Glee "Duets": 15 Points of Brittana Gayness and Epic Picspam
I loved this episode so much because duh! Britanna macking, but moreso because, to me at least, it was perhaps the most nuanced and underplayed examination of a Glee relationship in the series so far.
I’ve read a lot of other people’s reactions to the ep and it’s a little surprising (and a little depressing) that there still seems to be so much disparity as to what exactly the episode was trying to convey in regards to Brittany and Santana’s relationship.
Up until now we’ve all tagged them “friends with benefits” and even after the ep some people are insisting that that’s basically all there is between them. Or that Brittany is bisexual and Santana has no interest in her beyond making out. Or that Brittany had genuine romantic feelings towards Artie because she looked sad when he wheeled off with Finn looking happy. And that because Brittany and Santana both sleep around with guys, neither really wants a monogamous relationship with the other.
In a nutshell I thought the episode showed that Brittany is properly having strong romantic feelings towards Santana who in turn wants to steer as faraway from a proper “gay” relationship as possible. We know how important status is to Santana. She dumped Pucked initially in Season 1 because he had a low credit rating or whatever. And the speed with which she jumps from horizontal to “I’m not in love with you” when Brittany suggests singing Melissa Etheridge shows the girl is scared as hell that anyone thinks otherwise.
The other thing I thought was pretty subtle and well-handled about Duets was the paralells between Brittana and Kurt in the episode.
So let’s explore the gayness in full shall we:
1. Santana is getting it on with Brittany on her bed. Kissing her neck. I know people were bummed that they weren’t actually making out, but IDK? There’s something a bit more intimate about kissing up someone’s neck to me. And we see Brit’s got loads of notches on her bedpost, literally. This will be important later on.
2. Brittany seems to really dig what Santana’ s doing, whereas she always seemed somewhat indifferent to sex elsewhere (not that we’ve heard enough about her views on it.) But she “loves” Santana's “lady kisses”. And hello? Scissoring? How the hell did they get away with mentioning that? Anyway, proves these girls really do shag each other.
3. If Santana was so cool about the friends with benefits thing she and Brit have going on, why would she freak out so much at Brittany’s singing suggestion? She immediately feels the need to tell her that she’s not in love with her and it’s just because Puck isn’t around. I mean, talk about denial, you were going on about all that scissoring just seconds before. That’s got to be just a little bit gay, Santana. Also, Brittany looks way hurt and up until now she's been the one person Santana has never been mean to.
4. Kurt wants to sing with the new boy but can’t for fear of what it will do to the new boy’s reputation. Brittany wants to sing with Santana. Santana seems to be fearful of what singing a Melissa Etheridge lesbian anthem will do to her rep hence the kneejerk "I'm not making out with you because I'm in love with you and want to have your babies, it's just because my boytoy has been in jail all day that I haven't been able to get some". The fears seems to be grounded in some reality when Finn warns Sam of how singing a duet with a guy will be perceived. Even though Sam is initially all for it we see the repercussions when he gets slushied by some jocks.
5. Brittany really does seem to go for Artie just to make Santana jealous. As Artie himself admits “You’ve never even made eye contact with me” met with the epic reply, “I know, for a while I thought you were a robot.” She also seems happy for him to tell people they are dating (which he seems to consider important too given his smile - once again, it’s a social status thing. Artie’s an outsider. Dating a Cheerio is good for his rep. Possibly he wants the news to get back to Tina too.)
6. Brittany also seems to be cutting Santana off in the process. She wheels Artie past her and gets a disapproving Santana look to which she indicates that Santana won’t be getting any boobies anymore. Nice re-iteration that these girls don’t just kiss each other’s necks. There’s proper groping in there too. And now Santana won’t be getting any. And doesn’t look too happy about it. Not gay at all, Santana.
7. Kurt bemoans that he’s the only openly gay kid at his high school and wants to know why he can’t walk hand in hand down the corridor with someone he likes or slow dance at the prom. His dad says: “Until you find someone as open and brave as you, you’re just gonna have to get used to going it alone.” This is echoed in the Brittana storyline when we see Brittany at the end abandoned by Artie, alone in the corridor. And again, at Breadsticks, eating alone, nudging a meatball across the table to an invisible date. It’s really sad.
8. Artie really is just a substitute for Brittany and her loneliness. She looks so miserable when Santana’s singing her (awesome) duet with Mercedes. Shades of “it shoulda been me.” But also, she’s got Artie right next to her grooving in his chair and she clearly just isn’t into it. At the end when everyone’s whooping and cheering the camera cuts to Brit chewing her finger looking utterly miserable.
9. More “loneliness” parallels when Kurt presents his song and says “When you’re different, when you’re special, sometimes you have to get used to being alone.”
10. When Santana shoots down Kurt’s duet as “vocal masturbation” he replies his song is about “embracing the male and the female sides. Watch and learn, Santana.” She does her confused glare at him. Yeah Santana, embrace your females a bit more, methinks. You can be bi, we don’t mind.
11. Brittany to Santana: “I’m mad at you. But you’re still so hot.” It doesn’t get anymore explicit than that. And once again the confused, sheepish expression from Santana.
12. Brittany offers to have sex with Artie as a means of helping him get over Tina. She doesn’t exactly seem to be into it per se herself. Especially when she adds: “You’re on the football team now anyways, so... we were gonna get around to this at some point.” The implication is that Brittany is promiscuous to the point of being expected / wanting to sleep with the whole football team. The sex doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond that.
13. Santana seems particularly put off by Quinn and Sam’s duet as she snarls: “So frickin’ charming.” Is it a coincidence that they’re singing a song that goes “Lucky I’m in love with my best friend.”?
14. Santana is the one to break up Artie and Brittany, and does so in a particularly unkind way, pointing out that she sleeps around a lot. The guy she corners to prove the point seems to casually admit he had sex with her. It’s really like sex doesn’t mean that much to Brittany, as Artie suggests. Which implies that when Brit was trying to get closer to Santana ie “loving her lady kisses” and wanting to sing Melissa Etheridge together, it really was something of an exception.
15. There’s a blink and you’ll miss it Brittana scene just before Rachel talks to Kurt at the end. Santana appears to be leading a sad looking Brittany through the corridor by her hand/pinkie. While it seems Santana got her way by getting rid of Artie and getting Brit back on side, the fact that Brittany is still then shown on her own at Breadsticks and then both of them sitting side by side but looking miserable during “Come On Get Happy” right at the end suggests that something has changed between them that won’t be so easy to gloss over. Hmmm, I think Glee will come back to this storyline, it ain’t over...
And now on with the picspam...
