As mentioned in my post a few days ago when I reviewed the songs from Glee for the latest episode, there are only three songs in this episode, which means that there will be a plot in this episode! Gasp! Glee has a plot? Yes, Glee has a plot and I am surprised to say that I actually watched the whole episode and enjoyed it.

If you have not watched it and do not want to be spoiled, do not go any further than this.

We begin the episode with Mr Schue announcing their competitors in the upcoming show choir regionals – The Who’s Your Daddy and The Nuntouchables. Sometimes, I questioned Glee writers and what they drank when they write.

And then Brittany interrupted the Glee meeting by announcing that a deadly asteroid is coming to Lima, Ohio. Blaine, being the possibly only sane person left in New Directions, said that this was already mentioned during Christmas. Oh hey, Glee writers remember what they wrote in other episodes. Gasp! Anyway, so she went on and said that she does not want to spend the last few days of her life practising for Regionals and instead wanted to focus on making amends with somebody she needs to get right with, somebody she loves. Of course, everyone turned to Sam. But nah-ah! It’s Lord Tubbington. 

Oh Brittany… I love the “Hide yo wife, hide yo kids” line. Funny. This is the thing with Glee: They love to insert popular memes in their script.

 

The above screencap is used for Marley’s face. Her face is priceless.

Anyway, back in the choir room, Mr Schue was ready to announce the next assignment, Last Chance. So the kids have to sing a song like it’s their last song or what it feels like for it to be their last song. Or something. I don’t know. I got distracted by Blaine in the background in his Cheerio uniform looking absolutely adorable doing nothing. How could that even be possible? Ask Darren Criss.

As the kids left the choir room to prepare for their assignment, Ryder told Jake about the girl he has been talking to online, Katie. I wanted to tell Jake that you never talk to strangers online but that’s a big fat lie because I’ve been talking to people online. Oops!

Anyway, so Ryder told Jake about how he met Katie while he was taking a break from writing an essay about a dystopian future from a book that was written 13 years before his time. I like the dialogues for Ryder this season. It can be very witty. So he’s in love with the girl but Jake told him that he needs to do something special. Well, this is Glee and if you guess something that goes like singing, you are right and there will be no prizes for you.

 

You can just see from Ryder’s face that he’s already thinking of a song to sing to Katie.

We then go Brittany talking to Lord Tubbington and Sam looking sadly abandoned. Brittany, you have a gorgeous guy with kissable lips behind you and you’re talking to a cat? But this is Brittany. I’m not going to question her actions. So, Brittany told Sam that Lord Tubbington is not going to tell her he loves her too. Yes, Brittany, because he’s a cat. Oh never mind. Sam suggested them singing a song for Lord Tubbington so that he knows how much she loves him. Okay… that’s not weird at all! Nope. This is Brittany.

 

So, we move on to Ryder serenading Katie with “Your Song” in the choir room. Oh hey, Brad the piano man! 

 

It was kinda sweet and all and Katie seemed moved and smitten by the whole gesture. And who wouldn’t when a nice looking guy start surprising and serenading you with a romantic song from Moulin Rouge? Katie looks like a fangirl. She looks like how I would look like if Darren Criss sings to me. Ha! And then Katie asked why he’s singing to her. Ryder told her he wanted to make their first meeting memorable only for Katie to say that she’s not Katie and her name is Marissa. All along her identity has been stolen from her even though the picture that was sent to Ryder was her picture. Uh-oh. I like her though. She’s pretty and she’s cute being all fangirly and she still wants to Ryder to call her. And I really think Ryder should. I would love a character in Glee who’s not singing and looks around going: “What is happening right now?” everytime there’s a random singing in the hallway. Ryder then went into a rage accusing Marley and Jake for trying to humiliate him. 

Then, we move on to Brittany and Sam singing a song for Lord Tubbington. Everyone else in New Directions came in with a candle. What’s with the candle? They were looking at each other confused as to why Brittany is singing a love song to her cat.

 

Yeah, me too, Tina, me too. Blaine in the background looked back at Sam and probably wondering why his bro is putting up with this. Now, Blaine, it’s okay. Never ever question Brittany and how her mind works, bud.

Then we move to Mr Schue being invited to a dinner with his friend, Coach Bieste.

But I don’t think this is a just-friends dinner, Mr Schue. The setting looks too romantic to be a just-friends dinner. So they were sitting having dinner in the middle of the locker room, Mr Schue was eating his pasta and commented how it was really delicious and God, I almost puked my chrysanthemum tea (I’m having a cough. Awww) back out when Coach Bieste mentioned how she boiled the pasta in the training tub. Ewww… Mr Schue’s face was priceless when he puked it back out.  Then Coach Bieste mentioned how Mr Schue was the first man to ever make her feel like a girl and that since they are both single now, she wanted him to be the man in her life. Awww… But Mr Schue announced that he’s back with Emma. Oh? I must have missed something. Coach Bieste then left crying. Awww…

Then, we see Ryder texting Katie back and forth, etc etc. And then they set up a meeting to meet the next day after school outside of the choir room.

 

I was wondering what was up with the whole graphic above because it looked weird and all along, I realized I have been looking at the black side and not the white side. It’s a face! Well, the above is Ryder’s face! I feel so stupid now. 

It’s back to Brittany announcing to her astronomy club that her prediction is false. No meteor is hitting Lima and that all along her telescope is the Pringles can and the meteor is actually a dead ladybug. Ewww… so she’s disbanding the astronomy club. Homeless Brett   was disappointed because the club was his community service. Oh, homeless Brett. I like you a lot. Becky looked sad and stayed behind to talk to Brittany. She confessed to Brittany that she looks up to her. Awww… And told her that they should not graduate because the world outside is scary. Awww Becky… Brittany told Becky that both of them needs to move on.

 

Coach Bieste was invited to the choir room to celebrate the world is not ending day  And you thought it would end there? Nope, we then heard a shot rang out and a scream and another shot.

Oh god, this is the plot. School schooting. Shooting star. I told you, there’s something to do with the title of the episode.

Coach Bieste and Mr Schue got into action and got everyone to spread out and hide in the choir room while Coach Bieste closed the door and switched off the lights. Outside was chaos with students running out of the school.

Inside the choir room, it was silent and dark. Mr Schue told the kids to start texting and tweeting what’s happening but not to let them know where they are, which is basically a smart thing to do. Then we heard someone trying to open the choir room doors but it was locked. Marley was crying while Sam was trying to get out to look for Brittany who was in the bathroom. Blaine, rocking back and forth, told Sam that Tina wasn’t there either.

 

Darren’s acting here is perfect. Subtle without saying much but his actions speak louder than words ever could exactly how Blaine felt inside. Like any, he’s scared for himself and his best friend who’s not there with him and not knowing what’s happening outside.

The camera then showed the aftermath of everyone leaving abruptly – showers were still on, balls and gym bags were still lying on the floor. In the toilet, Brittany was standing on the toilet bowl crying and hiding from view of the shooter. The hallway was eerily empty.

Back in the choir room, Marley was furiously texting her mother who was in the kitchen hiding. Kitty was apologizing to Marley but I can’t hear a single thing while trying not to cry. She ran across the room to hug Unique and Sam still tried to get out of the room to look for Brittany. Coach Bieste and Mr Schue had to hold him down while he’s struggling to get out. 

Tina was outside begging the principal to go back into the choir room. It was heartbreaking to see Tina so helpless outside while her friends, particularly her best friend, was still inside the choir room.

 

Artie took a video of almost everyone with their message who could be their last message ever. Blaine refused to do it. Most would like to see him give a message to Kurt but we all know, especially the Klainers, that Blaine will never say goodbye to Kurt. That’s their promise to each other – to never say goodbye. So I will take that scene as his refusal to say goodbye – to Kurt or to his parents or to Cooper. I’m going to guess as well that he wants to hold on to some form of hope.

In the toilet, Brittany heard a door opened. She looked panicked for a while and was about to cry until she realized that it’s Mr Schue. A couple of other students were also hiding out in the toilet and came out. 

In the choir room, Ryder wanted to call “Katie” and the phone rang out in the room. Oooh, so “Katie” is probably one of the New Directions. Everyone was telling Ryder to hang up the phone and you could see Blaine’s panicked white-stricken face begging him to hang up. Not just them, I was screaming for him to put the goddamn phone down! I swear, I was about to shake my laptop around and if I could get my hand into the screen, I would smack Ryder’s head. 

Mr Schue walked Brittany and the two other students back into the choir room to safety. Oh there’s a SWAT guy there who’s searching around for the shooter and also to see whether the school is safe. Blaine, from being quite calm, was already crying not-so-silently by the piano until they heard an all clear from the SWAT team. Everyone was crying and hugging and I’m crying and hugging my pillow. At the end of the scene, you could hear Blaine on the phone with his mom. Finally, Blaine is not parentless! He has a mom. Creying right now! And he called his mom “mommy”. Creying some more.

 

The whole reaction to the shooting was emotionally intense. I know that no one will ever know how a school shooting survivor ever feels but if we ever want to know, this is probably the closest thing to it. The panic and uncertainty for those still stuck inside the school and panic from those who escaped from the school and still has friends inside. The acting here was great all around.

The next day, SWAT team was checking the school lockers for guns while students looked on. At the entrance, there was a metal detector. In the teacher’s room, Mr Schue and Coach Bieste were looking outside at the students talking about safety in school and a student walking around with a gun when Sue announced that she’s the owner of the gun, which she confessed to Principal Figgins. She told him that the gun accidentally went off twice. We all know what will happen even before Principal Figgins said anything. Sue would be fired from her job. I love Sue’s line about how her entire career achievement and people would remember her for the one fault that she did.

The next scene we have Blaine and Tina walking down the hall. Blaine was telling Tina how he and his parents couldn’t sleep the whole night and ended up talking and crying and hugging. Okay, the Glee creators should now cast Blaine’s parents. Seriously, they seem nameless but now we know they are, well, there. Tina told Blaine how her parents wanted her to stay at home for a week. Then another heartbreaking scene when she told Blaine she felt helpless that she couldn’t help him, get to him or say goodbye to him. Then they hugged and cried and laughed and it was sweet and I’m crying and laughing and hugging my pillow.

 

I love their friendship. It was reminiscence of Kurt and Rachel. It was creepy before when Tina had a crush on Blaine but I felt that it just made their friendship a little bit stronger. Anyway, so they walked away holding hands. 

We move to another set of best friends trying to figure out who is the real “Katie”. I find this storyline a little bit draggy. Come on! With all the emotional scenes going on, we then have this. It’s a little bit of a letdown.

Then we found out that Mr Schue registered Coach Bieste to a dating site and hey, we got an I love you from Coach Bieste and Mr Schue so why didn’t we get one between Ryder and Jake? Anyway, so Coach Bieste had one match and he is… Ken Tanaka! Oh my God! I’m choking.

So then we see Sam and Brittany in the hallway hugging each other, yada yada yada, and Sam proposed a fake family to Brittany. And here, I thought Glee was gonna use Heather being pregnant in real life but nope, Sam surprised Brittany with a cat!

 

Sorry for the screencap but oh God, the cat was purring and this was the face. HA!

Sue was packing up when Mr Schue came in and confronted her. We then found out the real story – Becky was scared of the uncertainty of the world outside and showed the gun she brought. Sue was trying to pacify her and tried to get the gun from her when Becky accidentally triggered it and when she dropped it, it went off again. So Sue was covering up for Becky and her life was ruined because of it. Before Sue left, she told Mr Schue to keep an eye for Becky.

I will skip Ryder waiting for “Katie” outside the choir room and moved to Blaine singing “Say” because Blaine is singing. Period. Everything else is of non importance. Blaine is singing. So you sit down, pay attention and listen closely to the velvety voice of Darren singing.

 

In the end we see everyone’s video message. 

So that’s the end of one of the most intense episodes of Glee. It could have gone very wrong because it is tackling an issue that’s haunting America right now. The latest school shooting with the youngest victims ever have gripped not just the nation but the whole world. So it is an issue in America and Glee, for how ever much I might hate it sometimes, never back down from touching on an issue like this. As every Gleek knows, when Glee does it right, Glee does it so right.

Some people say that this could be an Emmy-nominated episode. I do think so as well. However, Glee has always been in the category of Comedy. Unless it changes to Drama, the episode won’t be nominated even though it was brilliant, which is sad.