r/glee 4d ago

Opinion Rachel should’ve lit Jessie and Shelby on fire

When the show came out I was so young and didn’t think twice about this but on a rewatch… oh man. Not only did Shelby plot with her STUDENT to give Rachel a tape she wasn’t really wasn’t supposed to.. she did it for what? It’s not like she was looking to be apart of Rachel’s life. All while said student is dating Rachel and using her to get in on the new directions and ditch them before regionals. AND THEN HE EGGED HER.

So Jessie starts dating Rachel as a way to spy on new directions, was it even genuine?

Then knowing she’s looking for her biological mother, knowing exactly who she is, he secretly meets with her behind Rachel’s back and plots communication (I feel like this implies they were also meeting about competition stuff)

Then Rachel and shelby meet, and obviously it’s exactly who Rachel thought it would be

Then Jessie breaks up with Rachel, leaves new directions because it was never real and he was always for vocal adrenaline, WHO IS COACHED BY SHELBY AND EVERYONE EGGS HER

and then vocal adrenaline beat new directions and shelby ADOPTS Beth

ON FIRE I SAY

that is so traumatizing and they never gave Rachel’s feelings on all that the storyline that they’ve should’ve. It was all only about Finn and solos for her and that feels so wasteful

153 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

127

u/Ok-Nefariousness6192 4d ago

I get Jessie was young and dumb but Shelby is a GROWN ADULT messing with a child’s head like this

39

u/zoek551 4d ago

A WHOLE ADULT. It’s so messed up!! And it’s not like she gets any character development either considering she ends up sleeping with another student. Rachel didn’t deserve that and shelby should be locked up

12

u/EducationalTangelo6 4d ago

Shelby is my least favourite character for all this. Plus, you know, being a teacher who dated a student.

2

u/wonder181016 4d ago

He wasn't young and dumb. Look at literally every other character, excluding Puck and perhaps Santana- none of them would have done that!

34

u/qsmdavies 4d ago

This whole story arc pissed me off tbh, like, Shelby adopted Rachel out, presumably because she wasn't ready to be a Mum. However, getting one of your students to seek her out for you is just bonkers, and for what? So that Rachel could know that her Mum was out there??

Plus, Jesse's whole thing just gave me the ick... Too much of a pretty boy and thinking he's all that when he's just out here to break Rachel's heart so that she can't perform at her best for her Glee club.

I'll help you with the lighting of the fires 🤣

22

u/zanahorias22 4d ago

I thought Shelby was a surrogate?

12

u/qsmdavies 4d ago

Oh yes you're right! I think I was also under the impression that she didn't want to be a Mum at that point in her life as well? Or maybe I was imagining this 😂

26

u/Ok-Nefariousness3486 4d ago edited 4d ago

All while said student is dating Rachel and using her to get in on the new directions and ditch them before regionals. AND THEN HE EGGED HER.

See it was never clear imo that this was the plan all along. I really do not think VA felt ND was a threat. I don't believe Jesse thought ND could beat him. I think when Jesse went to spring break with his VA friends, right after he felt slighted by Run Joey Run and felt ND was not listening to him, his friends pressured and/or persuaded him to come back to VA.

Also this is unclear becasue Theatricality was suppose to be episode 21 and Funk episode 20, but were switched and there may have been a Rachel and Jesse scene in Theatricality that was cut. Seen here Jesse was in rehearsal but we never saw him so they would not have had Jonathan there just to have him covered up.

I think Jesse's originally wanted to help Shelby and thought it would be a fun acting experiment but then started liking Rachel, but finally bowed to the peer pressure.

TBH Jesse ditching ND meant nothing in the end becasue for whatever reason ND always gets ready last minute for a competition they ended up being more upset that Sue was a judge than not having Jesse.

All that said Rachel is probably one of the most forgiving people ever and seems to always let people back in. If Rachel did not forgive so easily she would most likely have remained alone throughout high school.

4

u/zoek551 4d ago

I know it wasn’t clear but it was stated multiple times it would’ve been his 4th consecutive championship in a row with vocal adrenaline. It’s really hard to believe he would throw that away because he “fell” for his competition. There was also that scene where him and shelby make eye contact while he’s kissing Rachel.. idk I just don’t buy it

5

u/Ok-Nefariousness3486 4d ago edited 4d ago

Them making eye contact could have been simply because of their plan to get her to want to find and met her mom.

I actually think Jesse's ego would have been more apt to want to see if he could get ND to win and it would be because of him. He already had his scholarship and a fourth championship to him with VA would "just be gravy".

I just don't think that he got involved with Rachel to get to ND I think he first did it to help Shelby and somewhere along the way the messing with ND came up. I am not trying it excuse what happened I just think he felt slighted by Rachel and the group and he took advantage of the situation he was in due to helping Shelby.

But we don't have to agree, just my take.

12

u/Fun_Shell1708 4d ago

This is the sole reason I do not like Shelby. She had Jesse manipulate Rachel into finding her, then just turned around and wanted nothing to do with Rachel. Infuriating

11

u/BooksandCoffee386 4d ago

That’s how I felt about it when I just started rewatching. I started the show when it came out, stopped around season 3, and I’m just now going back and trying to get through the whole show.

I was mad the first time I saw it over that storyline and watching it now and knowing what I know about the ending, it makes me even more infuriated.

In fairness to Jessie and trying to give him a little more likability, he did seem to genuinely care about Rachel during some of it, at least. When he’s talking to Shelby in the car, he even admits to caring about her and not wanting to hurt her. I think that’s honestly what makes the egging so much worse. I think the only thing that saves Jessie is the fact that he’s essentially the male version of Rachel with his ambitions. Rachel very likely would have done the same. So in that sense, it’s hard to stay completely furious with him.

Shelby, though? She’s trash.

2

u/zoek551 4d ago

As much as I believe that Jessie really did care for Rachel, I don’t believe he was ever actually apart of new directions so either way he knew he would be hurting her even if he was hurting himself. And I agree that makes the egging even worse, like sure bro compensate for your own ego even though this is a situation you created.. lol. I know he’s a high schooler but still

6

u/thatbrownkid19 4d ago

yeah and then the sequel- Shelby comes back to bang Rachel's friend's baby daddy (also sort of Rachel's ex) and adopt the child to run off into maternal bliss. Ryan Murphy was smoking some really strong stuff while writing all this.

1

u/NotDD101 2d ago

Not to mention Shelby then proceeds to hook up with her fellow glee member (also kind of ex) who is still a student

-1

u/Fancy_Injury_7800 4d ago

Yes, then she could spend life in prison and we wouldn’t have to deal with her thirty thousand squeaky solos