Why there needs to be more Emma Pillsbury on Glee.

A rant written at the end of Season 2:

Question: Why were the first 13 episodes of Glee so good? Answer: Because Emma Pillsbury was in twelve of them. Does the fact that many subsequent episodes not meeting our expectations and the fact that Emma was AWOL in these episodes have any correlation? I think so! Let’s work our way, obsessively and compulsively, through the reasons why there needs to be more Ms P in Glee. 

The Importance of Emma Pillsbury to Glee: Emma Pillsbury is more than Will’s love interest. Emma gives the stories more depth and paradoxically her ‘crazy’ grounds the show and gives some of the more outrageous moments a sense of reality and pathos. Emma is one of the most interesting and complex characters on Glee and to quote Sue Sylvester it's ‘a travesty of international proportions’ that she has been so under utilized. Jayma is able to convey the interesting binary opposites of Emma's character to perfection. She is strong but vulnerable; naïve but insightful; is hazy about her own needs but can help others find clarity in an instant; sexy but innocent; poised but unsure; intelligent but irrational. Her OCD is perhaps the root cause of these opposites and it serves to make her even more intriguing. She can add humour to any given scene and in an instant she can turn the humour into tragedy. She is often the conduit for the audience accepting some of the absurdities in Glee. It is to Jayma’s credit that she elicits from the audiences such enormous empathy and interest. Which is WHY EMMA NEEDS TO BE IN EVERY EPISODE.

OCD: RIB have not shied away from issues concerning homophobia, sexuality, bullying, body image, religion and disabilities and they should not shy away from mental health issues. It is one of the fastest growing health problems in the western world and in Australia, at least, mental health experts have declared a ‘state of emergency’ in youth mental health. Bring Emma's anxiety disorder closer to the forefront, show it is a condition that can be helped and allow viewers who may suffer from it or feel ashamed or  estranged from their family or friends because of it, be INSPIRED. Emma Pillsbury has helped many a person on a Glee forum admit they have an anxiety disorder and this is yet another reason why there needs to be MORE MS P ON GLEE.

Will and Emma: Jayma and Matt have CHEMISTRY and look EXCEPTIONALLY good together. As Emma and Will, they centre Glee. They bring out the best in each other. Emma balances Will perfectly; he is physically strong but emotionally vulnerable (‘tearing up more often than Michael Landon in a sweeps week of Little House on the Prairie!), while she appears physically vulnerable but has enormous resilience and spent the best part of two seasons in emotional denial. Will leads with his heart and Emma leads with her head. They are each other’s compass and are considerably lost without each other. They always have each other’s best interests in mind and protectively hold each other’s hearts. One without the other makes them (and us) feel incomplete and too much of one without the other creates an imbalance. Emma and Will together balance an episode and are the reason why many older fans watch Glee. RIB may think they have to pander to the more vocal younger audience but I'm here to say there is a massive silent older crowd who watch Glee for Emma Pillsbury and want to see her IN EVERY EPISODE. Now that Will and Emma have reconciled there is really NO EXCUSE for her not to be.

Jayma can sing and dance: And when she does they are some of the most memorable Glee moments: Toucha Toucha Touch Me, Like a Virgin, I could have Danced All Night and Afternoon Delight. Forty-four episodes and only four songs! I’ll say it again: UNDER UTILIZED! The Wemma shippers have not had nearly enough of her talents. Emma should take up zumba or have ongoing dancing lessons with Will, get an adrenaline rush, let the endorphins kick in and learn to feel comfortable using her body to express herself. It could take time. We’ll need to see her in EVERY EPISODE to see how she’s progressing.

Counseling and Pamphlets: One of the best segments in those first 13 episodes was Emma’s pamphlets and counseling the kids and Will. Who didn’t freeze frame a pamphlet segment just so they could read every pamphlet title to see how hilarious they were? Those pamphlets help give Glee its subversive edge and season 2 ignored them. Understandably, due to Emma’s story arc, she had less time with Will in her office but why wasn’t she used more in sorting out the students’ issues? Karofsky bullying Kurt, Quinn giving up a baby, Puck’s anger management issues? Even needy Rachel stopped visiting her. We need more Emma Pillsbury so we can get more pamphlets, in turn Glee can get its subversive edge back and the other characters’ situations can be dealt with rather than glanced over or ignored. MORE EMMA P IS ESSENTIAL to good Glee story-telling.

Fashion: "Within one episode, Emma could be disinfecting a pencil sharpener, offering advice, and dealing with overwhelming feelings for Will Schuester...What am I saying? I really just love the clothes." - Jayma Mays. And don’t we all? Emma steals the screen with her outfits. She is without doubt the fashionista of Glee and from the start helped to establish Glee’s quirky and colorful tone. Emma’s wardrobe has hit a chord with so many that www.wwepw.com has come into existence to unearth Emma’s clothing and direct Emma followers to where they may be purchased. ‘Kate Spade’, ‘Marc Jacobs’, ‘J. Crew’ ‘monochromatic’, ‘pencil skirts’, ‘asymmetrical button placement’ and ‘insane bows’ are now just part of the lexicon when discussing Emma. WWEPW has highlighted an interesting fact: Adding up all items in Emma’s wardrobe gives a total retail expenditure of $22,125. That’s more than half Emma’s salary. Therefore it begs the question: how does she afford the clothes? Is she shopping on EBay? Does she sit at home at night constantly sewing? Has she inherited great wealth? Who is her family? Does her brother buy her clothes as compensation for pushing her into the cow run-off? It is a mystery and the answer will only be discovered if Emma Pillsbury is given MORE AIR TIME IN EACH EPISODE.

Parallels with other characters: The parallels between Wemma and Finchel have been a constant from the start of the series so how about giving them more equal screen time? In addition parallels are emerging with Santana. As Emma was in denial about her feelings for Will and her OCD, so Santana was in denial about her true feelings for Brittany and her sexuality. If RIB are focusing further on Santana’s development and want to maintain parallels then Emma Pillsbury seems the obvious choice. Therefore more Santana should = MORE EMMA.

Drop dead gorgeous and adorable: It doesn’t hurt to look good! Our eyes just want to soak her in.

Understanding OCD

In an attempt to fully understand Emma Pillsbury and get inside her head, I have delved into the world of OCD. There are numerous websites containing insightful information into the disorder but Kidshealth.org is one of the most informative, succinct and clearly layed out websites I’ve come across. The information below is from it.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/OCD.html#

About OCD

OCD is a type of anxiety disorder. Kids with OCD become preoccupied with whether something could be harmful, dangerous, wrong, or dirty — or with thoughts about bad stuff that might happen. With OCD, upsetting or scary thoughts or images, called obsessions, pop into a person's mind and are hard to shake. Kids with OCD may also worry about things being out of "order" or not "just right." They may worry about losing "useless" items, sometimes feeling the need to collect these items.

Someone with OCD feels strong urges to do certain things repeatedly — called rituals or compulsions — in order to banish the scary thoughts, ward off something dreaded, or make extra sure that things are safe or clean or right. Children may have a difficult time explaining a reason for their rituals and say they do them "just because." But in general, by doing a ritual, someone with OCD is trying to feel absolutely certain that something bad won't happen.

Think of OCD as an "overactive alarm system." The rise in anxiety or worry is so strong that a child feels like he or she must perform the task or dwell on the thought, over and over again, to the point where it interferes with everyday life. Most kids with OCD realize that they really don't have to repeat the behaviors over and over again, but the anxiety can be so great that they feel that repetition is "required" to neutralize the uncomfortable feeling. And often the behavior does decrease the anxiety- but only temporarily. In the long run, the rituals only worsen OCD severity and prompt the obsessions to return.

Doctors and scientists don't know exactly what causes OCD, although recent research has led to a better understanding of OCD and its potential causes. Experts believe OCD is related to levels of a normal chemical in the brain called serotonin. When the proper flow of serotonin is blocked, the brain's "alarm system" overreacts and misinterprets information. Danger messages are mistakenly triggered like "false alarms." Instead of the brain filtering out these unnecessary thoughts, the mind dwells on them — and the person experiences unrealistic fear and doubt.

Genetic Link

Evidence is strong that OCD tends to run in families. Many people with OCD have one or more family members who also have it or other anxiety disorders influenced by the brain's serotonin levels. Because of this, scientists have come to believe that the tendency (or predisposition) for someone to develop the serotonin imbalance that causes OCD can be inherited through a person's genes.

Having the genetic tendency for OCD doesn't mean people will develop OCD, but it means there is a stronger chance they might. An imbalance of serotonin levels can also result in other types of anxiety or depression.

An estimated 1% of children in the United States experience OCD, which is characterized by a pattern of rituals and obsessive thinking that generally lasts more than an hour each day, causes a child distress, or interferes with daily activities. It's more prevalent than many other childhood disorders or illnesses, but kids often keep the symptoms hidden from their families, friends, and teachers because they're embarrassed by them.

OCD in kids is usually diagnosed between the ages of 7 and 12. Since these are the years when kids naturally feel concerned about fitting in with their friends, the discomfort and stress brought on by OCD can make them feel scared, out of control, and alone.

It's important to understand that the obsessive-compulsive behavior is not something that a child can stop by trying harder. OCD is a disorder, just like any physical disorder such as diabetes or asthma, and is not something kids can control or have caused themselves. It is also not something that parents have caused, although life events may at times worsen or trigger the onset of OCD in kids who are prone to develop it.

Common OCD Behaviors in Kids

OCD can make daily life difficult for the kids that it affects and for their families. The behaviors often take up a great deal of time and energy, making it more difficult to complete tasks, such as homework or chores, or to enjoy life.

In addition to feeling frustrated or guilty for not being able to control their own thoughts or actions, kids with OCD also may suffer from low self-esteem or from shame or embarrassment about what they're thinking or feeling (since they often realize that their fears are unrealistic, or that their rituals are not realistically going to prevent their feared events).

They also may feel pressured because they don't have enough time to do everything. A child might become irritable because he or she feels compelled to stay awake late into the night or miss an activity or outing to complete the compulsive rituals. Kids might have difficulties with attention or concentration because of the intrusive thoughts.

Among kids and teens with OCD, the most common obsessions include:

•                fear of dirt or germs

•                fear of contamination

•                a need for symmetry, order, and precision

•                religious obsessions

•                preoccupation with body wastes

•                lucky and unlucky numbers

•                sexual or aggressive thoughts

•                fear of illness or harm coming to oneself or relatives

•                preoccupation with household items

•                intrusive sounds or words

These compulsions are the most common among kids and teens:

•                grooming rituals, including hand washing, showering, and teeth brushing

•                repeating rituals, including going in and out of doorways, needing to move through spaces in a special way, or rereading, erasing, and rewriting

•                checking rituals to make sure that an appliance is off or a door is locked, and repeatedly checking homework

•                rituals to undo contact with a "contaminated" person or object

•                touching rituals

•                rituals to prevent harming self or others

•                ordering or arranging objects

•                counting rituals

•                hoarding and collecting things

•                cleaning rituals related to the house or other items

Treating OCD

The most successful treatments for kids with OCD are behavioral therapy and medication. Behavioral therapy, also known as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT), helps kids learn to change thoughts and feelings by first changing behavior. It involves exposing kids to their fears, with the agreement that they will not perform rituals, to help them recognize that their anxiety will eventually decrease and that no disastrous outcome will occur.

For example, kids who are afraid of dirt might be exposed to something they consider dirty on numerous occasions. For exposure to be successful, it must be combined with response prevention, in which the child's rituals or avoidance behaviors are blocked. For example, a child who fears dirt must not only stay in contact with the dirty object, but also must not be allowed to wash repeatedly. Some treatment plans involve having the child "bossing back" the OCD, giving it a nasty nickname, and visualizing it as something the child can control. Over time, the anxiety provoked by dirt and the urge to perform washing rituals gradually disappear. The child also gains confidence that he or she can "fight" OCD.

OCD can sometimes worsen if it's not treated in a consistent, logical, and supportive manner. So it's important to find a therapist who has training and experience in treating OCD. Just talking about the rituals and fears have not been shown to help OCD, and may actually make it worse by reinforcing the fears and prompting extra rituals. Family support and cooperation also go a long way toward helping a child cope with OCD.

Many kids can do well with behavioral therapy alone while others will need a combination of behavioral therapy and medication. Therapy can help your child and family learn strategies to manage the ebb and flow of OCD symptoms, while medication, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), often can reduce the impulse to perform rituals.

Helping Kids With OCD

It's important to understand that OCD is never a child's fault. Once a child is in treatment, it's important for parents to participate, to learn more about OCD, and to modify expectations and be supportive.

Kids with OCD get better at different rates, so try to avoid any day-to-day comparisons and recognize and praise any small improvements. Keep in mind that it's the OCD that is causing the problem, not the child. The more that personal criticism can be avoided, the better.

It can be helpful to keep family routines as normal as possible, and for all family members to learn strategies to help the child with OCD. It is also important to not let OCD be the "boss" of the house and regular family activities. Giving in to OCD worries does not make them go away.

Becoming One - Understanding

Season 3

episodes 1, 2 and 3

A new school year and the Wemma shippers are back with hope in their hearts. We’ll give RIB one more chance to get this right. If not, we’re out of here.

Wemma’s love for one another has seen them move into Will’s apartment over the summer vacation. Once again any meaningful discussion appears to have happened off screen and the Wemma shippers jump back into their relationship without being privy to this momentous decision.  Slightly disappointing but not unexpected. We get so much Wemma at home and there is so much obvious love between them that the shippers are distracted with delight and are considering Sue’s comment, ‘I’ve put plastic on your chairs in anticipation of this announcement so feel free to wet yourselves with excitement’ as RIB’s personal ‘Welcome back to Wemma’ message to them.

Will and Emma now mirror each other in words and actions and their morning routine is filled with looks of adoration and synchronization. They both wake up smiling, unerring in their desire to see and touch each other again, greeting one another with the phrase: ‘Rise and shine sleepy head’; they take turns sleeping on the alarm clock side of the bed; they pack each other’s lunches in unison, placing the contents in a mirror image of the other’s; they share the same piece of toast; after glitter-bombing Sue, they each rest their hand at the same place on the other’s arm and exit as one. There is no leader, no follower, no domination; they are on completely equal footing.

They’ve chosen lunch boxes that reflect the way they see each other - they are each other’s heroes because they’ve saved each other’s lives although there is some irony in their choices. Wonder woman used the lasso of truth and although Emma helps other people realize the truth and Will once told her she was ‘the most honest person he knows’, she really struggles to be honest with herself. Superman is a man of action and he uses his strength to help humanity. His decisive action is what turned Lois Lane on. Will struggles with taking the right action, but it’s what turns Emma on the most – someone willing to take action (a contributing factor to Carl’s appeal).

The shippers have to wonder if Will has spoken to Shelby about him and Emma. When Will enters the lunchroom and their eyes meet, there seems to be some kind of silent agreement between them that they will not remain in the same room together. Shelby immediately ends her conversation with Bieste and gets up to leave while Will delays his entry by passing comment with other teachers until he sees Shelby begin her exit. She makes a slightly flirty exit around him but Will ignores her (as he ignored April in ‘Rumours’). It seems Will is taking no chances with Emma jumping to any wrong conclusions this time round.

Emma is at ease with her love for Will. They no longer sit opposite each other, instead, they sit closely together in the lunchroom, Will always resting his arm on the back of Emma’s chair. He can’t get her close enough. Emma finally experiences what ‘being turned on feels like’ and she’s able to initiate a passionate kiss. She sees herself and Will as one when she refers to Mercedes as ‘our little girl’. Emma wears a lot of yellow in these episodes symbolizing the happiness she feels. She calls Will ‘sunshine’. She’s not cleaning obsessively. There is no doubt Emma is improving and they complete each other.

However, apart from their kitchen scene in episode 1, the choir room scene introducing Bieste and Emma as directors of the school play in episode 2 and the dinner scene in episode 3, they are not, on the whole, wearing complimentary clothes and this is slightly unnerving. As we know, when the Glee characters are sharing the same headspace, they wear matching outfits (eg Rachel and Kurt both in red, white and blue plaid when they enter Emma’s office to reveal their shared future plans). Over the holidays, Will seems to have become intent on ‘starting a family’, he’s also frustrated by Emma giving him ‘the green light then the red light follows just as quickly’ and the idea of children is once again raised in front of Emma’s parents when he says ‘if we are ever blessed with a child’. Will, don’t jump the gun! Have you forgotten that last season you did some research on OCD and indicated to Emma that you’d actually learnt something about her condition? You should know better. Emma is far from ready for a family. She won’t even have sex with you yet. The minute you alluded to your erection, Emma slipped out of bed before any of the hot action Brad Falchuk promised us at the end of last season could occur. Reign in your horses. The shippers realize that although Emma is no longer in denial, avoidance is still her mistress. After all who would choose to watch TV in bed when you’ve got Will Schuester’s body lying next to you? Are we heading back to Season One’s poor communication streak?

The evidence points us in that direction as Will unearths Emma’s inner bridezilla. This whole scene didn’t ring true for either character. Emma knows Will doesn’t like secrets after what Terri did to him, so why would she keep her magazines a secret? Especially as she’s always shown a keen interest in being married (Ken and Carl) and as Will says, ‘It’s clearly the road we’re headed down’. In addition, Will, pining and lusting after Emma for a whole year, doesn’t seem the type to keep a porn magazine collection (but maybe I’m wrong…maybe I need a male perspective on this one.) The long and the short of the whole magazine thing needlessly clarifies to the shippers that Will is intent on marrying her and therefore he’s wondering why she hasn’t introduced him to her parents? It’s a reasonable question when you’re feeling a little insecure about your partner’s long term intentions. Emma tries the avoidance strategy once: ‘They’re dead’. Will calls her bluff. ‘You spoke to them last night.’ Twice: ‘I spoke to ghosts’, Will takes a step closer to her, forcing her hand.  Three times: ‘I can’t lie to you,’ Emma says, avoiding the truth anyway, ‘I just want to take it really slow,’ She kisses him and runs off. Will folds. The inroads he made in understanding Emma last year are seemingly forgotten as his own insecurities take hold: ‘Always marry up’ says Vera Wang; Carl made $80,000 a year; is she ashamed of me? Oh Will, don’t you remember season 1, episode 1 when Emma persuaded you not to become an accountant and told you the only life worth living was one you were passionate about? Will, she’s passionate about you, she just has trouble showing it. Bieste is there to remind him, to take matters into his own hands because 1. Emma is crazy about him and 2. Will is quite the catch. The Wemma shippers can only agree.  Besides Carl’s spontaneity seemed to do Emma good, why not ask her parents over?

Bieste’s advice highlights that she is unaware of Emma’s OCD which means Emma manages to keep it quite well hidden or Bieste has never been cognizant of it. In the scene where Bieste and Artie are in Emma’s office discussing who will be given the role of Tony, Emma can’t take her eyes off Bieste’s shoes, replete with chewing gum on the sole, resting on her desk. It’s not until Bieste shifts her feet back to the floor that Emma relaxes. Emma’s discomfort completely bypasses Bieste’s radar and Emma doesn’t say a word.

Enter the parents from hell. Emma’s parents get a big fat Anglo-Saxon F for parenting. Are you ashamed of me? Asks Will’. No! I’m ashamed of them. They are ginger supremacists! Opinionated, bigoted, racist, insensitive, callous, highly critical and they have perpetuated Emma’s OCD to such a degree that the minute she sees them, she regresses…dramatically. The confident, self-assured woman at work transforms before our eyes into their silent ‘freaky deaky’ child who used to have her thumbs tied together. They call her ‘weird’ and are unsympathetic and disdainful of her disorder. The shippers flashback to the staff lunch room where Sue asked Emma if her email was still ‘freakish boney ginger at gmail’ and the hurt look on Emma’s face suddenly makes sense. This is a label she’s grown up with, only not said in jest.

Will looks at Rusty and Rose in horror. ‘I don’t know where she got it,’ says Rose. Flashback to young Emma at a restaurant with her parents and the mother handing her a wipe to clean the glass of water the waitress has placed on the table. Will loses his temper with them and confronts them about their attitude towards Emma’s OCD. ‘If we’re blessed enough to have a child, I wouldn’t care what he or she looked like and you know what if my child had OCD I’d maybe show her a little more compassion instead of calling her a name that makes her feel like a freak.’ Emma’s BTW tshirt with ‘Ginger’ written on it, suddenly takes on a new meaning. Being a ginger has caused her problems…it associates Emma with her parents and her parents have, if not created her OCD, then certainly contributed substantially to it. Emma remains silent and we are reminded of Sue’s advice to her in Bad Reputation: You refuse to stand up for yourself you’re so afraid of confrontation. If you want to get better you need to start communicating your feelings’. Will is her voice. Emma looks at him with gratitude and places her hand tightly over his. He grips her fingers. He’s never letting her go. He looks at her with remorse. He feels he’s made a big mistake but this is a pivotal moment for Will and the shippers. We finally see the cause of her OCD and how Emma came to be and Will needed to know this. Will now realizes there is no quick fix, no easy fix, in fact he doesn’t know how to fix Emma at all. Neither does Emma. Avoidance has been her only strategy, but Will is not an avoider, and even though he doesn’t know what to do yet, as he wraps his hands, like a cocoon around her agitated ones and sings to her, there is no doubt that she will be kept safely in his hands until with his help she is ready to be reborn and can fly.

So we end with a traumatized and relapsed Emma sitting on the bed in her yellow nightdress, juxtaposed with photographs of a smiling Will and Emma on the bedside table in a double frame. (Perhaps when they have had sex, the photos will change to both of them in the same frame?) The photos remind us that in ‘becoming’ we must take the good with the bad because it deepens our understanding of who we are and makes us whole. ‘I’m sorry, I should have believed you when you said you didn’t want me to meet your parents’ says Will. But even if she’d told him the truth, he really had to meet them for himself to ‘unlock’ Emma. ‘Come on let’s go to bed,’ he tries to coax her away from her debilitating counting ritual but Emma falls to her knees and starts praying. Will is bamboozled yet again. ‘I do it in my head all the time, Emma explains. Another classic OCD ritual and this time, we’re pulled back to ‘Grilled Cheesus’ and the scene where Emma angrily confronts Sue about not believing in God and how she shouldn’t take away a vestige of hope for Kurt. She may well have been talking about herself. Will is realizing, just how much is going on in Emma’s head all the time and how well she keeps it all hidden. He doesn’t try to lift her up off the floor or belittle her actions, instead he shows her the compassion he voiced earlier and moves to her level, indicating their equal footing once again. ‘When you get what you want but not what you need…’ Will sings. Emma has Will, but she needs something more now…a remedy. Thirty two years of unchecked OCD is difficult to battle on your own and the fact that she doesn’t fall into his arms a blubbering mess suggests that she is used to trying to deal with it all alone. The more Emma is willing to open up to Will and the more he learns about her condition, the deeper their understanding, the stronger their bond and the greater their love. Will has become a man of action and he is focused on his and Emma’s future together.  They are on their way to finding a remedy and becoming one - emotionally, mentally and physically.

The first three episodes are emotionally fulfilling for the Wemma shippers. RIB have gone back to what matters most: The characters’ development. Wemma lives and Glee is back! 

The 4 second Finale

Will stands with his arm around Emma’s shoulder and she looks adoringly at him before looking at the congratulatory banner. They’re on equal footing now. The end. The Wemma shippers were let down BIG TIME. So how about a RANT?

Firstly, Let’s just recap Emma’s journey to Will: obsession, fear, denial, admittance, acceptance and sacrificial love. Emma has been through the gamete of emotions and the final installment should have been CONFESSION but NO! We get 4 seconds of NOTHING! An ‘absolute travesty of international proportions’.

The Lyrics of Sunshine’s song ‘As Long As You’re There’ encapsulate what Emma should have CONFESSED to Will. Only part of the song was sung in the episode and was an original song. For the life of me, I cannot understand why they would go to all the effort of writing an emotionally powerful song like this, conveying all of Emma’s feelings and not use it for Emma. Let’s check out the lyrics:

All my life
I've waited for the right
Moment to let you know
I don’t wanna let you go
But now I realize
There's just no perfect time
To confess how I feel
This much I know is real
So I refuse to
Waste one more second without you
Knowing my heart

chorus:

Baby cause I don’t
need anything else but your love
Nothing but you means a thing to me
I'm incomplete
When you're not there
Holding me touching me, elsewhere
All of the rest could just disappear
And I wouldn’t even care as long as you're there

Take these words
Don’t let them go unheard
This is me reaching out
I hope you can hear me now
This pain in my heart stands, stay
Take it it’s yours to break
I’d rather try and lose
Than keep this love from you
so I refuse to
Waste one more second
Without you
Knowing my heart

(repeat chorus)

bridge:
Each day
and I
that I
kept it a secret
and it killed me
it's time
to share what I feel inside

I know. The song just screams WEMMA doesn’t it? After the emotional intensity of Funeral, the symbolism of the vest, Emma’s tears, Will standing alone in the corridor, the subtext in the lyrics of My Man and Sue’s eulogy all foreshadowing Will’s imminent return to Emma the shippers are POSITIONED for a reunion of heart felt gargantuan proportions and an EPIC ‘I LOVE YOU’ from Emma. But NO! NOTHING! NOTHING! Just subtext in a song sung by a guest character. Not even sung by Rachel! A total FAIL.

The whole episode seemed rushed and characters and their emotions brushed over. Brad Falchuck has explained that they had 20 minutes too much footage and the Wemma scene now lies on the cutting room floor. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Why wasn’t this episode made in two parts? Why was Born this Way deemed worthy of extra time and not the finale? Surely money is no object now and we’ve become used to breaks in the season. We’d rather have quality than a token gesture. If the network won't allocate extra time then air it on the internet, no time restrictions there. Wemma (and all of the characters and their obsessive fans) deserved an ending rich in emotion and message. Are my expectations too high? I don't think so.

Wemma shippers I feel your pain. WEMMA were sacrificed for a stupid time constraint. It’s insulting. I feel like we’ve run a marathon and been deliberately tripped over just before the finishing line. This was Emma's journey and they didn't take her across the finishing line to deliver her heart to Will. It was his reward - something much better than a show choir trophy, after coming back from losing just about everything in the season.

If there is one thing RIB do well, it's leave massive gaps in the stories for us to fill, thus the plethora of fan fiction. So maybe that's what I'll do - rewrite the final episode with Wemma as the central characters and put in the CONFESSION. I have no time restraints.

Sacrificial Love

Season 2, 

episodes 19, 21 and 22.

The world class banana magnet/legendary Brotwurst gobbler, April Rhodes, resurfaces. She is outfitted in a dress and scarf decorated with cherries or apples (hard to tell) but either way, fruit is a symbol of temptation and she is undoubtedly there to tempt Will, ostensibly to Broadway but if she can tempt him into bed that’s a bonus. Thus RIB establish the final installment of the Wemma relationship: sacrificial love.

Juxtaposed with Quinn’s jealousy and possessiveness of Finn in the previous scene, shippers are reminded just how healthy the Wemma relationship has become as Emma enters the auditorium and watches Will perform. There is no sign of jealousy from Emma as Will sings with April and gone is the swooning ingenue who sat next to Rachel as Will sang Young Girl/Don’t Stand So Close to Me. Emma radiates pride and pleasure as she watches Will, he still takes her breath away. Then April reminds Will ‘we’re standing on the exact same stage wishing that we could have done something bigger.’ Emma’s face registers the painful truth: She must let him go. If she tells him she loves him, he will never pursue his dream of performing on Broadway, he will stay in Lima for her and never know what might have been. She realizes that as Will had to ‘back off’ during The Carl period, she must take a back seat and encourage him, as she did in the first episode, to follow his dream.

She waits for him in the staff room and we get an insight into how well she’s progressing with her OCD. ‘I’m so proud of you Emma’, Will clasps her shoulder (aside from grabbing her hand last week to pull her on to the stage, the first time he’s touched her meaningfully since RHGS) and she leans into his touch. ‘You inspired me to make a change, to take charge of my own destiny and now I want the same for you…you deserve to at least try this Will’ she says with conviction and optimism, wanting what is best for him, just as she did in the very first episode. Will, on the other hand wants to remain loyal to the kids and Emma (as he did in the first episode): ‘We’ve all worked so hard and we’re so close. Yes, the shippers nod in agreement, this season’s story line nearly killed us and we’re so close to getting an ‘I love you’ from Emma, don’t you dare leave! ‘I just don’t want to lose you (the shippers’ hearts are all a flutter)… but Emma, I want to go so badly.’  She looks pensive and for good reason: being with him is her dream but if she indicates to Will that she wants him to stay, he won’t fulfill his dream because to quote Emma, ‘one blink from you and I would have been out the door.’

‘Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow’ April reminds him but isn’t ‘Yesterday’s gone’… the camera turns to Will looking at April questioningly. ‘Don’t you look back’ warns Rachel and New Directions.

Emma and Will stay, away from Prom…as any right-minded adult would. Although this shipper saw it as an opportunity to explore Emma’s own prom…did she ever go to one?  Did the boys reject her? Could Will have made her his Cinderella again and asked her to the prom and danced with her privately away from the madding crowd? No, there were other ships that needed sailing in that episode, so I like to think Emma and Will were at Will’s place having a D and M about Will’s Broadway opportunity, or why Emma married Carl, or the truth about April’s sleep-over a year ago!

And it seems they were because in ‘Funeral’ Wemma are looking comfortable together in Will’s bedroom, (note to RIB: please more ‘at home’ scenes with Wemma for season 3). Emma is helping him pack and we have ‘the vest scene’. The shippers almost cry with pleasure at the perfection of this symbolism. Will reveals his sentimental side as he explains to Emma the reasons for his attachment to his vests and ‘that was the one I was wearing the first time I met you,’ the shippers’ hearts skip a beat, as does Emma’s… he’s LOVED her for SO LONG. We are also reminded of ‘Hello’ and how he once told her ‘there are so many things you don’t know about me and I can’t wait to introduce them all to you.’ Well that’s one down and we’re looking forward to the many more. The shippers are dying for Emma to pour her heart out to him and for them to fall on the bed amongst the vests in a passionate embrace but Emma once again reminds us that she is the flip slide of Will – whereas his heart leads him, it is Emma’s head that leads her. ‘Well you know what? You have to let it all go…you’re following your dreams. However, her actions speak volumes to the shippers as she lovingly folds and strokes the vest (Will) before handing it to him. Emma doesn’t look too convinced by her own words but Will, trying to take on board Emma’s pragmatism (and letting out a sigh, that suggests an ‘ok, if that’s the way you want it’) puts the vest (Emma) in the box labeled ‘Giving away’. Emma looks sad and if she could allow her heart to speak she would have sung ‘Oh my man I love him so, he’ll never know. What’s the difference if I say I’ll go away, when I know I’ll come back on my knees some day… I am his forever more.’ So Rachel does it for her, arguably meeting Streisand’s original, in a performance that is totally heart wrenching.

Just as Rachel has expressed Emma’s feelings for Will, Sue’s eulogy expresses Will’s feelings for Emma, as he reads: ‘When you love someone, they are a part of you, it’s like you are attached by this invisible tether and no matter how far away you are you can always feel them….it feels like a piece of me has been ripped off, I just want to hold her…’ I guess RIB thought it a too blatant emotional manipulation for Emma to be at the funeral making eye contact with Will and to cry tears over these words.

 Then we take a trip down memory lane to Vitamin D when last we saw Terri Schuester in the corridors of William McKinley High. Last visit she was the tip of a constant triangle in the eye of the camera, however this time she is filmed separately from Will and Emma indicating that she is no longer an interference in Wemma’s life. Will walks away from her along the corridor indicating she is now relegated to his past, while Emma enters from the side and walks alongside him into the ‘future’. Emma is unperturbed by Terri’s presence…perhaps she and Will also discussed Terri while they were at his place during Prom! 

In their final scene Emma and Will are both wearing white shirts, symbolizing purity - their love is pure, they have transcended the darkness and 'death' of their relationship in season 2, but they are more than wearing matching clothes, Emma is WEARING Will’s vest. ‘I didn’t have the heart to throw it away’ she explains to him. She has such a tiny frame, we can’t believe it’s not hanging off her slender shoulders, but that aside, her message is clear: I’m not throwing you away Will, I LOVE YOU, I want the comfort of knowing you’re beside me, even if you’re not. ‘Emma this isn’t forever’ (translation: I am coming back for you.) ‘I hope it is.’ (translation: I want your dreams to come true). However, in giving Will the freedom to pursue his dream, Emma is sacrificing her own dream: being with Will. Despite her outward encouragement and detachment ‘don’t be a stranger,’ and lightly kissing him goodbye - a nice parallel with her kissing him goodbye before Sectionals, only this time we get to see Emma’s face as she kisses Will and there is a slight furrowing of her brow, as there was with Will’s last time, indicating her pain. She turns away from Will towards the audience to reveal that pain as she starts to cry. She is sacrificing the love of her life. Will stands alone in the corridor, looking underdressed without Emma standing beside him. He sadly watches the other half of himself walk away.

Acceptance

season 2

Episode 18

‘Acceptance’ writes Will on the board behind Emma and the shippers are thinking FINALLY she’s ready to deal with her problem. The shippers read her tshirt, Will reads her tshirt, the kids read her tshirt and everyone looks disappointedly or confusedly at it; Emma is one step forward two steps back to her boat docked on the river of denial, ready and waiting for a fast get away. ‘I don’t like that term, it sounds too serious’, says Emma to Will when he labels her problem correctly as an OCD, ‘It is my lot in life’. Maybe he’s tired of cleaning grapes but Will refuses to allow her to ‘deflect’ this issue any longer, and he gives Emma some tough love. We learnt last week that Will has been researching OCD and he knows what he is talking about: accommodating a person’s disorder is only manifesting the problem. He wants what is best for Emma and he knows that their relationship cannot move forward until she accepts the seriousness of her problem. As Mercedes sang in Night of Neglect, ‘Ain't no way for me to love you if you won't let me, there ain't no way for me to give you all you need if you won't let me give all of me.’ Their relationship is on honest and balanced ground now. Gone are the film techniques that supported her as a heavenly being and Will is totally honest with her. He is frustrated and angry with her because he’s proven over and over again how much he loves her and is willing to support her, but she, by refusing to deal with her problem, is in effect refusing to accept Will’s love and love him back. So for the second time in the series (the first time was when she told him she’d married Carl) he walks willingly away from her without looking back, leaving her alone. She gets a glimpse of her future, a future without Will, a future filled with clean fruit and nothing else and she doesn’t like it. She accepts she needs professional help but it’s painful for her; she’s scared. Scared to accept herself. Scared to accept the new Emma that might not have her every move controlled by her OCD. Scared to accept that she might have to bare her soul. And ‘secrets’? The shippers are intrigued. Was she ‘born this way’ or not? (Season 3 here we come!) The final vestiges of her steely resistance prove she’s not going down without a fight but the therapist is firm and she sets Emma’s boat adrift; there will be no further sailing down that river. Emma ACCEPTS her flaw and she can’t wait to tell Will. His lesson is a success. Will has ‘got it right’. He grabs Emma’s hand and they skip with joy across the stage. In forty episodes has he looked this happy? It’s been such a long time, we can’t remember. Emma throws her jacket off alongside Will’s, exposing herself to the world (or at least to the kids). The shippers’ hearts dance with them. 

The Grape Scene

I'm always impressed by the perfectness of Wemma scenes and the 'grape scene' in Night of Neglect was no exception. It blew me away. And here is why:

Acting: The subtlety and nuances of Jayma’s facial expressions mesmerize me. When she said she felt ‘so tired’ she really did look weighed down. In the space of the scene she managed to convey sadness, pragmatism, fading resilience, and appreciation while extracting ‘I want to give her a hug’ sympathy from the audience. Meanwhile Matt’s tone and timing of his lines exuded the sympathy, support and heartbreak he felt for her.

Writing: Wemma dialogue is like stroking a polished gem, you just want to keep admiring the smoothness, integrity and depth of it. No superfluous words, nothing predictable and always something meaningful and quotable. ‘I hear that OCD symptoms tend to get worse when a person is under great stress’; Will’s line is emotionally detached but indicates he’s emotionally connected to her because he must have been doing his research on OCD’s. ‘Carl’s gone’ only two words, but loaded with revelations that Will tactfully doesn’t pursue. Emma has the strength to say out loud exactly how she’s feeling and the honesty and severity and difficulty of her OCD really hits home with the words ‘I’m so tired’. This juxtaposed magnificently with the previous week’s scene in which Holly and Carl had both shown such insensitivity to Emma’s plight and Emma herself had tried to ignore her problem by promoting celibacy. Will’s behaviour is impeccable; he maintains calmness (while trying to digest the situation) and confirms their friendship with the simple act of cleaning her grapes for her – the most tenderhearted response. “One day, you’re gonna find a way to beat this thing. Until then, I’m here for you. No Judgement, just a friend that you can count on.” An affirmation that he knows ultimately it will be Emma who has to conquer her demons but he will stand by her side and help her. Will could not have said anything better. This scene perfectly conveys Will’s devotion to Emma.

Camera: The close-up of the electric toothbrush incited fleeting humour followed by alarm as the camera zoomed out to Emma’s face and then Will’s; it was the perfect execution of pathos.

Symbolism: The single tear drop represented her flailing strength so poignantly. Will putting on the rubber glove confirms his acceptance of her OCD and his love for her. Cleaning and passing the grape to her could symbolize the sustenance/strength she gets from him.

Parallels: It paralleled so gloriously with the ‘Chalk Scene’ in Showmance. In both these scenes Will is showing her support and there is a third party observing. Emma was also wearing the same green cardigan as she did in ‘crying in car’ scene while singing All by Myself, which Charice sang in NON. And in hindsight I guess her scrubbing of the drinking tap with a toothbrush in Showmance was an indication of the stress she was experiencing about the burgeoning romance between her and Will.

Admittance

season 2

episodes 13-17

After the first two episodes show no sign of Emma, the shippers get restless. Couldn’t Emma have shown up at the football match? We could have made a nice screen cap of her at the football match alone, contrasting her last foray into the stands hugging Will. Couldn’t she have walked past Finn’s kissing booth and looked wistfully at Will? Couldn’t she have sung a silly love song? ‘Comeback’ to the show Emma. Glee is not Glee without you. For Gleek’s sake, we don’t have any emotional investment in the adolescent characters, teenagers are by nature, fickle, all we want is Wemma stability back. The Glee family is totally dysfunctional without you. ‘Comeback’ to Will, Emma, the shippers are praying, begging, hoping, demanding. Emma comes running, but not into Will’s arms, she stops at his classroom door. So Will and Emma are talking again and Will is still the one she runs to in an emergency. He’s back to seeking advice from her but this time Will is not pussyfooting around Emma. ‘We’re not here to give Sue a pep talk…  Emma, let’s go!’ And Emma’s back to wearing gloves. She’s stressed and it’s not hard to guess why? We’re back to where we started in season 1!

‘Blame it on the Alcohol’, and all I can say is thank God for alcohol because finally Will’s head doesn’t get in the way and his heart reveals why he really loves Emma: her gloves, her OCD, her body…the things she hates the most about herself (flashback to Will telling Rachel, that the things she hates the most about herself are what someone will find the most attractive about her). In hindsight perhaps Rachel singing ‘Need You Now’ in the Superbowl episode was pre-empting Will’s drunk dial to Emma: ‘Reaching for the phone, cos I can’t fight it anymore…it’s a quarter after one, I’m a little drunk and I need you now, said I wouldn’t call but I’ve lost all control and I need you now..’ But I digress. Jump back to the beginning of the episode and we have Emma’s hand covering her wedding ring and asking Will if he’s dating anyone. She can’t look at him as she suggests maybe he should try dating. Yeah, maybe he should try dating HER!  Emma doesn’t even believe the words coming out of her mouth. There is pain all over Will’s face at her suggestion and the shippers are ready to slap her again but Sue steps in. Some unconscious touching of hung over Will by Emma in the corridor reminded me of their collision in Season 1 where she comments on them both wearing periwinkle. All we needed was Santana passing by cutting to the chase with ‘Get a room’. Even if Emma’s head isn’t ready to admit her true feelings, her body is. After hearing the drunk dial, the shippers are dizzy with delight and Emma is looking a little flushed. Emma knows exactly how Will feels about her, he finds her sexy, he wants Emma for her personality, she’s ‘taken’ and she has hurt him but he still wants her. He has withstood the test. He has resilience, perseverance and passion; attributes of a winner. Her excuses/denial/reasons for letting Will go have all been made null and void. She must now face the truth. It’s your move Emma. Someone get the girl a drink.

Enter Emma’s polar opposite: Holly Holiday. While Emma has become even more uptight (running the celibacy club and tightening even bigger bows) and seems to have regressed with her OCD management, Holly breezes into McKinley, brash and forthright and full of sexual freedom. She provides a welcome distraction for Will, however the shippers consider her something akin to medicine; we’ll take her if she’s going to make Wemma better, but we don’t really like her being injected into the arms of our man. Neither does Emma. When introducing Emma to Holly, Will seems so discombobulated that he forgets Emma’s name! It’s just not on. How dare she! Emma’s jealous. More importantly, Holly is the metaphorical ‘slap in the face’ Emma needs. ‘Ouch!’ In ‘Sexy’ we cringe at Holly’s insensitivity towards Emma, but enough is enough, it’s time Ms P verbalized her true feelings and when Holly asks her point blank if she’s ‘still in love with Will Schuester’, Emma gets close to the truth by admitting her feelings are ‘confused’. The camera shoots Emma from Holly’s perspective, at a high angle, making her look small; she is ‘weighed down’ by her ‘confusion’. She recoils at Carl’s touch and the shippers are not confused at all. Neither is Carl. He’s had enough and is off to the Radisson. The Wemma shippers let out a cheer: ‘The Carl’ has been eradicated by Holly.

Emma takes a week off to sort out her ‘sham of a marriage’ while the Glee kids write their Original Songs for Regionals; Emma’s not even in a fit state to turn up to see them off, but Will doesn’t seem to dwell on it, he’s trying to move on and has taken Emma’s advice and is ‘dating’ Holly. This time Will hasn’t chosen the songs, but Rachel’s lyrics still reflect his feelings and this time Emma’s: ‘what do you do when your good isn’t good enough and all that you touch tumbles down… I keep making a mess of things, I’ve got to fix it somehow.’ (I bow to you RIB). Can Emma find a solvent for this mess?

A Night of Neglect follows and within that night was the scene that set the Wemma shippers’ hearts into a frenzy and the screen caps and gifs into overload. THE GRAPE SCENE! The scene that showed just how much these two characters have evolved and need to be together. Emma ADMITTED her marriage was over. She ADMITTED she never consummated the marriage with Carl. She ADMITTED her OCD is a problem. She ADMITTED she’s tired of fighting it. The only thing she didn’t admit to was being in love with Will, but that was ok, it wasn’t the time and it made Will’s ‘I’m here for you’ totally selfless. Her single teardrop had the shippers crying with her and forgiving her immediately for all that she had put them through this season. For the first time Will said and did all the right things and the symbolism of him cleaning her grapes melted our collective heart: Will putting on the rubber glove confirms his acceptance of her OCD and his love for her. Cleaning and passing the grape to her symbolizes the sustenance/strength she gets from him and she is now willing to accept it. Now the only thing standing in Emma’s way is Holly. Emma doesn’t have the strength to fight her and thankfully, unlike Terri, Holly is not conniving. The Wemma shippers totally agree with her when she explains to Will 'You're too nice for me.' After one last song (thank God, it was only one) she bows out graciously to true love’s ways. She even leaves Will with a gift ‘You’re in love with someone else and thanks to my counseling she’s available. And by the way, she’s totally into you.’ Emma could not have found a stronger cleaning agent. The Wemma shippers say thank you very much, shut the door firmly behind her and crack open the bubbly. A week is way too long to wait for Born This Way.

See Grape Scene analysis for more in depth analysis.

Denial

Season 2, F10

These episodes were incredibly frustrating for Will and all Wemma shippers. In Brittany/Britney, Will was doing his best to remind Emma that he still existed, and he still loved her but unfortunately his efforts were too ‘toxic’ for Emma to touch and perhaps affirmed her decision that Carl was a better choice. So what did Carl have to offer apart from a mid-life crisis sports car, a good income, a decisive mind and spontaneity? We know Emma’s not a material girl so it had to be something more intangible. Oh yes, he could supposedly help her with her OCD. A big ‘win’ in Emma’s mind because for Emma this was what was stopping her from being with Will and maybe in a recess of her mind she’s looking for a remedy so she can return to him. There is a brief attempt in the staff room to talk about Will’s adolescent-type behaviour, but Emma’s got smooth sailing down the river of denial and she isn’t bringing the boat into the shore just yet. It is in this episode, when Rachel sings the lyrics,‘When I was younger, I saw my daddy cry and curse at the wind, he broke his own heart as he tried to reassemble it….my mother swore she would never let herself forget…’ that the shippers minds are returned to the idea that Will and Emma are the Glee club ‘parents’ and comprehend that Rachel’s ‘parents’ in this song are Will and Emma and Will’s desire to ‘reclaim’ Emma is not because she rejected him or because he wants to beat Carl, but because he really loves her, she is his ‘only exception’ and he’s well on his ‘way to believing’ that Emma is the only one for him. It’s interesting to note in this episode that Emma appears twice in purple clothing. Amongst other things, purple is a symbol of romanticism and enlightenment. Will’s ‘toxic’ dance is anything but romantic and stands in opposition to Emma’s purple skirt. Is Emma’s relationship with Carl giving her the romance and wisdom she desires? Emma’s mind is a mess but Will’s mind is crystal clear; he knows why he’s fighting for her and he instinctively knows that Emma is in denial. He should have asked Rachel to sing the song to Emma. He bows his head sitting all alone in his car. We cry for him.

Will is morose and Emma knows she’s caused him pain as the snippet of Will and Emma at the hospital in ‘Grilled Cheesus’ conveys. They sit side by side in the waiting room, Will sitting on his hands in an attempt not to reach out for her. Head bowed, unable to look at her. Emma’s entire body points towards him; her legs lean towards him, her hand reaches across to hold his. He caresses her finger. They should both be supporting Kurt, but as they sit in matching colours, Emma comforting Will we know their sadness has nothing to do with Kurt and Burt, this is all about Will’s suffering. Perhaps in Emma’s mind, Will caused her pain (kissing Shelby/lying in bed with April) and this is payback, or she’s convinced herself that Carl is the man for her and she’s sorry but get over it or because her OCD is not what’s best for Will they both need to move on.

Enter Will’s Rocky Horror. Unfortunately he uses the same strategy: remind Emma that I’m still here and she still loves me. Toucha Toucha Touch Me Emma, Will makes her sing it and she willingly does. The choreography of the dance demonstrates how much Emma wants Will, her hand starts and ends the song clutching his heart but once again she runs off in denial. At least he’s ascertained what he knew all along: She’s still in love with him. What Emma fails to notice about Will in this episode, is that in her office, as she’s obsessively measuring the distance between items on her desk and she looks guiltily at Will for doing so, Will hasn’t even noticed. He DOESN’T CARE about her OCD. In fact he loves it! Wake up Emma, smell the pheromones! Will’s apology at the end of this episode addresses his taking advantage of their friendship but neither of them address Emma’s willingness in the dance. The best she can come up with is ‘love makes you do crazy things’. Is she saying she still loves him? Or acknowledging that she knows Will loves her? Will shows her how much he loves her, by saying he will ‘back off’ because he knows how much she wants to overcome her OCD and if Carl is helping her with that then he will accept her decision.  After all that’s what you do when you love someone unselfishly, you help them be the best person they can be. That was the moment he should have told her what he loves about her. Instead, give her a bit more time, thinks Will. Be supportive and be her friend. Better to have her as a friend than not at all. When Will says he’s backing off, Emma looks fleetingly down. Is she disappointed? Emma and Will sit side by side on the auditorium stage talking. Will’s hands are close to his sides, maybe he’s even sitting on them in an attempt to restrain himself from touching her. The lighting is like that of a sunset indicating that perhaps for the time their relationship is resting or at an end. The camera shoots them from behind, accentuating the small space between their bodies. They are close but not close enough, yet.

Invite her to sectionals. And why wouldn’t he? Emma has been his only supporter and she took New Directions to Sectionals for him last year. Plus, he’s chosen two songs that reveal how he feels about her: ‘Why don’t you come on over Valerie (aka Emma)… stop making a fool out of me (I’m not going to pine anymore and act like a fool)…red hair…the clothes you wear (I find you physically attractive)…’ And ‘I’ve had the Time of my Life’ with Glee Club and ‘I Owe It All To You’. But she wasn’t there to hear his feelings. Will’s face is full of pain and torment when she gives him a chaste kiss goodbye at the bus and tells Will that she and Carl love each other. Will walks off and doesn’t look back, he’s done chasing. He made a promise to her and he’s keeping it. The shippers want to give Will a protective hug and slap some sense into Emma. Can’t she see Carl is to her what Jesse was to Rachel? A distraction from her true love and a big mistake. Ah, the parallels - we love them. The crack in the Carl/Emma relationship becomes evident when Emma’s honesty about going to Sectionals with Will spurs Carl, seemingly jealous of the Wemma friendship and to cement his position in Emma’s heart, takes advantage of Emma’s guilty state of mind and whisks her off to Vegas for a quickie wedding. (Maybe she had heard the Glee club rehearsing ‘Marry Me’ for the previous episode ‘Furt’ and the song had made it seem like a fun idea.) The Wemma fans want to kill Carl. They are out in cyberspace crying, debriefing and wanting to kill RIB for causing Will and them so much unnecessary suffering. If only Will and Emma had really talked. But honesty and discussion apparently don’t make 22 episodes. Will is completely destroyed and so are we. His composure at the heartbreaking news is admirable and shows just how much he loves her. We don’t like Emma anymore. She’s on her boat sailing ever faster down the river of denial. But wait, we catch a glimpse of Emma’s face as she hugs Carl…she doesn’t look so happy either and the Glee kids are singing ‘happiness hit her, like a bullet in the back (that doesn’t sound so positive)…she hid around corners, she hid under beds, from it she fled…’ She knows deep down she’s running away from Will. The song is upbeat. Does this mean we’ve hit rock bottom and we’re on our way up again? Yes, there is hope Wemma fans, Emma’s denial cannot last forever (as Rachel tears off the word ‘forever’) and Emma knows it.

Now that she’s cut Will down, Emma goes in search of him wanting him back standing for Christmas. ‘Have you been avoiding me?’ she asks, they ‘haven’t talked’ since she married Carl. That’s because you’ve nearly killed him Emma! Now, who’s feeling lonely and friendless at McKinley? She naively thinks their friendship won’t be affected by her marrying Carl. Step 1: Find Will in the staff room and talk about her marriage. Step 2. Invite him over for Christmas. The shippers are ready to slap her again but Will is much more restrained and forgiving. No thank you says Will. He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t argue. Perhaps he is resigned to the fact that her ‘crazy’ and his miscommunication have created this mess. Angry, hurt, depressed but trying to keep himself and the Glee club together, Will tries to maintain some sanity amongst the Christmas themed clothing, by ‘keeping things separate for a while’. His eyes however, follow Emma’s figure as she passes his table and Wemma fans know Will is not moving on from this in a hurry. Emma’s eyes seem to naturally fall from watching the choir sing to watching Will. Rachel senses Will’s pain as she invites him to her house for Christmas to watch a Streisand movie. Will declines the offer, he’s following Emma’s advice ‘he’s spending some time alone getting to know himself and working out exactly what he wants in his life.’ RIB call a hiatus and this Wemma fan for one is relieved.

It was an emotionally gruelling first half of the season with the Wemma arc moving at a snail’s pace and none of the movement occurring in the desired direction.  Sure we were given some tantalizing scenes along the way but when all is said and done we hadn’t had a satisfying intimate Wemma moment since their kiss in Will’s living room 18 episodes ago! Why are we still watching? Where is the glee?