Glee returns from its baseball-induced hiatus with "The Role You Were Born to Play." It's time to audition for the fall musical, Grease, at McKinley High School. Some students are nervous about the roles they want to play, while others worry that a bad casting choice could hurt a relationship. But an alum, at pivotal moment of his life, returns to steer these young people in the right direction.
"The Role You Were Born to Play" is a solid Finn (Cory Monteith) episode. Though I haven't always been a fan of the character, he has really grown on me, and this installment proves his staying power. Here he is, down on himself, not believing he can do much of anything, but he still manages to provide some good advice to students who are struggling. It's a maturation moment, where Finn suddenly grows up very quickly and seems like an adult.
There is no question that Monteith can play adult. He is one, after all. But in "The Role You Were Born to Play," the character starts to seem closer to the actor's actual age of 30 than what he should be. Recently graduated eighteen year olds aren't able to show the wisdom Finn displays here. But it's forgiven because this is television, and Finn has always seemed smarter in some areas than is typical. Even the fact that the school hires him to direct the New Directions, a completely unrealistic occurrence, is overlooked because it serves his story well. And isn't that what's really important? A character's journey?
Of course, Finn also makes mistakes, and he makes a whopper of one in "The Role You Were Born to Play" when he calls Sue's (Jane Lynch) baby "retarded." It does not matter that she is fighting him on a casting choice, which, based on past revelations about her character, likely comes from a place of wanting to protect the students, rather than out of bigotry, even if she doesn't know how to express that. But Finn comes across as the real bad guy in that scene, callous and cold, even when he immediately apologizes. That is just something you do not say, and he has earned himself justified hatred from Sue. This will have consequences in episodes to come.
Article comments
1 - mary
i think it is really wrong to use the word retarded to describe a baby or even a human being that has disability. i hear the word getting used in other tv shows but they are not use to describe a baby with a real disability i no its not the actors fault but the fault of the writers but i really think they should consider how other people feel about the agenda they are discussing about other than their own so they could get a good laugh out of it. i come from a family with disabled people in it and i really wouldn't like for them to go out in the world and get called that name because someone thought it was funny while watching the show and decided to use it because their favorite character used it.
2 - Jerome Wetzel
Mary - I absolutely agree with you that it should not be used in any show. Glee has been extremely good at showing characters with disabilities as fully fleshed out people, and now allowing such slurs to be used.
It doesn't sound like you saw the episode, so I'd like to assure you, it was not used for a laugh at all, and it was immediately apparent to viewers and characters alike that using that word was a huge, unacceptable mistake. It definitely hurt the character that uttered it, and was used in a way that it will continue to have negative consequence for him. Anyone who saw the scene would not be encouraged to use that word in any way.
3 - Xina
Even though Finn used that word, it was obvious that he did not mean it in a malicious way. He was simply stressing that she should understand Unique's challenges due to having a baby that has Down's. He used a word that up until very recently ( and in some institutions is) wa still deemed a diagnostic word. Socially is has become unacceptable, and he realized his error as soon as it was uttered. However, that is typical of Finn because he takes abuse and being pushed to his limit and then blows up, as we have seen numerous times in season 1, 2 and 3.
4 - Jerome Wetzel
Xina - I absolutely agree with you. Unfortunately, as I think Finn saw, it doesn't matter what the intentions are. It is just not acceptable to use the word under any circumstances.
5 - mary
i totally agree with both of you but i think the writers should of put it in a nicer term than using that word i mean if they are going to show Finn in a growing up setting they should of discussed in a growing up way i haven't seen the ep but my friends in America where telling me about it