(Spoilers lurk below.)
Is it possible for two outstanding acts to save an entire episode? Is it possible for one very offensive and wrong-headed writing decision to tank it? And what can you say about something that contains the absolute bottom of the barrel, the absolute cream of the crop, and a lot of meandering and mediocre bullshit? I’ve never been more glad that I don’t assign ratings to episodes I review, because for “Shooting Star” it would be absolutely impossible. I don’t think I could boil my opinion of this episode down to anything shorter than a few paragraphs. And lucky you, you’re going to get something quite a bit longer than that.
The first two acts are among the goofiest that Glee has ever done, while at the same time taking a break here and there for something serious. Brittany announces that she has discovered an asteroid/comet/meteor that is hurtling towards Earth and will kill them all, and she really feels like she needs to make amends with Lord Tubbington before that happens. Then we spend a lot of time watching Brittany try to connect with her cat while her friends, including Sam and Will, just seem to encourage her. Brittany generally comes across as “funny” dumb, but in this episode she started to veer into “scary” dumb territory. It really felt like she needed to be on some kind of medication. Anyway, she eventually discovers that the comet was actually just a dead ladybug on the lens of her telescope, and also that her telescope was actually just a Pringles can, and in shame she disbands the Astronomy Club that she somehow was president of. So much for that utterly pointless plotline. Next!
Ryder finds out (shock horror!) that his online girlfriend Katie hasn’t been entirely truthful to him when he finds the girl whose photograph she sent him, Marissa. While he seems to have had a shot at scoring with Marissa after his oddly smooth approach at her, he becomes more concerned with finding out who’s been tricking him. Katie claims that aside from the name and photo she’s been entirely truthful, but Ryder understandably thinks that someone is fucking with him. In a difficult-to-watch scene, he accuses Marley and Jake of doing it, just because they know him well enough to pull it off. It’s sad to see Ryder so upset that he’s lashing out at two of his few friends. He eventually agrees to meet Katie after school and sort everything out.
Also, Shannon makes a pass at Will, who has to break it to her that he’s back with Emma. We then see the return of weepy insecure Shannon as she proves she can’t take rejection.
All of this wandering unfocussed shit leads into the two standout acts of the episode, as Will, the kids, and Shannon meet in the choir room and suddenly hear two gunshots ring out from somewhere in the distance, but not quite distant enough for comfort. After a moment of horrible indecision, Will orders everyone to spread out and hide, and he turns off the lights and locks the doors. What follows is claustrophobic and terrifying. The show refuses to let us out of the choir room for a long time and does not let us know what’s happening, so the audience feels as lost and hopeless as the kids.
We watch as Sam, who knows that Brittany is somewhere out there, waits, gets impatient, makes an attempt to leave to find her but it talked out of it by Will, and finally tries to force his way out of the choir room and has to be physically restrained by Will and Shannon. Artie starts allowing people to leave video messages on his cell phone, because “if we don’t get out of here, then people need to see this.” Kitty is finally able to have a real emotion (this is what it takes, huh?) and makes a confession to Marley in her terror of dying without making some kind of amends. Ryder calls Katie for the first time, because “she’s someone, and I still care about her,” only to hear someone’s phone in the choir room ring in response (they can’t tell whose it is). The only sound in the room, throughout all this, is a ticking metronome in the middle of the room that got knocked down in the confusion.
When we’re finally shown brief glimpses of the outside world, we see a stampede of kids leaving the school. We see Brittany hiding in the bathroom, standing on the toilet seat and crying. We see Tina, safely outside, begging Figgins to let her back in so she can be with her friends.
Finally, the SWAT team comes through and gives the all clear. And at the end of these two acts, we know nothing about what happened or why, just like the kids.
Glee has never been afraid to go to a dark place, and with the major exception of last season’s “Choke,” they’ve been fairly successful at it. The two acts of the kids waiting in the dark choir room, scared, confused, lost, and helpless, made for some of the best writing, acting, and directing the series has ever done. The refusal to let the audience know anything about what was happening and the refusal to cut the tension at all until the very end were brilliant decisions that allowed this part of the episode to really stand out.
And, fortunately, these acts stand on their own. Fortunate, because the rest of the episode does not live up to them.
Several days later, with metal detectors now at every entrance to WMHS and a school-wide locker search ongoing for the still missing shooter and gun (no witnesses and not so much as a bullet hole was found, but everyone heard the shots), Sue finally confesses that it was her gun. She tells Figgins that she kept it in her office for security, and that she accidentally dropped it while cleaning it, causing it to go off. With no other choice, Figgins fires her. Sue is very blasé about the whole thing, and we finally find out why via flashback: the gun was actually Becky’s. Scared of graduating, Becky lost her shit and brought the gun into Sue’s office, although I’m still not sure what she planned on doing with it (she claims it’s to “be prepared”). Becky drops the gun by mistake when Sue tries to take it, and it goes off. Sue takes the blame to protect Becky, and her last request to Will is to “keep an eye on Becky.”
Sue’s behavior here is presented as noble, but it’s actually pretty reprehensible. Becky just proved herself to be a danger to herself and others, and Sue learned that Becky, a child with Down Syndrome, lives in a household with parents who do not know how to adequately secure their firearms (Becky swiped the gun from her dad). How long until Becky has another episode and shoots someone? How long until she accidentally shoots herself? She clearly has problems even beyond Down Syndrome, and by covering up what Becky did, Sue is preventing her from getting any help. She could easily be condemning Becky, who she loves, to die of her own psychosis because no one is going to know about this horrible warning sign. That is absolutely and utterly disgusting, and instead of seeing Sue leaving as a hero, I see her leaving as an idiot who endangers children because she doesn’t want to face that Becky has a major problem, and perhaps should not be in public school. It’s selfish, it’s wrong, and it’s unforgivable. It’s definitely not heroic.
Oh yeah, also the kids had some reactions to the scare too. Tina admits that the glee club is her family and has a pretty good crying scene with Blaine, and Ryder waits to meet Katie but she doesn’t show up.
Also, Will helps Shannon post a profile on an online dating site, and the first response was from Ken Tanaka, which was pretty funny.
And Sam bought Brittany another cat.
My feelings were all over the map during this episode. I was bored, I was riveted, I was terrified, I was confused, I was angry, I was offended, I was disappointed. What did I think about it? See above. I’m not even going to try to put any kind of summation of my opinion down here.
This was a very musically sparse episode, at three songs the sparsest we’ve had in a long time. While “More than Words” was decent on its own, the very fact that it was being sung to and about a cat that Brittany was trying to make amends with before a comet that she discovered destroyed the world… kinda robbed it of any dignity. “Your Song” was actually a lot of fun, and it could have been a lot more awkward if Marissa hadn’t decided that Ryder managed to fall on the “charming” side of the charming/creepy dichotomy. “Say” was the highlight of the episode, as it gave a quiet moment of contemplation as we came down off those awful all-around events, and allowed Ryder to find where he belongs right now. The further shots of messages from other glee kids on Artie’s cell phone as the song ends were cloying, but they came from a real place and it made for a nice coda to the episode.
Other thoughts:
Word I learned from Glee today: “textlationship.”
I’m impressed at Marley’s industriousness if she actually built a fake bottom for her desk drawer just to hide some songs she wrote.
Why the hell did they leave the bathroom (and all at once) after Will found Brittany and two other students hiding in there before the all clear?
At least Blaine can quit the Cheerios now? That plotline sure went nowhere.
