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Funerals, shifting loyalties, and growing up - as told by Glee
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crown_of_weeds was getting me all thinky about the wasting away of Kurtcedes, so I went back to Grilled Cheesus (S2Ep3) to see if that's where it all began. I was scrolling through to get to the Kurtcedes scenes, when up popped a still image of two hands, poking out from black trench-coats and clasped together. For a moment, I forgot where I was and thought it was Kurt and Blaine at Pavarotti's burial in Original Song (S2Ep16). Then I remembered where I was, hit play, and realized duh, it was Burt and little Kurt at Mom's funeral. The camera focuses on their hands, Burt's hand over and Kurt's hand under, and then Burt leads Kurt away.
In Original Song, the camera focuses on two hands, poking out from black trench-coats and clasped together, but this time they are Blaine and Kurt's, Blaine's hand over and Kurt's hand under, and they walk off the screen together, neither in the lead.
What immediately popped into my mind was (and please excuse the heterosexism of the quote and of the entire context of the quote; I didn't write the Bible): "a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5).
I tend to feel sorry for all those poor Bible writers who didn't understand the complexities of human sexuality, so I do them the favor of rephrasing what they wrote so they don't come off as too backward. As a result, how I've long heard this phrase is, "A person shall leave zir parents and hold fast to zir spouse, and they shall become one flesh." *
Contemplating the funeral scenes from Grilled Cheesus and Original Song, all I can think is, "Kurt is leaving his father to hold fast to Blaine." And then I wonder if that's what RIB and the cinematographers and editors were thinking and, holy shit, was that a promise - or at least an implication - that Kurt and Blaine are endgame?
I'm not saying that the Glee creators were thinking of the biblical quote per se - I'm sure this interpretation of the scenes as a leaving-the-nest story could also work without it. But I'm pretty sure they must have been thinking something when they paralleled these scenes this way. (And I become more convinced that leaving the nest is exactly what they had in mind when I think of all the bird references in the episode.)
What do you think?(Besides that I need to remove the bible-lenses from my brain?)
* For gay-positive takes on this verse, without gender-neutralization of the contents, see Ruth Loved Naomi as Adam Loved Eve or Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott's Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, pages 81-82. The latter may have saved my life or at least my sanity in high school, so I've got a soft spot for it, even if I'm not a Christian anymore.
crown_of_weeds was getting me all thinky about the wasting away of Kurtcedes, so I went back to Grilled Cheesus (S2Ep3) to see if that's where it all began. I was scrolling through to get to the Kurtcedes scenes, when up popped a still image of two hands, poking out from black trench-coats and clasped together. For a moment, I forgot where I was and thought it was Kurt and Blaine at Pavarotti's burial in Original Song (S2Ep16). Then I remembered where I was, hit play, and realized duh, it was Burt and little Kurt at Mom's funeral. The camera focuses on their hands, Burt's hand over and Kurt's hand under, and then Burt leads Kurt away.In Original Song, the camera focuses on two hands, poking out from black trench-coats and clasped together, but this time they are Blaine and Kurt's, Blaine's hand over and Kurt's hand under, and they walk off the screen together, neither in the lead.
What immediately popped into my mind was (and please excuse the heterosexism of the quote and of the entire context of the quote; I didn't write the Bible): "a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5).
I tend to feel sorry for all those poor Bible writers who didn't understand the complexities of human sexuality, so I do them the favor of rephrasing what they wrote so they don't come off as too backward. As a result, how I've long heard this phrase is, "A person shall leave zir parents and hold fast to zir spouse, and they shall become one flesh." *
Contemplating the funeral scenes from Grilled Cheesus and Original Song, all I can think is, "Kurt is leaving his father to hold fast to Blaine." And then I wonder if that's what RIB and the cinematographers and editors were thinking and, holy shit, was that a promise - or at least an implication - that Kurt and Blaine are endgame?
I'm not saying that the Glee creators were thinking of the biblical quote per se - I'm sure this interpretation of the scenes as a leaving-the-nest story could also work without it. But I'm pretty sure they must have been thinking something when they paralleled these scenes this way. (And I become more convinced that leaving the nest is exactly what they had in mind when I think of all the bird references in the episode.)
What do you think?
* For gay-positive takes on this verse, without gender-neutralization of the contents, see Ruth Loved Naomi as Adam Loved Eve or Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott's Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, pages 81-82. The latter may have saved my life or at least my sanity in high school, so I've got a soft spot for it, even if I'm not a Christian anymore.
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The first time I saw it, I worried that Kurt was thinking, 'No, actually, having you is not better than going to Nationals, and fuck am I sorry to have made you fall in love with me before I realized that, OMG you're so clingy, yeah, I'm just gonna go back to McKinley now and no, we will not be continuing this relationship afterward.'
LOL BWAHAHAHA. The first time I saw it, I didn't have exactly that reaction, but I remember feeling like Kurt might have been humoring Blaine a bit. I don't know why, but this time I felt like Kurt's smile was genuine, and Blaine's words actually helped. Maybe it's because I know they stay together long-term.
Yeah, I don't think that they're saying Blaine is like Burt at all (which would be creeeeeeeepy, at least to me, and really not reflect their characters), or even that he's replacing him in Kurt's heart (though I might not have been clear about it above).
I don't think it would be creepy necessarily. Kurt loves Burt to bits, and Burt has many excellent qualities. In many ways, Freud was a crack addict, but I think he was onto something with the idea that people often seek out the same positive traits in their partners that they enjoyed in the people they grew up with. But I definitely don't feel like the show has gone to any effort to show similarities between Blaine and Burt. The replacing thing only came to mind because Blaine was comforting Kurt at Pavarotti's funeral and Burt wasn't there. And because of the similarities you pointed out between the handholding shots.
Also I'm a little shocked that there even are similarities. It's like they have continuity or something. I just looked it up, and those two episodes have different directors, but of course the writers and crew and cinematographer and everything were the same throughout the season. So somebody involved was like "Funeral! We've done this before! Lets do a handholding thing again, for the parallels." Go them!
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