Gleecap: “Journey” (1.22)

To understand the hour-long insanity-fest that was the season finale of Glee, one first has to understand Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
Ever since its release, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has held a special, nay, irreplaceable spot in the hearts of the American people. This is particularly true, I think, of people from the Midwest. Look at the protagonists. A small-town girl, livin’ in a lonely world. And a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit. If the ever-infallible Wikipedia proves to be correct, Journey actually started in San Francisco. Steve Perry is from California. But the song is framed with a Midwestern city because it’s believable.
It makes sense then, that within the first 10 minutes of the Glee season finale, Will Schuester hears those famed opening piano strains and begins to weep.
We’ve gotten flack for emphasizing Glee’s central Ohio setting before. But it’s fitting to bring it up when talking about this episode because this is one of the rare cases in which we are constantly reminded of the Middle America location. The group finally goes to Regionals, so it’s natural that this would require an understanding of the region we are in.
We find out within the opening scene that Sue is judging Regionals, and she wastes no time giving the best Will’s-hair-related insult this entire season: “Your hair looks like a briar patch. I keep expecting racist animated Disney characters to pop up and start singing songs about living on the bayou.” Jane Lynch should be in everything.
The first thing that happens at Regionals (after lots of nagging fatalism from the Glee Club kids) is we meet the CELEBRITY JUDGES. In addition to Sue are returning guest stars Josh Groban and Olivia Newton-John, and priggish local news anchor Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones), who we last saw breaking Sue Sylvester’s heart.
The horribly-named Oral Insanity Aural Intensity of Fort Wayne, Ind. goes first, taking the suck-up-to-the-judges route and wearing redonkulous white flapper garb. New Directions takes the middle spot, looking stunning in gold and totally killing it with the Journey medley. “Faithfully” was one of the best numbers the show’s had all season. Finn’s smirk goes from character trademark to genuine fun and Rachel is just belting like a pro. The crowd loves it. The entire cast looked like they were having an amazing time performing, which is what counts. And of course, “Don’t Stop Believin’” is irresistible. The only part of the Journey medley that at all felt out of place was the Wham!-esque choreography on “Any Way You Want It.”
The “Bohemian Rhapsody” sequence wasn’t bad, but it may be one of the more bizarre things to happen on this show. The vocals on Queen’s classic were alright—there’s no denying that J-Groff can sing, but the Agnes DeMille-style choreography and Groff’s Scott Stapp-ish poses felt a bit distracting. The juxtaposition of the song with Quinn’s birth scene via rapid-fire edits was unsettling. But it definitely made for interesting television, especially considering how much plot development happened over the course of six minutes or so.