To Believe or Not To Believe in "Grilled Cheesus"

One has to wonder the motivation for this episode. Religion, like politics, is a very heated and controversial subject, and one has to wonder what Ryan Murphy's true motivations in bringing this subject so heavily into light in a high school setting are. That aside, this episode balances pro-religion and anti-religion viewpoints beautifully--it never takes a side and it never even subtly proposes one as better than another. In fact, this episode perhaps balanced this topic better than ever done before through Kurt who is expressly atheist who tells his unconscious father that he should have accepted the prayers of the other Glee Clubbers because they were only trying to support him and love him the best they know how, and Kurt says his faith is love.


The plot frame of this episode is a little silly and sarcastic beginning with Finn believing he burned the image of Christ onto his grilled cheese sandwich and ends with him eating the so-called Grilled Cheesus (I once saw an episode of "Miami Ink" where an old lady had a grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly bore the face of Jesus and because she was parting with the sandwich-image she was tattooing it on her arm). Most of the rest of this episode is not so silly nor sarcastic. The Clubbers begin to experience faith and crises of faith throughout the rest of the episode, dealing with things such as Kurt's father Burt having a heart attack and being in a coma, Finn's prayers to be quarterback again and to make it to second base with Rachel and his subsequent loss of faith when Emma tells him these things were not Jesus' doing, Mercedes trying to comfort Kurt through her faith, and a side-view of Judaism through Puck's rendition of "Only the Good Die Young" and Rachel's rendition of "Papa, Can You Hear Me?". Kurt, Finn, and Mercedes, in that order, grow tremendously in themselves and in their different belief systems, with an added bonus of Sue's beautiful arc and coming to grips with her sister's disability and God.

Kurt, at first, displays the tendencies of a typical atheist--I don't want your prayers, your prayers don't do anything for me, your faiths are like the Flying Spaghetti Monster--but he grows into a person of personal belief, that of atheism, and one accepting differing viewpoints and sees the genuineness and love offered to him from these other beliefs, those of his friends, and learns to cherish them as offerings of love for him, something he does believe in.

Finn displays the typical new Christian--believing only because of supposed signs from God proving His existence and love for people (in Finn's case, helping the football team win, making him quarterback again, and getting to touch Rachel's boobs). Once these things no longer hold true he turns away from Christ and the faith (as displayed in his awkward and unmoving performance of "Losing My Religion"). Where Finn ends up on the faith scale is left obscure, but one can amass that he is simply confused and content with his life as is, for the time being. However, Finn learns to stand up for his beliefs and also to seek truth--things that make him a better person.

Mercedes, oh well-intentioned, beautiful voiced, Mercedes. She depicts a typical Evangelical Christian and she wants so badly for Kurt to be able to take part in the goodness of her faith and what it has to offer that she sometimes misses the point of why he doesn't want to believe. She keeps pushing faith and Christianity while not stopping to understand Kurt's point of view or where he is truly coming from. Her rendition of "I Look to You" is sung beautifully, but falls as flat on us as it did on Kurt. When she learns to offer her prayers not as a conversion tactic but truly as an offering of love for Kurt is when she grows as a person and a person of faith. Again, although sung beautifully, her rendition of "Bridge of Troubled Water" is largely unmoving and this seems to be because she is not moved by it and so we aren't either; she does not tap into the transcendental words that she is singing and so they do not transcend and we are left exactly where we began.

Sue was a beautiful surprise in this episode. She begins as typical ranting and rampaging Sue and it is through her sister, the one she loves the most and will sacrifice anything for, that she begins to come to terms with her sister's disability, with God, and with herself. Sue's simple act of coming to see the Glee Club perform "One of Us" is truly telling of her personal faith journey--Jean believes that "God doesn't make mistakes" and that simple faith of one who seems to have been forgotten or screwed up starts Sue on her journey of accepting that things are not always as they appear and that maybe she has more in common with the Glee Club than she chooses to admit...

While this episode was a beautiful statement of religions and belief systems and of acceptance for who you are no matter who you are, it still has very little to do with the foundation of "Glee"--being a high school singing group trying to make their way to win sectionals and then to win regionals. Unless "Glee" is no about acceptance and tolerance, the episodes need more unity in the foundation. Although, the show was almost bound to go this way; you cannot found a show on a group of singing misfits and not expect it to turn into a musical about acceptance.