Never have I watched a show where a main character passed in the middle of the series. That is, until I came home from work one night (after a fairly decent shift for someone who was up to her elbows in fry grease for all eleven hours) and I remember my Mom ushering me into their bedroom and she just had this look on her face, as did my Dad. I hadn't seen that look since my Grandma passed when I was in the sixth grade. So, my first instinct when my Mom said, "Sweetie…" with drops of distain coming from her lips was that, "Crap, somebody died." And somebody did, Cory Monteith.
I remember walking into my bedroom that night and immediately texting my best friend from Oregon (where I now live, but at the time I was home in Chico, but anyway, I'm getting distracted) and she had already heard, and for about an hour we just cried through cyberspace together.
Not only have I never witnessed a main character's real-life death in my lifetime, but, I have never cried so much during an hour long program. Now, before I go on, let me just take a second to say that Glee took me through high school. Glee took me as a freshman who was struggling to make any sense out of the mean girls, the jocks, the sad boys and girls, and the parties. I watched Glee and grew to use it as a learning tool of sorts. And Cory Monteith's character as Finn Hudson showed me that not every guy in a letterman jacket with a broad as a girlfriend is as bad as he seems, nor is the blonde broad… that show released an episode tackling the topic of suicide just after a friend of mine took his own life in high school, and I remember a group of kids who I had never really talked to much, all pledged to watch it, and this was shortly after our friend's funeral so the wounds were still fresh, but we watched it, and we came back to school the following Monday with a newfound respect for those that we saw and those we interacted with. Even if that only lasted for a short time and the cliques eventually consumed them back into their primary state, it was eye opening and from then on, I believed in Glee.
Now, moving onto the main premise of this post. The Quarterback was the episode released in memoriam of Monteith's character "Finn Hudson." The first number had me reaching for the box of tissues that was placed at the foot of my bed where two friends and I were huddled close together in anticipation. Seasons of Love is a hard song to find a reason to sing in some cases, I've seen it performed joyfully and I've seen it performed in a case such as this, meaning in memoriam of someone's life that just recently passed. And, not to discredit those who have covered the song in other times, but there is no better time than when a loved one has just passed to sing a ballad such as that.
I was deeply moved by Naya Rivera's performance as Santana Lopez, as well as her performance of "If I Die Young". Backtracking a bit, when the friend of ours took his own life, a girl posted onto Facebook, "Funny when you're dead how people start listening." Which, of course, was a line from the song that Rivera covered, and at the time, the song had just been released, and became a bit of an anthem for our class. Rivera's "breakdown" of sorts at the end of her song came as a shock and almost as if a funny thing to those who may not watch Glee frequently, however, looking back on Naya's character as Santana, she has always been bitter, closed-off, short, and some would say she was just flat out mean. To see her break down the way that she did, and to confront Sue Sylvester (head Cheerio coach and more recently, the principal of McKinley High) the way that she did… Chills. The same goes for Puck's character, and his last few words with Dot (Coach Beiste) Jones, where he says, "That line between those two years… (motioning to the memorial placed beneath the tree outside of the school) …that's his whole life" and, as Puck is about to drive off into who knows where, Coach Beiste repeats, "Have a good line!"
Moving onto the whole reason behind why I'm tearing up just writing this. Rachel Berry, also known as Lea Michele… the brilliant, brilliant actress who was dating the late Cory Monteith at the time of his death, and Rachel Berry is also known as Finn Hudson's girlfriend… as he said in the episode 'I do'… "It doesn't matter who you are bunking up with… you are my girlfriend, we are endgame." I felt that her coming into the episode in the last twenty minutes was a smart idea on Ryan Murphy's part, because when it comes to "Finchel" there is not much that can be said that can't be better said in song. And after Michele delivered a heartbreaking rendition of Adele's "Make You Feel My Love", she enters the choir room to talk to Will Schuester and motions towards her necklace (a simple gold chain with the name "Finn" hooked from side to side, she has been seen at the TeenChoice Awards and elsewhere wearing a similar one that instead says "Cory") as she says, "He was my person."
My Dad and I had a talk about a year or so I go, I want to say. He told me that everyone has a "person". A person that they loved, and will continue to love. A person that if they called you in ten years, and you're settled down with a family and the two of you are on opposite locations of the earth, you would pick up the phone and you would hear their voice, and not necessarily go running back to all that there was for the two of you, but you wouldn't turn them away by denying their call… you would answer. You would answer and you would listen, because they are your person.
Everyone will have a person, whether it be their friend, a family member, or someone that they've once loved.But when Rachel Berry broke the Gleeks of America's heart by saying "He was my person." My heart crumpled in threefold, one for Rachel, and one for Lea, and one for the entire cast and fan base of Glee.
I have never cried so much or felt so much for a single hour of television before.
In my opinion, it was very, very well done.
Rest in peace, Cory. Rest in peace, Finn.
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