June 9, 2010

Glee Season 1 Finale: "Don't Stop Believin'" in this show!

So, Glee wrapped up it's brilliant and award winning first season last night with a bang.  Quinn had her baby, New Directions competed at Regionals, and Sue Sylvester showed some heart (at least to us).  My first and overall opinion of the finale is that it was really good, but I do have a few gripes about it.  But first let us recap.

We find out that the judges at regionals will be "celebrities", including our very own local celeb - Sue Sylvester, along with Olivia Newton-John, Josh Grobin, and the local news anchor Ron something or other.  New Directions feels like it's over because with Sue on the judging panel they are sure to lose.

Will invites the gang to his place for pizza and to gear up for regionals but they feel like they still think it's over for Glee because if they don't place the club gets shut down.  Mr. Shue goes to Emma for some advice on how to get the kids motivated and we find out she's been dating her dentist (who may or may not be played by John Stamos come fall, or at least that's the rumor floating around the Internet).  

Finn talks to Rachel and says the two of them as leaders need to step up and get the group focused on winning and after Will talks to Emma he decides that when he was ready to quit at the beginning of the year the 6 kids in the club at that point (Rachel, Finn, Mercedes, Kurt, Artie, and Tina) convinced him to stay by singing "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey and says that at regionals they will perform a medley of Journey songs! (YES!)

Regionals arrive and by my count there were only 3 teams competing, New Directions, Vocal Adrenaline, and Oral Intensity (funniest name ever) from Ft. Wyane, IN.  OI goes first and our gang gets nervous, they are signing a mash up Olivia Newton-John and Josh Grobin (what?).  So someone tipped them off to who the judges would be! 

New Directions is up next.  Rachel and Finn start at the back of the room and walk up to the stage similar to Rachel's performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" from sectionals.  Although the big thing is that before they go on Finn tells Rachel he loves her! that's huge!  So they go on with their medley of Journey songs finishing it all with a slightly different rendition of "Don't Stop Believin" than they did in the pilot and it was great! 

When they get backstage Quinn is greeted by her mother who apologizes for kicking her out of the house and says she's sorry she missed all the other times she sang and she wants her to move back home and they can set up a nursery for the baby and that her she kicked her dad out for cheating on her with a "tattooed woman".  While waiting for a response Quinn's water breaks and they rush her to the hospital where she gives birth to "Beth" with daddy Puck and new found friend Mercedes in the room with her all while Vocal Adrenaline sings their song "Bohemian Rhapsody" (or I should say Jesse sings and the rest of the team just dances?!). 

The hospital must be across the street because Rachel comes back to hear some of VA's performance and talk to her mom (their coach).  She asks where the team is and she says at the hospital because Quinn is having her baby.

Backstage the judges are now trying to decide a winner, Josh Grobin liked New Directions, Olivia Newton John voted for Oral Intensity because they used her songs and Ron chooses Vocal Adrenaline.  When Grobin votes for New Directions the other judges go on bashing them calling them poor and actually being really mean about it and Sue tries to stick up for them (OMG Sue is sticking up for Glee) it is the same school she works at after all. 

The time comes for the announcement of the winner.  Sue gets to announce the winners.  Runner up goes to "the not at all stupidly named Oral Intensity" (great line).  and 1st place goes to....Vocal Adrenaline (I sort of wonder if Sue was actually telling the truth here she didn't even really look at the card before she announced it)...which means New Directions didn't place so Glee club is canceled!

Emma is seen fighting Principal Figgins for the club and tells Will he can't give up. He says he loves her and kisses her. (which wasn't scripted by the way!)

The team is very sad about it but take the time to tell Mr. Shue about what they all got out of being in Glee and he and Puck sing a wonderful "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" complete with ukulele.

Sue goes to Figgins and using her blackmail tells him to give Glee another year.  She tells Will it's because life wouldn't be the same if she didn't have him to fight with.  The audience sees just exactly how she votes at Regionals and surprisingly enough she votes New Directions #1. 

I guess we will see what next year holds for our Glee kids this fall.  If you can't stand that it's a summer with no Glee, fear not, you can rewatch the first season every Thursday night on Fox this summer!

OK, on to my gripes about the finale

First off, in the scene where they are having pizza at Will's I swear Quinn says she's only 8 months pregnant yet she has the baby at regionals which seems to be only a few days, maybe weeks (if your pushing it) from the point when they have pizza...WTF?  They've kinda run this whole pregnancy strangely by really playing it up in the first half of the season and then completely downplaying it the second half...I mean half the time Quinn barely looked pregnant. 

Second gripe is that why would you have a competition and have it be judged by celebrities?  And why did Olivia Newton John and Josh Grobin seem to be the two that took it the least serious? they are the music professionals right?  And don't even get me started on Josh Grobin's acting (or lack there of).

OK, first why are there only 3 teams? just trying to save time? if there are only 3 teams then they can only have 2 place and they knew they couldn't have New Directions finish lower than 3rd? 

Why did they only sing 1 song or mash up of songs?  at sectionals they sang 3 songs!

Honestly how can you vote for Vocal Adrenaline over the other 2 when Jesse was the only one who really sang?  you can't call yourself a Glee Club if you only have 1 person singing most of the song!  It seemed like the rest of their club was only there for backup dancing and a few little words here and there in the song but other than their cleverly choreographed dancing their song was no where near as good as New Directions (which makes me first second guess the judges lack of judgement and second the announcement Sue made of the winner).  Maybe next season will come out that New Directions actually won and Sue cheated?

Finally how did Shelby (Vocal Adrenaline's coach) get to adopt Quinn's baby?  She just got done telling Rachel (her real daughter) that she needs to focus on her and she wants a house and a dog and basically wants nothing to do with Rachel and then she gets to adopt Quinn's baby?  I guess they needed to tie the story together but come on?  Although at least she kept Puck's name of Beth for her.  Maybe she will let Puck and Quinn be a part of the baby's life since she regrets not being a part of Rachel's as a child...we shall see.

So, What did you think of the finale Gleeks?  sound off in the comments.

1 comment:

  1. My random comments:

    1) "Oral Intensity" ... WTF?!

    2) Loved the Journey mashup!... Although I was kind of annoyed that they had no real choreography... They just kinda bopped around on stage. Disappointing.

    3) All the judges seemed like total dipshits.

    4) I thought Olivia Newton John and Sue were basically BFF?! Remember they did that "Physical" video together? But at regionals, Olivia seemed like a total bitch.

    5) Quinn's pregnancy has been all over the place this season... At the most, she looked 6-7 months preggers... and at regionals, she barely even showed in her dress! I've seen plenty of pregnant women and they get a lot bigger than that right before they have the baby.

    6) Who the hell came up with the "Bohemian Rhapsody"/birthing scene?! Brilliant!... yet at the same time, bizarre...

    7) Vocal Adrenaline was pulling some cirque du soleil business... and I was also annoyed at the whole "Jesse Show"

    8) The scene when Sue tells Mr. Shue that Glee gets another year -- they shake hands and there are two shots of it which should have been edited together tighter. Little things like this bother me haha.

    9) I totally saw the whole "Shelby and Quinn's baby" thing coming when Shelby randomly showed up to the hospital. Right before that, when she talked to Rachel, she had said something about how she wanted to leave Vocal Adrenaline so she could do all the things she wanted to in life ... get a house, a dog ... have a FAMILY. So that tipped me off...

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