Raina Deerwater ‘16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer Dot-Marie Jones in the Glee episode “Jagged Little Tapestry.” Photo Credit: Tyler Golden/FOX.
So, it finally happened. The past year has seen shows like Orange is the New Black, Transparent and The Fosters, have trans characters appear or be the focus of the shows. It is a very important issue today, and needs to be treated with respect and nuance. Man, nothing says respect and nuance like season six of Glee, but here we are. Glee is doing a trans storyline, because that is what is trendy today. Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) came out to Sue (Jane Lynch) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) as starting the process of gender reassignment surgery. Their response was confusion (Sam) and insults while trying to be supportive, but still coming off as pretty offensive (Sue).
To be honest, Glee will probably do for the trans rights movements what it did for the gay rights movement five years ago: introduce a character, give people hope, and then resort to stereotypes and prioritize offensive quips over the actual character. Even in the five minutes the show gave to Coach Beiste’s storyline, we already got to the final result. The good news is there are no surprises. The bad news is Glee is doing a trans storyline. Lea Michele and Chris Colfer in the Glee episode “Jagged Little Tapestry.” Photo Credit: Tyler Golden/FOX.
The other storylines in this episode are sort of what you would expect once Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) took over the glee club: they aren’t the best creative team. They decide to mash up Alanis Morisette and Carol King (as you do), as their first coaching endeavor. Then they fight a lot. They do all this without doing “You Outta Know,” which is the second most offensive thing in this episode. Just kidding, the second most offensive thing is a weird conversation with Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera) about scissoring.
Speaking of the lovely lesbians, the mature 21-year-old couple has decided to tie the knot, with the romantic line “I want to mash up with you forever.” Clearly romance isn’t dead. What we gathered from this is that the rules of Glee are you either have to break up or get engaged once you’ve been dating for over a season. Brittany and Santana have now done both. So have Kurt and Blaine (Darren Criss) for that matter. And who said romance was dead? Naya Rivera and Heather Morris in the Glee episode “Jagged Little Tapestry.” Photo Credit: Tyler Golden/FOX.
During their romance talk, Santana mentions wanting to move back to New York to finish college and she wants Brittany to come back with her. Which begs the question, what happened with these kids’ education/future? Can they take off time from college? Do they have jobs? Did they abandon all semblance of hope to come back to the death trap that is McKinley high?
Back at the school, there is another romance blooming with Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), Sue’s protégée. She has brought her college boyfriend, Darrell (Justin Prentice) back to meet Sue. He is actually great, and makes a stellar speech about how his relationship with Becky is so much more than her just having down syndrome. He is such a nice guy that he needs to take Becky and leave the show. Just get outta here Darrell, you’re better than that. Overall Episode Grade: C- (Bumped up from a D because of this gem of a line “It’s like you’re batman only gay. So I guess it’s like your batman.”)
