Some pretty big side-stories run through the episode, as well, focusing on a few characters we’ve seen little of recently. One deals with Becky, Sue’s long-time foul-mouthed side-kick, who comes back from college with a normal, handsome boyfriend. This sends most of the girls of the club, including Sue and Coach Roz popping up for a random cameo, into a tizzy because they think Darrell (the boyfriend) is taking advantage of Becky’s down-syndrome. He isn’t – of course he isn’t, this is Glee – and turns the whole thing around on his accusers in a pretty much wholly predictable fashion. Though Sue and the gang’s reasons for reacting this way are admirable, it never quite gels with the amount of acceptance and character growth they’ve all gone through over the years.
The other sub-plot deals with a revelation from Coach Beiste, who’s been missing practices and quietly training Sam to take her place should she ever need to leave the school. Hint, hint, she will, and soon; she explains to Sue and Sam towards the end of the episode that she has gender dysphoria and has been taking all the medication Sue found in her desk drawers in preparation for a gender reassignment surgery coming up soon. Beiste’s best storylines have been when she connects unexpectedly to those around her, namely Mr. Shuester, but the big revelation feels routine for the show by now. I also question whether this is her getting written off the show completely, or if we’ll see the character’s return post-surgery by series end.
Although I did like the episode, the music left something to be desired. Sometimes mashups work (“I Feel Pretty/Unpretty” from Season 2), but they can also end up depriving two individually great songs of their best parts, and that’s what “Jagged Little Tapestry” felt like for most of the episode. It’s also questionable that most of the songs get performed by alumni rather than the new generation, with Jane and Mason getting the only big song in the episode for the newbies.
As the show gets closer and closer to its end, it’s only going to get easier to pick it apart for the decisions it makes with the little time it has left. But if “Jagged Little Tapestry” is an indication of the direction for the rest of the series – music notwithstanding – we may just have Glee get back on track in time for its big curtain call, which is just a few scarily short weeks away.
