The ending of this week’s episode was especially troubling. As you said, “Really, tonsillitis=total paralysis?” It felt like something out of an episode of Strangers with Candy, because who else besides Jerri Blank would equate the two? But instead of giving us the “moral” of the story like SwC would (by having Jerri hilariously learn the wrong lesson), Glee just plays it straight by having Rachel learn a very problematic lesson instead.

By comparison, the football player (as sad as it is that I don’t remember his name) actually creates a response from Rachel, manipulating her emotions rather than our own. I think it was certainly over the top and after school-specialy (since that is Ryan Murphy’s calling card on this show, having written “Wheels” as well), but the fact that it confirmed more than changed our expectations (forcing Rachel to see what we could see from the beginning of the episode, that she was being a jerk) means that it feels like the moral is for the character more than for the audience. That doesn’t make the moral any better, but it at least makes it more functional for long term character development – maybe it’s just that I’ve been complaining about its absence for so long, but I was very pleased to see the “live” singing at the end of the episode, and I thought Michele did a nice job with the scene (even if Murphy didn’t really carry over Rachel’s personality into the scenes as he perhaps should have).

TPG just seem to be taking shots in the dark at this point.

The episode was saved though by “The Lady is a Tramp” and “Kurt’s Turn.” What fantastic numbers!

I feel like The Powers That Glee were basically saying “SEE, HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CAST SOMEONE WHO’S ACTUALLY DISABLED.” Which is an unfortunate message altogether.