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

Re: warning: it is probably impossible to make sense of any of this, because i'm tired & stuff & stu

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is the LATEST COMMENT, I am so sorry.

YES. A million times yes to everything you've said here. It's not just that the stories were centered around male characters, but that there was so much effort put into making sure women-centered storyarcs didn't get to stay women-centered. Which, imo, is even more hurtful than simple erasure. It's blatant, glaring redirection. And, as you've said, it was literally EVERY SINGLE STORYLINE in the episode, which, for me, made it impossible to brush off with "lol Glee," because in every single scene we kept getting reminded that the female characters' stories weren't the ones we were supposed to hear.

Remember that spoiler about the scene where Santana comes out to Sue, with Brittany and Becky there? How much more interesting and meaningful would that have been, getting to see Santana telling Sue - a character she's had more history with on the show than anyone besides Brittany or Quinn - on her own terms, in her own way, with her girlfriend by her side and being supportive? NOPE, SORRY, WE NEEDED MORE SCREEN TIME FOR FINN HUDSON.

I would read the fuck out of a fic that rewrote this episode to actually focus on the female characters in the way you described.

(Also, I just realized something: Sue is the only character on the show who actually told Santana she was sorry for playing a part in her outing. Not Finn, not Will for condoning Finn's behavior. Sue.)

Re: warning: it is probably impossible to make sense of any of this, because i'm tired & stuff & stu

[sceptick.livejournal.com]

I would read the fuck out of that fic too, only it'd probably make me even angrier that that's not how it went down on the show :///

That's interesting, about Will and Sue and Finn. I wonder if that was a deliberate character choice. Maybe they thought that, as always, Will would see himself as fault-free because that's how he thinks, right, he's the hero in his own mind. And maybe they thought that Finn seriously didn't recognize his own part in this! Maybe they thought Sue would be the only one who would, because for all that she can be crazy and spiteful and delusional, she's been in the wrong so often that she can tell when she is, and she really does care underne--

who the fuck am i kidding. The writers just didn't want to show Will and Finn in a negative light. It's alright if it's Sue, though!