‘Glee’ season 4, episode 20 review: Blake Jenner’s Ryder shines in ‘Lights Out’
There are a number of ways that we could go with this “Glee” review, and while “Lights Out” as an episode was a little all over the place, we want to start things off with a recognition of just how brilliant a job Blake Jenner did during this episode as Ryder Lynn, a character who unveiled a rather terrible secret early on in this episode. This is why “The Glee Project” is so important. They found a diamond in the rough here, and it turns out that he’s a character you want to root for, maybe even more so than anyone else among the newbies.
What was also interesting is that “catfishing” aside, Ryder may have another potential love interest now courtesy of Kitty. As it turns out, she has went through the same unspeakable thing, and the two have a common bond no one else understands. Kudos for Ryan Murphy for being unafraid to go there, or being unafraid to make Sam and Artie look like jerks in acting how many teenage guys probably would act if they heard a guy talk about this terrible situation.
Unfortunately for Ryder, he seemingly chose “Katie” over Kitty … unless the two are one in the same. (It has to be her, right?) It just shows that he is likable, but also so flawed that he gets in his own way.
Much of the NYADA story this week really felt like filler, since we saw a pieced-together plot about how Santana really did have a side of her that loves ballet, and she has more ambition than she is showing since her move. This is really just a symptom of this show having too much going on, since this story could have been more effective had it taken place over a full episode.
As for the power outage, this was in a word disappointing. Where was Nightbird? We don’t know if there has been a scene so hyped that was cut since Santana and Finn’s visit to a jewelry story. Disappointing, and this was a rare moment where we would have taken this over the lengthy “At the Ballet” performance.
What did you think about this “Glee” season 4 episode, Jenner’s performance, and the path that was set up for the show moving forward? If you want to also read some early scoop on the May 9 season finale, be sure to visit the link here.
Photo: Twitter / Ryan Murphy
colourfulchatterbox
April 27, 2013 @ 10:06 pm
Blake was fantastic. Glee dealt with it terribly. This is sexual abuse here people. And he has never told anybody. The kind of effect this could have had on him is impossible to guess yet Glee brushed it under the carpet. Why? It’s a seriously important issue, we ignore sexual abuse as it is, so why only highlight Artie and Sam’s stereotypical response but not try to make the ‘right’ response stand out more?! It was dealt with in such a horrible way and was not representative of how sexual abuse cases should be treated.
Also. The catfish is Unique/Wade. Does no-one remember the episode where it showed him replying to a message from Ryder and his guilty face?
Sam
April 26, 2013 @ 5:49 am
Sorry while Blake does a nice job the writers are trying to hard to make the new cast happen. Instead of giving them personalities they are jsut throwing different issue at them. Thank god no insipid nightbird and please stop with the gratuitous Blaine/Darren love it is grating my last nerve.
Why would you want to cut a pretty and finally different number short for more juvenile Blaine? That just does not compute.