The third episode of the fifth season of Fox networks hit show “Glee” was a farewell to Finn, quarterback of McKinley High, and to the actor Cory Monteith. As a personal fan of the show who has continuously watched it since its premiere in 2009, I shed tears watching this episode not because of the emotion of the characters, but because you can clearly see that the tears being shed are for a friend and a collegiate and that this family lost its patriarchal member. Think about Glee as a timeline: Cory Monteith was 31 at the age of his death, but as “Finn” on the show he was 19, my age. The show began as them as sophomores in high school and left off with them as sophomores in college. For many we watched this show and saw the characters struggle with many of the same things as we did, such as first love, going off to college, etc. This show is proclaimed for its diversity, acceptance of difficult issues such as homosexuality and teen pregnancy and now sadly for premature death.
There have many that criticized the “Quarterback” episode, but I thought it was done in a very tasteful manner by focusing on the life of Cory and not how he died. Though I was surprised some vital characters in Finn’s life such as Quinn and Brittany did not return for the episode, Santana and Kurt’s performances made up for it. They show Santana break down while singing “If I Die Young” because she realizes how good of a person Finn was and finds comfort in wearing his letterman jacket. We see Puck lost without his best friend and he takes out his emotions by stealing the memorial tree planted in his honor. In a memorable scene with Coach Beiste, Puck says he feels he can’t cry because he won’t be able to stop and then breaks down saying he doesn’t know what to do without his best friend, the only person that had faith in him. The episode ends with Mr. Shue, Finn’s idol and mentor, finally breaking down sobbing holding Finn’s letterman jacket after having held it in to be the stable rock for his Glee club.
Of course the most emotional part of the episode was Lea Michele or “Rachel” role and her tribute to Finn. Her performance (though always stunning) was truly breathtaking because though Rachel may have been Finn’s girlfriend, Lea Michele was also reported to be Cory Monteith’s fiancé. Her rendition of “Make You Feel My Love” is where I truly began to sob. From every note where you saw her choke up a little, to seeing Blaine and Mercedes and Tina sobbing while she sings, I couldn’t help but imagine how difficult that scene must have been to film. Her conversation later with Mr. Shue is tragic because you can see the heartbreak this actress is feeling is not simply a performance but her real life. She says that she doesn’t know what she is going to do now because her dream was to star on Broadway and eventually come back to Lima and walk through McKinley to see Finn leading glee club and say “I’m home” is over. When Mr. Shue asks Rachel if Finn and she talked about this plan, she says “no, we didn’t have too. He knew”. This scene to me is so evidently real and not acting because you can see the close relation to her first public appearance after his death at the Teen Choice Awards where she wore a “Cory” nameplate necklace, parallel to the “Finn” necklace Rachel clutches while singing her ballad.
The one thing the episode didn’t address was Finn’s cause of death from the beginning when Kurt states that “Everyone wants to talk about how he died too, but who cares? I care more about how he lived.” The viewers know Monteith’s death this July was caused by a drug overdose. The show in the end did make note of the cause after the episode by having Jane Lynch addressing that “Cory didn’t look or act like an addict. He was happy, successful, and seemingly had it all” and then by Matthew Morrison encouraging those with substance abuse to seek the help they need before it is too late.
So besides all of the critiques of the episode, to the producers and writers of Glee I would like to congratulate you on what I found to be a personal and professional tribute to a character and actor that touched many lives. The quarterback, that episode was properly named after, who lead both the football team and the glee club and who brought these two opposite worlds in a high school together. Cory and of course Finn will forever live in the halls on McKinley and as the gift Rachel gives to Mr. Shue to hang in the choir room:
“The show must go… all over the place… or something.”—Finn