Glee Season 4 Re-watch - 4x19 - Sweet Dreams
Ups and downs, ups and downs. That's Glee-watching for you. This one? This one is down.
From the "here's what you missed on Glee," I like the whole "Finn kissed Emma and apologized to Will." Should he not have, I don't know apologized to Emma?? Sigh.
So, Finn is in college now. THE University of Lima is apparently vying for top party school awards, because it's Harlem Shake, everywhere, all the time. Including Finn's dorm room. As the Harlem Shakers (sounds like a really odd religious sect) vacate, he finds Puck on the floor in a sleeping bag. Puck has apparently kicked out Finn's old roommate and is a dorm room squatter, not actually registered for classes. More thoughts on this whole situation at the end of the recap.
In Bushwick, Rachel preens in front of the mirror and gives us the 90-second summary of her life as a Barbra Streisand fangirl. Between the hair, the clothes, and the shrine in her bedroom, she clearly thinks the way to follow in Barbra's footsteps is to actually become her.
Faculty lounge at McKinley and in strides the certifiably insane Roz Washington, ranting endlessly about coaching the North Korean swim team with Dennis Rodman. She's the new Cheerios coach, now that Sue got herself fired in the name of protecting Becky. Oh, and she takes some joy in minimizing the trauma of gunshots in school, so that's nice.
Beiste asks Schuester if he's talked to Finn yet, but Schue says he isn't ready. Because a) you were somehow planning on keeping in touch now that he left and is neither your student nor your pseudo-colleague? and b) because Schuester is back to being a petulant child. Glad to see last week was an aberration of non-douchey behavior. Shannon is a grown-up and recommends that he make the effort to repair their relationship, but I happen to think they're both better off without each other. Though I suppose the writers don't want me to feel that way, huh?
Hallway voiceover from Marley, who has decided to let her singer-songwriter ways shine, since she actually learned a "life is short" lesson from being stuck in that choir room. I'm happy for you, Marley, but I don't actually want to hear your songs. Sorry.
Everyone else has apparently lost their minds in the aftermath of the shooting (I'm at least glad that Glee didn't conveniently forget that it happened, which you know was a legitimate possibility). Blaine and Artie are so spaced out they run into each other in the hallway. Tina has gone Steampunk. Sam has gone 'round the bend and is putting a lot of effort into pretending to be his own twin, with an Australian accent, named Evan. Evan Evans. And they're all humoring him. Couldn't make this shit up if I tried. Oh, and with her perfect score on the SAT, Brittany is being recruited by MIT. They want her to study string theory, but she's not that interested in arts & crafts. Unique, meanwhile, is taking black market birth control pills for the hormone boost.
Schue tells the group that the theme for Regionals is "Dreams," which will most certainly no longer be the case by next week. His literal interpretation means three (dated) songs with the word "Dream" in the title. Marley tries to ask about doing original songs, and he shoots her down without so much as discussing it. He's being a total dick, so that's fun. (Though I agree, the original song trick only ever worked once. I wish they wouldn't bother doing it again.)
Blaine, as honorary Rachel, convenes a secret meeting to try to come up with their own setlist of more current songs. Marley brings up her songs again, and it doesn't get a significantly better reception from her peers than it did from Schue. Take the hint, Marley.
Back at THE University of Lima, the dorm is hosting topless slip & slide and ironed grilled cheese sandwiches. This is apparently what I missed out on by going to a college that was once ranked the worst party school in the country. Schue shows up to see Finn and ask if he's actually going to any classes, as if that's not creepy and even remotely his business. Schue apologizes for how he handled the whole kiss/bro-code-violation thing, and asks Finn to come back and help coach Glee, and Finn just ain't having it. I don't blame him. Hallway slip & slide sounds like a lot more fun (and age-appropriate) than hanging out in high school trying to help the club you used to belong to.
Back in rehearsal, ever-polite Blaine tries to bring up some alternate suggestions for competition songs, and Schuester flips his shit. Yells at Blaine, tells Unique to tone down the "girl" stuff, and calls out Sam on the ridiculous fake-twin thing. It's CHARMING. Schue all but throws a tantrum about skipping his coffee to get to rehearsal, though at least when he storms out, he seems to pause and realize what a child he's being.
Back at NYADA, Rachel is ready to rehearse all of the songs from Funny Girl, when in walks Shelby Corcoran! Wait, what? She's there to "help" coach Rachel for her audition, and she does give the totally spot-on advice that the way to impress is to be herself, to be one-of-a-kind. NOT to try to be Barbra's clone. So, for the hell of it, they duet on "Next to Me." The song sounds just fine, the two of them have great voices that sound lovely together. But it's just the two of them singing a current Top-40 hit. There's no meaning to it at all.
Look, I don't mind the idea of Shelby playing a role in Rachel's New York life. I think it's a great idea, in fact. It's got potential. But this scene... this just felt like they dropped Idina Menzel in for the hell of it so they could give her a song. She doesn't stick around for the episode, she doesn't come back for the rest of the season. It's just these 2-3 minutes and that's it. That's my problem with Shelby and this song in this moment. Did we really need the random recurrence of an old guest star? Could this not have been a great conversation in the loft, with Santana and Kurt? They could have offered the same much-needed advice AND gotten some roommate-bonding, character-developing deliciousness. But no.
Over in party-campus-land, Finn and Puck are at a raging frat party (complete with keg stands and beer pong), rocking the crowd to some Beastie Boys. I can't argue with that, man. Random frat dudes invite our boys to join their house, and life is good.
In the auditorium, Unique gives Blaine the lowdown on her breast-enhancement techniques, and Blaine continues to humor the Sam/Evan situation. They meet up with Marley and Brad the Piano Man to try out one of her new songs - she wrote it to appreciate them as friends, and because they bore the brunt of Schue's tantrum the other day. And look at that! Actual sheet music and sight reading! The song is saccharine and meh, but I was totally down with the staging until the strings showed up on stage. For whatever reason, it inexplicably gets under my skin, despite the fact that Glee performances are hardly ever bogged down in realism. Maybe it's just that I'm predisposed to be annoyed at this point in the season - I do not give one single crap about Marley's original songs, and so any moment devoted to it is time that could be better spent on Kurt. (Never accuse me of not having a one-track mind.) Schue creeps in the wings and realizes, at least in part, what a dick he's been.
Finn is having trouble figuring out how to plug in his laptop when Rachel calls. It's incredibly sweet - she checks in on how college is going, and thanks him for stepping to Brody (eew) and wishes he'd stuck around to say hello. He knows she's calling to talk about her audition, and gives her shockingly good advice about choosing a song that is personal to her, and that showing her passion and her roots will make the producers fall in love with her. He says he can't wait to come see her on stage, and I nearly burst into tears. Look, if I were a Finchel 'shipper, this phone call would probably be the emotional equivalent of the Klaine Thanksgiving call for me. It has so much promise. But now, with Cory gone, it is heartbreaking. I may not have the same emotional investment in these two, but I would have been very happy to see them find their way back to one another, and I really did want to see Finn find his way. I'm distraught for both the real-life loss and for the characters' loss.
The time has come for Rachel's big audition, and damn if that girl doesn't bust out "Don't Stop Believin'." If you've been hooked on this show since the pilot, I can almost guarantee you cannot stop the grin on your face when you see this. And then she dreams the original New Directions behind her, in the same outfits and same choreography as the pilot (though, yeah, Kurt is about three feet taller and 100 times hotter), and it's all we can do not to cry. It's like one of those crazy summer sun-showers - I'm smiling and I'm crying and I remember why I loved this show the very first time I saw it. Dammit, Glee.
Back in the dorms, Puck comes in to find Finn sleeping through his classes and missing another test in sociology. Puck has had an epiphany about growing up and real life and being good at something. They need to show the world, once and for all, that they aren’t Lima Losers. They’ve got greatness inside them, it’s time to make it happen.
And now I’m sad again. God, how I would have loved to see this.
Blaine and Becky have been called in to Coach Roz’s office and she’s suspicious as hell of them being Cheerios captain. Especially Blaine, who has never done a cheer routine in his life (I love it when Glee calls out its own absurdity, not gonna lie). She’s pretty sure that he used his “handsome fruity voodoo powers” to put a hex on Sue. Becky jumps to defend him, saying that’s totally not what happened with the gun, and Blaine has his own suspicions. Roz makes Fruity Fonzi (can I call Blaine that forever?) and Adult Baby Robin take an oath to not put a hex on her, and it is rude and wrong and I can’t help but kind of love it.
Will walks onto the stage in the auditorium and hallucinates some applause, and then in walks Finn, whose dean is going to let him coach Glee for an independent study credit. But he only wants to do it if Schue stops being a dick to him. Which, you know, seems reasonable. They hug it out.
Now that Schue has his best bro back, he’s much less of an asshole to the kids in the club, so I suppose that’s nice. He calls Unique by the name she wants and awkwardly humors Sam/Evan. He tells a slightly stilted story about his own high school experience and apologizes for not listening, and even brings Finn back in. Let’s win Regionals and make it to Nationals! With... one of Marley’s original songs? Sigh.
In Bushwick, Rachel is moping at the kitchen table and willing her phone to ring. Kurt (Kurt! You're alive!) is making cookies so she can eat her feelings, and actually asks Rachel about Shelby’s Broadway day care. She describes it as “Fame, for toddlers,” and it’s probably too much to hope that this will turn up again next season as Blaine’s part-time gig when he moves to New York? Her phone finally rings and Kurt stress-nibbles a cookie like a squirrel. She got a callback, yay for her! (Wait, wasn’t Kurt signed up to audition, too? No? Sigh.) Squealing and jumping and hugging, and boo hoo I miss Kurt.
This week’s final group number is one of Marley’s songs. An original song. About being outcasts. How very... not original. The only thing memorable about this performance is that Blaine seems to have taken his Fruity Fonzi nickname very seriously, because somehow that’s exactly what he looks like.
“Sweet Dreams” is ultimately a very forgettable episode. The college thing - look, I like it in theory. I wish they’d put Finn there earlier in the season so he could have worked through some of this party-animal vs. actual-student stuff over time. But instead, they crammed it into a single episode that aired in mid-April.
Between seemingly dropping into college at the end of the year (at least ⅔ of the Harlem Shakers were in bikinis and the campus was lush and green - that ain’t winter in Ohio), and the fact that there are only three episodes left of the season and we haven’t even done Regionals yet, much less approach graduation, this was the episode that made me realize Glee had gone completely off the calendar. And, look, that’s a choice you can make. But if you’re going to make it, do it clearly and with purpose. The show was explicitly still in real-time through Valentine’s Day (in case you forgot, Schue’s wedding took place on Valentine’s Day, and “I Do” even aired on the holiday). Five episodes and two multi-week hiatuses later, time seems to have slowed down in fictional Ohio. Except it did so with no explanation, no signposts along the way to give us a clue for what was happening, and did so despite the fact that it has stayed relatively close to the real-world calendar for at least the last two-and-a-half seasons (less so in Season 1). Just give us a clue, here, Glee. We’ll probably roll with it if you give us some idea of what’s happening. Instead, we’re all just scratching our heads and wondering what the hell is going on.
So yes, this is when I start to get all kinds of annoyed and realize that they’re going to drag this academic year out into the following season. Did that really need to happen? It doesn’t feel like there’s a point to drawing out this school year over (presumably) at least a year and a half of real time, but rather that they had one random idea after another and then went OOPS! Forgot to put Regionals in there! Oh well, maybe you’ll graduate sometime next year, Fruity Fonzi.
And then there’s the original songs nonsense. It only ever worked once, Glee. I wish you’d stop trying to make lightning strike twice. It was great in mid-Season-2, but was already a bad idea by the end of that year. Don’t make the same mistake over and over again.
"Sweet Dreams" is not a terrible, maddening, embarrassing, throw-things-at-the-television episode (oh, I’ve had some of those). But it's really not a good one, either.
From the "here's what you missed on Glee," I like the whole "Finn kissed Emma and apologized to Will." Should he not have, I don't know apologized to Emma?? Sigh.
So, Finn is in college now. THE University of Lima is apparently vying for top party school awards, because it's Harlem Shake, everywhere, all the time. Including Finn's dorm room. As the Harlem Shakers (sounds like a really odd religious sect) vacate, he finds Puck on the floor in a sleeping bag. Puck has apparently kicked out Finn's old roommate and is a dorm room squatter, not actually registered for classes. More thoughts on this whole situation at the end of the recap.
In Bushwick, Rachel preens in front of the mirror and gives us the 90-second summary of her life as a Barbra Streisand fangirl. Between the hair, the clothes, and the shrine in her bedroom, she clearly thinks the way to follow in Barbra's footsteps is to actually become her.
Faculty lounge at McKinley and in strides the certifiably insane Roz Washington, ranting endlessly about coaching the North Korean swim team with Dennis Rodman. She's the new Cheerios coach, now that Sue got herself fired in the name of protecting Becky. Oh, and she takes some joy in minimizing the trauma of gunshots in school, so that's nice.
Beiste asks Schuester if he's talked to Finn yet, but Schue says he isn't ready. Because a) you were somehow planning on keeping in touch now that he left and is neither your student nor your pseudo-colleague? and b) because Schuester is back to being a petulant child. Glad to see last week was an aberration of non-douchey behavior. Shannon is a grown-up and recommends that he make the effort to repair their relationship, but I happen to think they're both better off without each other. Though I suppose the writers don't want me to feel that way, huh?
Hallway voiceover from Marley, who has decided to let her singer-songwriter ways shine, since she actually learned a "life is short" lesson from being stuck in that choir room. I'm happy for you, Marley, but I don't actually want to hear your songs. Sorry.
Everyone else has apparently lost their minds in the aftermath of the shooting (I'm at least glad that Glee didn't conveniently forget that it happened, which you know was a legitimate possibility). Blaine and Artie are so spaced out they run into each other in the hallway. Tina has gone Steampunk. Sam has gone 'round the bend and is putting a lot of effort into pretending to be his own twin, with an Australian accent, named Evan. Evan Evans. And they're all humoring him. Couldn't make this shit up if I tried. Oh, and with her perfect score on the SAT, Brittany is being recruited by MIT. They want her to study string theory, but she's not that interested in arts & crafts. Unique, meanwhile, is taking black market birth control pills for the hormone boost.
Schue tells the group that the theme for Regionals is "Dreams," which will most certainly no longer be the case by next week. His literal interpretation means three (dated) songs with the word "Dream" in the title. Marley tries to ask about doing original songs, and he shoots her down without so much as discussing it. He's being a total dick, so that's fun. (Though I agree, the original song trick only ever worked once. I wish they wouldn't bother doing it again.)
Blaine, as honorary Rachel, convenes a secret meeting to try to come up with their own setlist of more current songs. Marley brings up her songs again, and it doesn't get a significantly better reception from her peers than it did from Schue. Take the hint, Marley.
Back at THE University of Lima, the dorm is hosting topless slip & slide and ironed grilled cheese sandwiches. This is apparently what I missed out on by going to a college that was once ranked the worst party school in the country. Schue shows up to see Finn and ask if he's actually going to any classes, as if that's not creepy and even remotely his business. Schue apologizes for how he handled the whole kiss/bro-code-violation thing, and asks Finn to come back and help coach Glee, and Finn just ain't having it. I don't blame him. Hallway slip & slide sounds like a lot more fun (and age-appropriate) than hanging out in high school trying to help the club you used to belong to.
Back in rehearsal, ever-polite Blaine tries to bring up some alternate suggestions for competition songs, and Schuester flips his shit. Yells at Blaine, tells Unique to tone down the "girl" stuff, and calls out Sam on the ridiculous fake-twin thing. It's CHARMING. Schue all but throws a tantrum about skipping his coffee to get to rehearsal, though at least when he storms out, he seems to pause and realize what a child he's being.
Back at NYADA, Rachel is ready to rehearse all of the songs from Funny Girl, when in walks Shelby Corcoran! Wait, what? She's there to "help" coach Rachel for her audition, and she does give the totally spot-on advice that the way to impress is to be herself, to be one-of-a-kind. NOT to try to be Barbra's clone. So, for the hell of it, they duet on "Next to Me." The song sounds just fine, the two of them have great voices that sound lovely together. But it's just the two of them singing a current Top-40 hit. There's no meaning to it at all.
Look, I don't mind the idea of Shelby playing a role in Rachel's New York life. I think it's a great idea, in fact. It's got potential. But this scene... this just felt like they dropped Idina Menzel in for the hell of it so they could give her a song. She doesn't stick around for the episode, she doesn't come back for the rest of the season. It's just these 2-3 minutes and that's it. That's my problem with Shelby and this song in this moment. Did we really need the random recurrence of an old guest star? Could this not have been a great conversation in the loft, with Santana and Kurt? They could have offered the same much-needed advice AND gotten some roommate-bonding, character-developing deliciousness. But no.
Over in party-campus-land, Finn and Puck are at a raging frat party (complete with keg stands and beer pong), rocking the crowd to some Beastie Boys. I can't argue with that, man. Random frat dudes invite our boys to join their house, and life is good.
In the auditorium, Unique gives Blaine the lowdown on her breast-enhancement techniques, and Blaine continues to humor the Sam/Evan situation. They meet up with Marley and Brad the Piano Man to try out one of her new songs - she wrote it to appreciate them as friends, and because they bore the brunt of Schue's tantrum the other day. And look at that! Actual sheet music and sight reading! The song is saccharine and meh, but I was totally down with the staging until the strings showed up on stage. For whatever reason, it inexplicably gets under my skin, despite the fact that Glee performances are hardly ever bogged down in realism. Maybe it's just that I'm predisposed to be annoyed at this point in the season - I do not give one single crap about Marley's original songs, and so any moment devoted to it is time that could be better spent on Kurt. (Never accuse me of not having a one-track mind.) Schue creeps in the wings and realizes, at least in part, what a dick he's been.
Finn is having trouble figuring out how to plug in his laptop when Rachel calls. It's incredibly sweet - she checks in on how college is going, and thanks him for stepping to Brody (eew) and wishes he'd stuck around to say hello. He knows she's calling to talk about her audition, and gives her shockingly good advice about choosing a song that is personal to her, and that showing her passion and her roots will make the producers fall in love with her. He says he can't wait to come see her on stage, and I nearly burst into tears. Look, if I were a Finchel 'shipper, this phone call would probably be the emotional equivalent of the Klaine Thanksgiving call for me. It has so much promise. But now, with Cory gone, it is heartbreaking. I may not have the same emotional investment in these two, but I would have been very happy to see them find their way back to one another, and I really did want to see Finn find his way. I'm distraught for both the real-life loss and for the characters' loss.
The time has come for Rachel's big audition, and damn if that girl doesn't bust out "Don't Stop Believin'." If you've been hooked on this show since the pilot, I can almost guarantee you cannot stop the grin on your face when you see this. And then she dreams the original New Directions behind her, in the same outfits and same choreography as the pilot (though, yeah, Kurt is about three feet taller and 100 times hotter), and it's all we can do not to cry. It's like one of those crazy summer sun-showers - I'm smiling and I'm crying and I remember why I loved this show the very first time I saw it. Dammit, Glee.
Back in the dorms, Puck comes in to find Finn sleeping through his classes and missing another test in sociology. Puck has had an epiphany about growing up and real life and being good at something. They need to show the world, once and for all, that they aren’t Lima Losers. They’ve got greatness inside them, it’s time to make it happen.
And now I’m sad again. God, how I would have loved to see this.
Blaine and Becky have been called in to Coach Roz’s office and she’s suspicious as hell of them being Cheerios captain. Especially Blaine, who has never done a cheer routine in his life (I love it when Glee calls out its own absurdity, not gonna lie). She’s pretty sure that he used his “handsome fruity voodoo powers” to put a hex on Sue. Becky jumps to defend him, saying that’s totally not what happened with the gun, and Blaine has his own suspicions. Roz makes Fruity Fonzi (can I call Blaine that forever?) and Adult Baby Robin take an oath to not put a hex on her, and it is rude and wrong and I can’t help but kind of love it.
Will walks onto the stage in the auditorium and hallucinates some applause, and then in walks Finn, whose dean is going to let him coach Glee for an independent study credit. But he only wants to do it if Schue stops being a dick to him. Which, you know, seems reasonable. They hug it out.
Now that Schue has his best bro back, he’s much less of an asshole to the kids in the club, so I suppose that’s nice. He calls Unique by the name she wants and awkwardly humors Sam/Evan. He tells a slightly stilted story about his own high school experience and apologizes for not listening, and even brings Finn back in. Let’s win Regionals and make it to Nationals! With... one of Marley’s original songs? Sigh.
In Bushwick, Rachel is moping at the kitchen table and willing her phone to ring. Kurt (Kurt! You're alive!) is making cookies so she can eat her feelings, and actually asks Rachel about Shelby’s Broadway day care. She describes it as “Fame, for toddlers,” and it’s probably too much to hope that this will turn up again next season as Blaine’s part-time gig when he moves to New York? Her phone finally rings and Kurt stress-nibbles a cookie like a squirrel. She got a callback, yay for her! (Wait, wasn’t Kurt signed up to audition, too? No? Sigh.) Squealing and jumping and hugging, and boo hoo I miss Kurt.
This week’s final group number is one of Marley’s songs. An original song. About being outcasts. How very... not original. The only thing memorable about this performance is that Blaine seems to have taken his Fruity Fonzi nickname very seriously, because somehow that’s exactly what he looks like.
“Sweet Dreams” is ultimately a very forgettable episode. The college thing - look, I like it in theory. I wish they’d put Finn there earlier in the season so he could have worked through some of this party-animal vs. actual-student stuff over time. But instead, they crammed it into a single episode that aired in mid-April.
Between seemingly dropping into college at the end of the year (at least ⅔ of the Harlem Shakers were in bikinis and the campus was lush and green - that ain’t winter in Ohio), and the fact that there are only three episodes left of the season and we haven’t even done Regionals yet, much less approach graduation, this was the episode that made me realize Glee had gone completely off the calendar. And, look, that’s a choice you can make. But if you’re going to make it, do it clearly and with purpose. The show was explicitly still in real-time through Valentine’s Day (in case you forgot, Schue’s wedding took place on Valentine’s Day, and “I Do” even aired on the holiday). Five episodes and two multi-week hiatuses later, time seems to have slowed down in fictional Ohio. Except it did so with no explanation, no signposts along the way to give us a clue for what was happening, and did so despite the fact that it has stayed relatively close to the real-world calendar for at least the last two-and-a-half seasons (less so in Season 1). Just give us a clue, here, Glee. We’ll probably roll with it if you give us some idea of what’s happening. Instead, we’re all just scratching our heads and wondering what the hell is going on.
So yes, this is when I start to get all kinds of annoyed and realize that they’re going to drag this academic year out into the following season. Did that really need to happen? It doesn’t feel like there’s a point to drawing out this school year over (presumably) at least a year and a half of real time, but rather that they had one random idea after another and then went OOPS! Forgot to put Regionals in there! Oh well, maybe you’ll graduate sometime next year, Fruity Fonzi.
And then there’s the original songs nonsense. It only ever worked once, Glee. I wish you’d stop trying to make lightning strike twice. It was great in mid-Season-2, but was already a bad idea by the end of that year. Don’t make the same mistake over and over again.
"Sweet Dreams" is not a terrible, maddening, embarrassing, throw-things-at-the-television episode (oh, I’ve had some of those). But it's really not a good one, either.