This week on Glee, Kurt learned that despite the creation of Santana’s Bully Whips squad, the students at McKinley are still discriminating against homosexuals. Tonight we finally saw an end to the inane chatter about who would win Prom Queen, and though the results were leaked by an extra (who was told she’d “never work in this town again,” in an overly-dramatic fashion) the scene was far more poignant than it sounded in breathless E! gossip updates.
When Mercedes declared that she wasn’t going to the prom because no one asked her, I thought I’d spoken too soon about her lack of a boyfriend. But then she went in a platonic group with Rachel and Sam because none of them had dates. That is pretty realistic, but it doesn’t advance the campaign for Mercedes to get her own plot line. She tells Rachel:
I know I talk a good game about not needing a man and I don’t. I just really wanted to take a date to the prom. I want the dress. And the guy … I just wanted to be Cinderella. Just for one night. One night where a guy would look at me under those corney crepe paper streamers and say “You look so beautiful.”
Sam winds up telling her she’s pretty and asking her to dance, but it seems he does this out of friendship/pity. Once again, it looks like her possible desire for a boyfriend will be forgotten by next week.
After Air Supply cancels, Figgins asks New Directions to perform at the Junior Prom (naturally). While preparing Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep,” who should stumble into a duet but JESSE ST. JAMES. He reveals that he’s flunked out of college and admits that egging Rachel after telling her he loved her made absolutely no sense. He explains, “I traded love for a fourth consecutive national championship. It was a bum deal. For a first maybe, but for a fourth no way.”