I don’t know what to say about this episode. I have a lot of feelings about it – not all of them good.
for those looking for a quick recap – i cannot pimp Jim’s Gleecap enough for this episode, which someone has been absolutely wonderful and posted on youtube…. If you haven’t already discovered this perfect little gem, what are you waiting for?
So we start the episode with a lovely close-up of the lovely Kurt as Brittany pops up to butter him up before launching into a rambling and slightly confusing spiel about unicorns in order to become his campaign. Brittany wants Kurt to embrace his unicorn-ness and keep that as a campaign. Kurt hesitantly agrees…..to his own detriment/joy? as later on Brittany reveals the campaign posters she created which are pink and sparkly with rainbows on it – because Kurt is gay, gay, gay. But Brittany, in her own sweet way, makes it come across rather endearing even though Kurt does try to steer her away from sparkly rainbows.
Meanwhile, Schue introduces everyone to the musical directors seeing as he’ll be too busy leading the glee club to Nationals victory – god knows how, considering the strategy so far has been to pick random lessons each week and only prepare actual songs for each performance on the DAY OF the performance in the hopes that these magically gifted kids will whip up the harmonies, choreography and words within hours.
He also decides to enlist some of the members in to a version of booty camp for the not-so-good dancers amongst the group, including Finn, Puck, Mercedes and…Kurt? Wait, what?
Hilariously Mike calls him on his shimmy move (which I adore) and proceeds to shimmy in his seat and oh my god I am in love. Wow. Harry Shum Junior…please do that again. it was HOT.
Blaine asks to join in so he can learn more as well..and in our first rehearsal they discuss the upcoming West Side Story and reveal they’re both auditioning for Tony…and…oh my god I cannot believe I am about to write this. I do apologise for the following rant…but I need to get it out.
Blaine is a junior.
I…….I have no words for the idiocy. SRSLY, GLEE? The guy was originally meant to be a YEAR OLDER than Kurt as a mentor.,..and now suddenly he’s lost two years?!? Not only that, he’s now a year younger than Kurt? I am annoyed by this because on one hand I fear they’re going to keep around Lima for an extra year solely for Blaine’s sake when he could instead be off gallivanting around New York with lots of gorgeous hottie (and I say this as a Klainer) but mainly because it just totally destroys the very fabric of the character I was still clinging on to. Whatever happened to that guy we met way back in Never Been Kissed? This is not that same guy, and the amount of character assassination that has occurred in between has just ruined the entire character. I realised while watching this episode that the reason I ship Klaine, and the sole reason I like Blaine, is because of fanfiction. There is some truly amazing fic out there with that Blaine we first saw last year and there are writers who understand how to deal with these characters. Unlike the actual writers of this show.
Whatever. I digress. I’m over it – I’m going to ignore the ludicrous suggestion which has been placed before me because once Kurt graduates and leaves the show so do I, so I don’t really care what happens afterwards.
ANYWAY.
Before we move on, let’s see what else is happening…oh hello, Shelby! Yes, Shelby Corcoran is back…why? Because that delightful Sugar Motta from last week got her daddy to buy Shelby so they can start a second glee club solely for her talents. Right.
This is of course just another whacky hijinks moment from glee in order to finally deal with a storyline that was shelved last season: Quinn and Puck, who obviously are not dealing well with giving up Beth. We had Puck unable to deal with his emotions (momentarily) and get thrown into Juvie (although in reality that was punishment for releasing an album that wasn’t from the same record company as the glee guys, which come to think of it, they like punishing characters whenever they’re unhappy with an actor *cough* Ryan Murphy *cough*.
And we had Quinn so goddamned determined to climb back into Miss Popularity and claw back everything she lost, so when it doesn’t she did a 360 and became a skank. Wow. They actually show the girls bullying another student for lunch money. Oh Quinn. I love your pink hair but this is just sheer stupidity (and does anyone else feel like they really missed an opportunity with having Quinn being the closet lesbian? No? Just me then).
Sue comes in, grabs Quinn and convinces her to become the poster child for her anti-arts campaign, leading to an angry confrontation with Schue about how it’s all his fault her life is crap. And while I don’t entirely agree with Schue’s way of going about this (yelling at a student) he finally stand sup and tells her what she needs to hear: grow up, Quinn. She does play the victim to her advantage but Schue is not having it anymore and wants her to own up to her own mistakes and take responsibility for her actions. And she is visibly shocked when Puck brings her to see Shelby, who refuses to let Quinn have anything to do with Beth until she gets her act together.
I like where they’re going with this, and to a degree I can understand why they abandoned it for a year (only because hey it’s glee. I’[m surprised they actually picked up this storyline again). After dealing with teen pregnancy and adoption, they now get to draw on what it feels like once you’ve given that child up. Puck, man, Puck just blew me away in this episode. He brings Quinn to Shelby and once she leaves you can see the desperation in his eyes. He wants to see his daughter, he wants to be there for her, to the point he goes to visit Shelby in the evening and gets to see her…and while he can’t bring himself to hold her you know he wants to. It was wonderful and exactly what I want to see for his character.
Of course, god knows what he’s going to do when Quinn rocks up to booty camp later on back in a sweet demure little dress and blonde hair (I am in mourning here). She claims to have cleaned up her act and returned to glee…but secretly she tells Puck it’s all about getting custody of their child…which, ok. That threw me a little because really? I honestly have no idea where the hell that came from. I think Puck is also a little confused and slightly freaked out, judging by his expression there. That and it maybe kind of his fault for putting those ideas into ehr head when attempting to get her to clean up. Uh oh.
I feel like we’re back in grilled cheesus time again, where Puck somehow becomes the sole voice of reason. I think…I think I may have a teeny tiny crush on the man Puck will become. Does that even make sense? Never mind.
So, heading back to West Side Story, Rachel and Shelby have a little conversation about their own awkward mother-daughter relationship but do an amazing duet together which turns into Rachel’s audition. Of course, she nails it. And then we have Kurt.
Oh Kurt.
KURT.
I have no words because this is AMAZING. Barbra Streisand and sais? And rappelling over scaffolding? What can’t Chris Colfer do? He amazes me ona daily basis. The song is wonderful, the performance is fantastic and although maybe not the best option when auditioning for the lead as a gang member, hey, it’s West Side Story. They fight through dance and walk while leaning over clicking their fingers. Kurt could totally rule that.
The judges don’t entirely agree. *sigh*. Basically they wonder whether Kurt is right for the role, and while they don’t explicitly say it, it comes off as asking if Kurt is too gay, too femme to play Tony…which Kurt of course overhears because he’s eavesdropping and he rushes off upset. He needs this role for NYADA’s sake, peeps.
But then he sees Santana and Brittany putting up those bright pink sparkly posters and loses it…because everyone sees him as nothing more than a flaming homo, and there is more to him than that. Brittana don’t get it.
And then Kurt decided to re-audition by doing a scene from Romeo and Juliet with Rachel and this scene literally broke me. Because as he speaks in a slightly deeper voice, trying to portray a more masculine image…they are LAUGHING at him. Bieste herself, who has dealt with these issues her entire life, is laughing at him and talking about how he doesn’t get her lady-parts tingling. And to top it all off, when they move in for the kiss, Rachel ducks, ruining his chances.
I shall count to three slowly and then move on. Because there’s a lot more to get through before I start my second rant.
Such as the chat between Kurt and his dad (preceded by Rachel and Finn getting snuggle in the garage- Finn is learning to be a mechanic and I think we all know where this is heading). Following Rachel’s betrayal of her BFF by trying to convince Finn to try out for Tony, we have a very glum Kurt coming to his dad for advice on how to deal with the fact his dreams got that much harder. And his da,d his wonderful sweet dad, tells him he is who he is and he shouldn’t have to change himself. If there aren’t any roles out there, he’ll have to write them himself. *Shout out for Chris Colfer! ha!*
And I get it, Burt, but man, why does life have to be so difficult for Kurt? Particularly when he does decide to accept that this is who he is and run with Brittany’s campaign posters, she announces she’s also decided to run..and as a Cheerio (and from what I know of predictable US high school cliches) she’s a shoe-in.
And then when Blaine auditions it’s apparently mesmerising and perfect and they want him tor ead for Tony. Blaine is conflicted knowing how much it means to Kurt. Kurt, again eavesdropping (ok, someone does need to discuss boundaries with the boy!) is hurt and leaves the auditorium before knowing Blaine’s answer. Well, nobody knows Blaine’s answer because they decide to finish the episode on a cliffhanger.
And…..here’s the thing. I can see where they’re going with this and I am curious to see where it goes. I actually love the idea of doing a storyline about passing – where Kurt being Kurt cannot pass as anything but a gay man, but Blaine can pass as straight. I had a vague notion this was coming up and I kind of do want tos ee it, even though my heart is crying out because come on, this is glee, and I honestly do not know at this point in time if they’re capable of doing this story any justice. Particularly since everyone seems to have a hard-on for Blaine and I can feel my goodwill towards the character crumbling in sheer desperation to protect my beloved Kurt from the freefall.
But I think the hardest part is watching it happen, and watching it happen to Kurt who has spent so much of this show fighting for any scrap of goodness in his life. He truly does spend more time crying than any other character on this show.
It pisses me off so much, and the argumentative discussions taking place on forums since the episode aired have gone back and forth over this issue, whether it’s about passing as gay/straight or whether Kurt is over-reacting or the Kurtsies are over-reacting. I’m starting to wonder if the writers are smarter than that, and the whole reason for shoving “Kurt’s GAY!” down our throats this episode was for this purpose – make people angry about it enough to realise it does happen. Because it does happen. Any man seen as being effeminate is branded as gay in a lot of people’s mind, and when gay guys turn out not to be femme, it surprises people. Even my friends are the same way, pointing out “gay” guys to me based solely on looks, speech and mannerisms in a misconstrued notion that I am solely attracted to gay guys. (Note: I am a woman who happens to really like gay guys, but I don’t want to date them because there’s no point, neither party would get much out of it. Why do people not understand that distinction? Just because I have a bad habit of being attracted to men who turn out to be gay is a totally different kettle of fish.)
It is wrong because these stereotypes are ingrained within our society and it’s not fair. It makes me angry when people assume such things, and assume that a gay man cannot play straight convincingly, or that someone with certain mannerisms or a high voice cannot be a straight man.
It’s going to take a couple of more episodes to see where this is leading, though because right now there’s just a lot of anger and confusion in the fandom. I hope that there is a happy resolution for Kurt somewhere in this, because most of all, I’m tired of watching the poor kid have to fight for everything. Can he not be happy for an entire episode? Is it written into his contract or something? I like it when things work out for him, not when they fall apart – that’s what the glee angst meme is for.
Ok, second rant over. Time to go check out Jim’s Gleecap again because it seriously sums up all my thoughts into song.
And next week it looks like we get some proper drama with Mercedes and Rachel…and stories for Mike and Tina! Can’t wait!!
Thoughts???
Best line:
This is toned down. The original had the unicorn riding you. – Santana.
Songs:
Somewhere – Rachel and Shelby – from West Side Story
I’m the Greatest Star – Kurt – from Funny Girl
Something there – Blaine – from West Side Story
