The Gleek Critique: "Born This Way" Episode

Rachel takes a spill when Finn elbows her in the nose.  Image property of Fox.

During dance practice Finn's clumsy moves end up breaking Rachel's nose, and while she's at the doctor's office, he suggests that maybe she get a nose job. She worries that it might affect her voice and brings up Barbra Streisand as an example of a great singer with a big Jewish schnoz.  But the doctor convinces her that it might actually improve her voice... and her chances of being famous.  She begins to seriously consider doing it, even though the glee club thinks it's a bad idea (although they all have things they would change about themselves).

Mr. Schuester is shocked that the kids all have such low self-esteem, and challenges them all to find songs that promote a healthy self-image.  He's also hoping the Lady Gaga song "Born This Way" will help them to feel good about themselves.  And while he's trying to help his students, he can't help but notice Ms. Pilsbury needs to tackle her OCD issues.  She thinks it's just who she's supposed to be, but he convinces her to see a therapist anyway, and it looks like we might be seeing some hard changes for Emma.

Meanwhile, Lauren Zizes wants to be prom queen, and Puck wants to help her.  But she's not the only one who wants to take that crown from Quinn; Santana wants it too.  With her keen gaydar, Santana realizes that Dave Karofsky is gay, which leads her to understand more fully why Kurt left.  She figures if she and Karofsky can band together in getting Kurt to come back to McKinely, she'd get the glee club kids to vote for them as prom king and queen.  So they start a club called the Bully Whips to patrol the halls for any signs of bullying.  She even has Karofsky apologize for what he did to Kurt.  Kurt finds out the true motives, but still agrees to come back to McKinley if Karofsky will help him start a chapter of PFLAG.

Oh, and what's Lauren's plan to destroy Quinn?  Reveal the fact that Quinn used to be an ugly fat girl named Lucy at another school... before she had her nose job!  That's right!  "Perfect" Quinn wasn't born that way.  However, it only makes people want to vote for Quinn even more, so Lauren's plan kind of backfires.

The Pros:

• Kurt is back at McKinley!!!!!!!!!
• Santana is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters.  She sure had some hilarious lines in tonight's episode, didn't she?  Like "I'm a closet lesbian and a judgmental b****... that means I have awesome gaydar" or "The only straight I am is straight-up b****."  Hmm... maybe I just laugh every time she says the B-word...
• I love when they mash up songs!  TLC's "Unpretty" mixed with "I Feel Pretty" from the musical West Side Story was terrific.  What could be better than a Quinn/Rachel duet?
• Mike's dancing was showcased again this week, this time while Finn sang Sammy Davis Jr.'s "I Gotta Be Me."  I love watching Mike dance and I feel like Finn hasn't had a musical number in a while... so I was a happy boy!
• For some reason I really liked when Burt told Finn, "Keep an eye on your brother" referring to Kurt.  AWWW!  SO CUTE!
• I loved loved loved Blaine and the Warblers' rendition of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" as a goodbye to Kurt!  I got all choked up...
• Kurt's "As If We Never Said Goodbye" (from the musical Sunset Boulevard - which is based on the great Gloria Swanson film) was beautiful!  Best song of the night!!  I am so glad he's back where he belongs.
• The scene with Emma Pillsbury meeting with the therapist was done very well.

The Cons:

• With all the talk about Rachel's potential nose job, I was surprised that nobody brought up Santana's boob job...
• Watching Karofsky's phony baloney pretense of "changing" made me cringe.  He's still a douche!!
• The dance number in the mall was kind of fun I guess, but I couldn't help thinking it was just a redo of last season's "Safety Dance."
• Sue wasn't in this episode!!  Where was she??