Okay, I'm going to write about this last episode before my head explodes. There will be spoilers because the West Coast airing is almost over.
First of all, Glee seems to be advertising that it's their 700th song, which seems like a weird milestone to me, but okay. I wonder if they're counting the non-songs like "My Headband" and Tina crying in the middle of "My Funny Valentine," or the extra songs that were released on iTunes but weren't part of episodes, like the Warbler's version of "I Want You Back."
We had yet another famous father in an unconditional parenting situation. I predicted the dad right away. I thought the scene was ridiculous and unnecessary.
Music was by Burt Bacharach, which means lots of oldies for me, yay, but also lots of ballads, sigh. We started off with a Samchel duet that was nice. And so my least favorite thing about THL eps was Sam's hypnotism because it put a weird spin on what would have been a cutely awkward journey towards dating between Rachel and Sam.
Mercedes, for whatever reason, has decided that she's the one who's going to get Rachel back on the stage. Which seems like a great goal for Rachel, except that is that the endgame for the show, or is it watching the rise of the New[SUP]3[/SUP] Directions? Because we've already seen Rachel rise to the top on Broadway once.
Anyway, they do a nice song for Rachel that showcases new and old ND male voices. I enjoyed it. Then Rachel does Promises Promises, which she nails. BTW, there's a ton of music in this episode.
But we're really here for Brittana, let's not lie. Lots of adorable and sweet moments between them, particularly coming from Santana's end. And then the Abuela stuff happened.
It would've been way too easy for Abuela to be tricked into accepting Santana and Brittany's relationship, so I'm glad Glee didn't do that whole "She sang a song and now everything is right with the world" thing. I'm hoping that she comes to the wedding anyway and that is the place where she accepts Santana for who she is. I thought the Glee kids being all "We're your family" was nice, though cliche, and I thought Buffy did it better, and why weren't these guys invited to the wedding anyway(?).
I thought some parts of Brittany with Abuela were very cute. I liked Queso for Dos and Brittany speaking Spanish to her, and them watching telenovelas (Was it Passions of Santos, since the actress is also the abuela on Jane the Virgin?), and also the line about looking like she could do Peter Pan in a nursing home and Brittany knows a guy (that'd be Kurt from last season). I didn't like that she tricked her way in in the first place and that she thought that when Abuela found out, she would be cool with it.
But all of that is Brittany being Brittany, and after all, the original ND kids tricked Brittany into thinking Santa visited her, so the tricking thing is easy to forgive.
Of course it is sad that Abuela is homophobic and tells Santana that she "hates her sin" and won't go to their wedding. But here is where the episode goes off the rails for me, and I actually am a little pissed about it, and it looks like I'm the only one.
Brittany(!) tells Santana's abuela that she's a "crazy uptight bitch" and that she's glad that her generation (and therefore Abuela) are dying soon so that everyone will be okay with gay marriage. And also because they're annoying.
To her face.
So first of all, this sounds like yet another piece of dialogue that was pulled off someone's ranty blog. Which was kinda funny when it was Sue harping on Glee, but feels really fake coming from Brittany.
Second of all, this doesn't sound like Brittany. Like I literally felt like Brittany stepped off the screen and Heather was playing some other person for a minute (possibly the owner of the ranty blog, but most likely just the writer).
Third of all, Santana is sad about her relationship with her abuela and she still loves her, so how great is it that her fiancée just told her she can't wait for her to die?
Fourth of all, I understand fans going, "Woohoo, you tell her Britt! Look at how much she loves Santana, standing up for her, standing up for QUILTBAG characters and real people everywhere." But is there anyone out there other than me who feels that this was just nasty? (And, yes, Britt says that she was nasty and feels bad about it, but I don't see a single person on Twitter who didn't mention the exchange without some sort of cheer.) When did spouting something hateful become a cheer-worthy response to hate?
The generational turnover? "You lost." All very empowering to those in the QUILTBAG community. A great topic for an article or a blog post or between two like-minded characters having a discussion about how great it will be in the future. But to say to your fiancée's grandmother's face that you can't wait for her generation to die? That's not empowering. It's just mean.
It was just this one paragraph of dialogue in what was an otherwise decent episode, IMO, and it totally ruined it for me.