I'm the same person I was a minute ago.

[ellydash]

I had this moment while watching tonight's episode where I was staring at Puck's hideous hair and the way it looks like it's trying to run away from his scalp but can't quite manage it. And I realized Puck's hair sort of has a similar relationship with his scalp to the relationship I have with Glee. I'd probably have lower blood pressure on Tuesdays if I just stopped watching, but all I can seem to manage are these little curls of rebellion in the form of posting angry gifs on tumblr.

The thing is, I'm honestly not going to quit this show, not unless they put something on air that exceeds Funeral's manipulative triggering jackpot. (This episode was unbelievably angering, but for me, it still doesn't reach the record nadir that Funeral set.) When Glee's good, it's good; when it's funny, it's immensely hilarious, and when it hits the right emotional buttons, it hits them more effectively then just about any other show on television. It engages with issues and debates and characters that matter to me, in ways very few other shows on TV seem interested in doing, even if that engagement is often seriously messed-up and rage-inducing. At least for me, I don't want to spend every Tuesday post-episode shouting into my computer GLEE, YOU ARE A FACTORY OF ANGER, BUT I'LL STILL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK. I'd much rather talk about enjoyable moments.

But this week? Fuck it. Just, fuck it. GLEE, YOU ARE A FACTORY OF ANGER.

Before I yell a lot about Finn Hudson, here are six things I liked:

1) Sugar’s entire existence. The unicorn move was adorable, but my favorite moment? Sugar taking the opportunity to hug Mercedes while Santana was hugging Finn, and Mercedes's WTF face. Hands down the best exchange of the night.

2) Santana. I projected my little queer heart out onto her tonight, so my reactions to her aren't in any way objective, but the way she kissed Brittany's cheek on camera and drew a heart around her check box on the ballot made me so, so happy.

3) Puck writing in Ross Perot's name. SINGING MELISSA ETHERIDGE JUST MADE HIM NOSTALGIC FOR THE EARLY NINETIES, OKAY, HE MISSES STONEWASHED BLUE JEANS AND REVERSE BASEBALL CAPS TOO, ALSO CRYSTAL PEPSI.

4)



There's so many stories just in these two screencaps. Eric Stoltz, you guys. Sue Sylvester has Eric Stoltz in her booty call book. Eric Stoltz has also apparently changed his number multiple times, but nobody gets away from one Sue Sylvester. And I guess Sue used the Soviet embassy as her go-between for hookups with Putin, before she managed to score his home phone number. I also like to think that the reason there's a number for an all night pizza delivery next to Stephen "Train Wreck" Baldwin's name is because Stephen Baldwin is now delivering pizza in Lima, Ohio. (Notice the lack of number for him.)

5) Mercedes was the first one of the girls to speak up for Santana in the hallway. How much did I love that? A whole lot. ♥____♥

6) SAM NEXT WEEK. SAM. SAM. SAM STRIPPING. SAM. SAM. SAAAAAAAAAAAAAM.

And now, rage time:

You know that pure heart of Will Schuester's? The one that's just like Jean's? IT IS IN REALITY THE WORST HEART. THE WORST. Even setting aside the fact that he let Kurt get beat up on a regular basis for years, not once hauling any of those kids into Figgins's office like he did Santana, his reframing of the whole situation was unbelievably offensive. I know Will wasn't actually present for Finn's outing, but having him say that "[Santana] thought the whole thing was Finn's fault" (no, you asshole, she didn't think it; it was Finn's fault) and that Santana "hit Finn unprovoked" - I don't care if he doesn't know the whole story, MAYBE, I DON'T KNOW, TALK TO SANTANA AND HEAR WHAT SHE HAS TO SAY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED? Oh, my God. If I thought this was actually intentional writing, I'd be impressed, because it's phenomenally passive-aggressive and redirective, and it is actually a pretty realistic depiction of one of the ways privilege gets deployed, but NOPE, WILL IS A GOOD MAN AND FINN IS A HERO AND HE HAS A PURE HEART, TOO.

Finn blackmailing Santana into coming back to ND for his I'm Totally Not a Homophobe project by not only telling her he'd get her suspended if she didn't, but also saying he's worried about her killing herself if she isn't more honest about who she is - that was some of the most offensive shit I've heard on a show that is broadly, generously offensive in many ways every week. Never mind letting Santana come to terms with her sexuality and her anger on her own terms, Finn Hudson knows what's best, and he's going to push her out of the closet whether she likes it or not! Which is good, because she needs a push from a straight white cis male who clearly understands her needs! I just – look, last week he took away her right to come out the way she wanted. He took that away from her. And this week he not only makes her coming out process all about him, he justifies his own actions by saying they’re helping save her life, WHEN HE WAS THE ONE WHO ENDANGERED HER IN THE FIRST PLACE BY OUTING HER. FUCK.

And then, the rancid cherry on the rotting cake: the writers have Santana hug Finn, and thank him for what he’s done for her. So a storyline that should’ve ideally had Brittany as its secondary character, because she’s Santana’s goddamned girlfriend, has Finn Hudson instead! This is an important story, and therefore we need a straight white cis male character to validate its importance.

Other things I really want to talk about with you guys in the comments but won't elaborate on too much here, because this is already approaching a ridiculous length:

• Puck and Quinn. Appreciate that at least one person on the show is expressing concern for Quinn (even if he did say he’d rather fuck a beehive than her – and wow, did that speech make me angry); appreciate that the show seems to, at least on a superficial level, realize a baby or a guy isn’t going to fix what’s wrong with her; hate that once again, a male character is the one to point out to a female character that she needs help. I need to watch that scene again, but there was something about Quinn’s ready and accepting response that really sat poorly with me, almost like his “diagnosis” was the verbal equivalent of last season’s bad juju-eliminating haircut.

• Sue, Beiste and Cooter. Cooter’s a dick, Shannon deserves better (although I get why she wants to “fight” for him, even though I wish she wouldn’t) and I could write a whole lot about the overt Sue/Quinn parallel in “Jolene,” which I thought was really interesting. And honestly, it’s a little sad, and indicative of how bad things are for her, that having Cooter in her life is the best thing that’s happened to Sue since she met Becky - because imo Cooter hasn’t shown us anything that indicates he’s any great shakes.

• Will and Emma gave Shannon relationship advice. Let that sink in for a second. Will Schuester and Emma Pillsbury gave someone else relationship advice.

See you next week, Glee.

Comments

[tourmalet.livejournal.com]

I went into this episode ready to be angry and be making ugly rage faces at my tv, but holy fuck they somehow managed to make it a million times worse. I think all of this overlaps with what you said but it felt a lot better to type it out than to just nod along.

I truly cannot believe this is the episode we got Santana's coming out story. I can't believe the moron who wrote this, wrote it and then everyone else on this joke of a writing staff was like great job! there are no gross issues anywhere in this script. I mean for them to allow for this story to be told from the pov and be made about Finn Hudson, straight, white, cis-gendered, male, hero of heroes, Finn Hudson is disgusting.

I don’t really have much to say about any of it aside from how offensive it was and for some reason be surprised that this is the route they decided to take. I just can’t believe they took the opportunity away from exploring Santana coming to terms with herself and her sexuality and dealing with being so forcefully outed so they can remind us how great Finn is, and that they swept him outing her under the rug. This storyline should have focused on Santana and they could have used the C storyline to focus on Finn being a gross homophobe yet again, who is maybe trying to make amends (tho seeing everyone berate him about what a colossal fuck wit he is would’ve been great too). I also can’t believe they included the line about the igb kid committing suicide, and Finn saying he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if anything happened to her when he was the one that outed her(:\\\\\\\), and that she means something to him because she took his virginity. Especially since we've been told repeatedly that it was meaningless and not worth it and they've shown Santana to be almost a villain for taking it. I just can’t believe this is how they handled it and that they gave her validation through Finn. Don’t worry Santana bb your grandma doesn’t love you, but Finn thinks you’re important and special.

This was a really long way of saying the lack of agency for so many of the female characters drives me absolutely crazy. Though I do think Santana got it in the scene with her grandmother. I wish we saw the rest of her family, I know spoilers and stuff, idk maybe give her a shoulder to cry on after leaving her grandmother’s house. What I would’ve given to see her be supported by her family or Brittany or hell Sue, instead of Finn.

Also, on the lack of Brittany, I agree with you 100%. They had Santana hug Finn, be moved to tears by Finn and let Finn say I love you to her but not let Brittany do anything.

I didn’t really like the Puck/Quinn scene, it was too ‘male character plays savior to the female character’ for me, which this episode is already overflowing with. Maybe watching these scenes without watching the rest of the episode would change my mind.

I'm happy the election storyline is over with; I didn't like how most of it played out and of course while I do think it was really in character for Rachel, I don’t like they got a girl to be the one to cheat. The NYADA storyline and their belief that Julliard and NYADA are the only schools in NYC makes me want to beat them both over the heads. Based on how things have played out (and some of the actor bleed) I'm not really as ~taken by the Kurt/Rachel friendship as I was last season.

[tourmalet.livejournal.com]

Other things because all my feelings used up too many characters in my last comment:

- Sugar was great; I hope they keep her on the show post-sectionals and next season. They don't even need to rehab her as a singer like they did with Mike, just have her be one of their dancers and the greatest thing to happen to background moments.

- I noticed Mercedes to be the first one to defend Santana too! I also loved there was some Troubletones solidarity in her voting internal monologue calling Brittany her Troubletones sister, or something along those lines. Though I wish she mentioned being friends with Kurt, before the writers dropped their friendship for Kurt and Rachel's, and maybe that influencing the way she voted.

- I really liked that they gave Jolene to Shannon and I really hope she kicks Cooter to the curb. I wish they would stop making food jokes at her expense, I mean Santana can’t call Finn a whale because it is the meanest, but this show can make fun of Beiste for the way she eats.

- Puck’s hair looks like it’s about ready to achieve consciousness and join ND to make up for the lack of members. I fully expect it to be like this due to some Beth related juju that has accumulated some Shelby juju over time and for Quinn to explain the great spiritual cleansing that comes with a haircut.

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

The It Gets Better reference was so, so gross. I've got some issues with that campaign as it is, but seriously, Glee, you have Finn Hudson bring it up in order to justify his reasons for outing Santana? "I don't want you to die because you hate yourself so much so I'm going to publicly out you and actually endanger your life in the process!" And, I mean, I can see Finn actually doing that, because it's very, very Finn to think he's being a good guy when he's actually being a privileged dick, but we the audience were absolutely supposed to fall all over him for HOW ENLIGHTENED he is, and that is just massively nauseating.

Agreed about Santana getting back a little agency in that scene with her grandmother. I was saying to sceptick above that I wish now more than ever they hadn't cut Santana's coming out to Sue and Becky, with Brittany at her side. I would've loved to have seen her tell Sue on her own terms, even though it's pretty obvious that Sue knows (and has probably known or at least suspected for a while) - that would've been a really great way to see her reclaim some of the control she'd lost through this situation.

Ugh, the food jokes. And the fact that they seem to be using Emma's disgust as a intended projection of what they imagine the audience's discomfort to be - because Emma is such a great barometer of non-disordered health! I do love that Shannon is not at all bothered by it, and that she seems to have no qualms with eating the way she wants to eat, but the context of it is frustrating.

Based on how things have played out (and some of the actor bleed) I'm not really as ~taken by the Kurt/Rachel friendship as I was last season.

Same here. I absolutely love both Rachel and Kurt; I really do love their interactions more, though, when they're sniping at each other but there's still this underlying respect and admiration and caring, rather than WE'RE BFFS FOREVER. (The "jowls" exchange was hands down my favorite of theirs this season.) This whole NYADA arc is annoying, because, like you said, the all-or-nothing framing makes no sense. And honestly, I can't believe that Rachel Berry hasn't been carefully, exhaustively researching the best place(s) for her to go to college since, like, middle school.