“Journey to Regionals” – Glee

Wow. That was a roller coaster of a finale. It was good, then bad, then good again…oh, I don’t even know! It started out poorly, with Schue finding out that Sue is a judge for Regionals. This is the sort of ridiculous stuff that makes me dislike Glee. I had a feeling, though, that Sue wouldn’t be the villain this time around, at least not completely. The club ends up doing a Journey medley. It was pretty good – I admit that I’m not a big fan of Journey – but there was one major flaw. Finn and Rachel dominated the singing. They’re the leads, so it makes sense that they’ll sing a lot. But the club has so many other good singers. The number they perform for Schue later proves that: many of the members sing a line of their own, and they’re all good (especially Santana – give her more lines!). Despite this, it was a good medley. Quinn gets rushed to the hospital to deliver her baby after the performance, and her labor is shown together with Vocal Adrenaline’s performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Vocal Adrenaline ends up winning the competition, which isn’t a surprise, but their performance stunk! They’ve been described as “soul-less automatons”, and that’s exactly how they performed. No way was their “Bohemian Rhapsody” better than New Directions’ Journey medley. Anyway, Vocal Adrenaline wins, and New Directions places third. So, that means the club has to be disbanded. Emma argues vigorously with Principal Figgins that the club shouldn’t be disbanded, but she loses. This leads to her and Schue making up. It’s a nice scene, and I’m glad it happened. Schue and Emma work well together, way better than he and Terri ever did. The club performs “To Sir, with Love” for Schue, and it’s another good number. It’s not as good as the first half finale’s “My Life Would Suck Without you”, but it’s still good. Sue hears it and pulls some strings to keep the club alive. Turns out she voted New Directions first place at Regionals. Schue tells the club the good news and, with Puck, performs Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Over the Rainbow” for them. (Iz is the only person other than Judy Garland who has ever performed a halfway decent version of that song, by the way.) And that’s how the season ends. It’s not a triumphant ending like the first half of the season, but it’s a good ending nonetheless. I think it opens up a lot of possibilities for the second season, particularly since some dead weight has been shed. The dead weight: the club’s impending demise, Quinn’s pregnancy, Jesse, and maybe some more. It’s unclear if Rachel’s mother will be tossed out. I kind of hope so, since she’s been a weak character and that storyline hasn’t been very strong. I’m guessing she’ll stay around, though, since she adopted Beth, Quinn’s baby. The club seems to be in pretty good shape – no major conflicts or problems – so it will probably be a fresh start for a second season. I’m not sure yet if I’ll follow New Directions for a second year. Glee is so inconsistent; it’s difficult to watch sometimes. It has its moments, though. As I understand it, there are more “themed” episodes in the second season (like the all-Madonna episode), and I’m not a big fan of those. And now that Glee is a phenomenon, they’ll probably just do more of the same, rather than actually improving the show. I have some time – until it’s on DVD or re-runs – so we’ll see how I feel then. Until then, see you somewhere over the rainbow…

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