Oh God, I'd forgotten how endlessly I can ramble about TV.
This was going to be a post about 'Born This Way' but then that song leaked and I JUST HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS.
OH MY GOD, SONGBIRD. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN.
- Firstly, I just can't get over the fact that they even gave Naya motherfucking SONGBIRD. I mean, after Gwyneth taking over Landslide I didn't hold out much hope for good Santana solos in the future, so for her to get Songbird really is a coup. So happy!
- Obviously it's not the very best version of the song ever recorded (hello, Eva Cassidy) but I think it's easily Naya's best vocal performance and I love it to bits.
- Also there's the part where OH MY GOD SANTANA JUST LOVES BRITTANY SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN HOW DO I EVEN COPE WITH MY OTP BEING SO FUCKING PERFECT. The part where her voice kind of wobbles because she just has so many feelings? DEAD.
Okay, okay, I'll try and calm down and talk about the actual episode.
SO. I will get to the parts that I most care about in a bit, but first I'll talk about the other stuff before I get so overwhelmed with Santana love that I forget the other stuff even existed.
- KURT! You know, I go back and forth with Kurt but I really liked him this episode. A lot of people have complained that As If We Never Said Goodbye went on for approximately ten years, but whatever: I loved it. Not so much the super-literal staging, but it was the perfect song for Kurt's return to McKinley (which apparently I have a surprising amount of feelings about!) and I thought Chris nailed it. Haters to the left.
- Will Schuester continues to be an epic douchebag. Oh my God, what was that scene with the unwashed fruit? But despite that, I was really pleased with how they started taking Emma's OCD seriously; the scene with the therapist was really good. Having previously been in Skins fandom, it's so refreshing to see a competent mental health professional for a change. Also, Jayma Mays is awesome.
- Darren Criss, WHAT IS YOUR FACE LIKE. I don't particularly care for Blaine anyway and I spent all of Somewhere Only We Know laughing at how ridiculous he looked. Go away, please.
- I don't know how I feel about the sudden random Quinn backstory that came from nowhere. I can't get a handle on Quinn's character at all; she seems to go from being a raging bitch to actually quite sweet at the drop of a hat and at this point I just don't really give a fuck. Also, I thought that what Lauren did was AWFUL. At least she apologised, but IDK, as someone who previously quite liked her I wasn't impressed. (Of course, I am a giant hypocrite because I'm quick to judge all the characters who act like douchebags while simultaneously stanning hard for Santana.)
- I Feel Pretty/Unpretty was awesome, though! As was Cory's song! Didn't much like their version of Born This Way and hated Barbra Streisand, because seriously, THAT SONG. Terrible. Also, the flashmob thing was a whole lot more fun when it was Safety Dance.
... okay, this is quite long already and I haven't even got to the good parts yet.
- SANTANA. STILL MY FAVOURITE. ♥ Oh my God, the pining over Brittany absolutely killed me. In the hallways, in the coffee shop, CONSTANT PINING. So amazing it even made me forget what a fucking hideous hat she was wearing.
- Okay, calling Brittany gullible in the voiceover wasn't my favourite thing ever; one of the (many!) reasons why I prefer Brittana to Bartie is that I feel like they're more equals, whereas Artie is pretty condescending. I get that she wasn't literally planning on ordering Brittany to date her (and I don't think Brittany is so gullible to go for it in the first place) but eh, it rubbed me the wrong way.
- I LOVED all the stuff with her and Karofsky. Before this episode I had no time for Karofsky at all; I didn't care about his issues, I just wanted him punished and then GONE. But now I'm interested in seeing if they could sort of actually bond, especially since Santana came out to him (not something I was expecting!). I love that Karofsky's redemption is ambiguous so far - he was obviously just saying what Santana told him to in the choir room, but in the scene with Kurt he seemed a bit more genuine? Anyway, I think this just goes to show that any character can become interesting when given scenes with Santana.
- THE SHIRT LOCKER SCENE. (Why are all Brittany and Santana's scenes in front of lockers?!) So much to love about this: "legend has it that when I came out of my mother I told the nurse she was fat", the Lebanese shirt, "you're like the most awesomest girl in this school", THEM IN GENERAL. I'm still trying to figure Brittany out, though. Does she really consider herself "bicurious" or is it another case of her getting words mixed up and she means bisexual? Because come on, three episodes ago she said she would proudly date Santana; seems like she's more committed to the idea of dating girls than "bicurious" implies.
- Also, I think that while Brittany gets that it's hard for Santana to come out, she doesn't get WHY, and she still doesn't really get how she specifically hurt Santana and that she still keeps hurting Santana by pushing her to be honest about her feelings without giving her anything in return. (Or without giving Santana what she really wants in return, anyway.) So I feel like it wasn't really Brittany's place to get so mad at Santana at the end there. I've seen people fanwanking that she's waiting for Santana to come out so she can date her, because she doesn't want to be with someone closeted, but I'm not entirely convinced.
- AT LEAST WE HAVE MORE DEVELOPMENT TO LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT EPISODE, AND PROBABLY EVERY EPISODE AFTER THAT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON. I still can't quite believe that the writers are committed to this story to the point where it's been featured in every episode since Sexy and everything points to that continuing on. After the long, long drought following Duets, this is kind of amazing. Yay, show!
OH MY GOD, SONGBIRD. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN.
- Firstly, I just can't get over the fact that they even gave Naya motherfucking SONGBIRD. I mean, after Gwyneth taking over Landslide I didn't hold out much hope for good Santana solos in the future, so for her to get Songbird really is a coup. So happy!
- Obviously it's not the very best version of the song ever recorded (hello, Eva Cassidy) but I think it's easily Naya's best vocal performance and I love it to bits.
- Also there's the part where OH MY GOD SANTANA JUST LOVES BRITTANY SO MUCH I CAN'T EVEN HOW DO I EVEN COPE WITH MY OTP BEING SO FUCKING PERFECT. The part where her voice kind of wobbles because she just has so many feelings? DEAD.
Okay, okay, I'll try and calm down and talk about the actual episode.
SO. I will get to the parts that I most care about in a bit, but first I'll talk about the other stuff before I get so overwhelmed with Santana love that I forget the other stuff even existed.
- KURT! You know, I go back and forth with Kurt but I really liked him this episode. A lot of people have complained that As If We Never Said Goodbye went on for approximately ten years, but whatever: I loved it. Not so much the super-literal staging, but it was the perfect song for Kurt's return to McKinley (which apparently I have a surprising amount of feelings about!) and I thought Chris nailed it. Haters to the left.
- Will Schuester continues to be an epic douchebag. Oh my God, what was that scene with the unwashed fruit? But despite that, I was really pleased with how they started taking Emma's OCD seriously; the scene with the therapist was really good. Having previously been in Skins fandom, it's so refreshing to see a competent mental health professional for a change. Also, Jayma Mays is awesome.
- Darren Criss, WHAT IS YOUR FACE LIKE. I don't particularly care for Blaine anyway and I spent all of Somewhere Only We Know laughing at how ridiculous he looked. Go away, please.
- I don't know how I feel about the sudden random Quinn backstory that came from nowhere. I can't get a handle on Quinn's character at all; she seems to go from being a raging bitch to actually quite sweet at the drop of a hat and at this point I just don't really give a fuck. Also, I thought that what Lauren did was AWFUL. At least she apologised, but IDK, as someone who previously quite liked her I wasn't impressed. (Of course, I am a giant hypocrite because I'm quick to judge all the characters who act like douchebags while simultaneously stanning hard for Santana.)
- I Feel Pretty/Unpretty was awesome, though! As was Cory's song! Didn't much like their version of Born This Way and hated Barbra Streisand, because seriously, THAT SONG. Terrible. Also, the flashmob thing was a whole lot more fun when it was Safety Dance.
... okay, this is quite long already and I haven't even got to the good parts yet.
- SANTANA. STILL MY FAVOURITE. ♥ Oh my God, the pining over Brittany absolutely killed me. In the hallways, in the coffee shop, CONSTANT PINING. So amazing it even made me forget what a fucking hideous hat she was wearing.
- Okay, calling Brittany gullible in the voiceover wasn't my favourite thing ever; one of the (many!) reasons why I prefer Brittana to Bartie is that I feel like they're more equals, whereas Artie is pretty condescending. I get that she wasn't literally planning on ordering Brittany to date her (and I don't think Brittany is so gullible to go for it in the first place) but eh, it rubbed me the wrong way.
- I LOVED all the stuff with her and Karofsky. Before this episode I had no time for Karofsky at all; I didn't care about his issues, I just wanted him punished and then GONE. But now I'm interested in seeing if they could sort of actually bond, especially since Santana came out to him (not something I was expecting!). I love that Karofsky's redemption is ambiguous so far - he was obviously just saying what Santana told him to in the choir room, but in the scene with Kurt he seemed a bit more genuine? Anyway, I think this just goes to show that any character can become interesting when given scenes with Santana.
- THE SHIRT LOCKER SCENE. (Why are all Brittany and Santana's scenes in front of lockers?!) So much to love about this: "legend has it that when I came out of my mother I told the nurse she was fat", the Lebanese shirt, "you're like the most awesomest girl in this school", THEM IN GENERAL. I'm still trying to figure Brittany out, though. Does she really consider herself "bicurious" or is it another case of her getting words mixed up and she means bisexual? Because come on, three episodes ago she said she would proudly date Santana; seems like she's more committed to the idea of dating girls than "bicurious" implies.
- Also, I think that while Brittany gets that it's hard for Santana to come out, she doesn't get WHY, and she still doesn't really get how she specifically hurt Santana and that she still keeps hurting Santana by pushing her to be honest about her feelings without giving her anything in return. (Or without giving Santana what she really wants in return, anyway.) So I feel like it wasn't really Brittany's place to get so mad at Santana at the end there. I've seen people fanwanking that she's waiting for Santana to come out so she can date her, because she doesn't want to be with someone closeted, but I'm not entirely convinced.
- AT LEAST WE HAVE MORE DEVELOPMENT TO LOOK FORWARD TO NEXT EPISODE, AND PROBABLY EVERY EPISODE AFTER THAT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON. I still can't quite believe that the writers are committed to this story to the point where it's been featured in every episode since Sexy and everything points to that continuing on. After the long, long drought following Duets, this is kind of amazing. Yay, show!