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.

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.

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!