| Lauren Piester 20. März 2015 – 19:28
We didn’t want to start this recap with some ridiculous hyperbole about how hard we’re crying, but we are journalists and we must speak only the truth: We are bawling.
That was a ridiculous show upon which ridiculous things happened, but it was also a beautiful show upon which beautiful thing happened, and that finale was the perfect mix of both.
First of all, that first flashback hour was emotionally brutal in a way we definitely should have expected, but it still hit hard as the kids in 2009 debated over whether or not Finn belonged in the glee club, eventually coming to the conclusion that despite his popularity, he deserved a place to be loved and accepted just like the rest of them did.
We also learned that Blaine and Kurt nearly crossed paths at the Lima Bean a whole season before they actually met, and that Tina and Artie only auditioned for the glee club on a dare from their random goth friends.
The flashback ended brilliantly with New Directions’ original performance of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and if we weren’t already crying preemptively, we would have lost it at this point.
The second hour began in present day, with New Directions winning Nationals (against a team from Portland called The Sopranogasms, which made us LOL). Will then learns that because of the success of the glee club, after years of warring to even have a glee club at all, McKinley is being transformed into a performing arts high school, with Will as its principal.
READ: Why I’ll never forget Glee
The school will now have at least four show choirs, with Sam coaching the New Directions. His first assignment is, of course, country music.
We next learn that Sue becomes Vice President to Jeb Bush in 2016 and 2020, and plans to run for President in 2024, which is a terrifying thought.
We then spend the rest of the episode learning what becomes of at least the majority of the core glee kids by the year 2020, and honestly, we loved every second of it.
Kurt and Blaine move back to New York, and become a celebrity couple with their own Broadway show, and sometimes they sing to children in fabulous future suits.
Artie and Tina are together with a movie in a film festival.
Sam has a new girlfriend every week, of course.
Mercedes opens for Beyonce’s world tour and then goes on to become a rich and famous singer, as if she could ever do anything else.
Rachel is pregnant…with Kurt and Blaine’s baby! She’s also married to Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff, the only choice, really), and we watch her accepting her Tony for her role in Jane Austen Sings! (Her competitors were Willow Smith in Cabaret and Anne Hathaway in her one woman show, Anne!)
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A few months later, Sue is in the McKinley auditorium making a speech to Will, Emma, Burt, Carole, Figgins, and even Terri. She’s there to rededicate the theater as the Finn Hudson Auditorium, which is where our tears went from a steady stream to a full-on waterfall.
Sue then introduces the New Directions, which includes nearly everyone who has ever been a member, including Quinn, Puck, Brittana, Marley, Ryder, and even the mysterious disappearing Matt from season 1. They sing “I Lived,” and everyone joins in.
The show ends on a closeup of a new plaque adorning the auditorium, which reads: “The Finn Hudson Auditorium – See the world not as it is, but as it should be,” and everything is pretty much perfect.
Vote in our poll below to tell us what you thought of the finale, and then check out our extensive Glee timeline to relive the magic all over again.
CLICK: Here’s What You Missed on Glee: An Extensive Timeline
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