It’s been so long since we’ve had some Wemma of substance to analyse that I’ve almost forgotten where we left off. Oh yes, Asian F, episode 3 and Will saying ‘I wish I knew how to make things better for you’ and ‘I will try to fix you’ (remember these lines, they’re important.) followed by 6 episodes of Wemma telepathy. It seems they did need to talk though, about marriage, and it all comes to a head the day Coach Bieste tells Emma she and Cooter got married Christmas Eve.
At first excited by the romance of Bieste and Cooter getting married so spontaneously, Emma quickly looks crestfallen and tells Bieste worriedly, ‘I don’t think Will wants to marry me.’ ‘Oh for God’s sake Amelia, it’s 2012, if you want to marry Will Schuester, ask him!’ instructs Sue. Emma looks to Bieste for reassurance and, given the nod and her own overwhelming desire to be married to Will, she moves towards him, only to fall into one of her fantasies, ‘Wedding Bell Blues’. If this song hadn’t been written 40 years ago, you would swear it was written specifically for Emma. The lyrics reveal EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING she feels for and sees in Will. She loves it when he sings, so she probably does hear carousels in his voice. She sees the passion in his eyes when he looks at her. She was the one who stood beside him when he was ‘losing’ his marriage, his direction, Sectionals and Nationals. She came running when he was ‘lonely’ (invitation to her house last Christmas). Even though she married Carl (I know we don’t like to recall the dark days of Emma running scared) there was ‘no foolin’ and for an entire 3 seasons ‘No day has passed not loving [Will] only.’ The montage was a very welcome pure and honest Emma, for the first time declaring her unbound love for Will wrapped in her traditional and romantic bridal magazine images of fairytale bridal gowns and cakes and her penchant for royal weddings (hilarious touch RIB with the Eugenie and Beatrice headgear on Sue and Bieste) where real princes marry ordinary girls and turn them into princesses.
And those words ‘traditional’ and ‘romantic’ are what stopped her from asking Will to marry her and resulted in her running off in embarrassment. We know Emma is a true romantic – it’s why she wore purple when she went to do ‘the nasty’ with Will in the Madonna episode, it’s why she ran from the reality of loving Will at the end of Season 1 and it’s why she loves romantic dinners. Emma is a romantic at heart and a traditionalist. In traditional romances the girl doesn’t ask the boy to marry her and Emma, for all of her strength and independence and desire for self-empowerment, cannot reconcile the two. And perhaps this is why Will has a slight laugh with her, when she tells him Sue told her she should be ‘all liberated’ and do the proposing. Will knows Emma too well…he’s not laughing because he’s sexist or patronizing or thinks it’s absurd, he knows it’s part of Emma’s ‘dream’ to be asked and how much she believes that ‘dreams are achievable’ (remember the poster she had hanging in her office?) Will called her ‘Cinderella’ in the very first episode; he’s seen her Princess Diana wedding dress; he agreed with her choice of the very romantic, ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ as a wedding song; she’s tiny and cute like every fairytale princess and she makes Will feel like her prince or white knight (Terri never made him feel like that). Will understands the perfect world Emma lives in and in that world the princes do the asking, not the princesses.
Will has received the message. He moved ‘too fast’ for her in ‘Hello’ he has watched her progress through obsession, fear, denial, admittance, acceptance, sacrificial love and becoming one with him. She needs to be the one to say she is ready to marry him and from the look on his face as he looks after her disappearing form and the way he runs into the choir room to share the news with the kids, he is ecstatic. He’s ready, she’s ready. Let’s do it! He needs a proposal that is ‘perfect’ and will ‘knock her well-washed socks off’ because he wants to fulfil her dream. He passes on the boys’ idea to ‘Move Like Jagger’ (Note to RIB: more Mr Schue on the dance floor please) because dancing means getting sweaty and he doesn’t ‘want to do anything that will trigger’ her OCD.’ The girls’ emotional rendition of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ conveys the profound impact Emma has had on Will’s soul and the depth of his love for her. We are all positioned to feel he doesn’t need to ask Emma’s parents permission to marry her. They will marry regardless of their blessing or not.
But Will knows Emma is a traditionalist and a romantic and asking her father’s permission fulfils Emma’s ‘dream’. He knows her parents are akin to Cinderella’s evil step-mother: unloving, callous and unable to confront their own inadequacies. Things did not go well last time he unexpectedly invited them over. They are also likely to ‘trigger her off’. Will makes a wise decision to speak to them when Emma isn’t home.
In ‘Asian F’ Will was shocked and angry with them for their lack of compassion towards Emma, calling her a ‘freak’, treating her like a freak and telling him ‘don’t bother trying to stop her.’ So here they are back again, warning him again that she is a freak, won’t be able to cope with a family and they try to protect him from Emma. Rusty asks, ‘Is this really what you want?’ The camera zooms in on Will’s face to show us that perhaps Will really hasn’t thought about this. It’s at this point I say a big loud NO to the writers. This response is out of character. There is no way Will hasn’t already asked himself those questions and taken Emma’s OCD into consideration and here’s why:
#1. He is not the naïve and indecisive Will from the beginning of the series, he has become Emma’s ‘man of action.’ He remained unattached for Season Two to ‘get to know himself and to clarify his feelings for Emma. If anything, their response should have made Will angry again. Angry that they do not want their daughter to be loved; angry that they don’t want her to have the chance to fulfil her own dreams; and angry about not encouraging her to try to live a normal life. It should have confirmed to Will that unlike her parents, he has enough compassion for her to live with her OCD. If the writers had stayed true to Will’s character, he would have become angry and he would have then had a very open and honest discussion with Emma about her parents, about having children and the progress she’s making with her OCD which would have further clarified how much better Wemma communication has become since the revelations of ‘Asian F’ and clarified her progress and Will's role in it for the viewers. It would also have given Emma a chance to voice her own feelings about Will.
#2. Will proved his devotion to Emma throughout the whole of Season 2. It was established in Brittany/Britney that Emma is his ‘only exception’. He declined to follow his Broadway dream because he didn’t ‘want to lose’ her. There is no way he would halt just before the finish line.
And #3. Will isn’t ignorant about OCD. He has researched OCD (evident in ‘Night of Neglect’s Grape scene) and the day he donned her gloves in The Grape Scene symbolised his acceptance of her condition, he’s known Emma for 3 years, he’s living with her for heaven’s sake, he’s seen her at her worst. He must have asked himself Rusty and Rose’s questions much, MUCH earlier in the peace. And in all the time Wemma have spent together, (what do they talk about at home or in bed?) Emma must have asked him about how he feels about her OCD.
The writers continue to keep Will out of character when Emma, determined to move Wemma into marriage, confronts Will about taking so long to make the move. She nervously asks him: ‘Do you want to be with me…I mean as your wife? Let’s take a look at his response:
‘Of course, I do…’
‘But?’
‘I love you. You know that. But what if we get married? What happens when we have a house? And a baby. How are you going to handle spit up on your special Wednesday sweater? Sweetheart you can’t control another person. What if it’s all just too much?’
‘I..I mean I’ve been taking my medication. You know Some days are great. Some days not so great. But I…I’m, I mean I’m doing the best I can. I’m doing everything…’
‘I know you are, I know you are and it’s not your fault that you have this disease but sometimes it just seems so hopeless.’ (Will closes his eyes regretting this last word).
Of course he regrets this last word because this is a word Will would NEVER use in relation to Emma’s OCD. And this is when I shout my second NO to the writers. Here is why:
Will is not one to stop believing in Emma or Wemma – ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ is their song. When Emma was with ‘The Carl’, ‘dentist or no, this thing isn’t over us between us’. He never rejected her or gave up on her (see drunk dial - ‘I know you’re taken, but…’). He believed Emma would eventually see the light and return to him, 'If I really love you, I have to back off for now...'. He has supported Emma from the word go: ‘You’ve helped me with my problem, let me help you with yours,’ ‘One day you’ll beat this thing’, ‘I’m here for you,’ ‘I’m willing to learn.’ And remember the quotes I asked you to remember? ‘I wish I could make things better for you’, ‘I will try and fix you.’ I could go on. You know the Wemma quotes, add your own. And now he’s feeling ‘hopeless’? No, no, no! I don’t care what anyone says, ‘hopeless’ was thrown in there to simply connect the proposal song’s lyric ‘we found love in a hopeless place.’ Glee Writers, it was totally unnecessary and uncaring towards your character. Wemma shippers are not stupid. We don’t need to be hit over the head with a word like that. We know how hopeless Emma and Will felt respectively in their own circumstances before they found each other. We do watch Glee religiously (over and over). Maybe you should try repeatedly watching your own episodes so you can get Will wearing the right vest when you do a flashback scene too. So disappointed not to see that grey woollen vest. Some people might try and excuse it by saying it was the first time he saw her, not met her. Semantics my friends; in that flashback scene he saw her and spoke to her therefore he met her. But I digress, back to the confrontation.
To give the writers their due and to try and understand their validation of the route they took Will, let's talk it through. At this point we know (as he told Finn) that Will doesn’t’ want a second failed marriage and he needs to put his deepest fears to rest: Will needs to know that Emma’s still not being romantic about marriage and that she is prepared to have children (he has mentioned his desire for children twice already this season), thus he confronts Emma with the reality of married life and his honest feelings about why he has doubts about marrying her. He is being totally realistic with her and it is a conversation they need to have. Maybe Will really wanted to test Emma’s perception of where she’s at with her OCD. It was perfect emotional fuel for both actors and yet another opportunity to see superb acting by Jayma and naturally it built up a nice degree of tension to the grand proposal. It’s just that Will's doubts didn't need to be included in this episode, Emma should have asked him about his feelings towards her OCD after Asian F. And the word ‘hopeless’, it was so jarring and unexpected.
Like us, Emma is shocked at Will’s revelation. After all they’ve gone through it’s out of character! (She had every right to use my aforementioned arguments with him: How dare you show all this devotion to me over 3 years, we move in together and now you're telling me this!) But she accepts that’s how he feels, manages to balance her head and heart (boy has she grown) and in return proves to him that she is as realistic and honest:
‘Well, ok. Can I promise you that I’m going to get better? No. This is what you get. This, this incomplete person with toothbrushes and rubber gloves and so much love for you but if that’s not what you want then you need to be honest with me and yourself. And the sooner the better.’
As soon as Emma says ‘incomplete person’, you can see Will wants to cry at her self-definition. He can’t bear to see her hurting and he’s the one who’s delivered the hurt, hurting himself as well. She walks away. He looks like he wants to say something more (probably retract the word ‘hopeless’) but she’s gone and his head falls into his hands. Will we know it’s not how you would have done it, blame the writers, they took your character away for a little while. Did you see her clothes Will? They complemented yours: Your green and earthy hues should remind you that you are Emma’s earth; her ‘solid ground’. Emma’s yellow attire had specks of brown in it. You didn’t have to ask her anything. Her clothes reveal she is happy and down to earth about marriage. ’ She is still your sun, she gives you life. There is no way you’re going to survive with out each other.
Enter Rachel, as she has throughout the series, to give voice to Will and Emma’s feelings about each other in the most heart moving rendition of ‘Without You.’ A montage of Wemma scenes during this song could have had every Wemma Shipper empty a box of tissues and shown us how invaluable Will and Emma are to each other, (adollinthishouse, this is your next assignment!) instead we had to endure 100% Finchel and make do with just a few short glimpses of Will’s pensive face as he listens to the lyrics ‘I am paralysed without you’. (But we need to be hit over the head with the word ‘hopeless’ to understand the final song? I know, let it go.)
For the first time this season Emma appears in turquoise. She is not travelling well. She only wears turquoise when she needs to control and heal her emotions, when she is trying to alleviate the stress she feels. Her devastation is revealed in a short but heart wrenching glimpse of her furiously scrubbing a jug (reminiscent of The Grape Scene) but this time she throws down her toothbrush in frustration; frustration at the control her OCD has over her or frustration at the thought of her OCD being the cause of her losing Will? Our Cinderella is tired of all the scrubbing, she wants a change. Will stands silently and unknowingly in the background watching her. Contemplating. Can he live with her OCD? Can he live without her?
Enter Sam who brings Will back to basics with the simple statement: ‘You know how you want it to be big and special and worthy of Ms Pillsbury?’ He clears Will’s head as the word 'worthy' strikes a chord in him. Will has let the doubters and his head overtake his heart. That’s something Emma usually does. Sam leads Will back to his heart and reminds him that he wants to marry Emma and it's that simple. She is precious to him.
Emma’s outlook on the situation is revealed in her new pamphlets: So You’re A Spinster, Dying Alone and Happily Never After. She’s prepared for the worst. Therefore she looks at Will warily as he knocks at her door and says ‘Have you got a second?’ He reaches out his hand to her. She looks at it in hesitation: his hand will lead her to happiness or sadness, either way her future lies in his hands. Slow motion and a close up of her hand taking his emphasises this monumental moment.
The proposal: White roses, white tuxedo, water, the song, the effort, the element of surprise, the romance of it all – it could not have been any more thoughtful, cleaner and romantic in it’s desire to be perfect for Emma. She sat in a ‘throne’ like a princess overlooking the spectacle. Will presented himself as her ‘prince or white knight’, displaying purity in a white tuxedo and superhuman qualities by ‘walking on water’. He shows his utmost commitment and love for her by diving in and ‘cleansing’ himself before standing before her (On one level for her OCD (because chlorine does kill germs and who knows maybe the smell of that cleaning agent turn her on!) but on another level there is an allusion to how Willl sees Emma as a 'supreme being' or having heavenly qualities, which Glee made much more pronounced in Season 1. As an aside, some religious observers cleanse their feet before entering a temple). Some might say the diving in symbolizes the sense of rebirth she has given him ('you saved my life'), that he is ready to start a new life with her; there is also the fact that her dress matches the colour of the water - he is metaphorically 'diving into Emma'. Like all handsome princes, Will ensures Emma’s dream came true and he tops it off with his perfectly articulated feelings for her and with the very satisfying revelation of the impact she’s had on him since day one:
“Emma, you are the one; You always have been. Truth is, I feel like I’ve had to stop myself from doing this from the second I first saw you. The first time I held this hand, it felt like I had held it a million times before, like somehow it’s always been here. Life is messy, it just is and I know that’s hard for you, but that’s why you have me, to balance things out. But you have to realize, you do that for me too, everyday. Loving you, and being loved by you makes everything better. I love you with everything I am, and everything I ever hope to be. So, Emma Pillsbury, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
‘I love you so much.’
‘Is that a yes?’
‘Yes. Yes!’
Emma’s crying. Will’s crying. The shippers are crying. Will and Emma are kissing. The romance geiger counter is off the charts! Everyone’s happy! Best episode EVER for the amount of Pillsbury! And how good was it to hear Emma sing and tell Will how much she loves him? It took 54 episodes for her to say it and when she did, she said it three times in the one episode! Perfect.
OK, now I have one request of RIB. Please for the love of Grilled Cheesus, let the Wemma wedding episode consist only of the wedding storyline. Make it all about Will and Emma. No extraneous Finn, Rachel, Becky, Artie or anyone…just Will and Emma for a whole 45 minutes. You owe it to Jayma for neglecting her in so many previous episodes. Just one episode… PLEASE? Wemma are worthy of it.
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