The Troubletones are 3F: fierce, femme and phenomenal.

[ellydash]

Oh, Santana. Fuck. The last ten minutes of that episode were just heart-breaking. Also, so much for that brief period of feeling sympathetic towards Finn!

Something that's bothering me, besides the obvious: the writing this week made Santana even nastier than usual. Yes, she's always cruel, but she was particularly mean, and it was almost non-stop. And I felt like it came across as a passive way to downplay Finn's cruelty in outing her publicly. Not, necessarily, that the writing was actually implying Santana deserved to be outed, but that the show was covering for Finn to keep him from being an out-and-out (no pun intended) bad guy. Oh, sure, he did something really shitty, but he only did it because she provoked him so much!

And I don't buy for a second that Finn didn't understand that there was some risk involved in having that conversation out in the middle of the hallway, despite all that talk about "everyone knows" Santana's in love with Brittany. No, not everyone knows Santana's in love with Brittany; what's common knowledge, or at least somewhat common, is that Brittany and Santana have a sexual relationship, which is completely different. He fired that at her like a weapon, something designed to hurt her and make her stop attacking him, and whether or not he understood the full impact of what he was doing, Finn knew it was devastating. And the fact that he dared to take away from Santana what she absolutely deserves - the right to come out on her own terms, in a time and place that makes her feel safe - is fucking infuriating.

Glee is at its best, imo, when it uses music to heighten the impact of character-driven storylines (it's also at its best when it does absolutely ridiculous, embarrassing and hilarious shit like "Hot for Teacher," but that's another topic). "Rumor Has It/Someone Like You" is a pretty definitive example of what Glee can do when it hits on all targets, and is hands-down the best number they've done this season. Maybe top five overall, in my book. The Troubletones were flawless, the arrangement was wonderful, and Naya Rivera acted the shit out of that number. It was her body language that got to me, in particular; the way she moved, like she was trying to remember her choreography but couldn't quite focus. For some reason, that's what hit me the hardest.

I loved that Will and Sue actually dropped their petty bickering bullshit and acted like adults invested in taking care of one of their students. (Burt, too, but he's generally been good that way, so it didn't feel like something out of the ordinary for him.) And I especially loved that Sue didn't give a shit about the fact that the point of the commercial was to slander her, when everything in Sue's life is always, always about her. Actually, this might be the first time in the history of the show that Sue's shown real, heartfelt sympathy towards someone's pain when she doesn't identify with that pain herself (every time she's been nice to Kurt, he's been going through something that pings her own issues - religious belief, bullying, etc). Too bad I can't enjoy it fully or take it seriously because next week she'll be back to being a sociopath! I can't stand what they've done to Sue - it bothers me like crazy that this once-great character has become an unrecognizable, unfunny wreck of her former self - but that "I'm so sorry" was a sad little flag of interesting potential that, of course, will be quickly forgotten. (Serious question: is Ian Brennan even writing Sue anymore? The rhythm of her dialogue, quality aside, is completely different.)

There's so much to talk about, but I'm going to be brief(er) with the rest of it because I've already babbled on enough:

- The Puck/Shelby/Quinn storyline doesn't seem to be going anywhere interesting, and I say that as someone who was really into the idea of Puck/Shelby, and as someone wants to see another character take more than an observational interest in Quinn's massive, massive issues. Also, is Puck growing a mane?

- The return of Pedowill during HFT! He was just so excited they were singing that number, you guys. So excited. Actually, I kind of loved Will this week, that line about "they didn't leave glee club because of you" from Shelby aside. Earnest, dorky Will is my third favorite Will, after Drunk!Will and Pedowill. Yes, I've thought about it enough to have an order of Will preferences. Shut up.

- Blaine and Kurt supporting Rory in different ways made my heart happy. Two thumbs up for Blaine, in particular, for being such a stand-up dude and encouraging Rory to take the solo when Finn was being extra douchy.

- What was that line from Shelby about how there'd be a lot of people being jealous of Rachel, but she (Shelby) would be "the only one" cheering her on? Did I hear that right? If so, that was cold, unfair, and inaccurate. Also, interesting that Rachel didn't ask Will to write her the letter - although I'm guessing that Shelby's reputation far outweighs anything Will could bring to the table.

- Brittany singing "stop the violence" to Santana, and Santana's reluctant smile? That was really, really awesome, and kind of intimate, actually, in a sweet way.

- Mercedes was ON FIRE this week. She's so confident now - look at all the initiative she's taking, now that she feels like she's valued! ♥___♥

- Figgins's school assembly speeches will never not be one of my favorite things about this show.

- "You're skinny like all the crops failed on your family's farm."

Comments

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

I really, really loved Naya in this episode - she was incredibly effective, especially in the smaller moments. And even though Finn's actions were very much OTT, in thinking about it I'm not sure how out of character they really were. What he did to Santana isn't far off from what he did to Kurt in "Theatricality" - lashing out in anger at a queer character by using his position of privilege as a weapon.

One of the things that fascinates me the most about the Rachel/Will dynamic is the way he both supports and undermines her - yes, he gives her a ton of solos, and tells her how talented she is, etc, but he can also be really dismissive of her, sometimes to the point of unfair anger (I'm thinking about that duct tape scene in Special Education, especially). Which is why I loved it so much when he yelled at those hecklers to be quiet while she was giving her speech.

I can never get enough Pedowill. Never.

♥ Glad you commented, bb!

[kitsune13.livejournal.com]

I have a really different read on the duct tape situation, and always have, which affects my understanding of their dynamic; my incredulity at Will's behavior in that scene was diametrically opposed to, like, most of fandom, but totally in line with my colleagues -- I'm a university professor, in a Glee-happy department (we have Glee-watch parties!), and teach students not that much older than Rachel. And the unanimous reaction of our party to that scene was "WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T WILL THROW HER OUT FOR GOOD?!" When I saw that online reaction was "OMG HE SHOUTED AT HER, TEH HORROR" I loled so hard I almost split something, and so did everyone else I showed that to. Granted, in college nobody ever expects us to act as Coddlers of Pwecious Baby's Feewings, so it's a different role with different responsibilities. But seriously, the pearl-clutching over Will raising his voice was some funny shit. If a student had pulled that duct-tape/personal insult combo in the classrooms of most profs I know, a shouted reprimand to clean up their attitude -- which then extended to everyone else in the room, including innocent students who hadn't done anything -- would be seen as mild, possibly dangerously so (especially for a younger non-white/non-straight/non-male prof). Again, college students are expected to know better, but Rachel's not much younger and she does know better.

(I totally understood Rachel, tho -- she was shaken by Finn/Santana, and was clinging all the harder to the other passion in her life; it was unfortunate that Will chose that moment to remember he had other talented students (of course, only at Emma's prompting). If Rachel hadn't had that drama going on, she'd have protested, but not have lashed out at Will so intensely. /Rachel stan)

The thing that really annoys me about Will's teacher-behavior there was first, he spread it around almost immediately -- everyone got reprimanded, though Rachel was the one being an ass. And second, Will has punished other students for lesser crimes, but he never punishes Rachel, no matter what she does. Kurt gets sent to the office for calling him "uptight" (much less vicious than Rachel's "threatened by my talent" jibe), Santana gets kicked out for property damage (Rachel sent Sunshine to a CRACK HOUSE, and only gets glared at and told to fix it), and Mercedes gets banned for a *single instance* of backtalk nearly identical to Rachel's standard S1 (and SpEd) spewing.

I thought it was telling that he shouted but didn't punish her, and also that she reaches for personal insults when she's mad at him. Will and Rachel respond to each other emotionally, in a way that Will just doesn't do with any of the other students. I mean, he's PedoWill and sheds ~manly tears over them and stuff, but he channels most of his emotions, good and bad, into Rachel, and she eats it up. They are both total drama queens who feed off each other, which makes them very shippable! But it also makes the way he treats Rachel really stand out from the way he treats the others, from whom he has more emotional distance: W/R's relationship is way more "tempestuous star/impresario in a backstage drama" than "normal teacher/student," which is how I think both of them like it (especially Rachel, who consciously played that fantasy with him from the start). Big dramatic fights are part of that, and Rachel wouldn't feel satisfied without them -- and Will secretly gets off on them too, I think, because her attacks (RUINING MY CAREER) make him feel important.

I don't think his getting mad at her is irrational or unfair, given a lot of her behavior, and I don't think "omg he got mad and shouted" makes him a bad teacher. He's a bad teacher because he's so wrapped up in Rachel that "getting mad and shouting" is the worst he's ever done to her, when he should have been meting out appropriate punishments and not showing such blatant favoritism. But if he were a good teacher, he wouldn't be such a hilarious pedotastic trainwreck, and he wouldn't be nearly as shippable with the other fucked-up assholes on this show. :D

You are such a bad influence, letting me ramble at length about Will Schuester and his Stupid Issues. ♥ ♥ ♥

[ellydash.livejournal.com]

First off, bb, you know you can ramble at length to me about Will Schuester and his Stupid Issues any time you like. ♥ ♥ ♥

See, this is why I love these discussions, because they always make me look twice at my readings of different character relationships and think about why I have them and what I might've missed. I actually teach college students, too - I'm not a professor (still have a year-plus to go before I defend my dissertation, and then there's the tiny little problem of the humanities job market), and so I'm definitely not in your position yet, but I do have my own classes of often brilliant, usually entitled, mostly awesome 18-21 year olds. :)

And you know, when I read what you wrote my first reaction was, "Well, yes! If I had a student do what Rachel did, ofcourse I'd raise my voice," and I had to think about why that hadn't really overtly occurred to me before. My response to that scene is a lot more personal than I'd realized, and had way more to do with projecting myself into Will and Rachel's interaction as a student, rather than as a teacher. I was always that person in high school who developed deep crushes/imagined connections to certain teachers, and often showed it in ways that remind me of some of Rachel's behavior (although, thankfully, I never sang songs to them or attempted to clean their houses!). So I think my response to Will yelling is an inappropriately personal knee-jerk reaction to imagining how I would've felt, as Rachel, in that situation - not based on any realistic, nuanced reading of their situation.

Will secretly gets off on them too, I think, because her attacks (RUINING MY CAREER) make him feel important.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. He really does thrive on negative reinforcement, doesn't he?

[kitsune13.livejournal.com]

♥ ♥ ♥

Good luck with your dissertation, bb! And believe me, I know all about the humanities job search, aaaargh. If you ever want commiseration or whatever, feel free to email me. :D

I think I wouldn't necessarily have had that reaction to Rachel/duct tape if a) I hadn't been watching with a bunch of other professors at the time, and b) the later online response was so ott about Will's awfulness, without a word about Rachel's extreme behavior. That doesn't make my read, like, more nuanced or not knee-jerk or anything, just a different context, etc. Normally, I also project way more into Rachel (and Santana, to the point where I can't write about her), but in that instance, I could see both of their perspectives.

He really does thrive on negative reinforcement, doesn't he?
OMG, this. I always loved that line in one of your stories about how Will always gets himself in under Sue's boot then complains about getting kicked. He does EXACTLY the same thing with pretty much every importnt woman in his life (Terri, Emma, Sue, Rachel) -- except Shannon, who doesn't kick. :D