- Title: Glee – Choke
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The day of Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt’s (Chris Colfer) auditions for the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts has finally arrives, but for one of them the audition doesn’t go exactly as planned. Despite Rachel’s pleas to go with a safer choice Kurt performs “Not the Boy Next Door” from The Boy from Oz which turns out to be the kind of bold choice the judge (Whoopi Goldberg) is looking for, but Rachel’s performance of her go-to song (“Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Funny Girl) doesn’t go anywhere near as smoothly.
Meanwhile Finn (Cory Monteith) tries to rally the other male members of Glee Club when Puck (Mark Salling) decides to drop-out when his attempts to seduce the remaining teacher who stands between him and graduation he decides to drop-out fail. The reappearance of Puck’s father (Thomas Calabro) gives him the push he needs to try and pass his geographic test, but he’ll need the help of Finn, Artie (Kevin McHale), Blaine (Darren Criss), Sam (Chord Overstreet), Joe (Samuel Larsen), and “The Rain in Spain” from My Fair Lady to succeed.
Despite their mutual loathing for each other Sue (Jane Lynch) and Roz (NeNe Leakes) bond with Coach Bieste (Dot Jones) after hearing Santana (Naya Rivera), Sugar (Vanessa Lengies), Mercedes (Amber Riley), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) , and Brittany (Heather Morris) joking about domestic violence by having the girls turn songs about violence against women into songs of female empowerment. This leads to performances of “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago and Florence + the Machine‘s “Shake It Out,” and a confession from Coach Bieste.
This episode tackles some big issues, including the failures of both Rachel and Puck, and I’m not sure Coach Bieste story wouldn’t have resonated stronger if it had been made the main story of another episode rather than just the B-story. That said Bieste story works well in presenting the emotional as well as physical effects of domestic violence (especially given the coach’s final flashback). Given the outcome of everyone’s story that isn’t named Kurt, this might be the most depressing episode of the series. Other music numbers from this week’s episodes include Kurt and Tina’s performance of “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, Puck sings Alice Cooper‘s “School’s Out,” and a distraught Rachel performs Kelly Clarkson‘s “Cry” for the show’s closing number.
When she broke down and told Sue that her husband had hit her my heart broke a little but even more when we saw she went back to her husband and lied to the girls about it. Beiste was an unexpected choice to use for this kind of story and that was what made it resonate all the more.