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Tuesday night's episode is titled "Theatricality" and the concept of theatricality applies whole-heartedly to the Glee's female characters, but mostly the show's flamboyant and sassy teenage boy Kurt Hummel. Glee defines theatricality as when a person expresses their true emotions on the outside in the most visceral way, and that applies to Kurt, Mercedes Jones and Rachel Berry because they all have a fashion sense that goes against the grain. They stick out like sore thumbs. Now this is where Lady Gaga fits right in.
For an episode so highly-anticipated, Glee's tribute to Gaga is underwhelming, but only in the context of a Gaga homage. As a story arc, Glee is as strong as it's always been, except it focuses mostly on Kurt. He's the biggest fan of Gaga and gets the most excited about Gaga when the music teacher Mr. Schuester announces that the Glee club assignment is to express themselves through Gaga's music and costumes. The costumes trump the music because only two Gaga songs are featured in Glee's Gaga tribute, but this was a wise choice. If the characters had sung a host of Gaga songs, the episode would be a Lady Gaga karaoke contest, and that would be zero fun. This wasn't like Glee's Madonna tribute episode "The Power of Madonna," and rightfully so since Madonna has been the biggest pop star in the world for almost 3 decades. Gaga has been the biggest pop star for really only a year in a half.
The biggest reasons to watch the "Theatricality" episode is for a pair of pieces de resistance. The first is a scene between Kurt and his crush high school football player Finn Hudson. Kurt somehow arranged for his father to meet Finn's mother and the two single parents become romantically-involved and they decide to move in together. Understandably upset, Finn takes it out on Kurt. The budding fashionista/interior designer decorates the bedroom that he and Finn share. Kurt decorated the room in the style of old Hollywood, replete with a privacy partition, for getting dressed. This sets Finn off.
Anyone who has kept up with Glee for a while knows that Kurt's showdown with Finn was bound to happen. In previous episodes, before Finn's mom decided to move in with Kurt's dad, Kurt was already picking out fabrics for the bedroom he and Finn would soon share. At a Glee club meeting, Kurt asks Finn's opinion on a selection of fabric swatches and Finn shrugs and then walks off with a confused look on his face.
When Finn confronts Kurt by saying "don't play dumb" referring to Kurt's crush on him, it's humorous irony considering Finn goes through his life playing dumb and just recently started waking up and smelling the stink of real life. It's reality that Glee stays away from for the majority of the time, but scenes like this showdown are pure realism. Glee is considered a musical-comedy-drama and the musical aspect of the show, where people break out in song and sing in front of backdrops of their names in bright Vegas lights, makes it clear to the audience that its watching a television show. The audience is not getting lost in the realism of most of Glee's scenes because it's mostly not realistic, but the audience does get lost in scenes like the showdown scene. When Kurt starts raising his voice to a tense shrill and even Finn recoils, it's clear that this scene is where Glee's campy, fantastic style becomes realistic.
There are so many gay men who relate to Kurt's denial that Finn doesn't like him and is probably quite straight. Still, Kurt wants to make his fantasy come true for the sole reason that it drives him and gives him something to focus on so he won't have to face the truth. Ultimately, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy because deep down in his heart, Kurt knows his plan will fail, and end in disaster. It's sort of masochistic, although hopeful.
Kurt's dad Burt Hummel hears Finn use the word "faggy" to Kurt and Burt loses it. He gives Finn a verbal smackdown, however the audience doesn't feel angry at Finn because the audience knows Finn is a nice guy and he just started disrespecting Kurt in a fit of anger and frustration. Still, Burt speaks the truth. "When you live a few years you start to see the hate in people's hearts, even the best people," which means Finn.
The ending of Glee's "Theatricality" episode is its second piece de resistance. It's the final tribute to Lady Gaga. The two high school football players who stalk the entire episode playing parodies of all the jock-bullies from high school-themed movies and tv shows, approach Kurt dressed in his silver Gaga costume with a white George Washington wig on and a makeshift pair of the Alexander McQueen-designed lobster claw-shaped "Armadillo" shoes that Gaga made famous in her "Bad Romance" music video. The two football thugs say "Gaga's got to go" and Kurt sort of unintentionally channels Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker saying "Hit me" egging on his two assailants. An unexpected hero shows up in the nick of time.
This hero is dressed in a variation of the blood-red latex 16th Century farthingale dress Lady Gaga wore when she met Queen Elizabeth II last December. The hero has red sequin patches that circle his eyes. It's the Queen...Queen Finn that is. Finn is the hero who saves the queen named Kurt. The two thugs resist and then the rest of Glee club clad in their Gaga costumes stand up as an army of "freaks." Now the thugs back off. This theatrical fable has a happy ending.
The "Theatricality" episode may have been short on Gaga, but it did it so it wouldn't sacrifice the story arc and instead resulted in some thoroughly-satisfying costumes and an heated, but enlightening argument between Glee's two central characters Kurt and Finn. The audience gets the feeling that Kurt and Finn are closer because of their uncomfortable fight. It doesn't seem likely that the writers of Glee will make Kurt and Finn a romantic item, but the writers will probably create some kind of romantic interest for Kurt. It would be a shame if Kurt ended up with some doppleganger of himself because the contrast between Kurt and Finn is what makes their scenes appealing. Mostly all the other character have experienced romance openly, and I get this feeling it will be a while before Kurt finds anyone, ifever. If so, it would be art imitating the life that so many people lead in real life: a life of loneliness without romance. Please let that not be the case for Kurt.
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