definitely encourage his friends to use religion/faith to help him. However, whether he believes or not, whether she encourages prayer or not, she should be helping him come to terms with the very real fact his father could die. Also, since he doesn't believe and went as far as to accept a teacher's offer to try to help him get the club to stop pushing beliefs he's uncomfortable with at him, Emma, whatever her faith or lack of, should be doing what Sue, who is an athletic coach rather than a guidance counselor, is trying to do and get Kurt's friends to leave the emotionally devastated boy alone if they can't find some way to help him that he's comfortable with. Perhaps she could tell them to privately pray (as Puck did) and suggest some practical ways of showing support such as inviting him over for the night, bringing him food, offering to listen should he want to talk, or even just sitting quietly with him and holding his hand. I never thought I'd find an episode where I'd rush to Sue's defence or praise Puck, who did pray for Burt and Kurt but never once that I can remember tried to shove his beliefs onto Kurt or punish him for not accepting theism, but yeah, here I am. Sue and Puck were the heroes of episode, Kurt was let down numerous times by the people he'd come to emotionally rely on, Emma should've been fired, and the majority of ND was a good example of why many devoutly religious people are uncomfortable expressing their faith in public for fear they'll automatically be labelled intrusive, emotionally manipulative, and incapable of legitimately loving, or even just respecting, others due to supposed strings attached to that love/respect.
 * To be fair, Sue isn't actually positioned as ther bad guy in the episode as a whole - it's just that there are certain characters (Mercedes and Emma particularly) who perceive her as such and say so, in fairly clear demonstrations of their religious privilege. The episode as a whole is largely non-judgmental toward Sue's actions, even giving her the final word in the argument with Emma, and Sue's increasingly positive relationship with Kurt in episodes following this one suggest that he appreciates her support of his wishes and they have achieved a certain level of mutual respect.
 * But it's a really confusing aesop(if they are trying to have one) as Kurt and Sue are the ones who learn to tolerate other people's religions, but no one really apologizes to Kurt for how they treated him.
 * Welcome to the experience of living as an atheist in a world of people who have unexamined religious privilege and expect it to be accommodated. It's not an Aesop so much as an uncomfortable illustration of how things can often end up working out for the atheist in this sort of situation.

Duets

 * It's implied that Mike has never sung in public before now. He actually says that he's not sure he can sing. So what exactly has he been doing for the last year? Lip syncking? Rachel and her perfect pitch would have outed him long ago. For that matter, what did he do when Mr. Shue told everyone to prepare a solo in "Laryngitis"? And why did he join the glee club in the first place if he didn't want to sing? If he just wanted to dance, then he should have tried out for Cheerios.
 * Perhaps he meant public as in a solo in front of everybody rather than the typical background 'oooh aaah' chants that go on while the main singer steals a spotlight in any given Glee performance. And while his singing and duet performance was freakin' brilliant, it was done in a completely different style to Rachel's or Kurt's typical 'look at me, I can do every vocal range and then some' show offs so it's possible he could feel really insecure about his voice compared to everyone else's attention whoring. As for 'Laryngitis', I got nothing. :P
 * Why does it seem like the only time Sam talks to another male character is in the locker room?
 * What about the season 2 premere, when Sam introduced Sam to the other guys in New Direction, in their class room?
 * That was more in reference to "Duets" than the whole second season, even Kurt talked to him while he was taking a shower.
 * Because it would be a lot harder to justify him taking his shirt off in the choir room.
 * But much more fun.
 * I dunno, but I think it's unfair to accuse Kurt of stalking Sam when Finn is the one who keeps popping up in the locker room whenever he's in there, telling him what clubs to join, who he can be friends with, and who should be his girlfriend. How did he even find out about him trying to kiss Quinn, anyway? And how is that a major Glee party foul? What does that even mean? And in case Sam wasn't weirded out enough already, he goes and does that "Born Again" number for the duet contest...
 * No one is accusing Kurt of stalking Sam, Finn is just trying to be preemptive because of what happened last year. If Kurt gets attached to Sam, Sam might get weirded out and leave the club, which Finn is trying to prevent because Sam is has a shot at bridging the gap between glee and the popular kids. Finn keeps showing up in the locker room because he's on the football team and is often in the locker room when Sam is. He found out about Sam and Quinn the same way everyone in high school knows about stuff: people talk. Quinn is kind of forbidden territory after the pregnancy, apparently it's just kind of understood. The "Born Again" thing was, admittedly, weird.
 * Finn says he doesn't have a problem with the fact that Kurt is gay, he has a problem with the fact that Kurt doesn't get that "no means no", which would be a legit point, but the only time Finn ever actually said "no" was in "Theatricality". The issue was always that Kurt was persistant and didn't respect Finn's boundaries, yes, but Finn always had trouble asserting those boundaries (For instance, in "Ballad" Kurt tells Finn he wants to sing "I Honestly Love You" to him, and instead of pointing out that it's innapropriate, Finn just says it's a nice song and looks uncomforable). It just seems kind of unfair to treat Kurt like a sex offender who was ignoring outright requests for him to stop and leave Finn alone when Finn barely ever bothered to say anything about it.
 * Yes, exactly. If Finn were a girl he wouldn't be able to put out a restraining order, he would have been accused of "leading him on" and "playing coy" even though he had no interest. Kurt was doing what society teaches men to do and Finn was actually doing what society teaches women to do. Men are taught that persistence pays off when it comes to persuing, and women are taught not to be too assertive or they'll come off as "bitchy". It's a messed up situation no matter what gender the people involved are, but it's judged more harshly when it's two men and the more feminine one is playing the wrong role against the more masculine one. In fact, people would probably have no problem with a masculine gay guy pursuing Kurt in the same fashion.
 * Kurt knew that Finn was straight. Finn shouldn't have to say no. Look at it this way: my sister had a crush on her gay best guy friend. If she had pressured him anyway and tried to turn him straight just because he "never really said no", would that justify defense? True, Finn's line about "no means no" was a little off, but what he meant was that Kurt completely and intentionally dismissed boundaries he knew Finn had to try and seduce him. That is not okay, and Finn was making it clear to Kurt that he better not do that again. What Kurt did was restraining order worthy--he got their parents together so that he could get closer to Finn (who, to add a pinch of Squick, should be more like a brother figure then) and when their parents made them share a room (which is just stupid. Would you put your daughter and son in the same room?) instead of doing the right thing and saying "Dad, that's not appropriate" he used that to his advantage. Yes, Finn didn't say that either, but he was probably afraid of saying something that might offend Kurt or Burt. I don't think it has anything to do with "gender roles," it was just a creepy thing to do.
 * Just for the record, when you're in high school, knowing that the guy you have a crush on is straight does exactly nothing to abate said crush. In my experience, it just makes it worse.
 * Yeah, but it's one thing to be head-over-heels crushing on someone you know you can't have, and quite another to pursue it in spite of that. Kurt falls into the latter camp.
 * Wait... what? You can't take a restraining order out on someone for setting your parents up. You would get laughed out of court.
 * Except all Kurt did was flirt a bit, introduce two parents in the hopes he and Finn would get to spend more time together, not tell his Dad about his crush and... well, yeah. That's not restraining order worthy. It's 'sit him down and say no, not interested, please stop' worthy, but you're not gonna get put in court for it. (Also, it is really not the same thing to put a gay guy in with his new step brother as a brother and a sister. Gay guys aren't completely unable to control themselves around the gender they see every day in the mirror, jeez.)
 * It might not be court-worthy and Finn was probably hyperbolizing when he said that, but Kurt was still overstepping his boundaries. He mistook Finn's kindness for something deeper and didn't know when to back off when Finn didn't return the affection. And let's be real. Even if Finn was gay or bi, that's still no reason to date by itself. Finn was only nice to Kurt because he's a decent person. Kurt's behavior would still be creepy and stalkerish if Finn were gay; setting up the parents to date as a ploy to get closer to him just sounds like a subtle I Have You Now My Pretty (the look on Kurt's face when Burt and Carol announced they were dating only confirmed this). And by the way, it's a little silly to point out that gay people don't get off on themselves, because that's just weird no matter which way you swing (narcissist much?).
 * Yes, it was overstepping boundaries. But it wasn't any creepier than, say, Will not backing off Emma when Emma explicitly told him to, or Will being treated by the show as in the right for trying to conduct an emotional affair with her, or asking her if she'd had sex with her new boyfriend, or Finn telling Rachel outright to break up with Jesse and be with him. Basically, they're teenagers, they screw up sometimes. Was it pretty creepy? Yep. But it's not something worth demonizing someone over, especially when Kurt is continually singled out above and beyond the above examples for it. And it's not worth bringing up restraining orders over like was said above. (The point I was making with the rooming thing was just that no, it's not unacceptable to room a gay guy and a straight guy together like it would be brother and sister. Gay men are more used to male bodies than straight women, generally, and it's a bit like people saying gay men need 'special' changing rooms or something. Not the same at all.)
 * Except Finn knew Kurt was ogling him and would sneak a peak whenever possible. And let's not pretend Kurt wasn't. I'm not trying to demonize him, and I know exactly what he's going through, feeling like he's the only gay person in existence. But he still needed to learn his behavior wasn't cool.
 * But that's not the same as rooming 'a brother and sister', that's rooming someone with a crush. It's not the same thing, and yes, one of them probably should have pointed this out. With regards to the second point... he did? I mean, no, we didn't get a Very Special Moment about it. (Until we got the ridiculous 'it means you may never spend time with straight guys again' thing in s2, anyway.) But it never benefitted him. It ended with him in tears in his room having been told 'no, never' in very unambiguous terms. Yes, the moment shifted to focus on Finn's homophobic comment, but the moment still presented to Kurt a very clear message that no, you can't manipulate him into a relationship, and you've just hurt and angered him. Isn't that enough, really?
 * Kurt never tried to look at Finn in the shower, though. He's been shown to be a romantic seeking an emotional connection. Finn was assuming All Gays Are Promiscuous and All Men Perverts, but at this point Kurt would be happy just to hold hands with someone. Just because he was sexually attracted to Finn doesn't mean he was lecherously ogling him and ready to jump his bones at any second. That's not how his crush was portrayed at all.
 * ^Just to add: Please notice that one of the very first interactions that Finn had with Kurt had him saying that "he was flattered, but already had a date for prom", (Even before Kurt admitted being gay) while that was just him being nice, Kurt interpreted it as "I'm seeing someone now, but I might be interested if i wasn't". Kurt always respected his relationship with Quinn more than Rachel, and only did a little flirting, and started "seducing" him only after Quinn and Finn had broken up already. Since Kurt knew how Rachel acted during Finn/Quinn relationship, she was fair game.
 * Finn says that if Sam does a duet with Kurt "He'll get so much crap, he'll HAVE to quit Glee club", which neatly ignores that Kurt probably gets that level of "crap" every day, but also ignores the basic issue of WHO would be giving him crap, and how they would find out about the Duet. For every number except Kurt's "Le Jazz Hot" number, the only people who saw the kids perform were the other Glee clubbers and the backing band. It's not like Kurt and Sam would be performing their duet at nationals or in front of the school. Someone would have to outright go and TELL the school jocks/bullies that they did a duet together, and ignoring why anyone would be motivated to do that, I have serious doubts about how much flak Sam would get for "So I heard you sang a gay little song with that Hummel kid".
 * I wondered the same thing. Finn really came across as a homophobic jackass here. "I'm not the one with a problem, society is!" I've heard that before. Sam deserves credit for his maturity, in both wanting to keep his word with Kurt despite the potential social stigma, and genuinely not understanding why Kurt backed out of the duet.
 * Kurt gets that level of crap because he's gay, not because he's in Glee club. He would get it whether he was in Glee or not (sad, but true). And, as said above, this is high school. No one knows how things get out, but they do and then everybody knows about them. And you're forgetting the one thing that McKinley High has that no other high school in the world has: Sue Sylvester. Sue would know what had gone down, and tell everybody with the express intention of getting Sam to leave Glee so they wouldn't be able to compete. And finally, Karofsky and Azimio slushie people for no reason other than being associated with the club, and they were especially bad to Kurt during Theatricality with the implication that this isn't unusual (see also the early series instances of dumpster dropping). When they inevitably would find out about Sam and Kurt singing a duet together they would definitely focus their energy on tormenting Sam.
 * So Sam is shown to be willing to risk homophobic bullying because he gave his word. Which I thought was very awesome of him. However, doesn't that kind of contradict his entire story in "Audition", where he broke his word to Finn and chickened out of joining Glee because he was afraid of homophobic bullying? I don't think he made a blood oath with Kurt. I'm sure his word was just "Sure, I'll sing with you." the same as how he told Finn "Sure, I'll audition for Glee Club." And they didn't even try to handwave why he suddenly decided he wanted to join after all!
 * The way I saw it, his injury meant he couldn't play football again for the rest of the season, and he joined Glee Club because it was the only other extra curricular activity that he was interested in.
 * Maybe he just realized he doesn't really care what people think about him being in Glee club. Finn is afraid that the added abuse from singing with Kurt might chase him off again. It's a delicate situation that he is trying to maintain.
 * Maybe he just changed his mind? Or maybe he just thinks that homophobia is wrong enough that he should stand up to it?
 * IIRC, Sam decided not to join Glee because he was afraid Coach Beiste was going to give him crap for it (like she did when Finn put up the posters in the locker room). Maybe he can't play anymore because of his injury or just noticed that she was cool with it (because Finn got back to the team and Artie joined too).
 * Obviously he changed his mind, but it happened off-screen with no explanation or mention of how or why. If they wanted to leave it a mystery or something to speculate, they should have had Finn or someone say "I wonder why he changed his mind" and acknowledge the previous episode, not expect the audience to blindly accept whatever they tell instead of show us. The way they did it comes off like the different writers of the show are not actually watching the episodes they don't write. It's just bad writing.
 * Bad writing expects the audience to pay attention from week-to-week and to figure out things for themselves? Talk about Viewers Are Morons.
 * Seems like this might be a product of there being 3 different writers each with their own direction. (From main page): "The show has three different writers, which is why it almost seems like three different shows in one. Brad Falchuk is writing a bittersweet dramedy about people who want to be special, Ian Brennan is writing a black comedy, and Ryan Murphy is writing a quirky Ryan Murphy show." Not an excuse, mind you, just a possible cause.
 * Wait, when did Sam specifically say in "Audition" that homophobic bullying was what he feared by joining Glee club? He feared bullying in general. Everyone in Glee gets bullied for being in it, gay, bi or straight, male or female. And the "gay" taunt has never been the bullies' only one.


 * They completely ignored Sam's plotline the previous week and brought it back out of nowhere, like they've done many times on the show. There's a difference between figuring out things for yourself and fanwanking. If next episode the recap guy says "Last time on Glee, Kurt got bit by a werewolf and the zombies attacked!", we're just supposed to figure it out for ourselves? I mean, this show expects you to accept it when it was "Last time on Glee, Artie wants Brittany back" even if last time on Glee he did not want Brittany back at all. Or when Finn says "I've lost my confidence since you gave all my solos to Jesse" and we never saw or heard about Will giving Jesse a single solo, or Finn reacting to it. Or never following up on Jesse's "I have real feelings for Rachel and I don't want her to get hurt", and then turning him into Satan in the next episode. Or how about referring to "Puck's girlfriend Quinn" in one episode, then stating they were never going out in the next episode, then showing them holding hands in the next one, then ending their storyline with him saying "I love you" followed by them never talking to each other in the next season? To let viewers figure things out for themselves, you have to give them something to work with. Something that actually makes sense.
 * How the hell did the Finn who dressed up in a Lady Gaga costume in series one to make it up to Kurt end up as the guy who goes hey, sucks for you Kurt, but man, think of the straight dudes! Seriously? The guy who a wore red PVC dress to stick up for him is suddenly of the opinion that Sam getting laughed at- which he will be anyway for being in Glee, since its nickname is 'homo explosion'- now thinks straight guys should put themselves first? Where'd all that character development go?
 * The "we need drama" box?
 * I've always figured it was because Finn knew Kurt was trying to put the moves on Sam and was trying to save him from the consequences of being the victim of a faulty gaydar. I know I'm not wording this in the best way, but that's what I thought.
 * What exactly was so offensive about Finn and Rachel singing "With You I'm Born Again"? I guess it wasn't their best performance, but I don't get what made it so bad that Shue had to call them out on it?
 * They were singing a song about having sex while dressed as a Catholic priest and schoolgirl.


 * So Will made an assignment of duets to a glee club that he knew to have an odd number of students? Who exactly was Quinn suppose to sing with if Kurt hadn't opted to do his one man duet?
 * To be fair, Will never said they were allowed to make one duet each. If they had wanted they could have loophooled it and make as many duets as they wanted.

The Rocky Horror Glee Show

 * If it's inappropriate for a sixteen-year-old to play a nearly-naked hunk who has lots of sex suggestive situations in a school play, how is it less inappropriate for the teacher in his late 30s to play it, especially opposite a student who had intentionally put herself in compromising situations with him the previous year? I get that Schue misunderstood Sam, or possibly understood his problem with playing Rocky too well and only bothered to fix the symptoms (but not... ... ...the cause), but making a longer pair of shorts and giving Sam some more encouragement would have been much better, in so many ways, than just taking the part for himself.
 * As far as I could tell, Will taking the part had absolutely nothing to do with Sam and everything to do with Will. It wasn't leaping into the breach, it was stealing the limelight.
 * Sam's behaviour: He seems almost dangerously obsessed with the way he looks and being popular. I understand not wanting to be an outcast in a school you just transferred to, but really... I can't remember the exact wording, but he said something about feeling guilty for eating Ranch Doritos, which is an attitude that strikes me as pretty unhealthy.
 * I thought it was pretty clearly spelled out that he had a dysmorphic disorder. I'm just hoping that they make something of it instead of declare it cured because he "was asked to be June in the 'Men of McKinley High' calendar".
 * So it's okay for a high school student (an a boy initially) to play Frank-N-Furter but not the Criminologist?! And as it was mentioned above, Will as Rocky would be unbelievably innappropriate.
 * Complely Missing The Point. Will just made the swap so that he could get Emma back.
 * Also they had to change the lyrics for harmless words but they kept in students in their underwear, even when it's obviously making the kid uncomfortable? Or how about that Finn is so worried about being in his underwear but not that he's playing a guy who gets seduced by another man or performs in a Cabaret show in drag.
 * Right, the play just being an overall bad idea for a high school performance is kinda the point of the show.
 * I thought a transvestite was a girl dressed up as a boy or a boy dressed up as a girl. Not a girl dressed up as a girl. Maybe it counts cause Mercedes is playing a man who dresses up as a woman. It still just irritates me though. Yeah, sure she brought the house down...but why couldn't they had just gotten one of the boys to play Frank'n'furter so its right?
 * Semi-explained in story. Will wanted Kurt to do the role (that alone is Unfortunate Implications...) and after he refused Mike wanted to portray it, but his parents pulled him from the role. There weren't any other boys to play the role, and even if they were, they would be afraid of the same thing that happened to Mike happened to them (notice that Mike wasn't able to participate in the end).
 * It is an unfortunate implication, but I could understand why Will might have first picked Kurt as Frank'n'furter. Frank'n'furter is pretty much the main character and gets to do a lot, so this might have been Will being nice to Kurt and giving him a bigger role in performances like he's been wanting since Defying Gravity. Also, if you had to cast the Glee club members as roles in Rocky Horror, would you really not pick Kurt first as this role? Artie had unfortunate implications pushed onto him too, but at least it wouldn't be out of place and he could have a role than something doing with the background.
 * Even with an explaination for why Mercedes took the role, it's still odd that by changing the line 'I'm not much of a man' to 'I'm not much of a girl' in Sweet Transvestite, they actually changed the character of Frank into a woman, instead of it being a woman playing a man's part. A woman playing a woman dressing as a woman... is not a transvestite in any shape or form.
 * Okay, you remember way back in the second episode, where they did the Push It routine? Will and the glee club got a lot of flack for that, with Will being one of the most vocal objectors. Fast forward to this episode...and Will is now forcing them all to perform something much more risqué for his own reasons, and the school's mostly okay with it? What is with this show and forgetting their own lessons?! Do they assume that we can only remember one episode at a time or something?
 * Why is Brad singing the solo in "Time Warp?" He doesn't do that in the play. It doesn't make sense for his character to sing it in the play, given the context.
 * Probably because Kurt doesn't really have the kind of voice for the rough, grating rock-type that solo needs.
 * Um... Yes he does. He's proven a few times that he could easily hit the notes that Finn took. The parts that Finn took were clearly out of his range. It sounded truly horrible.
 * Since they did this separately from the actual play and it was hardly in-character, it's likely that Mr. Schue gave Finn an extra solo simply to show off his spectacular singing voice.
 * Exactly. It's the show's aversion to having big numbers with zero solos from Finn or Rachel. The only time I think the show ever ended on one without them was "Dog Days Are Over," and there was a specific narrative justification created for that.
 * Okay, I get that Will was just trying to get close to Emma, but wouldn't Emma see right through Will's needing to work on "Touch-a Touch-a Touch me" seeing as he has approximately half a line? You can't invoke Duet Bonding with a solo! Or maybe that was the entire point.
 * She did see right through it. Notice she ran out of the room, and in the very next scene, Carl storms in on the rehearsal, understandably pissed. It's pretty obvious she ran to Carl and told him exactly what was going on.
 * Why does Kurt have such a problem playing Frank n'Furter? The guy has shown no hesitation to dress up in very girly clothes countless times before.
 * Let's see. He's a Camp Gay boy who has always been a target of general bullying because of his appearance and assumed sexuality, who we find out in the next episode has been violently bullied for some time by one of the scariest guys in the school specifically because of his sexuality, who in the previous episode had an attempt to make friends with another boy overbearingly policed and shut down by a Jerk Jock because of fears that he'd give Finn's mini-me gay cooties, who is repeatedly referred to as "Lady" - a nickname intended to be demeaning - by a teacher, and who's just been through a frightening ordeal in which he almost lost his only surviving parent for whom he has since become the primary carer. It's not a question of there being no reason why Kurt wouldn't want to add to his stress levels and make himself even more of a target by playing Frank in the character's traditional costume in front of an audience of his schoolmates (not to mention the...awkwardness...of playing Frank opposite Finn immediately after 'Duets'). It's more a question of whether anyone could possible come up with a reason why he would want to at this point in time. The costume issues are probably just the only ones he's prepared to admit to in public, given that in 2x06 he's barely willing to admit to Schue that he's being bullied even after Schue practically saw it happen and admits he knows it's going on out of sight.

Never Been Kissed

 * Um...since when did Artie want Brittany back?
 * Since having sex with her didn't get Tina to run right back to him, and he remembered that Brittany is an attractive girl who might be interested in dating and/or copulating with him again? He only broke up with her because he was upset about her being inconsiderate of feelings of which she was unaware.
 * Which leads to another irritation. Way back in the Madonna episode, Brittany told Santana that the way to make someone follow you forever was to take their virginity. Why was she surprised that this happened with Artie?
 * Duh, because she's the dumbest character on the show.

The Substitute

 * So, did Mercedes' obsession with fried food a) seem to come out of nowhere, b) seem a little tasteless?
 * I agree that the execution wasn't the greatest, but I think the idea is that Mercedes is getting jealous because her best friend is spending more and more time with a new love interest (we've all been there before), and is using food to cope.
 * Mercerdes isn't into tater tots because she's black. She's into tater tots because she's a human being with a tongue.
 * Santana scoffed at Holly knowing who Cee-Lo Green is, making it clear that Miss Lopez Did Not Do the Research. Cee-Lo debuted as part of Goodie Mob in 1994, meaning it's entirely possible Holly liked him since she was a teenager.
 * Santana was, what, ONE in 1994? I think she can be forgiven for not making the connection between 'current hit' and 'mid-ninties popularity.' Besides, do you know a high school mean girl who does their research beyond what they need right this second?


 * Am I correct in assuming that Karofsky meant he would kill Kurt if Kurt told anyone, rather than if Kurt kept his mouth shut? Karofsky worded that in a very confusing and most likely inaccurate way, which is understandable (given his emotional state), but certainly confusing. (In addition, there is the possibly of a Freudian Slip having happened).
 * "Tell anyone, and I'll kill you." Sounds pretty straightforward here. And not in the joking "OMG I'm gonna kill you!" hyperbole teenagers are prone to. I'm actually worried for Kurt's safety here.


 * How did Kurt set up a date between Mercedes and Anthony??? I mean, really?? Does he has magical match-making skills??
 * Why is Anthony not Matt? seriously, what the did Dijon do?
 * Not sure, Dijon was apparently fired. They probably needed to make way for more characters.
 * Possibly Anthony had some interest in Mercedes. He did seem interest in her.


 * Wouldn't some of the kids want to sing "Singing in the Rain"? I know that a lot of the kids wanted to do more modern songs, but Will was right that "Singing in the Rain" is a classic. At least Kurt and Rachel would be interested, I'd think, but instead we get a universal blank stare.
 * Rewatching the season, is even weirder considering Kurt mentions both "Make 'em laugh" and "Singing in the rain" as possible songs to sing to Sam in "Duets"
 * It's probably more that they want to do songs that they've chosen, instead of classic songs forced on them by Schue

Tuition

 * How is a single-time payment equivalent to the cost of a honeymoon going to pay more than year and a half of tuition and school costs for as expensive a place as Dalton Academy? If Burt couldn't afford that as a regular expense, and Finn's mom's salary is barely enough to pay for two people's food and a one-bedroom trailer, how is it that they could have possibly planned a honeymoon that would have cost so much had they gone? Was it a lie to make Kurt feel better about the expense, as long as he didn't think too much about the math, or am I vastly underestimating the cost of a short (though unusually expensive) two-person vacation or overestimating how expensive high-class private schools are?
 * I thought it was weird that the expenses were even an issue at all. It's always been implied that Burt makes very good money, with owning his own lucrative business and everything. It's always been shown that Kurt and Burt live very well up to this point (nice clothes, expensive cars, telling Finn that they'd knock out a wall and add an addition to the house as though it was no biggie) so this "saving all our money for the Honeymoon" came pretty much out of nowhere. Sure, it will cost more than usual to maintain a household with four people as opposed to two, but not to the point of having to save up for a short trip for two to Hawaii.
 * Tuition for a private high school can easily run about $25,000. Even for Burt that would be a significant chunk of change.
 * But not every private school charges an arm and a leg per annum. Hell, lots of the people who went to my ~$9000 per-year school were able to go because their parents ran a successful business like Burt does.
 * Not to mention how private school usually have some sort of tuition assistance, if not out right scholarship, program. Something tells me that Kurt's grades wouldn't qualify him for a scholarship, but as long as you keep your grades above a certain level and your parents' income level is below a certain level, you generally qualify for tuition assistance. Also, a lot of private schools are willing to work out different payment plans and there are always loans, or more likely, credit cards if you're particularly strapped for cash one month (or several) and you really need them.
 * They lampshaded this in Born This Way when Burt tells about how he and Carole were spending money they didn't have to pay for Dalton.


 * Is it just me or is "Marry You" the worst song choice to make for an actual serious adult wedding? The lyrics are totally contrary to the message of their marriage. There are literally dozens of love songs that would have been better for the occasion, and even tons that teenagers would pick.

Special Education

 * Kurt asks how Finn is feeling since he hasn't spoke to him since the wedding yet how can this be when they live together?
 * He might have meant as in a "real" conversation, besides things like "pass the salt."

Blaine's Gig at King's Island
Fun fact about Ohio and other places where snow flies: our amusement parks are CLOSED from October to April. There's no way Blaine would have a performing gig at King's Island at this time of the year. So the next question is, did he make it up just to get closer to Kurt, or did the writers once again look up the names of Ohio locales and not much else?
 * Before you complain, I would do a bit more research into your own amusement parks. Winterfest used to be an actual event at King's Island. The last time they did it was '05, but obviously, in the world of Glee, they're either trying it again, or it never went away in the first place. And this is from someone who'd never heard of King's Island. I spent two minutes looking it up on Wikipedia.
 * OP here. I spent five minutes reading King's Island's official website before making that post, plus I've actually been to the park multiple times as a child and an adult. They close in the winter. They did Winterfest once in 2005 after not having done it since 1992. It's entirely possible that Glee!King's Island still does Winterfest, but the cynic in me cant help but think the writers never even heard of it and fell back on So Calization.
 * I'll need to rewatch it, but I'm pretty sure that Blaine actually said "Winterfest." And yes, I'm aware that they stopped doing it in '92 and revived it for one last kick at the cat in '05, that was on The Other Wiki too. I'm saying that we're dealing with a fictional show where a real festival at a real amusement park continued after its real life counterpart ceased to exist so that the show had a glimmer of verisimilitude.
 * OP says: Fair enough. There have been bigger stretchings of reality on the show.
 * Blaine made it up. He was just looking for an excuse to sing a flirty song with Kurt.
 * For the record, Blaine doesn`t actually sing the "lips are delicious" bit onscreen... makes it suspiciously less romantic... almost as if Fox was telling them not to push their luck.
 * Or, since it's FICTION it doesn't matter that it's closed in real life but open on a TV show.
 * As a person who actually works at Kings Island (note, there's no apostrophe in Kings, it relates to the location of the park, not the idea that the park is owned by a king), I can tell you that they sometimes start the auditions process as early as November for the next season... I haven't seen this episode in a while, but it, depending on what Blaine said, he may very well have been practicing for a job he had gotten for the summer season. And before anybody says "Yeah, but they called it the Kings Island Christmas spectacular!", we *have* been known to do cutesy "Christmas in July" type shows before. And, there is also the fact that there is, in the park, a decent sized amphitheater occasionally used in the off season. So although I doubt the writers researched any of this... it is possible that Blaine could have gotten a gig at KI at this time, which would at least explain why Kurt wasn't incredibly confused by this statement.
 * Okay, was hit by Fridge Logic a while back and decided to register a new JBM about an older topic. Let's make this quick and simple: The first season established that professional singers(anyone who gets paid for the job) are disqualified from entering the school to school competitions. Either Blaine's shitting it up to get some sexytime with Kurt, or he better get disqualified once Regionals is up.
 * Or, more likely, he just didn't get paid.
 * Groups can't be paid for gigs. It would be unreasonably restrictive of the Show Choir League (or whatever) to forbid individual students from taking singing jobs that are unaffiliated with their teams. The Warblers weren't performing, just Blaine.
 * I always thought it was more of a case of Sue influence more than the actual rules. They got the mattresses as gifts, which some people would consider payment, and some wouldn't. By Sue's logic, New Directions should be disqualified because they performed at a wedding and got paid in food.

Coach Bieste's Gift
As much as it's a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, my mind is wondering about the logistics. You're not gonna find something like that at any old prosthetics shop. Even if she had the money for that thing, how did she send for it so fast?
 * Coach Bieste actually is Santa Claus.
 * When did they say the re-walker was from Beiste? It was clearly from Santa Claus. Seriously though, as the coach of a full-contact sport (and a successful one at that; Figgins brought her in because of her reputation) she probably has access to wholesale physical therapy equipment.
 * Pretty sure a not yet released (until 2011 anyway) piece of $100k+ medical technology isn't available wholesale
 * It's Glee and it's Christmas. You can actually see the optimism emanating from the screen. We basically have three choices: 1) Beiste pulled some strings and called in some favours, 2) Beiste invented it, 3) Beiste is actually Santa Claus. Take your pick or come up with a better option.
 * Coach Beiste is a lot like Sue with her reputation for winning (albeit without the jerkassery). I would assume between money and connections it would be hard, but not impossible for her to get ahold of a Re Walk and have it shipped to Brittany's house before school lets out for the holiday
 * Considering she's mentioned having gotten three schools to national championships, it's likely she has a lot of status and influence. Getting one school into champion contention for a few years is one thing. Getting three and before the age of 40? Generally at this point, she'd be considered for college and/or NFL head coaching positions.
 * I've just done a brief bit of research into Re Walks - they're still undergoing clinical trials, and will be until about December this year. Beiste shouldn't have been able to buy one at all, and even if she could, I can't begin to imagine how much that would cost.

Will Spending Christmas Alone

 * I guess the big question is why doesn't he just go spend Christmas with his parents? Did the show just forget about them to make him seem more miserable than he actually is?
 * He didn't spend Christmas there, for the same reason he din't spent it with friends. Because the plot said so (also, I am not sure if they live nearby, they could had moved to another town or something).
 * That didn't stop them from coming to see Will perform in Acafella's. He could have easily made plans to visit them for the holidays, espcially since teachers get such a long winter vacation to begin with.
 * Because he didn't want to? He specifically told Emma that he wanted to spend Christmas alone. As per usual, Sue's judgement of a situation was much better than Will's, so she broke into his house, brought the Glee kids with her, and decorated. There's really nothing to question here.
 * He told Emma he didn't think it was a good idea to spend Christmas Eve with her and Carl and that he planned on spending Christmas alone, not that he wanted to.
 * ...Which means that he didn't want people around. If he wanted to spend Christmas with someone he wouldn't have said "I plan on spending Christmas by myself this year." He would have said "I think I'm going to end up spending Christmas alone this year." My point is that he didn't seem too broken up about it. If he really wanted to go to his parents' for Christmas, he would've.

Music

 * How is it possible that Santana is singing the main female vocals in Thriller/Heads Will Roll when she wasn't in the club for two-thirds of the episode and wasn't going to be in the performance until a couple of minutes beforehand?
 * Easy. They make a change of plans at the last second.
 * In-Story: Probably the main one was Tina, and she didn't felt too right after being tackled, and the other girls felt somewhat tired, so Santana steeped up, as she knew the song already. Out-of-story: the writers have had an annoying tendency to give the solos to the same people(In group numbers): it's either Finn/Rachel, or Artie and Santana

Cheerios

 * It was incredibly insensitive of the Glee club to initially ask Quinn, Santana, and Brittany to perform with them instead of going to the cheerleading Regionals. It was just a half-time show and they didn't really need them for the Thriller dance to work. Quinn is the head cheerleader and it would be much more difficult for Sue to adjust her routine with 3 less cheerleaders. Once Sue tricked Brittany into signing consent from for the cannon then it made sense for them to quit in protest... but definitely not before.

Football Team

 * While trying to recruit replacement players, Coach Bieste says that she cut 30 guys at the beginning of the year. Yet clearly, the players she has left play both directions (offense and and defense). Why not, y'know, have a defense and maybe a special teams? Not to mention a second string?
 * Probably just an instance of Did Not Do the Research. And, you know, it's fiction, and the show isn't really aimed at the demographic that's going to be uber-nitpicky about such things anyway.

Silly Love Songs

 * So Finn can't forgive Rachel for cheating on him by kissing Puck, but he's pursuing the girl who cheated on him by having sex with Puck (not to mention lying about the pregnancy and making him pay her doctor's bills under that lie) and encouraging her to cheat on her boyfriend? Also, they have "sparks"? Season 1 he and Quinn were miserable together even before the pregnancy subplot, so much that he...cheated on her with Rachel. And where'd this "still has feelings for Quinn" thing come from? He hasn't even thought about Quinn all season, or most of the Season 1 back nine. He was in love and happy with Rachel until she got mad at him!
 * Quinn even calls him out in the episode on this, saying that he is doing what he hates others to do to him. He gives what is pretty much the most pathetic Hand Wave ever in response.
 * They're in high school. High school kids are kind of dumb.
 * You can't use that excuse for everything. Not to mention the writers don't seem to be aware how hypocritical and nonsensical he's being and they're far past their teen years.
 * Yeah, but I think that high school kids being dumb is the actual point. It seems the writers are taking those characters that have so far been shown to have less in the catagory of unsympathetic (or hell, just MEAN) actions, and showing them to have just as many flaws as the rest of the bunch. Let's review: Quinn's a cheater, Rachel's such a diva she'll go to no ends to be the star, Kurt pursued the obviously straight Finn even though it was not going to happen, Puck's a ho, Santana's a bitch, Tina's way crazy breaking down over Mike, Finn can't figure out who the hell he wants - about the only one left who hasn't done something really mean or just kind of crazy is Brittany, and, let's face it, she's the sweet dumb bunny. I think the writers are trying to drive home the point that these folks are flawed, every one of them. Which, if one stops to think, makes them real. Real people are flawed.
 * You see, I really don't like that excuse because Finn had just previously rejected both Quinn and Rachel because he couldn't deal with the fact that they cheated on him. That makes him into a total Hypocrite.
 * That's cuz he is a total hypocrite.
 * Also in his mind he's not the one that's cheating since he's not the one in a comitted relationship, so it's easy for him to justify his actions. This doesn't make it any less wrong, but it does help explain his actions.
 * Sure he's annoying but isn't it part of his character anyway? He pretty hypocritical and that's what stops him from being a boring character. I thought it was obvious the writers wrote him this way on purpose. As if they did it by accident.
 * Blaine isn't underaged. The Age of Consent in Ohio is 16 and there is no way he's 15 if he's supposed to be older than Kurt, who can drive.
 * We have a trope for that: So Calization. Age of Consent in all of televisionland is 18.
 * Blaine is younger than Kurt; Kurt's a senior Season 3 and Blaine's a junior.
 * To drive this point home even further, Ohio has no age of consent at all for gay sex (that would require the state government to acknowledge that gays deserve rights and protection). It would have been better if Jeremiah just said he felt Blaine was too young for him. Jeremiah really led him on, since he had two opportunities to turn Blaine down, though it was nice to see Blaine actually fail at something, since his smugness always got on my nerves.
 * How exactly did Jeremiah lead him on? If anything, Blaine put him on the spot in the public and Jeremiah himself pretty much bluntly said they barely knew each other.
 * They had gone on two dates already. Even if it was just coffee, Jeremiah could have mentioned that he felt Blaine was too young for him.
 * No, actually Jeremiah said they had went out for coffee. That was totally Blaine jumping the gun there.
 * Going for coffee can be a date. It would help if we knew the context of how they know each other. It's unlikely they grew close enough for Jeremiah to tell Blaine he's gay just from Blaine going to his store a lot. Do they have a mutual friend, in which case dating isn't explicitly implied, or did they meet on dating service where it usually is?
 * Again this is televisionland, where homosexuals are only depraved when they are evil, and pretty much celibate when they are good. In Real Life Kurt would have met gay friends, and quite likely hook up and become more than a little intimiate with a few of they (granted he could be shy to that aspect).
 * Um...what? Kurt's only been out for just over a year, and he's the only open gay kid at McKinley. Where would he possibly have met these gay friends? And he's only sixteen! You make it sound like he should be sleeping with every guy he meets. True, it's possible that he would've lost his virginity before now, and there are certainly characters who have, but he's really only just getting to the point where it's likely to happen. I think Kurt's relationship history is actually one of the most realistic things about him the show.
 * I confess, I'm talking more about anedoctal evidence, and even so, I myself never had *anything* until 18. At any rate, I did had some gay friends on-line before that, and never met them because I painfully shy. Most of my friends had quite some experiences before turning 16. At any rate, it bothers me that Kurt never tried the on-line alternative.
 * You can't get mono so many times that it turned to stereo, because you can only get mono once.
 * Rule of Funny?
 * Santana seemed to know that, seeing as she kissed the guy in order to spread the disease. It's a pretty safe bet that she was making a joke.
 * Not necessarily true. While most people can only catch it once, in rare cases people can get it again. Personally, this troper's had it three times now.
 * It. Was. A. Joke. A JOKE
 * So... are Kurt and Blaine... together now? That ending was so non-specific that I'm not even sure what was going on. I think the line "but Harry and Sally got together?" (might be slightly differently worded, but pretty much that) from Blaine just confused the hell out of me, as it's never addressed and the next scene is the Warblers' Valentine's performance, which doesn't offer any answers either.
 * I thought the ending made it pretty clear that they'd take it one step at a time since neither of them have experience with being in a relationship.
 * Given that Blaine just realized Kurt was in love with him, it seems a bit soon that he would want to even start a relationship with him. To me it sounded more like they were intentionally keeping the potential for a relationship vague in order to draw out the Ship Tease as long as possible, given that there would likely be massive fan backlash if they shut it down altogether at this point.
 * I tried to piece this together, and here's what I got: When Blaine said that he's "not good at romance" and he "doesn't want to screw this up" he meant that if they were in a relationship, he would invariably do something to screw it up, and his relationship with Kurt is too important to risk that. They decide to just stay close friends (think Heterosexual Life Partners, but gay) "like Harry and Sally." When it was pointed out that Harry and Sally got together in the end, it showed that they're leaving the possibility of getting together in the future open, and that they're both okay with that.

Comeback

 * The fact that Emma seemed to care about Sue's well being kind of bothers me. Emma's a nice person, so I would expect her to be concerned, but she really goes above and beyond with her, especially considering Sue used to make her life hell. I feel like I could see Emma being that nice and supportive if, say, Coach Bieste was depressed, but Sue?
 * Sue attempted to commit suicide, albeit with Gummy Vitamins. If Emma was apathetic to her, she would've came off as a bitch.
 * She did agree with Sue about her not having anything to live for... right after a "botched" sue-icide attempt.
 * So, I take it Sunshine isn't coming back now that Aural Intensity is going to Regionals instead of Vocal Adrenaline?
 * The season doesn't end at Regionals. There's still Nationals to think about (Law of Conservation of Detail dictates that it's going to happen). Vocal Adrenaline is New Directions primary rival, so of course they're being saved until the finale. Even if they don't end up appearing this year, I got the impression that Sunshine was younger than the rest of the cast (most likely a sophomore, but it's entirely possible that she's a freshman) so she'll definitely be around next year. You just need to wait it out.
 * I wondered about Sunshine's lack of appearances too, after it was made out that she'd be a major character, but I figure Charice's busy schedule keeps her from being more committed to Glee.
 * I might be mixing up the other competitions, but how can you get to Nationals without going to Regionals?
 * Considering Dalton wasn't part of New Directions' section last year, I figured the boundaries changed and Vocal Adrenaline ended up being part of a different region.
 * Wouldn't it really be possible for a person to get sick off of a large amount of gummy vitamins? Regular vitamins can cause an overdose if a person takes too many. I think the gummies are made exclusively for children, which I assume means the dosage is lower, but taking a whole bottle or more seems like it'd be toxic enough to cause some problems even for a healthy adult.
 * Children's vitamins are actually higher-dose (growing people need a lot more of everything than maintaining people who only need some things). So yes, this makes it even more of a question although it may be easier to reverse an overdose of the children's ones (which makes sense to design them that way as an accidental overdose is more likely with a smaller person who may not know better).

Burt contradicting himself

 * In "Laryngitis" back in Season One, when Burt walked in on Kurt and Brittany, his attitude was basically "Meh, have fun. Just wrap it up before you stick it in." But now he's flipping out because he thinks Kurt had sex with Blaine. Kurt's Double Standard argument would have held a lot more weight had he remembered this.
 * On the other hand, Burt knows that his son is straight like a roundabout and wouldn't actually do it with Brittany and besides it was different to him actually walking in on Kurt with a guy/girl in his bed in the morning. I also don't think it's a Double Standard because he states 'Yeah, I'd probably let Finn and Puck sleep over, but if it was Finn and a girl, they'd be right out.', when Kurt tries to call him out on it.
 * If that's the case, Burt's earlier attitude set a bad precedent, since Kurt had no reason to believe his dad wouldn't be okay with him potentially having sex with Blaine in his house, when he was okay with Brittany. And the bit about Finn might keep it from being a Double Standard, but it's still a contradiction. Assuming that scene in "Laryngitis" wasn't forgotten by the writers, that is.
 * Except both Burt and Kurt both knew nothing was going to happen, and that's made fairly obvious they both know that.

How could this go wrong?
Why did two teachers think it was a good idea to drink on a school night?
 * Did they ever establish it was a school night? I assumed they did it on a weekend and Will just rationed himself with beers all this time so the hangover only kicked in by Monday.
 * Hangovers don't work like that, and it's pretty clear that he was trashed after that one night out with Bieste. Considering she was barely drunk at all, she probably didn't think he'd have so much trouble holding his liquor.
 * In theory, he could have kept himself that drunk all weekend/Sunday, which would in fact have him not feeling hung over (he still would be, but he'd be numbed out enough to not notice) and give him a much worse hangover Monday, but eventually runs the risk of alcohol poisoning. My personal belief, in any case, is that it was a school night and it was just bad decision-making. Being a teacher doesn't make you immune to it and texts from last night tells us that people drink when they have work in the morning plenty of the time. (The people on TFLN are probably a bit younger than Will, but Will was with Terri from high school to his early 30s, so he almost definitely missed out on a lot of "youthful" things and is essentially only just living what should have happened in his college years.)

Finn being the designated driver
Wait, wouldn't Kurt know that, seeing as they rode there together? Or did he mean he was driving the ten other gleeks home?
 * Considering that Kurt din't even was properly invited to the party, is likely that the designated driver was chosen when he wasn't around, possibly is something related with other parties. Besides, Finn is (usually) the Nice Guy, so it makes sense that the role would land on him.
 * From his little speech to Rachel, I kind of figured that Finn didn't even really want to drink. He seemed like he was enjoying watching the others act like idiots more than he would've enjoyed being drunk himself.
 * Take it from me, that's a ton of fun by itself... until you have to drive those drunk people home.

Burt doesn't know "What happened in that tent"
Is really that hard to straight guys to imagine what gay guys do? I mean... I understand that it might not be pleasant to think about it, but not knowing is a bit too much.
 * I'm fairly sure that was Played for Laughs. He probably realises what goes on but isn't aware of the intricacies needed to be able to have 'the talk' with Kurt.
 * It's also possible that he knows the end result, but has no clue as to what the process is. There is more to hetero sex than just penetration, after all. He just has no idea what the lead-up is like.

Will's phone setup
I was trying to work this out the other day and was just at a complete loss. Assuming that Will has both Emma and Sue in his phone as contacts, and that he didn't actually dial out any numbers on his cell phone(which is what the scene makes it look like), how did Will accidentally call Sue? Sylvester and Pillsbury are close in letter, but that's assuming he doesn't know anyone with a last name of P, Q, R, or S (since PI is pretty close to the beginning of the Ps and SY would most likely be the last entry for S). If you go by first names, it gets even more outlandish! I have yet to meet a drunk person who forgot how to spell while drunk, so I'm calling this a Just Bugs Me.
 * Remember that he dropped his phone right before dialing, and his thumb slid the list up on the touch-screen without him noticing.
 * Maybe Sue is listed as "Evil" in his phone. That would bring her first name way closer to Emma's.
 * I thought this, then rewound and noticed Emma, Sue, Figgins and a couple of others were all listed together as "Work Contacts". So would have been easy for him to slip and accidently call someone a couple notches up/down the list.
 * Sue was listed right under Emma in "Work Contacts". For some reason the list went (from top to bottom) "Principal Figgins" "Front Office" "Emma Pillsbury" and finally "Sue Sylvester". Why was it in that order?
 * His contacts sort by last name.

Will saying he's buying the sparkling cider at the end.
Sparkling cider is nonalcoholic (or, it is by default). Did Will mean he'll buy them hard cider? If not, why did they get so excited? I'm sure they've all had plain sparkling cider before, it's a pretty popular thing.
 * Because they like fizzy drinks, I guess?

The Land Of Innapropriacy
A male school teacher is essentially saying to his students "Okay, teenage boys and girls- one of whom has been known to make seuxal advances on me before- promise me that if you are ever drunk, alone and vulnerable at 3AM, you will call me. I will come and... 'help' you. Especially after the previous Glee Club director was fired for suspected sexual assault of a minor, was I the only person who was surprised this was portrayed as an okay thing?
 * And look at how Sam reacts... anyway, it would be perfectly comprehensible if Will ran those with the parents before, or is planning to call the parents once the students call him.
 * Different schools have different ideas on appropriateness. In this troper's school, all the teachers gave out cell phone/home phone/email addresses to the students, and one teacher did actually tell the class that she had picked up a kid at 3 in the morning once and would do so again if called. The school I went is the same one my family has gone to since the 30's/50's, and even when the youngest of my older family members went, teachers did not give out personal information. If a student had called them, the student would probably get in trouble for prank calling.
 * Not to mention different teachers. Will is the type of teacher to give out his cell number and go out on a limb for his students like that.
 * Some schools may also -require- teachers to give out that information. I could see, based on the previous Glee club teacher incident, that McKinley would try to cultivate better communication between teachers and students so that if another incident happens there is someone the student can call and feel safe talking to, instead of banning that sort of communication and basically creating a culture of "Fear your teachers. They want to hurt you." and fostering a parents versus teacher shift-the-blame environment.

Brittany flip-flopping?
I get that Brittany isn't the brightest, most forward thinking of the Glee kids, but why did she bug Santana to come to terms with their relationship if, regardless of Santana's answer, she was going to stay with Artie? It was sort of a hurtful thing that I didn't expect from Brittany.
 * She was still with Santana even when she was with Artie, so they still had a relationship. Also, Britt's had relationship issues with Santana since before she went out with Artie.
 * Brittany couldn't have known that she would hurt Santana, because she didn't know that Santana was in love with her. Which was the problem in the first place: Santana never wanted to talk about what they were doing. Brittany didn't need for Santana to acknowledge that they were in a relationship, she just needed to talk about it.
 * Don't forget that Rachel complimented Santana and Brittany on basically coming out and Santana denied their relationship. Brittany might not be the brightes but there comes a time where anyone reaches their limit.

Broadway's never sexual

 * The most that happens is a "touch of the fingertips"? Says the guy who performed in Rocky Horror? This has never been true, not even in the 50's, and especially not today. The only people who think that are people who don't really know much about musicals, which Kurt is the antithesis of.
 * Kurt doesn't really seem to be into modern broadway musicals as much as the classics. While it is true that older musicals do touch on this thing, most don't do it blatantly. I can think of a few exceptions, but for the most part, the ones that are really famous really are a touch of the fingertips.
 * He's shown to be a fan of Evita, Gypsy, Victor Victoria, and (judging from his Riff Raff impression) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, all of which have sexual elements.
 * Maybe Kurt isn't uncomfortable with other people having sex, but when he thinks of himself in sexual situations he gets nervous.
 * I know this is going into Natter, but this troper's attitude is exactly described above. I am one of the main innuendoizers of my social groups, but sex in relation to me is still kinda scary.
 * This troper is inclined to agree that Kurt is more uncomfortable thinking about himself in sexual situations as opposed to ignorant about sex. Remember that he tried watching porn but started thinking about what the actors' mothers would say. Also, most of the old-fashioned musicals Kurt loves aren't exactly big on homosexual sex, for all of their provocative content. Considering that he didn't even consider his makeout session with Brittany as a kiss "that counted"...
 * Combining this answer with "Kurt's issues with sex:" Kurt has no problem with Broadway performances because even the raunchiest scenes are literally just that--performances. Broadway!Sex is entirely different from Real Life!Sex. For one thing, actual sex would be 1) illegal in front of an audience, 2) Not very exciting to watch, and 3) Entirely lost on everyone past the first few rows. Another huge difference is that Broadway!Sex is safe; you're with the director and your cast-mates (witnesses, if you will) who will immediately notice if you aren't comfortable with something, in which case they will bring things down to a level you can handle. You know exactly what's supposed to happen and what isn't, because that is what the director says should/shouldn't happen. Real sex is the polar opposite of that: You and the other person are (usually) alone, emotionally/physically vulnerable, and ultimately unpredictable. You never completely know what the other person's going to do, whether they'll listen to you or not, or how they'll react to something, especially in such an emotionally-charged situation. It's perfectly understandable that Kurt would be fine with sex scenes, but be terrified at the thought of real sex with another person.

Glee Club overstepping boundaries
Why did Schu take it on himself to teach the kids about sex (by having an attractive blonde woman take her clothes off? He's a singing coach. Surely that isn't his job and someone should have stopped him.
 * McKinley seems to be a Two Teacher School, with either Will, Sue, Emma(Even if she's not a teacher herself)and recently Beiste and Holly doing all the work that should be other teachers, or the director. Then again, I always thought Will was some kind of Homeroom teacher, or guide of a class(No idea how to translate the concept to english). Then again, the least they could have made is mention that they talked to the parents off-screen and asked for their approval.

Burt and Blaine
When Blaine stops by the car shop to talk to Burt about giving 'The Talk' to Kurt, at the very beginning of the conversation, Burt asks Blaine to hand him the carburetor from the bench. Blaine grabs the right piece and hands it to him, and Burt says something a long the lines of 'How did you know that was the right part?' Uh, Burt. Your own kid is JUST as flamboyant as Blaine, if not more so. He also knows his way around cars- why is it so shocking that Blaine does as well?
 * Because he raised Kurt and not Blaine, so Kurt naturally spent his early life around cars. Besides, take a look at Blaine- well-dressed, well-spoken, nice hair, and he goes to Dalton- not a very blue-collar kind of guy. Burt himself said at one point that it strained his family's finances to send Kurt there, so presumably most Dalton students are very well-off. Most rich kids wouldn't do their own auto work, they'd hire someone like Burt to do it for them. So Burt probably figured Blaine just had enough money not to have to spend any time working on a car with his own hands.

Pavarotti's funeral
From the look of it, Kurt and Blaine were the only ones there. Why the hell wouldn't all the Warblers show up to the funeral of their mascot?
 * Could be we caught the end of it when everyone else had already left and Kurt and Blaine were the last ones to leave.

Kurt's first competition performance?
Backstage, when Kurt is freaking out from nerves, he says that this is his first performance in front of a competition audience. Um, hello, did they forget about his 14 and a half minutes of Celine Dion in french for Cheerios Nationals?
 * What I think they meant: Cheerios Nationals wasn't a singing competition. Kurt's song was kind of an extra, the cherry on the sundae of Sue's win, so to speak. This is the first time he's performed in front of a competition audience that would be judging him on singing and singing alone.

The MVP Thing
Despite it apparently being a vote, who else could possibly have won but the lead singer of both numbers? It's a little bit pre-determined by who Will deciedes to put out front each time, assuming that it even comes back again.
 * Well, the original song thing was Rachel's idea, so they might not have won had she not proposed the idea.
 * Heh, it might have been something everyone agreed behind Rachel's back, as she was geniunely surprised(and moved) by the trophy. It might have been their way of saying 2Sorry we were being jerks about the whole original songs idea before"

Sue punching the governor's wife
When the results are announced, Sue punches the presenter, who is the governor's wife (?), yet suffers no consequences for it. In the most remotely realistic of settings, she would have been arrested at the very least, or sued, or both. Of course, the Glee universe is not even the most remotely realistic of settings, so never mind.

Blaine's feelings and Kurt's mourning
Kurt is singing a song in remembrance of Pavarotti, and it's right there that Blaine realizes that he has feelings for Kurt. Later he says (while Kurt decorates Pavarotti's casket); "There is a moment where you say to yourself; oh there you are, I've been looking for you forever. And watching you perform Blackbird was the moment for me." Is it just me who finds it kind of creepy that Blaine realized that he had feelings for Kurt, when Kurt was mourning his pet bird's death?

Not one single person being at the benefit besides the glee clubbers
Uh...where the hell are the parents? Siblings? Any friends at all outside of glee club that would want to go to the benefit? Were they seriously performing a concert with dozens of musicians and choir members and NONE of them, either, had friends who wanted to attend? What the hell - are all these kids orphans?
 * What's bugging me is this episode seems to imply that the simple fact of being in Glee Club means they don't have a single friend outside of the club. This show has really overdone Unpopular Popular Character aspect.
 * It also puts aside the way the whole school goes nuts every time they have the Glee Club do a number in the assemblies. We love it only if we're forced to be there?
 * This troper remembers having a similar sort of benefit for my school's drama club, which averages nearly full auditoriums for our shows, in which only about 30 people showed up--and my school is much larger than McKinley. While a crowd of two (Blaine and Kurt) seems a tad unrealistic, it's not altogether impossible.
 * The reason only six people show up is so glaringly obvious it's the title; it's a NIGHT of NEGLECT.
 * That's still not a good enough explanation. "Night of Neglect" is the theme as in "Winter Wonderland" or "Under the Sea". If the Glee clubbers had no other friends besides each other, what about the combo band? Don't they have parents or friends either?

The tour
When Kurt is giving Blaine the tour of McKinley, he says "And of course you know the choir room." Uh...how, exactly? If Blaine's already been to McKinley (by which I mean more than the courtyard), then why does Kurt need to point out the rooms? And if he hasn't, then how does he already know where the choir room is?
 * He wasn't pointing where the room was, he was just pointing out what it was in a general ways since Blaine already knows what choir rooms are, just not McKinley's version of it. Plus, this is probably the first time Blaine's been there after-hours where it isn't busy, so Kurt's taking the time to have a casual stroll and show him 'his home'. It's like giving a first time guest to your home a tour of your house and pointing out the bathroom.

Brainiacs can't do math
In the beginning, Will says that you have to sell 200 000 toffees 0.25 dollars a piece to get 50 000 Dollar. This is correct, however, the board says "50 000 x 0.25 = 200 000". No, it doesn't. 50 000 DIVIDED by 0.25 is 200 000. Bad enough that a teacher makes such a mistake, but a club that just came back from winning an intelligence match? They had luck that they got "White rappers" and not "Basic Understanding of Math".
 * "Intelligence" doesn't imply "math skills." This troper's school Knowledge Bowl team has won two years in a row with only one guy having more than a basic grasp of algebra and trig. Instead we relied on our strengths in history, geography, science, literature, etc.
 * Also, it was an in-joke by the cast.
 * ALSO, most of the ND members (even Brittany, of all people) were looking at the math with confused faces. They knew it was wrong, Schue didn't.

The backups
We had a huge array of people on violin arrive- who admittedly looked like students- followed shortly by a gospel choir (who did not)... both of whom appeared out of nowhere and didn't stay to watch?
 * Well, we have seen that Mercedes is involved with her church choir, so I assumed she just asked them to come in and help them out for a little while ahead of time. Why they didn't stay... yeah, I got nothing.
 * This is totally grasping at straws here, but...maybe they were in the way back, where there was very little lighting, so we just couldn't see them?

The money
The reason Sunshine's 600 twitter followers didn't show up was because she wasn't performing at the event. Wouldn't the tickets have to have been sold to them beforehand? The tickets weren't to be bought at the event itself (Puck mentions selling four tickets before Sunshine's audition).
 * MAYBE the tickets were also available on the event? Besides, the scene does paint Sunshine as kind of a bitch, as one thing is to say "I'm not going to attend" and another different "I'm not attending the event, but please go guys, it's a for good cause"

Rachel's parents
Shouldn't Rachel's dads have been the ones discussing whether or not she should get a nose job? For one thing, they would have been the ones paying for it.
 * Well, they haven't exactly showed up anyway (save for that photo) and it's stated that they do dote on her and agree with basically everything she does.

Lucy Caboosey
How could anyone figure out that the "Vote for Lucy Caboosey" poster was talking about Quinn? There was nothing on the poster to show that it was her, and the picture doesn't look like her at all.
 * Quinn is really popular, it's probable that the student body at large has seen her up close enough to notice any minute resemblance between the two, and in a school like McKinley, would you want to run against Santana, Quinn or Lauren? it really couldn't have been anyone else, and of the three the picture looked the most like Quinn.
 * Also, is it really that much of a stretch to think that Lauren might have seeded the matter by saying "This is really Quinn" and letting the gossip spread.
 * Not to mention that Lauren probably figured it was easier to let Quinn do part of the work for her. Just spreading a rumor saying the person on the poster is Quinn would spread quickly but would always have an undercurrent of possible falsehood. Putting up the poster and letting Quinn angrily tear it down in front of a huge chunk of the student body practically proved it was her.
 * I highly disagree. Glasses, hair color, and weight don't change your appearance that much. She still had basically the same face and anyone with any skill at faces would connect it immediately. The few who don't connect faces as easily would pretty quickly hear it from their friends.

People from different sexual orientations
Did Will just out someone? Without Kurt there is no other open gay/lesbian person in your club.
 * Santana and Brittanny are pretty much in a Transparent Closet
 * Aside from the sexual comments between Brittany and Santana, "Landslide" was Santana's unofficially official coming out. Also, I'd imagine they still considered Kurt a member of the club in spirit.
 * Theres also no Asexual, Pansexual, Omnisexual, or Transvestite/gender.
 * It's pretty much widely known that Brittany is bi.

Where did Lucy Caboosey come from?
Was there any sort of Foreshadowing at all? It felt like an Ass Pull.


 * Well, there was that line in season one when Quinn told Puck she was feeling fat. And then there was that bit in "Home" where Quinn comforts Mercedes about her Meat O Vision and pressure to lose weight, saying that she'd been there, too.
 * Additionally, during the pep rally in "Home," she was one of the first to raise her hand when Mercedes asked if any of the WMHS students ever felt fat, pimply, etc (although in the context of that episode one would think she was supporting her)
 * Also Quinn does seem to have roots in this episode.

The Lucy Caboosey poster
Lauren didn't know that Quinn used to be called that (her initial guess was "Juicy Lucy"). How come she already had Lucy Caboosey posters out?
 * She might have already known and was trying to make Quinn say it herself.
 * As for how she knew, she could have called Quinn's old classmates and gotten the dirt on "Lucy Caboosey" straight from the source.

How has no one ever NOT heard the name Lucy Fabray?
As some students with embarrassing first names, those prefer to be addressed by their middle name, or those who prefer to go by a nickname, should be familiar with, typically on the first day of school, the first day of a new class after a semester change, or when a substitute has to take attendance, they're addressed by their real name on the roster, and then given the chance to go by an alternative. How has Quinn managed to keep her name secret for the last three years since middle school, because her reaction to Lauren makes it clear she thinks she's covered her tracks?
 * This troper's high school's registration form had a spot for "preferred name." That was the name that would appear on the attendance list (such as "Liz" instead of "Elizabeth," or "Katie" instead of "Katherine"). The troper even knows a girl who went by her middle name throughout high school, and that name was on the attendance list and by her picture in the yearbook. Everyone was surprised when she later announced that it wasn't her legal first name. So it's actually probable that Quinn could have chosen to be called only by her middle name at school, and provided that absolutely no one knew her from her old school, no one would have known the difference.
 * This troper doesn't go by her legal first name and didn't go by it in high school. I didn't bother most years, but junior year I approached every teacher (that didn't already know me) on the first day before the period started with "Hi, the roster says Scarlett, but I wanted to let you know that's me and I prefer Carley." They all wrote a little note on the sheet and no one heard my real name all day. (This didn't cover substitutes, but if I'd been really committed to running from my real name rather than just mildly annoyed, I'm sure I could have done the same thing and been fine.)

What was the purpose of Puck bringing Rachel to the mall?
I mean, I get why they wanted her to come to the mall, but why Puck? Wouldn't she have been much more likely to say yes if Mercedes or Kurt had asked? I mean, if it was his idea, I guess I'd get it, but it's never made clear.
 * Puck and Rachel do seem to have established a sort-of friendship since she stopped trying to use him to make Finn jealous. In 'Special Education' he admits without prompting that he 'kind of likes' her, after all, and they have a shared religious community.

Will and Emma
Why was Will so upset about Emma choosing "Ginger" for her shirt instead of "OCD"? The purpose of the "Born This Way" song, and the whole message of the episode (at least, that I gathered) was that the group was learning to accept things about themselves that they were, you know, born with, and that they would embrace those things instead of trying to change them... hence, Rachel's nose... But Will is trying to help Emma get over her OCD. In fact, he's pushing her to do it... seeing a counselor and all that.

I understand that the way it was supposed to come across in the episode is that he wanted Emma to admit that she was OCD and that she had a problem... however, using an arena in which the people are admitting to things that they are born with, and absolutely fine with... sends mixed signals, doesn't it?

In my opinion, urging Emma to put "OCD" on her t-shirt would just symbolize that she was born OCD and that's the way it's going to be. So why is Will telling her that she needs to get over her OCD, but at the same time telling her she's fine because she was born that way?


 * Because she was in massive denial about needing any treatment and about some of the harsher effects it had on her life, and he figured it would be the first step to helping her get better, forgetting the initial point of the shirts in the first place? Or perhaps acknowledging it with a positive attitude was a lot better than letting it ruin her marriage and conquer her life like it had been up til that point? Again, she was in denial, and that probably made things much worse than admitting she needed help.


 * That was my first guess, but I feel like that still should have been a topic for a different episode or something. It really broke the message for me as I was watching the episode. Some things are okay to be born with, but other things aren't.

No Matter Gay, Straight or Bi, Lesbian, Transgender Life
Am I missing something as to why they cut this from the episode? Even if it was just to save time it comes off as being in pretty bad taste, and that's before you consider the Unfortunate Implications if it was deliberate. It's like trying to cut "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific to cope with time constraints - take that out and you might as well take the whole show out.
 * Thank you, I agree completely. That irritated me to no end. I can't fathom why they would have cut it. Hell, the line is five freaking seconds long. I can't see any good excuse for having cut such an important part of the song and the message of the episode.
 * The line is still in the full version of the song, so I guess it was just cut for time. Chalk it up to poor planning by the editors.

Santana's blackmail
I've harped on this before, but really, Dave Karofsky caves because some girl said that she saw him briefly looking a guy who was getting a drink at a water fountain. Oh, and because some guy who doesn't even go to school with them anymore alluded to him having a secret. So, her evidence is, "A guy who isn't going to come back made a vague statement, and I saw Karofsky look at a boy who was getting a drink of water for a few seconds." Somehow, I'm just not seeing that as irrefutable proof of homosexuality. It would be incredibly easy to deny all memory or simply say that he was thirsty and looked to see who was getting a drink before wondering off to find an unoccupied water fountain.
 * It's High School(Or more accurately, Glee's Theme Park Version of a High School). ANY rumor, no matter how insane is, would be very very hard to stop, even for a supposedly popular person like Karofsky is. Add that Karofsky is dead scared of being outed, and he jumped at the conclusion of "SHE KNOWS!"
 * Also, Karofksy isn't smooth or smart enough to lie like that. Even look at what he said when Satana said it to him originally, the best he could come up with was that he was checking out Sam's jeans.

Mercedes' T-shirt
What the hell is 'No Weave' meant to mean?
 * It means that putting something about her weight or race on there would have been too controversial, and they couldn't think of anything else that Mercedes might not like about herself. Same reason Artie's shirt said "Four Eyes" even though we all know he's way more self-conscious about being in a wheelchair.
 * Yet they constantly bring attention to weight issue and Artie's handicapp. In fact they've dedicated entire episodes to both of those issues (Artie trying to walk, and Mercedes trying to lose weight), I doubt a t-shirt would raise any eyebrows. There's also a valid reason for Artie not putting his injury on his shirt. He was likely born with poor vision, and it's a part of him. He didn't get his paralyzing injury until he was eight, and that was a complete accident, which isn't part of who he is.
 * It all seems to stem from the complete non-focus of the purpose of the assignment. Some seem to think it's about accepting and loving things about yourself that make you different but aren't necessarily bad things. Kurt, Rachel, Tina, Sam and Brittany (and Santana by way of Brittany and Emma initially) wear shirts to fit this idea. Rachel doesn't need a nose job to be beautiful nor does Tina need contacts. Emma shouldn't be ashamed of being a Ginger. Sam, Brittany, Kurt, and Santana's shirts all represent things that can't be changed. Others seem to think it's an excuse to avoid self-improvement. Puck thinking with his penis isn't something to embrace (which even he admits), nor are Lauren or Santana's bad attitude and bitchiness. Emma's second is some hybrid where she needs to accept that she's OCD but not embrace her OCD. It needs to change because it's causing problems in her life. Quinn,Finn,and Mike also fall into this category. So because the writers don't have a centralized message they can't put "Overweight" or "Wheelchair" on the shirt because then viewers don't know if they're saying that Artie needs to get out of his chair or if Mercedes is just giving up on ever losing weight, so you get "No Weave" which makes no sense.

Lucy Caboosey Springtime for Hitler situation
Alright, instead of of the whole fiasco causing Quinn to get less votes, it causes her to get idolized by the overweight and homely female students. They treat her like a hero. It would have been different if she had just lost some weight and got the acne medication for health/appearence purposes. But she got lost weight, got rid of her acne, got contacts, dyed her hair and got a FREAKIN nose job and had herself be called by a different name. How can these people think that exterminating every single aspect of yourself to become 'perfect' is good?
 * because they didn't know the whole story? For all they knew it was "OMG, Quinn used to be fat! Maybe I can be like her and become pretty and popular!"
 * I don't understand. She overcame everything she didn't like about her. She transformed herself; she chose how she wanted to look, then did everything she could to reach that goal. In the end, she managed to look like she wanted to look, rise above any mockery and look herself in the mirror with pride. At no point does the episode allude to her thinking worse of herself because of this changes. She even said it: "I loved myself, that's why I did all those things." She was miserable, and now she isn't. I'm not saying she's happy, but none of her current problems are related to her looks. She became all she wanted to be. How is that not awesome? Why shouldn't other girls look up to her? A person who decided that just because nature had decided that she was ugly didn't mean it had be this way? She's a testament to human power. What makes me scratch my head is why this is supposed to be a bad thing.
 * It's kind of a fine line. Quinn seemingly did it for the right reasons. (I'm assuming that she did it just so that she'd stop being a complete friendless loser and that her obsession with image and status came later, or grew out of it.) She didn't like who she was as Lucy so she changed it, which is fine, at least IMO, but it a small too easy to make step to changing to please others which is more or less what Rachel was contemplating doing in this episode which you shouldn't do. It's a complicated issue and granted it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for the show to examine a complex issue, present all sides of the argument, and let the viewers decide where they stand but it's not really Glee's stock in trade.

Mr. Schuester seems not to understand the point of the assignment
It's a pretty sad statement since he actually made the assignment but he tells the kids to make shirts about things that they should embrace about themselves rather than want to change then proceeds to tell Emma that her shirt should be about her OCD, something that she's working on changing, that she should change since it has such negative effects on her life, when being a Ginger is something that she shouldn't be ashamed of. He seems to be of the idea that self-acceptance and self-improvement are at odds with one another

Finn's picture of Lucy
Am I the only one who was bothered by that whole exchange? If Finn and pre-makeover Quinn had met, they would never have happened. If they met, and then, she had the whole makeover, maybe, but even then, I have my doubts. So, he carries around a picture of his hot girlfriend's old photo where she wasn't conventionally attractive. Okay. I didn't hate the scene, it just struck me as Finn trying to cast himself as the good, deep guy despite reality, and Quinn falling for his act. Finn can be a nice guy who has a deepness to him, but in that scene, it seemed more like he was trying to play the part rather than being it. Yet, it seems everyone else considered the exchange heartwarming and realistic.

Kurt likes boys
The assignment was, as I understood, to pick something that you don't like about yourself and embrace it, because nobody's perfect. So Rachel doesn't like her nose, but she loves herself and accepts her flaws, Quinn doesn't like having been fat and ugly, but she deals with it because it's part of her, Finn doesn't like being a terrible dancer, but he's not letting it get him down, etc. Why did Kurt put likes boys on his shirt, then? Santana's lesbian shirt makes more sense, but Kurt has been out of the closet for over a year, has a boyfriend, and tried to help someone else out with his gay issues. I feel like he's not seeing his gayness as a bad thing that he has to tolerate.

Hair
Sam colours his hair with lemon juice, why are both his siblings blond? Why does no one mention this?
 * Because not every sibling in a family will be the same hair color. Also, how do you know that they didn't ask him to do it for them too?
 * Also, I was under the assumption Sam was fairly blonde anyway, he just makes it a lighter shade with the lemon juice. And besides, when you're a kid your hair is naturally lighter. For most people, their hair shade darkens as they mature.
 * If he did, truely use lemon juice, it would have been impossible to go from brown hair to blond - this is some experience on my part. If you use lemon juice if you are blond - as I am - you may be glad if it turns your shade just a little lighter. So i would presume that he was blond to begin with.
 * But Kurt accused Sam of being a bottle-blond, why would Kurt (the fashionsta) think Sam would use powerful damaging chemicals to lighten his hair half a shade?
 * Sam could have been liying about the lemon juice and be actually using some sort of dye, but was afraid that saying "I dye my hair" would make him less cooler(Or be seem as "girly") by Quinn.
 * If I remember correctly, he only lightened his hair color to make it look like it was "sun-bleached" and make himself look like a surfer. He could be naturally blond and just added lights, and that was what Kurt referred to "bottled"
 * Also, young children generally have blonder/lighter hair which darkens as they age. Light blonde hair is not typically a normal adult/young adult color.

Santana flip floping
The whole point of Santana bearding and prom queen running was to get Britanny to be with her, instead of Artie. Also, in Sexy, Santana was ready to come out if she could be with Britanny, why would she give up that chance to continue to perpetuate the lie with Karofsky? (why would jewfro not follow santanas eyes, he's a reporter)
 * She possibly just got scared as the big moment was getting closer and seemed to actually be happening. It might have been a nice fantasy to come out with Brittany and live their lives happily ever after but after realizing that they would finally actually do it, she chickened out.
 * Actually, she never claimed that she was willing to come out in the locker scene from Sexy. She said that she wanted to be with Brittany but was afraid of what people would say. She was basically asking Brittany to be with her on the DL.

Cheating & Stupid

 * Brittany cheats on Artie with Santana and they just talk. Artie calls her stupid and they break up. Unless they say Brittany has a mental disorder (which would make a good story line), Artie wasn't the worst.
 * Because Brittany honestly didn't know she was cheating. Artie could have told her that Santana was lying and taking advantage of her, but instead decided to insult the very thing that seem to affect her the most(That's what she wrote in her shirt after all).
 * Artie's line is "Why are you so stupid?" It's not meant to be cruel, it's an expression of frustration at Brittany's willful failure to see anything wrong with her behavior or Santana's manipulation. saying that something isn't wrong "because someone else said so" only lets you dodge responsibility for so long.
 * Artie could have said that. He could have call her naive, or he could have confronted her with Santana around, so he could have called her out. He willingly decided to call her stupid.
 * No, he spoke without thinking because he was growing frustrated because this was probably not the first time they've had this conversation. Yes what he did was bad but nowhere near unforgivable especially considering that his girlfriend has been cheating on for for some time. You can try to make him out to be the bad guy all you want but that doesn't make it true.
 * It's ultimately all YMMV. "probably not the first time they've had this conversation" is all speculation, while Artie might have know or suspected Brittany was with Santana, for all we know, this is the first time he has addressed the problem with Brittany. Besides, it's not the first time Artie has had a knee-jerk reaction like this, of the top of my head, he had done so with Tina three times, and is the second time he does with Brittany. Likewise, kettle and pot, you can try to make Brittany the bad guy, but it doesn't make it any more true.
 * I see it from Brittany's side because I have been there. Nearly everyone in my school called me retarded at some point and it was only recently where I have had a class where someone didn't say it and I had to get a lawyer to get rid of the problems. So considering what Brittany said about Arite being the only one to never call her stupid at some point (which is likely a hyperbole, though maybe not) probably felt like a punch to the gut.
 * I'm assuming that anyone old enough to read this page is aware that an angry comment made in the heat of the moment can really hurt someone. Artie was understandably frustrated and lashed out. Unfortunately, the insult he chose hit Brittany a little too close to home. He may not even have been aware of how Brittany feels about being called stupid: a lot of people put up a brave front about something that really bothers them. I personally make a lot of jokes about my appearance. That doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt if someone close to me pointed out how plain I am. Likewise, Brittany generally acts so carefree that it's not immediately obvious how self-consious she is about her intelligence. Having the one person who's never called her stupid do so, even if it was without thinking, had to have caused her a lot of pain.
 * Unless some of the posters above originally hail from Carealot, asserting that calling someone "stupid" is an unreasonable response to their cheating on you is a bit hyperbolic. I mean it's barely a step above "doodie-head" on the scale of "terrible insults". "But she's got deep seated issues and that was the one thing blah blah..." Indeed. I'm sure it was quite hurtful, but you know what else is hurtful? CHEATING!
 * Sorry, but, by default, anyone who resorts to cheap-shots below the belt loses the fight, no matter who started it. Had Artie gone on trying to make Brittany understand that not because Santana says something makes it true, then yes, he would be entitled to be all pissed at her, but alas, the sympathy is switched when he starts insulting someone.
 * Anyone who commits fundamental breach of trust in a relationship, should expect stronger language than "stupid" from the wronged party. Unless the expectation is that Artie is meant to be Jesus Christ himself, it's somewhat unreasonable to expect his response in the situation to be calm explanation. If the argument is that Brittany is faultless because she didn't understand that she was cheating, then the same argument exempts Artie from blame (since how was he supposed to know that run-of-the-mill insult was going to wound her so deeply?). Lastly, calling someone who's just confessed to cheating on you because the other woman said it was ok "stupid" is more an accurate asessment of the situation than a cheap shot. There is no "you automatically lose the fight because you were insulting rule" That's not how the world works. If it was, then being a Karma Houdini would be as simple as making sure all your actions were horrible enough for people to call you names.
 * That's how trolls works, you know? And the one who breaks the rules is the one who gets in trouble, regardless of what started it. It looks bad because Artie started being reasonable and mature, and just suddenly called names. If he had started angry from the beginning, the shock would have been a lot less.
 * Trolls aren't exactly sympathetic are they though? They're also largely unsuccessful unless the audience is gripping the Idiot Ball. It also doesn't work if the troll is caught breaking the rules a la Brittany caught cheating. The only reason people see Artie as the villain is because the storyline was written to portray him as such and because Brittany is portrayed as the sympathetic Cloudcuckoolander.
 * I'm not saying brittany is a Troll, just comparing the fact that whoever loses their temper first loses, like it happened here. And, purposely or on accident, this is like many other conflicts in Glee that have a grey area, the people who sympathize more with Artie will think he's the victim, people who sympathize more with Brittany think she was the wronged one, so let's agree to disagree, 'cuz there is no point in keeping discussing this.
 * The part that annoys me here is when Brittany says that he was the only person that never called her that, but I can't imagine Mike, Tina, Sam or even Santana ever calling her stupid, it just doesn't fit with their personalities.

Brittany joining the Muckraker

 * Brittany says that it is because of comments on her 'Fondue for Two' interviews that she has joined the Muckraker to learn to become a proper journalist, avoiding 'gossipy' questions. Apparantly this intervention was brought on by comments for 'Fondue for Two', criticising the nature of the interviews. How can Brittany get these comments when her videos have comments disabled? Seriously, pause when it zooms out of the Youtube expy.
 * Brittany is insanely popular in the school, despite being in glee and no longer on the cheerios(All the girls copied her style, and she was interviewed for Teen Vogue) even with the comments off, other people might approach her to comment on the show, or well, she heard rumours about it.
 * The mean comments might've been why she disabled the comments.

Prom King/Queen Candidates
Were Santana-Karofsky, Quinn-Finn, and Lauren-Puck really the only candidates? What about the seniors? And the rest of the juniors?
 * There were about four more people on both sides of the stage with them. And since it was junior prom, the seniors weren't there.

The King and Queen Dance
So Santana and Mercedes sings dancing Queen during the big dance. What would have happened if Santana had won?
 * Contingency plan where Rachel sings instead of Santana gets used? It's something they would've had to think about.
 * I'm assuming Kurt and Mercedes were meant to sing it

Blaine's Performance
If Blaine was so concerned about not standing out at prom then why did he go all out on the stage and perform like that? That's the biggest way to become noticed and get yourself recognized.
 * Yeah, but it wasn't overly gay. It easily could have been one of the New Directions guys up their instead of him. He was worried as coming off as too gay towards the other students; whether he stood out or not was optional and considering Blaine's personality in previous episodes, is it really that unlikely that he'd try performing at somebody else's prom?
 * He's Blaine. He has alot of concerns about standing out as a homosexual, but he has absolutely no concerns whatsoever to stand out as a performer.
 * I'm more baffled by the fact that, apparently, the Glee Club gave him a slot to sing at their prom. "HE DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE!"
 * Neither does Air Supply. (it's not like Blaine is some random stranger wanting to perform at a school he doesn't go to, he's dating a member of new directions)
 * Blaine does ask Finn in the Kilt scene if he's really okay with Blaine jamming with the New Directions.

Dancing Prom Queen
If Kurt was so upset about being called Prom Queen, why was he fine with Dancing Queen and all its implications? Wouldn't it have made things worse? "Colfer: So in this last scene I’m wearing a kilt. And a tiara. Dancing with a boy. To “Dancing Queen.” Did I do something to offend you?"
 * It was probably selected for the so-called 'Royal Dance' beforehand. Given that they were using a live band, chances are New Directions had a predetermined set list and couldn't change it on the fly.
 * The irony was not lost on Chris Colfer:

Why did Figgins even read out Kurt's name?
He should've known reading it out like that would be hurtful. And why didn't he just throw out all the votes for Kurt as joke votes and pick among the remainders?
 * Kurt (and his father) have been troublesome for Figgins several times, most recently with Burt refusing to accept Figgins' word that the school was cleaned up and Karofsky was reformed. There are teachers who are not above using student bullying as a way to gain a little passive revenge on a student who's made their lives difficult. It's not a nice thought, but it's a possibility.
 * It's never been in Figgins' character to be that cruel, whereas it has been shown that he doesn't have much of a backbone to stand up for the Little Guy until he's been pushed and pushed and pushed into it.
 * Also, if Figgins had thrown out the vote, then he is left to either pick a candidate himself or take the runner up. If he picks a candidate himself, then he has the ire of Lauren/Quinn/Santana (pick two) to deal with, any of which would make his life miserable. Not only that, Jacob Ben Israel would be accusing him of corruption, favoritism and election fraud and he'd be hearing from angry parents. If he takes the runner up, two of the three would raise hell to get a new vote issued, and that retroactively ruins the runner up's victory, causing them to raise hell to make the vote stick. And in EITHER situation, Kurt is going to find out eventually. Jacob would have the true result as the headline of Monday's Muckraker or posted on his blog (or whatever he does for the A/V Club) by the next morning. At least he gave Kurt a chance to take charge of the moment.
 * I severely doubt all of this. The only people who would know would be whoever counted the ballots. If that's Figgins, there is absolutely no way for this to get out. If it was a couple of teachers/chaperones (the most likely scenario), equal probability. If it was someone/two people on the prom committee, chances go up somewhat, but remain pretty small if Figgins asks/threatens them to keep it quiet. If it was some random students, then yeah, it'll get out, but there's basically no way this is who you'd use. In theory, you could go around polling people, but between people a) lying, b) not remembering, and c) not being asked (since there's really no way you could ask every single person) there's no way to prove it, and Figgins can say so. So, basically, maybe Figgins is too stupid to think of this, or he's idealistic/blind/stupid enough to think it was sincere, but there was no good, logical reason for him to read the name.
 * Was it ever noted that he even -had- the other votes on the card? It's possible and probable the only thing written on the card was the winner.
 * Given that there was specific candidates for prom King/Queen then shouldn't any votes for Kurt have been thrown out when they were being counted as he wasn't running.
 * In my high school, there were specific people running, but this was not official and the ballot was a write-in. Even with a ballot with specific couples, there was probably a write-in slot, although I'm more inclined to believe it was all write-in since King and Queen were announced separately. If it was a list, it would have gone by couples, so they'd have been announced together.

What was with Kurt calling Blaine "Blaine Warbler"?
He knows his last name is Anderson and there's nobody else with that name to confuse him with.
 * Was his name ever mentioned in-show, or is it Word of God? They might be trying to keep it under wraps, like with Brittany's.
 * It was mentioned on-screen in "Silly Love Songs". 'Blaine Warbler' seems to be a kind of in-universe in-joke.
 * Rachel calls him that again in "Blame it on the Alcohol." Maybe it's just an In Series Nickname or a pet name ND came up with. Or something.
 * The thing is, even Brad Falchuk, one of the writers, also tweeted calling him "Blaine Warbler". Only reason I can think of is that they're seriously retconning his name, but that's stupid and making Warbler his last name is also stupid.
 * I honestly think they've forgotten that his last name isn't Warbler
 * Maybe, but he's still called "Anderson" on official material. And even if they actually forgot it, it doesn't make sense for his last name to be the same as his own group unless the writers are trying to turn the character himself into a big joke.
 * The 'Blaine Warbler' thing is a joke. In-universe, out of universe, in all the universes that ever existed, it's just one through-running joke, and not really that hard to get...

Why does Sam think he can't go?
He's performing at the event... is Figgins really going to let him go underdressed?
 * Presumably he wasn't going to perform with the rest of ND
 * He didn't think he could go because he didn't think he had the money for it all. That was one of the points of the scene with Mercedes and Rachael. When a tuxedo alone costs a hundred plus dollars, for a guy supporting five people on minimum wage, the cost of a prom is quite possibly the cost of living for a month.
 * Except, Mercedes and Rachel only loaned him $20. He borrowed the suit from his dad, and considering ND was performing the entire night, you'd think they'd be allowed to attend without having to pay for their tickets. So, really, all he needed to pay for was the optional extras that go along with prom: dinner afterward, and what not, which he could have foregone if he wanted to and just attended and sung with the group. The only reason I could think that he couldn't make it was because he needed to look after his siblings, but that doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

Why does Kurt automatically assume that people voted for him to be mean?
I was confused by his reaction, because I initially assumed people voted for him because he's so fabulous and brave.
 * Because there's this idea that a "real man" is heterosexual, and being gay is being less of a man. A lot of heterosexism is tied to plain old misogyny. If the voters really thought Kurt was fabulous and brave, why not vote him for prom king?
 * Because then he'd be dancing with a girl, something they know he wouldn't want to do... maybe it's actually Karofsky they were trying to insult...
 * Kurt spent more time on his outfit than any of the girls, for crying out loud! He made himself a kilt. He's not masculine, has never tried to be masculine, so to vote him king doesn't make any sense at all. I think the whole tone of the thing would have been changed either by the way Figgins announced his name or by just one person being super excited for him and starting the cheering and applause.
 * "He's not masculine, has never tried to be masculine, so to vote him king doesn't make any sense at all." How does that not make sense? He's a guy, not a girl.
 * Yeah, but there have been lots of instances where he's done things that were extremely effeminate, like siding with the girls during the Lady Gaga episode or even going prom dress shopping with the girls. He did the "don't be a drag just be a queen" line in Born This Way. Kurt just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would be offended by being called a queen, and would in fact be flattered. Also, the McKinley student body has never been presented as very homophobic as a whole, so for them all to band together to play a mean joke on a gay student seems a odd.
 * For starters, I think the vote was rigged; I don't think everyone really voted for Kurt.
 * I'm sorry, but these comments have been really heteronormative for Glee fans. Just because Kurt does things usually associated with femininity does not mean he is a girl or wants to be treated like one. Gender rules like these are a reason why homophobia and sexism are an issue in the first place, just so you know. Considering the strict gender rules that America abides by - especially a conservative town like the setting of this show, of course Queen was meant to be a hurtful term. If they had voted for him in earnest, why weren't they clapping for him?
 * They did clap right before Kurt's dance. Then, after Kurt dances with Blaine, people gradually start joining in until everyone is dancing as if nothing ever happened.
 * I'm not sure which comments you are referring to, but I seem to be the only one here who thinks that being named Prom Queen wasn't offensive. Kurt is known for NOT conforming to any particular gender rules, and to say that being elected Queen is automatically homophobic or sexist actually seems to me to be more heteronormative. In all seriousness, I would like someone to point out another time when either Kurt ostracized by someone other than Karofsky and his stupid friend, or when Kurt was portrayed as someone who would get all bent out of shape about something like this. It's hard for me to understand/believe because both of those things seem really out of character. Kurt revels in being different, and the student body has never been portrayed as being cruel or unsupportive, except Karofsky and his minion.
 * How about when we saw all the jocks surrounding him and throwing him into the dumpster in the pilot and in the second episode, before we even met Karofsky and Azimio? Or the jeers when he joined the football team?
 * Puck was also thrown into a dumpster, as were a whole line of other kids. And if I remember correctly, the football team had a problem with the dancing, not with Kurt himself or the fact that he's gay.
 * So you don't think the reason why Kurt was picked on had anything to do with him being gay?? And the team started snickering as soon as Kurt said he wanted to join the team, and Puck told Finn he didn't belong there.
 * I'm not saying that. I'm saying there hasn't been any evidence that the student body as a whole is mean or cruel to a gay kid, and despite all of Finn or Puck's talk of him (or Sam, when he first showed up) being harassed, Karofsky and Azimio are the only ones who actually did anything cruel or mean to Kurt because he's gay. When I first read the spoiler that Kurt was elected Prom Queen, my first thought was "hey! That's pretty neat!" and I was confused when it went down like it did, because we've gotten NO evidence either that he would be elected out of malice or that something like that would offend him.
 * You don't think having pee balloons thrown at you, having your lawn furniture nailed to your roof, and being thrown into dumpsters is cruel??
 * Episode citations, please? I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode, and I don't remember the balloons or furniture things. And again, being thrown in a dumpster isn't an example, because they do that to anyone they think is a dork or weak or whatever. That's like saying he was slushied because he's gay.
 * Kurt mentions it to Finn in the pilot when Finn tries apologizing to the Glee club. And yes, they do that stuff to the kids who are unpopular. Why do you think Kurt is unpopular?
 * Because he's in the glee club, and he's different. Here's my overall point: the writers have done a terrible job of SHOWING that he's bullied because he's gay instead of TELLING us or making Kurt the kind of guy who would be offended by this kind of thing, and because of that, it feels like a complete Ass Pull that I found really confusing and out of place.
 * Yes, and how is Kurt different?
 * If you're going to deliberately misunderstand me and be condescending, I'm not going to bother.
 * And yes, Kurt's effeminate and yes he's friends with the girls. That doesn't mean he thinks of himself as a girl. I don't know why it's so hard to believe he'd be insulted to be voted prom queen, especially when it was meant to be a cruel prank.
 * And yet in several episodes it's shown that he does think of himself as "one of the girls" rather frequently. The whole issue is complicated.
 * Not literally. He isn't transgendered. He just gets along with the girls more.
 * Kurt wanted a pair of "sensible heels" for his birthday when he was little. He has called himself an "honorary girl" before. Who says you have to be literally a girl to be voted prom queen?
 * He's only called himself an "honorary girl" because he's more comfortable working with them. I don't know why this is still being debated; Kurt is unpopular, it was meant to be a cruel joke, he was offended. It's not like he was running for prom queen and won.
 * It's being debated because people have different opinions and perceptions than you? Because the writers didn't do a very good job of setting this up so it's obvious that it's a cruel joke? Maybe?
 * Queen has been an insult -- though reclaimed by the gay community in some respects -- for a very long time. It is a specifically gay insult. Kurt's most poignant line, for me, in season 1 was "I'm a guy, Dad." He's never shown himself to have any issues with his own masculinity. He's a boy who likes boys. He gets along better with the girls and has more similar tastes to them, but he's not a girl -- nor does he ask to be treated like one. (Thinking of the march with the guys to defend Rachel's honor after the egging.)
 * I think it was obvious for most people that it was meant to be a cruel joke, and the whole "Kurt shouldn't be offended for being called a girl when he acts like one" bit that you and alden2 are trying to argue is pretty offensive.
 * The fact that you think it's offensive shows me very clearly that you have no idea what I've been trying to say, and I find it a little offensive that you entered into a discussion with no intention of thinking critically or making any attempt to see another person's point of view.
 * I know what you're trying to say. Kurt is effeminate, so it makes more sense for him to be Prom Queen than Prom King, and he shouldn't have been offended. And Karofsky and Azimio were the only ones at the school who ever bullied him for being gay; the others just bullied him for being different.
 * Exactly.
 * Also, it's canon that Kurt DOES find it offensive to be called a girl. He told Sue in Furt that he found it hurtful when she referred to him as "Lady."
 * Maybe there's a middle ground in this argument? I'm in high school, and I know that one popular kid coming up with a spur-of-the-moment idea can have wide-ranging repercussions even when the idea wasn't intended to be cold-bloodedly cruel. This actually fits with one troper's assertion that the McKinley kids haven't shown themselves to be complete homophobic monsters. Even though they considered Kurt a joke for the two minutes it took to vote for him, perhaps they actually felt guilty or uncomfortable when his name was unexpectedly announced, and that was why no one reacted. This theory also works with the fact that they cheered for him at his Awesome Moment of Crowning. They don't really hate him and were impressed by his reaction, but were being cruel, thoughtless teenagers when some popular kid told them to vote.
 * I can get behind that, but my original point that the writers sucked this one up still stands, I think. This explanation is way better than what was actually shown, and the writers' job is to show us, not tell us, what is happeneing, and they completely screwed that up here. Everything that we assume about this plot point is either told to us or we really do have to assume it. It would have been lovely if, as someone below pointed out, the writers had the kids mounting some sort of Facebook campaign in secret. That's perfectly plausible, and could have been worked in during the three-way contemplation time right after he was announced, as could have some of the extras whispering "oh shit, that wasn't as funny as we thought it was going to be" or something like that.
 * Also, regardless of whether someone thought it would be an honor, Kurt definitely had cause to assume it was an insult. He'd just been driven out of school by bullying, and even the staff failed to help him. Even if Karofsky and Azimo were the only ones pushing him around, we got countless shots of kids just standing at their lockers looking on while he was shoved into his. No one but the other Glee kids ever came to his aid. By "Prom Queen," he'd gotten to a point where he thought the student body might just be indifferent to him--certainly not a point that he'd think they wanted to give him a boost. It isn't hard for this troper to see why Kurt would assume people hated him, even if he was just the butt of a "casual joke."
 * When Kurt's name was announced, not only is it deathly silent, which can't be surprise or shock, since Figgins said the overwhelming majority voted for him, compared to the applause Karofsky received, the camera cuts between the Glee club members' faces of Oh Crap to several students shooting him hateful glances.
 * That confused me, too. Again, one person seeing it as an honor would have changed the entire tone of the announcement. I have a friend that is very much like Kurt, and were it him in that situation, I would have been happy for him. I guess I've just forgotten what it's like to be a teenager?
 * I think you forgot what is like to be a teenager. I know that Glee has problems with consistency, but seriously, Kurt is not popular and has all the reasons to think that something like that was only made to be mean and after the deathly silence the first sound is someone makes a "celebration" sound that sounded like a mockery. I think someone started clapping, but died down pretty quickly, because no one was feeling like celebrating it.
 * Kurt is not popular. Which explains why the silent crowd waited patiently for Kurt to return to the prom and cheered loudly when he accepted the crown. It also explains how an "unpopular teenager" was able to find people willing to perform a flash mob at a mall in Ohio.
 * What does his popularity at his high school have to do with the people at the mall? And I don't think it was "waiting patiently" for Kurt to return as much as it was them not knowing what was going on or what to do. There's also the fact that there wasn't any music to dance to, since the kids at New Directions wouldn't start singing again until they knew Kurt was ok.
 * Now I'm confused. Didn't someone toward the back of the crowd (or offscreen some distance from the camera's microphones) applaud, and then stop because no one else was clapping or cheering? I thought that was an indication that at least someone sincerely wanted him to win, and didn't see it as an absurd unlikelihood. If they meant it to be jeering, that could have been expressed more clearly. If it was in the background of my actual life the second time I saw the episode (I couldn't tell for sure the first time, since my fiancee and sister were congratulating my correct guess over what would happen from when Karofsky was elected), that was an amazing coincidence.
 * That sounded a lot more like jeering than cheering to me.
 * The school is hardly known to be a supporting place, Kurt appears to be the only openly gay kid... Honestly what else he was going to think?
 * The whole point is that they are calling him the biggest Queen in the school. It's a joke and the reason Kurt and the others don't take it as an honor is because they know that none of the people who voted for him meant it sincerely.
 * Personally I expected Puck to confront Kurt and tell him about how he made Kurt prom queen to piss off Lauren, Finn and Santana. I thought Artie was a decoy which would explain the lemonade. It would explain why nobody was laughing at Kurt. If you're really doing something like this to be mean, you would expect blood to fall on him or something.
 * You should write for the show. That would have been awesome.
 * Kurt is Puck's friend and Lauren is his girlfriend. Early Season One Puck I could see making a move like that, but Late Season Two Puck I can't. Not when Puck has come to Kurt's defense against Karofsky's bullying earlier in the season. AND he wants to sleep with Lauren. Killing her chances at being Prom Queen is a really bad way to accomplish that goal.
 * Actually, during the episode he clearly stated he wanted Lauren to lose after it became clear he lost his edge and becoming prom king would have made it worse. And it doesn't need to be hurtful on his side, just a plan to hijack the poll and really show it. If he had let Santana or Quinn win, nobody would have noticed it was a joke. It would have needed a bit of rewriting, but it would have been possible.
 * I thought he said that he wanted to lose, that he wanted to win Anti-Prom King to restore his street cred. If Lauren won Prom Queen, he'd be dating one of the most powerful girls in the school. And yes, it is hurtful because even if Puck had fixed it, he had an entire female audience he could have given it to and it would have had the same effect. He could have given it to Brittany. He could have given it to Becky. He could have given it to Sue.
 * And now we're arguing over an imaginary scenario. This just goes to show that there would be arguments over any outcome the show took...
 * Sue or Becky would be the only other real possibilities. Brittany would have an actual chance to win and any other female and nobody would have noticed the fix.

Kurt winning with a landslide.
Deserves its own session. REALLY? how did they do it? There are a half dozen girls to vote, and Kurt not only "wins" but wins with big majority??
 * Maybe the votes were rigged, ala Carrie.
 * It definitely comes off as a major Ass Pull. They really should have had someone (Sue, Karofsky, Jacob Ben Israel, etc.) pulling strings/convincing other students to vote for Kurt as a joke. It seems extremely unlikely that most of the students would independently decide to do it.
 * Perhaps it was Karofsky's bully friend who figured out Karofsky was gay (he's dating Santana who people suspect is a Lesbian, he switched from bullying the gay kid to walking him to class) and rigged the votes to humiliate him. That would also explain why nobody cheers or laughs when Kurt's name is read out.
 * As for the student body organizing the vote, you don't give teenagers and social networking enough credit, and I'd like to provide an anecdote if the court would permit. When a student at this troper's school was killed in a car accident, overnight the students prepared a memorial event for the next day over Facebook without any involvement of the faculty. The majority of the student body showed up the next day expressing their support and grief, and the administration was shocked and impressed. Replace "grief and support" with "hatred and cruelty" and you have the same impetus for the Prom Queen vote to take place.
 * Definitely. My school successfully planned a walk-out one day without any of the teachers finding out, but with all of the pupils knowing. Don't underestimate how quickly things can spread in a school.
 * Seconding the "student boy organizing the vote with social networking." My high school organized a protest through Facebook/Myspace and texting.
 * You'd be surprised how quickly word flies in a high school, especially one the size of McKinley; at my high school's Valentine's Day dance last year, the student council thought it'd be fun to have us all vote on a King and Queen of the dance. A guy I know, who is mocked and made fun of by the popular kids for being 'different', was added as a last minute nominee [mind you, he had no idea he had been nominated until the day of] and everyone thought it would be hilarious if this unpopular kid managed to beat out the most popular kids in school and became 'King'. By the day of, people who had no idea who the guy even was were voting for him and he won by a major landslide. It hurt the guy's feelings a lot; which surprised a lot of people because they thought he was on board with the idea. So it's possible a lot of people voted for Kurt because they thought it was a harmless joke that Kurt wasn't bothered by.

Jesse getting kicked out of UCLA (in LA)
I'm not certain of how all universities work, but I'm fairly certain that if you're a Fine Arts Major then you don't need to take maths or sciences. Jesse maybe would have had to take English, but everything else should have been a theatre or other Fine Arts related class. In short, if he would have only gone to his theatre classes then he would have been going to all of his classes. "9 hours of English courses (3 of which had to be Freshman Comp)
 * He would still need to take certain "core classes" like math, science, and english as well as other electives to get enough credits to graduate. Besides, it seems like he enrolled in those classes thinking that someone would automatically take the tests for him.
 * What bothered me was why no teacher, no adviser, ever bothered to talk to him about his failing grades or anything...
 * Agreed - at my college, there are teachers who actually advise dropping classes when you're failing so you don't have it affect your GPA.
 * The professors who teach the freshman core classes have so many students that they probably don't have time to deal with every single kid who isn't passing. Also, it's college, not high school. Maybe the professors just expected him to be a big boy and figure it out for himself.
 * My college makes a big deal of explaining to everyone that they're not going to go out of their way to look out for a student's academic well-being unless there appear to be external factors (like family difficulties) affecting them. A freshman missing all his core classes would be seen simply as a twit who didn't deserve the effort.
 * And, maybe this is just my college, but the progression for students who are having academic difficulties is 'probation, suspension, and then if it's still an issue after several semesters, expulsion,' barring something unforgivable. Why was he apparently expelled for not taking his classes after a single semester?
 * Other schools expel you after two failing semesters. Jesse might have been put on Academic Probation after failing the fall semester, then failed the spring (which could have ended shortly before the prom), causing him to be expelled. Some schools run a tight ship like that.
 * I knew a guy my freshman year who got a 0.0 GPA his first semester. He was definitely asked to leave.
 * In my school, you have to ask for probation, and it isn't always granted. I know more than a few people who were expelled despite applying quite frantically for probation.
 * It's also entirely possible that Jesse is lying and the real reason is much more embarassing. It would make sense that he would lie about it since he is trying to get back into Rachel's pants.
 * I'm pretty sure it's a requirement to be accredited that you have "gen eds" (General Education) that are a requirement to get any degree, especially at a big university like UCLA. I went to a small, private, religious, liberal arts women's college, and the gen eds were (I think, it's been some time)

7 hours of science (4 of which had to be a lab)

6 hours of math

6 hours of a foreign language

6 hours of religion

LA 101 and 102 (philosophy and women's studies, both of which were 3 hours).

"Developmental" (aka remedial, below-college-level courses) credits didn't count.

And for clarity's sake/those who don't know, most college classes are 3 hours, except science labs which are 4."


 * So, that's 40 hours out of the 120 that makes up a standard degree, plus any remedial classes he needed (which seems likely given how babied he was through high school). In theory, he could have waited on his gen eds and yes, had all theatre classes, but most people don't do that and some colleges require you to take specific classes your first semester.

Run Joey Run
Minor nitpick: Why is it Rachel's first suggestion for their performance? Sue's opinion and Rule of Funny aside, didn't she learn anything from Bad Reputation?
 * It is for the prom, she expects a lot of unwanted pregnancies after it. In all honesty, it is pure Rule of Funny. Sue couldn't even know they performed Run Joey Run. She wasn't their codirector anymore.
 * I was disturbed by this as well. I think the show tries to make jokes sometimes without making them things the characters would actually say. That's my issue with this joke, because Rachel has no motivation to choose Run Joey Run above any good song she has sung on the show. It's just a really bad joke.

Kurt being joke Prom Queen

 * If it was supposed to be a joke then why was nobody laughing?
 * It was a "mean" kind of joke, apparently. And it's this troper's opinion that the vote was rigged, Lauren or Quinn or Santana probably truly won, and the reason everybody's stone-faced is because, well, he won.
 * A "mean" joke is still a joke. The "mean" people responsible for the joke would've and should've laughed. Nobody is laughing because the writers seem to be very confused as to what tone and message they're trying to send.
 * Or no one laughed because they never thought anyone else would actually go through with it.
 * Or they're not laughing so Kurt can't laugh along with them.
 * Right, because Kurt wouldn't have been humiliated if everyone laughed.
 * Of course he would, but if everyones laughing and you laugh too, it looks like you also think its funny.
 * Because it was done in secret with the intention of their cruelty being anonymous (I assume because of the Bully Whips) and laughing would have given them away.
 * I agree with the Troper above...They probably all took note of Figgins' tone and expression (plus the Bully Whips) and were scared into stifling their laughter. And, because (as other tropers pointed out) they're not all Complete Monsters, they suddenly felt guilty for something that turned out to be way more serious than they thought it would be.

Rolling in the Deep

 * I may be missing a Mondegreen, but... did Glee really get away with not censoring the word "shit" in Rolling in the Deep? How??
 * The official lyrics of Adele's version say "...I'll lay your ship bare." So in essence, it is kind of a Mondegreen.
 * Ah! This is what I get for trusting internet lyrics sites. That makes way more sense. Thank you!

The list
If Will decided that it was best to sing as a group, why did Jesse tell Rachel that she was going to be the soloist? Was he just trying to get back into her good graces?


 * I think Will didn't consult Jesse about it and just changed it at the last minute.
 * I think Jesse thought Will would just blindly go along with what he said and told Rachel before Will even planned the meeting where he would reveal his decision.

Becky
Why does Becky want to join the Glee club even though she said they sucked in Night of Neglect. She even goes as far to say she just wants to fit in, despite the fact ND are universally unpopular in their school.
 * It's true that they're unpopular, but they've been shown to be be the most tightly-knit True Companions at McKinley. I think that by "fitting in" she meant "belonging," and New Directions has shown multiple times over that they love each other, regardless of what perceived deviations from average their members may have. As for her attitude in Night of Neglect, I'm assuming she was simply doing it to please Sue, who was now no longer part of the picture.
 * I might not have understood it properly, but didn't Becky say that she likes the kids in New Directions? There's other canon evidence for it too: Becky is shown to be a friend of Brittany in Wheels and Finn says "She (referring to Becky) is my friend" in Theatricality. Becky probably just followed Sue's Directions in Night of Neglect.
 * New Directions has a lot of diversity among its members, so maybe she or her mother felt that her disease would be more accepted among them.
 * Probably this - as well as the fact that Becky has several friends in the choir (not just Finn, but Kurt - Burt, after all, knew Becky at least vaguely in "Theatricality" and Brittany too). But it's worth noting that Down Syndrome isn't a disease; it's a developmental disability.

Jesse St. James
Why is Jesse consulting for ND when it's obvious he's biased toward one singer who is canonly only one of of the best, not the best in the club. If this wasn't clear to Mr. Shue before the solo auditions, it should have been after, once Jesse tore apart everyone's performances but Rachel's. Also, it seems to be common knowledge that he and Rachel are working toward resuming their previous relationship, which would normally raise a few eyebrows since he's got a position of authority in Glee Club.
 * Even though he has a bias he still has experience in this area and at times does give solid advice (Mercedes is a fantastic singer, but everyone needs to practice if they want to be on the top of their game). The thing is that he doesn't seem to understand what a consultant actually does, he seems to think he's calling the shots when in reality although he can offer advice and candid opinions he still has to go with what his employer decides.
 * That doesn't explain the thing with Rachel. Jessse is now an adult who is employed by the highschool where Rachel is a student. Their relationship under those conditions sounds like an episode of Law and Order SVU. Oooh, can we have Un Stabler show up and haul Jesse off in cuffs?
 * Is he really employed by the school? The way it's portrayed, it's possible Will hired him on his own, or even possible he's "working" for free
 * Brought this up elsewhere since regardless of his experience, he's an obviously poor choice as a consultant. He's trying to rekindle his failed romance with one of the leads (Rachel) and his main romantic rival is the other (Finn). In light of that glaring conflict of interest, how could Mr. Shue expect to get honest and objective consulting out of him?

Sue's treatment of Becky
Okay, so in Becky's first appearance, Sue was treating her the same way she treated her other cheerleaders, which was great. But since then, Sue has been seriously taking advantage of Becky by turning her into her lackey. And in this episode, Sue completely defines how she treats Becky by how she's feeling about her sister. She kicks Becky off the squad because she's upset about her sister, realizes her mistake, and makes it better.. by making Becky head cheerleader just because she misses her sister? Are we supposed to find this sweet? It's just as bad in my opinion.
 * Becky willingly does what Sue asks. She's not being manipulated, she looks up to Sue and actually wants to do what she asks. As for Sue defining their relationship based on her sister, I think you might be misreading it. Yes, Becky was kicked off of Cheerios because she reminded Sue of Jean. That's an emotional reaction to Jean's death, and is understandable. However she is made Captain not because she reminds Sue of her sister, but because she reminds her of Jean in a specific way. Becky is utterly loyal to Sue, and as previously said, looks up to her. That's why she's head cheerleader, not because she has Down's.
 * I'll give you the part about not manipulating her, but just being loyal to Sue shouldn't make Becky head cheerleader. We're never given any indication that she's even good at cheerleading. The timing seems to hint that Sue made her head cheerleader for completely personal reasons.
 * Did we ever see why Santana or Quinn were made head cheerleader? Santana was kicked because of her boob job, Quinn was made head cheerleader because she was willing to manipulate Sue. How did that make them better than Brittany who should be by all accounts the best of those three when it comes to athletics.
 * On top of that, Sue could easily manipulate Brittany. She did all last year.
 * The difference being that she had to manipulate Brittany. She was always direct with Becky, and she went along with all the schemes willingly

Using original songs

 * They're going to Nationals in a week, correct? And Mr. Schuester wants them to write completely new songs and have them ready for the competition within that week? Why wouldn't they just use a song they've done before and actually practiced?
 * The meta-explanation, of course, is that none of the viewers want to see something they've already seen a month or two before. But then again, they always end up rehearsing the song a week or so before the actual competition. And, well, it's to showcase how talented these kids are. Or something.
 * I don't know why this bugs me so much more this episodes, because you're right - they do this every time. Maybe it's because they're trying to figure out the best singer the week before and making a huge point of it? I'm pretty sure if I were in New Directions, I'd be crapping my pants if there wasn't even a set list nailed down this close to such a major competition, but it doesn't seem to bother them at all.
 * Wait, why can't they just reprise Loser Like Me? Just cut Rachel and Finn's verses in half and give the remaining bits to someone else, while another girl sings the chorus. It took two minutes for me to figure that out. Plus you had about eight other original songs as well. I know Get It Right isn't relevant anymore, but can't you just replace that with say, Hell To The No or Big Ass Heart? Just rework those. Also, whats the rationale of using only original songs. Can't you just work out a mashup of some of your earlier songs. My idea is Defying Gravity/The Boy Is Mine as the first number, you have four voices used out of the starting gate. Then how about Thriller/Heads Will Roll. Artie and Sam can sing with Tina, Quinn, and Lauren. The remaining guys could lead Loser Like Me. Puck in place of Rachel's verse and leave Finn's alone then give Brittany the chorus and Mike take Santana's line. All thirteen of your singers have been given solos in some form. And before you say "They Only Get Two Songs" that didn't stop them from doing a three part Journey Medley.
 * Perhaps there's something against repeating songs in a competition? /shrug
 * I am now interested in hearing a mashup of Defying Gravity and The Boy is Mine. Some one fund it.

ND referring to Sue by her given name.

 * I didn't mind Will and Mrs Jackson referring to her as Sue, but when the ND kids were talking about her, they kept using her first name. Haven't they always referred to her by her title of Coach? Since they didn't do it to her face, I don't find it particularly disrespectful, but it did seem odd.


 * Possibly because she briefly stopped working at McKinley? Maybe they didn't feel the need to call her Coach after she wasn't there anymore? Or they feel closer to her from planning her sisters funeral? I dunno. My high school didn't require us to call anyone Mr. or Mrs. anything. All staff were referred to by first names, so I'm not really sure how it goes in other schools.
 * I went to a daycare where the staff was called by their first names. At school, however, everyone was Mr, one of the female equivalents (most were called Miss whether they were married or not, but sometimes a non-married teacher would be called Mrs), or Coach if they referred themselves to as that (not all coaches were actually involved in any athletics). At school, when the students discussed teachers privately, it didn't matter if they absolutely hated them, they still referred to them as Title Surname. It wasn't so much a matter of respect as the fact that the teacher was firmly established in everyone's mind as Title Surname.
 * At school we used the teachers first names if we weren't talking to them if it was way shorter or it suited them better.
 * Plus there are a lot of kids who refer to their teachers by their first name behind their backs, especially ones they don't like. It's a small symbol of defiance.
 * I used to be a teacher, and even though I'm not anymore, my former students can't bring themselves to call my by my first name. I even tried to get one of them to do it, just to mess with her, and she seriously couldn't call me anything but Mrs. West.

Sunshine's solution to getting away from Vocal Adrenaline.
Sunshine's green card would have been issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Philippine Embassy has no authority over visas issued by another country's immigration service; having been to the American Embassy or Consulate to the Philippines to interview for her student visa for her foreign exchange, she'd probably know it's the US that handles their immigration, not the Philippines. And even when visas are revoked, it's not like USCIS immediately tracks down the illegal immigrant for deportation in most cases (anecdata: I've overstayed a revoked visa by a week and immigration never tried to contact me).

And why does she even need to get deported to leave? Is she expecting Dustin to kidnap her from the airport unless she explains she cannot legally be in the country? (Well, okay, in Glee-verse that could probably happen.) Why does she even need to leave the country? She and her mom could move anywhere in the US; it's not Sunshine's still on a student visa tied to her school (and even then she could get it transferred to another school).
 * I think it's just a mild case of Did Not Do the Research. And it's Vocal Adrenaline. They're the kind who allegedly doesn't give a damn if one of their members died during a rehearsal. And since she's their female lead (why do they never have a male and female lead at the same time anyway?) they probably don't have any replacements on hand. (And wasn't her green card given to her by Vocal Adrenaline's uber-rich booster club?)

The audience reaction to the Finn/Rachel kiss at the end of their duet.
While Jesse may be right that the kiss cost them the championship (as opposed to the songs not actually being super amazing), any music audience in the world would have been on their feet cheering that kiss at the end of that type of duet. Even if it did go on for a little too long.
 * Not really. Jesse's initial reaction was the most accurate, the "were they suppose to do that?" vibe.
 * Speaking from experience, audiences, especially young audiences, cheer LOUDLY for any sort of intimate contact that goes on onstage. The first poster is correct.
 * Maybe tween audiences might, but everyone above that age would probably think it was unprofessional. And it was. I tend to agree with the 'was that right'-vibe.
 * I've been to show choir performances where people showed a bit too much affection on stage. The judges would probably not like it, but the teenagers and plenty of older people in the audience would have been screaming. Complete silence is ludicrous. Almost as ludicrous as the idea of writing songs the day before competition.

Chaperones?
A school trip out of state with 13 high school students only has one male chaperone? No high school (even one as screwed up as McKinley) would allow that.
 * Brad the pianist was there, just off screen.
 * But but but he wasn't playing the piano on "Pretending"!
 * I noticed that too, and I was a little sad.
 * Then they would need a female chaperone.
 * I'm not sure about that one. The members of All-State Chorus at this troper's school stayed overnight several hours away; we had several boys, but all of our chaperones were female.
 * You'll probably find that Double Standards require at least one female chaperone, but there's no stipulation for a male on.

The Popular Girls not having boyfriends
Quinn says that all three of them aren't in relationships...Wait, what? As far as I know, Karofsky and Santana are still 'together,' even if they aren't serious. And I'll grant that Quinn may know that with her and Santana being close and her comment on Santana's sexuality a few seconds later. But there's still one thing about this that bothers me.

Artie and Brittany.

Their relationship hasn't been properly addressed since Prom Queen and even then it was left slightly open since they took a picture together at prom. As far as I'm concerned, that meant they were back together, which would go against Quinn's comment that I mentioned earlier. I may have missed something, and if I have, someone please correct me. Because, otherwise, we have some bad writers on the Glee production team.
 * Perhaps the photo just meant that Brittany more or less forgave him, but wasn't ready to get back together?
 * Yeah, I assumed that just meant that they were going to stay friends. Brittany made it perfectly clear that she wasn't going to take him back after he sang "Isn't She Lovely?"
 * (first commenter): As well as the locker scene with Santana. Brittany mentions Artie walking as casually as she did mentioning Mike and Tina's future Asian babies. So they're probably not together, but she's forgiven him and still sees him as a member of the True Companions.
 * Quinn's question wasn't about boyfriends. It was why don't they have love. Now as contentious as their relationship may be, Quinn and Santana are still friends, so whether she knows all the details about Karofsky and Santana's relationship, I would think it would be fairly obvious to any friend that Santana doesn't love Karofsky and, more importantly to the topic at hand, that Karofsky doesn't love Santana. The part of the conversation that actually bugs me is that it displayed a rather uncharacteristic obtuseness on Quinn's part about Santana and Brittany's relationship. Most of the Glee Club assumes/knows about them, yet the person that knows them best doesn't think they have love for each other. My only guess is that Quinn wasn't really talking about anyone other than herself. When she said, "Why don't we have love?" what she actually meant was "Why don't I have love?"
 * Santana and Karofsky's arrangement was mainly about prom on Santana's part, so it isn't clear whether it's still going now that that's over. Neither has historically felt any need to have a consistent beard prior to that, so they wouldn't be desperate to maintain it as a cover.

Vocal Adrenaline
More of a nitpicking thing than anything, but how come in "Pilot" Vocal Adrenaline seemingly had around thirty members, in "Hell-O" they seemed to have around twenty, and now they barely seem to have more members than New Directions?
 * Yeah, I noticed that, too. My guess was that the change of director has something to do with it-- Dustin seems more the type to kick people out en masse simply because he dislikes them or they aren't "good enough." As for Hell-O, I would assume that was just a practice or something, because they had a larger number again at Regionals.
 * Didn't they mention members dying during rehearsal? Maybe that happened a lot.
 * I assumed that was just Jesse using hyperboles...

Sam and Mercedes hooking up at some point after coming home from Nationals
Was there any evidence of them showing any romantic feelings towards each other? Maybe they were subtle hints because I certainly don't remember anything distinctive...
 * They were technically each other's dates at prom (since I doubt Jesse could get in without technically being Rachel's date). They were shown dancing together at least twice, but that's about it. I don't think they'd previously interacted much. Then again, that's where Pair the Spares comes in and we can assume things just "grew from there."
 * They didn't just dance together at prom--Sam told Mercedes she looked beautiful, in exactly the way Mercedes had recently told Rachel she wanted. That's TV shorthand for "Aw, look, Mercedes is going to get her happy ending!" Of course, the two had barely interacted before that moment, so it still kind of came out of nowhere, but oh well. They're cute together.
 * (first commenter): Yes, well, I forgot about that. Thanks for pointing that out.
 * Watch the end of Light Up the World again. Sam is the first person Mercedes goes to when they're celebrating. I think they've been together since Prom Queen but are just better at keeping secrets than the other members of the group (especially because Mercedes is usually the one that tells people stuff anyway).

"You think they know?"
Why did Mercedes and Sam have to hide the fact that they'd hooked up? Kurt is a close friend.
 * They only just got together; they probably want to keep it to themselves for a little while.
 * Sam and Mercedes have both had bad experiences trying to date people in Glee; they probably figure there will be less drama if they keep their relationship to themselves for as long as possible. Believe it or not, this is Truth in Television: my first boyfriend wanted to "keep it quiet" at first for similar reasons.
 * Also, it was after they lost because of Finchel, they might think that the club won't be very supportive.
 * They say (the writers) they're going to explain this in the next season. My thories are:
 * Mercedes's parents don't want her dating a white and/or poor boy.
 * Sam's parents don't want him dating a black girl.
 * The above theories about keeping it low for a while.
 * They don't actually want to keep it a secret and just wonder if anyone noticed.
 * They want to reveal their relationship to the others with a SHOWSTOPPING MUSICAL NUMBER!
 * Then there's also the lazy way out, keeping it a secret was just more fun.
 * Considering New Directions has a nasty case of Love Dodecahedron, you can't blame Sam and Mercedes for trying to stay under the radar.
 * Them being shown together as the ending to season 2 might of all been for nothing if recent news is true.
 * What "recent news", and how recent as of, say, July 2011?

The Cats tickets

 * Wait a minute. Rachel Berry didn't know that Cats had closed a decade ago? Rachel? Rule of Funny be damned, how would she fall for that?
 * Rachel was making shit up because she never had any kind of interest in Cats?
 * For all Rachel's constant showing-off, she doesn't actually know all that much about the real world of Broadway as compared to her fantasy Broadway?
 * That's fanwanking, not what the writers were going for.

Writing their song for Nationals the week before the competition

 * What. Instead of, maybe, deciding on their setlist a reasonable period of time in advance? Creating an adequate choreography (see S2 Sectionals)? Preparing props (see Umbrella/Singing in the Rain)? Or just... freaking practicing? ... What?
 * And that is why they lost, and that is why I'm glad about it. Given the current track record of Aesop Amnesia as far as performing in competition (Finchel can't cover all the songs, they need to not argue and band together), they may or may not learn from it next year.
 * Except that they explicitly stated multiple times on the show that they only lost because of the kiss, not because they were drastically unprepared.
 * That's what they THINK, it's never confirmed if it was the kiss or something else, as, unlike previous competitions, we didn't even see the judges.
 * It's another example of how the show changed from the first 13 episodes. It had mentions of the setlist and working on what would be on it was somewhat of a plotpoint for nearly all the episodes. Which was then setting up Sue being able to get ahold of it and leaking it to the opposing glee clubs.

Quinn's plan
What was it? To hope that Mr. Schuester confined them all to their hotel rooms and then to further hope that Rachel and Kurt would sneak out so that she could get them disqualified? If so then Sue would be sorely disappointed in her one time protege and her extreme lack of coherent planning skills.