Last night was the mid-season finale of Glee, Fox’s neato high school dark comedy hit of the fall. Usually, when it comes to these things, some finales fall a little flat, others leave on too much of a cliffhanger or too little of a suspenseful note, but Glee managed to deliver in spades, ending their year with a feel-good outcome while still setting up some stuff for the future.
Now if you haven’t seen the finale, you may want to avoid this post til you have a chance to watch – fair warning.
A season finale has several goals to accomplish:
Wrap up season-long arcs: Finales need to resolve certain story elements that are introduced at the beginning, whether they are overall themes or side stories that deserve closure. Glee did this by exposing the fake pregnancy of Glee faculty advisor Will Schuster’s wife, as well as the secrecy surrounding the father of ex-cheerleader Quinn’s baby. That, combined with the overall story of the Glee club’s trip to sectionals were wrapped up at their current points with nice little bows. I have to say, in any of the arcs, it was difficult to predict an outcome, as they could have gone in a variety of different directions, but I was ultimately glad with where things ended.
Establish new arcs and suspense: Along with closing out some stories, new ones need to begun as well. A good finale puts their closures hand-in-hand with new openings and new possibilities. The revelation on Finn’s part that his best friend and now ex-girlfriend betrayed him should create some interesting team dynamic, and the possible new relationship between Will and germaphobe Emma could be intriguing to explore. The Glee club will continue onto regionals, the next step up, where they are sure to go up against rivals Vocal Adrenaline in a conflict that’ll be sure to elicit some laughs and gasps.
Take major steps in characterization: There are new developments that change established characters in a finale, and Glee delivered on obvious and no-so-obvious levels. There’s the stuff I’ve already mentioned with Will making a choice with his failing marriage, Puck and Quinn now having to deal with the consequences of their actions, and Rachel making a rare decision to give up the spotlight, but secondary characters like Santana and Mercedes shine on their own with performances and dialog that shows they too contribute to the reason why Glee is so successful.
Preserve and encapsulate the foundation of your series: Many series out there try to do something crazy different just for the finale shock value, failing to keep alive the whole idea why the series is appealing in the first place. Not so with Glee, which preserved the overall theme of triumph over adversity, uncomfortable morality, and dark comedy. The buildup to and culmination of the club’s mission to legitimize themselves was shown in grand detail, not without some obstacles (stolen set lists and crazy judges among some of them) to get over, of course, and the overall feeling to me came off as “this is the reason why I watch the show”. The last number of this season, compiled of a mish-mash of the kids’ performances over the course of the past few months, is a testament to how far the characters and the show has come. From High School Musical clone accusations to a whirlwind tour spanning nations and a rabid following of folks, Glee is here to stay – and there’ll be a gap in midweek TV til April, given with what they left us with.
