Mirrors! (a bit more on 4x04)

[misqueue]

I put this on my tumblr too (mentaltortoise)


I’m still digesting 4x04, but I am wondering if anyone has been writing or thinking about the use of mirrors in the episode? They’re everywhere, not just as actual mirrors, but as visual conceits (e.g., the way Kurt & Blaine sit at the fountain).

So what I’m thinking about so far are the functions of actual mirrors: mirrors focus our attention, direct gaze and light, ask for contemplation, create illusions, show truth, evoke notions of vanity and narcissism (And death via vanity: Kurt’s self-absorption [I do not mean this pejoratively; I’m just observing] leads to the death of his relationship?); mirrors represent reality but do not contain it, or, mirrors invert, offer perspective, offer guidance and insight, provide safety, permit surveillance. How do you know which thing they’re doing though?

We get some of these inversions & reflections within and between relationships.

e.g. Kurt is growing up; Blaine is breaking down.
Rachel is an adult; Finn goes back to high school.
Will wants to live his dream; Emma is already living hers.
Santana understands Britt and gives her heart a break. Kurt doesn’t understand what Blaine is going through, and Blaine breaks his heart.

What else?

Oh! And before I forget; the painting on the building outside Kurt & Rachel’s window changed between 4x03 and 4x04. I don’t have screen caps, but in 4x03 it reads S-E-? (X or W?) and in 4x04 it’s something purple. Might be a detail to look out for, if it changes often? I need to rewatch the episode, but can’t quite manage it yet.

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Ahh, you beat me to it! I rewatched the ep yesterday afternoon with Roomie, and noticed the mirrors everywhere and thought, "I have to go talk to misqueue about this!." At the bar, in the dance studio, in the apartment, in Santana's house...even the outdoor scene is full of wet pavement and fountain pools. Just generally speaking, mirrors add light and visual interest, but when you've got shot after shot someone fully framed in one, something else is up, something DEEP and SYMBOLIC. :P

What I found most interesting was that I don't think a single character looked directly into a mirror. Even in "Don't Speak", when Kurt and Finn are sitting directly in front of one, they're looking down and to the side. Even in your mirror-as-visual-conceit, when Kurt and Blaine sing into each other's faces from two inches away, they're not making eye contact. What's up with that?

[misqueue]

Ha! They must be DEEP and SYMBOLIC, this was more than just coincidence of set dressing & camera angles. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like this season Glee is (at least so far) more deliberately diving into symbolism and drawn out themes. The episodes feel less self-contained, like there's a greater narrative tension underlying stuff. It could just be me overthinking it though, as I do.

What I found most interesting was that I don't think a single character looked directly into a mirror.

I did not notice this, but you're right (from my memory, I still haven't brought myself to watch again). Even when Kurt is getting ready to go out, he's not looking himself in the eye, he's checking out his ass in those pants to make sure he got all the lint off his shirt.

So, perhaps there's an element of willful blindness being enforced? No one is looking, no one is contemplating, no one is seeing clearly? Like, Kurt and Blaine's conversation on the phone. They're using the same words, but they're not meaning the same things. Communication itself is an illusion.

And definitely the water and wet surfaces count if we're getting into the deep and symbolic. It could even be connected to the "everything changes" tag this episode got in the promos. We're changing worlds, essentially. Glee is transitioning and will never be the same; this episode is the pivot point. We're through the looking glass, or have we escaped the Matrix?

I was also thinking about mirrors that are not flat since you mentioned other reflective things. So they can cause distortion, magnification, minimization. Telescopes use mirrors to show us things that are otherwise not visible. Lighthouses use mirrors to magnify their warning light (Oh, Blaine).

I didn't notice the framing of that shot in the choir room. I will look for it. Ouchh. I was thinking about Blaine and maybe his starting to realize that he's not just hurting and potentially losing Kurt but Kurt's friends and family, too. He's too, too isolated. Ugh. I thought I'd be mad at him, but I'm mostly worried for him.

[stultiloquentia]

Now I'm curious about whether the weather on shooting day was soggy in NY, or whether they hosed the pavement. Yay pathetic fallacy.

Now I'm stretching in a ridiculous way (pthbbt, it's fun!), but the water in the park also connotes Fountains of Youth (in a dark way: teenage dream as stagnant, growthless), drowning, division, etc..

I didn't notice the framing of that shot in the choir room. I will look for it. Ouchh.

No, no, I'm predicting this'll be a good thing. I think Blaine believes he's not part of ND's family, and ND will convince him that he is.

[misqueue]

...whether they hosed the pavement.

I wonder this too. This episode had a distinct visual texture and feel to it. Glimmery. The way the bar was lit too, not wet, but glimmery.

... teenage dream as stagnant...

I love it. I mean, yesterday I was bizarrely potentially connecting Santa Claus to Blaine's resolving his issues, so I'll happily embark on all tangents just to see what may be there. :) I think you're good though. I can't think of any other fountain symbols as well known as that.

I know we don't care about authorial intent very much, but they did go out and shoot that part in LA well after they'd done the NY bits, maybe even to add the fountain, not just for closeups. That is, it could be more than just a background use-it-'cause-it's-there thing. The Teenage Dream is a stagnation--no one actually wants to be an immortal child. Lovely as it is, it had to end one way or another. Blaine can't go back to that perfect place (although it sounds like he may be tempted to try). He and Kurt will likely need to rebuild from their foundations, go back to the start, but it has to be a reboot not a retread (that way lies Will Schuester's tragedy). It makes me think "It's Time" was for Blaine, too.

No, no, I'm predicting this'll be a good thing.

Ah! Then I shall adopt your optisism, because that would be really so very good for Blaine. It's been a worry that Britt keeps calling him Blaine Warbler; he still feels outside the group. But if they can forgive him, include him, & embrace him, then that will go a long way with ameliorating his feelings of terrible loneliness.

[stultiloquentia]

Tangentially, because it's not related to mirrors, but to framing, did you note the very deliberate set-up when Schue told Finn in the choir room, "We're all family, here"? Finn in focus in the foreground ... and little Blaine hunched behind him in the corner of both room and frame. Mark my word: hold that thought.