This week’s Glee, “Swan Song,” focuses on endings, new beginnings, and not wasting the chances that you’re given. The glee club struggles to keep themselves together after a disastrous Sectionals, and Kurt and Rachel both face huge challenges in New York. Also, the worst pairing ever is unfortunately now canon. We’ve got a full recap below!
We pick up right where we left off last week as New Directions carry a recovering Marley into the choir room. They flounder to figure out what has happened – Kitty in particular is close to genuine tears, and is speechless when Santana accuses her of encouraging Marley into anorexia. Will rushes in as well, taking over from a blustering Finn, and urges the rest of the group to get back on stage – apparently leaving mid-set has them up for instant disqualification. They begin to rush out, but Sue arrives to vindictively announce that the Warblers have been named winners of Sectionals. New Directions’ competition season is, it seems, over.
Kurt and Rachel get updated on the situation from Blaine, and Rachel considers calling Finn but decides it may be more hurtful than helpful. Kurt, in an unusual and apparently oblivious act of selflessness, expresses pity for Blaine, saying that if he’d been with the Warblers, he’d be on his way towards competing in Regionals. Yeah, Kurt, you know how Blaine could have been with the Warblers? If you hadn’t guilted him into transferring to your crappy school. Kurt says he’s using the situation as a reminder to make the most of the chances you’re given – like his upcoming NYADA re-application. He’s giving it one more shot, and if he doesn’t get in, he’s taking it as a sign from the universe that it’s not meant to be.
The pair discuss the upcoming NYADA Winter Showcase, Kurt describing the honor and prestige of being selected by Carmen Tibideaux, and how many Tony winners today still cite receiving her invitation as their proudest moment. Really? Do they? Funny, because last season, we were told that she was only the recently appointed Dean of Vocal Performance, and that she was travelling the country to hand-pick her inaugural class. Anyway, as Kurt describes the situation while playing some dramatic classical record and Rachel denies the possibility of herself getting in, we get a montage of Carmen writing the invitations and gliding through her school, students drooling at the site of the prized golden envelope. She makes her way into the dance studio, parts the mass of students like Moses in the Red Sea, and hands a golden ticket to one Miss Rachel Barbra Berry.
Now that the glee club is “finished” for the year, Sue wastes no time in erasing their presence from the school. Finn comes to the choir room and finds her Cheerios tearing it apart in order to clear it for her new rehearsal space. It’s evident that she’s doing this out of deep hatred for Finn, and when she tries to take their Nationals trophy away to run it over with her LeCar (remember Sue’s LeCar?) he grabs it from her. As they play tug-o-war with it, she orders him to Figgins’ office. Neither of them relinquish the trophy, so in unison they start shuffling out clutching it together, politely coordinating in order to duck through the doorway. “Doorjamb?” “Doorjamb.”
Figgins tells Finn and Will that Sue is right – in the same way the football team ends training when they get knocked out early on in the season, the glee club has no right or reason to continue on, and Figgins has booked out every possible space they could use – classrooms, the auditorium April Rhodes bought FOR THEM – due to rates he can receive by renting rooms to outside organisations. Finn reluctantly hands the choir room keys over to Sue, and back in her office, she reflects to Becky that it feels like somewhat of a hollow victory. She is, against her own will, worried about what damage it may cause the over-emotional glee clubbers, and she envisions their dark paths (“I’m a drug mule in the Lima crack district!” – Tina; “I’m performing on the bathhouse circuit.” – Blaine) and she wishes for a sign that what she’s done is truly the right thing.
Sue gets her sign in the form of Brad The Piano Guy, who actually speaks (!!!) “I cannot thank you enough. I can not tell you how much I hate those kids! Do you know how demeaning it is when they just turn to you and yell ‘hit it’ and you’re just supposed to know what song they’re gonna sing? I’m free!” This, in case you weren’t aware, is some of the most blatant fan service in television history, as the Glee fandom has been waiting for Brad to snap since season 1. Meanwhile, Finn and Will break the news to the glee club, and when Tina vocally blames Marley, the others seem to agree. The teachers encourage them to perform at the holiday concert before finishing up and restarting next fall, but Sam points out, what about those of them who don’t have a next year? The camera lingers on our current seniors.
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