Glee S6 E4 “The Hurt Locker Part One”

The countdown to the final episode continues in Glee’s fourth entry – “The Hurt Locker” – as stakes are raised when Sue is compelled to take her machinations to the next level.

To recap the previous four eps: Kurt and Rachel are coaching the new new kids, Blaine is coaching the Warblers, Will is coaching Vocal Adrenaline, Kurt and Blaine are still broken up, and ouch. Our merry band of Lima-ites are a bit fractured. I’m sure Sue can help with that!

We kick off in the McKinley Teacher’s lounge where Sue and Will are sitting down for a pleasant lunch together. Sue has decided since she’s achieved her goal of absolute power, what harm could come from having a civil bury-the-hatchet lunch with Will?

Well, the hatchet might end up IN Will?

Will prattles on about how great it is to be back but Sue’s busy voice-overing. Driving him to Carmel after surrendering Glee club means they are no longer mortal enemies. Of course her inner monologue is one long insult of the man – heck, she doesn’t even blink when he shows her cute pictures of baby Danny! – but things are going well. I mean, Will is still alive when he walks out of the room.

And then she sees it. Son of a whore…Will has left behind his disposal plastic fork and Sue is tipped directly into rage. How dare he?

“Will Schuester, you have crossed me for the last time.”

Sue, the Le Car, Becky and a storage locker. Someone call the Investigative Discovery channel.

To the Le Car!

With her faithful sidekick Becky, Sue travels to her storage locker down a dark dirty alley. She was thinking of retiring but no – not until she ties up some loose ends.

What is this place?

Sue: “This is where I store my hatred, Becky.” It’s her Hurt Locker and it’s where she’ll plot her final act of revenge.

Inside is the physical manifestation of all Sue’s rage: pictures, locks of hair, puppets, post-it notes, clay figures, and an ominous wheel with everyone’s name on it…and a hatchet. Whoa.

Side bar: The “missing” note over Matt Rutherford’s head (season one) is hilariously delightful.

Sue tacks up the “rage fork” as it is now labeled, vowing her revenge on Will and then his protegé, Rachel (whose hair extensions join the rage fork on the bulletin board).

She’s going to break Rachel’s heart. But first? Becky, wait in the car.

Sue uses several notes on the organ – making her look like a Scooby-Doo villain – to open a secret room, one far less angry and far more creepy than the Hurt Locker.

It’s a Klaine shrine.

Side bar: The meta of Sue in this episode is both a gentle chiding and tolerant pat on the head to fandom, calling out their obsessive behaviors and fixations on details – instead of seeing the whole picture of a narrative story. Sue wants what Sue wants! The way she wants it! And everything else is just an excuse to be irritated. But just as fandom has stuck with their rewards and disappointments, Sue cannot retire. She can’t let go.

Meanwhile, back at the Klaine shrine…

Seems Sue’s been shipping them since the beginning. She believed their tender manlove was for the ages and when they broke up? She was devastated! Whhhhy? Sue hereby pledges to do whatever it takes to get them back together – so she can fulfill her secret desire to be a flower girl at their fabulous gay wedding.

She gives their large cardboard cut out kiss (their first kiss – I’m assuming she had a camera monitoring Kurt at Dalton) with a tender finger touch as the creepy horror music plays.

Well, that sums up the good and the bad of fandom in a single screen shot.

Glee!

Sue gets started by calling Kurt – her little gelfling – into her office. She wants to help him achieve his life goal of reuniting him with Blaine – get him away from that no-good Karofsky!

Sue’s favorite marbled rump roast.

Kurt: “Since when do you care about Blaine and I?”
Sue: “Since like forever!”

Apparently he and Blaine are “blouses” – femmy, breezy tops for those with a Sue Sylvester Urban Dictionary – her favorite kind of homosexual.

Kurt “thanks” her but really, he doesn’t want to get back together with Blaine. Sue is not pleased with this response, then shoos him off to the auditorium so he can practice for the Invitationals.

What invitational?

Sue: “The one I organized to destroy the Glee Club once and for all.”

Damn, shouldn’t have used her voice-over voice.

On stage, Will watches Vocal Adrenaline practice. Rachel joins him, and while Mr. S. is blase about the “organized practice,” Rachel is not. Her kids are fragile little buds. A soul-crushing loss could stop the resurrection of Glee Club before it really even begins. He might be a teacher at Carmel but this is his home. Doesn’t he want to protect it? Will would do anything for Rachel and the Glee Club, but there’s pressure on him to continue the tradition of VA. But Rachel goes full tilt guilt on him – even throwing in cute baby Danny! – and asks him to consider paying back all McKinley has done for him.

Unfortunately for Will, Sue is watching this exchange via her remote-controlled drone.

Will goes to the stage and sees the plaques for Finn and Ms. Adler and calls an audible. He tells the VA crew that they’re throwing out their long rehearsed and perfected numbers for new songs. Which he will get them in an hour… Clint (Max George) is annoyed by this and everyone glares at Will as he walks off. And the drone keeps watching.

Sue terrorizes the hallways before landing the drone on her desk.

Sue: “Good dragon. Your khaleesi loves you.”

Co-coach Sam is in the locker room, folding things. Is he a coach or a housekeeper? Sue asks him if he thinks he’s susceptible to suggestion, he asks if she thinks he is, she says yes, and he agrees.

Perfect.

Channeling skills learned watching The Manchurian Candidate, Sue hypnotizes Sam in about four seconds. She implants the words, “piano,” “flatbed truck,” and “let’s do a song” in his head. When he hears these words next, he will be overwhelmed with love for Rachel Berry. He will then kiss her and at that moment, forget everything that happened between them previously.

Oh, dirty pool!

Side bar: Chord Overstreet is full on hilarious this season, even if he rarely leaves the locker room.