New Directions prepare for a Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Michael Jackson 'Zombie' mash-up
When an episode of Glee opens with the Cheerios doing an all-out routine to Katy Perry’s ‘California Girls’, complete with fire poi and flaming bras, you know you’re onto a winner. Follow this with Sue Sylvester announcing (via megaphone) that she’s ‘so very bored’, before getting Santana to slap first herself, then Brittany, with a chicken-cutlet, and you could guarantee the next hour was going to be fun.
For the most part ‘The Sue Sylvester Shuffle’ was just that: fun. There was a giant cannon, Sue’s most epic meltdown to date, the girls playing football, a camp-as-you-like version of Destiny’s Child’s ‘Bills, Bills, Bills’ courtesy of Kurt and the Warblers, and killer lines – ‘I don’t wanna die yet. At least not until One Tree Hill is cancelled’ (Brittany). Not to mention the revelation that was Sue’s ‘2pm ninja poops’.
Of course, at the heart of the episode were much more important themes as gay-bully Karofsky and the rest of the football team were forced to work alongside New Directions at ‘Zombie Camp’. And, given that there was very little Kurt, the episode was still pretty gay-tastic. First with the ‘togetherness’ of it all, and especially when Karofsky swallowed his pride and joined the glee club for their half-time Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Michael Jackson mash-up.
Whether this move was meant to be an allegory to Karofsky’s coming out remains to be seen, but what is noteworthy is the way Glee continues to tackle gay issues head-on. In Kurt the show has the stereotypical gay boy, who is probably doing as much to reinforce stereotypes as he is helping kids be proud of who they are; in Blaine the show has the seemingly self-assured, comfortable-in-his-skin gay teen (the kind of boy Kurt – and thousands of fans – both want to date and become); while in Karofsky, Glee offers us a confused young man, struggling to come to terms with his uncertain sexuality.
The best thing about ‘The Sue Sylvester Shuffle’, however, came in a double whammy at the very end. First we see Sue interviewed as Loser Of The Year as she discovers her remaining budget for the now defunct Cheerios is going to New Directions – guaranteed to push Sue’s scrupulous plans to destroy the glee club into overdrive; then we see Quinn and Finn share a moment (and a kiss) in the school corridor – hinting that things could be about to get very messy for the glee clubbers indeed…
Oh, one last thing, did we mention Lauren Isis? Love her.
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