How Glee Says Goodbye to Finn: Glee Season 5 "The Quarterback" Review

“Honestly, what can you say about a 19-year-old who dies. Everyone wants to talk about how he died, too, but who cares one moment in his whole life. I care more about how he lived”- Kurt

This episode is opened with Rent’s  "Seasons of Love"  by The New Directions and the old glee club including Santana, Mike, Kurt, Mercedes and Puck. They don’t reveal how Finn’s die in this episode, the writer wants to focus on how he lived rather than one moment in his whole live.

Plot

Three weeks after Finn funeral in New York, Kurt gets ready to come back home to attend a special memorial Mr. Shue is planning. It’s hard for him to come home, and being together with Glee club that time. It makes him feel losing Finn is more real, but he also needs his friends right now.

People keep asking me "How are you feeling? What are you feeling?” I have no answers”- Kurt

In McKinley High, Emma has cleared her entire schedule to provide her service to students, but not a single person comes for grief counseling. In Glee club, Mr. Shue wants to make a special memorial for Finn, since he thinks that the funeral was not special enough for glee club. For all week long, everyone can sing something that reminds them of Finn.

Mercedes start off with sing The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand by You” (read the review here).  She remembers Finn telling her that he sang the song to his baby's sonogram. “He was the first cool kid to be nice to any of us and he was our leader in here”, she said.

Santana sings The Band Perry’s “If I Die Young”. In the middle of the song, unable to bear the feeling, she bursts into tears, screams and leaves the room. Kurt comes to comfort her. “He was a much better person than I am”, she said to Kurt. When she asks him to leave her alone, Kurt gives her Finn’s Letterman jacket. Later on, Puck sings Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" when Santana comes and accuses him to be the one who stole the jacket from her.  He said he didn't do it, but there’s no one believe him.

In order to honor Finn, the school plant a tree for Finn, but the tree is gone, someone’s vandalized the memorial. Kurt’s angry and doesn’t understand why someone would do something like that. It turns out that Puckerman is the one who took the tree. Beiste knew it, and she asked him to put the tree back and let his feeling shows up. “I'm sorry, but it's time you got to be your own quarterback”, she said to Puck.

Finn’s Family

In Finn’s room, Kurt and his parents start to pack Finn’s things. Finn’s mom thinks that they should do it now, or never. Everyone’s is having a hard time to let his things go. Burt keeps Finn’s lamp and Kurt keeps Finn’s Letterman jacket. “Seeing him come into the hallway wearing this it was like Superman had arrived”, said Kurt. Finn’s mom starts crying. She thinks how do parents coping when they lose a child.  Whenever she sees that stuffs on news, she’d shut it off because it was too horrible to think. But she couldn't help thinking, how do they wake up every day. This time she’s the one who lost a child.

“But you do wake up. And for just a second, you forget. And then you remember and it's like getting that call again every time”- Finn’s Mom

Back in the Glee club, Artie and Sam sing James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain”. Santana left the room after they sang. She went to Finn’s memorial spot and found that Sue asked Bree to remove the candles. Santana gets angry and confronts Sue. She calls her “coldhearted bitch” and pushes her down. Later on, Santana comes back to her office and apologizes for her behavior. Sue says that Santana was right that she was horrible to that Finn, and She couldn't bear the thought that he died thinking she didn't like him. “He was such a good guy. It's just so.. all that potential”, Sue said. Meanwhile, Emma notices that Shue hasn't cried since he found out Finn passed away. Shue reluctantly talks his feeling with her. He said that of course he feels something, but in the meantime he have to make sure that glee club are taken care of.

Final Acts

Rachel Berry (Lea Michelle) finally comes to McKinley High and visits Finn’s memorial spot. She sings "Make you feel my love" by Adele to Glee club. I think this song must be the best song she sings so far. Her voice it’s so clear and beautiful. Later on, Rachel talks private with Mr Shue. She asks how’s he doing and he says he’s ok. Rachel tells him that she already had her and Finn's future figured out. How she’s going to make it big on Broadway and do a Woody Allen movie and then when they were ready, she would just come back and he'd be teaching Glee. She’d walk through the door and just say, "I'm home" and then they would live happily ever after. Shue asks her whether or not she told him the plan. “I didn't have to. He knew”, she said. Before she leaves, she gives him Finn’s picture and it’s written “The show must go all over the show or something”.

In the last scene, Mr. Shue has come home and he took something out of his bag. It’s the Letterman jacket. It turns out he’s the one who stole the jacket from Santana. When Emma came home, she found he’s crying.

Finally,

I enjoy this episode, I think it's decent for Finn tribute. The scene in Finn's room, it's gonna break your heart. When I watched the episode, I couldn't help myself not to cry from the first song "Seasons of Love" played. Mainly because, I was thinking about Cory, how such a young talent must go in the tragic way.  However, I think that song it's too beautiful to be seen at the opening. I also think that Quinn should make an appearance to this episode, since she played important role to Finn’s life after all. At last, I must say Rachel song’s  "Make you feel my love" in last scene is rather sink by the complicated stories before it. It’s a beautiful song which supposed to be the important moment from the episode.

Rating: 8/10

What do you think of Finn’s Tribute?

My favorite songs of this episode, see here>>

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