Welcome back to McKinley, land of ten thousand love triangles, and only a couple of them make sense. I want to acknowledge that we had some amazing plot developments (Blaine/Sam, Kurt/British Dude, Rachel/Brody, Brittany one-liners), but let's dive into some of the worst ones first. For starters, there's the whole Puck/Kitty fiasco. First of all, I get that in real life Mark Salling is 30 and Becca Tobin is 27, and them dating in real life would be fine, but on the show, it's creepy. Not just because Puck is 19 and Kitty is either 15 or 16, but also because Becca Tobin looks about 18 and Mark Salling looks 30 (of all of the Glee actors playing younger than their age, he's the least believable), and it's just odd and gross. I like Puck, don't get me wrong, but telling his brother to dump Kitty and then dating her himself-did he learn nothing from his experiences with Finn? That's low, dude, and you are on my Glee shame list for at least a couple of episodes.
Secondly, Tina, can we talk? Listen, I'm a big fan-you've got an amazing voice, I've always liked the sort of kind of bitchy/underdog thing that you've got going on, but lately, I'm sorry, I think you've crossed over to the dark side. I get where you were coming from with the whole yelling at Marley for ruining your Sectionals thing, but I'm a person watching a scripted show getting mad at sloppy character development and you're theoretically a real person, so that was super mean.
However, I also find your random crush on Blaine a bit...well, peculiar. Listen, honey, we all have a thing for Darren Criss. A...friend of mine has a picture of him on his fridge to keep him from eating horribly so that he can date a "Darren Criss" type and not a "Puckerman" type. But you've known him for over a year and this seemed to have come out of nowhere. It's not like the surprisingly well-earned (for this show, sustaining a build over multiple episodes is an accomplishment) story of Sam/Blaine that we're about to get to in the next paragraph. Your crush came out of nowhere, and just a week or two after you paired up with Mike and seemed to be on the mend there. Also, you had a gay intervention with Mercedes in the first season. I think that the girl having a crush on a gay guy story is a solid one (though not nearly as utilized as the Sam/Blaine one, which I'm super excited about and will get to in a paragraph), but I just don't think you were the correct one to go with it. It made sense with Mercedes and Kurt in Season One-confident you, who has regularly dated one of the hottest guys in McKinley, I'm sorry, but this is way, way out of character. And also, harassing Blaine into telling you about the Sam crush was not a great way to endear you to anyone. This is the end of our chat, hopefully the end of this story line, and you can still rock out Florence and the Machine.
Now, to by far the best story of the night, possibly my favorite this season (give or take the...you know what, it's my favorite, period): the Sam and Blaine development. Now, some of you may be saying, "but John, you just admonished Tina about her story in the last paragraph, and isn't this kind of the same as the Kurt/Finn plot from Season One," and you'd have a slight point, but let me argue with you, oh imaginary reader. First off, the Tina comparison doesn't work as the Sam/Blaine plot has clearly been leading this way for weeks now, and secondly, the Kurt and Finn story from the first season was different because Kurt was really just desperate for a boyfriend, and Finn happened to be the first guy in the sight line, and also because Kurt and Finn, if you recall, were not nearly as good of friends at that point in Season One, at least not compared to the best bro-ship that Sam and Blaine are enjoying. One of the things I occasionally love about Glee (there are a lot of things-I spend an hour each week recapping and obsessing over every episode-I clearly enjoy the thing, even when it drives me bonkers), is when it stumbles across something insightful, particularly in the GLBT community, as the teenage experience of gay youth is vastly underrepresented on television (Bravo, I don't often speak to you as I have no time for the Real Housewives, but it'd be nice if you rewarded your gay audience with a quality show about actual gay people, rather than just a bunch of plastic surgery-enhanced women throwing chardonnay in each other's faces). Every gay guy has at some point in their lives developed a crush on one of their best friends-it is kind of a rite of passage. I love that they are doing this on Glee, and I'm even more excited that they didn't wrap it up in one episode. I'm hoping (and praying) that the Tina (straight person) crushing on Blaine (gay person) story doesn't become the focus on this instead of the other way around, as that is, once again, more about the straight person experience rather than the gay person, but I'm going to be mildly optimistic that we get to see Blaine have to wrestle with his feelings in a real way in the next few weeks. It'll stretch out Darren Criss's acting muscles, it'll give us a more realistic reaction to the gay friend/straight friend scenario than Cory Monteith's blow-up and it's over in Season One, and I am, for the first time in a while, super excited about a new plot on Glee instead of just investing my time in the old plots and sort of skirting through the new ones.
Speaking of new plots, I'm also a big fan of take-charge Rachel and Kurt in New York. Both of them seem to have gained in their confidence, and it's about time-they're both in a very prestigious school, they have oodles of talent, and they theoretically are in a place where they will be celebrated, not ostracized. The Rachel inviting Brody to move in is so over-the-top, but typical Glee, and more importantly, typical Rachel (there's nothing I love more than writers having their characters react in a way true to their nature, even if that reaction isn't a good decision). Also, it was super cute that Kurt asked out a guy for the very first time instead of remaining the wallflower, and while I thought that "Baby Got Back" rendition was awful (sorry, I know it was probably cute if you're Kurt, but I would have been squirming rather than charmed), the British guy whose name I will learn eventually is totally adorable and Kurt should go for it. I'm curious to see what his hang-ups will be with dating an older guy, and I'm excited to see where Rachel and Brody go, as it's nice that she's with a guy with some confidence.
I'm not even getting into the Warblers cheated and that's going to qualify the New Directions to advance because, for some reason the writers forgot they also disqualified the New Directions, which would mean no one would advance, as they are both disqualified, but that's far too much logic to apply to Glee.
All-in-all, a very polarizing episode for me (though I had my first moment where I laughed at Marley this episode, so progress on that front-Brittany can do that to anyone), but one with a lot of potential. The Sam/Blaine thing is the most excited I've been for a plot on this show since the Quinn car accident (and hopefully this one turns out more artistically satisfying rather than a quick bounce back), and though I'm still baffled by the new kids, at least they took up mildly less time this week. Plus, next week's episode, to quote Penny Hartz, looks ah-MAH-zing! Until then, Gleekers.
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