Overall, the prom episode of Glee was one of the strongest of the season, and possibly one of the strongest ever. There was a good mix of pathos and humor, Sue was funny again, and the love of performing shone through in all of the songs.
There’s a lot I can say about last night’s episode. But I can’t talk too much about the Finn/Quinn/Rachel nonsense without going into apoplectic fits of rage about how Quinn could be an interesting character but isn’t, and how Finn is only likable as Kurt’s brother and sucks as a boyfriend no matter whom he’s dating, and how Rachel is downright pathetic about Finn when she has ten times the chemistry with Jesse St. James. I also can’t talk too much about Kurt and Blaine without babbling incoherently about how cute they are, how Kurt is so precious and brave, and how Blaine is such a good boyfriend and head-over-butt in love with him, and I’ll stop now before I give you all a cavity.
Instead, I’ll talk about Dave Karofsky. I don’t hate his storyline like I hate the “love” triangle, and I don’t love it like I love everything having to do with Kurt and Blaine.
I’m glad Karofsky is showing remorse. If he can’t do right by himself just yet, at least he’s doing right by Kurt (although he really should apologize to Blaine at this point, too – I haven’t forgotten how he shoved Blaine against a railing in one episode and called him “butt boy” in another). Max Adler owned the moment where he broke down in tears and apologized to Kurt.
But the moment doesn’t feel earned. The characters and the writers have repeatedly come down on Karofsky for threatening to kill Kurt, but I get the sense that they’ve forgotten about the creepy sexual harassment that came before and after that death threat.
I believed Dave when he said he didn’t really mean that he was going to kill Kurt. “I’m going to kill you!” has (unfortunately) become a commonplace hyperbolic phrase in the English language. I can forgive a non-consensual, desperate kiss in the heat of the moment as he’s caught in a mix of self-loathing and attraction, and I can forgive an “I’m going to kill you!” out of paranoia and fear.
What I can’t forgive is the disgusting, lascivious wink he gave Kurt in the cafeteria after greeting him with “What’s up, homo?” I can’t forgive the way he smirked at Kurt while standing next to his locker, then slowly ran his finger down Kurt’s chest before grabbing the cake topper out of his hand.
The kiss and the death threat were the acts of a panicked, self-hating, scared boy lashing out because of fear. The wink and the grope were premeditated acts of a burgeoning sexual predator.
I felt the same predatory vibes in the Superbowl episode and in the otherwise pointless “Night of Neglect.” He was aggressive and hostile towards all of the Glee club, but especially towards Finn, as though he were jealous of Finn’s closeness to Kurt. Then he showed up behind Kurt and Blaine the second he found out they were in the building for the benefit concert. That’s much more stalkery and uncomfortable than a scenario where, say, Karofsky simply happens to walk by and sees Kurt and Blaine at the same time they see him, followed by the exact same interaction.
I, for one, never thought Karofsky was going to try to kill Kurt. I thought he was going to try to rape him.
And I think the writers are being irresponsible by neglecting to acknowledge the sexual harassment. As much as I enjoy watching Santana blackmail Karofsky into being a better person, I’m having a hard time buying his redemption when no one has addressed the kiss, the wink, or the grope. I’m honestly surprised that the others still don’t know that Karofsky kissed Kurt, or touched him when he didn’t want to be touched.
At the same time, I understand why they’re approaching the storyline in this way. I’m glad the effeminate gay boys in the world have a role model in Kurt, but Karofsky is an important character in his own right. He represents the self-hating gays who grow up in a homophobic world and internalize that homophobia even when they’re attracted to people of the same sex. I think the writers intend to redeem him in the end to show the Karofskys of this world that they have a chance to find happiness and self-acceptance.
I get it. I do. I just wish they had left out the sexual harassment, because if they weren’t going to address it, it was irresponsible of them to bring it up in the first place and act like it’s the same as the typical bullying.
Of course, the writers needed to take Karofsky’s bullying to a level that would make Kurt have to leave McKinley, too afraid to stay. I understand that, too. If I could, I would go back and remove the wink and the feeling up by the locker. I would replace it with a scene where Karofsky gives Kurt the typical locker-shove, but accidentally pushes too far and Kurt winds up hitting his head and bleeding badly, or breaking his arm or nose. Quick cut to Karofsky looking shocked because he never meant it to go that far.
I would buy his remorse much more readily if we hadn’t seen him practically get off on making Kurt afraid and bring tears to his eyes.
In conclusion: It took 32 episodes for this show to do an ABBA song?!
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I agree with every single thing in this article. Karofsky’s sexual harassment of Kurt, rather than the death threat or the kiss, is primarily why I don’t really buy his redemption storyline yet, and why I have a problem with the idea of him becoming a possible love interest for Kurt. The whole thing makes me uncomfortable.
And if they ever did end up in a relationship, I can’t help but feel that the power dynamics would be messed up. All of Karofsky’s harassment of Kurt prior to his transfer (especially the creepy sexual undertones) came off to me as Karofsky sort of asserting his dominance over Kurt. Kind of like he was saying, “I’m in charge here, so don’t you dare even think about spilling my secret. I can do whatever I want to you.”
He was manipulating Kurt. Controlling him, using fear. And maybe Karofsky only did it because he was afraid and didn’t see any other way to ensure Kurt’s silence, but his intentions don’t redeem his actions. I can’t picture them in a relationship as equals when they have that sort of history, where one of them forcefully dominated the other like that. They’ll always both know that there was a time when Karofsky could and did control Kurt. Kurt can forgive him, but you don’t forget that sort of fear or resentment.
But maybe I’m letting my personal issues speak for me. I’m just rambling at this point, so let me conclude by thanking the author for such a well-written article, and for putting into words all the thoughts I couldn’t articulate.
Thank you for commenting. I’m glad you liked this post, and I didn’t think you were rambling at all.
I have a problem with the idea of him becoming a possible love interest for Kurt.
I don’t have a lot of faith in these writers about most issues, but I think they at least know enough not to go there. Chris Colfer doesn’t want that storyline and I think they’ll respect his wishes. They seem to at least have their hand on the pulse when it comes to this storyline and the way fans are seeing it.
But we should also really be happy that Darren Criss/Blaine are so popular. If he weren’t, I could see a love triangle in the works, but Blaine and the Kurt/Blaine relationship are both so beloved by fans that I think they know not to fan the flames.
I agree completely. The creepy, rapey undertones of his action after the kiss turned the caracter from pitiable bully to horrifying person. It seemed, especially in Furt, like Karofsky had become aware of this power he had over Kurt, imposed trough fear and a refusal to ask for help, and was slowly convincing himself that sexualized violence is a form of bullying just as “acceptable” as all his other actions.
The escalation was so obvious and frightening to watch.
He was definitely aware of the power he had over Kurt, and he was enjoying watching him cry. I can’t get that image out of my mind. Disgusting.
Great post, I totally agree with you. I really wish that the show actually deals with this, but that doesn’t seem likely.
I disagree with your last point, the one about it being better for the violence to have reached an extremity of the locker shoves turning bloody. I personally prefer the sexual bullying because its more psychologically frightening than a little blood, because if Kurt bled, it’d attract too much attention and Karofsky would surely get kicked out instead, and because its more in character for Karofsky; after all, whatever redeeming qualities he has, you should never forget that he is a bully, a sexually frustrated one at that, and there is really no other way in a situation like that for a person like that to ease those frustrations than exactly what they did.
Censoring that would have done no good in the long run. While I agree that Karofsky is an important figure in the show for all the closeted homophobic gays in the world, not being true to the violence of this character would not be fair to him, let alone the rest of them. Which is not to say that all the Karofskys of the world are violent, but ultimately its his redemption that will speak to them. Until then, they can at least look to the character and say, “That’s how bad it can truly get for us. This is the type of person I am, like it or not, and its good to know I’m not alone, even when society hates us.”
Okay, I understand that there will also be people who take it another way, a more negative way, there’ll always be those kinds of people. And yes, this is something that would tend to take heat by conflicting opinions, but its something owed to us to see this situation as it really is. That’s the whole point of media.
My problem is that the writers wanted to have it both ways with Karofsky. They wanted his bullying to go dark, even sexually dark, but they also wanted to redeem him fairly quickly because a) they wanted him to be a role model for other teens like him, and b) they like to do every bit of character development quickly because they’re lazy and that’s how they roll. And what was the result? The character who was sexually obsessed with Kurt and seemed to get off on making him afraid was partially redeemed by a Thriller dance that Kurt should have been able to participate in, and then fully redeemed after one tear-stained apology.
Never mind that he didn’t know an inkling of remorse at all and only became Kurt’s protector when Santana blackmailed him. And that’s not even touching the fact that he hasn’t even sincerely apologized for shoving Tina around, or bullying Finn and making him feel unsafe on the football field, or shoving Blaine and calling him a male prostitute, or fighting Sam, or participating in locking Puck in a Port-a-Potty for twenty-four hours, or shoving Mike and knocking him into Artie, subsequently knocking Artie out of his wheelchair. He hasn’t had to face a single consequence for his behavior. Heck, he doesn’t even have to suffer Kurt disliking him.
I agree that, once they decided to go dark with Karofsky, they should have explored that further, owned it, and shown it for what it was. Or, they should never have gone there in the first place. It’s the half-assed, “wanting to have it both ways” aspect of the story that makes it truly problematic.