Let's talk about Glee, baby: The Break Up

It’s break-up week and ouch, that hurt. Okay so not all of it hurt but it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either. I’m pretty sure that most of the break-ups we witnessed (although I’m not entirely sure who actually broke up) are not going to be permanent but it’s still not fun to watch. Although I guess it was getting a bit stale with all the happy couples anyway, long distance relationships suck and at least Glee is acknowledging that.

First off, I have to say that the two different shows within Glee actually worked quite well together this week (it had to happen eventually didn’t it). It was still jarring going from the high school drama to New York life but in this context it made sense. This episode was all about those left behind and the contrast between the two worlds highlighted the distance between the couples.

Love is in the air at McKinley, as Marley and Jake bond over being poor (awww but doesn’t he still have a girlfriend). My beloved Brit Brit and Blaine look on with sadness because their love lives are over now that they’re significant others have moved away… and there is nothing worse than being lonely.

Anyway, in New York last week Finn turned up at Rachel’s apartment (just as she was about to get some) after 4 months without contact – also he seems to be forgetting the part where he broke up with her. Things are naturally kind of awkward between Finn and Rachel at the moment (so awkward that Kurt can’t even bare to be in the same room as them).

Turns out, Finn was himself in the army until he accidently shot himself in the leg with a riffle he called ‘Rachel’… if that’s not a metaphor I don’t know what is. I’m not even ashamed of how much I laughed at this; it reminded me of when I used to like Finn because he was just stupid and not lauded as some kind of super-role-model-leader. Then the whole thing is ruined because Rachel feels like she has to come to Finn’s rescue. Telling him that he should give NYADA another go.  

Brittana are back, hanging out together being all domestic doing Santana’s laundry – she only does laundry in Lima so that she has to come home and see my beloved Brit Brit at least every two weeks (so cute). Also Santana is concerned with my beloved Brit Brit’s reading material. This scene is perfect and reaffirms the fact that these lovely ladies have the best relationship on the show (yes even after what happens later).

Kurt calls Blaine, but he’s working so he can’t talk for long. Blaine is not okay with this and demands his boyfriend pay attention to him – Blaine really acts like a petulant teenager in this episode but Darren does have some awesome performances so you win some you loose some. Personally I think it’s pretty good of Kurt to at least try to call Blaine when he’s clearly super busy, but this is Glee.

Blaine and Finn sing a song about their selfishness together (“Barely Breathing”). Finn’s upset that Rachel has found herself (like he told her too) and he hasn’t. Blaine is feeling unloved because his boyfriend has a life without him so naturally he picks up some random Facebook slut – because that’s super healthy.

Later Finn, Kurt and Rachel are getting ready for a night out, New York style when there is a knock at the door. It’s a bunch of flowers… and Blaine. And I’m like Kurt baby, you’re long distance boyfriend just turned up out of the blue with flowers, that really only means one thing and it’s not good. But they all ignore that and go out anyway.

Just to make things a little bit more awkward, they meet Brody (Rachel’s new love interest) at Callbacks and Finn insists that Rachel and Brody do a duet together (“Give Your Heart a Break”). This is just so that he can see what it looks like when Rachel actually has chemistry with someone and then he sits in the corner because he made himself sad.

Not to be left out of the spotlight Blaine announces that he wants to sing, and sing he does. Blaine performs a heartbreaking rendition of the song that made Kurt (and the rest of the world) fall in love with him (“Teenage Dream”).

I have to say, that generally I think Blaine is a dick in this episode but this performance had me in tears. Whatever they did with his character later on, that original performance of “Teenage Dream” is one of my favourite television moments of all time. So watching it again, with so much pain (an amazing performance by Darren Criss) reminded me of why I feel in love with Blaine, and Klaine in the first place. Also when Chris Colfer cries, I cry.

On the walk home, all the issues finally come out. Blaine reveals to Kurt that he hooked up with someone else and Rachel tells Finn about the whole making out with Brody thing. Blaine kind of blames Kurt for the fact that he cheated (totally not cool) but Rachel actually has a point, Finn told her to move on and then he ignored her for 4 months – what was she supposed to do? Then they sing about their feelings (“Don’t Speak”).

The next morning Kurt catches Finn sneaking out on Rachel – and for a moment Glee remembers that they’re supposed to be brothers… even though they haven’t really spoken since season 2. Finn’s taking the coward’s way out and Kurt sitting alone and dejected actually broke my heart.

Meanwhile, back at McKinley, they’ve all gone crazy and decided to join Kitty (new blonde cheerleader that is NOT Quinn) for a rapture party. This involves Kitty yelling crazy things and I can’t help but think that if she wasn’t a pretty popular cheerleader she would have been locked up by now. Then they enact a “fake rapture” to freak Tina’s assistant out (yeah Tina doesn’t have a line but her assistant does).

All this crazy does have a point because it causes my beloved Brit Brit to admit that she’s not happy. Turns out she’s all about the rapture because if being left behind by Santana was this hard then she can’t imagine what it would be like to be left behind by Jesus. Oh no, trouble in paradise.

Finn’s back in Lima and his first stop is the high school so that he can hang out with his best friend/teacher Will. Seriously Will, get some friends your own age. This scene just makes me super uncomfortable and ends with Finn crying in Will’s arms… pedo!Will strikes again.

Speaking of Will being a total disaster, he’s gotten whatever job he decided was his dream last week so he heads home to tell Emma that she needs to uproot her life and follow wherever his dreams lead. I’m just praying that Glee doesn’t have Emma change her mind about this and end up going with Will because what she said here was right. Of course she should support Will’s dream but she should not cave just because he doesn’t want to spend a couple of months alone.

Klaine update: Blaine’s back in Ohio, and he’s not sure where they stand. Kurt is looking super sad (aww puppy) and he doesn’t seem impressed by the flowers Blaine sent him – he’s so sad that he doesn’t even notice the guy flirting with him.

And then it’s Brittana’s turn. My beloved Brit Brit meets Santana in the choir room where they laments lost days. Santana misses McKinley because it’s where they fell in love, and where everything was so much simpler and they could sing away the feelings. So Santana sings (“Mine”) and I cry tears of blood. It’s heart wrenching! They clearly love each other so much, but that doesn’t mean that all they’re troubles disappear. Long distance relationships rarely work out, especially high school romances.

They decide to do the mature thing, reaffirming their love but still parting ways in the end. To be honest by this stage I can’t really see the TV through the tears. Urgh why are they so perfect? They are the only couple willing to admit that something is wrong and the only couple that has the guts to end things before they ruin their relationship forever.

The something happens with Kitty, Marley and Jake but I am still having way to many Brittana feels to even pretend to care.

Finchel – Finn is hanging out in the auditorium like the creep that he is when Rachel turns up to call him all his bullshit… FINALLY! Seriously she throws it all at him, the awful train send off from the end of last season, that he ignored her for 4 months, the fact that he snuck out on her rather than dealing with their issues. Really very not cool Finn.

Maybe I’m still overly emotional because Brittana but I love this speech because this is the Rachel that I feel in love with in the first season. This is the Rachel that is not going to let some guy guilt her into giving up her dreams. She’s not mean, she’s just right. Finn seems to think that he’s the one in charge of Rachel’s future, and that’s just not true. I understand that Finn is going through a crisis at the moment, but that’s not Rachel’s responsibility.

Cue emotional song (“The Scientist”) with flashbacks to happier times and someone get me a bucket for my creys.

I know I’m supposed to hate this show, and most of the time I do, but before I hated it, I fell in love with these characters and it still hurts to see them upset… it hurts more to watch them have to live through such bad writing but still. Okay so it’s mainly Brittana that’s causing the tears but that’s enough.

Excuse me I am going to go and drown myself in a bath of Brittana feels now. But don’t forget to tell me what you thought in the comments and on the Facebook page.