Glee fans who are worried about the fate of beloved couples, Klaine and Finchel? In an interview with TV Line, Executive producer, Brad Falchuk sheds a little light (just a little) on what we can expect from the highly controversial 4th episode, titled “The Break Up.”
Ryan Murphy first teased the episode in a twitter party, scaring the crap out of Glee shippers everywhere. Then, over the weekend, a bombshell was dropped, as reports coming from fans watching a late night Glee shoot revealed Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) appearing to break up. Oh noes.
“All of the core relationships are tested,” he previews of the hour, which fellow EP Ryan Murphy first hinted about on Twitter last week. “I’m not going to say who breaks up and who doesn’t, but they all — Santana/Brittany, Kurt/Blaine, Will/Emma, Rachel/Finn — get kicked in the nuts. And it’s all about how do they recover — and can they recover? And some don’t. Absolutely some don’t. Of those couples, not all of them are going to make it. It’s like Titanic.”
Ah. But the question is who will make it? I’ve always thought of Rachel/Finn and Kurt/Blaine as endgame. Santana/Brittany not so much. I know there are passionate Brittana fans out there–but the two are such a mismatch. They are victims of Glee’s bad writing. While Santana (Naya Rivera) has become a fully fleshed out character, Brittany (Heather Morris) as hilarious as she may be, is just a cardboard caricature. The two have no emotional resonance, at least not for me.
“Long-distance relationships are hard,” he acknowledged. “They’re not impossible, but they’re really hard. And with all the couples we’re really trying to look at what it takes to have a relationship when one person leaves. It’s particularly hard when somebody graduates high school and someone is still in high school. The second you graduate high school you’re in a different world. You see things differently, your needs are different, your perspective on things is different. So I think it’s a pretty tough challenge.”
If the show is going for a realistic portrayal of long distance relationships, breaking up those couples, even if just for awhile makes sense. As much as I adore Klaine, I could live with them being apart for awhile. They are anyway–living in separate cities. It makes sense from a dramatic standpoint to split them up. Honestly, I was more upset that Kurt didn’t make it into NYADA than I am at the prospect of a Kurt/Blaine break up.
Figuring out who these characters are outside of their respective romances is a major theme of Season 4, notes Falchuk. “Relationships in general will be less of a focus this year,” he says. “I personally think a lot of these characters are more interesting not in relationships. And I think with a lot of them we will be exploring that. Whether they break up or not, we’re really focused on giving them more individual stories.”
So, there is your answer. The long distance relationships will likely break up (or stay broken up, as in the case of Finchel), at least for the time being, which is OK by me.
What do you think? Do you want the long distance couples to stay together or break apart?
