Glee: red herrings, plots that went nowhere, and stuff that made no sense

[rm]

1. Wasn't Quinn supposed to have some vengeance plotline this episode? Where did that go? Instead she got a haircut? Did she have an actual narrative that was excised so we could get the Klaine and Samcedes post-Nationals stuff?

2. Remember the shooting spoilers from NY, specifically the Tiffany & Co scene with the key and the post-it note and all the ridiculous speculation we engaged in? I could see it in the window when Kurt leads Rachel away from Tiffany, but clearly it wasn't anything. Was it a plotline at one point? Or were the creators just trolling us again?

3. Okay, when Blaine and Kurt have their ILU scene, Blaine says they are on their way to buy sheet music. Blaine is out of uniform and Mercedes says she'll see Kurt later in class. Later, we see Kurt in class in the same outfit he was wearing in the Lima Bean. This raises the following questions:

- While Blaine's out of uniform status can be explained away by the frequently different calendars public and private schools run on, what the fuck sort of schedule do Kurt and Mercedes have that it's a) shocking to run into each other in the middle of the day, b) sheet music stores are open that Kurt and Blaine have time to go to and c) class happens sometimes after that? Can anyone untangle this? ANYONE AT ALL?

Comments

[specialj67.livejournal.com]

Haha, and see, I was too distracted by Blaine's old man sweater to notice the timey-wimey fuckery.

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

as far as part 3 goes, my high school had an hour and a half lunch period (3 lunch rotations in the cafeteria--1200 students in the school) and if you could swing an independent study class or study hall during that period, you could leave for the whole period (release). In a small Midwestern town, which this was, that's maybe 15-20 minutes round trip with time to find parking and an hour to do stuff with a ten-minute cushion to spare. If they'd gone far away from the school, it might be a surprise to see others there.

Of course, you could only get lunch release as a senior, but who knows what these crazy kids are doing these days?

We also had a music store in a strip mall near fast food places that rented instruments to most of the band kids and kept a selection of sheet music, so I think that is also not totally crazy. Most of the bigger towns in Iowa did, afaik. A combination of a higher-than-usual investment in the arts for public schools, and the complete lack of anything else to do. (See also: teenage pregnancy rates.)

Could "see you in class later" just be that they didn't have anything planned between then and the next day of class?

All of which is to say, the writers clearly don't care about continuity, but I can shoehorn with the best of them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Could "see you in class later" just be that they didn't have anything planned between then and the next day of class?

Except Kurt, Kurt, is wearing the same outfit in that class scene.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

Could be that class means glee club and they had an after school meeting...although during that scene there were other students in the hall so I guess that kind of dashes that theory right there.

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

Ah, fair point.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

I think Quinn's vengeance plan was to tell Will about Rachel and Kurt sneaking off, thus disqualifying the team from nationals. That's what I got from that scene, anyway, although it looks like quite a few of Dianna's lines that have been shown in previews this season have been cut from the actual show by the time it airs ("You did this to me!" in Prom Queen, for one). I guess they just edited it to look like it was bigger than it was.

I'm not familiar with those shooting spoilers but my guess is another dropped plot point. There were so many "spoilers" that the writers leaked over the season and last summer that never happened--Kurt dating a football player (presumably Sam), Sunshine having a bigger role than she did, an uber-conservative Christian joining the club who would have provided conflict with Kurt I'm guessing, David Alan Grier playing Mercedes's homeless father (after she's stated that her dad is a dentist or orthodontist last year, but this is Glee and the writers don't care about continuity). I'm convinced the writers just like to troll the audience. I'm interested to see what happens next year with, I hope, a full staff of writers when the others are busy focusing on their new show for FX.

[colfer.livejournal.com]

1. I've had no idea what they're doing with Quinn for the entire season. But her line in the previous ep about "you'll see" was a dangling plot point, I think. There's no way to tell, really. How could she have known that Kurt & Rachel would sneak off? Doubtful that was her master plan all along.

2. Probably trolling or the shot just got snipped.

3. WHAT ABOUT HOW THEY NEVER GO TO ANY CLASSES EXCEPT FOR GLEE CLUB AND THAT GLEE CLUB CLASS/MEETING/WHATEVER TAKES PLACE AT ALL DIFFERENT TIMES OF DAY? Seriously, just don't even bother figuring out logic and timetables and shit with this show, because you'll give yourself a headache. It's Glee-world, there is no right answer.

[rm.livejournal.com]

1. Right, THAT!

2. I think it was trolling, since the thing we were all obsessing on was so specific (a key and a post-it about "come and go as you please" -- was it Jesse's handwriting? Blaine's? We were obsessed.)

3. True, but this seems way worse than usual.

[shadings.livejournal.com]

This gif from tumblr accurately sums up everyone's confusion re: #1



I don't know about #2, either, except there was also speculation going on about how Carole was going to be in this ep and had something to do with the key, so maybe that whole thing got cut?

As for #3, could it be that the flight back from New York arrived some time in the early morning and so all the Glee kids got to take the morning off school, and Kurt immediately decided that instead of catching up on any sleep he would meet up with Blaine? I know that occasionally happens at my school if we have a trip and arrive back at an ungodly hour; we get to skip a couple of classes in the morning, but have to attend the rest of the day. I don't know if this is at all likely for a day school like McKinley (I'm at a boarding school, and also not in the US), but...

[colfer.livejournal.com]

Also remember that Lima and Westerville are apparently right next to each other on the map instead of two hours apart, or Westerville is still where it actually is and Kurt commuted four hours round-trip every weekday to go to school there. That still takes the cake for me.

Maybe they have a really long lunch break. Or maybe it was a half-day and they went back for Glee Club. WHO KNOWS. JUST ROLL WITH IT, BB.

[shadings.livejournal.com]

Crap, just realised my theory for #3 doesn't work because I'm pretty sure from the way Rachel's talking to Finn near the end, it sounds like Finn's been avoiding her for a while now. Maybe days. Not just a couple of hours. :| Oh well, guess it's just more Glee handwaving.

Or yeah, what shia_labeouf said also seems plausible, except again, this is me talking from an English boarding school POV where we sometimes have like lunch breaks that last longer than two hours if we're lucky. Dunno if that ever happens in state schools in the US.

[auralan.livejournal.com]

Delurking to provide an answer to #2. That was just a window display that had nothing to do with Glee. They do things like that all the time. It was up there before filming and was swapped out with another one well after.

[yamx]

I got the impression that they had WAY too much material for one episode and somehow tried to cram it all in anyway, ON TOP of more musical numbers than normal. So the Quinn revenge plot was probably "I will sabotage nationals somehow," then Santana and Brittany talked her out of it during the haircut (maybe pointing out that she'd hurt was more people than just Finn and Rachel). And the key thing was probably just a teaser, or they decided those two would be more likely to break into a Broadway theater than a jeweler's.

Glee club is in the afternoon, so maybe Kurt etc. had a free period and/or long lunch, or even no morning classes that day. The sheet music store could be close to the coffee shop. And I think we weren't meant to see it as "shocking" so much that they'd run into each other, just that Sam and Mercedes were anxious because they weren't sure if Blaine and Kurt "saw," and Kurt was still running on an emotional high because that's what Kurt does because of what Blaine just said. I read it as less "shock at meeting my schoolmates" and more "different emotional entanglements turn 'what a scoincidence'-moment into 'OMG!'"

[abnormal-apathy.livejournal.com]

In my high school, we had 45 minutes for lunch and we were allowed to go off campus for it. We had several strip malls within walking distance and while it wasn't cool enough to have a music store in it, I could see that being an option. We had pretty much everything else.

[sqwook.livejournal.com]

3. My hypotheses: The writers had too much stuff but also decided they needed the group together in the final scene, so added the class scene last-minute. It had no content at all. If they had even 30 more seconds, they could have done something heartwarming, or funny, or re-connecting to the theme of glee-as-family, or something, and they just didn't, which makes me think/hope it was a last-minute thing they knew they needed and didn't allocate time to fit in.

[prettybird.livejournal.com]

Or were the creators just trolling us again?

You know, I gotta wonder if it was either something in RL that didn't relate to the show at all, or it was something for Lea from her boyfriend Theo. He's based in NYC I believe.

Can anyone untangle this?

I'm going with the theory that this scene was during lunch and Kurt darted off campus to meet Blaine during his free hour.

[weirdquark]

3. WHAT ABOUT HOW THEY NEVER GO TO ANY CLASSES EXCEPT FOR GLEE CLUB AND THAT GLEE CLUB CLASS/MEETING/WHATEVER TAKES PLACE AT ALL DIFFERENT TIMES OF DAY?

My high school had a rotating schedule where you had eight classes a semester and would go to six of them on any given day. When we were on an eight day rotation we'd get to have every single class at lunch time, and the others would move around and none of it had anything to do with what day of the week it was, which was fun to keep track of. (They eventually switched to a five day rotation, which was much more sane.) The rest of the classes weren't quite at any time -- morning classes were always in the morning (or during lunch) and afternoon classes were in the afternoon, but I don't find it totally unreasonable to have the class time jump around a bit. (Though really, the writers should be figuring out what sort of rotating schedule they're using and stick to it instead of doing whatever they feel like.)

[supergreak.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I was expecting cruel vengeance or at least a little drama, blackmail, or evil from Quinn. But I never get what I expect with Glee, so...*shrugs*


Kurt's a time traveler, that's how he could always get from Lima to Dalton and back without any time passing.
That fashionable pocket watch from Born This Way? Yep, totally Time Lord.

[maryling.livejournal.com]

I walked past a Tiffany storefront yesterday and they had neat displays with handwritten notes, so this is entirely possible.

[penguinutopia.livejournal.com]

My high school did a similar thing -- seven day schedule, six periods in a day, up to seven classes each year. While most classes either only switched with the other morning or other afternoon classes, or didn't switch at all, there was one class which basically made a diagonal on the schedule -- we didn't have it on the first day of the schedule, then had it 1st period on the 2nd day, 2nd period on the 3rd day, etc. If they have a schedule like that, then glee could easily be any time during the day -- though it would be nice, as you say, if they could stick to a schedule.

[brilliant-snark.livejournal.com]

1. NO KIDDING. I was waiting and waiting for her vengeance moment, and then she got a haircut and that made her all happy fine. WTF?

3. Realistic time and schedules mean NOTHING. Because I assumed weekend or after school until Mercedes said see you in class. So then I thought "before school???" but why wouldn't Blaine be in uniform and what music store would be open? So I'm going with the late arrival day or long lunch period for the sake of my head, and handwaving the no-uniform. As far as being shocked to run into each other, I've always got the impression that the Lima Bean was NOT a normal New Directions hang out, and was on the outskirts or something. So maybe Sam and Mercedes were assuming this was far enough away that they wouldn't run into anyone, and Mercedes is just blanking on the "duh, Kurt and Blaine are always there" part. Also, I think some of the shock was just Kurt being caught in "I love you" afterglow.

That got rambly and didn't actually solve anything. Oh well.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Too many things annoyed me about that episode, not the least of which is the constantly recurring use of AUTO-TUNE EVERYWHERE. But yes, continuity/straggling plot lines were a huge issue, particularly with Quinn's character.

Oh, and writing flawless hook-ridden radio-friendly songs in a matter of hours before nationals? Who the hell does that? In their right minds, New Directions should have been working on those songs for weeks. I don't care if some professional songwriters in Nashville knock off a hit song between 9 and 11 AM every day as casually as they can toss back a beer - these characters are inexperienced high school amateurs with little or no writing backgrounds, and as far as the episode told us, they had no outside help. Ridiculous. There is no way they came up with those songs and arrangements by themselves in less than a week. The only thing realistic is that they didn't place, because with their lack of preparation, there was no way they were going to win against the other teams.

I understand Glee is a fantasy trip in many ways, but some of the ways it is musically arranged go way too far into the fantasy. It's unhealthy for the music world, particularly for those who have never used digital tools to perfect their naturally imperfect (not flawed) performances. I'm annoyed enough that the musical producers/directors feel they have to auto-tune almost every guy in the choir, or that they even do it to the people who need it the least (like Mercedes, Santana and Rachel), but then they had to go and throw in this idea that somehow a bunch of high school students who had never written music before were going to write contest-winning material without help from anyone else, and that's just too much. And let's not even talk about all of the people playing guitars in songs that have no guitars.

[keenoled.livejournal.com]

My personal peeve is that the Warblers never did Do You Think I'm Sexy on the show. *pout*

[keenoled.livejournal.com]

Also, ep Funeral had Mike O'Malley listed as guest star in the opening, but then he didn't show up. Or did I blink and miss it? More *pout*.

[aisurucheza.livejournal.com]

Actually at first, I thought that that was ridiculous too, but then I realized that when I was going to AI, I had to commute an hour to get there. Even though it was by train, it was still an hour commute there and then back. (Sometimes over an hour depending on how the trains were running) And a few of my friends (and possibly myself coming this fall) go to school in Queens and it takes them close to two hours to get there.

So it's really not that unbelievable when you think about it in those terms. People do it all the time~

[aisurucheza.livejournal.com]

Ookay here's my small attempt at justifying point 3. Maybe:

a) I'm banking on the fact that she wasn't expecting Kurt and Blaine to be having a little get together at the Lima Bean even though she knows they frequent it. And were probably the ones who introduced it to her in the first place. So not really a smart choice on her part if she thought her and Sam were going to be alone.

b) It's the middle of the day, presumably around 11 a.m - 12 p.m as that's usually lunch time. -Or if it's anything like my high school, 4 lunch periods between 11 and 12:45- I know of music stores that would be open around that time. As for c that one I can only go with these two theories:

1) Like a couple of people already stated, they were on lunch break (which kinda won't work if Kurt and Blaine are soon off to go buy sheet music. Or it could, depending on how long exactly their lunch break is and where the music store they are planning on going to is)

2) Kurt had a lunch and then a free period afterward or just a free period before Glee (Which I know my high school used to have for seniors. Although in some other schools free periods were applied to every grade)

-And side note: I think, Glee Club is technically considered a class in McKinley. Way too many times have they panned to a clock during Glee and it was anything but after school times. Which is just odd, but hey if one of my classes were an extracurricular activity that I loved being in, I'd be ecstatic! (Twirling I'm looking back at you~

[colfer.livejournal.com]

Mike O'Malley is a regular cast member. He was listed for every episode this season, regardless of whether or not he appeared. Just like Jane, Jessalyn, and Jayma.

[prettybird.livejournal.com]

And side note: I think, Glee Club is technically considered a class in McKinley.

At the one school I went to we had a class period every day for an elective (Glee was an option) but clubs would also sometimes meet after school as well. That's how I've been handwaving it so far.

[aisurucheza.livejournal.com]

And now that we know that that is possible, this is my officially definitely my canon! Thank you for mentioning that~

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

I actually read a fic where Kurt was the 12th Doctor and Finn and Rachel were his companions. HANG ON.

http://skintightsocks.livejournal.com/13374.html

Enjoy! =)

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

J names! It sounds like my family, lol. (Which is...relevant to nothing, lol, sorry.)

[rena-librarian.livejournal.com]

1) There was a scene where Quinn was all "gonna tattle on Rachel/Finn/Kurt!" and Santana and Brittany said "But then we'd be in trouble," and Quinn said "And then we'll lose. Crap." I think she just planned on getting them in trouble somehow--no real PLAN ahead of time--and then couldn't do it without sabotaging the club as a whole, which didn't help HER any. tl;dr, Quinn is not as smart as she thinks she is.

3) It's clearly near the end of the school year--that meeting is the FINAL Glee meeting of the year so it's possible it's even the last day--and it's possible that if it's that close, Kurt's already had finals in some classes and doesn't have some of his regular classes. (I know it worked like that in college for me, but IDK if it applies to high school.) That in combination with an hour lunch period could explain it, assuming the Lima Bean is close enough. I'm also assuming that Dalton lets out for the year a couple days before McKinley. Or Blaine ditched class one day to see Kurt and tell him he loves him. =D

Honestly I handwave a lot of Blaine's hanging around Lima with "he's rich and gas money isn't a problem for him," based solely on the fact that he attends Dalton, lol. I also assume that Blaine and Kurt's houses are somewhere between Lima and Westerville so it isn't impossible for Kurt to go to Blaine's sometimes. And, really, with what Blaine said about his relationship with his dad, it isn't so far-fetched that he'd want to hang out at Kurt's with Burt and Finn anyway. (CANNOT WAIT to see the rest of the Andersons, hopefully the Powers That Be don't pull a Rachel's Dads on that one.)

IDK about #2. I saw a couple of the pictures but all I really SAW was Rachel's amazing coat.

[keenoled.livejournal.com]

How evil of them.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

My guess is that it is the last day or days of school, all the class schedules are wonky because of finals, and Figgins has been locked in his office with a copy of the budget for next year crying for the past week.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Don't know about the rest, but 3 could simply be because the scripted order of the scenes was the other way around, but they changed it in editing because they decided they wanted a different beat for closure and it's showed up in the costuming.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Well, I've no clue on Glee, not hasaving watched it. I do know many high schools have open campus for seniors where they can go to lunch or do errands off campus in free periods. Also, there are half days for things like "teacher work days" or in services, and the districts I've worked for alternate morning vs. afternoon. They could have had a morning teacher in service and then afternoon classes. Again, not having seen it, I can't tell if it's plausable for them.

[musik19.livejournal.com]

1. i think quinn was planning on sabotaging things in nyc but gave up (lost her steam) after yelling at brittany/santana

2. i remember seeing a little after that spoiler~ came out that the key/note was just Tiffany & Co's window dressing. it was completely unrelated to any legit filming.

3. perhaps it was a half-day for the end of year classes. i know my high school used to do that near the end of the year or during finals. kurt and blaine could have easily been at the lima bean mid morning, not expecting to run into mercedes or sam since usually the only time we've seen other glee kids there was when they were with kurt/blaine; it's "their" coffee shop it seems. if it was mid-morning, sheet music stores could have been open already. OR all the glee kids are like the characters on buffy, they never really go to any classes very much except for glee club in this case and to the library in the case of btvs

[musik19.livejournal.com]

i was going to college and had to relocate back home with my parents b/c my apartment flooded so i ended up commuting two hours more or less each way depending on traffic...it sucks but is not completely unrealistic

[needsmoregreen.livejournal.com]

I snorted at that. That would totally explain why NO ONE HAS SEEN HIM AT ALL SINCE, LIKE, BIOTA.

I actually love Glee's inconsistencies, they make me laugh. I wish my school was like Gleeland. No one goes to classes...

[etmuse.livejournal.com]

I try never to apply anything approaching logic to Glee. It just makes me want to tear my hair out, or bang my head against brick walls.

If something doesn't make sense, I simply attribute it to Glee!timekeeping, or Glee!geography (etc).

[emyrldlady.livejournal.com]

I thought Quinn's instigating everyone to go out and explore NYC was her plan. Get everyone tired and no one writing so they'd have no music to perform.

Obviously this did not work.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

So, I'm totes caught up now, and...

This is all true, and went totally over my head because, a, US schools are completely incomprehensible to me, and b, er... I was distracted :).

Although, thinking about the sheet music... This could totally be done online. And in those days, I would purchase stuff online by huddling with my friends behind one single computer while we all commented on stuff. It was not a lone affair :). Just adding my five cents.

[thirdhigh.livejournal.com]

im late on this and someone may have already mentioned this but i heard that the key in the window was part of a window display in the NY Tiffany's store. I think someone went after shooting was over and said that? this may not be accurate, i saw it on tumblr, but...

[thirdhigh.livejournal.com]

and while i'm here, as for quinn, she tried to distract them from the beginning, insisting that they run around NY instead of writing their songs. Brad said in some interview that New Directions had to lose nationals because they were so distracted and barely put any time or thought into their performance. (in that same interview he said Quinn scenes were cut so there may have been more).