Never Been Kissed
I started following Glee because of the music. For a while, the music was the only reason I watched it. I didn’t care for the baby mama drama that saturated the first season nor did I feel particularly attached to any of the characters ... at least, not at first.
You make me feel like I'm living in a teenage dream ...
I didn’t fall in love with Kurt’s character when everyone else did during his Single Ladies dance in the episode “Preggers.” My love for Kurt came later in the episode “Mash-Up” when Finn stood in front of Kurt, slushie in hand, conflicted over whether to throw the slushie in Kurt’s face and secure his top social status or not give into the peer pressure and respect the friendship he and Kurt had formed from being in glee club together. Kurt saved Finn the agony of making the decision by taking the slushie throwing it into his own face. From that point on, Kurt was my favorite. My love of his character only grew watching the touching storylines between Kurt and his dad. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the non-Kurt centric parts of Glee, but nothing else in the show moves me the way Kurt does.
If it wasn’t for Kurt, I might have already given up on the second season of Glee. I was becoming apathetic of the show until the episode “Never Been Kissed” when they introduced a major narrative arc for Kurt’s character. The storyline involves Kurt being bullied by homophobic jock Karofsky who we find out is actually gay when he suddenly kisses Kurt during one of their confrontations. Kurt’s knowledge of Karofsky’s sexuality only makes Karofsky’s bullying worse. The abuse drives Kurt to transfer to all boys private school Dalton Academy where there is a no-tolerance bullying policy. At Dalton, Kurt forms a friendship with Blaine, another gay teen who was driven out of his previous school by bullies.
Glee creator Ryan Murphy had been teasing about introducing a potential boyfriend for Kurt in the second season. When Blaine showed up, both the Glee fandom and the media assumed Blaine and Kurt would get together and wanted them to. It didn’t immediately occur to me to “ship” them because I know better than to attach myself to a pairing that hasn’t been developed yet. Glee is notorious for inconsistent character development, but I couldn’t help wanting Kurt and Blaine to be together. After Kurt’s various crushes on straight guys, I really wanted to believe Blaine would be the one Kurt could be with.
In the most recent episode “Original Song,” Blaine finally falls for Kurt and admits his feelings, complete with a kiss. Initially, I was disappointed. Rather than take the ten episodes since Blaine’s introduction to slowly develop a romantic relationship between him and Kurt, Blaine suddenly realizes his feelings in something of a delayed love-at-first-sight reaction. Besides for that disappointment, there were as many cringe-worthy cheesy moments between Kurt and Blaine in the episode as there were swoon-worthy sweet moments. In spite of it all, I can’t help dwelling over that kiss. It makes me happy in the most ridiculous way.
I realized it doesn’t matter Kurt and Blaine don’t get together exactly the way I wanted them to because, in the end, it’s not really about "Klaine" anyway. It’s about Kurt getting kissed by a boy he likes. (As someone eloquently pointed out Kurt/Happiness is the real OTP.) After watching a season and a half of Kurt go through painful, though touching, storylines, I am overwhelmingly happy to see him finally get what he deserves.