Glee Season 4 – All or Nothing – Recap, Videos

Glee season 4 ends tonight. Yep. It’s the finale, and in it, the New Directions will FINALLY head to regionals to face off against the massively talented lead singer of The Hoosierdaddies, Frida Romermo, played by American Idol alum, Jessica Sanchez. Also in this season ending episode, Rachel auditions in her final Funny Girl call back. Blaine contemplates asking Kurt to marry him, and on the way, meets allies–a lesbian couple played by Patty Duke and Meredith Baxter. Also, we’ll find out the identity of Ryder’s catfish. And what will be the fate of Brittany? Will she stay in Lima or head to MIT in Boston? Mercedes and Mike are also around to cheer on the New Directions as they compete. Supposedly, there will be cliffhangers galore. So be prepared to stay angry at Ryan Murphy, the troll! Just kidding Sort of.

As always, recap and videos later. In the meantime…discuss! It will be out last time until the fall. Sniff.

Click to Listen to FULL SONGS from All or Nothing

Oh, where to begin with the Glee season finale? Let’s start with American Idol season 11 runner-up, Jessica Sanchez. As Frida Romero,the lead singer of the Hoosierdaddies, the club New Directions faced off against in the Regionals competition–she didn’t have a speaking role, but she handled her  performances of “Clarity” and “Wings” like a pro. Between Jessica and the girl with the fabulous hip hop moves, it’s a little surprising that the group came in second in the competition to New Directions.

• Yes, New Directions WON Regionals and will be heading to Nationals in Los Angeles! How convenient.  The kids can leave Ohio without it costing Glee production a thing. The competition–which took place at McKinley due to the threat of tornadoes in Indiana (or something–anchored an episode where a whole bunch of other stuff happened.
• We find out the identity of Ryder’s catfish. It’s Unique. And if you didn’t see that coming I CAN’T HELP YOU. Actually, some of you guessed that Unique was the culprit, but then took it back because it seemed too obvious.  As a fake out, Marley confesses first, not only to protect her friend, who had confessed to her, but to get Ryder back on the team for the all-important Regionals competition. In a hair raising scene, Ryder totally freaks out on the club, screaming, threatening to quit Glee if the catfish didn’t speak up. It actually was a little scary.  Unique realizes it’s wrong to allow Marley to take the fall, so she confesses. Ryder is so angry, he swears he’ll never talk to her again.  It’s heartbreaking, because if Unique’s spirit lived in a different body, Ryder could possibly fall in love with her. Unique knows this, which is why she catfished in the first place. Ryder eventually comes back to the club, but reveals that he’ll be leaving Glee after Regionals.  Blake Jenner, as Ryder, continues to flaunt those awesome acting chops.
• Heather Morris is the series regular leaving the show.   THR reports that Heather has no contract for Season 5. But there’s no reason why she can’t come back for a few episodes,  a la Dianna Agron who gave up HER series regular status this year.  There’s no official word on why Heather isn’t returning, but her impending October baby due date may have something to do with it. This episode is very much a valentine, and a sweet sendoff for her. It opens with Brittany meeting with two MIT professors who inform her, that despite maintaining a D – average in school, and being unable to complete basic math tasks, she’s really a genius. And this is based on some crazy numbers she drew on the back of a test in crayon.   They call it “the Brittany code” and somehow, the numbers are all connected. They’re convinced they have another Einstein on their hands.  It makes absolutely no sense, but when has anything about Brittany been logical.  Dressed mostly in outfits that camouflage her growing belly, Brittany returns from Boston and:  Breaks up with Sam via text in front of the class, demands all the solos at Regionals,  burns her Cheerios uniform in front of Coach Washington.  Sam is so worried about Brittany, that he calls Santana to help him intervene.
• Sue shows up at McKinley to help Will with his own intervention, and we learn the identity of her celebrity baby daddy. How does she get access to the building after being fired for keeping a gun in her desk and kicking off a gun incident at the school?  Becky–who is actually the person responsible for the gun incident–was about to confess something to Principal Figgins two episodes ago. But she hasn’t been seen since. If Becky confessed to carrying a gun to school, wouldn’t a principal have to take immediate action on that? Glee logic! Anyway, Brittany will only talk if the two agree to be guests on “Fondue for Two.”  In a bit of convoluted detective work, Brittany deduces that Michael Bolton is Sue’s  baby daddy.  She claims that the singer owed her a favor after she cut his neck open and saved him from choking in the mid 90s. “We did it all night Will,” Sue taunts, “We did it every which way.”  Interesting, as she previously claimed to have saved her eggs for invitro fertilization.
• What’s really eating at Brittany doesn’t come to light until Santana, also a Fondue for Two guest, persuades her ex-galpal to open up about what’s troubling her. The heart to heart persuades Brittany to show up at the Regionals competition, despite being denied the solos she demanded, to perform and say goodbye. Before show circle, Brittany reveals that MIT has offered her early admittance. Meaning, she would have to leave immediately. That’s why she’s been so obnoxious. Man, Heather can cry on cue even more effectively than Chris Colfer! I always feel her in these dramatic scenes, which is why it’s such a shame that her character has been drawn so shallowly. She confesses that she never felt smart until she was accepted by her friends in the choir room. She name checks everybody, and then hugs Sam and tells him she loves him. He cries too, and it’s like the baby Jesus weeping.  In  Brittany’s last scene, she is sitting alone on stage, after the confetti has flown.  Santana steps out into the light, puts her arm around her, and the two walk wordlessly off the stage. Bye bye Brittany.
• Will and Emma finally get married! Emma arrives at Regionals, very nervous, dressed in white. When Santana snarks that white isn’t her lucky color and Will answers “you’re going to find out that her luck is about to change,” it’s obvious that IT’S ON. While the kids celebrate their win in the choir room, Emma waltzes in with a priest and announces the couple’s immediate nuptials.  She’s figured out that big weddings are too nerve wracking for her, so they decide on an intimate ceremony in front of the people they  love. It still freaks me out a little that Will’s best friends are the kids he teaches.  The meta jokes about Will’s lack of adult friends continues in this episode, but it doesn’t make it any less creepy! Nevertheless, the ceremony is sweet, with Emma entering the choir room as Sugar scatters rose petals about.  Wemma exchange heartfelt vows. And the very last shot of the episode, is Blaine hiding a ring box behind his back…
• The Klaine engagement that was widely publicized didn’t happen in this episode. And shippers the world over are crying. Blaine remained determined to propose to Kurt, despite his inability to get Burt’s blessing. But what makes Blaine’s determination super-weird is that Kurt doesn’t  consider him his boyfriend any more.  Wouldn’t the first order of business be to GET BACK TOGETHER AGAIN?  Sam isn’t on board either. He feels Blaine is TOO young, and didn’t even  know Kurt’s status with Adam, the boy he began dating in New York. (What DID happen to Adam? That story line was SO abruptly dropped.)  Blaine is disappointed. He hoped Sam would be his best man. There is a really sweet scene in a jewelry store, where Blaine and Tina are looking for rings. The store clerk, Jan, played by Patty Duke, takes a shine to Blaine, after she realizes he’s buying a ring for a boy. After Blaine confesses that Kurt is his “soulmate,” Jan relates the story of how she met her girlfriend Liz at a Styx concert over 30 years ago when she was only 18. They’ve been together ever since. Not only is she the first gay adult Blaine has had the opportunity to confide in, but she’s the first person who hasn’t tried to talk him out of proposing. It doesn’t matter how young or old you are. True love is true love, she says. She offers to meet Blaine and Kurt at Breadstix for a chat.  For you Blam fans: Sam arrives at the last minute, pledging his support even if he doesn’t approve. When Jan mistakes Sam for Blaine’s boyfriend, he says, “No! He WANTS to do me! But we’re just friends.”  Ha. Of course, Tina looks super annoyed. It was a little sad as she imagined Blaine picking out the ring for HER and had to be reminded that NO the ring was for Kurt. Sigh.  What do the writers have against Tina Ushkowitz?
• Jan and Liz (Meredith Baxter) chat with Blaine and Kurt over dinner at Breadstix Guess who gets engaged?. The point of this scene is to give Ryan Murphy an opportunity to make a political statement about how far LGBT rights have come, thanks to brave forbearers like Jan and Liz. They explain how back in the bad old days, there was no support for teen gays. They want to prom together…but in a group with boy dates. AND WE WALKED UP THE HILL TO SCHOOL 20 MILES A DAY. All, joking aside, I was expecting the scene to be really annoying, as Ryan Murphy’s proselytizing typically is, but Jan and Liz were such a sweet couple, I couldn’t help but fall for the sentimentality of the scene. Especially when Jan suddenly surprise-proposes to Liz! I found it a little odd that a couple would get engaged in front of a couple of strangers, but I suppose Jan was teaching the young boys a lesson in true love. Maybe Blaine inspired her to propose. Or something.  The entire restaurant erupts in applause when Liz says yes, which seems completely unrealistic, considering they live in Ohio.  So we had a bit of a bait and switch. Everybody assumed that the engagement/marriage that was being teased in promos had to do with Klaine. Not so. The very last scene of Season 4 is Blaine hiding that ring box behind his back at the Wemma wedding. We’re going to have to wait until next season to find out if Blaine actually proposes.  And for any kind of romance between these two. Because while Blaine seems completely head over heels in love, Kurt behaves as if he’s totally over Blaine. And yet just a few weeks prior Kurt was crying over “Come What May” and Blaine was singing sad love songs to Sam. Glee logic. I would hate to see this particular story line beat to a bloody pulp like the Finchel engagement. I actually  want to see Blaine propose adorably to Kurt, who will just as adorably decline. This needs to happen in 5×01, with the failed proposal bringing Klaine back together for good.  But, let’s leave the marriage ceremony for the series ending flash forward, shall we?
• Rachel Berry performs her final Funny Girl audition. It comes in the first 10 minutes of the episode, and after it’s over, it’s the last we see of her. Three minutes of Lea Michele in the finale. WHAT IS THAT?  She performs the emotional love song, “To Love You More” a big ballad originally sung by Celine Dion and is so overcome by emotion, there are tears in her eyes. The roomful of producers auditioning her look stunned. Of course, we are to assume, that she’s thinking of Finn as she sings. Speaking of which, by the end of episode 19, Finn and Will had mended fences and pledged to bring The New Directions to victory…together. And then Finn disappeared from the rest of the season without any explanation AT ALL. Actor Cory Monteith, spent April in rehab and had to be written out of the last few episodes. That’s understandable, but Finn’s sudden disappearance should have been written into the storyline. His disappearance is just confusing, like so much else on Glee. I’m guessing that as Finn’s scenes disappeared, so did Rachel’s which is too bad.  We’ll have to wait until Season 5 for the continuation of the Finchel saga. Also confusing? The return of Sugar and Joe–who have been missing since the Valentines episode, without any explanation.

In the Regionals competition,  New Directions performed three songs, Hall of Fame by The Script, I Don’t Care, by Icona Pop  and an original song–the title of the episode, “All or Nothing.”   Blaine and Marley duet Finchel-style on the latter. And if Blaine is the New Rachel, does that make Marley the New Finn?  Just kidding. During the performance, Santana and Kurt share a tissue to wipe away tears. Aw. It’s the only moment in the entire episode where you get the sense that Kurt still has feelings for Blaine. So, if Season 5 picks up right after Regionals, how long will it take the storyline to work through the rest of the school year? I’m hoping not long. But what if Ryan Murphy decides to do something crazy like stretch the last two months of the school year into 22 episodes? Or even follow the kids at their summer jobs? Anything to avoid the graduation of cast favorites, Blaine, Artie, Tina and Sam.  Ugh. I’m hoping the remainder of the year is wrapped up by Christmas at least, and then maybe, after a hiatus, the series picks up after a time jump and Blaine, Artie, Santana, Kurt and Rachel are together in New York City.

Will Blaine propose to Kurt? Will he accept? Will Rachel be cast as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl? What the hell happened to Finn? Will Finchel reunite? Exactly what DID Becky tell Principal Figgins in his office? Will Sue get her job back at McKinley? Can Ryder find it in his heart to forgive Unique? Will he return to the Club for Nationals? Will New Directions win Nationals?  These are some of the burning questions left at the end of Season 4. How do you feel about the way Glee Season 4 ended?

VIDEOS:

Rachel Audition for Funny Girl – “To Love You More”

Frida Romero (Jessica Sanchez) and the Hoosierdaddies sing “Clarity”

Frida Romero (Jessica Sanchez) and the Hoosierdaddies sing “Wings”

New Directions – Hall of Fame

New Directions – I Love It

New Directions – All or Nothing – Blaine and Marley

All or Nothing Photo Gallery

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ►