On My Way

Glee Episode Review

In which Rachel and Finn do not go to the chapel and they do not get married. Regionals is almost an after-thought in this dramatic event-filled episode of Glee.

What Happened

After being outed at his new school and becoming the target of bullies, Karofsky tries to commit suicide. Will, Sue, Bieste and Figgins blame themselves for not seeing the pain of a child in someone else's school. Kurt blames himself for not answering any of Karofsky's calls over the past week. Rachel and Finn decide to make it all about them and blame Will's "seize the day and live" speech for prompting them to schedule their wedding for the afternoon after they win Regionals.

Sue announces her pregnancy. Quinn makes some suggestions for handling morning sickness, then asks Sue if she can rejoin the Cheerios. Sue refuses at first, but after watching the performance at Reqionals, she changes her mind. Quinn is so happy that she agrees to attend the wedding, even though she thinks the marriage is a bad idea. She drives home to get her bridesmaid dress. As Rachel and Finn's parents panic that their brilliant reverse psychology plan didn't work, Rachel texts Quinn to hurry up.

Distracted, Quinn is in a car accident on the way to the wedding.

The Good

Rachel's proud dads at Regionals. They looked so happy. And Jeff Goldblum's plan for escaping the wedding. And just Jeff Goldblum in general.

The Bad

Perhaps it's my unfamiliarity with the song, but I didn't like the song that underlaid Karofsky's breakdown. What does cough syrup have to do with anything? The beat and mood of the song was appropriate - and Darren Criss was obviously singing his heart out - but the lyrics just seemed murky and weird.

The Cliche

Just as Quinn's life is coming together - Yale, Regionals, Cheerios - tragedy strikes. The more people tell her how she's overcome adversity, the more suspicious I should have been. It's the drama equivalent of the character in the horror movie going, "So now we've got nothing to worry about! [slice] Argh! [blood spurt] And now I'm dead."

What Did I Think?

Oh they had better not kill off Quinn in a car accident.

The whole thing is just so manipulative. In fact, the ending kind of pisses me off so much that it wipes out some of the goodwill that the rest of the episode earned.

The Karofsky stuff was moderately heavy-handed, but it came out of a long running storyline. And the performances were really really great. Chris Colfer and Max Adler were fantastic.

Even Rachel and Finn's abrupt decision to move up the wedding didn't bother me too much. I'm at peace with that story even though I think it's a terrible idea to get married that early. Well. It's a terrible idea for those two specific people who are still dealing with their issues by stomping out of rooms to get married that early.

But Quinn? Rage.

Who knew I liked Quinn that much? I guess that when I look at Rachel and Kurt, I see characters who will always bring the drama down on themselves. It's the nature of the beast. They wouldn't be happy without some plot twists. With Quinn, I was happy that she was happy. She had been through a lot. She had overcome difficulties and managed to find a calm center again. Now, I look back and see the writers giving her wins for the sole purpose of setting the audience up for the tragedy and I resent that.

I wanted Quinn's happiness to be honest and true because I needed something to balance out the drama of teen marriage and bullying and OCD and social protests and whatever the hell is going on with Sue these days. I needed there to be one morsel of not-suck in the fringes of all the misery and confusion.

Instead, I feel like the writers went, "Oh yeah? Well suck on this!"

Ugh.