The Gleek Critique: "Choke" Episode

Puck rockin' out on Glee.  Image Property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

Tonight was an episode with not-so-happy endings, which is unusual for the sugary-sweet, brightly optimistic Glee...

Rachel Berry wants to be a star... duh... and has been preparing non-stop for her NYADA audition.  She's avoiding milk and germs while practicing all her smiles.  She's dedicated.  And when she hears that Kurt might take a risk and switch to a more challenging song at the last minute in his audition, she advises him not to do so.  She's sticking with something safe:  "Don't Rain on My Parade" which she's sung since she was two years old.  But in the end, Kurt goes for it, and his risk pays off.  The school's representative, Carmen Tibideaux (Whoopi Goldberg), is more than impressed with him.  But when it's time for Rachel to perform, she chokes.  She messes up the words not once but twice, and Ms. Tibideaux is not impressed.  Looks like Berry's dreams of stardom just went up in flames.

Puck might not graduate, but things could possibly turn around if he can pass Geography.  But when his plans to seduce the teacher fail, he thinks all hope is lost.  He's ready to just flunk out of school and clean pools forever... until his estranged father approaches him for money.  With $500 less in his pocket and a horrible vision of his future, Puck asks the boys for help to cram for his test.  Unfortunately, sometimes in life your hard work doesn't pay off.  He gets an F.

Roz Washington (aka "Black Sue") caught the girls making jokes about Coach Beiste's new black-eye.  Mean jokes.  Jokes about her being beat by her husband, Cooter.  But Roz doesn't think that domestic violence is something to laugh about, so she, Beiste and Sue try to teach them about the seriousness of a situation like that.  And although Beiste initially tries to lie and say she hit her eye while working out, she eventually admits that her husband got drunk and hit her.  Will she have the strength to get out of the situation?

The Pros:

• Puck's okay with not graduating why?  "Gowns are for ladies and tassels are for strippers."  Ha ha!
• Here's another funny line for ya:  "Black Sue and Original Recipe Sue are gonna take care of it." Oh, Sue, I love you.
• Puck's performance of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" was so much fun!  Cheerleaders dancing around him with creepy painted eyes and the grand finale of a burning guitar were all pretty damn awesome.
• Broadway songs!  Yay!
• I love "Cell Block Tango" from the musical Chicago!  While this wasn't as good as the movie version, it still made my heart happy... which is weird because it's a song about murder.  And I laughed out loud when Roz said, "But oh no, you pick a song about crazy women in their panties killing their men for chewing gum.  How is that supposed to help?
• Kurt was in his element with "Not the Boy Next Door" from the musical The Boy From Oz.  Go Kurt!  Now I must YouTube Hugh Jackman singing that song because... well... that needs to happen.
• Whoopi Goldberg!  I love Whoopi!
• I watched this episode with my friend Michelle who pretty much hated the punk rock cover of My Fair Lady's "The Rain in Spain," but I actually kinda liked it.  It was a little awkward at the start (mostly because I was thinking, "What the heck?") but as the boys fell into their groove I thought it was kinda fun.  Not something you'd run off to download onto your iPod, but it was a cool little novelty.
• The best song of the night, in my humble opinion, goes to the girls' cover of Florence + the Machine's "Shake It Out." So beautiful!  I was almost in tears.  Oh, and Tina got to sing finally!  Poor girl gets so forgotten...
• Rachel's rendition of Kelly Clarkson's "Cry" was another one that got me all sad and stuff.  Lots of emotion packed into this episode.

The Cons:

• Kurt singing "Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera was not my favorite.  I'm glad he changed his mind and auditioned with something else.
• Rachel choked on her audition!!  Oh no!  Sad to see someone's dreams shatter like that...
• Is Blaine a junior or a senior?  I mean, sometimes I get the impression that he's not graduating (like when he cried about missing Kurt next year in the Whitney episode) but then he's often lumped into the group of graduating senior boys.  Oh, and no song from him?