Santana (who made up for her long absence with her hilarious spin/recap of things while folding laundry), clearly liked her new life. She kept saying that she did, at least (I wish that she'd hate it just enough to join the New York sector of the New Directions-she'd be a fab addition to the Rachel and Kurt world). However, both she and Brittany continued to be lonely in their long-term relationship, and it was evident from Brittany's stumbling into the world of Mike Seaver that she felt adrift without her girlfriend (side bar: could we have thought of a more original idea than having the new cheerleader be Quinn 2.0-twice the attitude with none of the crazy pretty eyes; I get that this seems to be the season of the repeat story line on all shows, but unless you can make it as moving and clever as The Office, try something new). All-in-all, for a relationship that really came into its own last season, it didn't have the impact of the Blaine/Kurt and Rachel/Finn breakups, partially due to the fact that Santana has been MIA for the past few weeks. Santana channeling Taylor Swift gave more emotion to those words than Swift could ever dream of, but still-this was clearly one of the odd stories out this episode. Also, I know it was impactful, but between these four couples breaking up, Mike and Tina splitting, and presumably Sam and Mercedes not working it out, one of the show's writers obviously is still bitter about a long-distance relationship going kaput.
Let's get the other ancillary breakup out of the way, that of Will and Emma. While it wasn't an actual breakup, it sure felt like one. It seems so odd that this, one of the hallmarks of the first season, seems to be such an afterthought four years later. This really has become a show focused on the students-Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison have become such side characters you hardly know to care about their stories. I mean, it's four episodes in and there's been zilch focus on who the father of Sue's baby is, and quite frankly, do you care? I'm telling you-Glee without McKinley wouldn't be the worst idea after this season. That said, with Morrison going off to Washington to fight for the arts, it appears that he and Emma will have to endure a long-distance relationship as well. I have two side notes on this story line (sorry-I really did love this episode, but I've got some gripes to get out of the way before we tackle the best parts). First, isn't Burt Hummel in Congress? Doesn't that get his son's alma mater a little bit of sway, certainly more than some random committee-why didn't Will go to him first when he wanted to start his crusade? Secondly, Will and Emma are engaged and, you know, adults-wouldn't they have discussed if Emma was going with Will prior to him actually accepting, and it's only a few months apart-this drama over whether or not they should stay together seems a bit out-of-the-blue for a couple that was really solid last season.
I've been debating which couple to end with, and since this has been the Kurt-and-Blaine show for me since the second season, we'll go with Finn and Rachel next. I have to say, I was damned impressed by Lea Michele's acting in this episode-for someone relegated to some odd stories last season and to somewhat secondary status on a show that she dominated in the past, she is not wasting a renewed place in the spotlight. I was very much on her side in this debate-Finn made the right decision by forcing her to go to New York to follow her dreams, but it was a scummy move to not call her for four months, and he quite frankly had no reason to be upset that she kissed Brody (unlike Kurt and Blaine, but more in a second). His insecure posturing at the end was hard to empathize with-she's right, he needs to man up before he can be with her. Hopefully he'll find that purpose in November (damn FOX and its random scheduling), but in the meantime, I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to see Rachel partner up with the sexy, constantly shirtless guy who shows up with flowers at her doorstep and is her ambitious equal.
And finally, we end with Kurt and Blaine-I have to tell you that, if I distance myself from it, I think a breakup here was probably the right character development decision. Kurt needs to find out what a confident, celebrated version of himself is like (and was that cute guy asking about the flowers a potential romantic interest?), and Blaine needs to figure out what he wants to be like, and quite frankly, it'd be good for them to see what a relationship outside of their insulated world is like. That said, I'm so upset that it happened because Blaine cheated on Kurt-there were so, so many reasons to breakup-Kurt ignoring Blaine, Blaine feeling lonely and neglected-why did they go for the easy out and have Blaine cheat with some random guy we've never heard of? It was so uncharacteristic for the sweet and wonderfully loyal Blaine. Even throughout the entire Sebastian story line, it never seemed like the remotest of possibilities, and at that time it would have at least been with an established character, and not seemingly out of the blue. Either way, it was a moving breakup, and I hope that they don't get short-shifted in the plot department in the next few episodes until their inevitable reconciliation.
I can't let this episode pass without at least mentioning that, musically, this was easily the best episode of the season-from Santana's previously-mentioned "Mine," to Darren Criss's heartbreaking performance of "Teenage Dream" to the chilling end version of "The Scientist," this has also been the most costly of the episodes for my iTunes budget.
And now, back to you-what did you think of the fourth episode? Which breakup had you most reaching for the Kleenex? Where do you think our newly single characters should go next? And where the hell are Mercedes, Quinn, and Mike?!?
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