Prom asaurus

Plot

McKinley High Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) has a talk with Brittany (Heather Morris) for being an ineffective senior class president, and tells her that he is considering abolishing the position. As a result, Brittany vows to make the upcoming senior prom a memorable one. She decides that the prom will have a dinosaur theme and imposes a ban on hair gel at the prom, which upsets Blaine (Darren Criss), an extensive user of hair gel.

Sue (Jane Lynch) announces the three finalists for prom king and prom queen, which include Finn (Cory Monteith) and Brittany for prom king, and Santana (Naya Rivera) and Quinn (Dianna Agron) for prom queen. Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) is very upset that she was not nominated. Rachel (Lea Michele) is surprised to see a poster touting Finn and Quinn's joint candidacy and confronts him, upset that her fiancé will be dancing at the prom with Quinn—his ex-girlfriend—instead of with her. Meanwhile, Quinn has made progress in her physical therapy, with Joe's (Samuel Larsen) aid, and has regained some of her ability to walk. She asks Joe to keep it a secret until after the prom. Later, after seeing the wheelchair-bound Quinn successfully using her recent disability to gain a sympathy vote from a student, Finn starts to have misgivings about their joint campaign.

After discussing her own misgivings about the prom with Blaine and Kurt (Chris Colfer), Rachel decides to throw an anti-prom party at a hotel. Puck (Mark Salling), still dejected after failing an exam he needed to pass in order to graduate, agrees to go, as does a still-angry Becky. The party starts off awkwardly, and Becky calls it "the worst anti-prom ever". Meanwhile, at the prom, Finn walks in on Quinn standing up in the restroom and is upset that he chose her over Rachel because of her disability. Quinn begs Finn to stay for their mandatory dance, which he agrees to, but during the dance he tries to get her to stand up. Joe confronts Finn and Sue threatens to kick him out of the prom, but Finn leaves voluntarily. He arrives at the anti-prom party and urges Rachel and the others to return to the prom with him. Rachel agrees to go, as do Kurt and Blaine, but Puck and Becky stay behind. Becky tells Puck about her desire to become a prom queen, and he decides to crown himself and Becky as the king and queen of the anti-prom, fashioning crowns out of a beer box, after which the two also return to the prom.

At McKinley, Rachel apologizes to Quinn and tells Quinn that she voted for her, and is happy that they became friends. Santana and Quinn count the prom king and queen votes, only to discover that four people voted for Brittany for king and Finn won, while Quinn has defeated Santana by a single vote. Despite the title being what both wanted, Santana realizes she didn't want to win unless Brittany did as well, and Quinn's victory leaves her feeling empty. She conspires with Santana, and after Finn is announced as prom king, Rachel is declared the write-in winner for prom queen. Finn and Rachel dance to "Take My Breath Away", sung by Quinn and Santana, and Quinn surprises the crowd by shakily standing during the performance.

Production

The episode was directed by Eric Stoltz and written by co-creator Ryan Murphy. It had begun shooting by March 27, 2012, while the previous episode, "Choke", was still being shot, and concluded on April 5, 2012. The prom scenes were completed the day before shooting ended.

Recurring guest stars appearing in the episode include glee club members Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty) and Joe Hart (Samuel Larsen), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) and football player and Mercedes' ex-boyfriend Shane Tinsley (LaMarcus Tinker). Helen Mirren made her second uncredited vocal appearance as Becky Jackson's interior voice.

Five songs from the episode were released as singles available for digital download: Selena Gomez & the Scene's "Love You Like a Love Song" performed by Rivera, Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" performed by Michele, Colfer and Criss; One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" featuring Larsen, McGinty, Overstreet, Kevin McHale and Harry Shum, Jr.; Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" featuring Agron and Rivera; and Ke$ha's "Dinosaur" performed by Morris.

Ratings

"Prom-asaurus" was first broadcast on May 8, 2012 in the United States on Fox. It received a 2.7/8 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and attracted 6.67 million American viewers during its initial airing, up significantly from the 2.5/8 rating/share and 6.01 million viewers of the previous episode, "Choke", which was broadcast on May 1, 2012. Viewership was also up in Canada, where 1.65 million viewers watched the episode on the same day as its American premiere. It was the thirteenth most-viewed show of the week, up from sixteenth in the previous week, when 1.56 million viewers watched "Choke".

In the United Kingdom, "Prom-asaurus" first aired on May 10, 2012, and was watched on Sky 1 by 744,000 viewers. This was a decrease from the most recent episode for which viewership data is available, "Saturday Night Glee-ver", which attracted 827,000 viewers when it aired three weeks earlier on April 19, 2012. In Australia, "Prom-asaurus" was also broadcast on May 10, 2012. It was watched by 636,000 viewers, an increase of over 7% from the 593,000 viewers for "Choke" on May 3, 2012. Glee was the thirteenth most-watched program of the night, up from eighteenth the week before.

Music and performances

In December 2012, TV Guide listed the "Dinosaur" rendition of as one of Glee's worst performances.

Chart history

Three of the five singles released for the episode debuted on the lower regions of the UK Singles Chart. "Big Girls Don't Cry" at number 132, "What Makes You Beautiful" at number 162, and "Love You Like A Love Song" at number 182. The sole song to chart in North America on the Canadian Hot 100 was "What Makes You Beautiful", which debuted at number 93.