“Glee” was back from hiatus this week after nearly two months during which we were left to ponder whether teen lovebirds Finn and Rachel tied the knot and Quinn’s fate after her car accident. The show opened with Quinn in a wheelchair, singing “I’m Still Standing” in a duet with paraplegic Artie, because, why not?
Quinn tells the group (including unmarried but still together Finn and Rachel) that her spine was compressed, but that she’s recovering and will be right as rain in no time at all. Wishful thinking? Maybe.
Meanwhile, Rachel breaks down over Quinn’s accident, and Quinn remains levelheaded and reassures Rachel that she is not going to let her accident define her. Is it hard for anyone else to believe that psycho Quinn from the beginning of this season is now the voice of reason? Moving on …
The seniors head off to Six Flags for Senior Ditch Day, which really wasn’t important enough to mention here other than I thought it was funny that the kids from Lima, Ohio were riding Viper, a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain — in southern California. Trust me, I’ve ridden that corkscrew hundreds of times.
This week’s guest star was Matt Bomer, who was totally dreamy as Blaine’s older brother Cooper. They did a great Rio cover, and I’m not ashamed to admit I may have swooned a little. The kids were star struck too, because he had been in a credit report web site commercial, which totally qualified him to give lessons on how to “make it” in Hollywood.
As Cooper was giving advice on not going to college, and how to pose for head shots, I couldn’t help but think of Flynn Rider and his smolder. Come on, parents of little girls everywhere, you know exactly what I’m talking about! If not, go here to clue in.
Blaine finally stands up to his critical big brother and yells, “Why can’t you just support me? You’re my brother!” Then they sing “Somebody That I Used To Know,” and Cooper tells Blaine that he’s only pushed Blaine so hard because he’s insanely talented and wants him to take over the entertainment world.
Getting back to Quinn, who may, or may not, be in total denial about the severity of her spinal injury … quirky kid Joe tells her he’s been praying for her and she says yeah, “I’ve been praying to walk again as well …” He says, “No, I don’t pray for you to walk, I ask God to help you accept whatever your journey may be.” She responds with, “I appreciate your prayers. I do. But when you’re done praying, you get to get up off your knees and walk away.”
I think that accepting that bad things happen is one of the hardest parts of the human experience. Atheists sometimes rationalize their feelings with some variation of, “How can I believe in a God that lets bad things happen?” I won’t pretend to know how to satisfactorily answer that question, but I can tell you why I believe in God: I don’t believe something comes from nothing. Where did the universe come from if not from a creator?
Moving on from the completely non-controversial topic of religion to the equally easy to talk about subject of teen marriage, let’s talk about Finn and Rachel again. Puck is trying to convince Finn to move to California after graduation to start a pool-cleaning business. Rachel has every intention of moving to New York to pursue a career on Broadway. Finn asks her to move to California and take the movie route, an option that does not seem to thrill Rachel. Finn tells her, “I just want you to be really sure, I want you to be really sure, that you’re in love with me and not who you want me to be.”
Ah yes, marriage is hard. Gluing your life to someone else’s means you don’t get to make decisions all by yourself anymore. You always have to take the other person’s needs and wants into consideration. I hope that Glee decides to show the positive side of getting married young (it’s been fun growing and growing up with my husband!), but I won’t hold my breath.