Since her first appearance in Glee's pilot, Mercedes Jones has been a fan favorite. When she introduces herself to the glee club with Aretha Franklin's "Respect," Mercedes lets the world know exactly who she is and what she wants. Most of Mercedes' arc over Glee's six seasons finds her fighting for the respect she deserves from her classmates and teachers, and, eventually, from those in the music industry.
Though Mercedes and Amber Riley's performance are among the best-remembered elements of Glee, there were some parts of Mercedes' storyline and character development that didn't make much sense. Here are 10 examples.
Her Competition With Rachel
Mercedes' competitive attitude towards Rachel was brewing from the first moments of the series, but it came to a head in season one's "Sectionals," where Mercedes sings "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going" from Dreamgirls. Rachel concedes that Mercedes sang the song incredibly, and agrees to let Mercedes perform the competition solo.
However, this feud is brought back again and again throughout the series. While both are incredible singers, it really doesn't make much sense that they are always feuding. They just have different voices and different skill sets. Mercedes is right to be annoyed that Rachel gets more solos than her, but the issue is the song selections, not Rachel personally.
Her Reason For Joining The Troubletones
Even though Rachel and Mercedes' rivalry dates back to the early moments of the series, the tensions came to a head in season three's "Asian F." Will says that Mercedes is lazy for not wanting to go to dance rehearsal, and Mercedes complains because Rachel is not being forced to attend. Mercedes ends up quitting the glee club and joining a rival group, the Troubletones.
Mercedes being tired of getting passed over for opportunities in favor of Rachel is understandable, but the way this played out doesn't make much sense. Will calls Mercedes lazy out of nowhere, and "booty camp" doesn't seem like enough of a reason for Mercedes to quit the club she's called her home for two years.
Her Relationship With Sam
In the last episode of season two, it is revealed that Mercedes has begun dating Sam Evans, a newer glee club member, and Quinn's ex-boyfriend. However, this is dismissed almost immediately as Sam does not come back until nearly halfway through season three when Mercedes is dating Shane instead.
In addition to the messy handling of this storyline, the two don't have all that much chemistry and seem to only be together because they are both in the glee club. It also is kind of weird that she would date Quinn's ex since they were such good friends at one point, but in the Glee universe, that is fairly common.
Her Decision to Lie About Quinn's Baby
In the episode "Ballad," Mercedes is the first in the glee club to find out the truth about Quinn's baby. Quinn told everyone that Finn was the father of her child, but the truth is, it was Puck. Mercedes tells Puck that he should keep that information to himself because Quinn has already made her choice, and she wants to raise the baby with Finn.
This doesn't make much sense. She was probably trying to keep the peace, but most people would probably agree that, for better or worse, Finn should know the truth. Finn does find out, and it harms his relationship with the club for a while. This could have all been avoided if Mercedes had told the truth.
Her Record Deal
In season four's "Wonder-ful," Mercedes walks away from her recording contract after they ask her to change her image during a shoot for the album cover. The photographer asks her to show a little more skin, which makes Mercedes uncomfortable, so she decides to make a career a different way.
Mercedes is not even a year out of high school and has already inked a record deal. No one in their right mind would walk away from that, especially for how minor their request is. Given how ambitious Mercedes is and how this record deal is the thing she's always wanted, it doesn't make sense for her to act this way.
Her Song "Hell To The No"
In season two's "Original Song," the New Directions decide to write and perform original songs for their upcoming regional competition. Mercedes writes and performs the song "Hell To The No," an uptempo R&B song with attitude to spare.
The fact that Mr. Schuester thinks they shouldn't perform this song makes no sense. The song is not only great, but it is also better than the other two songs the glee club created for the performance. They choose a song Rachel wrote as a solo, and though it would be understandable for this to annoy Mercedes, that is never addressed.
Her Crush On Kurt
If Kurt was straight, it would make sense for him to date Mercedes. They have similar tastes in fashion and music, and they share similar encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. On top of it all, they are just really good friends and get along really well.
Kurt is gay, however, and it is obvious to basically everyone except Mercedes from the first second they meet him. When Mercedes finds out Kurt isn't interested in her romantically (she thinks he likes Rachel) she throws a rock through the windshield of his car. While it's not that weird for Mercedes to not know he was gay — she was 15 at the time and fairly sheltered — her reaction to him not reciprocating her crush doesn't make any sense.
Her Lack Of Competition Solos
In season one's "Sectionals," Rachel agrees to let Mercedes take the solo at the competition. However, after one of the other teams steals Mercedes' solo, they both agree to let Rachel sing a song because Mercedes didn't have anything else prepared. This part makes sense.
What doesn't make sense is the fact that Mercedes doesn't get any competition solos until she joins the Troubletones in season three. Even then, she doesn't get an entire song, but a solo within a song. Given how unfair the situation was that cost Mercedes her solo, one would think that the New Directions would correct the situation by giving her another solo.
Her Friendship With Quinn
In season one's "Home," Mercedes grapples with her body image after joining the Cheerios. After she passes out and ends up in the nurse's office, she talks with Quinn, who relates to her issue. Quinn was a former Cheerio whose pregnancy turned her into an outcast. The two develop a friendship over the rest of the season, with Mercedes even being present at the birth of Quinn's daughter.
The thing is, this friendship is all but ignored after season one. Quinn rejoins the Cheerios and becomes popular all over again and forgets about Mercedes, who is apparently fine with this. While the friendship is mentioned off-handedly again, one would think that two people who were such good friends would not drift apart so quickly.
The Tater Tots
In season two's "The Substitute," Sue, as acting principal, bans Tater Tots from the school cafeteria in an attempt to improve the health of the student body. While many people were understandably annoyed at this development, Mercedes takes this menu change as an extremely personal affront, and spends the rest of the episode railing against Sue's rule, eventually causing thousands of dollars worth of damage to Sue's car.
The most apparent reading of this situation is as a fat joke, and the storyline's inclusion doesn't make much sense given the fact that Mercedes already struggled with body image issues in the previous season. The sudden shift in attitude is confusing at best, and offensive at worst.