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.