Episode 5.10: “Trio”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

What do I even say about this mess? Combined with last week’s “Frenemies,” and with nationals suddenly only a week away, Glee since the hiatus feels like it’s trying to just waste time until it can dispense with the Ohio half of the show gracefully. “Trio” gives us the last hurrah of inseparable threesome (?) Tina, Blaine, and Sam; Will and Emma trying to have a baby (a plot point that carries little weight when you remember that Jayma Mays and Matthew Morrison are leaving the series at the end of the season); and Rachel and Santana attempting to fast forward their relationship with Elliot, since the show forgot to develop it. This is an episode comprised of relationships and plotlines pulled completely out of the writer’s ass: nothing follows from anything else. Add to that a side of shit no one cares about, and you have what has become the essence of season five: something that wanders, wastes time, and fails to make a point. Glee has become a series that doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do.

To be fair to the Sam/Blaine/Tina plotline, the three of them do have connections. Sam and Blaine became friends in season four (most obviously in “Dynamic Duets“) and Blaine and Tina also had a kind of awkward friendship, which introduced the world to the term “vapor rape.” As for Sam and Tina, Sam agreed to be Tina’s prom date earlier in season five, only to be unceremoniously dumped when Tina thought she could improve her chances of being elected prom queen. So to say that their friendship comes out of nowhere isn’t entirely accurate. However, it is mostly accurate. So, we established that they were friends(ish), but they’ve never come across as the inseparable BFFs forever that “Trio” portrays them as. They just made that up for this episode. It’s particularly egregious as this apes the emotions that the graduates of season three had to deal with, but, with no friendships with anywhere near the strength of Puck/Finn, Rachel/Kurt, or even Santana/Quinn, it just rings hollow. Add to it the distractions of Sam and Tina making out (for no reason, apparently, as they seem to have no desire to follow up on it), Blaine losing his shit over it for no good reason, and Becky crashing their party (which, when you remember that she once brought a gun to school, becomes much more frightening than awkward), and you get a plotline that just isn’t entertaining and doesn’t accomplish anything.

They’ll miss each other. Big deal. You’ve got to give me something more than that, since that’s not exactly an interesting or deep observation about people graduating from high school.

Glee also really needs to reconsider how it’s using Becky. As I alluded to earlier, she is becoming an almost sinister character. Her crashing of the Blaine, Tina, and Sam’s lock-in has a hostage-situation feel to it, not helped by Becky’s prior history as a gun-toter and (let’s face it) a sexual predator.

Santana and Rachel’s feud seems stuck in stasis. Elliot has had very little to do with characters other than Kurt prior to this episode, and now suddenly Rachel is living with him and Santana is calling him a traitor for letting her (though even Elliot lampshades this by pointing out that he “barely knows” Santana). Kurt would have been a much better fit for the role of a friend caught in the middle: placing Elliot there was a strange choice, especially as it doesn’t really seem to establish much if anything about his character. He allows himself to be used as a doormat by Rachel and Santana with apparent goodwill until the very end, when he finally blows up at them. Kurt’s decision to break up the band was a better story decision than anything involving Elliot (especially as it included a character who felt like he ought to be there). Rachel and Santana’s brief scene watching Dani, Elliot, and Kurt singing in harmony and having fun together was one of the two best scenes in the episode, alongside Santana and Rachel’s confrontation when Rachel came back to the apartment for her scented candle. The reason these scenes worked so well is that they featured Rachel and Santana, which was something remarkably rare in a plotline supposedly about Rachel and Santana.

We learn here that Santana has moved past simply being ambitious and catty to actually wanting to destroy Rachel to take her part, and justifies her stance by claiming that Rachel would do the same in her position. Well, maybe she would. Post-Broadway Rachel is a Rachel who has regressed terribly, and is not the person I remember from seasons three and four. Now Santana is regressing right along with her, ditching the personal growth she achieved thanks to Brittany and the glee club in order to become the calculating manipulator we remember from seasons one and two. I don’t think that this is unrealistic in the least, I think they’ve sold it well, and it’s a very tragic turn for both characters.

I just wish they’d focus on it more.

Speaking of stuff they’re focussing on that I don’t care about, Will and Emma are trying to conceive, as we find out when Becky catches them fucking in the faculty bathroom (here’s a tip: if you’re ever having sex in a public or semi-public restroom, lock the door). There was nothing of any value in this subplot. Will and Emma haven’t been interesting since season four’s “I Do,” and babies on TV shows have never been interesting. Part of me thinks that this is meant to be used as a way of saying goodbye to Will and Emma, a way of suggesting that they’re living happily ever after. If so, I’ll suspend judgment on that and wait to see what they do with it. Here, though, it didn’t work.

The music was, once again, okay. “Jumpin’ Jumpin’” might have carried more weight if I had given a shit about the trio of Blaine, Sam, and Tina. But it wasn’t bad. “Barracuda,” aside from giving me Guitar Hero III flashbacks, was okay, but again suffered from a lack of context, since the Rachel/Elliot friendship wasn’t really previously established. “Don’t You Forget About Me” was a number that I had a hard time believing that Glee had never done in the previous four seasons. I just wished they had used it in a better context. Still, it was good. “Danny’s Song” tried to sell the emotion of Will and Emma’s married relationship, but it just didn’t work, since nothing had been done to previously establish it. Songs can’t do the work of narrative. “Gloria,” which on its merits purely as a musical number (and I don’t have a lot more to go on here) was the highlight of the episode, was quite good, but, once again, suffered from a lack of background among Santana, Rachel, and Elliot. Still, it was good to see Santana and Rachel competing at this level, anyway. By that metric, Elliot just got in the way. “The Happening” was good, and at least the second best number of the episode. It was better more for Rachel and Santana’s reactions than for the number itself, mainly because of who were the main characters of the story. “Hold On” was a decent way to end things… and at least they finally included Artie. I actually liked the switches among the various singers here.

Other thoughts:

Really, what the hell was up with all the hate for Artie? “You don’t fit in this episode, begone!”

Boobs. That’s apparently what’s important about Tina.

Santana implies that Rachel was fat during her sophomore year. Um… what?

Why did the cheerios have a female cheerleader uniform that fit Sam, for God’s sake?

Will says that they’re all ready for nationals, but do they even have their songs picked out?

Remember when there were newbies? Me neither.

Episode 4.15: “Girls (and Boys) On Film”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

This may be one of the top ten most plotless episodes that Glee has ever done. Don’t get me wrong, it was a hell of a lot of fun, at least for the first few acts, but what really happened in this episode? Finn helped Will locate Emma and the two of them reconnected. There, that’s your plot synopsis. Pretty much everything else in the episode is a song, setup for a song, setup for later episodes, or background details.

The funnest bit of the episode was the B “plot” featuring Santana, Kurt, and Adam going stir-crazy while snowed in in the loft apartment in New York. Naya Rivera just stole every scene she was in, and I can almost forgive the questionable plot machinations that brought Santana to New York. She manages to make things awkward between Kurt and Adam by pointing out that Kurt still has a thing for Blaine, and when she finds a wad of hundred-dollar bills and a pager in the apartment she tells Rachel that she’s pretty sure that Brody is a drug dealer. It was like a recipe for instant fun: add Santana to any closed environment and just watch. Oh yeah, Santana also finds out that Rachel might be pregnant, since rooting around every drawer, shelf, nook, and cranny in an apartment is, she explains, “a thing I do.” They should have stayed snowed in a lot longer — watching the characters clash was just a blast.

The thing that tried to masquerade as a plot in the Ohio portion of the show was the movie music mash-up contest, which was not only pointless from the very beginning, but ended with Will declaring that everyone is a winner. The songs were fun, but I’ve seen Bazooka Joe comics with thicker plots.

It was a bit weird how persistent Finn was about getting Will to reconnect with Emma. Their breakup was a very delicate situation and Finn was far from being in possession of all the facts. He could easily have made things a lot worse. Will also didn’t exactly seem inconsolable. He was sad, sure, but he didn’t have a problem giving Emma some space to decide how she wanted to handle things. Finn’s method could have led to another retreat, which would have been disastrous. But hey, it worked out. I like that Emma addressed, at least obliquely, that Will has changed. Even before he went to Washington, he was acting self-absorbed and insensitive. Anyone remember his speech about how he thought Emma might be too hopelessly crazy to raise a family in “Yes/No,” not to mention his attempts to drag Emma to Washington in “The Break-Up?” I think that starting from scratch is probably the best thing for them, although Will was capable of being a douche in season one as well (see “Hell-O” in which he makes out with Shelby exactly one episode after kissing Emma for the first time).

Also happening in this episode: Marley confesses to Jake that she kissed Ryder, and Finn confesses to Will that he kissed Emma. Marley’s confession I can kinda understand, because she is still legitimately confused about who she wants to be with. It would have worked a lot better if Ryder had done a single thing in this episode, but Marley is trying to figure something out. Finn’s confession, though, is just baffling. By his own admission, and from everything I can tell, he doesn’t have any romantic feelings toward Emma. The kiss was a brief moment of stupidity, which Finn is prone to have (he’s been having one now for about 19 years), and it meant nothing. Emma clearly was perfectly willing to forget it (and for all we could tell, she did forget it), so why did Finn unburden himself of it at the most awkward possible time?

Kitty also made a backhanded apology to Marley for making fun of her, for no reason that I could see, and Marley decided to tell Kitty that Ryder had kissed her, once again for no discernible reason. Kitty implied that she wouldn’t keep the secret, but Jake knows too by the end of the episode, so I don’t really know what the point of that was.

Kurt and Adam’s relationship moves forward, as Adam accepts that Kurt can’t get over an old boyfriend right away. They accept that they don’t have the history together that Kurt and Blaine have, so they decide to build their relationship from the beginning. Cute, but not much to it. Adam is still in desperate need of character development, because I still think of him as the guy who stole from Jonathan Coulton. For some reason, I imagine that, in-universe, Adam didn’t contact Coulton to get permission to use his arrangement of “Baby Got Back” in public performances.

I guess I really don’t have much to say about this episode. It was fun, but largely pointless. Thematically, I guess it was about new beginnings, but it’s scarcely a strong theme.

Anyway, fuck all this plot bullshit, because this episode was clearly meant to showcase the musical numbers. This episode had an astounding eight of them, which didn’t really get in the way because nothing much else was happening. Unfortunately, the songs weren’t all that fantastic. “You’re All the World to Me” was fun, mostly for the black-and-white cinematography and practical effects that allowed Emma and Will to dance on the walls and ceiling. That must have taken a ridiculous amount of rehearsal. “Shout” was very cool, if a bit too imaginary for my tastes. It was also apparently Glee‘s 500th song: I wasn’t counting, so I’ll take their word for it. “Come What May” was surprisingly boring, as it was obviously 100% imaginary and between two characters who are no longer together. “Old Time Rock and Roll/Danger Zone” was just weird, though it was interesting to listen to those songs try their hardest to go together. “Diamond’s Are a Girl’s Best Friend/Material Girl” was easily the highlight of the episode, with great costumes, choreography, and a very strong arrangement. Wade and Marely make great singing partners. “In Your Eyes” was sappy and awkward, “Unchained Melody” was sappy and clichéd, and “Footloose” was fun but pointless.

Other thoughts:

It actually was nice to have Will back. Though I wonder why Finn is still hanging around. Go home, Finn! You’re 19, get out of high school!

So, is it better or worse if Brody is a drug dealer rather than a prostitute?

What the hell is Santana doing in New York? Working, going to school, just hanging around and making fun of people (which I’d have no problem with)?

Despite its association with Ghost, “Unchained Melody” actually originated with the 1955 film Unchained (hence the name).

Speaking of Ghost, I can’t believe that Glee did the pottery scene. Everyone’s done the pottery scene. One could argue that it makes sense that Jake would come up with something so dumb, but… I still had to watch it.

Episode 4.14: “I Do”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

This was a surprisingly great episode, which started on a sad note and then proceeded to slowly let the atmosphere fill with tentative happiness. What with the wedding, there are obvious parallels with season two’s “Furt,” and you’d think that someone would have mentioned that. Also, with so many couples retiring to their bedrooms at the same time, there are parallels with season one’s “The Power of Madonna,” in which Finn lost his virginity (to Santana), but neither Rachel (with Jesse) nor Emma (with Will) were able to go through with it. This is an especially interesting comparison to make because “I Do” presents yet another example of Emma failing to go through with a life-changing event with Will. However, what “I Do” reminds me of more than anything else, at least in tone and structure, is season two’s “Duets.” Both episodes present a fairly disjointed story, one about relationships and how they change, remain the same, or take convenient detours.

One may legitimately ask when enough is enough with these character relationship episodes, especially when we continually revisit things like Kurt/Blaine and Rachel/Finn. We’ve had several episodes that centered around such things just this season, most notably “The Break-Up,” with Blaine moping about Kurt nearly all season and Finn doing his share of moping over Rachel. Well, I guess it’s enough when it ceases to be entertaining, and I don’t think that it’s reached that point yet. However, I’m one of those odd Glee fans who also sees season two as the pinnacle of the series.

The first plot thread, which carries us through two acts and then disappears, is Will and Emma’s wedding. Emma is freaking out over it. Like, having serious “I forgot to take my meds” level freakouts. Will, who is back from Washington but still apparently the same dumbass he was in “The Break-Up,” fails to understand the depth of Emma’s issues, despite the fact that he left her (a woman in therapy with very serious OCD) in charge of planning the entire wedding, and the fact that he knows that she has a very bad past when it comes to weddings. And not just with Carl, mentioned several times in this episode, but with Ken, who significantly left her at the altar in season one’s “Sectionals.” Will also admits later that Emma had tried to warn him that she was overwhelmed and he essentially ignored her. Will and Emma’s performance of “Getting Married Today” was one of the best numbers of the season, despite being mostly imaginary. It did more narrative work than just about any other song in the series, as it showed both Emma’s inability to cope with her feelings and go through with the wedding, as well as Will’s complete obliviousness to the fact that his fiancée is having major problems and needs his support more than she needs… him ignoring her. Anyway, Emma runs away in her wedding dress and hails a cab (reminiscent of a famous scene in Rhoda, but in reverse), leaving Will to mope around for a while and then exit the episode to search for her.

Finn’s kiss with Emma at the end of “Diva” was a red herring throughout the episode. Finn had nothing to do with the wedding disaster; it was Will’s fault for failing to respond to Emma’s needs because of his own self-absorption.

Emma’s parents, who hate Will, footed the bill for the reception, so they figure they might as well go through with it. The next two acts, the bulky middle of the episode, are absolutely fantastic and among the best character writing that has been done on Glee, as the kids and graduates hang around the reception, get drunk, and connect and re-connect with each other. Kurt and Blaine are having a friendly fling (“bros helping bros,” as Blaine puts it) while Finn makes a surprisingly smooth pass at Rachel while trying to explain to her that she is his lobster. Artie shows his desperation by doing everything he can to form a relationship with Emma’s bitchy niece Betty. Jake tries to build on his relationship with Marley with the help of Ryder, who knows exactly what needs to be done to impress her. And, out in left field, we have Santana and Quinn’s relationship becoming suddenly sexual. Make no mistake, though, they built up Santana and Quinn’s slowly escalating relationship beautifully and they actually make the most believable couple of the bunch. And now we just need Quinn and Brittany to have sex with each other, and Glee will finally have a fully complete relationship triangle.

While watching the surprisingly enjoyable escapades of Jake, Marley, and Ryder, I started wondering why this relationship is working for me while Sam and Mercedes in season three never did. It isn’t because the characters are better developed because, while they’re getting better, they really aren’t. A lot of it is that we got to witness the entire relationship from the beginning. A lot of it is that Melissa Benoist and Jacob Artist have more chemistry together than Chord Overstreed and Amber Riley did. And a lot of it is that Ryder’s involvement actually makes it more interesting rather than just another triangle. Ryder is a rare breed in this episode: he is a complete innocent with nary a deceptive bone in his body. He genuinely likes Jake and feels close to him, and we wants to help Jake get closer to Marley because he wants him to be happy. At the same time, he likes Marley a lot, and he’s clearly put a lot of thought into what he would do to win her over if he had the potential for betrayal within him. He wants her to be happy too, and that plays into his attempts to turn Jake into a better boyfriend. And through it all, as he plays Cyrano (“Who?”), he wants nothing more than to trade places with Jake. This may be another love triangle, but it’s unusual for being one with almost no negativity underlying it.

Finn and Rachel may have had sex, and Finn may truly believe that Rachel is “the one,” but I got the idea that Rachel doesn’t really buy it. She did break up with him, after all. All this may mean that Finn is just setting himself up for another big fall. And imagine if Rachel really is pregnant. Back to season one! Fourth verse, same as the first! I must admit, I never saw Rachel taking on Quinn’s role, though.

I’m not sure what to make of Kurt and Blaine. Blaine starts to sound kind of needy and whiny again near the end, and even makes a “You’re my lobster” speech to Kurt similar to the one that Finn delivered to Rachel. Are we supposed to believe it, or is he fooling himself? For his part, Kurt still doesn’t seem to see anything in the future with Blaine. What was really entertaining, though, was Tina’s involvement, as she went back to rage mode to rag on Kurt for how he treated Blaine, and then apologizes and goes out as friends with both Kurt and Blaine. I’m relieved to see everything between Blaine and Tina out in the open now, and we can put the unpleasantness of “Diva” behind us now (“Did you vapor rape my ex-boyfriend?!”).

I can’t emphasize enough how much fun it was to watch Santana and Quinn hang out together and be bitchy. Fuck Kurt and Rachel; give these two their own show. Their going from friendly, to flirty, to slow dancing, to going up to a hotel room was all 100% believable and handled very well. I don’t think that “Quinntana” is going to become a thing, but it was a blast to watch it happen in this episode.

Unfortunately, Artie and Betty’s relationship was mostly disappointing. Betty didn’t really have any characterization beyond “bitch,” and we weren’t given much of a reason why Artie kept pursuing her, unless it was just her huge… tracts of land.

The episode ends with the hint that Rachel might be pregnant (and who’s the father!? — the episode establishes that Finn and Brody are both candidates) and Finn trying to cheer Will up while worming his way into a permanent glee coaching position. Is he even being paid yet? Also, Ryder kisses Marley, but she kinda cornered him.

So, yeah. This was a really good episode and strangely happy and positive, not something I would have expected from Will’s shattered wedding.

The musical highlight by a mile was “Getting Married Today,” which I talked about above. Kurt and Blaine’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” was also very good, and I like the way that they kept some action going underneath the song. Love songs “You’re All I Need to Get By” and “We’ve Got Tonight” did their work, but weren’t spectacular. The final “Anything Could Happen” was pretty good, and suggested a hint of a theme for the episode.

Other thoughts:

The episode alludes to the egotism of both Rachel and Finn, as Rachel thinks that Finn’s loss of control with Emma was about his feelings to Rachel, and Finn thinks that his kiss could have single-handedly broken up Will and Emma.

Is it sad that “impromptu” musical numbers are so commonplace in the Glee universe that I questioned how impressed Marley should have been with Jake’s number? I will say that Jake and company went the extra mile with the lighting. How did they manage that in a classroom?

At least Will has a moment of self-reflection in which he realizes how much he is to blame.

It was kinda fun seeing rage-filled Tina again after a couple of episodes of lovesick Tina.

It’s interesting how an episode that began being about Will’s wedding ended up being all about the glee kids and graduates. It’s almost like a metaphor for the show itself.

Anyone else notice that the number of petals on Finn’s daisy wasn’t completely consistent between shots? You’d think they’d be careful of that, because I doubt I was the only one counting petals to see if he was going to end up on “she loves me” or “she loves me not.”

The scene leading up to and after the “hotel sex” was very artfully shot.

Are four people really living in the loft in New York City now? Sounds pretty awkward.

Episode 4.13: “Diva”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

After the wackiness of last week, it was good to get a little more down to earth, or at least what passes for “down to earth” on Glee. This was a decent episode, but its good setup was undermined by some subpar resolutions. At least Tina finally kinda got a story all her own, even if it did revolve around her feelings for a gay guy (and Rachel thought that she had a failed relationship with Blaine). It’s going to be a Quinn-level event when Tina finally comes crashing down.

Last week, someone on a message board I frequent said that “Naked” reminded them of season one. And, in terms of tone, it did. I even had the same “this is bad, but I’m enjoying it” reaction that I had for much of that season. But musically and thematically, “Diva” is actually even more reminiscent of season one. It helps the connection that it’s an episode that is, for Glee, unusually rooted in continuity. Kurt and Rachel are at each others throats again, and their competitive duet of “Bring Him Home” brings to mind “Defying Gravity,” which was mentioned. Kurt even cops to throwing it. Blaine mentions his brief fling with Rachel. Santana is moping over a lost significant other, and her duet with Sam of “Make No Mistake (She’s Mine)” brings to mind Mercedes and Santana’s “The Boy is Mine,” which in season one was about Puck. Finn is moping over his breakup with Rachel, which happened about every other episode the first two seasons. And, course, we get to witness a bitter competition among the club members (sorta).

Anyway, Finn is still leading the glee club and, since this is an episode that is not “Swan Song,” he seems to be doing a pretty bad job at it. Through Emma, he steals one of Will’s old ideas and tries to get the kids fired up for regionals by having them compete in a “diva-off.” There seems to be a lot of interest in it, with Blaine, Wade, Brittany, Marley, and Tina all expressing interest in proving that they can be a diva. Unfortunately for Wade, Brittany, and Marley, there apparently wasn’t time in this episode for their competition numbers, and this ends up being all about Tina and Blaine (Heather Morris, while a talented enough singer, doesn’t have a powerful enough voice to seriously compete anyway). They help each other out, as Tina tries to help Blaine clear his head cold (apparently Chinese chicken noodle soup is magic) and Blaine tries to help Tina gain some confidence and pick a song to compete with.

There are some good things about this plotline. Blaine is finally moving away from the “depressed whiny bitch who misses Kurt” persona that has ruled him for most of this season, and Tina is finally showing up at the forefront of a story (and she really is the subject here more than Blaine is). However, it’s disappointing that Tina’s story should once again revolve around a man, as it did in “Asian F,” her previous nearest miss with main character status. However, I can buy it because Jenna Ushkowitz really sells it. She’s completely lovesick over Blaine, and it’s driving her nuts because she knows it’s futile. At the same time she pursues it because she can’t stop herself. When Tina starts crying and kinda latches onto Blaine while he’s asleep, it’s kind of a creepy scene, but it also speaks volumes about what Tina is feeling, and Ushkowitz plays it masterfully.

So I’m comfortable with Tina’s role for the most part, but what’s really disappointing is Blaine. He can’t be so naïve as to not realize that Tina is in love with him. I mean, he literally can’t, because she pretty much told him as much in “Sadie Hawkins.” So Blaine ends up looking like a huge jerk for leading her on and taking advantage of her feelings for him. Both Blaine and Tina seem to have missed the point of this when Blaine apologizes for not being grateful for all Tina’s help (which Tina seems to accept) and then asks her to be his date to Will’s wedding. As far as I can tell, Blaine showed plenty of appreciation for what Tina did for him. Tina had good reason to be mad, but that wasn’t it: she should be mad because Blaine is playing with her feelings. And now that they’re going on a “date,” Blaine gets to string her along even further.

I don’t think that this is supposed to be the audience perception of their relationship, but that’s definitely what it looks like to me.

Meanwhile, Kurt decides to call Rachel out on being bitchy and self-absorbed by challenging her at NYADA’s “Midnight Madness,” a Fight Club style underground sing-off, a concept that sounds much funnier than it turns out to be. I like this because in the past couple of episodes it has become obvious that Rachel and Kurt are drifting apart, and Rachel has always had an ego that will balloon out to massive proportions at the slightest provocation. Of course, this is a lesson that Rachel has had to learn over and over again, so there always needs to be some kind of a new spin on it. This time, when Rachel is defeated by Kurt, she becomes depressed not because she got beaten, but because the perspective gives her a chance to see exactly how bitchy she had been. Kurt forgives her and all is well, now that she’s been knocked down a few notches.

While this plotline works better than Blaine and Tina’s, to a certain extent one has to ask what the point is. I guess it was nice finally seeing some cracks in Rachel and Kurt’s relationship, considering that they’ve been best BFFs forever ever since season two. I was expecting part of it to be about Kurt being a little jealous of the attention that Rachel is giving Brody, though.

Bringing up the rear in the C plot is Santana, who has come back to town because she’s upset that Brittany is dating Sam. Why she’s so upset that it’s Sam in particular is never really made clear. Because he’s a guy? Because he’s kinda dumb? Because Santana used to date him? Because he could unhinge his jaw and swallow her whole? I don’t know. I did like their confrontation over her, even if Sam and Brittany’s relationship hasn’t really earned the gravity that Santana and Brittany’s has. Santana’s scene with Brittany, on the other hand, was the best scene in the episode. Even if the writing didn’t earn it, Naya Rivera and Heather Morris onscreen together are always magic. While Sue offered Santana a job as an assistant cheer coach, Brittany convinces Santana that she should move to New York, which is more her style.

While I like the idea of Santana moving to New York purely because I’d like to see her on the show more, the series has not really offered us a good explanation as to why she should go. I asked this question at the end of last season in my review of Goodbye: what is she hoping to do there? We know why Kurt and Rachel went to New York, but Santana has never really expressed interest in Broadway (or in anything else other than being a lesbian and a bitch, really), so what is she doing there? What are her goals? She is as lost as Finn in many ways, she just doesn’t seem as bothered by it.

I did like her entrance into Kurt and Rachel’s apartment. “What are you doing here?” “Moving in.”

Also happening in this episode: Emma has a panic attack about planning for her wedding, and Finn decides to snap her out of it by kissing her. Speaking of callbacks to season one, I’m getting a mental image of Will decking Finn. I’m not sure where they’re going with this, but it can’t be anywhere good. In the meantime, Emma better get her meds adjusted.

Overall, I’d call this a good episode. It wasn’t without its flaws, but thematically, for the most part, it was pretty well put together. A lot of it was about changing relationships: Blaine and Tina, Rachel and Kurt, Santana and Brittany, Emma and Finn. Santana and Brittany’s relationship evolved, Rachel and Kurt’s faltered and then got stronger, and the other two are disasters waiting to happen.

Musically, this episode was strong thematically if not artistically. “Diva” was easily the worst, pulling us way out of reality with a song that just isn’t that good. Blaine’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” was good, but unfortunately, Darren Criss is no Freddy Mercury. I think its telling that Glee‘s previous Queen songs were mostly ensembles, since it’s very hard for a single person to impress with a song originated by Mercury, who had a ludicrously good voice. The main exception is season one’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” sung primarily by Jonathan Groff. But Criss doesn’t even have Groff’s voice and, as talented as he is, “Don’t Stop Me Now” comes across as a pale imitation because his voice just isn’t powerful enough to carry it. Similarly, “Bring Him Home” invites unfair comparisons to season one’s “Defying Gravity,” which was far superior. The highlight was Santana and Sam’s oddly sad and brooding “Make No Mistake (She’s Mine),” which worked thanks more to Naya Rivera than Chord Overstreet, but I think that they both sold their feelings for Brittany. Santana was regretting that their relationship had to end, while Sam was quietly telling Santana that she is with him now, and that’s the way it’s going to stay. Close behind are Tina’s “Hung Up” (which seemed a little mean-spirited) and Santana’s “Nutbush City Limits,” which was just a ton of fun. Santana’s “Girl on Fire” seemed like it was trying to channel Rachel’s “Roots Before Branches” from season three’s “Goodbye,” which Rachel earned but Santana did not.

Other thoughts:

I liked how Emma just kept talking while the glee kids started arguing with each other leading into the musical number, which resulted in the funniest punchline of the episode: “And that is how I made the manager cry at the Cheesecake Factory.”

The scene with Blaine and Tina in Blaine’s bedroom was already creepy enough before Blaine fell asleep and Tina started unbuttoning his shirt and mounted him. Luckily she just wanted to put some vapor rub on his chest for his cold, but it was pretty uncomfortable, and it was meant to be.

Finn describes himself as a “manboy,” which pretty much describes the box they’ve put him into for any fourth season episode not named “Swan Song.”

Santana seemed very different from the mature, adult woman who broke up with Brittany in “The Break-Up.” I guess striking out with that girl in Louisville really did a number on her.

Kurt’s victory over Rachel was “the closest in Midnight Madness History?” What, does their history only stretch back to last Tuesday or something?

Tina earned her victory here, but I hope they give her something to do in the future that isn’t mainly mooning over a guy. I know, I’m impossible to please.

Sue’s explanation for how the graduates keep showing up back in Lima: teleporters.

Episode 4.05: “The Role You Were Born to Play”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

You know… Nashville is a great show. I started watching it during Glee‘s hiatus, and I’m really digging it. The unfortunate thing about that is that as I come back to Glee, the successes of Nashville really put Glee‘s failures into stark contrast.

Take Juliette Barnes, for instance. She is a villainous character, a duplicitous bitch, a jerk with a heart of jerk. But she’s someone you can understand. She’s someone you can actually sympathize with to at least a certain extent. Her explanation of why she stole the nail polish, at the end of “We Live in Two Different Worlds” (even after she just finished throwing a tantrum on national television worthy of any spoiled star), was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve seen on television in a long time.

And on the other hand, take Glee‘s Kitty. Comparing Juliette to Kitty is like comparing Darth Vader to Snidely Whiplash. They’re both villains, sure, but Juliette is a character while Kitty is a caricature. She’s nothing more than an amalgamation of high school villain clichés. What drives her? What does she think of herself? Where does she come from and where does she think she’s going? Who cares! She’s just here to be a bitch to Marley and Jake!

Take also Nashville‘s use of music. Nashville is a show that has utterly refused to chose a side in the musical/non-musical dichotomy. It uses music when it’s called for, and it uses music absolutely beautifully. Not only is the quality of the original music in Nashville very high, but every single time they’ve ever used a song in the show through five episodes, it’s been for a good reason. It’s been for character development, or plot reasons, or setting the tone of the scene, or something equally important, and it often works on multiple levels. They don’t feel beholden to shoehorn six to nine songs into an episode the way Glee often seems to, and they don’t shove songs in for the sole purpose of selling singles on iTunes the way Glee often does. Nashville is actually a show with a ton of artistic integrity, something that I think that Glee lost somewhere along the way, if it even ever had it as opposed to just occasionally stumbling into artistry by accident. Each of the dozen or so songs that Nashville has done through five episodes was used to good effect, and often to great effect. Glee‘s fourth season can say that about maybe four songs.

So why am I talking about Nashville so much in this review? Part of it is that I’m really enthusiastic about it, and I’d like to encourage people to watch it. Part of it is that I see things that Nashville is doing better than Glee and I’d just like to point it out and encourage Glee to take a few cues. But mostly… I really really don’t want to talk about “The Role You Were Born to Play.” Because… meh. Meh!

This was the first episode of the season not to deal with New York at all, and it definitely suffers for it. This episode features some fallout from the far-superior “The Break-Up,” as Finn has to deal with losing Rachel along with any kind of direction in his life, Will and Emma have to deal with the fact that Will is kind of a humongous douchebag, Blaine has to whine and cry and feel sorry for himself because he lost Kurt, and Brittany appears once in the episode to give the camera a thumbs-up. Okay, so not all those threads are dealt with equally.

Let’s start with what worked. I’d been waiting for the Wade episode all season, and this wasn’t it, but they did finally address a couple of things about her that needed to be addressed. First, they establish that she is definitely transgender, not just a cross-dresser. Second, we saw Wade express how much trouble she’s having trying to live as a woman. It was good to see her admit that her dressing as a woman (which even she refers to as “drag”) is seen as a joke, because that’s how they’ve been playing it this season. She may be playing it up in order to avoid conflict, as people may find it easier to deal with a confident cross-dresser than the truth: a frightened pre-op transgender person. Third, they establish that there is some kind of opposition to Wade living as a woman in public. I would have thought that it would have come to a head when she started coming to school in dresses on a regular basis, so tying it to her being cast as Rizzo in their production of Grease seems artificial, but at least they’re doing something with it. It’s also somewhat believable to put Sue into a position of opposition, what with her previous opposition to the production of Rocky Horror in season two. While she has stood up for the rights of gay kids before (something she herself brings up in this episode), for some people the rights of the transgender are a whole other issue. I also liked Wade’s developing friendship with Marley quite a bit. As fellow outcasts, they both connect with each other very well.

On the other hand, the part of the show that deals with Wade is depressingly short, so let’s move on to the rest of the show.

Finn, Mercedes, and Mike all coming back to help the glee club put on Grease is just weird. I mean, it’s weird enough for Finn, who at least apparently has nothing better to do (aside from help run his stepdad’s body shop). But shouldn’t Mike and Mercedes be working/in school? I mean, what the hell are they doing there? That was never even brought up, much less explained. But it does give us the opportunity to revisit Mike and Tina’s offscreen breakup (brought up, but not really resolved) or even Mercedes and Sam’s vague relationship (although: please don’t). It just seems to go against the prior season’s themes of moving forward and personal growth. It’s easy to just use old characters by writing them back into Ohio. It’s more difficult to use them in the cities they moved to at the end of season three: Los Angeles for Mercedes and Chicago for Mike. However, it would have been much more rewarding and made a hell of a lot more sense.

Mercedes and Mike had almost nothing to do in this episode, anyway. They came across as a third wheel. What the bulk of this episode was about (yes, we’re finally getting to it) was Finn’s relationship with both himself and the glee club.

Finn is back in town working at Burt’s body shop, but he’s not happy and his friends know it. Artie approaches Finn and convinces him to direct the school’s production of Grease with him. I actually like seeing Artie as the one to approach Finn, even though they’ve never really been friends before. Artie has a big heart, and it reminds me of his brief friendship with Quinn after she became wheelchair-bound. However, I most definitely don’t like seeing Finn going back where he came from, creeping around his old high school like Kurt was doing when the season opened. It feels like a step back for him. Finn was the de facto leader of the glee club for three years, so putting him back in that position is not a step forward for his character development. Finn’s recruitment of Ryder even echoes his recruitment of Sam back in season two.

This plot thread ends with Will handing the reigns of the glee club to Finn as Will heads to Washington for a few months, which is something they telegraphed from a mile away. By doing this, they virtually guarantee that Finn’s character will remain crystallized in an undeveloped state for the duration, preserved forever for future generations. Even if Finn eventually decides to pursue teaching as a career (which will probably happen, but which will probably not at all work out based on what we know about Finn), he didn’t have to revert back to his old role in his old high school in order to discover that.

I did like Finn’s confrontation with Sue. His anger felt real, it set Sue up as a villain in this situation pretty well, and Finn’s slip-up over the “retarded baby” line both adhered to the Finn Standard of stupid and allowed Sue to get a sympathy point.

The episode also features Will continuing to be a huge dick in insisting that Emma follow him to Washington even though she obviously does not want to go. This plot thread ends with Will realizing that he should not be a dick. Thrilling.

Meanwhile, Kitty and Jake were also kinda in this episode, and we saw more of the Jake-Kitty-Marley love triangle that I wish would just disappear along with Kitty. Please for the love of God, either give Kitty some character development or have her die in a freak cheerleading accident. In this episode she even inserts herself into the glee club to keep an eye on Jake, just as Quinn inserted herself into the glee club to keep an eye on Finn back in season one. She’s Quinn! Just bring Dianna Agron back already and be done with it. I miss her anyway.

Awkward newcomer Ryder strikes me as very Sam-like, at least before Sam apparently permanently lost his intelligence in “Makeover.” Retreads for everyone! I’m surprised that we don’t have a literal “new Rachel” yet (Marley comes closest).

All in all, a very mediocre episode. They’re still fighting a losing battle when it comes to convincing me that the Ohio portion of Glee is worth holding onto. On another note, their production of Grease smacks as an excuse to do songs and sell albums. It just feels like they’re getting lazier and more obvious as the years go by when it comes to that sort of thing.

The music was at least as “meh” in this episode as the writing was. Marley and Wade’s “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” was the highlight of the episode by a mile. It had a lot of energy, Wade and Marley have a lot of chemistry together, and it was a lot of fun to watch. None of the other numbers from this episode are really even worth mentioning.

Other thoughts:

Not to sound insensitive to the handicapped or anything, but how the hell did Artie catch up with Finn after Finn stormed out of the auditorium?

Finn never really had a good reason to try to recruit Ryder, aside from seeing him dancing around on the football field like he was on drugs. Ryder even denied he could sing. Luckily, he was wrong. I guess Finn is psychic?

Wade’s defense for using the ladies’ restroom: “I sit when I pee.”

Why did Jake decide to audition with Kitty? They kinda glossed over that. They were just involved in an ugly breakup a short time ago, and Jake made it pretty clear that he doesn’t like her. But hey, they wanted it for this episode, so fuck continuity.

So is Finn getting paid for teaching the glee club, or what? And how is it not an “actual class?” It’s been pretty strongly implied in the past that they meet in the middle of the school day.

Episode 4.03: “Makeover”

(Spoilers lurk below.)

Let’s cut right to the heart of the matter: “Makeover” is a flop. But it’s an interesting flop. It doesn’t fail in quite the same way as most of the series’s previous flops failed. It has a lot of good ideas poorly executed, a lot of brilliant themes poorly explored, and a lot of interesting character moments wasted. Despite its many disparate plot elements, it manages to feel cohesive while at the same time feeling aimless. It rehashes old plot elements in an interesting way while forging ahead with new plot ideas that seem strangely awkward and dull. I have a strange feeling that in the end, unfortunately, “Makeover” may be remembered as the moment that defined the fourth season for the worse.

Thematically, as the title suggests, this episode wants to be about moving forward and forging a new identity in a new situation. Will doesn’t know what to do with himself after achieving his dream of leading a glee club to a national championship, so he decides to join a government campaign to improve funding for the arts. Kurt lands a job at Vogue.com, where he learns that he may have a gift and even a passion for fashion. Blaine runs for and wins senior class president, while realizing that not only are he and Kurt drifting apart, but his feelings for Kurt may even be fading. Rachel decides to embrace a new fashion sense in her continuing quest to assimilate in New York, and she may even be giving up on Finn.

There are a lot of things going on here, but there is a very strong theme holding it all together, which is exactly what I said this season needed to do to succeed. So what’s the problem? As usual with Glee, the answer lies much more in the execution than in the concept.

Kurt’s relationship with his boss Isabelle (Sarah Jessica Parker) is weird. Weird, man. I mean, what high-powered fashion executive spills her guts to her intern, much less the day after she hires him? And then later she catches Kurt and Rachel sneaking into the Vogue building after hours to try on clothes, and what does she do? Why, she joins them in a music montage that is ridiculous even for Glee, and those of you who have been following these reviews know that that really means something. And then she submits the music video they shot to her boss, whose one word e-mailed response (“Great”) is apparently the most praise that Isabelle has ever gotten. And it’s all thanks to Kurt.

I understand the point that Kurt may end up feeling at home in the fashion world, and it’s believable that he has designed his own clothes before even though I don’t think it’s ever really come up. I understand the point that Kurt is getting caught up in his new life and drifting away from Blaine. What I don’t understand is why they decided to present that point in this completely unbelievable and asinine way. We’re basically meant to believe that Kurt, fresh from the mean streets of Lima, Ohio, has better instincts in the industry than his fashion executive boss. Even the quite entertaining performances of Chris Colfer and Sarah Jessica Parker are not nearly enough to save this plotline. I like the relationship of their characters, but it’s just begging for a slower development curve. As it is, it’s coming off as forced and artificial.

While I get that Rachel may need to try harder to assimilate into her new environment in New York, pinning it to her fashion sense is a little weird. It isn’t anything that came up in the previous two episodes and I seriously didn’t notice a major difference in her post- and pre-makeover appearance. And what was up with the girls in her dance class making fun of Rachel’s outfit early on? They were wearing black leotards and she was wearing a red one, as far as I could tell. Either I just have a complete blind eye for fashion, or maybe the costume designer fell asleep at the wheel. Having Rachel’s turning point be that silly music video/outfit montage was lazy writing at its finest. The only “change” even readily apparent afterwards was more attention from Brody, who I believe had already been firmly established as wanting to jump her bones. So what’s the big deal?

I liked the bit at the very end a lot more, when she and Brody have that cute “first date” scene together (nice dialogue writing there), and then Finn of all people shows up right when they kiss. The man has the best timing. I wish that Brody were a better-established character, but that scene felt like Rachel starting to really change. The montage/duet with Brody, on the other hand, didn’t really do any real narrative or characterization work. Despite taking up so much screen time and having a decent thematic basis, Rachel’s plotline ended up feeling curtailed and pointless.

Blaine, meanwhile, decides to try to find meaning in his Kurtless senior year by trying everything, as the opening montage demonstrates by showing Blaine joining every ludicrous student organization on campus, culminating in his deciding to run for senior class president against Brittany. Now, we did a “substance versus Brittany” kind of bit with the senior class president plot arc from season three, and this bit bears a striking resemblance to that. However, it has several important differences. First, vice presidential nominees in the persons of Sam for Blaine and Artie for Brittany have been introduced. Second, Blaine is off message about as often as Brittany. Third, this time the election bit only lasts one episode and is not taken at all seriously. I mean, one of Sam’s answers during the vice presidential debates is to perform a striptease. Also, at one point Blaine goes off on a rant during the debate about how Brittany’s banning of hair gel could lead to fascism and book burning. Compare that to Kurt’s overwrought stand against bullying last season. This whole plotline was played mostly for comedy, and for that it works, largely because of Heather Morris and, to a lesser extent, Chord Overstreet.

I do question why Sam suddenly becomes an idiot just at the very moment when they need him to form a parallel with Brittany (“What’s a debate?”). Continuity! Who needs it?

The larger dramatic point of the election plotline comes at the end, when Blaine has a sudden realization that he only ever went to WMHS in the first place to be with Kurt, and now that Kurt is gone everything feels empty and pointless. He tries to call Kurt on the phone to share in the joy of being elected class president, but Kurt is busy and hits ignore. I like this plot point, but it sure was a long way to go to get to it, and I’m not sure that the silliness of the whole bit doesn’t overwhelm the drama of the final point.

So, yeah. This was a big fat flop, but a much more interesting one than “The Spanish Teacher” or even “Choke.”

Musically, this was the leanest episode since season three’s “I am Unicorn“: that episode had three songs while “Makeover” has four. Unfortunately, none of them were particularly good. Every single one was a montage! I like a good montage as much as the next guy, but that’s not really the kind of thing that Glee was built on. I prefer numbers that are organically inserted into the story and have some kind of slight basis in reality. I guess that Rachel and Brody’s “A Change Would Do You Good” would be my pick for the highlight, but lets not mistake that as any kind of big compliment in an episode like this. Meanwhile, “The Way You Look Tonight/You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” is probably the new record-holder for most awkwardly-set-up song. Even in a traditional musical, that would have earned a groan.

Other thoughts:

Kurt has blogged about Project Runway since season one. Man, what a loser. I’ve been blogging about Glee since season two, which is totally different, you see.

Speaking of callbacks to season one (were we speaking of that?), it was pretty surprising to see the director of the deaf glee club back. I’m not sure what the point of it was, really, but it was surprising.

I get the gag that Artie’s answer in the debate goes on for hours, but aren’t debates usually timed?

I almost feel like the whole election makeover subplot was worth it because of how cute Heather Morris looks in glasses.

I like what they’re doing with Sue this season. She’s retained her edge while staying out of supervillain territory. There’s not even much negativity underlying her insults anymore. She’s a much funnier character that way.

Sam and Brittany, in their final scene, actually have a lot more chemistry with each other than Rachel and Brody do. Considering that the next episode is called “The Break-Up,” I have to admit to feeling a little worried for the future of perfect couple Brittany and Santana. At the same time, I recently realized that I would love to hear Naya Rivera sing “He’s Got You,” so if by some weird chance they happen to use that, a breakup would totally be worth it.