All or Nothing

Last night's season finale of Glee was a bit of an improvement over recent episodes. The story threads were more compelling than things have been of late, but the hour was still overstuffed.

First of all, there was Rachel's audition, which took place so early in the episode that you almost totally forgot that it was probably meant to be one of the episode's big cliffhangers for the summer.

Then there was the matter of Blaine's potential proposal to Kurt, which apparently wasn't put to bed after all in last week's episode. I couldn't decide whether it was odd or sweet that the majority of this storyline seemed not devoted to the guys themselves, but instead to the older lesbian couple Blaine happened to meet in the process of shopping for an engagement ring.

The catfishing storyline for Ryder was finally resolved. After a brief bait-and-switch in which Marley claimed responsibility, it was revealed that Unique was the person behind "Katie." Ultimately, I think I liked this particular twist, because for once it seemed to reveal a bit of advanced story planning on the part of the writers. Several episodes back, when there was a bizarre subplot about Ryder having trouble interacting with Unique, I noted that the sudden change in his behavior seemed unearned. It still does... but at least now it appears that it was done to add stakes to this reveal at the end of the season.

Brittany's MIT freakout was a strange but funny way of apparently covering for the actress' real-life pregnancy. If they should need to write her out for the beginning of the next season, they certainly have it covered. She can be missing in action, much like Mercedes and Chang for the bulk of this season.

After the big runaway bride episode of months ago, Glee couldn't do another big wedding moment for Will and Emma. I get that. Still, I thought it added to the rushed atmosphere of the episode to wedge their vows in at the end in the choir room.

Of course, all these threads had to be worked around performances, because it was another competition episode for Glee. That means an entire act of no real plot, and this time the songs themselves weren't the best. The vocals were noticeably processed in the first two numbers, enough to make me question (cattily) whether the competition has rules against that sort of thing.

I've said it too much lately, but I'll say it again: I'm tired of Glee right now. Some of my readers, I suspect, are tired of my write-ups about them. Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief, because this is it for at least a few months. (And even if I come back in the fall, my regular reviews of new episodes may not.) I'd say this hour gets a B-. In a time when I was enjoying the show more, that would represent just a small bump in the road. The way things have been lately, it's sadly more of an "is that the best you can do?"