I have been quite impressed with Glee’s second season thus far, as evidenced by my last review of the show.
Last night’s episode, which aired two weeks ago in the States, due to Ten’s commitment to the Commonwealth Games, dealt with Kurt’s dad Burt having a heart attack and lapsing into a coma, and how the members of the glee club felt about using religion to comfort Kurt and themselves.
Unlike many of last season’s episodes, “a nuanced discussion of religion prevent[ed] Glee from slipping into After School Special mode,” with creator Ryan Murphy explaining that “every time somebody said something anti-religion, we made sure somebody said something pro[-religion]”.
While I’m not so pro-religion myself, and definitely took Kurt’s side when he said “… the reason I don’t go to church is because most churches don’t think very much of gay people. Or women. Or science,” the show “accomplished a prime-time first: an episode that was… sympathetic to both believers and non-believers” and didn’t risk potentially alienating a subset of its audience.
Surprisingly, though, Sue Sylvester was in agreement with Kurt’s plight, “because she finds signing religious songs on school property inappropriate” and believes that “pushing religion on Kurt is amoral,” needless to say, because of her own experiences being angry with God for her sister’s disability.
While I shared Kurt’s discomfort at having his friends pray for Burt in his hospital room without Kurt’s consent, and Mercedes luring him into God’s house with the promise of wearing a “fabulous hat”, the overall message was that even if you don’t believe in religion (can I get an amen?), you’ve got to believe in something.
And Kurt did realise that he believes in something: he believes in his father. Echoing his beautiful—and dare I say, better—rendition of The Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, which harkened back to Burt holding Kurt’s hand at his mother’s funeral, Kurt takes his dad’s hand and, if by some sort of miracle, Burt’s hand twitches.
I suppose I should also mention that all this religion is brought about by Finn seeing Jesus’ likeness in his burnt grilled cheese sandwich, which he believes has magical powers because everything he wishes for comes true. But at this point, I’m so over Rachel and Finn; it’s all about Brittany, bitch!
Related: The Underlying Messages of Glee’s “Britney/Brittany” Episode.
Elsewhere: [Jezebel] Glee: You’ve Got to Have Faith… In Grilled Cheese.
The Scarlett Woman 