Kitty Wilde

Kitty Wilde
Glee character
First appearance	"The New Rachel"
Last appearance	"Dreams Come True"
Created by	Ryan Murphy Brad Falchuk Ian Brennan
Portrayed by	Becca Tobin
Information
Occupation	High school student
Significant other(s)	Artie Abrams Noah Puckerman Jake Puckerman
Religion	Christian

Kitty Wilde is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Becca Tobin, and appeared for the first time during the first episode of the fourth season, "The New Rachel", first broadcast on September 13, 2012. Kitty was introduced as a bully and a member of the McKinley High cheerleader squad who slushies the newest members of the Glee club, Marley Rose and Wade "Unique" Adams, and serves as the new teen antagonist for the season. As the season progressed, she joins the glee club and becomes Marley's worst enemy, but, it is later shown that Kitty also has a soft side. Her harshness and cruelty seems to be greatly lessened during the fifth and sixth season, as she is seen becoming a better person, though she still acts rudely in general most of the time.

Kitty was initially a recurring character in the fourth season, but was promoted to the main cast during the fifth season before being demoted to the recurring cast again in the sixth and final season.

Storylines

Season 4

At the beginning the fourth season, Kitty was initially a friend of the Glee club because they were popular. But later, the glee club members invited Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist) and Wade "Unique" Adams (Alex Newell) to their group, who Kitty didn't like. When Marley tells the glee club she isn't comfortable to gather with Kitty, she states the feeling is mutual. She starts a relationship with Marley's love interest and brother of a former glee club member, Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist), they later break-up during the fourth episode of the season, "The Break-Up" because he got angry at her for insulting his friend, Marley, which angers Kitty.

Kitty later competes with Marley for the female lead role, Sandy Olsen, of the McKinley school musical, Grease. Marley wins the role, leaving Kitty angry and with the part of Patty Simcox. During the production of the school musical, Kitty manipulates Marley's costumes, and makes them tighter because she wants Marley to believe that she is gaining weight, leaving Marley with an eating disorder. During the season's eight episode, "Thanksgiving", Kitty meets her idol, who is a former Cheerio and glee club member, Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron), and tell her lies about Jake pressuring Marley into sex which Quinn believes due to her experience with his brother Noah Puckerman (Mark Salling) back in the first season. Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) is the only alumna who is aware of Kitty's manipulative and evil nature. After failing to get Jake back, Kitty dates Puck instead. Kitty initially pretends to be Marley's friend, but as the season progress, she soon ends up liking her. Later in the year, two gun shots are heard and the school goes into lockdown. Fearing that she and everyone else in the glee club won't get out alive, Kitty admits to Marley that she altered her costumes and apologizes to her and Unique. When Kitty and Puck break-up, she develops a crush on her friend Ryder Lynn (Blake Jenner), after they share mutual experiences. They go on one date and when Kitty wants to go on another he blows her off. In the song " The longest time " they exchange uncomfortable looks at each other.

Near the season finale, Kitty helps Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) to attend to the college of his dreams and also becomes a friend of everyone of the glee club.

Season 5

Kitty starts a relationship with Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale), but they keep it in secret because she is afraid that it will ruin her popularity status. When Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) finds out, she reveals the secret to her fellow glee club members. In reply, Kitty makes the relationship official and public. During the second episode of the season, "Tina in the Sky with Diamonds", Tina and Kitty are both nominated for prom queen. Kitty, a sophomore, strongly supports Tina because she is a senior and feels it is her time to shine, but a new cheerleader, Bree (Erinn Westbrook), insists that Kitty wins the crown because she believes that a Cheerio should win. Bree posts campaign posters of Kitty, though everyone thinks that Kitty did so. When Tina wins at the prom, only to be struck with a bucketful of slushie moments afterward, thanks to Bree's connivance, Kitty lets Tina use her prom dress for the remainder of the evening. Later, after Tina shows the glee club a video of Blaine twerking in the choir room, Kitty and Jake are asked by Will to teach the other members of the glee club how to twerk.

Kitty last appears in the season when Sue finally ends the glee club and the show moves its main setting to New York. It is later seen that Artie and Kitty have broken up.

Season 6

In the episode Homecoming while Artie encourages new students to join the revamped glee club led by Rachel, Kitty — bitter over her and Artie's breakup and how Rachel not knowing her and her old friends names (referencing to Rachel's not knowing Ryder's name in the 100th episode) beforehand — slams Santana, Quinn, Brittany, and particularly Artie, about how they treated the old newbies, and discourages it before the new Cheerios. Later in The Hurt Locker, Part Two, Rachel tries to recruit Kitty to rejoin the glee club. Hesitant at first, Kitty has a change of heart and rejoins glee. She is now shown having a nicer attitude towards Rachel and seems to mingle with the new newbies, sometimes acting to lead them. She also attends Brittany and Santana with Kurt and Blaines double wedding and befriends the new tween member of the Glee Club, Myron, who seems to be interested in her. In the series finale "Dreams Come True", after winning Nationals, she graduated offscreen and is probably living in New York as she watches Rachel winning a Tony award on TV with her friends in New York. She last appears joining the last performance at the final moments of the episode and takes a bow with the other Glee Cast members.

Musical performances

Samantha Highfill of Entertainment Weekly gave a "B+" grade to Kitty's performance with Marley Rose, Wade "Unique" Adams and Tina Cohen-Chang of the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" in the episode Guilty Pleasures", and wrote, "The vocals were good, the vibe was fun, but I wasn't too impressed with the costumes, probably because I've done better. Yes, I won a costume contest as one-fifth of the Spice Girls in college. So what?".^[1]

Erin Strecker of Entertainment Weekly gave a "B+" grade to Kitty's duet with Marley Rose of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" in the "Dynamic Duets" episode, and wrote, "I’ve said it before: I may not like her character, but I really enjoy Kitty’s performances. This high-energy choir room duet with Marley was a superhero treat".^[2]

Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly gave a "B" grade to Kitty's rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" in the "Wonder-ful" episode, and wrote, "Kitty, Jake and Ryder have their choir room fun in this Wonder classic, but I have to agree with Mercedes – they never really took it to the next level."^[3] Michael Slezak gave the number a "C+".^[4] L'Oreal Thompson of the The Baltimore Sun called it a "rather spirited rendition".^[5]

Reception

Reviews for Kitty's role has received mixed opinions from critics.

Kitty's role in earlier episodes — specifically in the episode "Glease" — has been received negatively by Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter, as she pointed out her bullying nature. She says "While Kitty's zingers can be funny, her attempt to win Jake back over by meddling with Marley makes little sense considering the limited time (and chemistry) the Cheerio had with the younger Puckerman."^[6] When Kitty was first introduced, she received extremely negative reviews from fans because Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) described her as a "new Quinn Fabray" on Kitty's first appearance, "The New Rachel". Tobin said they are very different because: "Quinn was more mysterious about her motives, and Kitty has no filter and whatever she thinks, she says out loud, and she doesn't make it too secretive what her motives are." But she also admitted that they have their similarities, "Kitty really looks up to Quinn because she's the original mean girl and original head Cheerio queen-bee type", she explained.^[7][8][9]

Erin Strecker of Entertainment Weekly gave Kitty's role in the fourth season a mixed review, saying:

"Kitty was clearly brought in to be the new sassy, popular cheerleader when she joined the show at the beginning of this season, but right now, the role is too cartoonish-ly overblown. As viewers, there has to be something that we can either relate to or (barring that) at least understand about a character’s motivation. For most of season 4, Kitty didn’t have that background; she was just a pile of racist, hateful remarks with a side of teen girl jealousy."^[10]

References