Managing Editor
Back in the later half of season four just a few months ago, I heard that Blaine was planning on proposing to Kurt.
I laughed.
“How silly that is!” I said. “Glee has already done the whole teenage engagement thing with Finchel! Kurt is dating Adam. Blaine has a huge crush on Sam. There will be no way that they’ll get engaged! Blaine has yet to earn Kurt’s trust back from cheating on him with some random Facebook skank. Burt? Burt will shut that bullshit down so fast that your head will spin.”
Nope.
Just one episode after Blaine was CLEARLY checking out some random guy’s ass in Sue’s aerobics class…he was talking marriage.
He refused to listen to Burt’s sensible advice when trying to get his blessing.
Then he bought a ring from Patty Duke and Meredith Baxter.
I held out hope though. I held out so much hope because of Adam. Kurt and Adam were still together. Kurt was still feeling hurt over BLAINE CHEATING ON HIM WITH SOME RANDOM GUY FROM FACEBOOK! He made it pretty damn clear in “I Do” that their reception sex was not them getting back together.
Oh! Then there is the fact that back in season three when we had this plot with a heterosexual couple, KURT WAS AGAINST THEM GETTING MARRIED AT A YOUNG AGE! If he himself got engaged at a young age well then…that would just make him such a hypocrite.
And let’s not get started about the whole LGBT struggle to get their marriages recognized in the eyes of the law. The long, slow struggle to attain a basic human dignity that heterosexuals take for granted. Britney can get married to some guy in Vegas for like a day and that’s a legal marriage. While Mike and John over here have been together for twenty years and are still not fully recognized in most states as being a married couple, not until as recently as June 2013.
Because when you think about it like that well it kind of makes the whole Klaine proposal cheapen an important issue, doesn’t it?
Sorry. Calm breaths.
Season Five is proving to dash my hopes of a genuine reconciliation between Kurt and Blaine. We got a somewhat accurate portrayal of Blaine working to regain Kurt’s lost trust. Kurt faced with a difficult dilemma on whether or not to open his heart to Blaine again after he hurt him so very badly.
Why? Well I’m getting into
SPOILER
territory here folks. So if you want to remain pure from such things I suggest you end here.
…Seriously go if you don’t want spoilers.
…
1) Apparently Kurt and Adam have stopped seeing each other. Where is Adam? Well I’m going with the theory that Adam was an incarnation of the Doctor and went off in his TARDIS to have awesome, awkward British adventures.
2) Klaine is getting back together.
3) The picture below where it looks like Kurt is wearing an engagement ring.
This is a bad, bad, bad idea.
Look, I have several issues with this. The majority of them stand with Blaine. Let me tell you where I’m coming from. I’m almost done with an English Bachelor’s in college. I’m planning on getting two Master’s degrees over the next four years one in Screenwriting and another in Television/Film Studies. In addition to my duties here at PopWrapped where I recap the show, I also write a blog where I try to take a somewhat academic look at Glee.
I am not saying that I am an expert. I am saying that I am someone who knows a decent amount about good characterization and motivations of the characters.
This whole engagement thing? It really shouldn’t be happening.
“But wait!” You say to yourself. “What about the Finchel engagement? Klaine is just as integral as Finchel was. They were engaged. Why can’t Klaine be?”
Yeah.
See, the thing with the Finchel engagement is that it was actually set up with backing character motivations. Now, I still thought it was stupid. I’m not a huge fan of couples getting married at a young age. By young age, I mean like eighteen or something. I won’t judge someone based on their life choices. I acknowledge that these are my hang-ups. If you made that decision and are perfectly happy with it, then God bless you and may you have many happy years. It’s just not for me.
Back to Finchel.
Unlike the whole Klaine thing, I can understand where the engagment for Finchel spawned. Unlike most things in the season three of Glee, the underlying motivations for the characters made a fair bit of sense.
Finn had just found out the truth about his father. Rachel had yet to hear back from NYADA (and Kurt had). They were both feeling uncertain, and unsure about their place in the world. The only thing that made sense to them was their relationship. So it was a logical (and I use it loosely) choice to take that relationship to the next level. This is mainly done in order for Finn and Rachel to have that feeling of security in the face of an increasingly uncertain future.
I didn’t like it. It made zero sense why they continued it when Rachel got accepted to NYADA. I was relieved when they broke it off.
I, however, understood it.
With Klaine, I don’t get it.
Why? There has been no real development for the most part.
Blaine is essentially the same person he is in season two. He’s still stuck as the perfect teenage dream. He is, what we call in literature, a static character. There has been no legitimate development for him.
I mean I saw slivers of something like it in season four. They just never went anywhere is the problem. He felt bad about cheating on Kurt. He and Kurt had that great phone call in “Thanksgiving”. They agreed to try to be friends but…that never went anywhere.
Then he comes to New York and tells Kurt he is applying to NYADA. Did you see the look on Kurt’s face? He was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of Blaine applying and potentially attending his school.
I mean seriously guys it just doesn’t make sense. Kurt is becoming his own person in New York. Blaine is in Lima and he does what? He joins the Cheerios. He fends off an awkward crush from Tina while having his own crush on Sam. He sings a lot of solos. Then he suddenly wants to get married to Kurt?
I don’t understand his motivations here to propose to Kurt. The writers don’t give me any inkling about why Blaine would suddenly decide to do this. Is it because of the events of “Shooting Star”? Like the whole thing put everything in perspective for him or something?
To quote Pink here: “Just give me a reason/Just a little bit’s enough.” I feel like I would be on sturdier ground if I had a to go point from here.
The problem is that the point is more like “ZOMG GUYS KLAINE SHOULD TOTALLY GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVAH AFTER FOREVAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
That seems insulting to everyone’s intelligence.
Look, I get it. Glee is not a cerebral show. I know I’m not going to learn the secrets of life, the universe, and everything just by watching it. I probably shouldn’t be even thinking too hard about it.
The problem is that I don’t watch Glee for the plots or the music. I watch it because I want to see my favorite characters fail and succeed and become better people.
The issue here is that no one is going to become better for it. Both Kurt and Blaine will go because it’s familiar and safe to be Klaine rather than there our separate identities. It feels like a huge step backwards for Kurt to accept a marriage proposal. The motivations for Blaine are nonexistent at worst and confused at best.
Plus, and I do feel the need to bring this up again: we already HAD this plotline in season three.
It was widely regarded as being stupid.
It’s the SAME PLOT except with two dudes. It’s equal opportunity stupid. Look, I wouldn’t complain if this was set up a hell of a lot better than it was; the fans actually getting to see Blaine slowly earning Kurt’s trust and love again instead of getting kind of creepy or Kurt admitting that Blaine had hurt him badly but slowly opening up to him.
I get that it requires patience but the payoff would have been much more satisfying.
Instead, we get this little gem:
It’s not charming. It’s weird and a little creepy. ESPECIALLY WHEN TWO SEASONS AGO YOU WERE SAYING THAT FINN AND RACHEL GETTING MARRIED WAS STUPID BLAINE!
Let’s focus on Finn for a bit. As my colleague, who I hold a great deal of respect, brings up: the Klaine engagement could be seen as a happy event against a backdrop of a somber first half of the season. You know I agree that people deal with grief and death in different ways.
You know what? If it’s grief and wanting to be together then I can’t really yell foul there. Because everyone is grieving. I admit that as a person whose favorite character was Finn Hudson and who adored Cory Monteith, people do odd things in grief. If the reasoning is for something good to come out of pain then I won’t be too mad with it.
I’ll still call it stupid but I won’t be screaming my hatred for it from the rooftops.
I still don’t think an engagement would be a correct way to go. I would have prefer to see people leaning on the makeshift family of New Directions. Instead of a couple, I would prefer to see a group draw love and strength from each other even across great distance. I would like to see a sense of community instead of coupledom.
I would also like to see Dianna Agron there but we don’t live in a perfect world.
In the end, this just seems like a bad plot move. It’s a recycling of an old plot. I wouldn’t complain if Klaine got back together because you know what? I can live with that with a decent set up and explanation.
Marriage? Now, that’s just the breaking point. They are too young. They don’t have sufficient reason for actually getting engaged. This can only end in tears.
If it ends up being a long engagement then fine. If they’re married by mid-season? I’m going to get into my corner and just quietly give up on this show ever having a shred of realism and sanity. That’s just not me either. Even my colleague and friend, an ardent Klaine fan, agrees with me there.
It’s different strokes for different folks here. I just don’t like the idea of the engagement at all. Ultimately though, we just have to see how this season plays out.
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