Wrapping up plotlines before the season finale. That’s all many series are about at this point in the season, and Glee is no exception to the current rule. While hosting the second prom in the series, the focus of the episode was clearly on advancing the rather weak plot while the senior year of several of the characters in the show quickly comes to an end. Though with some interesting ideas, the episode fails mainly due to its predictable nature and the lack of logic around several of the things that take place in it.

After Brittany is threatened by the director of the school with abolishing the Senior Class President position due to her terrible time in office during which she pretty much forgot she was the class president, she is tasked with organizing the prom dance in an attempt to salvage her image. After firing the committee that had so far been organizing the prom, she decides the new theme for it will be Dinosaurs and places a one-sided ban on hairgel simply because she dislikes it and it hadn’t been invented in the prehistory.

Several of the students in McKinley aren’t too thrilled about the dance. Rachel has been going through a depression due to her failed NYADA audition along with Finn and Quinn being candidates for prom queen and king, Kurt is afraid he might get elected prom queen again and Blaine fears being seen without his hair gel on. Thus Rachel proposes hosting an anti-prom at a hotel room, something that Santana deems her most selfish idea to date, and eventually convinces Puck, who isn’t graduating, and Becky, who’s bitter because she wasn’t chosen as a candidate for prom queen, to join them.

Quinn keeps trying to recover from her accident, with her recovery having sped up significantly lately. Though she can now somehow walk, she withholds the truth from her friends in order to make it a surprise for them once she can walk again, plus it allows her to keep up a campaign to obtain sympathy votes from people who pity her being in a wheelchair. Though initially supportive of her, on the prom night Finn realizes she can actually walk and leaves her alone, skipping the remainder of the dance to be with Rachel who, he now knows, needs him way more than Quinn does.

The anti-prom, however, is anything but a success: The few people who attended are much too different, Becki being the wildest of them all and it all ends with Kurt and Blaine watching TV while Rachel spends half the night getting into her prom dress. Finn arrives when she has just changed and convinces them to go to the real prom regardless of their fears since they only have one senior prom. With this speech he convinces Rachel, Kurt and Blaine, but Puck and Becky stay behind, still not convinced. Later in the night, after Finn and company have left, however, Puck realizes how much it means for everyone involved (this while losing to Becky at strip poker) and, after crafting makeshift crowns for himself and Becky as the anti-prom king and queen, they set off for the real prom.

Back in the prom, the group is welcomed by Brittany, who reminds Blaine he can’t enter while wearing hair gel. After he removes it and Brittany notices how terrible he looks without it, she gives him special permission to wear it but Kurt keeps him from doing so, telling him he enjoys seeing him as he is, without product on. Rachel meets with Quinn before the votes for prom king and queen are counted and tells her just how much she admires her and that she’s glad they can be friends now, making Quinn feel bad about her ruse to obtain sympathy votes to become prom queen. Later, when she and Santana are done counting, they notice Quinn wins by a single vote – Rachel’s vote, as it happens to be – Making Quinn not only feel bad for winning, but reflect with Santana about how perfect their high school careers have been and wondering if it would be good to do something different and help somebody who needs it for a change.

When the moment to crown the senior king and queen comes, Finn is immediately crowned king as expected. However, before calling the prom queen, Principal Figgins notes that the vote anarchy has once again hit the prom queen election, making Kurt tremble at the prospect of being the queen again and having to crown himself. After a small silence, he proclaims Rachel the prom queen, making Rachel regain faith on herself and finally believe anything can happen in her life from then on.

Musically, the episode is also a rather lukewarm one. None of the songs sung really stand out except for, perhaps, Lea Michele’s rendition of Big Girls Don’t Cry. What Makes You Beautiful, original by One Direction is also a fun song that comes to take the place that Friday had in the prom episode of season two, but it really isn’t musically relevant – It’s recognizable due to it being one of the current hits and it is well performed, but it isn’t a musical stand out when compared to the usual songs from the series. Other songs performed are Dinosaur, original by Ke$ha, Take My Breath Away original by Berlin and Selena Gomez & the Scene’s Love You Like a Love Song.

The main problem that Prom-asaurus had, when looking at it, was the lack of proper characterization for the characters in it. Though the actors and actresses are as good as always, having the main storyline involve Quinn so much is a downer simply because Quinn, as a character, is a joke that changes every week to suit the writers’ needs. Becky’s character also crosses the line from cute to creepy with her sexual obsession – Though I have personally witnessed Down syndrome girls have rather twisted ideas about sexuality and relationships given by the media, painting the one token special education character in the show as such is a bit of a horrible message to give, particularly since so far she’d been generally nice and well behaved, if at times spoiled. Other than that, the episode served to showcase just how many characters the show has to try to keep track of, doubtless the main reason the writing has gone downhill – Brittany’s plotline about having forgotten she was the class president, for example, lampshades the fact that the writers entirely forgot the character existed during the whole season since they have just too many main characters around, and it is hurting the storyline and the series itself really badly.

Final review rating: 3/5