Whenever I think of a school dance scene from TV or film, the first thought that pops into my head is from Mean Girls. When Cady goes up to accept her crown, instead of letting herself be Spring Fling queen, she breaks the plastic crown into pieces and tosses it to other girls, offering them compliments along the way and imploring them to share the opportunity of being "partial Spring Fling queens."
Glee had its own memorable moments in “Prom-asaurus,” but in this show it wasn’t the graceful handing away of the crown that was as stunning as a moment along a really powerful personal journey.
The build-up to the McKinley High senior prom tonight was a bit of a downer as a bunch of the kids in the show complained that various aspects of the dance were making them unwilling to attend. Without a prom queen nomination, Rachel seemed pretty gung-ho about getting away from the concept as quickly as possible.
It made for a good moment in the episode when Finn, arriving at the anti-prom party that Rachel, Kurt and Blaine were throwing (with only two other guests, Puck and Becky), convinced his fiancée to attend the prom with him. Regardless of all of their disappointments, it was imperative that they all return for this final hurrah at McKinley before the next big event at the school: Graduation.
Yet, with all of its lovely moments of community and friendship, one thing bothered me to no end about the presentation of prom in Glee. In the first couple of minutes of the episode, in her voice-over Rachel talks about having her dreams of going to NYADA dashed and having smaller, more realistic dreams now. She includes her wedding, winning nationals and prom among them. While I can understand her marriage to Finn and even the competition for the New Directions being of concern for Rachel, it disappoints me that prom is played out as such a big deal in this show.
Even Quinn, who has amazing accomplishments in physical therapy during this episode, acts as though prom is the biggest event of her life. It’s a way of amplifying what is not necessarily that important of an event. In Rachel’s list of dreams, she didn’t mention graduation. A wedding, winning nationals and prom are all bigger dreams than getting to graduation?
That being said, the concept makes sense for the sake of the episode. Unlike in reality where prom is generally just a fun event and no one actually campaigns with posters to be voted king and queen (at least at my high school they didn’t), it becomes a great opportunity for Glee to glorify a high school tradition – something it has tried to do pretty regularly throughout its tenure.
Beyond all the prom hullabaloo, though, the moment that truly stood out of this episode was when Quinn stood up while singing “Take My Breath Away” at prom and everyone in the gym began clapping for her. The moment of triumph of the night could have been Quinn giving Rachel her crown, but it ended up being something much bigger than that. That was something worth being enthusiastic about.
The Songs of “Prom-asaurus”:
“Big Girls Don’t Cry” – This song would have better fit into last week’s episode, though perhaps that was already taken up by “Cry” as Rachel’s lamentation song. The best part, perhaps, was having Blaine and Kurt sing with Rachel, even if the song seemed a little mismatched with the episode.
“Dinosaur” – Sometimes with Glee, “the chicken and the egg” order is difficult to decipher. Did they decide to write the prom theme as “Dinosaurs” because they wanted to use the Ke$ha song “Dinosaur” in the episode? Or was it the other way around? Either way, a pretty standardly good performance.
“Love You Like a Love Song” – Santana’s rendition of this song didn’t seem to be that prom-friendly with a pulsating beat that didn’t seem all that fitting for the type of dancing that went on for the rest of the episode. Either way, it’s a catchy tune.
“What Makes You Beautiful” – Maybe it’s just the One Direction fan girl writing this, but this was by far the highlight of the night as far as music goes. It had just the right amount of energy to make sense even if it is such a kitschy pop song.
“Take My Breath Away” – The fact that this song was accompanied by a bunch of snapshots of the prom couples taking their photos made up for the fact that it’s, in general, not the most amazing king and queen dance number I’ve ever heard. The way it was conducted as a scene, though, was heartfelt and touching.