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.