Disclaimer: I barely slept last night. Not sure if it was thinking or feeling or just the fact that I was mysteriously hungry at 4am, but no sleep. So we have this episode and all the baggage that comes with it and me being exhausted and a lot emotional. You may have to take this with a moderately sized salt mine.
Let’s talk about Coach Beiste and why I’m getting annoyed by her recently. Annoyed, but infinitely fascinated. About Beiste:
I have never loved her storyline (except I want to be her drinking buddy) but I do love what she’s talking about … right up until she starts calling Kurt “a lady” and expressing her desire for the male lead in the student musical to make her feel things in her “lady parts”. Why is nobody else as creeped out by this as I am? Am I missing something? Please tell me. And until she started divulging her sexual history to Artie, I had a moment of hope that she was a teacher with boundaries. These do not exist in Glee-world.
Artie pissed me off initially but in the end it worked, and it was interesting how he ended up saying that two things had made him feel like a man — sex and being appreciated for the job he did. Except that one of those was bullshit posturing.
I have shipped Finchel since the beginning of time. I didn’t find myself reacting emotionally to anything that happened between them last night. But I still like Rachel, and I usually like Finn with Rachel. But this time — of all times — meh.
The Kurt/Blaine/Sebastian storyline was definitely front-and-centre and for good reason. It was beautifully executed. After Chris Colfer spent the summer telling press that Kurt and Blaine are fine, please, like they have any other options suddenly they have other options. All three actors were brilliant. And we feel at the end, when Kurt and Blaine finally go to bed together to rub noses, that they’re doing it because what they have is special, and not because they haven’t other options. I hope Sebastian is going nowhere, though, because I have a new OT3 and oh man I love Kurt hating him.
Oh and let’s talk about the West Lima gay bar, Scandals. How perfect was it? If it had only been in the basement of a Christian Book Store, it would actually be the first gay bar I went to. Memories. Blaine trying to seduce Kurt was horrible, but in a fantastic kind of way, and the way Kurt cried “Blaine,” after his boyfriend was actually perfect. I had expected, from the spoilers, a “STELLA” kind of over the top yell, but instead it was real.
Oh and Blaine who dressed like Gilligan just last week pointed out that the drag queen was Ginger? Also, how weird was it that Artie mentioned Chaz Bono in the voice over intro and then Kurt’s fake I.D. was in the name of Chaz. What is that?
The on-stage kiss was magical, with Kurt somewhat out of breath. I love, love that Kurt was driving this whole idea, because the could so easily have put Blaine in that position and it would turn into all kinds of fail.
My favourite scene between them, though, was the one in Blaine’s room where they discuss things frankly, and oh, layers. Also, the fingertips shot. Watch again if you didn’t catch it!
I don’t feel, like many of the reviewers did, that we had closure with Karofsky, and I’d still very much welcome his character back.
There were a lot of hands in this episode.
That’s all until we talk about Blaine, but I’m waiting for someone else to blink first on that one. And yes, I’m ignoring America. And kind of waiting til someone posts something, somewhere, about Mike. Also Brittany. Also, have not yet had time/mental capacity to process the gender gender gender gender stuff going on everywhere.
Deconstructing Glee 
Again another wonderful and insightful critique-these are the only reviews of the show I read. With all the hype I was expecting soft core porn at the very least…but i think the writers of Glee have finally allowed their characters to find maturity so the writing reflects that…the writing may seem over the top and inconsistent but that is what it is like to be a teenager; instead of writing it off as being lazy we may have to conceed they do have a point.
My first thought was how proud Burt would be of his son; every lesson he has taught him came into effect as Kurt systematically maintained his self respect and proves that noone (and I mean no one) pushes a Hummell around. That scene in the Lima Bean was a perfect example of three brilliant acting styles bouncing off each other to create gold.
I wonder if they (the writers) will explore the obvious implications that Britt was raped. I know she is dimm but that whole alien invasion line was quite disturbing.
Also a quick mental note–the structure was brilliant. The songs reflecting the scenes and ‘not’ feeling forced a total win all on it’s own.
I very much look foreward to your gender analysis.
Also please ignore the grammer/spelling errors I like you am writing this half way to slumber land.
I was disturbed by the Brittany bit, too. I really wanted her line to stop with, “I lost my virginity at cheerleading camp,” not bothering to specify whether it was with a girl or a boy. I’d argue that this would be in keeping with her character.
Sadly, I doubt the writers will readdress this… I think that it was supposed to be funny.
Great thoughts, as usual. I like Beiste but am consistently annoyed by her storylines (and the recurring OMG-I’m-not-gay crap).
For the most part, though, I enjoyed this episode. The Klaine stuff was so… tender. I especially loved the “layers” scene, too. Strong, realistic communication with casual kissing and masturbation references? Yes. I loved that their storyline didn’t center around the fact that they’re gay, for once. I was nervous that the Sebastian stuff would veer into threesome territory (which *could* have been done well, but knowing Glee, I doubt it) and TERRIFIED that Blaine would drunkenly assault Kurt. I would have been SO angry with everyone behind Glee.
I’ve never cared much about Finchel, but in the end, that plotline was pretty well handled. I loved Tina’s story and Puck’s aside that he’d always thought *he’d* be the first to sleep with Rachel. I kind of did too!
The Glee writers have a funny way with funny. Santana and Brittany’s actual relationship was a throw away joke once. I really, really hope Brittany’s implied sexual assault will not be left a forgotten joke. It was really disturbing.
And yes, it would have been great if they’d stopped at “camp.” but maybe Brittany has a story to tell.
I am not a Klaine fan, but my favorite Klaine interaction of all Klaine time was indeed the Blaine’s bedroom scene… with Blaine dancing around a pensive Kurt and the scene ended in a kiss… It felt so natural, fun and awkward at the same time.