"Born This Way" is the eighteenth episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the fortieth episode overall. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on April 26, 2011. The episode was written by Brad Falchuk and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and is a tribute to Lady Gaga, the second such tribute to the artist in the show's history; the first one was "Theatricality". Most of the major plots of the episode center on the topic of homosexuality, as Kurt (Chris Colfer) lays the groundwork for his longtime bully Dave Karofsky (Max Adler) to come to terms with his sexuality, Quinn (Dianna Agron) deals with her past as a victim of bullying, and Santana (Naya Rivera) plots to run for school prom queen in the hopes of winning her love interest Brittany (Heather Morris) from Artie (Kevin McHale).
"Born This Way" attracted mostly positive reception from most critics of the show, as many felt that it was one of the better episodes of the season. However, the episode came under scrutiny by several conservative media critics who criticized the show's depiction of homosexuality. This episode featured cover versions of seven songs, including a cover of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga. Other musical works featured in the episode include cover versions of the Keane song "Somewhere Only We Know" and "I've Gotta Be Me" from the 1968 Broadway production Golden Rainbow. The musical covers and performances were met with generally positive reception from critics, with several noting that it contained the best musical selection in a while. With the exception of "Barbra Streisand", all cover versions were released as singles available for digital download.
Upon its initial airing, the episode was viewed by 8.62 million American viewers, and garnered a 3.4/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, the lowest ratings and total viewership of the season. The episode's ratings and total viewership significantly declined from the previous episode, "Night of Neglect", which had previously been the low point in viewership.
Plot During dance rehearsals for the upcoming Nationals competition, New Directions glee club co-captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) accidentally breaks Rachel Berry's (Lea Michele) nose. Her doctor (George Wyner) recommends septoplasty and elective rhinoplasty; Rachel considers modelling her nose after Finn's current girlfriend Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron), and the two girls duet on the mash-up "I Feel Pretty/Unpretty". Both Finn and Puck (Mark Salling) oppose her planned transformation. Puck tries to help her accept her nose as part of her Jewish heritage, and recruits Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), who convinces her to look to her idol Barbra Streisand, who refused to succumb to pressure to alter her nose. Ultimately, Rachel decides against having surgery.
Club member Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) uses Rachel's broken nose as a launching point to highlight the other group members' physical flaws. Aiming to help them achieve self-acceptance, glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) urges them to embrace their perceived flaws by printing them on T-shirts to be worn during a group performance of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way". He also encourages school guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) to confront her OCD; she begins treatment with a psychiatrist, Dr. Shane (Kathleen Quinlan).
Santana, who is a closeted lesbian, decides to run for school prom queen in the hope that she can win the love of her best friend Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris), who is dating Artie (Kevin McHale). She realizes that popular jock Dave Karofsky (Max Adler) is also in the closet, after noticing him checking out Sam (Chord Overstreet), and hatches an elaborate scheme to attain her goals: she threatens to out Karofsky unless he agrees to stop the bullying that drove Kurt from McKinley and the glee club. The pair form an anti-bullying club to make the school safer in order to entice Kurt back and bolster the glee club's chance at Nationals, though mostly to boost Santana's popularity before the prom. They also become one another's "beard" to bolster their heterosexual facades.
Karofsky issues an apology to Kurt at a group meeting involving Will, Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), and their fathers. Though Kurt wants to transfer back to McKinley from Dalton Academy, he is hesitant until Karofsky admits privately that Santana's prom queen scheme is behind his change of heart and the anti-bullying movement; Kurt agrees to return, but only if Karofsky will start a school PFLAG club with him. As Kurt arrives back at McKinley, the Dalton Academy Warblers glee club that he had joined while he was away—fronted by his boyfriend Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss)—serenades him in farewell with a rendition of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know". Kurt marks his re-entry to New Directions with a solo performance of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from Sunset Boulevard.
As the race for prom queen intensifies, Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink) begins campaigning against Quinn. She discovers that Quinn's first name is Lucy, and that she used to be an overweight outcast who had rhinoplasty before re-inventing herself and transferring to McKinley. Lauren attempts to sabotage Quinn's campaign by revealing her former image to the other students, but it backfires when Quinn's popularity actually increases amongst the girls like Lauren, encouraged by the idea of someone able to rise above such difficulties like she did, and become popular. Lauren apologizes to Quinn, but Quinn commends her for her confidence and pride, and the two form a bond. Brittany shows off her shirt to Santana, and gives Santana a shirt reading "Lebanese", believing that it reads "Lesbian". Santana balks at wearing it, and the two argue; Brittany finally storms off saying that if Santana loved herself as much as Brittany loved her, she would put on the shirt and dance with her. The episode closes with the club, minus Santana, embracing their identities and performing "Born This Way". During the song, Emma arrives wearing a T-shirt that acknowledges her own problems—it reads "OCD"—and she and Will join the performance. Karofsky and Santana watch from the audience, with Santana wearing her "Lebanese" shirt.
Production
The episode was extended and ran for 90 minutes, as opposed to the usual 60 minutes. Michael Ausiello of TVLine reported that the producers included two extra musical performances to fill the extended time slot. Series creator Ian Brennan stated that he believed the extension was granted as there were two songs which would otherwise have been cut for length. He welcomed the additional 24 minutes of screen time, and commented: "We're always desperately cutting down our episodes. Even when we write them, and then in the editing room we're always throwing away stuff that I really love to get it down to time. [...] It will be just really interesting content-wise for us [to have an extension]."
The focus of the episode is Lady Gaga's song "Born This Way", which she approved for use in Glee before the song premiered. This was the second episode to highlight Gaga's music, the first one being season one's "Theatricality". According to Monteith, the focus of "Born This Way" is the characters "embracing the things about [them]selves that [they] don't like and tailoring [their] performances around that." It features homophobic Dave Karofsky starting to come to terms with his homosexuality. The plot arc, which began in the season's sixth episode, "Never Been Kissed", is intended by series creator Ryan Murphy to have a happy ending. He explained that, while someone like Karofsky could turn to drugs or alcohol or commit suicide, Glee is "by nature optimistic", so he plans to conclude the storyline positively. For fellow closeted character Santana, "Born This Way" set up the final three episodes of the season, which will increase focus on her love for her best friend Brittany. The episode additionally marked the first appearance of guest star Dr. Shane, "a very smart, cool and kind psychiatrist" who may become a recurring character. Other characters seen in "Born This Way" include glee club members Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.), Sam Evans and Lauren Zizes, Kurt's boyfriend Blaine Anderson, school bully Azimio (James Earl), Principal Figgins, and Karofsky's father, Paul (Daniel Roebuck).
In addition to "Born This Way", the other songs covered in the episode were Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know", "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from the musical Sunset Boulevard, a mash-up of "I Feel Pretty" from West Side Story and "Unpretty" by TLC, "I've Gotta Be Me" from the musical Golden Rainbow, and Duck Sauce's "Barbra Streisand". All but "Barbra Streisand" were released as digital singles for the episode. "Somewhere Only We Know" was included on the series' seventh soundtrack, Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers, and "As If We Never Said Goodbye", "Born This Way" and "I Feel Pretty / Unpretty" were included on the series' eighth soundtrack, Glee: The Music, Volume 6.
Reception
Ratings "Born This Way" was first broadcast on April 26, 2011, in the United States. It averaged a 3.4/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and also averaged nearly 8.62 million American viewers during its initial airing. The first hour of the show garnered 8.3 million American viewers and a 3.3/9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, despite airing simultaneously with a rerun of NCIS on CBS, The Biggest Loser on NBC, No Ordinary Family on ABC, and One Tree Hill on The CW. The last half-hour of the episode had 8.5 million American viewers, as well as a 3.4/9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, despite airing alongside a rerun of NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS, Dancing with the Stars on ABC, The Voice on NBC, and Hellcats on The CW. The total viewership and ratings were the lowest of the second season of Glee, and was down from those of the previous episode, "Night of Neglect", which was watched by 9.80 million American viewers and acquired a 3.8/11 rating/share upon first airing. In the UK, the episode was watched by 2.52 million viewers (2.087 million on E4, and 433,000 on E4+1), becoming the most-watched show on E4 and E4 +1 for the week, and the most-watched show on cable for the week.
Critical response
"Born This Way" was given a positive reception by many critics of the show. Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone and Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly both considered it to be an improvement from the previous episode. Futterman wrote that it "gave us the charm, wit and just-zany-enough-to-be-plausible plot lines we were sorely missing after last week's predictable" episode, and added, "Even better: the episode didn't feel as long as the 90 minutes it clocked in at." IGN Robert Canning gave the episode a "great" rating of 8 out of 10. While he said the episode was entertaining, he felt that it did not need to be an hour and a half. Emily Yahr of The Washington Post agreed about the extended length, and did not like what she called "lame attempts to fill time", which she said "detracted from what started as a decent episode". She did, however, cite several "promising storylines", including Rachel's, and noted, "Usually, New Directions leader Rachel Berry is a caricature of all things annoying—but this episode, we see her genuinely struggling with wanting to love herself the way she is". The Houston Chronicle Bobby Hankinson summed it up as follows: "Not an epic episode, just sort of … meh." Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times reacted more positively and wrote, "The 90-minute episode had a lot of laughs, a lot of heart, some good lessons, character development, a few good numbers and more than a few surprises."