Glee 3.05

[rm]

1. Jesus Christ, Darren Criss has eyelashes forever.

2. What an appropriately sad gay bar.

3. Too much packed into that episode, and there were connecting moments that I felt needed to be there and weren't.

4. I'm going to state something wildly unpopular: Blaine is attracted to Sebastian. He's tall and lean and he's sexually aggressive, and Blaine likes it. Blaine wants to be pursued and not in that polite ay that Kurt did when they were just friends. And he's never had this experience before, but it's one he's fantasized about. He's not an asshole, and he's not going to betray his boyfriend, but he is flustered and interested and trying not to look naive and boring in the face of Paris.

5. So Brittany's first time... that was awkward. We needed one more line or it needed not to be there, because the people I was watching with asked, "wait, did Brittany get raped?" Which, you know, is valid in that that's a way first times go too, but throwaway line is ambiguous in a bad way about a character we don't want to remove sexual agency from. (Clarification: I don't think a history of rape removes someone's sexual agency, I think fandom interpretation of drive-by unclear data about Brittany is just likely to be a bad mess around that particular topic).

6. All this stuff about what it means to be a man, and Kurt and Blaine largely exempted from it -- but that felt positive and opposed to marginalizing -- it was one type of pain they weren't in.

7. Holy fuck, Chris Colfer can act. Every moment was PERFECTION.

8. Rachel Berry, you are testing my sympathy. Also, she and Finn are so alone together. It just doesn't work. TOxic.

9. I bet a voice over from Artie wasn't how you were expecting it to open.

10. Okay, NO ONE has sex in this episode. What I assume we get is both couples thinking about the lead up to it (appropriate to the song) while performing in the school show the next night. I am fine with no one having actually had sex in the episode, but I want to put this out there as people try to divine what type of sex was had based on the cute little cuddly scenes at the end. Yeah, no. They hadn't had sex yet. Also, hey, more marriage symbolism, and er, I like it, because it's all spiritual marriage and not "let's run off to together." -- ETA: This may be wrong. Tumblr found condom wrappers in the shot, I was convinced they were unopened, but a friend is looking at the image in HD and swears they are, so this may need to be revised. (And, ridiculously, it matters that I figure it out if I want to write about gendered expectations, the heterosexual audience, and Blaine's issues, so here we are).

11. THANK GOD THEY CUT THAT SCENE WHERE FINN ASKS FOR SEX ADVICE FROM SCHUE, HOLY CRAP.

12. Naya Rivera, could you be more beautiful?

13. "Uptown Girl" - weird, creepy, menacing thanks to the fantasy French teacher and EVERYTHING I didn't know I wanted. Er, I have weird feelings about Dalton.

14. Finn's freak out -- narratively important, did it need to happen a second and a half before he and Rachel get it on? Because wow, uncomfortable.

15. Blaine Anderson, I don't even have words... just EVERYTHING. (P.S., I still think something is not right with that boy, I just don't know what the hell it is. I used to hate all the theories about his sketchy relationship with alcohol, because he's 16, but now I have to admit to entertaining them. I also think my sexual abuse theory still holds, but certainly isn't going to be a plot point -- the alcohol may be).

16. Interesting to see Kurt's feminine clothing finally show up again this season.

17. I love how Kurt is hesitant and then just steels himself and goes for it over and over. Been there, Kurt. I get you. You rock.

18. Bieste -- needs more time or less. Is she part of a gender/sexuality spectrum for the girls like the one were getting for the gay guys? Or is it just a muddled mess?

19. Kurt, you are adorable in your cop uniform. Ahaahahaah, the baton when you're watching Blaine at the end.

20. Hey, Mike Chang, apparently your dad is the fanon Mr. Anderson. Good on Glee for not dropping that plot.

21. Tina is awesomesauce. Too bad she had that DREADFUL infodump.

22. Quinn -- please do something with her.

23. WHERE ARE BLAINE'S PARENTS? DID THEY NOT EVEN COME TO THE PLAY? WHAT IS GOING ON?

24. I think Burt Hummel is going to win this election.

25. Roxy Music? Really?

Comments

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Fandom drama is making me miserable (as are students), but I love your thoughts. I am looking forward (tentatively) to the episode again.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

That gay bar is so, so sad.

Wait... people don't think Blaine was attracted to Sebastian? Because it sure read on my screen like he was (and flustered and flattered by the attention), but he's just not a jerk and is in love with his boyfriend. But I don't think Blaine knows what to do with himself with that kind of guy.

And I just loved every minute of Kurt in this episode.

They need to explain something about Blaine's parents. We can ignore them in fanfiction if we choose, but where the heck were they in canon?

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

where the heck were they in canon?

Same place as Rachel's Two Gay Dads usually are?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Tumblr thinks Blaine is horrified by Sebastian and too polite to tell him off.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Well, this is another reason for me to continue to stay away from tumblr for a while longer. :P

Blaine is, I think, totally at a loss, but if he were so horrified he wouldn't have had coffee with him (or danced with him) and fluttered his eyelashes at him about Paris.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Pfft. I love this show, but there are things about it that drive me bananas.

[sayuri-rose-k.livejournal.com]

18. Bieste -- needs more time or less. Is she part of a gender/sexuality spectrum for the girls like the one were getting for the gay guys? Or is it just a muddled mess?

I sympathize with Bieste. I'm a masculine girl and most of the time I feel ostracized because every guy I've liked always went for the pretty girls. It made me sad every time. I hope that I don't have to wait as long as she did.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I love her and the idea of her, I jsut feel like she's vastly underwritten too often. This was the closest they've come to getting it right since Never Been Kissed, I thought.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Tumblr has its tinfoil hat firmly molded to its collective head. Of course he was attracted! And awkward about it because he wasn't going to be a jerk and cheat on his boyfriend.

Rachel Berry has been testing my sympathy as well, and I think I started out with a lot less.

I was sort of charmed by the Roxy Music but I admit its implausibility for a current high school junior. Even my own 16-year-old, who's gleefully adopted a lot of "my" music, hasn't really seized on Roxy Music.

ETA: also, maybe the Brittany line was a Bristol Palin shout-out? It's reminiscent.

[k-persephone.livejournal.com]

No. He is not horrified (if he was, would he dance with Sebastian at the gay bar?); maybe a little wary after the Kurt/Sebastian face-off, but not horrified. His face during the post-Uptown-Girl talk says he's flattered; he doesn't know how to face a guy who pushes but he's definitely NOT repulsed. It's "Uhm, a cute guy is hitting on me. Aw." not "Creepy gay guy all over my face, help!" (and god, definitely not "Cute. Sexy. Interest. So hitting that").

So that was my pointless way of saying Blaine reacts to Sebastian like any normal, boyfriended teenager would. He likes being hit on and Sebastian is hot, but Kurt, Kurt is where his heart is.

-P.

[crown-of-weeds.livejournal.com]

Why is Brittany's agency compromised now because she's been raped?

I am going to have more to say about Britt later, but....the most conservative estimates for rape--not abuse, not harassment, rape--for girls with developmental disabilities is 70%.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Blaine was definitely turned on by Sebastian. He had managed to suppress his frustration with the slow romantic courtship with Kurt.

Then Sebastian comes along. And he leers and makes all kinds of naughty suggestions. He's confident and seems sexually experienced, and Blaine's tight control just...slipped. The boy was legit horny from the moment he met Sebastian on.

Which is why he had to emphasize that Sebastian meant *nothing* to him in his apology to Kurt because Sebastian was the partial source of that melt down in the car.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't think is has been. I think fandom may interpret it that way.

[escapisms.livejournal.com]

5. So Brittany's first time...

I had the exact same reaction your friend did. This worries me. I worry about Brittany in the real world, to be honest.

23. WHERE ARE BLAINE'S PARENTS? DID THEY NOT EVEN COME TO THE PLAY? WHAT IS GOING ON?

Yes. Specifically in the auditorium when he is DESPERATE for Kurt to be proud of him because who else will be?

Um, hello. Can I just live inside your brain? You always say everything I am thinking far more eloquently than I seem to be able or you think it all up before I even get there and I am left trying to catch up to your leaps of logic.

[sayuri-rose-k.livejournal.com]

She definitely is. I really like the idea of her because there are a lot of girls who are similar to Bieste and they feel like they never get the crown like she does in this episode.

[crown-of-weeds.livejournal.com]

Fandom's been making noise about Brittany since A Very Glee Christmas. They are never, ever going to stop.

I'm mostly....between this and Artie's speech? Someone's been doing their research.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Artie's speech was great. I loved at the beginning when he was the only person in the room who had had sex.

[sillygleekt.livejournal.com]

Tumblr is all "my creys" (in a happy way) about Blaine saying "I miss Dalton every day. But McKinley is where my heart is." and I'm all OH FUUUUUUCK.

And then Blaine being basically in tears at Kurt saying "I was so proud to be with you." And his response wasn't "Thank you" or "I'm glad" but "I hope so. I want you to be." Blainers, you don't need to hope... he just said he IS PROUD to be with you. I am so so so sad about that. SO sad. Even more of my buttons, but yeah.

The scene w/ Mike and his dad. I basically had that exact same thing happen in a slightly less extreme way (he didn't threaten to renounce me, but he did threaten not to support me). And I didn't stand up to him the way Mike did. And even though a couple of years later I took steps to right that self-abandonment, it's still something that eats at me. Because that's a parent explicitly putting conditions on their love in a way that is very very hard for a teenager to deal with, especially when they are still a dependent.

Anyway... yeah. This was a REALLY REALLY tough episode for me.

I mean, ultimately there was some really sweet Klaine stuff that I'm very happy about. But mostly, I'm just really sad.

ETA: Also, lots to say about everything else. Just... it's too much right now.

[crown-of-weeds.livejournal.com]

I could write tomes about Artie and agency and sexuality and how usually characters with disabilities only get stories about death, and how much Artie is changing the rules alongside Brittany and Becky. It was probably actually my favorite part of the episode.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Blaine's absent parents, easy tears (in a very different way than Kurt's), fucked up relationship with alcohol (because here it felt like he was faking his inebriation in order for them not to have to discuss the sex), desperate need for approval and tendency to interpret shit that is not approval as approval (hell, Sebastian) is really... something is not good there.

[sillygleekt.livejournal.com]

I'm reserving some judgment on the parents thing simply because the only people in the show who even have any sort of parental presence are Kurt and Finn and now very recently, Mike. To me that's just kind of par for the course with Glee. That said, it definitely fits.

I'm just... I dunno. I feel like I should be writing out a lot of this now while it's really fresh, but I'm not feeling very coherent.

[deconglee.livejournal.com]

LJ just lost my whole reply.

It's 4am and I'm losing my mind version: (I haven't seen the last 5 minutes because my internet provider clearly hates me).

1. Beiste is all kinds of uncomfortable for me right now. Ever since her calling Kurt "lady" and saying she wanted to feel something in her lady parts (just think of Mr Schue saying his cock liked Rachel better than Mercedes, right?) I've been really uncomfortable. Her constant clarifying that she's straight is getting rather annoying. Also dude sort of forcing flowers on her? What?

2. Artie was upsetting me with his whole sexual hierarchy thing and I'm glad they explained that because I was just going to put this together with his casual misogyny and probably write him off altogether. Because I chose to remain a virgin throughout high school (no matter how flawed my reasons/understanding of that was), I dealt with a lot of people who said shit like that. They were all assholes.

3. Mike, oh MIKE. Also, aw, Tina. I want those two to age quickly and then become my best friends.

4. I need to know more about Blaine right this second. I love and adore him and how frankly he and Kurt talk about things. Those two boys need to learn how to make each other confident. They both need different assurances. If Blaine has a drinking problem, I'm going to need therapy to continue watching Glee. I was younger, but it reasserts itself when necessary.

5. Karofsky didn't feel like closure to me. I didn't get anything like a Kurtofsky vibe.

6. That small town gay bar was fantastic. Like, so many memories. Ones that really took me by surprise, so I may need to rewatch the gay bar bit.

[monkeyforlove.livejournal.com]

#7 - yes yes yes! chris colfer is stunning and amazing.

#10 - thank you so much for saying this. I was thinking this same thing but I thought I was maybe the only one. I found it impossible to believe that Kurt and Blaine had gone from "not granting our hands visas to travel south of the equator" to full on (assumed?) penetrative sex. Maybe something a little more, sure - but the other is such a jump, I can't really see Kurt taking it that far in just a few days. I also thought it was interesting he was wearing so much safari camouflage in that scene, although I don't yet have any idea what it could have meant.

I also find your thoughts on Blaine really interesting. I want to think some more about what you said, so I'll probably come back to this post later, but I agree that something is a little off-kilter there, and he was DEFINITELY attracted to Sebastian. If that guy is sticking around, there is drama yet to be played out. It makes me think about the post on your page a long time ago about how Blaine takes on the more "passive" role in their courtship (like saying "I've never been anyone's boyfriend before") and how Sebastian is that "I come after what I want" type that probably does really appeal to him, in contrast to Kurt's soft and patient, yet determined, way.

You're awesome as usual!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I figure after the episode ends there are probably non-simultaneous hand jobs (sorry, these kids are not up to multitasking) that end very quickly, and a lot of cuddling. Maybe there's blowjobs and fingering for round two. If the Hudmels and Blaine's parents are both just gone for the weekend, maybe Blaine and Kurt just NEVER leave the house and experiment as much as they can for 48 hours (other than WSS performances) and yeah, I can see in weird determined Kurtland, that actually getting to penetration, but jeez, those boys are going to need some time to process first orgasm with other person they are ridiculously into. They may not need a lot of time, but they are going to need it. Also, they both have body-shyness issues (Kurt's layers, Blaine's _awkward_).

[zunmo.livejournal.com]

I was so frustrated by this episode, because there were parts (and by parts I mean whenever Chris Colfer was onscreen) that I thought were phenomenal. I mean, about as good as Glee gets, which is pretty awesome or I wouldn't keep watching. It was just that there was so much packed into one hour. I love Mike Chang, I'm glad they're following up on his thing with his dad, but I honestly would've preferred a little more time with Rachel explaining herself or something about Blaine's parents. Their pacing is always so hit or miss, and tonight really could have been the best episode of the season if it had been good.