Rachel had a birth mother for ten minutes.
Remember? She was desperate to find her birth mother? And then she did! She was right there, coaching Vocal Adrenaline all along! Then she just sort of left after Rachel had a nervous breakdown for not having a mom who could help her make a proper Lady Gaga costume. Which, by the way, is the most preposterous thing ever, since she has two gay dads and if anyone could make a killer Gaga costume, it's the two gay dads who raised Rachel Barry. But anyway. They sang, they bonded, then mom left town. It was never mentioned again. Rachel was like, oh well! Moving on! Well now Idina Menzel is back as Shelby in an extremely convoluted plot that involves Sugar (of the self-diagnosed Asperger's) getting her dad to make a hefty donation to the school so that her own glee club can be formed with Shelby as director. This plot is beyond stupid, what with all the arguing about arts funding and the fact that they could have just paid the principal off to put her in New Directions, but whatever. Shelby is back with Quinn and Puck's baby and it looks like she'll be around for a while. Suddenly, she is all about having Puck and Quinn be a part of baby Beth's life. She's still not very interested in being Rachel's mom, though. But she and Rachel sing together again, which resolves nothing.
Quinn and Puck had a baby and gave it away and then everything was fine
We went a whole year with barely a mention to the fact that Quinn gave birth to a daughter and then gave her up for adoption to Rachel's mom. She literally never mentioned it. I mean, I don't know, it seems like something that would have come up like, once at least. "Hey, remember how I gave birth a few months ago? That was crazy, right?" Nothing. Now we have pink haired, smoking "Skank" Quinn, who I guess is supposed to represent the damaged, angry girl we should have seen last season instead of a prom-obsessed cheerleader who was secretly fat. But better late than never? Who knows. It's kind of worth it when Puck gives the best line of the night, "You look like a Real Housewife of Reno." But yeah, so now she and Puck are very into being quasi-parents to baby Beth, which mostly contradicts season one entirely, but alright. By the end of the episode, Quinn is blonde again and wearing a white dress, just in case we needed to be hit over the head with a hammer that she is Good Quinn again. Of course, she drops the bomb that she's after full custody of Beth (stupid!) but I guess it's better than nothing? Um. Or not. Or it's dumb. Yeah.
Kurt is gay and special, and gay means special, in case you didn't hear me, I'm going to shove it down your throats until you choke on how gay Kurt is
Hey, did you know that Kurt is gay? Well, if you didn't, you've definitely never watched Glee, where we are constantly reminded that being different makes you special, but being gay makes you better than everyone because gay is the most specialest. Hey Ryan Murphy, you're childhood issues are showing! But yes, Kurt is gay. And not just homosexual as in he likes to date men, but like crazy Liberace shitting rainbows gay. Brittany recognizes this gay specialness and wants to help him win the class election, because he is a "unicorn" (read: gay horse). But then Kurt gets all upset in this crazy shitstorm of meta where we have to recognize that gay men struggle with their masculinity and Kurt keeps getting mistaken for Liza Minnelli instead of a man in his audition for West Side Story's Tony. They actually laugh at him, which is a nice and completely unnecessary touch. And so subtle! But yeah, so the show is recognizing that it's shoved sparkly gay Kurt down our throats too much by...making most of the episode about it. It's pretty intense, how much they're trying to explain themselves. Kurt is all, "I don't want to just be known as Kurt Hummel, Homo," and Brittany goes into this huge explanation about how the captain of the football team may rule the class, but he doesn't represent them, because most teenagers feel different and awkward. It's like something straight out of the show's mission statement or possibly from Ryan Murphy's Livejournal. But I guess it was a nice effort?
(Note: this is not to say that I don't appreciate the sentiment. I just think it could have been done at about twenty percent of last year's full throttle gay force, which ended up feeling more like a soap box lecture than an attempt to normalize the school outcasts and teach us a lesson about bullying and acceptance)
Next week on Glee: will Kurt be able to accept that his boyfriend manages to be gay but also convince people that he is male? Will we have to watch more slow motion sequences of Mr. Schuester dancing? Will Quinn secretly keep smoking so we don't forget that she is still actually Bad Quinn? Will they explain to us how the football coach can direct the school musical during football season? And most importantly, will Kurt wear that spiked jacket again? One can dare to dream.