I had a very strong reaction to last night’s episode of Glee. I know that sounds silly – it’s just a show, but I can’t stop thinking about it. If you haven’t watched it yet, and plan to, please don’t read this post because it’s extremely spoiler heavy.

Spoiler spoiler spoiler.

Okay.

So last night’s main story revolved around Karofsky being “outed” as gay, and then, after being bullied, trying to kill himself. Juxtaposed by Blaine’s song, the whole scene was incredibly heartbreaking. And while it was extremely sad, what, to me at least, was sadder was that these things happen all the time. I read a story last week about gay youths taking their lives after constant bullying and it brought me to tears. It’s not that I wasn’t aware of this situation – I was, I have quite a few gay friends – but I just can’t imagine how bad it must be for them. Especially right now, when politicians are practically trying to fight over who hates gay people more. I can’t imagine being a person who says liking someone is wrong. Or, more appropriately for today, marrying someone is wrong. It just feels so outdated. All of these hateful words are convincing kids to take their lives. Who’s the bad guy in that situation?

So that whole plot line was emotional and true and horrifying. But then the show went on and in a -admittedly sweet- scene, Mr. Schue has all of the characters list things they’re excited for, to show them that there are events and people worth living for. It’s true, there are. Quinn, who’s had a weird season, is excited about finally being on track and going to Yale. She even, later in the episode, becomes a cheerleader again. A character went through a lot, survived, and came out okay.

The kids sing and win regionals. Despite being a sad episode, the songs made me smile.Kurt goes to visit Karofsky in the hospital and, in an incredibly tender scene, shows Karofsky that there are good things to come. He imagines his future, where he has a son and a husband and everything is okay. They agree to be friends. It’s a sweet scene and again drives home the sadness some youths go through.

And that is where the episode should have ended. It would have been a complete story, with a nice message. Bullying is bad. Look for good things in your life. Honestly, they’re around the corner.

But, of course, it didn’t. Rachel and Finn decide to go and get married. Quinn drives clearly across the state to get her bridesmaid dress. And here’s when the writers went all Niffenegger-like (this isn’t saying Audrey Niffenegger is a mean person, it’s saying that she clearly loves destroying her characters. Read her books. You’ll see why I say this. BTW-I love her books, despite the destruction. I think it makes them more interesting. End of derailing.). While texting and driving, Quinn is hit by a car. End of episode.

Okay.

Now, clearly the creators had the Quinn plot put in for two reasons:

1) To stop the Rachel/Finn wedding. If this was the primary reason, I would have been so upset. It’s senseless, really.

2) To show the dangers of texting and driving. There are dangers, clearly. People shouldn’t do it. It’s killing other people. This is obvious.

Here’s the thing, though. I understand wanting to preach those dangers, I just feel like they should have done it in a different episode. The episode was complete without the Quinn situation and I think the whole car accident took away from the episode. Here’s why –

Quinn had a difficult situation. She overcame it. Good is coming her way. That’s the message of the episode, right? Conquer your challenges and you’ll be okay! But just as things are going well BOOM. Now I highly doubt she died – that’s a lot for Glee – but I find it wrong that just as a character figures themselves out, they get thrown back. That cheapens the message they’ve been spreading.

So that’s my reaction. I’m sure there’s a whole reason behind the car accident, but I just feel like the episode was very, very good without it.

And as a side note – as mentioned in the post, I have quite a few gay friends. I’ve been there with them through the ups and downs, the coming outs and the accepting oneself. If anyone EVER needs someone to talk to, you can talk to me. Things to get better. I promise.