As the rest of the club continues preparing their set list, working out the technicalities, a phone starts ringing and it triggers Ryder’s anxiety about his Katie issue. He threatens the club with an ultimatum – that he won’t perform until the catfish reveals themselves. Everyone else starts prompting one another, but no one comes clean. Ryder is visibly troubled by the situation and cements his place as New Finn when he becomes angry, making violent movements and kicking the furniture as he demands to see everyone’s phones.
As he goes on and on, Marley finally stands up and admits that it was her. We cut straight to Unique, staring incredulously, and that plus the fact that Jake is resigned, supportive and not reactionary makes it pretty obvious what’s going on here. Ryder doesn’t pick up on that, though, and is hurt, reminding Marley that she swore to him that it wasn’t her. He leaves the Glee Club.
Blaine, who just can’t be shaken from his terrible life choices, is out shopping for engagement rings with Tina. Tina’s still a tad creepy about Blaine, as she envisions the ring he’d buy her if he was proposing – but they both correct the staff member who assumes they’re looking to get engaged to each other due to teen pregnancy.
When Blaine explains his situation and she realizes he is gay, the staff member – an older lady called Jan, played by Patty Duke – gets all interested and encouraging, wanting to know all about Blaine’s epic love. She’s a lesbian who’s been with her own partner, Liz, since they were 18, and even though she was judging the hell out of Blaine and Tina a second ago when she thought they were teen straights getting married, she’s all for Blaine proposing to Kurt despite the fact that they’re kids (and not actually together).
Both she and Blaine seem to really be focusing on the legality issue – gay marriage is allowed now, so you should totally get married! This aspect is something that has come into every conversation Blaine has had about the issue, and it seems like he’s thinking more about that aspect than anything else – this attitude of, “I have the right to get married and if you say you’re against it, you’re oppressing my rights.” He tells Jan that all his friends had been giving him flack, and she says, “If we all had listened, we wouldn’t be moments away from the Supreme Court finally telling us that we are just as crazy and awesome as everybody else.”
Both of them are really on the same page with the marriage equality issue, which is great, except the flack people have been giving Blaine isn’t anything to do with the fact that he’s gay! It’s to do with the seriousness of getting married in general, and the fact that he’s 18 and deluded. I very much hope this is pointed out – hopefully by Kurt – because if this whole thing is meant to be positive and awesome, I’m a little worried, especially when Jan tells Blaine it doesn’t matter how young you are, despite the fact she’d been thinking Blaine and Tina were being forced into a shotgun wedding.
At this point, Sam busts in, proclaiming that he loves Blaine – naturally this prompts Jan to ask if this is Blaine’s guy, which they both deny (“I mean, he wants to do me, but we’re just friends.”) – and that he will support him, so if he’s going to be Blaine’s best man, he wants to help him pick out the ring. Jan pulls Blaine aside and asks if he has any kind of gay mentors, and offers herself up for the position – for him and Kurt to look at her relationship and see what’s possible in their future. Blaine has full-on heart eyes for Jan at this point, and I’m on Team Jan Is Also Deluded.
Brittany is called in to speak to Sue and Will about her recent behavior. She’s her new abusive self in response to facing Sue, and refuses to speak to them unless it’s on her territory. She makes them come on Fondue for Two. Her introduction of them is rather brilliant – “Two sworn enemies who became friends, then became enemies again, then became friends again, then enemies, then everybody stopped caring,” – but Glee, it’s probably not the best to acknowledge the fact that you have plot lines that people stopped caring about, it’s the pinnacle of shining a spotlight on your failings.
Brittany starts to interview her teachers, being cruel to Will about his prospects of starting a family with Emma, and revealing to Sue that she has proof of the identity of her baby’s celebrity father – it’s Michael Bolton. (The way Brittany has collated her evidence here again made me suspect the possibility of MIT “fixing” her mind to make her more consciously capable.) However, they don’t get very far with figuring out what’s going on with Brittany herself. Sam tries another tactic – he calls Santana to ask for her help. The phone call between them is a beautifully shot scene, and though Santana starts out insulting Sam in a friendly way, she becomes concerned when he relays the gravity of the situation.
Blaine takes Kurt to dinner with the lesbian couple, Jan and Liz. Kurt is charmed and interested in their life story, but is instantly dismissive when Liz calls them a sweet couple – not even in a “the lady doth protest too much” way – in a very casual, “oh, LOL, no” way. This visibly hurts Blaine, who does a half-grimace smile, clearly thinking, “oh, crap,” that Kurt could toss aside the idea so casually, that this hasn’t awoken any warm fuzzy feelings.
They then begin to talk about gay marriage – Kurt, of course, thinking this is all an objective conversation about rights – and despite the fact that they’d only planned to get married when it was legal in Ohio, Jan proposes to Liz at the dinner table. Everyone in the restaurant applauds them, and Blaine continues to smile sadly at his lap.
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