Really? After Rachel’s dads, I thought that was the worst part of the show: it was completely bloodless. Made me realize that none of the actors – let alone their characters – is probably old enough to really know/love it. Which made me feel old.
I also found that number to be a let down, with a surprisingly weak performance from Darren Criss (Blaine). In character I suppose it makes sense that he wasn’t at his best, since he just got out of the hospital/recovered from the ritual dismemberment and regeneration of his mortal form that must occur every winter so the crops will grow again*, but this should have been a really fun, energetic number and instead it just seemed sort of perfunctory.
*I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed that Sugar explicitly said he’d returned from the dead.
Why is she even there? She’s annoying as hell and a totally useless character.
Good question. At the beginning of the season I expected that she, like Sunshine last year, would be introduced to generate some conflict and then basically disappear. Instead she’s become a regular member of New Directions for no clear in-world or dramatic reason. Maybe it’s just so the choir doesn’t have to worry about fundraising anymore?
I guess she could also be there because the writers wish to maintain a roughly even gender split in the group – by my count the New Directions membership currently includes 7 girls and 8 boys, with Teen Jesus likely to become the 9th soon – but have a hard time coming up with female characters who aren’t 1) crazy, 2) bitches, or 3) crazy bitches.
Thinking of female characters, I note that Tina (who isn’t particularly crazy or bitch and thus rarely has anything to do) had a duet this week after being weirdly absent for the past episode and a half. She disappeared partway through “Michael”, not appearing in the closing “Black or White” number despite being one of the few non-white members of the group, and I don’t think she was even in the background in “The Spanish Teacher”. While there was a storyline devoted to Blaine’s absence during the same period, I don’t remember there being even one line to explain why Tina wasn’t around.
My best fanwank is that Blaine needed someone with vampiric powers to look after him while he was in a weakened state.