Let the sunshine in

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#1 ll Library reunion ll New York

A year ago today, I met Cory at an AT&T store, a few hours before New York aired. I mentioned to him that my friends and I would be watching together that night, and that we were all rooting for Finn and Rachel. He leaned in close to me, so close that I could smell the coffee on his breath, and said to me “Do you want to know what happens tonight?” I told him I did, and he leaned in even closer. “Do you really want to know?” Shanny shouted an emphatic “NO! NO SPOILERS” at him, as he leaned into my ear to whisper “Finn and Rachel totally get back together.” And so it was.

I sometimes say it was difficult to choose a favorite moment from season two, but when it comes down to it, it wasn’t difficult at all — this really stood above the rest. Finn’s remorse, his fear that he let everyone down all the while not really regretting anything at all because he loves Rachel. Rachel’s diminishing resolve to keep Finn at arm’s length to maintain her New York-or-bust stance and her lack of regret over the kiss that cost them everything they had been working towards for two years.

But it all came down to a couple of lines at the end, didn’t it? “I’m going to New York and I’m never coming back.” “Graduation is a year away. Got any plans until then?” So much has changed and yet, so much has stayed the same. And so it was. A reunion a dozen or so episodes in the making sealed with a kiss in a library, a promise of a year and nothing more, and a sense of peace that had escaped both of them for nearly the entire season.

Perfection.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#2 ll Pretending ll New York

I love Finchel duets. The connection. The subtext. And I can’t say that Pretending was the second coming of Faithfully. I’m not sure anything can get more emotionally charged than that one. But a song written by Finn for Rachel? A song that belongs to no one and nothing but them? A song that fuels a reunion that’d been in the making for five months? It came damn close.

I was so, so happy that the last (and most important) Finchel duet of season two was an original song because while the show often takes songs and molds the subtext to fit the story (where it used to use songs where the subtext just already fit…RIP season one) or they disregard the subtext all together, getting an original song allows for the subtext to fit the story perfectly and news of this duet came as we were knee deep in a Fuinn reunion that never really worked for anyone. No other Glee ship has gotten an original song and I really think that speaks a lot to the writers devotion to the pair that Finn and Rachel are the one pair that got a song written just for them.

And what a song it was. A song about two people who have finally gotten to a point where they can’t hide anymore and they have to decide to be together and stop pretending they don’t love each other or forever deny everything they feel towards each other. A song sung completely in unison, balanced in one singing the melody and the other the harmony in the first verse and then switching in the second. It just fit their story so perfectly.

Before they took the stage, Finn confronted Rachel about how she wanted nothing more than them to be together and then when he finally realized he wanted her back, she didn’t want him and Rachel told him she loved him, but she couldn’t be with him. And then they sang together and they connected through the music. It’s always been the music bringing them together, expressing what words couldn’t, through their entire story, going all the way back to Pilot. And it was the music that got them to stop pretending they didn’t want to be together, culminating in a kiss so powerful that everything and everyone disappeared.

Reunion through song. It wouldn’t really fit any other way for them, would it?

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#3 ll Fuinn breakup ll Funeral

(This one’s for you, dear anon. You know why :D)

I was really tempted to make this my #1 moment of the back half.  It was so well-written and so well-acted (by not only Cory, but Dianna, too…and anyone who’s followed me knows that I’ve been heavily critical of her acting skills) and it was so satisfying. It was everything I’d been wanting to hear. It was Finn finally verbalizing why he got back together with Quinn and finally acknowledging that he wasn’t over Rachel.

I shouldn’t have done this with you. I thought that I could fix everything from last year, but I can’t…I just can’t. And that feeling that Sue was talking about in there about being tethered to someone? I…I just…I don’t feel that way about you.

I think that might be the most well-written piece of dialogue in all of season two. Really. It really encapsulated a half a season of frustration, rationalized it and then propelled the story forward. I shouldn’t have done this with you. Well, no shit. But the regret was a great place to start. I thought that I could fix everything from last year, but I can’t…I just can’t. A lot of people took that to mean that Finn wanted to see what would have happened with Quinn had the baby lie never happened…that he owed it to himself and Quinn to see if they would have survived if the baby lie had never happened…and that’s absolutely part of it. But I think that in that, he was also referring to Rachel and her betrayal…that if he could rekindle and remember and feel what he had with Quinn before it all went bad, he could move beyond what Rachel did and how much it hurt…how much it messed him up. He could distract himself with Quinn and what they were. Hairography. It all ties together in the most unexpected of ways. And that feeling that Sue was talking about in there about being tethered to someone? I…I just…I don’t feel that way about you. And the meat of the scene…that Sue talking about that one person who you can just feel no matter what…that one person you need to feel more than anyone else…struck a chord in him and as much as Finn tried to make it work with Quinn, he couldn’t make himself feel for her the way he feels about Rachel. But you do with her? Finn gives the slightest of nods and just like that, half a season of misery started its payoff. Four lines equated to everything I had waited for Finn to say for months: this was a mistake. I thought I could fix this/me/us, but I can’t and as much as I’ve tried, I can’t make myself feel for you the way I feel about Rachel.

Quinn, still in prom queen mode, tells Finn he’s just mistaken…that she’ll just wait for him to get over Rachel and then they’ll be together and finally win Prom King and Queen next year. And that really was the root of why Finn and Quinn are fundamentally incompatible — Quinn didn’t really want Finn. It could be argued that she’s shared much deeper connections with Puck and Sam. Quinn wanted what Finn represented and what he could bring her, and she never quite understood that his feelings for Rachel far transcended anything Quinn could ever represent to him or give him. And Finn calls her out on it finally. She’s become this ghost of herself in her effort to attain that brass ring of Prom Queen, and what would that even mean? But this is real. This is happening. And no matter how Quinn tries to rationalize their relationship, no matter what her reasons are to stay together, he’s breaking up with her. He wants Rachel. She’s understood that the entire time. And that’s when Quinn finally got it. She didn’t get Prom Queen and she wouldn’t get Finn. And she broke because I don’t think Quinn knew what she wanted anymore.

Finn tells her he still loves her [he’s just not in love with her…not like he is with her], and Quinn pushes him away and runs off. And that only keeps Finn’s eye until Rachel appears, and Finn has this moment where it feels like he finally realizes that he’s realized he wants Rachel back. And the next scene? With the flower? That’s when he decided to finally act on it.

Half a season of wondering, of heartbreak and of hurt…and it only took four lines to connect it all and soothe the burn. That is the mark of good dialogue.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#4 ll Nurses Office ll Silly Love Songs

I feel like I’ve done meta on this scene top to bottom, so I feel like a lot of this is going to be regurgitating things I’ve already said, but I think a lot of it bears repeating. I know a lot of Finchel fans have trouble watching this episode and I’ll be the first to admit the writing for Finn in this episode was pure crap. Really. The Rachel fan in me sobbed for most of the episode and the Finn fan in me just shook my head. Except for that last Finchel scene in the nurses office.

That moment kind of tore my heart out and gave me all the hope in the world in the span of a couple of minutes. After an episode where Finn actively pursued Quinn out of no where and encouraged her to cheat on her boyfriend two episodes after crying foul to Rachel over how messed up he was over her cheating on him and Rachel desperately followed him around like a puppy dog, that one scene saved the entire episode for me.

Here’s the thing— Glee episodes tend to follow a pattern. First episodes (or those fall and spring premieres) have these subtextually-laden scenes that foreshadow the main arc of the rest of the season. Except for season two, where the winter premiere was the Superbowl episode. A throwaway episode for all intents and purposes. In season two, it was Silly Love Songs that foreshadowed the story throughout the rest of the season. And in the nurses office, it was just like a sledgehammer to the head in the most mindfucking of subtle ways. It felt like closure to a lot of people. But not me. I’ll forever take pride in “calling it” from the beginning (going back and reading my SLS meta post is all kinds of fun now knowing how it played out). This scene set up this arc of Rachel being insecure because Finn went back to Quinn even though Quinn cheated, got pregnant and lied, crimes far greater, one would imagine, than Rachel’s own (perhaps not so much when you factor in how much deeper Finn’s feelings for Rachel have always run opposed to his for Quinn). Beyond that, though, Quinn represented everything Rachel wasn’t. She’s prettier than me. People who don’t support Finchel have often said that Rachel was Finn’s second choice…that he’d go to her when no one else wanted her…and this arc set up Finn finally putting his relationship and feelings for Quinn to rest and realizing he wants Rachel for no other reason than he’s in love with her. That despite who Quinn is and all that she represents, his heart belongs to Rachel.

And then there was the kiss metaphor. That he felt fireworks while kissing Quinn and in a moment of heart-wrenchingly wonderful angst where Rachel misinterprets his silent pondering as an answer of omission, that he doesn’t feel it with her, the metaphor extends all season. Fireworks, much like his relationship with Quinn, are loud bursts of color that distract you from what’s around you. They kind of shake you to your core to the point where you can only feel that BOOM. But once the fireworks are over, there’s nothing left. And much like a display of fireworks, being with Quinn distracted Finn from what he was feeling for Rachel. They were loud and fun until the sky was blank and nothing was left. And you contrast that with what the season ended with when this arc ended: the superman of kisses. The kiss of the century. A metaphor of the strongest superhuman force, so strong that when he kissed her, the audience disappeared and it was just them. These writers love their metaphors (and metaphors are important, right?).

What gets me about this scene, though? When Rachel misinterprets his silence and moves to leave because she’s realized that he’s moved on and he tries to stop her. “I still…” [love you].  And he lets her go because she’s finally realized she should move on and he’s too weak (physically and emotionally) to convince her otherwise, but she turns around before she leaves and they share this look that, despite their words, says everything between them is far from over.

That scene ripped my heart out and gave me the most incredible hope within the span of a couple minutes. And that’s really what shipping is all about, isn’t it?

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#5 ll Work Date ll New York

Perfection. Top to bottom. Perfection. Rachel was once told she deserved epic romance and I’m not sure it gets more epic or romantic than this work date in New York was.

I remember when all of this was filming and we were getting all these pictures and posts from people who saw the filming and how everyone thought it was a dream because things couldn’t get better. And then they *did*. First it was Bow Bridge with the flowers. Couldn’t get better, right? But then they were taping with Patti LuPone at Sardis. Pinnacle. Can’t get better than that. THEN they’re strolling arm-in-arm on the street and he’s trying to kiss her. And at that point, Finn and Quinn were still going and no one knew how we could go from Finn with Quinn to taking Rachel on this amazing date in New York. It had to be a dream.It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

We don’t give these writers enough credit, sometimes. They worked it out.

When we had last left them in Funeral, Finn was standing in the auditorium with a tulip in his hand, wanting to tell Rachel he wanted them to have another chance and instead, watching Jesse kiss her and walking off with her hand in hand. Instead of lashing out like he did in POM by sleeping with Santana, he asked her where they stood when they got to New York and, at the urging of PUCK of all people (thanks for that, Lord Falchuk. I found the irony and dig delicious), Finn decided to try again, but bigger and better.

For a boy that’s often written off by various facets of fandom as short-sided, self-involved and incapable of giving Rachel what she needs, I don’t think anyone could have planned and executed such a perfect date. He took Rachel to one of the most romantic spots in New York, traded up the single tulip for an entire bouquet, arranged for them to eat at the restaurant where the Tony Award was born and then arranged for the boys to sing for them as they took a moonlit stroll. That’s incredibly romantic for anyone, let alone a 17-year-old country boy from small town, Ohio. And in the midst of it all, Rachel got a chance to meet one of her idols. Just perfection.

And then they went on that walk…arm in arm…and Finn got the chance to tell her what he wanted to tell her all night: he wanted them to get back together. At the bridge, he chickened out and called it a work date. At Sardi’s, Finn was interrupted when Rachel spotted Patti LuPone. But walking the empty, moonlit streets of New York with their friends serenading them, with Rachel talking about how New York felt like falling in love and how this entire date was like something straight out of a romantic comedy? Finn got his chance and he took it- he told her he wanted to kiss her. But for the same reasons Finn couldn’t kiss Rachel in Silly Love Songs, Rachel couldn’t kiss Finn on that street- because if she let him kiss her, she’d lose all perspective and that resolve she had to get to New York at any cost would begin to crumble because Rachel doesn’t think she can have it all. He begs her to take a chance on them and my heart just broke when she walked away because they wanted to be together *so* badly and he was thinking she didn’t want him and that he wasn’t good enough and she was thinking that she can only have New York or love, but not both. But that’s their story going into season three, right? Finn learning he’s good enough and realizing what he wants in life and Rachel realizing that she doesn’t have to choose because she can really have it all.

Beyond all of that, though, I felt like this date was a glimpse into their future (or at least, what their future could be). Every reason I felt like Finn would be so right with Rachel going towards their futures was encapsulated in their meeting with Patti LuPone. I feel like in a situation like that, Jesse would demand attention or try to commander the conversation and someone like Puck would surely say or do something inappropriate. But Finn? Finn was quite content to sit in the background and let Rachel do what she needed to do. He wasn’t jealous or overpowering and he was completely happy to say a couple words but otherwise let Rachel experience the moment and found his contentment in watching Rachel be so happy living her dream. I know it’s highly, highly unlikely we’ll ever really see their future (or at least, not more than a couple moments of it, if that), but this was exactly how I’d see them.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#6 ll You’re a star and you deserve to shine ll Silly Love Songs

Guhh. This moment will always melt me.

My major complaint about Finn in Silly Love Songs and Comeback wasn’t that he was with Quinn, but that when he was with Quinn, he wasn’t himself. He had this false bravado…this big man on campus swagger. He wasn’t that adorable, slightly dork and insecure but fully lovable Finn. He created a kissing booth to kiss Quinn, a selfish move. He gave up his chance at victory to kiss Rachel (perhaps a selfish move for the group, but quite selfless on an individual level). Fuinn was unrootable (for me) for the sheer fact that Finn wasn’t *Finn* and I couldn’t embrace or enjoy a ship where one person is so clearly not themselves. In Silly Love Songs, this scene with Rachel at the kissing booth was the first time in episode that Finn really seemed like himself.

There seemed to be this symbolism in kisses. It started in Silly Love Songs, with Finn seeing fireworks with Quinn…ultimately a metaphor for their entire relationship (something that starts with a big spark and a bang, but ultimately fades into nothing because there is no way for a firework to achieve any sense of longevity). Meanwhile, when he kissed Rachel in New York, it was the kiss of the century…Superman of kisses. Essentially the kiss of a lifetime. Something so strong and powerful it’s supernatural. But before they got there, Rachel refused to kiss Finn in New York because she knew if she kissed him, she’d feel something and she’d lose all perspective because their connection is *that* strong. And that’s the same reason he wouldn’t kiss her months earlier at the kissing booth. Finn went after Quinn in an attempt to convince himself that the reason Rachel cheated on him and hurt him so badly was because their relationship was cracked at the foundation because he never really got over Quinn. To allow himself to kiss Rachel…he knew he’d feel something and that resolve in the conclusion he’d come to would crumble and he’d have to reevaluate why his relationship with Rachel *really* failed and how it *really* made him feel and that’s something he wasn’t ready for. I often say that Fuinn was a mechanism used by the writers to stall the Finchel story. I think that played out on screen, too, in that a relationship with Quinn was Finn’s stall tactic so he could heal from the hurt Rachel caused him when she cheated on him with Puck.

And then there’s the necklace. There’s something so romantic about this idea of Finn, while pursuing Quinn, still carrying a necklace in his backpack that he bought and meant to give to Rachel two months earlier. Maybe he didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe he was just waiting for the right moment to give it to her. Maybe the necklace symbolized some sort of hope they could work it out and so he carried it with him. Who knows. But he carried that necklace around with him, still wrapped. And the necklace itself…such a perfect manifestation of those metaphors that Rachel is fond of. She’s a star…she’s his star…and with him or without him, together or apart, whatever they are or were or will be again, she’s going to make it. She will shine. And because of and in spite of it all, he still believes in her.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#7 ll You’re Beautiful ll Born This Way

Say what you want about Finn Hudson, but when he’s needed? When it’s important? He comes through. Born This Way? Finn came through big. Because when Rachel was contemplating serious cosmetic surgery, he was the only one willing to speak up and tell her she didn’t need to because she was already beautiful.

Here’s where it gets deep, though: I talk about Hairography a lot because the episode reached a level of depth that’s not really been touched since. The way the Finchel scenes in Hairography wrapped back around to Will’s speech to Rachel in Ballad…the subtext…it’s a meta lover’s dream. Born This Way is kind of like Hairography-lite in that regard. Lets go back to Ballad for a second, to Will’s speech to Rachel (and forgive me if this isn’t verbatim, I’m going to do it from memory):

I know it’s not always easy for you, Rachel. I know there are some things about yourself that you think you’d like to change, but you should know that there’s some boy out there who’s going to like you for everything you are, including those parts of you that even you don’t like. Those will be the things he likes the most.

The next episode, we saw Kurt and Quinn making fun of Rachel’s clothes and Rachel trying to change herself to get Finn to like her, only to find out that Finn didn’t like her new look because it distracted him from the things he really likes about her, like the way she usually dresses (right down to her sequined leg warmers). And much like Hairography, we saw Rachel doubting something she otherwise likes about herself (the way she looks). She has a doctor in her ear feasting on her insecurities (especially when he brings up that she isn’t Finn’s girlfriend and asks Finn what his girlfriend looks like, because Rachel has well-established confidence issues when she’s pitted up against Quinn…probably the reason she wanted her nose) and she has Quinn in her other ear encouraging her to change herself and all but willing to help in any way she can (for reasons that have everything to do with Quinn’s feelings of inadequacy and no real particular desire to actually help Rachel, but since this isn’t a Quinn blog, I’m not going to touch that). And while Tina, Kurt, Puck and even Will are willing to stand up and tell Rachel she doesn’t need to change, they aren’t telling her what she needs to hear- that she’s already perfect in her own way and she’s that she is beautiful. He’s that boy who will love her because of who she is, not in spite of it. He’s the boy who loves every part of her, including the parts of her that even she doesn’t like. And he’s the boy who’s willing to say so in front of a room full of people (including his girlfriend)- because Rachel and what she was going through…what she was considering…far transcended anything else.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#8 ll Regionals ll Original Song

It seems like when Finchel fans can count on nothing else, they can count on some significant Finchel at Regionals. I’m not sure anything can top Regionals 2010, but Regionals 2011 didn’t disappoint, either. I kind of cheated here because I’m taking, like, four moments (all of them significant in their own right) and counting them as one, but this is my countdown, so I’m allowed to make my own rules, right?

So lets start at the first moment that made this part of the episode significant: Candles. Candles isn’t a song that I’d want subtextually for my ship because the subtext isn’t inherently positive. The song is about closing the book on a relationship and realizing you’re better off without someone. Blow the candles out. Looks like a solo tonight. I’m beginning to see the light. Blow the candles out. Looks like a solo tonight. But I think I’ll be alright. But the subtext is also what makes this moment significant and interesting in its own right. While Kurt and Blaine are singing, we see Rachel look over to Finn and we see that Finn’s already looking back at her (because like Quinn said in SLS- when she didn’t catch Finn looking at her, she’d catch him looking at Rachel). Quinn notices and grabs Finn’s hand to break whatever was going on between Finn and Rachel…interrupting everything they were saying silently. And the thing is- I often credit Original Song with being where the Finchel story truly began to turn (though I’ll continue to say that big shift occurred in Prom Queen), and we can credit Candles with the irony in the subtextual change. Like I said, Candles is a song about turning the lights off on a relationship and realizing you’re better off alone, and I think that’s where Rachel was heading when she saw Quinn grab Finn’s hand. But for Finn? The irony of the song is in that in a song about a relationship that’s ended and kind of turning the lights off for good, Finn was starting to realize he didn’t necessarily want to close the book on whatever vestiges were left of his relationship with Rachel.

…which kind of led to what happened next:Finn’s pep talk to Rachel before her solo. For all the crap Finn gets, I don’t think people realize that every time Rachel has a solo at a big competition, Finn’s the one to pump her up and give her a dose of confidence. And here’s the thing- we had Finn looking at Rachel during Candles before she looked to him. By the time she looked to him, he was already looking at her…thinking about what the song meant…thinking about her. And so when he goes to wish her luck? He doesn’t just wish her luck. Break a leg. It’s the same three words she said to him right before he told her he loved her exactly a year before. In Finchel fandom, no three words come with as heavy a connotation or mean more than break a leg. The writers know this. This wasn’t some accidental verbage that just happens to have some sort of significance. They could have had Finn say good luck. But no. Because break a leg has a very specific subtext. Three words that allow Finn to express the other three words that he just can’t say again yet.

And because this is all interwoven, that interaction led directly into Get It Right. Get It Right was sixteen episodes in the making. Truly. Before the season even began, the writers laid Rachel’s story out as how does Rachel, who’s never had anything she wanted, suddenly deal with having what she wanted the most? She had the solos, she was starting to make friends and she had the boy she’d been in love with for so long. And like most people who suddenly have the things they always wanted but never really knew they could have, Rachel messed up (and I’m not forgetting that Finn did, too, but this song is about Rachel and her motivations). Instead of talking things out with Finn, she got frustrated and walked out and then invited Puck into her bed. Rachel didn’t know what else to do because at that point in time, she felt like she was losing Finn, she was losing her solos and those tentative friendships? Well, no one was offering to stand up for her when her teacher chided her in front of the entire group. Get It Right was Rachel finally gaining the perspective that led her to that moment…that where she had the best of intentions, she messed it all up when she was just trying to make it all right. She told Finn to listen to what she was saying, and for the first time, Finn started to get it. Why? Because when she sings, he can feel it. OH LOOK WHAT I DID THUR. It all comes full circle. It wasn’t until that moment that Finn really understood what Rachel was feeling and how they got to that moment, and that’s what allowed them to finally move on to a point where Rachel backed off a bit more and Finn slowly began to allow himself to realize that Rachel was who he wanted all along.

And just like how all of these moments are interconnected, this leads to this final significant moment for them at Regionals- that hug at the end of their group number. Nothing brings Finn and Rachel together like music and just as they did at Sectionals and Regionals their sophomore year and Sectionals this year, they come together in victory at the end because they’re drawn to each other that way. He pulls her into a hug as they’re done performing, as Quinn watches on from the back of the group… just as Quinn watched Finn looking at Rachel during Candles…just as she watched Finn watch Rachel during Get It Right. Up until this point, Finn was confused about his feelings for Rachel and his feelings for Quinn and wondering if his feelings for Quinn were the reason he failed with Rachel. During Regionals, it became pretty clear: it’s Rachel for Finn, it’s always been Rachel for Finn and Quinn? She’s become the outsider in this equation.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#9 ll Only Child ll Original Song

Okay, legit though. Only Child? Genius. Who wrote that? Ian Brennan? Genius.

What I love here is how Finn just kind of unconditionally is supporting Rachel. She asks him to come? He comes, no questions asked (I mean, she had to explain to him why she asked him to meet her there). And really, Finn didn’t owe Rachel anything- they were broken up. She cheated on him. He was dating someone else. But he comes anyways. And despite the hurt and damage their breakup caused, it could never crack that strong friendship between them, so despite it all, he is the one she wants to hear her song first, he is the one who’s opinion matters to her. And on his end? Despite it all, he wants to be there and he respects her enough to be honest with her and encourages her in the best way he knows how. He doesn’t coddle her and he doesn’t placate her, but that’s what she needs.

The most significant part of this scene, though, is how it connects to something Finn told Rachel way back in Showmance. “When you sing, I can feel it.” That’s one of the largest intangibles of their relationship and I think it’s part of the reason Finn couldn’t give himself fully to Quinn or make himself love her: Finn and Rachel, by and large, express themselves through song. The things they can’t say out loud or directly to each other, they sing. It’s been that way since the beginning. But then I heard you sing. I don’t know how to say this, but it touched something in me, right here. In Pilot, Finn was going through the motions of life but not really living, resigned to a life as a Lima loser. He found inspiration and really found himself through music and it was Rachel that inspired that in him. And we’ve just seen Finn grow and evolve in so many ways since then (maybe a little slower or stalled at some points, but he always comes through). Music was the first thing that really bonded Finn with Rachel. It was the basis of their friendship and that friendship was the foundation for their relationship. The music was at the root of it all. And it’s all because Rachel has this intangible ability to reach him and make him feel what she’s feeling and even when they’re emotionally miles apart, they can find some sort of understanding with each other when they sing. And through the ups and downs, lies and hurt and joy and love and Puck and Santana and Jesse and Quinn, despite it all, when she sings, he can still feel it.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#10 ll Prom Tussle ll Prom Queen

Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t actively wishing for this moment since the moment Groff was cast as Finn’s adversary, and it did not disappoint.

Some people like to say that Finn only wants what he can’t have and that he only wants Rachel when he’s in real danger of losing her. I disagree and I think that’s why the writers were smart to set this all up the episode before (but really, it had been building since they broke up). In Rumours, Finn was already vocalizing that he didn’t really know why he was with Quinn and doubting her despite her protests and promises. He was already comparing his relationship with Quinn to his relationship with Rachel and he was choosing Rachel over Quinn and her ultimatum. I think Rumours is when Finn began to let himself start to feel for Rachel again and I think Prom Queen is when him wanting her back came to the surface of his conscious mind. First, he tried to get Rachel to stay away from Jesse. Then, he was sneering at Jesse while Quinn was hanging on his arm. After that? He was gazing meaningfully and longingly at Rachel while dancing with Quinn. By the end of the episode? It wasn’t the sight of Rachel happy that upset Finn and made him go after Jesse- it was when Jesse made things physical that Finn literally couldn’t contain himself. All of the feelings he’d been suppressing for Rachel…the feelings he tried to bury by pretending with Quinn…he just couldn’t bottle them up anymore because Jesse was all over Rachel the way Finn wished he could be.

And perhaps my favorite part was that Finn showed no hesitation or no regret because in that moment, all he saw was Rachel and what he had with her and still wanted to have with her threatened. He didn’t see Quinn, who he left alone with no warning and no promise to return, he didn’t hear Quinn telling him to stop and when he got kicked out? He didn’t even look back at Quinn to apologize or show any regret. Because when it comes to Quinn and Rachel? At the end of the day, it will always be Rachel. Finn will always choose Rachel.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#11 ll Stakeout ll Rumours

I often talk about a shift in the back episodes, generally referring to Prom Queen through New York…when Finn openly began to recognize he wanted Rachel back and began to do something about it. I refer to those three episodes a lot, but it was Original Song when Finn’s facade began to crack and it was in Rumours when we saw him start to examine his relationship with Quinn versus his relationship with Rachel.

Here’s the thing: by the point Rumours had come around, it seems all Finchel fans (the ones I know, anyways) were running out of patience because no one really understood why Finn was with Quinn, outside of conjecture and speculation. And the reason they gave in the stakeout made no sense and made all the sense in the world at the same time. “I don’t know.” The thing is, Finn and Quinn are fundamentally incompatible and they were bound to crack at some point and by the time they really began to fracture, Finn couldn’t even remember why he was with her to begin with. The reason the writers put Finn with Quinn was to stall the Finchel storyline. That much was clear. They had no intention of developing Fuinn or telling a Fuinn story and that much was clear from the start. And so I began to realize that the same reasoning was kind of interjected into the story- rekindling his relationship with Quinn was his way of stalling and holding off Rachel. We saw him begin to thaw in A Very Glee Christmas and then the next episode back, Rachel was singing with Puck to make him jealous and Quinn was throwing herself at him with a clandestine kiss in the hallway. It was easy and she was there. It’s kind of that simple. Focusing on Quinn and allowing him to think the reason his relationship with Rachel failed was because he wasn’t over Quinn (though we know beyond a shadow of a doubt now that that isn’t true and that the reason he and Quinn will never work is because he doesn’t have those kinds of feelings or that kind of love for her and he can’t find a way to make it happen despite his efforts) allowed him to stall and hold off Rachel so he could heal from all the hurt the end of their relationship caused.

What I loved the most about this scene, though, was the comparison made between Fuinn and Finchel and how Finn relates to the two. I said above that Finn and Quinn could never work in any long-term sense because they’re fundamentally incompatible. One of the largest ways this is is in how Finn and Quinn related to each other. Quinn holds her feelings and thoughts close to her. She does it to retain her power because when she loses her power, she starts to lose control and Quinn needs control…she needs to be on top because she’s so messed up. And Finn, at the most basic level, needs someone who will be expressive…who will let him know where they are and where they stand and how they feel. It’s why he and Rachel work- she doesn’t need to flat out tell him how she feels to make him feel safe and comfortable- it’s in everything she does because it’s in who she is. And when Finn told Rachel that she never tried to hide her feelings or thoughts from him and that he always knew what she was thinking…that’s when I think he started to let himself feel enough to want her back and it’s what allowed him to be openly jealous in Prom Queen and make a conscious decision to get her back in Funeral. Because he began to realize how much more compatible he is with Rachel, even on that most basic level, beyond any of the hurt they caused each other.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#12 ll My Headband ll Blame It on the Alcohol

Finn gave Rachel a small smile in A Very Glee Christmas. I knew he wasn’t anywhere close to being over her in Silly Love Songs. He decided to be her friend again in Comeback. This scene in Blame It on the Alcohol? It’s when Finn really began to heal from what happened between him and Rachel.

We learned pretty fast that Finn had trouble saying no to Rachel. Whenever she needed him? He’d be right there. He encouraged her when everyone voted down her idea for original songs. He told her she was beautiful when she was considering a nose job and no one else would say it to her. When nearly the entire Glee club showed up with their boyfriends/girlfriends to her Barbravention, he showed up solo. He wished her luck before her big solo at regionals. In Blame It on the Alcohol? He came to listen to her song and he was honest enough to tell her that she had work to do because she wasn’t digging deep enough. That she had to let herself live to access a deeper level of writing.

But that’s not why this is one of my favorite moments. It’s that hug…their first real moment of physical intimacy since their breakup. Finn is secretly dating Quinn. He wouldn’t kiss Rachel in Silly Love Songs because that level of intimacy between the two of them would undoubtedly thaw the block he put up to keep Rachel at an arm’s length so he could deal with their breakup. But here? He lets her hug him and he hugs her back and they just sink into each other. He smiles. She breathes him in and she is the one to let go of their embrace first. She says it’s to break the tension because they were together for so long that it doesn’t make sense for them to pretend like they aren’t comfortable with each other but what it really was was a measure of healing. Moving them forward to a place where they could fix what went wrong, one small measure at a time.

Also, My Headband is a measure of comedic genius that doesn’t get nearly as much appreciation as it deserves.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#13 ll My Man ll Funeral

Sometime last summer, I think it was, Perez Hilton Tweeted Lea and said he thought she should sing this about Finn and Lea Tweeted back, saying something like she’d love to and she’d been begging Ryan Murphy for it. And we all know by now, what Lea Michele wants? Lea Michele gets.

I think this was by and far her best solo yet. When she sings, I can feel it, and I’ve never felt it more than I did during this song. A song about a woman who has lost the man she loves but regardless of the circumstance or their places in each others lives…their places in other peoples lives and the placement of others in theirs…he owns her heart and she’s forever his. It’s a song about how the only time things feel really right and as they should be is when she’s with the man she loves and how no matter who he is, what he is, what he does or what the state of their relationship is, she loves him.

And I kind of liked how Rachel shyly told Jesse she wasn’t picturing anyone in her head before she began. He obviously wanted her to dedicate the song to him. He came back for her and he was giving her the absolute best of him. Of course he’d want her to say “I’m picturing you.” But instead she said she wasn’t picturing anyone, closed her eyes and started to sing…picturing Finn. It was kind of like one of those special moments held quiet so they can stay special between the people who share them. Or the person who shares it, as it may be here.

And the thing that this song really hit home…something that’s been hit home so much that this song was just icing: Rachel can have the best Jesse. The best Puck. The best ANYONE. Her heart will always want any Finn above the best of anyone else. And his her.

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#14 ll The Superman of Kisses ll New York

I’ll tell you what- put Cory, Lea and Groffy in a scene together and something magical happens. Dramatic, comedic, it doesn’t matter. This scene? It kind of teetered the line between the two.

After they leave the stage after their performances, Finn and Rachel finally find themselves with a chance to talk, having just decided, through song (as seems to be their way), that they can no longer pretend that they don’t love each other or want to be together and kissing on stage. Rachel’s a little shy about it all but Finn? Finn’s elated. Over the moon. Semi manic. Rachel introduced the topic of their kiss. It was interesting. And that’s where Finn takes off. It was the kiss of the century. Quite an interesting juxtaposition to his fireworks kiss with Quinn. Fireworks come in with a bang, leave with a whimper and are these fleeting explosive moments. Fireworks last a matter of seconds. The kiss of the century? That’s the kiss of a lifetime.

Before they can get any more into it, Jesse enters. Jesse, who just traveled all the way from Lima to New York to see Rachel just in time to watch her kiss the boy she’s always really wanted intensely and unapologetically on stage in front of hundreds…maybe more…people. First Jesse starts in on Finn, trying to guilt him into the blame for New Directions’ impending loss. A quick shift in his demeanor and he’s directing his attention at Rachel, starting first with flattery and then quickly shaming her. She looks great, but she should not have kissed Finn. Rachel doesn’t understand why Jesse’s there and the moment that Jesse says he came for her, Finn steps in. Finn just got her back and he wasn’t going to lose her to Jesse again. So he tells Jesse to back off. That Jesse is (and should be) jealous of them because they’re two people who love each other and they were expressing and sharing that with the audience. And I’ll never not get a thrill from Finn talking about he and Rachel as two people who love each other. It sounds so simple. It is so simple. But it means so much. And behind him, Rachel, shy and reserved until the moment Finn stepped in front of her, gets the widest, most beautiful smile on her face as Finn talks about them sharing their love with the audience and how it was this beautiful moment between them. And in that moment? Rachel chose Finn. Over Jesse. Over anyone else. Like I said in a previous post, a lot of this back half has had a theme of choices. Whom is being chosen. And much like Finn getting the best of Quinn and still choosing Rachel, Rachel got the best of Jesse and still chose Finn. She got a Jesse who had learned from his mistakes, regretted his actions and had decided that she was more important than anything to him. A Jesse who came to New York just for her. And it wasn’t enough for the simple matter of him not being Finn and at the end of the day, Finn will always have her heart.

While Rachel is standing behind him just smiling at him, Finn can’t help himself but to keep talking about that once-in-a-lifetime kind of kiss. The Superman of kisses, he says. It even had it’s own cape. Finn seems to like his metaphors when it comes to kisses. And just as fireworks represent fleeting explosive moments…bright colors that wow and entrance before fading into nothingness (an apt metaphor for the Finn/Quinn relationship), Superman represents the strongest, most raw power. Something so powerful it’s supernatural. A power that nothing else can match. And that kind of says it all when it comes to Finchel and that invisible tether of theirs, doesn’t it?

Top 20 Finchel Moments of the Back Half

#15 ll Go Your Own Way ll Rumours

Well, when Rachel Berry has something to say, she really knows how to say it. Tell Finn in front of the entire club that he’s not allowed to perform with Rachel anymore? Well, we all know what Rachel thought of that.

Go Your Own Way was Rachel’s response to Quinn’s ultimatum to Finn. It was basically Rachel taking the love portions of the song and singing them directly to Finn in front of everyone and then when she got to the chorus, telling Quinn she could take her ultimatum and shove it. It was ballsy and direct and very Rachel Berry.

And really though, the meat of the significance in this scene goes back to Silly Love Songs and the nurses office. Rachel tells Finn how much it meant when he chose her over Quinn because girls like her never get chosen over girls like Quinn. And from that moment on, we saw Finn choose Rachel in scenes of escalating importance leading up to him breaking up with Quinn because he loved Rachel more. He put off going public with his relationship with Quinn because he was worried about how it would make Rachel feel. He chose to leave Quinn in the middle of a song they were dancing to to pick a fight with Jesse over Rachel. When Will announced that the group would do one group number and one duet at Nationals, Finn chose to jump up and say he and Rachel should do a duet instead of letting someone else get the opportunity…or telling everyone he and Quinn should do a duet. And in Go Your Own Way, he openly defied Quinn’s ultimatum. Not only did he play for Rachel during a song where she was openly telling off his girlfriend (because the writers left no loopholes here- Quinn said no more songs with Rachel, not no more duets with her or no more singing with her, allowing Finn to fully defy her here), he fully engaged with Rachel’s vocal seduction, smiling at her and getting what she was saying…enjoying it. And all the while, he kept looking over at Quinn, not fearing her reaction but almost challenging it. Because while he may have chosen Quinn in the interim, if he’s issued a choice between Rachel and anyone else, he’ll choose Rachel.