Friends, Gleeks, bring on the tears. Also, for Burt Hummel's sake be sure to hug someone you love after watching this gut wrenching tribute to everyone's favorite quarterback, Finn Hudson. I should start out this review with one minor disclaimer: I am a former Gleek. I stopped watching around the time Blaine transferred to McKinley because I felt that was when the show really jumped the shark (or nuked the fridge, your choice). That being said, Finn was always my favorite character from the beginning and for me personally, as well as most Gleeks more than likely, tonight's episode literally caused physical pain as we watched the raw emotion of the actors mourning their friend Cory Monteith, taken from us far too early by the demons of addiction. There was no way I wasn't going to go back for just this one night. We open with spotlights on the McKinley stage, and those five opening notes that could make any musical theater fan smile even in the darkest of times: "Seasons of Love," the theme song for Rent and the unofficial musical theater buff's anthem, is sung by the New Directions donning all black, at what we can only assume is Finn Hudson's funeral service. The cause of death is never specified (praise Grilled Cheesus), and I hope it never is because, as stepbrother Kurt says, "does it matter?" Also, it was a good move on Ryan Murphy's part to start out with the funeral straight away followed by a time jump. I don't think I could deal with a repeat of that morbid phone call home to Cate Hennessy in "8 Simple Rules" a la Rachel Berry. For those who don't know, the sitcom that made "Big Bang Theory" starlet Kaley Cuoco famous had to deal with a similar situation as this when leading man John Ritter passed away suddenly from a previously undiagnosed aortic dissection while filming the season 2 premiere.
From there, we see how different characters deal with the tragedy. Mercedes remembers Finn through the song he sang to Quinn's sonogram in season 1, The Pretenders' "I'll Stand By You." Sam, Blaine and Artie dedicate James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" to their lost friend, while Tina starts to revert to her goth stage out of grief. In any other situation, I would probably say that Mike O'Malley and Romy Rosemont, who fabulously play Finn and Kurt's grieving parents, both deserve Emmys for their performances; the only problem... they weren't performances at all. Monteith's exit wasn't from a casting decision or a contract dispute; Burt and Carol lost a son, and Mike and Romy lost a friend and colleague and the breakdown that Carol suffers while cleaning out Finn's bedroom is absolutely heartbreaking, all the while Kurt holds onto Finn's varsity jacket for dear life (more on that later) and Burt laments on all the ways he could've been a better father to him, which I really hope and pray isn't some kind of indicator on the way Finn went out. Puck, sans Mohawk now, is a mess, and rightfully so. Finn was his best friend, but Puck betrayed him in the absolute worst way possible by impregnating Quinn, his first love. Puck hides his grief and guilt behind his music and his booze; when he's not making The Boss proud with his acoustic cover of "No Surrender," he vandalizes Finn's memorial thinking it's not good enough for his friend and he bullies and bribes Kurt to give up Finn's varsity jacket to be retired on the locker room wall, all of this until Coach Beiste confronts him in the locker room and smacks some sense into him. As Puck, a symbol of toughness and brutishness in the walls of McKinley High, puts on a big set of drunken theatrics by hitting a few lockers, he admits that he drinks to feel better because if he starts crying, he'll never be able to stop. With that, he falls to the bench and breaks down in his former coach and mentor's arms, then we cut to commercial because Ryan Murphy is a generous soul. In what is sure to be setting up a recurring arc, Beiste's pep talk to Puck inspires him to find discipline in his life and enlists in the Air Force in Finn's honor. Let's just hope he doesn't shoot himself in the leg too.
Then we go to Santana, who surprisingly takes a major role in the tribute episode. Like Puck, she is also compensating for her grief by taking her usual... erm... "demeanor," shall we say, to the max. She storms into Principal Sue Sylvester's office (yes, that's still a thing) and goes Lima Heights Adjacent, increased by about 3000%, at her for all the hell she ever put Finn through. The two later make amends when Sue has probably the first genuine human moment since her sister's passing, taking responsibility for the abuse and saying that she can't live with knowing that Finn died thinking she hated him. Santana talks a big talk before her big solo dedicated to Finn, an incredible rendition of The Band Perry's "If I Die Young," but can't get through the song without the waterworks starting. Even more gut wrenching is when the stoic Mr. Schue reaches out to her and she runs out with the most stomach churning scream of grief and anger that one could possibly imagine. Hiding out in the auditorium, she is comforted by Kurt, who gives her Finn's varsity jacket as a sort of shock blanket while she reads what she actually wanted to say about Finn but, Classic Santana, she was too embarrassed because "it was too nice." She talks about their moment of intimacy and how kind he was when our old friend Becky tricked her into sitting on a piece of chocolate cake. She finishes by saying that he was a far more decent person than she'll ever be, and Kurt responds by saying that Finn always thought otherwise and cared about her very much.
All eyes during this hour, though, were in search of Rachel Berry, played fabulously by the stoic and professional Lea Michele, Although she didn't appear until the very end except through a first person shot through her eyes of Kurt at the very beginning (the shot was hazy and distorted from her emotional state, well done cameramen), she still brought lots of tears and laughter into her performance tonight by tearfully dedicating Adele's version of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" to the love of her life. She and Mr. Schue had a poignant moment towards the end celebrating his life with laughter by hanging a commemorative plaque for the show choir room: a framed headshot of Finn accompanied with an engraving of one of Finn's funniest quotes from season 2: "The show must go... all over the place or something." It was the perfect nod to Finn's affable, yet somewhat ditzy and insecure character, accompanied by Mr. Schue's perfect reaction that we would understand a moment later: "Wait, he really said that?!" In spite of all of these heartbreaking performances, the ultimate showstopper in my mind was none other than Mr. Will Schuester, who manages not to break a single tear throughout nearly the entire ordeal in an attempt to come off as strong for his students. He openly admits to Emma that he is by no means alright, but that the kids need him more than he needs alone time to grieve. An ongoing conflict throughout the episode is the whereabouts of Finn's varsity jacket, stolen from Santana in the nurse's office after her choir room meltdown and heart to heart with Kurt. Because of his criminal history and his hassling of Kurt early on in the episode for it, Puck is naturally the first one to be blamed for stealing it, to which Mr. Schue sort of passively hops on that bandwagon by telling him to give it back if he has it. He comforts Santana who is in a mad frenzy to find the last piece of Finn she has, and who also says that she can't stand to be in Lima anymore because she's reminded of Finn. The twist ending is something that was probably predictable, but we were too stricken by grief to even think about it: Mr. Schue took the jacket and kept it in his bag the whole time. Because of my love-hate attitude towards him, if this were any other episode, I would think he was a horrible person for doing this and causing Puck, Santana and Kurt so much pain over it. I guess I'll judge him based upon when he fesses up and returns the jacket to Kurt. The episode ends on an incredibly morbid note when the stoic Mr. Schue comes home to his apartment, pulls Finn's varsity jacket out of his bag and just breaks down and sobs uncontrollably as Emma comes home to comfort him. For the record, I made it up to that point by the skin of my teeth, and then I was just done. We will always love you and miss you, Cory. Thanks for all the laughs and the memories. Rest in peace.
So it's all over, Gleeks. What did you think of their tribute to Finn Hudson? How many nanoseconds did you get in without shedding a tear? Sound off below!