Fear

B9:

So ‘Hello’ Will says in her office and in his living room. Emma is like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Mesmerised by what sits before her but wanting to run to the safety of her toothbrush. Will chooses Lionel Richie to express how he wants to be more than just friends with her and they stare into each other’s eyes with absolute adoration. The shippers begin to swoon themselves. Once again, we witness Will’s most adept form of communication is physical. All sorts of doubts enter Emma’s mind: OMG, it’s a physical relationship. Is he really over his wife? Does he really love me? What am I doing? I know I ‘don’t want to be all by myself’ but do I know how to handle a relationship? How is he going to cope with my OCD? Am I enough for him? Am I really what’s best for him? Hang on a minute, I don’t like mess and being out of control and being in love produces both of those things. Self doubt in herself and in Will’s motives stump Emma. After giving her ‘aversion to sex’ news a moment’s consideration, Will doesn’t seem all that bothered by it and says reassuringly, it’s OK. And that’s what she loves about him, his sensitivity. His big mistake lies in putting on a mindless movie instead of talking about how they might navigate their relationship and her OCD. This is compounded by Terri throwing her bucket of cold water thoughts on to the Wemma flame and thus Emma’s way of dealing with it is to decide they both need more time apart before they start anything. Will (and the shippers) are mightily disappointed, Emma is close to tears but he’ll go along with her reasoning because he really doesn’t have his own head sorted either. At the end of the episode, he sits distracted and forlorn as the kids perform. Emma’s presence is once again made angel-like as she is shot from a low angle, standing in the ‘heavens’ watching over him.

Those words of advice last about a week. Enter Madonna telling everyone to express themselves. Emma gets the message. She descends the stairs (from heaven), towards Will (‘coming to earth’) but remains a step or two above him (she is still his ‘Madonna’ – not the singer, the Virgin Madonna) to ask him to ‘do the dirty’ with her. He’s more than willing to help her out but once again she chickens out and runs off. Playing it out in her head (‘Like a Virgin’ sequence) is enticing but frightening. She wants to be that uninhibited person but her OCD debilitates her. Will expresses his compassion and understanding once again and tries to contact her all weekend but Emma doesn’t want to listen. He offers her the help of a psychologist. Nice try Will, but the wrong move. Enter Sue and a ‘real’ excuse to halt her relationship with Will arises. She unbelievably listens to Sue. Quite out of character, considering she never trusts Sue and always questions her actions, but Emma ‘needs to protect [her] heart’. Will admits he’s made a couple of ‘wrong turns’ and unintentionally hurt her but he ‘just wants Emma to ‘look at [him] the way [she] used to.’ In other words, ‘I want you to be in love with me’. ‘I can’t’ says Emma, wanting to look at him that way, but knowing, he must look at her that way. No discussion will be entered into, ‘it’s best to see each other for who we really are’ she says, possibly thinking, she has been blindly in love with him, but nonetheless looking heartbroken. Thanks for the flowers, I don’t want to hear your side of the story, I’m too scared to face my fears which are: maybe I won’t meet your expectations, maybe you won’t meet mine, maybe neither of us know what we’re doing or how we really feel? Maybe you don’t even love me. I am ‘the most honest person you know, but I can’t be honest with myself or you….yet. She is hemmed in behind her desk and she’s not budging. No further discussion. Will walks away realising he’s learnt a valuable lesson: he cannot afford to be careless with Wemma.

And there was no further discussion until episode 22!  The shippers are beside themselves with anxiety. Is that it? Wemma over before they even got started? Drop us a crumb RIB. Give us some hope, so they do…sort of. ‘I miss you’ Will tells her. We’ve missed her too. (Note to RIB: DO NOT allow your actors to go off and do other projects.)‘I’m seeing my dentist’, Emma drops the bomb on Will. Here he is giving her space and time, doing her bidding in an attempt to show her he respects her views and she’s found someone else! He is totally devastated (crying scene in car), but he’s not giving up that easily. The songs he chooses for Regionals reflect his feelings for Emma: he is hers ‘Faithfully’ and he tells himself ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. And she doesn’t really want him to when she says ‘You have to fight Will’. He realizes she’s not talking about the Glee club, she’s talking about them. He’s not wearing a tie, the collar of his shirt is open, perhaps indicating he’s ready to ‘open’ himself up to her. ‘I love you and you love me’, he reminds her. Her hand shows little to no resistance as it falls upon his chest as he springs another ‘pearly white harbour attack’ upon her lips. The shippers are ready to kill Rachel for interrupting this kiss and pulling Mr Schue away from the opportunity for a meaningful discussion. ‘Yes, it could be interpreted as ‘I love you because you love me’, because Will has never said why he loves her, but on the other hand he’s reminding her to be honest with herself. The words are perhaps paradoxically, too ambiguous or too truthful for Emma. She stands in a stupor in the corridor as the camera moves away from her, signalling her inertia; she doesn’t know what to do. Behind her is a poster and Emma is positioned in such a way, that it looks like it says ‘Will loves you’, suggesting perhaps that these words are ricocheting in her head. A good heart to heart discussion may have worked things out but instead, fear takes control and she keeps running. School is out for the summer.

The shippers really liked the kisses in ‘Hello’ and ‘Journey to Regionals’. Knowing the final kiss was unscripted made it even better. They also liked the ‘Like a Virgin’ sequence. But they’re slightly worried. Is Emma really going to pursue the dentist? And if so, for how long do we have to be dragged along? Mmm… ‘temptation, frustration…’