The next day at school, Marley tries to talk to Ryder, apologizing and begging him not to jeopardize the whole team. He demands to know why she did this to him, and when she can’t answer, because she’s obviously not the real catfish, Unique steps in from around the corner, where she’d been eavesdropping, and admits that it was her, not Marley. She thanks Marley for covering for her – we see a flashback to Unique, in tears, explaining the situation to Marley, about how long it’s been to feel that close to someone without her image and identity getting in the way – and explains this to Ryder, that she liked him and used someone else’s picture to make him like her back – that the image had been fake but every story, every joke – their connection had been real. She stresses that she hadn’t wanted to hurt him – she just hadn’t wanted to lose what they had. “We don’t have anything,” Ryder says coldly, going on to say that he will never talk to her again.
Santana comes back to see Brittany, and Britt forces her to go on Fondue for Two as well. Santana quickly stops the pretense and makes Brittany talk to her properly. When Brittany makes a cruel crack about Santana’s sadness being stupid, Santana is wounded but expresses her care for Brittany, and asks to please know what’s going on. Brittany’s aggressive persona fades away and she looks straight at her ex, announcing, “What I’m about to tell you is going to change everything.”
We cut to the Regionals performance, and Emma arriving in the audience to sit with Will, Santana and Kurt. Emma announces happily that she’s really nervous, Santana makes a crack about it probably being due to Emma wearing white – not very lucky for her, given her history – and as Emma and Will smile into each other’s faces, I slap myself for totally not picking up on this foreshadowing. The event begins, the standard nonsensical judges are introduced, and the first act – the Waffletoots – start their performance of “The Rainbow Connection,” which we don’t get to see much of as we cut backstage to New Directions. Ryder comes back to the dressing room, saying that it really would be unfair to punish everyone when he’s only upset with Unique, so he’s going to go on. However – and he apologizes to Schue for this – he announces that he will be officially quitting the club after Regionals is done.
The Hoosierdaddies, led by Frida Romero, start their performance and we see two numbers: “Clarity” by Zedd, which is pretty much a Jessica Sanchez solo with requisite club members stepping around in the background, and “Wings” by Little Mix, which is, appropriately, more of a girl-group number that Frida is a part of. During this number, Brittany, who’s all smiles again, shows up and hugs Sam.
Before New Directions go on, during the show circle, Brittany announces her early admission to MIT, and the fact that they want her to come immediately, which is apparently why she had a meltdown. She talks about her love for the club and everyone in it, which starts as a sweet family metaphor but goes on long enough and strangely enough that it becomes totally awkward, but it’s quite touching when she talks about how it wasn’t until Glee Club that anyone ever made her feel like she might not be an imbecile, saying, “All my life people have told me I was stupid, and I started to believe them.” Everyone does some crying when she talks about how much they mean to her, even Santana, who should actually be stoked, because MIT is a lot closer to New York than Lima is. Brittany declares that they all must stop weeping as they go onstage for Regionals.
They do The Script’s “Hall of Fame,” which is a cool number led by the boys; “I Love It” by Icona Pop, lead by the girls; and “All or Nothing,” Marley’s original number, which is mostly a duet between her and Blaine. It’s an okay set, but the Waffletoots are more of an authentic, traditional Glee Club, and the Hoosierdaddies are much more showstopping, so we must suspend our disbelief when New Directions are announced as the winners. Everyone cheers, dances and hugs – Ryder and Unique find themselves in a hug that they pull out of, looking distressed – and at the end of the night, Brittany is left alone on the stage, looking out sadly at the empty auditorium. Santana finds her and silently hugs her, leading her away.
Back in the choir room, the group continues to celebrate their win. Schuester references the fact that Nationals are in Los Angeles this year (about time, some on-location stuff!) when Emma comes into the choir room, a priest in tow. The Glee Club is confused, but Emma quickly explains that she’s figured out she can’t handle the pressure of a big wedding, that she wanted something intimate, in a special place, surrounded by loved ones. Apparently the choir room ticks all these boxes, because she’s throwing a surprise wedding, right here, right now.
It’s actually unclear to me whether this is a surprise to Will as well, or something they planned together. He doesn’t react like it’s a surprise, but it is kind of weird that they would plan a wedding, together, as a surprise for the Glee Club. But either way he’s more than happy to go along with it and they quickly get into position for the ceremony.
In their impromptu vows, the exchange memories of the past, referencing one of their bonding moments in the season 1 pilot, and Emma’s grinning so sweetly and their happiness and excitement is so sweet that I can put aside the fact that many of these treasured incidents happened while Will was still married to someone else. They get married, everyone cheers, Blaine looks over at an unsuspecting Kurt while clutching a ring box behind his back, and that’s all for season 4, folks!
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