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Ryan Murphy and Jane Lynch discuss “Glee” season 2

Glee‘s Ryan Murphy had several reveals about Emmy nominee Jane Lynch‘s snarky Sue Sylvester and our favorite pinkie-holding cheerleaders during the show’s 45-minute panel at Fox’s Television Critics Association stop Monday. Post-panel, he also touched on all things Brittana.

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.

“We decided Brittany is going to be held back every year, now we only need to find 11 more kids,” he said about our favorite “dolphins are gay sharks” jokester. He was, of course, kidding when responding to a question about how the writers plan to keep the cast going over the course of the series, noting that the writers have “mapped out four years with the original cast.”

Murphy added that with Season 2’s goal to focus more on supporting characters, there will be “big stories” for both Heather Morris (Brittany) and Naya Rivera (Santana), including the Britney Spears tribute, which is an episode “designed to show off the skills of Heather Morris.”

“Heather is doing the Britney Spears episode and Naya will have a bigger story line this season,” he said. “We’re committed to making Naya the world’s meanest cheerleader ever. Diana [Agron] is back to being a cheerleader this year so those two are duking it out to see who will be the queen bee of the school. Heather is a lot more comedy, a lot more promiscuity, a lot more typical Heather-crazy-one-liners funny.”

As for how the lesbian kiss will play out, Murphy said fans should rest easy and that it will be handled properly.

“I hate it on TV shows – and there’s one show I won’t name right now – where it’s like why aren’t these characters kissing? Don’t they have a child?” Murphy said. “That’s ridiculous to me. I don’t understand that. If I would do it on my show, I would just have them do it in every scene and not make a big deal about it. I don’t think that you have to announce a ‘very special episode’ – weren’t they doing that back during Roseanne? That just seems archaic and outdated to me and as a gay man I would never do that. I would make it very organic and do it several times and not make it a stunt.

“I’m directing the episode and they’re going to kiss a couple times. The key is to do it a couple times so it doesn’t seem forced,” he added.

Asked at Monday night’s afterparty at the Santa Monica Pier what she thought of the Brittany-Santana pairing, Lynch said: “I think they are sexually malleable.”

And Sue’s sexuality? Murphy was blunt: “I like that Jane Lynch is promiscuous on the show. I think that no man can tame her.” OK, no man, but what about a woman? “I haven’t talked about that with Jane but I think that Sue is straight although I think she’s a couple glasses of red wine and then you don’t know with Sue.”

Added Lynch, later: “I think she’d be what ever it takes to get power.”

As for spoilers on Season 2, Murphy noted that Sue will be “meaner than ever.” “This season she’s on a bender particularly in the first five episodes. We’re doing a religion episode where the kids sing songs about spirituality and she has a real bee in her bonnet about the separation of church and state, which I think is a real logical and real thing for Jane’s character to talk about and we find out why she thinks that.”

Lynch, meanwhile, will be setting her sights someone other than Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison). “I have this new female football coach that I’m really out to destroy and I get awful. I find what her Achilles heel is and run with it; she has a heart and I try to crush it,” she said.

And what will Sue “C” this season? A Sue Sylvester book, of course. “One of the things that we’re in the process of doing is we’re going to have Jane Lynch’s character Sue Sylvester write her own autobiography and then have Jane on the show talk about ‘My book is almost finished’ and then go out on a book tour and sign as Sue Sylvester,” Murphy said.

Added Lynch: “I think it’s great, I can’t wait to read them. Anything in the hands of [co-creator, writer, exec producer] Ian Brennan is going to be brilliant.”

As for a potential political episode possibly surrounding gay marriage, Murphy liked the idea but said he didn’t have anything planned. “That’s a great idea. I think that I would love to tackle that in the future but I haven’t thought about how.”

When it comes to Emmy night, Murphy will most likely be sporting Tom Ford, but there’s a slim chance he may be wearing Sue Sylvester: “I begged the other executive producers to all wear track suits and go as Sue Sylvester. So far they’re all saying they’ll think about that. And I thought, ‘Wait a minute, when did I get so brave?!’ But that’s my dream – that we walk in together as Sue Sylvester.”

One thing is certain though – the success hasn’t changed Lynch at all, despite occasional splurges. “I had a long-distance relationship until I got married,” she said. “And flying first class to Sarasota, Fla. was my biggest splurge.”

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