Glee, Episode 3: "The Quarterback"
I have sat down to write this a thousand times. I have sat and stared at the blank page over and over and I've come up empty. What is there to say? What is there to say about an actor on a television show that impacted you so much, that when you found out about his death, you shed a couple of tears. I had no idea how invested I was, how much the show had affected me, until this moment. It was odd. I really enjoy Glee. I make fun of it, because sometimes it is beyond ridiculous and sometimes they just drop plot threads with no mention of them every again no matter how major or minor they may be. The show handles heavy subjects and handles some of them well (hello, bullying) and some, not so well (Marley's eating disorder). Even when faced with absurd amounts of ridiculata, the cast found ways to shine, none moreso than affable, everyman Finn Hudson as portrayed by Cory Monteith. Finn was the emotional center of the show and so intertwined in it's core that it'll be hard to watch the last two seasons without him. I'm stalling. OK. Deep breath. Let's dive in and see how the show handled, arguably, it's biggest episode ever.
The show starts off with the cast, new and old minus Rachel, singing "Seasons of Love." On stage in the auditorium, it is the first of many times that I tear up. The song ends with everyone turning and a picture of Finn in his quarterback uniform appearing on the wall. It's like I've been punched in the gut.
We get a cut to Kurt, preparing to fly home to Lima for Schu's memorial. His voiceover reveals that Finn died, but not how and that what people need to focus on is Finn's life. I agree with the decision the writers made not to reveal Finn's cause of death. If they made it a drug overdoes, it would hit too close to home, anything else would fall flat. They were caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. Kurt's voiceover came off as a little holier than thou. It was almost as if he was scolding the audience for wondering or speculating about Cory's death. This is not the time to preach and this moment really rang falsely. It's too bad, because the majority of the episode was handled just right. Kurt tells Rachel that he is leaving.
In the teacher's lounge, Will, Emma, and Beiste are still processing. Emma is a little perturbed that no one has come to see her for grief counseling. Sue enters and reminds her that she is not a grief counselor. Sue is still her caustic self. This is how she grieves. She tells everyone she planted a memorial tree where she caught Finn and Quinn fondling each other's breasts. You can always count on Sue to keep it real no matter what is going on. The best thing they can do is help Finn's friends to move on and not make "a self-serving spectacle of their own sadness." That goes double for you, Butt Chin.
Schu decides that the best way to honor Finn is through song and he invites any student, current or graduated, a chance to get up and memorialize their fallen friend. Mercedes is the first and offers a pretty stunning version "I'll Stand By You." Puck can't handle all this, he takes his anger out of the choir room. He decides the best way to work through his grief is to steal the memorial tree. Sue asks Porcelain Kurt to her office to replace the tree. Apparently, he bought it from Home Depot, so he dips into his "West Village Halloween parade assless chaps fund" to buy a new one. It's not a big surprise that Puck stole the tree and is drinking with it in a hotel room. OK.
So, I know we all thought that Rachel's scenes would be the ones that emotionally devastated us (and they did) but it was this scene with the family Hummel/Hudson that really hit me like a punch in the gut. Watching the family divvy up Finn's belongings and at the same time reminisce and chastise themselves was genuinely heartbreaking. From Burt's lament that he didn't hug Finn enough to Kurt's decision to keep Finn's lettermen jacket to Carol putting voice to the fact that she was still a mother, just one whose child was not alive anymore was devastating. It was my first ugly cry of the night. Emmys all around.
Puck continues to be a random douchebag. He confronts Kurt at the dumpster they used to toss him into. He wants Finn's jacket and Kurt refuses. Puck storms off. I have to say the parts of the episode with Puck really fell flat for me. For an episode that hit it out of the park (for the most part), none of thses scenes really rang true. We might as well just be done with Puck for the rest of the recap. He has an emotional breakdown with Beiste in the locker room. She tells him that he has to make his own path without Finn's guidance and he joins the army. There. I'm glad that's over with.
Tributes to Finn are continuing in the auditorium and Artie and Sam are singing James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." Santana is not feeling it. She heads to the hallways and confronts Bree and some random Cheerios who are dismantling Finn's memorial. Once La Lopez finds out that Sue ordered it she storms into her former Cheerios coaches office and lays into her. Santana unloads on her former coach, calling her a cold hearted bitch and finally shoving her into a cabinet. Naya Rivera really shines in this episode. The way she goes from righteous anger to scared disbelief after she shoves Sue is a thing of beauty.
This was a heavy episode, but I liked that the writers remembered that even in tragedy this is still a comedy. Case in point, Tina's visit to Emma for grief counseling. Tina is sick of wearing black. She worked really had to be done with the goth phase and this is just bringing it all back. Emma sends Tina away with some of her coveted pamphlets: "It's Not All About You," "When To Stop Talking," and "Am I Callous." Schu is playing the strong, silent type. He hasn't shed a tear since his teenaged best friend died. When Emma asks him about it, Will freaks out a little and protests a bit too much.
Naya Rivera continues her tour de force performance. She attempts to pay tribute to Finn with The Band Perry's "If I Die Young," but devolves into ugly crying and flees. She ends up in the auditorium where Kurt joins her. It was nice to see Kurt sort of being the one who holds everyone together. There is always that one person when a tragedy happens who sort of grieves privately or makes helping others part of their grieving process. Santana admits that she had planned on not being a bitch for once in her life. She was going to say a lot of nice things, well, semi nice things about Finn, like how when they had sex he kept asking her if she was OK. She also tells a story about how she once sat in chocolate cake and Finn followed her around all day so people wouldn't think that she had pooped her pants. Santana doesn't want to cry in front of Kurt, so he leaves her Finn's jacket and leaves.
The traveling jacket doesn't stay with Santana very long. While she was in the nurse's office taking a "grief siesta" someone stole it. Santana and Puck almost come to blows, Puck denying he took it the whole time. Santana's exclamation of "No me gusta!" made me guffaw. Santana goes back to Sue's office to apologize to her, but Sue waves her away. She explains that Santana was right and she is grieving, because she thinks Finn died thinking he hated her. It turns out Sue liked Finn and thought he would have made an excellent teacher. She was looking forward to years of busting his balls. She also kind of sums up everything. The episode, Finn's and by proxy Monteith's death, has "no lesson, no happy ending, just nothing. He's just gone."
While the Glee kids are congregating in front of Finn's locker, Rachel shows up. She requests that they don't treat her with kid gloves. She then stands in front of the class and gives the most honest, raw, unflinching and gut wrenching performance ever given on the show. The whole scene is so open. As Rachel/Lea sings "To Make You Feel My Love" and the camera pans to the original cast members who are openly sobbing it is almost too much. It makes you a a little uncomfortable. It's almost like you are intruding on this private moment of people grieving their close friend and a woman grieving the man she loves. Nothing I can say can do it justice, so watch and cry and grieve one more time.
So, I know we all thought that Rachel's scenes would be the ones that emotionally devastated us (and they did) but it was this scene with the family Hummel/Hudson that really hit me like a punch in the gut. Watching the family divvy up Finn's belongings and at the same time reminisce and chastise themselves was genuinely heartbreaking. From Burt's lament that he didn't hug Finn enough to Kurt's decision to keep Finn's lettermen jacket to Carol putting voice to the fact that she was still a mother, just one whose child was not alive anymore was devastating. It was my first ugly cry of the night. Emmys all around.
Puck continues to be a random douchebag. He confronts Kurt at the dumpster they used to toss him into. He wants Finn's jacket and Kurt refuses. Puck storms off. I have to say the parts of the episode with Puck really fell flat for me. For an episode that hit it out of the park (for the most part), none of thses scenes really rang true. We might as well just be done with Puck for the rest of the recap. He has an emotional breakdown with Beiste in the locker room. She tells him that he has to make his own path without Finn's guidance and he joins the army. There. I'm glad that's over with.
Tributes to Finn are continuing in the auditorium and Artie and Sam are singing James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." Santana is not feeling it. She heads to the hallways and confronts Bree and some random Cheerios who are dismantling Finn's memorial. Once La Lopez finds out that Sue ordered it she storms into her former Cheerios coaches office and lays into her. Santana unloads on her former coach, calling her a cold hearted bitch and finally shoving her into a cabinet. Naya Rivera really shines in this episode. The way she goes from righteous anger to scared disbelief after she shoves Sue is a thing of beauty.
This was a heavy episode, but I liked that the writers remembered that even in tragedy this is still a comedy. Case in point, Tina's visit to Emma for grief counseling. Tina is sick of wearing black. She worked really had to be done with the goth phase and this is just bringing it all back. Emma sends Tina away with some of her coveted pamphlets: "It's Not All About You," "When To Stop Talking," and "Am I Callous." Schu is playing the strong, silent type. He hasn't shed a tear since his teenaged best friend died. When Emma asks him about it, Will freaks out a little and protests a bit too much.
Naya Rivera continues her tour de force performance. She attempts to pay tribute to Finn with The Band Perry's "If I Die Young," but devolves into ugly crying and flees. She ends up in the auditorium where Kurt joins her. It was nice to see Kurt sort of being the one who holds everyone together. There is always that one person when a tragedy happens who sort of grieves privately or makes helping others part of their grieving process. Santana admits that she had planned on not being a bitch for once in her life. She was going to say a lot of nice things, well, semi nice things about Finn, like how when they had sex he kept asking her if she was OK. She also tells a story about how she once sat in chocolate cake and Finn followed her around all day so people wouldn't think that she had pooped her pants. Santana doesn't want to cry in front of Kurt, so he leaves her Finn's jacket and leaves.
The traveling jacket doesn't stay with Santana very long. While she was in the nurse's office taking a "grief siesta" someone stole it. Santana and Puck almost come to blows, Puck denying he took it the whole time. Santana's exclamation of "No me gusta!" made me guffaw. Santana goes back to Sue's office to apologize to her, but Sue waves her away. She explains that Santana was right and she is grieving, because she thinks Finn died thinking he hated her. It turns out Sue liked Finn and thought he would have made an excellent teacher. She was looking forward to years of busting his balls. She also kind of sums up everything. The episode, Finn's and by proxy Monteith's death, has "no lesson, no happy ending, just nothing. He's just gone."
While the Glee kids are congregating in front of Finn's locker, Rachel shows up. She requests that they don't treat her with kid gloves. She then stands in front of the class and gives the most honest, raw, unflinching and gut wrenching performance ever given on the show. The whole scene is so open. As Rachel/Lea sings "To Make You Feel My Love" and the camera pans to the original cast members who are openly sobbing it is almost too much. It makes you a a little uncomfortable. It's almost like you are intruding on this private moment of people grieving their close friend and a woman grieving the man she loves. Nothing I can say can do it justice, so watch and cry and grieve one more time.
Rachel has a great scene with Schu where she sort of lays everything on the table. She admits that she's afraid that someday she will forget Finn's voice and face. She talks about the plans that she had. That she would make it big on Broadway, do a Woody Allen movie, then she'd come back, Finn would be teaching and she'd just say she was home and they'd live happily ever after. My heart broke again when Rachel tearfully declared that Finn was her person. Rachel gives Schu a plaque with a picture of Finn. On it is carved a fitting quote for the dim-witted, but lovable quarterback. "The must go… all over the place… or something."
The episode ends with Mr. Schu finally having the breakdown that he's needed to have since he found out Finn passed. It turns out he took the letterman jacket and Emma finds him holding it and sobbing. It is an emotional end to the most emotional episode of Glee to date.
No letter grades for performances since they all were perfect and hit the right notes. What did you all think? Will you be able to watch the episode again? Let me know.
Finn Hudson
1994-2014
Cory Monteith
1982-2013
RIP.
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