Glee Season 4 Re-watch - 4x10 - Glee, Actually
I’m going to tell you a little story, and that story is entitled “Glee and Christmas Episodes: A Mixed Bag.” I mean, look. Holiday episodes in general tend to be somewhat outside the overall narrative of the season. Sometimes that can be a lot of fun, because you have an excuse to be a little more creative, and license to be a little cheesier than usual. And sometimes, well, sometimes it’s just a hot mess that smells like pinecones and peppermint.
Glee has done a bit of both. Brittany believing in Santa and everyone humoring her was sweet, Artie’s magically disappearing robo-legs were ridiculous. Artie’s 50s-era Christmas Special was... I don’t even know what that was. Part of me thought it was amazing, part of me just stared with my mouth hanging open, wondering what in the actual fuck was going on.
And so, here we are with Glee’s third Christmas episode, “Glee, Actually.”
We open on Sue, voiceovering a journal entry, which is sometimes funny, but mostly used when they feel like doing a bit of exposition. She helpfully informs the audience that Glee will resemble "Love, Actually" this week, in which several seemingly-unrelated stories will all overlap. I don't know about the second half of that statement, but there certainly are multiple independent stories happening in this episode.
First up is Artie, who's got a bit of road rash on his face after his wheelchair couldn't stand up to an icy ramp. He's embarrassed, and he's pissed. Lots of the time, he seems perfectly positive about his life and the chair is simply a part of who he is. But today is not one of those days. He's angry and he's sick of having to be in the chair and having to rely on others for things like getting into the bed in the nurse's office. I don't blame him one bit, and I think Kevin McHale does this scene really well.
Artie falls asleep and into a black & white alternate reality dream sequence. His legs work, he's got a letterman jacket and styled hair and no glasses. Rory, of all people, shows up as his Ghost of the Christmas that Could Be, and I find that inexplicably both appropriate and hilarious. Maybe it's the accent? In the world without Artie's car accident: Tina still stutters, and Finn, Puck, and the rest are jocks who shove Kurt into lockers. Kurt lost a year of school when the bullying was too bad, and the biggest DUN DUN DUN line is the close-up on Kurt's face saying, "who's Blaine?" OH GOD NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Rory the Christmas Spirit hypothesizes that it was Artie all along who made Glee possible, and I... just can't quite buy it. I like Artie, I do. But I hardly think there is a lot of compelling evidence that he was the critical piece of this whole puzzle all along. If you disagree, I'm happy to hear why. But hey, it's his dream sequence, so maybe that's just what he needs to believe.
Artie vows to get everyone together, and apparently thinks the way to their hearts is to sing "Feliz Navidad." The best part of the performance, hands down, is the look of abject horror on Kurt's face as Artie dances around the room, and a douchey Finn commenting, "dude, that was so gay!" But the final straw is that, without a wheelchair-bound Artie to encourage her after her accident ("she texts and drives in every timeline"), Quinn dies of a broken heart. Meanwhile, I groan and roll my eyes, because this little sequence has gone completely off the rails, even if I grant a higher-than-usual allowance for cheesiness during a holiday episode. Artie wakes up feeling more accepting of his life in the chair, yay.
Unrelated story the second: Hummelberry loft! Rachel is heading out on the Rosie O’Donnell cruise with her dads, leaving Kurt to spend Christmas alone in Bushwick. (?!) Fear not, there’s a knock at the door. This time, the surprise visitor hiding behind plant life is Burt! BURT! YAY BURT! And he brought a Christmas tree, further solidifying his place as Best Dad Ever. With a bittersweet story about Kurt’s first Christmas without his mom, I just want to move into the Hummels’ house and squeeze them all.
After seeing the Rockettes, the Hummels head to a diner for hot chocolate, and Kurt makes me think terrible, terrible things involving whipped cream. But then Burt drops the c-bomb and tells Kurt he has prostate cancer. Once again, it’s Kurt’s reaction face for all of the wins, forever. It’s like his features barely move, but the look in his eyes changes and your heart stops right along with his. Burt tries to reassure Kurt that it’s been caught early and has a great cure rate, but Kurt’s life has taught him to be anything but optimistic about this sort of thing. Burt has one more thing to say, though, as a man who has lived life and seen his share of heartbreak: keep hold of the ones you love.
Burt Hummel ships Klaine harder than you do. Fact.
Back at the loft, it’s Christmas Eve gift time. Kurt gives Burt some NYADA swag, because there’s nothing a proud papa like Burt Hummel wants more than a hat with his kid’s college on it. (Zero sarcasm - my dad is the same way. The day I got my acceptance letter to the college of my choice, he had a hat, t-shirt, shorts, and a bumper sticker.) Burt says that Kurt’s present is too big to carry around (I dunno, I think it might be almost pocket-sized, but I digress), so he sends him off into the city to find it.
Kurt arrives at a skating rink shortly before midnight, and waiting for him is one incredibly dapper young man. Blaine is so adorable here. Though we know they’ve been talking again since Thanksgiving, Blaine still knows their connection is fragile. He’s all enthusiasm and nervous energy: one part Warbler show smile, one part anxiety, three parts genuine heart eyes. Once again, I have to point to the delightful Heather Hogan’s recap of the episode, because I couldn’t possibly say it better:
Burt sends Kurt to an outdoor ice skating rink, and as he wanders up, the commoners part and Blaine Warbler skates right through the holiday rabble. Kurt blinks once, twice. You always see the ghost of your exes when your heart is still raw from a break-up, and Christmas is doubly bad for ethereal spirits, so Kurt just needs to make sure it’s for real. Blaine’s been practicing this moment in his mind for weeks now. He needs to open himself up without pushing, he needs to give Kurt space to heal while offering his whole self up to be Kurt’s comfort. In his head and in front of his mirror, Blaine was probably an articulate orator, pausing at the right times and landing all of his gentle jokes. But when Kurt is actually standing in front of him, Blaine’s composure goes right out the window and in a single breath he says:
“Your dad flew me here for Christmas because he knew you’d need someone to lean on after he told you about his cancer and I’ll be that person for you and I’ll take care of him in Lima too, Kurt, because I know he’s the most important thing and I know I broke one promise to you but this is the most important promise and I won’t let you down again, especially not with this, and I get that it’s a surprise, me being here and everything, and I know I need to let you come back to me at your own pace if you’re ever really going to come back to me, but it’s Christmas and winter duets are what we do and oh, are you at least a little bit glad to see me?” Kurt says, “Always.”
Skating around to “White Christmas” is cute as hell, and I feel very strongly that Blaine needs to channel the crooners of the 50s and 60s more often. I know Blaine covers of Katy Perry tunes are kind of Glee’s bread & butter at this point, but having him do more standards and oldies would be spectacular and totally fitting with his from-another-era look. But back to the skating rink, where Kurt seems to have put aside his initial surprise and is happy to be sharing space with his one true Warbler, and we even seem to be a breath or two away from a kiss before Blaine skates away and snaps them out of it.
At the stroke of midnight, Blaine lays it all out: even if they never get back to where they once were (banish the thought!), Kurt is and will always be important to him, and they will always be there for one another. Kurt agrees with a hug, and no one is happier about it than Papa Burt. Because Papa Burt knows his boy. He knows that Kurt has been hurt (and it’s a miracle he didn’t kill Blaine in the immediate aftermath, frankly). But he knows his son’s heart, and he knows what Kurt and Blaine meant to each other, what they brought out in each other. He’ll never push them into something they don’t want, but he knows how much potential is there and will gently nudge them both so they can see it with their own eyes.
Unrelated story the third: Puckermans. Sigh. The jocks give Jake a hard time about being half-black and half-Jewish (pet peeve: would you say someone is half-Episcopalian? No, you wouldn’t. He’s either Jewish or he isn’t. /rant), and Puck-the-first is randomly there in the hallways to break up the fight that ensues. Because no one has parents who enforce rules or curfews or basic safety concerns, Jake leaves school without a second thought and rides in Puck’s sidecar from Ohio to California in December. They wander around the Paramount lot doing the Barenaked Ladies version of “Hannukah O Hannukah,” because Puck’s theory is that you’ve got it made in Hollywood if you’re either Jewish or gay. I spy Ian Brennan in a cameo pretending to direct a scene involving both mobsters and nuns.
Surprising only to the Puckermans themselves, Puck is not a screaming success in Hollywood, but is squatting at the home of one of his pool-cleaning clients. Jake invites Puck back to Lima, where they have the bright idea to get their mothers together at Breadstix. Puck’s mom hates Jake’s mom, but Puck and Jake ultimately convince them to bond over their mutual hatred for their mutual baby-daddy. It’s a super-weird family get-together that gets somehow turned into a slightly sweet moment, but while I might not hate Jake, you can’t really get me to care about him.
Random story the fourth: Brittany and the apocalypse. She thinks the Mayan Apocalypse is actually a thing, so she spends all of her money (and, presumably a lot of her parents’) on outrageous gifts for her friends to enjoy before the world ends. Sam, naturally, is also a believer. So they take the opportunity to get some friends together and smack them in the face with truth bombs, which goes over as well as you might imagine. So Sam busts out “Jingle Bell Rock.” In the library. With the band. And some Cheerios dressed as reindeer as back-up dancers. I don’t know why this number strikes me as even more absurd than most of the others on this show, but it really does.
But don’t worry! It gets better! Because it turns into an end-of-the-world proposal! *smacks forehead* Beiste shows up to perform the ceremony and tells the kids she’s ordained by a Mayan something-or-other, which is probably about the kindest thing she could do for these two dopes. She indulges them and doesn’t make them feel stupid, but keeps them from doing anything actually permanent and regretful. Say what you will, Britt and Sam are cute in their total obliviousness. They get up four days later (do I want to know exactly how they “made the most” of their last few days on earth?) and, shocker, the world hasn’t ended. Sigh.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. In story the fifth, it’s the traditional Sue-Sylvester-grows-a-heart bit. Sue pulls Marley’s mom for the staff secret Santa, and manages to say a few dozen horribly offensive things before she eavesdrops and hears Marley and her mom talking about not doing presents because they’re saving up their pennies to get Marley therapy for her eating disorder. (WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Actually getting professional help for a serious problem? Glee, I hardly know who you are anymore.) So Marley sings to her mom, and even Sue’s heart of stone is not immune to Marley’s a capella rendition of “The First Noel.” So she sells her expensive Christmas tree on the antiquities market and uses the money to break into Marley and her mom’s house and fill it with a tree and presents and some cash for therapy. I mean, cool, I guess?
It’s the final act, when the stories are all supposed to be linked together. And, by linked together, we just mean edited so you see them one after the other. Well, I mean, Brittany and Sam are at Breadstix at the same time as Jake and Puck, so that totally counts, right? NO. I know “Love, Actually.” And you, “Glee,” are no “Love, Actually.”
Anyways, the Puckerman moms are bonding at Breadstix, and the Puckerman boys are proud of themselves and their kooky pseudo-family. Beiste confesses to Sam and Brittany’s relief that they aren’t actually married. But they’re bummed that the world didn’t actually end, so Coach cheers them up by pretending there’s another apocalypse coming so they can keep the fun alive. Great.
But then, HOORAY, we’re back at the Bushwick loft on Christmas Day, and it is my favorite thing. Burt and Blaine are watching basketball, Kurt feigns about 20 seconds of interest before pulling out his magazine and causing Blaine to lose his bet to Burt. Those 20 seconds of the pair of them checking their watches and side-eyeing Kurt crack me up to no end, and the idea of Burt and Blaine bonding over their adoration and gentle teasing of Kurt makes my heart swell to twice its normal size. I want this for all of the holidays, forever.
Burt quizzes Blaine on his future plans, and Blaine says he’s going to apply to NYADA, as long as Kurt doesn’t mind. Blaine’s face is sweet and hopeful while Kurt’s stays pretty neutral as he manages the barest smile and a quiet-but-genuine “I think that’d be great.” Their relationship is thawing, Kurt isn’t anywhere near as hurt and angry as he was a few months ago. But he’s still cautious. Blaine knows that’s as much as he can hope for right now, and seems happy just to not be shut out.
This is one of those times when I’m really grateful for fanfic and its ability to imagine all of the things we don’t see here, because I’m endlessly curious. How did they spend the rest of the day? Where did Blaine sleep? Was the whole thing really awkward, or were there moments when Kurt’s guard came down? Inquiring minds...
Back to Sue’s office at McKinley, where we’re clearly playing fast and loose with the timeline, and Marley’s mom knows she was the one who broke into their house and gave them a little Christmas miracle. It’s one of those brief, shining moments of a kind and generous Sue, and I really do love those. Mrs. Rose invites Sue to the auditorium, and though Sue groans and knows what’s coming, off they go to see some portion of New Directions sing a soothing, lovely version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sue pretends she’s going to hate it, but of course she can’t, not really.
Brittany, Sam, and the Puckerman brothers join in from Breadstix. Blaine is singing along in New York, totally undeterred in making constant heart eyes at Kurt as he sings “through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow,” and my Klaine-loving heart just wants to burst. Kurt is acting like he wants to keep a little distance - he doesn’t make much eye contact and generally tries to keep his focus on setting the table. But he doesn’t entirely fool us. He chimes in with the harmony and can’t stop himself from smiling. My three favorite men on television sit down for a quiet Christmas dinner, and Blaine looks like this is all he has ever wanted. This is his future, he’s sure of it. Kurt isn’t there yet, he knows. But Blaine will wait, because he believes in the two of them like nothing else in this world. It’s bittersweet to watch, but I’m leaning more on the side of sweet than bitter, so I’ll take it.
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake of this episode was telling us it was supposed to resemble “Love, Actually.” If you had just let it be several standalone stories, it might have worked better than making us wonder how they were going to intersect in the way they did in the movie. Because sharing a song at the end does not a connection make.
That’s probably my biggest criticism of the entire thing, to be honest. I’ll allow most of the cheesiness, frankly. And while OBVIOUSLY the New York story was far and away the best of all of them, the others had their moments, too. All in all, not a bad holiday offering from Glee.
Glee has done a bit of both. Brittany believing in Santa and everyone humoring her was sweet, Artie’s magically disappearing robo-legs were ridiculous. Artie’s 50s-era Christmas Special was... I don’t even know what that was. Part of me thought it was amazing, part of me just stared with my mouth hanging open, wondering what in the actual fuck was going on.
And so, here we are with Glee’s third Christmas episode, “Glee, Actually.”
We open on Sue, voiceovering a journal entry, which is sometimes funny, but mostly used when they feel like doing a bit of exposition. She helpfully informs the audience that Glee will resemble "Love, Actually" this week, in which several seemingly-unrelated stories will all overlap. I don't know about the second half of that statement, but there certainly are multiple independent stories happening in this episode.
First up is Artie, who's got a bit of road rash on his face after his wheelchair couldn't stand up to an icy ramp. He's embarrassed, and he's pissed. Lots of the time, he seems perfectly positive about his life and the chair is simply a part of who he is. But today is not one of those days. He's angry and he's sick of having to be in the chair and having to rely on others for things like getting into the bed in the nurse's office. I don't blame him one bit, and I think Kevin McHale does this scene really well.
Artie falls asleep and into a black & white alternate reality dream sequence. His legs work, he's got a letterman jacket and styled hair and no glasses. Rory, of all people, shows up as his Ghost of the Christmas that Could Be, and I find that inexplicably both appropriate and hilarious. Maybe it's the accent? In the world without Artie's car accident: Tina still stutters, and Finn, Puck, and the rest are jocks who shove Kurt into lockers. Kurt lost a year of school when the bullying was too bad, and the biggest DUN DUN DUN line is the close-up on Kurt's face saying, "who's Blaine?" OH GOD NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Rory the Christmas Spirit hypothesizes that it was Artie all along who made Glee possible, and I... just can't quite buy it. I like Artie, I do. But I hardly think there is a lot of compelling evidence that he was the critical piece of this whole puzzle all along. If you disagree, I'm happy to hear why. But hey, it's his dream sequence, so maybe that's just what he needs to believe.
Artie vows to get everyone together, and apparently thinks the way to their hearts is to sing "Feliz Navidad." The best part of the performance, hands down, is the look of abject horror on Kurt's face as Artie dances around the room, and a douchey Finn commenting, "dude, that was so gay!" But the final straw is that, without a wheelchair-bound Artie to encourage her after her accident ("she texts and drives in every timeline"), Quinn dies of a broken heart. Meanwhile, I groan and roll my eyes, because this little sequence has gone completely off the rails, even if I grant a higher-than-usual allowance for cheesiness during a holiday episode. Artie wakes up feeling more accepting of his life in the chair, yay.
Unrelated story the second: Hummelberry loft! Rachel is heading out on the Rosie O’Donnell cruise with her dads, leaving Kurt to spend Christmas alone in Bushwick. (?!) Fear not, there’s a knock at the door. This time, the surprise visitor hiding behind plant life is Burt! BURT! YAY BURT! And he brought a Christmas tree, further solidifying his place as Best Dad Ever. With a bittersweet story about Kurt’s first Christmas without his mom, I just want to move into the Hummels’ house and squeeze them all.
After seeing the Rockettes, the Hummels head to a diner for hot chocolate, and Kurt makes me think terrible, terrible things involving whipped cream. But then Burt drops the c-bomb and tells Kurt he has prostate cancer. Once again, it’s Kurt’s reaction face for all of the wins, forever. It’s like his features barely move, but the look in his eyes changes and your heart stops right along with his. Burt tries to reassure Kurt that it’s been caught early and has a great cure rate, but Kurt’s life has taught him to be anything but optimistic about this sort of thing. Burt has one more thing to say, though, as a man who has lived life and seen his share of heartbreak: keep hold of the ones you love.
Burt Hummel ships Klaine harder than you do. Fact.
Back at the loft, it’s Christmas Eve gift time. Kurt gives Burt some NYADA swag, because there’s nothing a proud papa like Burt Hummel wants more than a hat with his kid’s college on it. (Zero sarcasm - my dad is the same way. The day I got my acceptance letter to the college of my choice, he had a hat, t-shirt, shorts, and a bumper sticker.) Burt says that Kurt’s present is too big to carry around (I dunno, I think it might be almost pocket-sized, but I digress), so he sends him off into the city to find it.
Kurt arrives at a skating rink shortly before midnight, and waiting for him is one incredibly dapper young man. Blaine is so adorable here. Though we know they’ve been talking again since Thanksgiving, Blaine still knows their connection is fragile. He’s all enthusiasm and nervous energy: one part Warbler show smile, one part anxiety, three parts genuine heart eyes. Once again, I have to point to the delightful Heather Hogan’s recap of the episode, because I couldn’t possibly say it better:
Burt sends Kurt to an outdoor ice skating rink, and as he wanders up, the commoners part and Blaine Warbler skates right through the holiday rabble. Kurt blinks once, twice. You always see the ghost of your exes when your heart is still raw from a break-up, and Christmas is doubly bad for ethereal spirits, so Kurt just needs to make sure it’s for real. Blaine’s been practicing this moment in his mind for weeks now. He needs to open himself up without pushing, he needs to give Kurt space to heal while offering his whole self up to be Kurt’s comfort. In his head and in front of his mirror, Blaine was probably an articulate orator, pausing at the right times and landing all of his gentle jokes. But when Kurt is actually standing in front of him, Blaine’s composure goes right out the window and in a single breath he says:
“Your dad flew me here for Christmas because he knew you’d need someone to lean on after he told you about his cancer and I’ll be that person for you and I’ll take care of him in Lima too, Kurt, because I know he’s the most important thing and I know I broke one promise to you but this is the most important promise and I won’t let you down again, especially not with this, and I get that it’s a surprise, me being here and everything, and I know I need to let you come back to me at your own pace if you’re ever really going to come back to me, but it’s Christmas and winter duets are what we do and oh, are you at least a little bit glad to see me?” Kurt says, “Always.”
Skating around to “White Christmas” is cute as hell, and I feel very strongly that Blaine needs to channel the crooners of the 50s and 60s more often. I know Blaine covers of Katy Perry tunes are kind of Glee’s bread & butter at this point, but having him do more standards and oldies would be spectacular and totally fitting with his from-another-era look. But back to the skating rink, where Kurt seems to have put aside his initial surprise and is happy to be sharing space with his one true Warbler, and we even seem to be a breath or two away from a kiss before Blaine skates away and snaps them out of it.
At the stroke of midnight, Blaine lays it all out: even if they never get back to where they once were (banish the thought!), Kurt is and will always be important to him, and they will always be there for one another. Kurt agrees with a hug, and no one is happier about it than Papa Burt. Because Papa Burt knows his boy. He knows that Kurt has been hurt (and it’s a miracle he didn’t kill Blaine in the immediate aftermath, frankly). But he knows his son’s heart, and he knows what Kurt and Blaine meant to each other, what they brought out in each other. He’ll never push them into something they don’t want, but he knows how much potential is there and will gently nudge them both so they can see it with their own eyes.
Unrelated story the third: Puckermans. Sigh. The jocks give Jake a hard time about being half-black and half-Jewish (pet peeve: would you say someone is half-Episcopalian? No, you wouldn’t. He’s either Jewish or he isn’t. /rant), and Puck-the-first is randomly there in the hallways to break up the fight that ensues. Because no one has parents who enforce rules or curfews or basic safety concerns, Jake leaves school without a second thought and rides in Puck’s sidecar from Ohio to California in December. They wander around the Paramount lot doing the Barenaked Ladies version of “Hannukah O Hannukah,” because Puck’s theory is that you’ve got it made in Hollywood if you’re either Jewish or gay. I spy Ian Brennan in a cameo pretending to direct a scene involving both mobsters and nuns.
Surprising only to the Puckermans themselves, Puck is not a screaming success in Hollywood, but is squatting at the home of one of his pool-cleaning clients. Jake invites Puck back to Lima, where they have the bright idea to get their mothers together at Breadstix. Puck’s mom hates Jake’s mom, but Puck and Jake ultimately convince them to bond over their mutual hatred for their mutual baby-daddy. It’s a super-weird family get-together that gets somehow turned into a slightly sweet moment, but while I might not hate Jake, you can’t really get me to care about him.
Random story the fourth: Brittany and the apocalypse. She thinks the Mayan Apocalypse is actually a thing, so she spends all of her money (and, presumably a lot of her parents’) on outrageous gifts for her friends to enjoy before the world ends. Sam, naturally, is also a believer. So they take the opportunity to get some friends together and smack them in the face with truth bombs, which goes over as well as you might imagine. So Sam busts out “Jingle Bell Rock.” In the library. With the band. And some Cheerios dressed as reindeer as back-up dancers. I don’t know why this number strikes me as even more absurd than most of the others on this show, but it really does.
But don’t worry! It gets better! Because it turns into an end-of-the-world proposal! *smacks forehead* Beiste shows up to perform the ceremony and tells the kids she’s ordained by a Mayan something-or-other, which is probably about the kindest thing she could do for these two dopes. She indulges them and doesn’t make them feel stupid, but keeps them from doing anything actually permanent and regretful. Say what you will, Britt and Sam are cute in their total obliviousness. They get up four days later (do I want to know exactly how they “made the most” of their last few days on earth?) and, shocker, the world hasn’t ended. Sigh.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. In story the fifth, it’s the traditional Sue-Sylvester-grows-a-heart bit. Sue pulls Marley’s mom for the staff secret Santa, and manages to say a few dozen horribly offensive things before she eavesdrops and hears Marley and her mom talking about not doing presents because they’re saving up their pennies to get Marley therapy for her eating disorder. (WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Actually getting professional help for a serious problem? Glee, I hardly know who you are anymore.) So Marley sings to her mom, and even Sue’s heart of stone is not immune to Marley’s a capella rendition of “The First Noel.” So she sells her expensive Christmas tree on the antiquities market and uses the money to break into Marley and her mom’s house and fill it with a tree and presents and some cash for therapy. I mean, cool, I guess?
It’s the final act, when the stories are all supposed to be linked together. And, by linked together, we just mean edited so you see them one after the other. Well, I mean, Brittany and Sam are at Breadstix at the same time as Jake and Puck, so that totally counts, right? NO. I know “Love, Actually.” And you, “Glee,” are no “Love, Actually.”
Anyways, the Puckerman moms are bonding at Breadstix, and the Puckerman boys are proud of themselves and their kooky pseudo-family. Beiste confesses to Sam and Brittany’s relief that they aren’t actually married. But they’re bummed that the world didn’t actually end, so Coach cheers them up by pretending there’s another apocalypse coming so they can keep the fun alive. Great.
But then, HOORAY, we’re back at the Bushwick loft on Christmas Day, and it is my favorite thing. Burt and Blaine are watching basketball, Kurt feigns about 20 seconds of interest before pulling out his magazine and causing Blaine to lose his bet to Burt. Those 20 seconds of the pair of them checking their watches and side-eyeing Kurt crack me up to no end, and the idea of Burt and Blaine bonding over their adoration and gentle teasing of Kurt makes my heart swell to twice its normal size. I want this for all of the holidays, forever.
Burt quizzes Blaine on his future plans, and Blaine says he’s going to apply to NYADA, as long as Kurt doesn’t mind. Blaine’s face is sweet and hopeful while Kurt’s stays pretty neutral as he manages the barest smile and a quiet-but-genuine “I think that’d be great.” Their relationship is thawing, Kurt isn’t anywhere near as hurt and angry as he was a few months ago. But he’s still cautious. Blaine knows that’s as much as he can hope for right now, and seems happy just to not be shut out.
This is one of those times when I’m really grateful for fanfic and its ability to imagine all of the things we don’t see here, because I’m endlessly curious. How did they spend the rest of the day? Where did Blaine sleep? Was the whole thing really awkward, or were there moments when Kurt’s guard came down? Inquiring minds...
Back to Sue’s office at McKinley, where we’re clearly playing fast and loose with the timeline, and Marley’s mom knows she was the one who broke into their house and gave them a little Christmas miracle. It’s one of those brief, shining moments of a kind and generous Sue, and I really do love those. Mrs. Rose invites Sue to the auditorium, and though Sue groans and knows what’s coming, off they go to see some portion of New Directions sing a soothing, lovely version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Sue pretends she’s going to hate it, but of course she can’t, not really.
Brittany, Sam, and the Puckerman brothers join in from Breadstix. Blaine is singing along in New York, totally undeterred in making constant heart eyes at Kurt as he sings “through the years, we all will be together, if the fates allow,” and my Klaine-loving heart just wants to burst. Kurt is acting like he wants to keep a little distance - he doesn’t make much eye contact and generally tries to keep his focus on setting the table. But he doesn’t entirely fool us. He chimes in with the harmony and can’t stop himself from smiling. My three favorite men on television sit down for a quiet Christmas dinner, and Blaine looks like this is all he has ever wanted. This is his future, he’s sure of it. Kurt isn’t there yet, he knows. But Blaine will wait, because he believes in the two of them like nothing else in this world. It’s bittersweet to watch, but I’m leaning more on the side of sweet than bitter, so I’ll take it.
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake of this episode was telling us it was supposed to resemble “Love, Actually.” If you had just let it be several standalone stories, it might have worked better than making us wonder how they were going to intersect in the way they did in the movie. Because sharing a song at the end does not a connection make.
That’s probably my biggest criticism of the entire thing, to be honest. I’ll allow most of the cheesiness, frankly. And while OBVIOUSLY the New York story was far and away the best of all of them, the others had their moments, too. All in all, not a bad holiday offering from Glee.