It's no secret that the glee writers are much more skilled at in-the-moment dialogue than they have ever been at writing multi-episode story arcs. To be able to watch glee without developing the urge to blow your brains out, you must suspend even the most basic knowledge of what makes up a story, or even a character. It can be worth it, though... this show is arguably the greatest guilty pleasure of all time if you're into that sort of thing, which I clearly am - glee and I are total frenemies.
In tonight's episode, just about every storyline we've been following so far this season reached a resolution of some sort. Were those resolutions, like, actual resolutions? Not for the most part (with the possible exception of Mike Chang), but that’s because many of the storylines were already existing in ridiculous directions. New glee club name: Ridiculous Directions. Aside from the ticking time bomb that is graduation, the only plotline that didn't seemingly come to an end this week was that of Santana. This is largly unsuprising since it is also no secret that the glee writers afford much more care and effort into the gay-centric storylines, which is both extremely admirable and mind-bogglingly disrespectful to the 4,683 (and counting) other characters on this show.
Quinn’s resolution made it seem as though the writers suddenly realized exactly how far off The Hot/Crazy Scale they'd sent her, so they decided to just stop and reel her back in as quickly as possible. They didn’t want it to appear that this was what they were doing, however, so she was still pretty crazy for the first half of the episode (the look in her eyes at the end of the opening scene between her and Rachel was legitimately terrifying). This all made it seem even more rushed than it would have anyway, because now instead of doing a 180° within a full hour, she did it in about three scenes. And then, AND THEN she's apparently going to Yale now. Like, wtf since when? The Tina/Mike Chang plot taught us that we are recently past the admissions due date for most schools, so when exactly is she planning to apply? Unless that's what she'd been up to when she wasn't, like, framing Shelby for murder or hanging out with The Skanks. We've never been shown anything regarding Quinn's studies, so there is no reason to assume that she isn't a good student, but I think the common assumption is that Yale is a fairly selective school. I definately don't hate Quinn as much as some people do nowadays (Shelby is pure evil), but this show doesn't even follow the rules of its own logic. The biggest overall arc of the season so far has been about how hard Rachel and Kurt realize they need to work in order to be accepted to their imaginary dream school, and yet the same universe has Quinn possibly getting into an actual Ivy League university like it ain't no thang?
That all said, if they decide to just go on pretending that the whole Shelby debacle never took place, but they find another way to continue utilizing Quinn without demonizing her, I'll take it. My massive girl crush on Dianna Agron is too massive for me to ever hate Quinn, no matter how much the writers inexplicably try to lead us there. I just wish they shared my crush.
Speaking of things that are legitimately terrifying, remember when Blaine malfunctioned during "The First Time"? Well, he was at it again this week - he was aaall over the place. First, he was crying over Finn not wanting to be best brother-in-laws (they would get to that in a few scenes, which is bullsh--). Then he was trying to kill Sam Evans. Then he was pounding it with Finn, and somehow as a result of that we won Sectionals.
We won Sectionals, by the way.
I'm sure I was intended to feel all sappy-happy over Finn and Blaine's newfound bromance, but no. It was healthy to have at least one character on this show not be completely infatuated with Blaine, who was pretty successfully shoved down our throats last year. If nothing else, they were at least covering all of their bases in terms of character interpretation. Besides, that mysterious background arc of Finn's bubbling resentment towards Blaine was one of my favorite things about this season so far. It at least gave people like me somebody to identify with, because Blaine is literally unreal. I mean, all of the sudden he HATES Sam? Absolutely furious. Have they ever even met before? I don’t think so… This is probably the craziest we’ve seen him since the time he chased that guy around Limited Too or whatever. Beware Kurt, your boyfriend might actually be insane. I'd buy it - that’s what they would have done on Nip/Tuck. Or Degrassi.
Yet somehow, despite the fact that most of what happened felt rushed/convenient/unbelievable, and even though I wasn't blown away by any of the musical performances, I still found this to be one of the more impressive episodes of Season 3 thus far. The in-the-moment dialogue was superb, and for the first time in centuries nearly every character was utilized (with the definate exception of Kermit the Leprachaun, who I'm beginning to feel genuinely sorry for - The Glee Project never should have happened).
Coming up next week... The classic television side adventure known as The Christmas Episode. Don't expect much in terms of plot development, even by glee standards. Especially by glee standards.
Gleek of the Week
Definately Tina, but... also maybe Rachel??
A first for both - another thing to like about this episode.
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