Regional fever is in the air and the Glee Club is anxious to perform to their heart’s content.
Patty Duke, Meredith Baxter and Season 12 AMERICAN IDOL Runner-Up Jessica Sanchez Make Guest Appearances in the season finale entitled, “All or Nothing.”
The episode begins with Brittany receiving some unusual news. She was accepted early admission into MIT and is now considered a young Albert Einstein. This news causes her to go a tad bit insane and give her a new attitude toward life.
Besides the fact that it would be impossible to get into MIT with a 0.5 GPA regardless of how brilliant one seems to be, this plot twist seems unnecessary and rather annoying. Brittany has always been known for flying off the wall and going insane, but this was just unnecessary. She turned into a major primadonna and audiences have grown to know her defense mechanisms making this plot twist fall flat.
Back in Lima, Ryder is on the verge of finding out who is “catfishing” him and the result is not to his liking. In an attempt to not give the person away, the person turns out to be the most unlikely member of the Glee Club.
This plot twist is entertaining and unlocks some deeper themes in life. In the process of Ryder discovering who this person his, he learns about himself and everyone else learns with him. Glee has always been good with tackling the sensitive topics in life, but they do an exceptionally good job with this situation.
Also in Lima, Blaine continues to pursue the idea of proposing to Kurt. In the process of picking out a wedding ring, he meets a very sweet old lesbian who believes in the reality of young love. She invites Blaine and Kurt out to dinner with her girlfriend of 30 years in order to see if Blaine’s love is true. One of the couples ends up engaged by the end of the dinner.
This is an extremely interesting plot twist and they tackle serious issues, such as gay marriage and the recent Supreme Court decisions. For die-hard Glee fans, it would be hard not to smile or shed a tear during this exceptional scene.
In New York, Rachel is preparing for her Funny Girl callback. After last week’s outstanding episode involving the audition, this week just couldn’t compete. She went in, sang a beautiful Celine Dion song, the judges thanked her and that was it. No dramatic Rachel moments. No deep introspective conversations with Kurt. This plot point resulted in absolutely nothing. Everyone knew she was going to go in and sing her heart out, but audience members expected more from her in this situation.
In the final plot point, the Glee club competes in regionals. Santana, Kurt and a few others come to cheer the team on. In the past, Glee has been known for having exceptional regional competitions. The music is amazing, the characters are amazing and they always manage losing for some stupid technicalities. This year was different. There didn’t seem to be as much spark in their performances and it wasn’t anything special. Of course these kids can sing, but the audience has grown to want more for them, more than simply looking pretty and singing complicated notes.
The team started out by singing “Hall of Fame” by The Script and Will I am. It’s really hard not to feel some semblance of Goosebumps when Jake runs out with killer dance moves and an entertaining rap. The second song, “I Love It” by Icona Pop, went downhill. There was absolutely no emotion in this song and it seemed boring and pointless.
The Glee Club finished the night with an original song by Marley, “All or Nothing.” They achieved greatness with this song, but Marley still failed to do a “Mercedes style run” like she was told to in the previous episode.
Overall, it was a good episode. The music was interesting, the plot points were entertaining, but it failed to achieve the signature Glee style. Despite the lack of an interesting cliffhanger, it left audience members feeling empty toward the end and wanting more. Not in the, “I can’t wait for next season” way, but in the, “Really, that’s it” sense of the words.