TVLINE | How long have you been planning to write your episode?
I never wanted to do this, or gave any indication that I wanted to do it. It’s not my world, these aren’t my characters and I thought I’d hate tampering with it or ruining it. But then they came to me and said, “Would you be interested in writing an episode? We want you to.” It was an opportunity that I could not turn down.
TVLINE | Can you set it up for us? What’s it all about?
Everyone knows I’m a very selfish writer, so the main storyline is about Kurt being down on his luck and looking for something to validate him as a performer. He ends up joining an assisted living home’s production of Peter Pan, and something happens to the woman playing Peter, so he has to fill in. The biggest compliment I got from the crew and the cast when the script came out was that it reminded them of a Glee episode from Season 1. And we got some amazing people to be in it.
TVLINE | Yeah, let’s talk about those amazing people.
June Squibb, Tom Conway and Billy Dee Williams; I was shocked. I never expected that we’d get names like that, especially June Squibb, coming [off of] an Oscar nomination. I have to say, June blew me away. People need to watch this episode just for her performance. At 83 years old, she was on her feet 14 hours a day, singing and dancing and keeping up with the rest of us. She was just impressing everyone around her. She was incredible, and I hope she gets the recognition she deserves. She blew all of us away.
TVLINE | What was most important for you to get across in the episode?
I wanted it to be very much like classic Glee. I wanted to do a story about underdogs; I think that’s why we have such a passionate audience, because it was a show about a group of kids that had never had something represent them before. My two favorite things in life are animals and old people, so I definitely wanted to incorporate both of those into the story.
TVLINE | Was there anything you wanted to do, but couldn’t for whatever reason?
They only gave me two guidelines when they gave me the job: I couldn’t break up with Blaine and I couldn’t kill anyone. They really gave me so much freedom with this. I was terrified going into it. I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to tell the story I wanted to tell, but the writers gave me so much room to play with. It was an incredible experience.
TVLINE | So we shouldn’t expect Kurt to break up with, then murder, Blaine?
No, no that won’t happen in this episode. Maybe Season 6, but the blood won’t be on my hands. That’ll be someone else’s episode.
TVLINE | How do you feel about where they are now, and where they could go from here?
They’re very young and they’re engaged, so I’m not sure where they’ll go after. Engagement is already a pretty big step. I’m very lucky that’s not in my hands.
TVLINE | Do you know if you’ll be back full-time next year?
I have absolutely no idea. I have heard very little about what’s going on with Season 6, so I have no idea.
TVLINE | Ryan Murphy recently said something huge happens that sends everyone on a different path. Can you elaborate?
Season 5 has a really nice conclusion that I think our audience is going to be really happy with. It sends every character on their own way, which will open up the door to a lot of possibilities in Season 6, depending on what they want to do with it. Every character gets a good send-off.
TVLINE | What are your hopes for Kurt’s future, generally speaking?
Selfishly, I had so much fun working with June, Tim and Billy Dee, I hope he has a future in the assisted living home that I created. But I just want to see him happy. I hope to see him find validation within himself. I think that would be a great lesson for the kids watching, that you have to find approval and happiness within yourself. You don’t get it from someone else.
