Meta: Inclusion, Challenges, and Invitations: On the Warblers' Post-Blaine Dalton Performances
Title: Inclusion, Challenges, and Invitations: On the Warblers' Post-Blaine Dalton Performances
Author: purplehrdwonder
Fandom: Glee
Word count: 1,770
Spoilers: Through 4x07
Summary: The three Warbler numbers Blaine has been involved in since his transfer to McKinley tell an interesting story of shifting dynamics, thrown gauntlets, and simultaneous attempts to lure and isolate.
Inclusion, Challenges, and Invitations:
On the Warblers’ Post-Blaine Dalton Performances
After “Dynamic Duets,” I was struck by the comparison of Blaine’s performance of “My Dark Side” with the Warblers to the previous two numbers Blaine was involved with at Dalton since his transfer to McKinley. The staging and choreography of the three numbers tell a rather intriguing story of the Warblers post-Blaine and Blaine’s relation to the group he’d once led. As Blaine changes during his time at McKinley, so do the tones of the Warblers’ numbers, indicating a rather dramatic shift.
“Uptown Girl”
In “The First Time,” Blaine visits Dalton for the first time since his transfer to McKinley to invite his friends to his opening night as Tony in McKinley’s production of West Side Story. He walks through the halls of Dalton on his mission, knowing where he is headed but, like Kurt in “Never Been Kissed,” sticking out like a sore thumb. Dressed in gray cut off slacks, a gray striped cardigan, and a bow-tie, Blaine’s chosen color palate couldn’t contrast more with the navy blazers of his former classmates.
When he reaches the Warblers’ rehearsal space, Blaine leans against the doorway, watching the Warblers performing “Uptown Girl.” Now a member of New Directions and an outsider, he is unwilling to cross the invisible line until the Warblers notice his presence and pull him into their formation with laughs and smiles. Though Blaine is no longer a member of the group, they are happy to see him and incorporate him in the number as though nothing has changed. But Blaine remains off-center in the formation where he’d once headed the group, and strikes a startling contrast to his friends in his gray ensemble. He also doesn’t know the choreography of the number, so he is half a step behind as he watches their moves and follows along.
He remains on the periphery of the number as the group moves in the hallway to include a teacher in the number. Blaine does not sing alongside the Warblers here, simply enjoying the performance, as it’s no longer his place to lead-or even accompany-them. Once the group returns to the room, Blaine sits on the edge of a couch and watches as some of the Warblers show off dance moves before they complete the number. He remains on the outside, facing his friends with some distance between them. There’s nothing confrontational about the positioning, but Blaine is clearly not a part of the group anymore.
After the number concludes, Blaine congratulates them, saying, “You killed it, as always!” There are hugs and smiles all around and the Warblers ask if this visit marks Blaine’s “triumphant return to Dalton.” And though they aren’t above a little begging, Blaine holds them off and offers them the tickets to West Side Story. The Warblers promise to attend, reminding him that “Once a Warbler, always a Warbler.”
This number is fairly innocent with no ulterior motives, as Blaine interrupts the number unexpectedly with his invitation to the play. It’s a happy reunion between friends who haven’t seen each other in a while and concludes with the promise of them supporting him despite his transfer.
“I Want You Back”
The next time we see the Warblers, the tone of performance has shifted completely. In a deleted scene from “Michael,” Blaine leads a group from New Directions to Dalton after Sebastian, acting as captain of the Warblers, steals New Directions’ plan to use Michael Jackson at Regionals. When the group reaches the Dalton choir room, once a safe haven for Blaine, the Warblers run through a number that is meant to send a clear message; “I Want You Back” is directed at Blaine, who the Warblers believe they need to lead them to victory at Regionals and beyond.
In this episode, Sebastian does everything in his power to isolate Blaine from both the New Directions and the Warblers. He reveals that Blaine told him New Directions were planning to use MJ at Regionals, leading to several members of the group expressing distrust for him-“Once a Warbler, always a Warbler,” Puck says with distaste, a stark contrast to the warm meaning of the words when said to Blaine in “The First Time.” The seeds of distrust have been planted, leaving Blaine to question his place in the group-and for the group to question Blaine’s place among them.
But it’s not only New Directions Blaine is isolated from; Blaine is forced to the periphery of the room during the Warblers’ performance, as Sebastian crowds his personal space to hammer home the Warblers’ declaration: We want you back here; this is where you belong. Blaine is clearly uncomfortable, as the room is no longer a safe place. There is no attempt at inclusion in this number. Now there is nothing but challenges on the air: to New Directions as a whole as competitors, to Blaine for leaving the group he had led, and to Kurt for being the one to take him away.
“Well, if you guys want to forfeit now,” Sebastian says after the number, “then go ahead. Or Blaine, if you want to rejoin the group you abandoned…” Sebastian and the Warblers look pleased with themselves after the number and the gauntlet they have just thrown at the feet of their former lead soloist. Somewhere between “The First Time” and “Michael,” Sebastian took charge and the group dynamic among the Warblers shifted. It’s clear that this is not the same group that Blaine led the year before, and this number makes him hyper aware of that fact.
“I used to be really proud of being a Warbler,” Blaine replies to that effect. “Not because we were good, but because we were really classy. None of that was classy. Nothing.” He leads the group out, but not before Sebastian throws out one more challenge that Santana meets with some forced snark, but she and Blaine are both aware that there is trouble afoot, which will peak during the Jackson-off when Blaine takes a rock salt-laced slushie in the face.
“My Dark Side”
The next time Blaine visits Dalton, once again the tone has shifted. The Warblers have taken the New Directions’ national championship trophy and Blaine ventures to Dalton to retrieve it. There he learns that Sebastian is no longer the lead of the Warblers. The new captain is also trying to lure Blaine back to the group, and in doing so takes an approach that is a mix of the previous interactions Blaine has had in the choir room: challenge and inclusion.
When Blaine arrives, Hunter declares that the trophy theft was nothing but bait to get Blaine to Dalton and invites Blaine to return. When Blaine refuses, Hunter challenges him; why should he stay at McKinley when he transferred for Kurt, who is no longer there? And don’t the members of New Directions call him Blaine Warbler? Doesn’t that indicate that he’s an outsider? While he’s off-balance from the challenges, the Warblers don Blaine in the familiar blazer, including him in a way he hasn’t been since his transfer. While Blaine sticks out from the rest of the group in his street clothes, his jeans and gray sweater vest blend much more easily into the group than his gray ensemble from “Uptown Girl,” especially with the blazer on top.
This number actually has Blaine performing with the Warblers. Unlike in “Uptown Girl,” which also had the Warblers pulling Blaine into their number, Blaine takes the lead in “My Dark Side.” Though Blaine stars out singing uncomfortably, the Warblers sit on couches and literally bounce in their seats in encouragement. Leading the number rather than being nothing but a bystander as in his previous visits to Dalton, Blaine walks through the parted group and buttons up the blazer in acceptance of his role for the moment. The Warblers begin jumping around and following Blaine through the room as he sings. He is being pursued.
There are moments that Blaine seems like he is trying to separate himself from the group, facing them as he sings while they accompany him or walking away. And while in “Uptown Girl” Blaine had been half a step behind in the unfamiliar choreography, here he directs the actions of the Warblers with hand motions, parting them and bringing them together at will. Eventually he even leaps up on a table, in true Blaine Warbler style, before stepping up to head the group in the final dance sequence, an acceptance of the Warblers’ invitation.
But as the song finishes, Blaine unbuttons the blazer and attempts to return it, though Hunter tells him to keep it and think about the invitation. Though his inclusion in the Warblers number is the most obvious here, from a visual and emotional standpoint, there are still ulterior motives to the number.
The Warblers want him back, believing him to be their best shot at winning a national title, but this time the Warblers choose to approach this by making him feel included and heard-something that he’s been sorely missing without Kurt at McKinley. Blaine has struggled with being heard this season, and the Warblers make great overtures to show him that they are listening to him. Where confrontation previously failed-and lead to Blaine being injured-the Warblers now take a path more like the first time Blaine visited them, by pulling him back across the line between Dalton and McKinley.
And this is the approach that Blaine responds to, later telling Finn that the Warblers had embraced him like a long lost brother; desperate to feel connected to something after his breakup, Blaine decides to transfer back to the place that was once a safe haven for him after he had broken in the wake of Sadie Hawkins. Broken once more, Blaine seeks out that which is familiar and that he feels connection with.
Yet Sam eventually convinces him to stay at McKinley by hearing him out about how he was feeling and giving him advice. While the Warblers put on a good show of listening to Blaine during “My Dark Side,” it becomes clear that they weren’t hearing him. After he sings about embracing someone despite their flaws, Sebastian calls the performance “flawless.” Sam, on the other hand, heard what he had to say and took action to support him-and keep him from running away to Dalton as another means of self-flagellation for hurting Kurt.
Blaine sings “Don’t run away” as he unbuttons the blazer at the end of the number with the Warblers, and in the end, he does not.