Glee Season 3 Re-watch - 3x02 - I Am Unicorn

[liz_in_progress]

When a pony does a good deed, he gets a horn. And he becomes a unicorn and then he poops out cotton candy until he forgets he's magical. And then his horn falls off. Black unicorns, they become zebras. A unicorn is somebody who knows they're magical and isn't afraid to show it.
-Brittany S. Pierce

Comments

[spaceorphan18]

When I come back to this episode, I’m always like ‘oh yeah, Kurt and Brittany and unicorns and this was fun, right?’ Well, mostly

[liz_in_progress]

Ugh, yeah, the Quinn/Puck/Shelby stuff is a real low point of the first half of this season. I agree that it wasn't necessarily an awful idea on paper, but the execution was really bad, and in particular, they just made Quinn a PSYCHO

[out_there]

I love this episode. I mean, the Quinn and Shelby thing... I could live without and I still completely blame Shelby for coming back. It's an incredibly selfish decision that doesn't take into account the needs and emotional reactions of the teenagers involved. (If it was just Rachel, I could forgive it as a way of building bridges, but trying to involve teens who gave their kid up for adoption and then later using it as a weird blackmail -- if you don't act like this, you can't be around Beth -- is really messed up and unfair on Puck and Quinn.) I really disliked that storyline

[liz_in_progress]

Yes, exactly. Kurt's audition was about KURT, not about TONY. Which I think is a perfectly immature thing for a self-centered teenager to mess up, and I love that he did. (And, to be honest, I love that he *wasn't* cast as Tony. Not because I don't want all the good things for my beloved Kurt, but because he wasn't the right person, or audition, for the role.)

Blaine, of course, walks on stage and he IS Tony. There's no question.

[out_there]

Which I think is a perfectly immature thing for a self-centered teenager to mess up, and I love that he did.

Some of my favourite Kurt moments have comes from the times when he's a genuine teenager making the mistakes that teens make, and learning from them.

And, to be honest, I love that he *wasn't* cast as Tony. Not because I don't want all the good things for my beloved Kurt, but because he wasn't the right person, or audition, for the role.

You have a good point about Blaine being the perfect Tony onstage in that audition, but I always secretly wished they'd double-cast both Tony and Maria. (As lovely as Blaine and Rachel are together, I totally think Kurt and Mercedes could have killed it too.)

[grlxplr]

As I recall from the first watch I didn't enjoy this episode so much. Being overly-identified with Kurt, I felt sort of beat up by it. On re-watching I still felt sad for Kurt, but did enjoy it more this time. I also *so* would have enjoyed more of a friendship between Kurt and Brittney. I loved Kurt's and Blaine's auditions(although I did wish there was some nod to a discussion between K&B regarding Blaine's changed audition stance). Shelby's story line just makes me annoyed on a lot of levels.

I agree with out_there's take on Kurt's audition, it was an example of how well Kurt could perform in general. It's the soft skill that's hard to teach someone if they don't embody it. However, I do think it also showed an athleticism that could well translate to the role. It didn't appear the directors concerns had anything to do with the audition however.

[liz_in_progress]

Yeah, I mean, I almost feel badly for liking this as much as I do. Because I do want all the good things in the world for my beloved Kurt. But I also think it's not unrealistic, these things he's struggling with. And as much as I hate to admit it, the struggle is more interesting to watch. Plus, it gives us plenty of space and fodder for growth and development. We really see what Kurt's all about.

[hidden_hermione]

I've been meaning to catch up on your posts for ages now...
I had kind of a hard time with this episode - gave up halfway through once, which I'm now pretty sure was partly because of PMS-induced grumpiness, but now that my hormones are not messing with me, I know that it's also because there's so much that made me feel embarrassed for the characters, like the posters and Kurt's auditions, and I just don't deal well with embarrassmene (why do I like this show again?)
And I won't even go into the whole Shelby/Quinn/Puck/Beth mess...

I do feel some crazily intense love for Finn being happy in the tire shop, though. It's so rare for me to really be able to identify with a character, much as I love them, but this is me - working with my hands, in my dead-end job, but I'm happy there, and it's OK not to want more than this job.

[liz_in_progress]

I don't do well with secondhand embarrassment, either (I have never been able to watch American Idol). That second audition with Rachel, I pretty much have to watch between my fingers. It's painful, and not because Kurt is bad, but because of the way the whole thing plays out.

I agree, I like Finn in the tire shop. I like Finn in Lima. He fits there, and he had the potential to make it a better place. I remember over the summer, before Cory died, someone asked when/how people thought Finn would find his way to New York to join Rachel. And no version of that ever made sense to me, because Finn would NEVER be comfortable in New York. So to hear that the ultimate plan was, indeed, for him to stay in Lima and for Rachel to have her big success and then come home, was so bittersweet.

[hidden_hermione]

Yeah, I could never see Finn in NY, either. (Although admittedly I could never see Rachel returning to Lima either, but that's beside the point).
So much about Glee is about getting out of Lima, it would have been nice to have this counterpoint of "it's OK to be happy there".
So sad that it had to end this way. :(