The episode was written by series creator Ian Brennan, directed by Eric Stoltz, and featured the return of guest star Jonathan Groff.
The episode received mixed reviews, which generally favored the final segment with the prom king and queen denouement over the earlier portions of the show.
Contender Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling) learns that his relationship with Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink) has damaged his bad boy reputation, and resolves to restore it by spiking the prom punch bowl.
Meanwhile, Dave Karofsky (Max Adler) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) intensify their election efforts with their anti-bullying group, the Bully Whips.
Dateless members Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) decide to attend as a group on a budget.
Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale) asks his ex-girlfriend Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris) to prom by serenading her with "Isn't She Lovely?
Rachel performs "Jar of Hearts", and Blaine, backed up by Brittany and Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz), sings "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You".
Angered at being found out having lost, Quinn slaps Rachel, though she immediately regrets it, while Santana is comforted by Brittany, who tells her to be herself rather than hide her lesbian identity.
Other recurring characters who appeared included glee club members Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.), Sam Evans (Overstreet) and Lauren Zizes (Fink), Principal Figgins (Theba), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), Kurt's boyfriend Blaine Anderson (Criss) and former school bully Dave Karofsky (Adler).
Following its broadcast, he recounted receiving messages from people who had been inspired to come out, and commented, "I can't believe that this episode of television is seriously changing some lives.
"[2] On April 17, 2011, an extra named Nicole Crowther revealed the prom king and queen result on the social networking Twitter.
[4] Following the scandal, speculation arose that the ending might be reshot when Monteith tweeted a photograph of himself standing next to Agron, who was wearing a tiara.
[22] In Australia, "Prom Queen" attracted 1.04 million viewers on June 1, 2011, and was the eighth most-watched program of the night and twenty-sixth of the week.
This view was shared by Meghan Brown of The Atlantic who said much of the drama "felt shallow and forced", except for the first Kurt and Karofsky scene, which she described as "painful and poignant".
[25][26] Brown's colleague, Kevin Fallon, stated that "Like prom, this episode was Glee at its best and its worst", and MTV's Aly Semigran thought that it "wasn't as strong—or cohesive—as last week's 'Rumours'", but said it "certainly had its moments, especially some notably hilarious ones.
[28] Canning wrote that it was "difficult to truly feel for" the drama surrounding Jesse and Rachel, or the resulting brawl and slap, and Brown thought these developments "lacked any real emotional stakes, and seemed tonally inconsistent with the snarky snap of the rest of the episode".
[25][26] VanDerWerff found the otherwise excellent final segment marred by Quinn's regression to a "generic bitchy cheerleader" stereotype.
Semigran wrote, "I give Chris Colfer all the credit in the world, because no matter what the material, he knocks it out of the park every time.
"[27] James Poniewozik of Time agreed that given the episode's material, "it's important to have it in the hands of an actor as good as Chris Colfer".
"[30] VanDerWerff also talked about the sense of community, which "has mostly been absent in season two", and noted that "Glee somehow found a way to show off the best AND worst of high school and worked past its own storytelling issues to capture raw emotion.
Anthony Benigno of The Faster Times called it "the best musical night this show's had in eight months", and Fallon characterized the numbers as "pretty darned good".
[33] Gonzalez and Benigno both gave it an "A", and the latter explained: "the arrangement ... gives the track a wonderful, spontaneous feel", and "this nerdy white boy has himself some soul.
"[32] He gave "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" an "A", and questioned why it had taken so long for Criss to receive numbers independent of the Warblers.
[28][32][34] Some reviewers criticized the performance on musical grounds: Kubicek called it "a simple karaoke version", and lamented that it suffered in comparison to the previous Santana and Mercedes duet, "River Deep – Mountain High", while Futterman faulted the arrangement, which "waters down power vocals", and gave the duo "the thin sound of Abba's original even though they're both much better than that.
On the Hot 100, the show's rendition of "Rolling In The Deep" debuted at number twenty-nine, in the same week that Adele's original version remained at the top of the same chart.