glee rewatch blogging: episode 2
Once again, glee has an episode with a really surprising amount of plot!
Showmance, written by RIB, directed by Ryan Murphy. First broadcast 9th September 2009. Number one in the UK charts was ‘Run This Town’ by Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West (relevant!)
If the first episode was mainly focused on Will and Finn, this one is about Will and Rachel. The paralells are still in strong force here - both Emma and Rachel try to help the guy they’re crushing on, Emma with cleaning, and Rachel with singing. Even the opening suggests this - it’s Will going into school again, all confident, and Rachel immediately walking up to him with suggestions of songs that highlight her (as well as Finn helping her, if the paralells weren’t obvious enough). It also has Mercedes, Tina and Artie being besties, which is cute!
fandom discourse often focuses on Will’s ignorance of the bullying in the school. And perhaps it gets worse as Glee goes on, but I’d argue here it’s doing two things:
It’s one of the many small moments that set up Kurt’s character
It’s showing Will likes these kids, but is also kinda oblivious of some of their issues.
Though obviously this is going to be something that bothers some people more than others. And whilst it’s been a while since I was in school, yeah, teachers ignoring bullying behavior is fucking infuriating.
Anyway.
Will here seems to have settled into a pretty good balance between teaching the glee club and supporting Terri. The big thing here is him tyring to relate to the kids - his nostalgia for his own high school days is what leads to him suggesting ‘Le Freak’ as the performance, even as he performs ‘Gold Digger’ with the glee club. There’s an idea here, of Will understanding some things, the glee club (or well, in this episode’s case, Rachel) both knowing things the other doesn’t, and the solution be finding balance between the points of view.
Which of course, is part of what ‘Don’t Stop Belevin’’ symbolised last episode.
This episode also has the scene where Will starts to reciprocate Emma’s crush on him - the chalk scene. But what I’m finding myself appreciating is how understated the romance - as it were - is so far. Emma is aware enough to know the crush isn’t going to happen, even as it persists, and seems to be happy to just being friends with Will, even as it hurts her - and that’s a very adult, normal thing. Who hasn’t had a crush on a friend they know won’t go anywhere, that they just wait to go away?
Their dynamic also leads to Santana’s first line, telling them to get a room.Which is of course being bitchy and mean, but in a fun way. Oh, Santana!
Her acceptance of a date with Ken makes a lot of sense in this context - as soon as Will realises how sweet Emma is, Emma notices, and immediately steps back, becuase it’s becoming real rather than just a fantasy.
A similar scene happens with Rachel and Finn - with the picnic scene and the ‘virgin Cosmos’ (because Rachel is never not dramatic). Finn is clearly charmed by Rachel - and yes, it is cheating, but this is TV not real life, and he backs up for the rest of the episode. This is also another example of glee balancing the comedy with the emotion - ‘I looked under the bed and made sure you weren’t hanging out under there’ is a funny line, but the look of hurt on Rachel’s face after, the way she breaks down crying after Finn’s mailman induced quick exit - she’s hurt, and really scared of rejection.
Rachel is placed on the outside of the Finn-Quinn relationship - which itself gets more exploration - spying (delightfully) with her makeup mirror on the argument between Quinn and Finn about Finn being in glee. Which itself can be read as Quinn seeing her relationship with Finn as a status thing, but that’s besides the point.
Though having a cut from Puck being pervy about the Cheerio skirts, to Quinn ‘blessing the perv who invented these’ as she has a Cheerio spin in front of her is... A choice. As the classic blog The Truth about Quinn Fabray put it:
‘Amen, Quinn. She certainly seems to enjoy watching Santana twirl around in that skirt. It does make me wonder just why she's having Santana do this though. I mean, the Cheerios wear this every day, so they're well aware of the fact that their skirts are crunchy toast. But I guess Quinn will use any excuse she can to admire how the girls look in them, especially when it's her telling them to flaunt it.’ [1]
This scene also highlights something important: Quinn is very sexually repressed, and her viewpoint on sexuality is heavily influenced by her faith. I mean, reacting to ‘contraception’ with “Don’t you dare mention the c-word!” is funny, but also indicative of a warped view on sexuality.
So a person like that, who is trying to position herself in a position of societal power in order to give herself self-worth - see her whole homecoming, prom queen speech at Finn at the start again - who is terrified of her own sexuality, would certainly repress any lesbian thoughts she might be hypothetically feeling...
Even if she is far more delighted by a cheerleader in a short skirt than she is her boyfriend.
All this also leads to ‘Push It’, which also leads to my favourite gag of the episode: the reaction shots, Sue being aghast, Quinn being very ‘WTF’, Emma bopping away, and Figgins swaying.
Speaking of Figgins, this episode made me realise something I’d honestly forgot to consider: this show coming right out of the credit crunch. Which is context that illuminates a lot tbh, the budget cut jokes, Will struggling to make ends meet, and the absurdity of Sue getting so many ridiculous things for the Cheerios.
And for Sue - this is the start of the now iconic Will Sue feud, and I enjoy how understated it is - just a squabble over budget, Finn and Rachel using her photocopier, and her not getting her way for once, and suddenly she’s getting the Unholy Trinity to spy for her.
The Trinity auditioning is fun, too - I enjoyed Brittany and Santana trying not to laugh when Quinn is giving her motivation for joining glee. They’re totally just here for the drama, huh? The song choice is illuminating too - it’s fitting the Christian or Baloon songs that glee is mandated to sing (even if we know that won’t last), and it’s Quinn once again filling the role she feels she has to play.
Rachel singing ‘Take a Bow’ is interesting too, it being a song from the point of view of someone being cheated on - and is the first, I think, example of fantasy singing in a glee number, Rachel picturing herself singing at Finn and Quinn as they ignore her, again highlighting her feeling on the outside of that dynamic, implying she saw Finn as playing a role by caring about glee.
Between ‘Pilot’ and ‘Showmance’, we’ve been given insight into Will, Emma, Finn, Rachel, and to a lesser extent Quinn. Whilst I am hoping the other characters do start to shine sooner rather than later - though Mercedes and Kurt are getting smaller moments to shine - I’m again surprised how compelling I’m finding the stuff I barely remembered.
Up next: Ah. Acafellas. An episode I don’t remember enjoying all that much. Let’s see how that goes!
Witty dialogue of the episode I loved:
Rachel: We’re gonna give them what they want. Kurt: Blood?
