Let the sunshine in

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#1 // I Love You // Journey

Break a leg

I love you

22 episodes. 16 songs on lead together. Four duets. Three kisses. One I love you. I remember when this scene aired, I knew something happened between the two of them before Faithfully, but we didn’t know what. And it rendered me speechless.

Break a leg. I love you. It was so inherently them in this intangible way. The scene began with Finn fiddling with his tie…nervous. And I think we were supposed to think it was about the performance, but what followed showed that he was nervous about everything but. He fiddles with his tie and then looks over at Rachel, before slowly but purposefully walking over to her. She smiles and wishes him luck. Break a leg. And it’s like Finn’s in his own world. I’m not even sure he heard her. He just tells her everything he feels…what’s been making him nervous. I love you. And then he smiles. He’s at peace. He’s happy. Their performance wasn’t making him nervous. It was Rachel. He needed her to know how he felt about her. He couldn’t keep it in anymore. He loves her. Finn loves Rachel.

And what made this moment ultimately satisfying was it was the only ILY out of the three in that episode that we kind of saw in the making. We’ve seen Finn fall in love with Rachel and we’ve seen the progression of his feelings for her. You’re cool, Rachel. I like you. You really are awesome. I really like you. I want us to be together, Rachel- a real couple. When are you going to realize that he’s not into you like I am?  We’ve seen Finn fall in love with Rachel. We’ve seen their relationship progress. And while it may not have been the smoothest journey, it was ultimately satisfying to be able to reflect back on the past 22 episodes and see what it builds towards.

And all those songs…all that subtextual foreshadowing. The shadows searching in the night. They found each other. They fell in love.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#2 // Stage Picnic // Showmance

You know, you can kiss me if you want to.

I want to.

Not gonna lie…there have been MANY well-done first kisses on TV…but this is up there with some of my favorites of all time. There was so much honesty and chemistry and vulnerability throughout the scene…so much beauty in what was said (and also in what wasn’t).

I love how Finn asked Rachel to help him sing because she’s inspired him to be better. I love how he admits he was put off by her intensity but has grown to love that about her. I love how Finn tries to show Rachel that she’s touched his heart but puts his hand on the wrong side of his chest and I *really* love the symbolism in Rachel moving his hand…how Rachel has quite literally in this scene (and subtextually over the course of season one) helped Finn find his heart. I love that Finn admits that his heart is beating really hard- an honest admittance of what Rachel does to him…how nervous she makes him (in a good way) and I love how after he tells her that she’s cool and she offers him a drink, he kind of looks down and away as if he feels he’s losing his cool facade around her because she gives him butterflies.

And then as he wipes the bit of cosmo off her lip and they share this incredibly powerful, silent moment, she invites him to kiss her if he wants to…and he wants to. I’m pretty sure that might have been Rachel’s first kiss ever, and until the mailman arrived and brought Cinco de Mayo eight months early, it was the perfect first kiss. It was everything a first kiss should be- hesitant and vulnerable…fueled by emotion. And he’s so gentle with her. There’s a moment when he pulls back after kissing her the first time and he just kind of looks at her for a moment…the way she looked at him when he first kissed her…before he kisses her again. It’s so beautiful…so perfect.

And then the mailman ruined it. But the mailman can’t ruin the sheer brilliance that was this scene. I’ve come to realize that when it comes to Glee, I kind of ship everyone with everyone else except for where Finn and Rachel are concerned and moments like this are the reason why they’re my OTP.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#3 // “Don’t Stop Believin’” // Pilot

Strangers waiting up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching in the night

Streetlight people living just to find emotion

Hiding somewhere in the night

Ahhh. Where it all began. Did I ever mention that I can pinpoint when I fell in love with Finn and Rachel? There was a moment during Don’t Stop Believin’ where they’re singing about rolling the dice and they share this look…and I knew they’d be something special.

Don’t Stop Believin’ holds so much for Finn and Rachel…where they began and how far they’ve come. The song foreshadowed their story for season one…two strangers from two very different worlds trying to escape and finding each other as they strive to transcend the circumstances that constrain them. He’s the jock. She’s the geek. But through the power of music and the desire to be a part of something special they found themselves…they found each other…and they found that something special wasn’t just the Glee club but in their relationship, too.

And in an episode where we’d seen Finn and Rachel as children- the drummer and the dancer- we saw Finn on the drums and Rachel pulling out some of her ballet twirls. And this is a commonality in their duets- when Finn is on the drums, we’ll often see Rachel twirling around. The drummer and the dancer. I’ve always seen them as kindred spirits of sorts. Two souls united through the power of music and rhythm.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#4 // “Jessie’s Girl” // Laryngitis

And I’m looking in the mirror all the time wondering what she don’t see in me

I’ve been funny, I’ve been cool with the lines

Ain’t that the way love’s supposed to be?

Tell me where can I find a woman like that, like Jessie’s girl

I wish that I had Jessie’s Girl

Okay I still can’t watch Jessie’s Girl without /flailing. You know when I said Borderline/OYH was like my dream duet? The second I heard Groff’s character was named Jesse, this song was the ONE thing I needed out of the back nine. As long as I had this, I wouldn’t complain about anything else.

So the assignment for the week was to choose a song that conveys where they are right then. After an exasperated Finn asks Rachel when she’s going to realize that Jesse will never love her the way he does and when Rachel retorts that despite their problems, she and Jesse still care about each other very much, we enter a suspended reality kind of sequence where Finn is singing to Rachel’s silhouette as he watches her change her clothes behind a screen, and that shifts into reality- him serenading her in front of the entire Glee club.

And for everyone who thought Finn was too embarrassed of Rachel to display his feelings for her, I say this- it doesn’t get more obvious than Jessie’s Girl. Finn wants Jesse’s girl. He can’t stop thinking about Jesse’s girl. He loves Jesse’s girl. There is no subtext to read into…this song is insanely literal…especially in the situation they’re in. At first, Finn looks a bit pensive. When he sings the part about sex (“And she’s loving him with that body, I just know it”), he can’t look her in the eyes. And this shifts back to POM and how Finn told her he was happy for her, but he was visually upset when Rachel told him she slept with Jesse. But after that, he’s looking her in her eyes the entire song. Even when he’s playing the drums…especially when he’s playing the drums. That drumline replicates an irregular heartbeat. The kind you get when you’re around someone you love. The kind Finn gets when Rachel is around (Showmance anyone?).

And Rachel doesn’t quite know how to take it. I think part of her is annoyed because it took Finn this long to acknowledge his feelings for her in this way. I think part of her is flattered and embarrassed by the attention. And I think part of her is scared because she has the boy she still loves singing to her everything she’s ever wanted to hear, but he’s broken her trust and she’s still torn between the feelings she has for her new boyfriend and the love she has for Finn.

But this song, this scene, made it clear: Finn loves Rachel. Finn wants Rachel. Finn doesn’t care who knows it. He just wants her back.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#5 // Hell-o Locker Scene // Hell-o

I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I feel like I have all these problems- Quinn and basketball and girls and stuff- and I’ve been so overwhelmed trying to figure them all out. And then I realized the only thing I needed to fix was us. I want us to be together, Rachel. A real couple. Look…I even circled some dates on your crazy calendars.

Until about March, we didn’t really have any Finn and Rachel spoilers for the back nine and I remember that the only thing I wanted out of the back nine was for Finn to acknowledge his feelings for Rachel and act on them. And then Hell-o happened and this scene made me a pile of mush.

This scene was everything I wanted for them. Everything. His honesty. Her hesitancy. Finn messed up in breaking up with her (I blame one Will Schuester and his “GO BE A ROCKSTAR, FINN” for their breakup, personally) and he knew it. But above all the crap, above the Quinn drama and his popularity, he wants to be with her. He broke up with her because he wanted to be a rockstar and it wasn’t that he didn’t want to date her, he didn’t want to date only her. But now? He wants to date only her. He only wants to date her. He wants them to be a real couple.

A friend who was at Paley Fest and saw the director’s cut of the episode told me that there was a part of the scene where Finn shows her the calendar he has hanging in his locker and it’s just covered with a ton of circles, dates he wants to take her on. And that might be the single most romantic gesture we’d seen on Glee. I mean, let’s look at this: you have a 16-year-old boy. A boy’s boy. The jock. And he has this calendar that he hates of his face superimposed over a cat and the face of the least popular girl in school superimposed over another cat. And even though they’re broken up and he thinks she’s dating someone else, he sits down with that calendar, he circles every possible date he can spend time with her on and take her out on dates and then even though he thinks she’s already rejected him and she’s dating someone else, he hangs that calendar up in his locker where EVERYONE can see it…where everyone WILL see it (so much for Finn caring too much about his popularity and worrying about being associated with Rachel, huh?) because he wants to be back with her so bad. Because of all the problems he has going on, she’s the most important one to fix. Their relationship means that much to him. I honestly can’t think of a more romantic gesture across season one.

And then when Rachel tells him she can’t be with him (and lies about why), instead of sulking away, Finn takes it as a challenge. Because he’s not just some guy she met in a music store. He’s not just some guy. He’s THE guy. The one she loves. The one who loves her for all she is, not in spite of it. And he won’t let her blow him off…blow them off. So if she’s not ready for them, he’ll prove himself to her…he won’t give up that easily. I know a lot of people give Finn flack for saying that and then proceeding on the way he did in POM, but take a look at what he did. Santana offered him no strings attached sex and he turned her down because he wanted to work things out with Rachel. What kind of 16-year-old boy turns down free sex with the hottest, most popular girl in school for the chance he can get back together with the least popular one? And the entire reason he slept with Santana was because he was hurt that Rachel lied to him, jealous over Jesse and their duet made him feel things that scared him. And then he regretted having sex with Santana because she wasn’t Rachel and on top of all of that…he went to Rachel at the end of the episode apologizing for their breakup…taking full responsibility for it. And while some people would say he gave up on Rachel, I think they should realize what he did was far more selfless. He let her go and accepted her relationship with Jesse because he’d already hurt her so much.

But back to Hell-o, I think that scene was probably one of the most honest and heartfelt scenes across the board in season one. And it established that Finn’s feelings for Rachel were real and that they transcended his need to maintain his popularity. That Finn wanted to be with only Rachel…and that he only wanted to be with Rachel.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#6 // “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” // Journey

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue

And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

There’s so much I love about this scene…so much that went unsaid and was instead expressed through action. The last time we saw Finn and Rachel before the season ended, they were all wrapped up in each other, her hands holding his, her head on his shoulder and there was an aura of peace…the peace that had alluded them all season, they had finally found in each other. And both had finally moved on from all the drama of the first season. Finn and Quinn shared a look that acknowledged they’d both moved on (as Quinn went on to share a look that kind of hints at things to come between her and Puck). Rachel shared a look with Quinn and Mercedes of kind of girlish excitement. Finn shared a look with Kurt, kind of moving past the drama of Theatricality.

But what got me? The peace Rachel found when she put her head on Finn’s shoulder and the way Finn looked at her as she did. They’d been through so much in the past year. Together, apart, somewhere in the middle. Quinn, Puck, Jesse. For so long, they wanted to be together and couldn’t, and then they got their chance and Finn messed it up (only to spend the next two months pining for her). But finally, the stars kind of aligned. They had their chance. They love each other. And the most peace either of them have found yet, they found in each other, in being together.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#7 // “You’re the One That I Want” // Pilot

You better shape up cuz I need a man

And my heart is set on you

You better shape up, you better understand

To my heart I must be true

Nothing left, nothing left for me to do

You’re the one that I want

It’s a small moment that began a season of ups and downs and spurred a friendship that blossomed into love. This wasn’t the first time Finn and Rachel interacted, but it’s the first time we’d ever seen them together. And the moment Finn starts singing, Rachel knows. He’s that boy she told Mr. Schuester about- the one she needs to keep up with her vocally. And so Rachel puts on a little show for him. She’s intense. She’s committed. She’s Rachel Berry. And that intensity kind of freaks Finn out, but what’s so wonderful about his initial reaction to her is that we have that as a jumping off point- we’ve seen where they began and we’ve seen how he’s gone from being offput by her intensity to appreciate it. While their respective talents is what initially attracted them to each other, they’ve grown so far beyond that. Rachel may have been initially attracted to Finn’s voice, but she loves him now because he accepts her for who she is and he challenges her to be a better person. Finn may have initially been attracted to her talent and passion, but he loves her now for the same reasons she loves him- he can be himself with her and she inspires him to do more, to be better. And we’ve seen how far they’ve come in Laryngitis, when Finn asks Rachel if she thought Jesse would stick around if she couldn’t sing anymore, implying that while Jesse only wants her for her talent, even if she could never sing another note, Finn would stick around because she’s more than her voice. It’s amazing how far they’ve come.

And then there’s the song. Glee loves it’s foreshadowing and parallels and they’re drawing this one from the start: Grease. Sandy and Danny. Two people from two VERY different worlds who fall in love, despite everyone around them saying they’re wrong for each other. In the end, they try to change themselves to fit in the others world, only to realize that they love each other as they are. They don’t need to change each other…they fell in love as they were.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#8 // “Borderline/Open Your Heart” // The Power of Madonna

I see you on the street as you walk on by (you’re on the street, I see you as you walk on by)

When you hold me in your arms, you love me till I just can’t see

So you choose to look the other way, well I’ve got something to say

Open you heart to me, baby. I hold the lock and you hold the key.

Open your heart to me, darlin. I’ll give you love if you, you turn the key.

Everyone has their dream duet that they want their favorite characters to sing. I kid you not- the minute we heard Glee was doing a Madonna episode, I wanted Finn and Rachel to sing these two songs to each other (though at that point, I thought Finn would sing Borderline and Rachel would sing Open Your Heart). When we heard they were mashed up for a duet, I refused to entertain any other possibility other than this being a duet for the two of them because it fit them *so* well.

Borderline and Open Your Heart, lyrically and subtextually, are inverses of each other. Total opposites. Borderline is about someone begging another person to stop loving them…to set them free because their way of loving them is driving them over the edge whereas Open Your Heart is about someone who’s messed up and knows it, but is begging the person they love for one more chance…that if they open their heart up to loving them again, they’ll give them their entire heart…all the love they have.

The way Adam Anders and the producers arranged this mash up was *genius*. Rachel begins the song with a verse from Borderline and Finn responds with a verse from Open Your Heart. She’s telling him to make a move or let her go and he simply tells her to open her heart to him. It’s very much a push and pull, much like the nature of their relationship. And what I found interesting was that while both of them sing various parts of Open Your Heart, only Rachel sings the verses from Borderline (except for one part that Finn sings with her…”When you hold me in your arms, you love me till I just can’t see”). But as Rachel arranged the songs and she sings parts from both Borderline and Open Your Heart, it’s really showing us Rachel’s internal conflict. On one hand, she needs Finn to let her go so she can fully move on to Jesse but on the other, she’s not quite ready to move on from her love from Finn.

Subtext aside, what I really loved about this duet was it really showed us a fun, flirty side of Finn and Rachel. The connection they have when they sing is incredibly strong and was punctuated by the choreography. The way he stared at her when she began singing. The way she moved around him as he was drumming. The fun and carefree skipping in the hallway as she brought him into the library. The way he followed after her like a lovesick puppy. And then when they were back in reality in the choir room, the way he chased her around the piano. It was nearly primal- Finn knows what he wants…and it’s her. And it ends with them looking into each others eyes, the UST off the charts, breathing heavy and resisting the urge to kiss each other senseless and lose themselves in the other. Instead? They run off to other people to try to make themselves forget about what they’re feeling and how much they really want to be together. 

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#9 // “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” // Sectionals

And I went down to the demonstration

To get my fair share of abuse

Singing we’re gonna vent our frustration

If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse

SEXYDANCINGSEXYDANCINGSEXYDANCING. Okay. If you know me, you know that I have a fixation with You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Mostly because of the eye sex. And the choreography. Mostly the choreography.

So YCAGWYW. It’s an old Rolling Stones song with four verses, each dealing with a separate issue. The first verse is about love, the second about politics, the third about drugs and the fourth is kind of miscellaneous. Glee cut out the third and fourth verses and just did the first two- you had Finn singing the first verse about love and then Rachel singing the second verse about politics.

The song isn’t insanely deep. You can’t always get what what you want, but if you look at what you have, you’ll often find that you have exactly what you need. Finn thought he wanted Quinn and the baby…but he had exactly what he needed (and came to realize he wanted all along)- Rachel. And he sings that first verse about love, making his way down the risers and staring at Rachel the entire time. And then Rachel sings the verse about politics and the show relates that to the social politics that were telling Finn and Rachel they shouldn’t be together because of the disparity in their popularities. Rachel sings her verse and Quinn and Brittany flank her, Brittany grabbing her hand as she passes. Two Cheerios and the geek. And then she and Finn dance and he joins her to sing “Singing we’re gonna vent our frustration. If we don’t we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse.” Subtext nirvana. Because Sectionals was written to be a series finale if the show didn’t get picked up for the back nine and had the show ended there, it was Finn and Rachel basically saying they can’t not be together anymore.That while you can’t always get what you want, you ultimately have what you need and that sometimes you’ll find that what you wanted is what you needed…that you’ve had it all along.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#10 // Stairway Kiss // Journey

You and I are going to fix this

We’re going to regionals

And we’re going to win this thing

This kiss. It wasn’t the hottest kiss they’d ever had. It wasn’t the most passionate one. But it was fueled by so much honest emotion and subtext. It was the first kiss they’d shared with no strings. It was Rachel’s ILY. In that moment, after everything, she chose Finn. There was no Jesse. There was no Quinn. There was just Finn and Rachel. It was soft and simple and just very real. And when she pulled back, you can see the shock and hope cross his face as he tries to decide if that moment was real and you can see Rachel waiting intently on his reaction before her face breaks out into the widest, most peaceful smile we’ve seen on her yet.

And this kiss- it was a physical manifestation of everything the writers have been telling us. Finn and Rachel and their relationship is a metaphor for the club…for the show (and metaphors are important). When they aren’t together, everything is a mess. Nothing works. But when they are together…united…the club is stronger. They are stronger. And after they leave the stairwell, they go to the choir room, united, ready to rally the troops and be the leaders they should be.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#11 // “Faithfully” // Journey

Right down the line it’s been you and me

And loving a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be

Oh boy, you stand by me

I’m forever yours

Faithfully

Okay. I’m going to be honest here. I don’t understand how people can watch Faithfully and not fall head over heels in love with Finn and Rachel. It is, by far, the most romantic moment of the entire first season. It’s very stripped down, it’s raw, it’s emotional. It’s a declaration of love through song.

Faithfully is a song about a rock star who’s on the road a lot and this song is his thank you to his wife for standing by him through everything. That she’s been there for everything and in return, she (and only she) has his heart forever. And in the Glee world? It’s Finn and Rachel’s recommitment to each other. That through it all- through Quinn and the baby lies, their failed attempt at a relationship, Rachel’s relationship with Jesse- it’s always been them. It’s ONLY been them. They’ve stood up for each other, stood by each other and they’ll forever love the other and only the other (and that’s foreshadowing mecca for fans of the Finchel).

If the subtext of the song weren’t enough, the way they executed the song was just so beautiful. No flashy moves or fancy lighting. Finn. Rachel. A spotlight. It was so romantic and beautiful. And their eye contact through the most emotionally heavy parts of the song? I’m not sure there’s even words to describe it. That’s love. And the song ends with the entire group on stage, but it’s still just them, as Finn smiles and offers her his hand and she leads him back to the group so they can begin their next number.

Top 30 Finn and Rachel Moments

#12 // “Push It” // Showmance

Come on girls, lets go show the guys

That we know how to become number one in a hot party show

Now push it

I like to think of Push It as the Glee Gods gift to Fox viewers. There is literally no subtext here. This is exactly what Rachel said it was: sex. Pure, unadulterated sex. And it was hot.

Gotta say though…as well as Finn and Rachel push it…as someone who saw the Glee Live show twice…Lea and Cory push it even better ;o)