Glee - 122 - Journey to Regionals

Original air date: June 8, 2010

I finally did it! I did another thing! I conquered season 1 of glee or, at least, I've almost done it. We are finally at the season finale and I couldn't be more excited because I really liked this episode. Are there crazy glee things? Sure. Do we get closure with Rachel and Jesse? Nope. Does Jesse even speak? No but he does sing and it's awesome. Is this a fun ending? Hell yes! Let's dive right in.

Remember when I said the last episode that while their Funk number was really fun, it kind of diminished the tension what with the kids now being super confident they'll beat Vocal Adrenaline? Well, I completely forgot that through weird glee logic hijinks (off-screen but still) Sue has become a judge for Regionals which seems like something that would absolutely not happen because why would a competition want judges from schools that are competing? Conflict of interest a plenty. But, I was a cool 90s slacker girl who, like her Creek role models didn't try or do any extracurricular activities. Ha, take that me when I applied for college and had nothing to fill out my applications with! Ahem, anyway what I mean is that I don't know how these competitions are done but I would assume that for big competitions, they wouldn't want a biased candidate like a teacher from a school that has students competing. 

But hey, that's Glee!

We gotta get our drama from somewhere and by god, when you have Jane Lynch on your payroll, you use her! So, Regional judge she now is much to Will's disdain. He immediately brings this up with Figgins but, dare I say, his hands are tied? Nope, this time the situation is just out of his hands but he is not being held captive by the situation this time. I'm a shit but seriously he does say that line a lot. Sue brags about how the theme is celebrity judges and she's a celebrity now so he has to suck it up. Will begs Figgins not to let her do this because of the whole, leaked set list for Sectionals debacle but Sue has no recollection of that and Figgins is useless. Even though the odds are supremely stacked against them, Figgins says their agreement still stands. They win at Regionals or he cuts the club. I think I've said this before but like, isn't club activity set by student interest? If there are kids who are doing it, they show up and their parents pay the activity fee. How expensive is show choir?? They already have a music room and an auditorium why would they just stop offering this club? I guess, see my above gif. 

Quinn is having a flashback to the night she and Puck hooked up. Puck is a sleazeball and she clearly regrets going through with it. I mean, girl, he chased after like two girls this season that weren't you, and shamed you for being fat during pregnancy (while claiming he like curves on Mercedes), he's not worth your time. I want to reach through my screen and give Quinn a hug. Will asks if she's ok and she says it's been a long year. Will agrees and then calls the first annual set list nominations party...hold up! You are just picking your set list NOW? A week before Regionals? Are you high? How does that make any sense? I thought you guys were already doing that funk number? You know, it kind of amuses me that interest in glee boomed because of this show but how many kids dropped out when they realized what it actually is? No crazy "assignments" or expressing yourself with songs, just an hour long practice at lunch or after school where you do vocal runs and your set list is predetermined by the teacher which you practice repeatedly until the competition to the point that you hate hearing those songs after? 

Anyway, the kids are too depressed to pick songs because they heard about Sue being a judge and their spirits are crushed because they know she'll vote against them and they'll lose no matter what. Instead of picking songs, they just want to share memories of fun times they had in glee club. Will looks dejected and we cut to him in Emma's office. Aw, Emma, I forgot she existed. She's been absent the last few episodes so it was nice to see her again. Emma points out that what he loved about glee was the singing, not the winning and that's what he's been drilling into the kids' heads all year so that's what he should focus on. Will says he misses her and she just wrecks him by saying she's seeing someone. 

These girls are becoming very useful for my recaps

Emma blurts out all this amazing stuff about her new beau, how he's a dentist and was impressed with her oral hygiene and how they've gone out every night since he asked her out. Will starts to ask if they've boned but thankfully, realizes how douchey that would be. Emma tells him it's fine but that she figures they had their shot and she needed to move on. Good for you, Emma. Then she ruins it by telling Will that her and Carl (the dentist) haven't done it yet. Ugh, I'm going to need this whole idea that women must remain pure for the main male character to die in a fire. Actually the whole idea of girls' virginity being a big deal. I hate it. No! That's a bad Emma! You owe Will nothing. 

We get a brief scene with Will driving his car while crying but then Journey comes on the radio, Don't Stop Believing and it looks like he gets an idea. Finn, meanwhile, tracks down Rachel and tells her that they need to fix things because she's a leader and he's going to help her or something. She then kisses him and smiles. Things are starting to pick up.

In the choir room, Rachel and Finn burst in because they have something to say but Will wants to go first. He gives a passionate speech about the pilot episode where he almost quit to become an accountant but that they brought him back by singing Don't Stop Believing. He thought it was a nine but they're going to make it a ten. Rachel excitedly asks if they're doing Don't Stop Believing at Regionals and Will tells her they're doing a whole Journey medley. Rachel agrees that they're all in and they are all pumped for Regionals again. Yay! 

We jump right into the competition which is crazy since we're only ten minutes into the episode and I don't remember it going this quickly but I'm pumped so who cares? The announcer introduces us to our celebrity judges which is a really nice montage of past characters. We get Josh Groban whom we saw in the first 13 when Will decided he wanted to start a 90s boyband acapella group. We've got Olivia Newton John again who we recently saw team up with Sue to sing Physical. And we have Sue's co-host and former possible suitor, Rod Remington. And finally, we have Sue. Who seeems decidedly less famous than even Rod but sure. A group called Aural Intensity performs first and, according to Puck, are singing a mash up of Josh Groban and ONJ songs. Will turns the speaker off and tells them that it doesn't matter but the kids beg to differ because they know they have no shot at winning. Will apologizes to them for making them think all this was about winning and then says that they have something the other groups don't, Finn's dancing! Finn looks so proud but then realizes that he's the butt of his senpai's joke and it's kind of hilarious. 

Rachel and Finn are at their starting points back stage and she tells him to break a leg. In response, Finn tells her he loves her which is kind of sweet even though I'm really not a fan of these two. I still don't think Finn has earned anything with Rachel and it's too quick for Rachel after her feelings for Jesse seemed so genuine. I know he was a dick and threw eggs on her but I assume she'd still be hurting from that. But this is tv so, I guess we've got to go with the flow and accept that the writers want this pair despite how they write them. We broke these dolls apart but now we're smashing them back together and you all will sit there and like it!!

Sidenote: before we get into the performance I just want to note that Brad is here. I'm so perplexed by him. He's just always there and it seemed like he was there before them like he'd been doing the music for the other groups too so he's like this mystical piano man that shows up where music is needed. I kind of love this.

So, Rachel and Finn sing Faithfully, then they launch into a mash up of Any Way You Want It and Lovin, Touchin, Squeezin and finish off with Don't Stop Believing and it's honestly really fucking good despite my disinterest in Journey as a group. Suffice to say, the only patience or love I have for Journey songs is because of Glee because they make it all look so damned fun. This is honestly the best follow up you could dream of to the Sectionals performance. You need to see it so here:

This one was my favourite of the three numbers. 

You can find the rest on Youtube, the whole thing is great.

Don't they look so good, too? I just love this, especially because it uses all their voices instead of just mainly Finn and Rachel. Santana's bit is great. The kids run off, completely stoked for how well they did but Quinn is stopped by her mother who callously kicked her out of the house in the first 13 episodes. She praises Quinn's performance and then launches into a speech about how she left her father because he was cheating on her with a tattooed girl. Ah, that's the conservative hypocrisy we know and love. Don't you do that bad sinful thing or I will never forgive you, now excuse me while I do this other sinful thing but it's ok because I'm religious and god forgives me because I go to church. Anyway, she wants Quinn to say something but all she can say is that her water broke. Ooop!

The next we get my all time, favourite moment from glee and that is Vocal Adrenaline's performance of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody intercut with Quinn giving birth. I love it and I'm sorry but I have to share it too even though I shared the other performance. Look, both of the Regional performances are just gold. It will never get quite this good again. 

Isn't that amazing? I mean Groff's voice is perfect and well-suited for this song. Plus the editing back and forth, the mixing, it's all just great. It honestly makes me almost forget that Jesse was torched last episode with no explanation and that he doesn't get to say anything this episode. At least he gets to send us off with his angelic singing voice. I also like that Quinn asked Mercedes to be with her, nice tiny glimpse of continuity of their friendship.

After the performances are done and Quinn says hello to her little girl, we go to Rachel confronting Shelby. She tells her that they did great for their performance but that New Directions beat them. She desperately asks Shelby to take a job at McKinley so that she can co-coach New Directions with Will. Shelby wants to quit coaching completely though because she wants to start a family of her own. She missed her shot with Rachel and it kills her, she doesn't want to miss another one. She asks where the rest of Rachel's club is and she tells her that they're at the hospital with Quinn since she just gave birth. She asks if Quinn is ok and Rachel confirms and tells her that they had a baby girl. I saw immediately where this was going when I first watched and I'm still unsure if I do or don't like it. 

Sue barges into the judges' room and tries to take charge because she has a clear idea who she wants to put last. However, the celebrity judges ignore her and talk about their own favourites until Groban mentions that he liked New Directions but then ONJ starts trashing them. Sue is all on board until ONJ starts mocking them for being poor and how brunettes can't be in show business and suddenly Sue starts sticking up for them. The judges then all turn on Sue and start mocking her for not being a real celebrity, thus knocking her off the high horse she was on at the beginning of this episode. They all vote.

Next, Sue is announcing the winners which is odd because I thought the celebrities would want to do this seeing as how they all agreed Sue was beneath them? See the gif at the beginning though because that is the explanation for anything weird that happens on this show. Sue announces the runners up are the "not at all stupidly named, Aural Intensity" and the kids are excited because they think that means that they have a shot at winning. Honestly, if the judges had any sense the two front runners would be VA and ND because they were the clear talents. AI got there purely on sucking up to Josh Groban and ONJ. Of course, VA win and the ND kids are crushed that they didn't even place.

Cut to Quinn and Puck looking at their new baby. Puck asks if she wants to keep the baby and she quickly answers no. She asks him the same but he doesn't answer. She then asks if he ever loved her and Puck answers that he does and especially now which might have been sweet except these two barely spent time together in the back nine. When they were together, Puck was a colossal dick to her and when they weren't, he was chasing either Santana or Mercedes so nope, this does not tug the heartstrings. You deserve better, Quinn. Shelby appears and asks them which one is theirs and then ignores Quinn's valid question of what she's doing there by saying she sees her because the baby looks like Quinn. She asks them if they've named her,, Quinn says no but Puck answers that her name is Beth. Shelby likes that name. That's all we get, a tease that Shelby is going to adopt Quinn's baby. Cool. Unnecessary but cool, I suppose. Better than Beth ending up in foster care.

We next cut to Emma chewing Principal Figgins out which is super valid because he sucks as a principal and seriously, this school really doesn't seem to be hurting for money. Will asks her what's up and she rages how unfair it all is and that Figgins already gave the choir room to mock UN. Have they ever heard of sharing space? I don't get how this school operates. Anyway, Emma is enraged by all this and can't understand why Will isn't more mad. He says he tried but Emma says that they need to fight for this for the kids. Will thinks she's somewhat talking about them but she denies it. Will doesn't take the hint and says he loves her and that their time isn't over, even if she's dating a dentist. Let her date John Stamos, Will! Spoiler alert, they cast John Stamos as Carl. 

The kids invite Will into the auditorium and they each say the things they were at the beginning of the year, Matt was just another football player (oh honey, I'm so sorry but you're cut. Bye), Tina had a stutter, Mercedes was a closeted diva, Quinn was captain of the Cheerios, Mike was afraid to dance outside of his bedroom, Santana hated everyone in this room, so did Brittany, Kurt wasn't honest about who he was, Puck was dumping kids in dumpsters (I thought he still was because he sucks), and Rachel was getting slushied. Finn had no father figure but you know, now he calls Will, Daddy so he's happy. The kids don't care what the judges say because they feel like they've won because glee club is him. 

MERCEDES: And Glee Club will never end, Mr. Schue, because… you are Glee Club. And you’re in all of us now.

Or someone better get Will to step away from the children!

They perform To Sir, With Love by Lulu and it's very pretty and touching. It obviously calls back to when they performed My Life Would Suck Without You at the end of Sectionals but it's a bit bittersweet. I think this actually would have been a very nice end to season 1, leaving a cliff hanger of sorts for when we come back to season 2 but glee really likes to tie everything up in as rushed a way as possible so the episode continues.


Sue comes into the now empty choir room to gloat, or so it seems. Will is too exhausted to care but he asks her pointedly what the hell was up with them placing last? He knows that maybe they weren't good enough to beat Vocal Adrenaline but they were so much better than Aural Intensity (They so were) and he wishes she'd at least given them that. Sue presses the fact that the results showed the clubs that deserved to win and how she voted exactly who she felt in her heart should win. Will takes this as her gloating some more but a quick flashback cut reveals this:

She's just a big ol' softy at heart...or she really
hated the other judges bullying her, hard to say

She launches into a speech about how it's nice she won their battle but that her life would be empty without their constant bickering so she had a chat with Figgins. We cut to her blackmailing Figgins with that whole creepy rape/sex tape thing but it's ok because this is the last time she will bring it up so it's all good, right? Right? Well, she used up that bargaining chip to save the glee club under the guise of wanting to torment Will some more but really, this is where her villainy falls apart. We can't take her seriously as a threat anymore because it would just be weird for her to hold this vendetta after doing this but also it's going to be tired. But goddamn it THIS. IS. GLEE! And they will run every plot they can until it's dead and buried and then they will dig up its corpse, reanimate it and run it some more. It's just how they do.


Will tells the kids they have another year because apparently the threat of cancellation still stands if they don't win next year. Ok. Anyway, everyone is super excited and Rachel, of course, wants to start rehearsing immediately for next year's Sectionals. Will tells them to take the summer off and enjoy themselves though but not before he returns a favour to them. They sang to him for Sectionals and Regionals as a thank you and so now that they have renewed hope, he wants to sing to them. He and Puck sing a very lovely version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz but the arrangement is, I believe, mimicking Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole's version.


During this performance we have a brief cut back to the hospital where Shelby is holding Quinn's baby and a nurse tells her the adoption papers have gone through (holy damn did she get in there quick, how much money does she have to surpass the system like that? Or are we to assume that Quinn signed her rights over to Shelby specifically?) Anyway, she is naming the baby Beth officially and we cut back to glee club where Will finishes the song and glee closes out their Freshman season to mixed but mostly positive acclaim. I think I'll do a season 1 wrap up like I do for Dawson's Creek but more plot based than character because I'm not covering every single character on this show. The cast is vast and not as consistent other than a few core members but even then, there are too many for me to want to do that. I will give my thoughts though but for this episode, it's a great send off and all of the performances slayed, as far as I'm concerned.


Get ready, because we're about to enter into season 2 of Glee!