Glee’s season 4 finale was a doozy of an episode and received lots of mixed reactions from fans.
Our season 4 finale begins with Brittany being interviewed in a grand, wood-paneled office at MIT. The professors explain their interest in her, given her terrible grade point average and unusually high test scores, and how, when she took one of MIT’s own math tests, she scored zero on the actual given questions. They tell her that she has a lack of conscious understanding of even basic arithmetic, but it seems that her unconscious mind is a different story – the professors found scribbled patterns of numbers on the back of the paper that turned out to be some of the most complicated codes in mathematical history – numbers Brittany had “swirling around in her head.”
Brittany goes from skeptical to delighted when she realizes they’re not calling her stupid – they’re saying she’s potentially the greatest scientific mind since Einstein. The professors say they’re going to offer her an “unusual proposition,” the details of which we do not hear. I kind of suspect they’re going to pay her lots of money in exchange for doing experiments on her.
We quietly cut to a text graphic screen where Ryder is still worrying about the identity of his Catfish – imagining it as different people – Kitty, Unique, Blaine – and still demanding that “Katie” meet him. In the actual world, Schuester announces to the choir room that Regionals will be held at McKinley this year due to some technicality. He talks a bit about the competition – the Waffletoots – played by the famed a capella choir the Yale Whiffenpoofs, and the Hooiserdaddies, who Schue believes to be their main competition, due to their tiny powerhouse Frida Romero (American Idol’s Jessica Sanchez.) He starts to talk seriously about moments in life, as a performer, which completely define who you are, and how this is one such moment for them. I’m pretty sure it’s not – it’s a regional high school show choir competition – but we cut to someone for whom Mr. Schuester’s statement proves more truthful – Rachel.
She’s waiting for her final Funny Girl callback, and Schue knows this and asks the Glee Club to send her some good vibes. In New York, she demurely enters the audition room, introduces herself, and begins to sing Celine Dion’s “To Love You More,” which sounds incredibly powerful, emotional, and technically precise, but lacks any stage presence whatsoever.
Presumably, she has to do an acting bit as well, because she’s not getting cast in a musical based on that. She’s weeping a little at the end of the song, and the room is silent – some people seem blown away, but the main casting director gives her the standard “we’ll let you know,” and Rachel seems to take that as a negative. That’s the last we see of her this episode, and therefore, this season.
Back at McKinley, it seems Burt Hummel’s sensible logic has had zero effect on Blaine, as he’s still planning to propose to Kurt. He asks Sam for ideas on how to make it special, but Sam is also on Team Blaine Is Deluded. “We’re in high school,” says Sam, who got married in high school. Blaine calls this out, but Sam explains that was because he really thought the world was ending, and that when they’d realized it wasn’t, he’d known they were in trouble.
He also, by mentioning Adam (remember Adam? I miss Adam), comes close to what I feel is a major issue that Blaine’s ignoring – that he and Kurt aren’t actually together. You don’t just go around asking people you’re not going out with to marry you! Is this not something anyone is finding weird? Because Burt didn’t mention it either – surely he should have said something like, “Kurt said he didn’t want to be with you, and you need to respect that. He wants your friendship. Your pursuit of him to this degree is inappropriate.” Anyone? Nope? Okay.
New Directions reconvenes in the choir room to prepare for Regionals. Joe and Sugar are welcomed with mad applause as Schuester counts that they have the standard twelve competition members. Brittany is the last to arrive, and she proceeds to act like a complete psychopath, cutting everyone down.
When Sam tries to tell her she’s out of line, more concerned than anything, she dumps him on the spot – via text. She demands to be given all the solos, walks out of the Glee Club when Schue doesn’t comply, and goes after her next target – Coach Roz. She pulls a Martin Luther – and I don’t mean MLK Jr, I mean 16th century German monk Martin Luther – and nails her Ninety Five Theses – in crayon – to Roz’s door.
Martin Luther’s Theses explained his problems with the current state of the Catholic Church and began the Reformation. Brittany’s explain her reasons for quitting the Cheerios – some of which expose the cruel and unethical practices that Sue was a part of. She also ceremoniously lights her Cheerios uniform on fire in Roz’s trash can.
Her attitude throughout the entire thing with both the Glee Club and Roz is so arrogant, so calculated, and so thorough, that it makes me wonder if she had let MIT do something to her brain – something that healed her inability to make basic connections, and fully able to tap into her mind-power, and that this is her actual personality with the veil of constant confusion taken away.
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