Blaine's dark side

I admit, the first time I watched the performance of My Dark Side I wasn't thinking too much about the meaning of the lyrics or how they pertained to Blaine's situation particularly. I was too busy being excited over Blaine singing with the Warblers again (in his blazer!!!) and swooning over Warbler Jeff (who I affectionately refer to as Cutie-Blondie Warbler, and who I realize is far too young for 27 year-old me to be swooning over). The second time I watched it I began listening to lyrics more and decided I didn't think it quite fit. My sister's boyfriend summed it up when he asked, "Why is Blaine asking the Warblers to stay?" And I had to think about that. Why was he asking the Warblers to stay? They're the ones who are always trying to lure him back to Dalton. They're the ones who want him. Did he think they wouldn't like who he'd become during his time at McKinley? Did he think they wouldn't be his friend without his talent? Was he worried they would judge him for what he had done to Kurt? I didn't really get it.

It was until the third time I watched the performance that it clicked. Blaine wasn't singing to the Warblers. And he wasn't singing to New Directions. No, Blaine was singing to himself. The place he knows that isn't so pretty, that hardly anyone ever goes? That's McKinley. And he's asking himself if he's going to stay, even if it hurts. He went there to be with Kurt. That was his only reason for transferring. And so yes, everything McKinley hurts now that Kurt is gone; gone from the halls, gone from his life. Going back to Dalton would be running away. Running to a place where he can go back to LBKPRBW (Life Before Katy Perry Rocked Blaine's World) and pretend this horrible thing that he did never happened. He's not asking if the Warblers really love him or if New Directions ever really accepted him. He's asking himself for forgiveness.

I'm finding Blaine's cheating storyline to be very interestingly handled. Let's be for real, cheating is hardly untouched ground for Glee. If I am remembering correctly Quinn, Puck, Finn, Rachel, Tina, Brittany, Sam, and Mercedes have all cheated on their respective love people. Puck, Finn, Rachel, Mike, Santana, and Sam have all been the "other" in a cheating scenario. Most of these other cheating storylines took place over an episode. Why have we had four episodes in row that have dealt with either the act itself or the aftermath? What makes Blaine's experience any different? In my opinion, I find it interesting that he's the first person to take any kind of ownership or responsibility for what he did. Blaine is devastated and does nothing but blame and berate himself. He's tortured with the guilt of hurting Kurt. In contrast, in season 2 Tina almost gleefully told Artie she had cheated with Mike and was leaving for him, Rachel tried to excuse her behavior by comparing it to Finn's past with Santana, Sam started dating Santana before breaking up with Quinn for revenge, and Brittany (bless her) still probably has no idea she cheated on Artie. To be completely fair, Mercedes also took ownership of actions and told Shane immediately after cheating with Sam, but since her and Shane's relationship was something basically no one was interested in (partially because Shane had no personality whatsoever, not to mention dude couldn't act his way out of a paper bag), it didn't need more than a quick side arc over two episodes.

I'm interested to see where they take Blaine from this. He's had so little character development outside of his relationship with Kurt, that I'd like this to be the beginning of him really finding himself (as he mentions in the song!!) as a person and not part of a couple. Even though I maybe didn't get it right away (again, I'm blaming Cutie Blondie Warbler's adorableness) My Dark Side turned out to be a fairly brilliant song choice for Blaine and sets the stage nicely for things to come. 

In fact, for the first time in a while, I feel like every song this episode was expertly chosen to both fit the theme AND the characters singing. Sure, if I so choose I could read too much into the differences in song choices between the two male duos and the female duet (such as why were both boy songs about being heroes while the girl song was about needing a hero?), but instead I'm choosing to reinterpret Holding Out for a Hero as Marley not choosing between her Mega-Studs, but needing to accept herself, warts and all, and be her own hero (just like Blaine has to accept himself as someone who made a mistake and hurt someone he loved). Because in the end, if they keep going with her bulimia story, she really is the one who'll have to save herself.

And what can you do?

I started watching Alphas solely because I miss Mr. Vincent Nigel-Murray on Bones. He was my favorite squintern, and I seriously wept at his death two seasons ago. The kind of science-fiction of Alphas is not usually too much my thing, but I was scrolling through Netflix options the other day and came across it and decided to give it a try.

Let's be for real, Alphas main premise, people with unusual abilities, has been done before. I mean Heroes, anyone? But there is enough in its universe to make it compelling and not a poor knock-off like it could have become. I really enjoy the tenuous relationship the main Alpha teams has with the government. And I hope they explore more how conflicting it must be for the team to do what they do, seeing as mostly they're finding people just like them for the sole purpose of locking them away. Their own fear of the government turning on them and locking them away too is palpable in many episodes, coming to a head when their handlers incarcerated them all looking for a mole in the group. I hope they delve more into the main team's thought process on what makes them different from those they put away.

I do really enjoy how, unlike say Heroes, the abilities often seem rooted in science. As if a certain bodily mutation could make the ability possible. Bill's ability is triggered by his fight or flight response. Cameron's was compared to someone with perfect pitch. My only complaint about their abilities, at least as pertains to the five main team members, is that they are all cliches that match their character. The autistic boy is a virtual computer. The big black man is super strong. The hot girl can push you to do anything she wants. The all-American white boy has perfect aim. And the shy, overly sensitive girl is literally over sensitive. Wouldn't it have perhaps been more compelling to watch the geeky autistic boy bust out his super strength? To see the shy, socially awkward girl bend people to her will? I think people who are more incongruous, have more layers and conflicting personality traits and abilities are more interesting.

I have only just finished Season One, which ended with quite a reveal (literally: the alphas were revealed to the world on national TV much to the dismay of the government) and am looking forward to where this will take the team.