Well, I finally watched it; Finn’s farewell episode in response to Cory Monteith’s passing. So many feels.
Source: MJ’s Big Blog
Where to begin…?
I was very impressed with this episode and it handled the subject matter much better than the one about the school shooting. For one, the episode begins with Kurt’s voiceover about how they’ve had held Finn’s funeral and that he’s gone. No mention of how he died, just that he did. Granted, even I too am curious to the manner of how it happened, but as Kurt says, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances; we should be celebrating the life he had and how he changed everyone else’s. Despite this frankness, I think it takes away from the closure that a lot of fans wanted. They’ve had to do very few takes, as both cast and crew were incredibly emotional while filming during production.
The episode was broken down into several sections to give certain characters enough screentime to display their feeling.
Boxing Finn’s possessions. Kurt, Burt, and Carole are slowly sorting away Finn’s belongings for charity or for keeping. There are a few call-backs to some earlier episodes in the series, such as the football from the first football game they won and the lamp that Finn and Burt had an angry outburst over. Kurt picks up Finn’s letterman jacket and decides to keep it as Burt talks about how he regrets not being as close as he could have been.
I should’ve given him more hugs. We’d fist-bump or we’d high-five. But I should’ve given him more hugs.
-Burt Hummel
The memorial tree. At the beginning of the hour, Kurt buys a tree at a cheap price and Sue plants it in the spot where Quinn and Finn made out for the first time, only to learn that someone had dug it up and stolen it. At first it just seems rather selfish of Puck to desecrate a tribute to Finn, but then after the brief spat with Kurt in front of the Dumpster that he was thrown into during the pilot the act becomes rationalised when Puck argues that while Kurt has an entire room to remember Finn by, he has nothing and even demands the letterman jacket under the belief that Kurt will ruin it. Kurt refuses.
He later has a sit-down with Coach Beiste and he confesses that Finn was the guy who would always steer him in the right direction. After some more consoling, he agrees to put the tree back and decides to go off into the Army. In terms of looks and roughness, I can see this as a path for Puck.
If I start crying, I don’t think I’ll ever stop.
-Noah Puckerman
Santana’s persistent breakdown. Over the course of the episode Santana interrupts a few of the songs with her leaving or breaking down halfway through her song. When Kurt finally confronts her, she breaks down and admits that she wanted to surprise everyone by saying nice things about Finn (which she rarely, if ever, did) but just couldn’t go through with it in the end. Kurt consoles her and asks her to say it to him right there and she eventually gives in. He leaves afterwards, but not before giving her the letterman jacket.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Finn dying, it’s that shame is a wasted emotion.
-Kurt Hummel
Sue dealing with Finn while holding the school together. Sue is as crass as ever in this episode, Even so, she tells Will and Emma to get it together and help the students out in any way, not to mention planting the aforementioned memorial tree. Also, when Santana rushes out the first time and discovers new Cheerios! putting out the candles, she storms into the new principal’s office and demands to know why she told them to do so, Sue calmly responds that they posed a fire hazard and barely reacted when Santana shoved her. When Santana comes back to apologise, Sue reveals that she feels devastated that Finn died thinking that she was a cruel person and that he would have made a good teacher.
He was such a good guy. I’ll never get to tell him. There’s no lesson here. There’s no happy ending. There’s just nothing. He’s just gone.
-Sue Sylvester
Will holding it in together until the very end. Halfway through the episode Will walks in on Emma just as she finishes “consoling” Tina, and she remarks that after almost a month, he hasn’t mourned at all. He brushes it off and continues about teaching the glee club. He also discovers Santana putting up wanted posters for Finn’s letterman jacket and implies Puck had stolen it–a rather low move for any teacher to make. At the very end, Emma walks back into her and Will’s apartment and finds him sobbing into the garment.
The next episode, “A Katy or a Gaga,” will be aired on November 7th, 2013.
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