Goodbye (Glee)
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"Goodbye" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 66th overall. Written and directed by Brad Falchuk, it aired on Fox in the United States on May 22, 2012, and features the graduation of the McKinley High class of 2012.[1][2]
Plot
 | This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (May 2012) |
Will (Matthew Morrison) assigns the glee club one final assignment: songs to say goodbye to the glee club. Will starts by singing "Forever Young". The graduating seniors as a group sing "You Get What You Give", telling the underclassmen that it is now their glee club. The underclassmen in turn sing "In My Life" to express their gratitude to the seniors.
Kurt (Chris Colfer) reflects on how his experience at McKinley High has enabled other students to be openly gay. His father (Mike O'Malley) meets him in the school auditorium and reflects on the evolution of their relationship. Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and Brittany (Heather Morris) then join him on the stage to re-enact the "Single Ladies" dance, which Burt says was a turning point in their relationship.
Mercedes (Amber Riley) has been offered a recording contract as a backup singer and will be moving to Los Angeles; Mike (Harry Shum, Jr.), meanwhile, has been offered a scholarship to attend a dancing academy in Chicago. Both revelations upset Santana (Naya Rivera), who does not want to go to the University of Louisville. Brittany reveals that she will not be graduating, and Santana tells her mother, Maribel (Gloria Estefan), that she will stay in Lima. Maribel later gives Santana the money that she had been saving to pay for her college education, telling her to do whatever she wants with it.
Quinn (Dianna Agron) reflects that she will be ending her high school life on top where she wanted to. She helps Puck (Mark Salling) study for the test he needs to pass in order to graduate. She tells him that with all they went through, including having a child together, she still loves him and that they are bonded for life, and she kisses him. Emboldened, Puck passes his test. Later, Sue (Jane Lynch) tells Quinn that she is retiring her cheerleading uniform and that she knows Quinn will go far in life.
Finn (Cory Monteith) reflects on his high school career, and believes that he "nailed" his Actors Studio audition. After signing Finn's yearbook, Will reveals that he planted marijuana in Finn's locker in order to blackmail him into joining the glee club; Finn tells Will that he is "so much cooler" than he thought. He expresses his disappointment that he was unable to get an honorable discharge from the Army for his father, and questions whether his father would be proud of him.
After the graduation ceremony, Finn, Kurt, and Rachel (Lea Michele) gather to open their acceptance letters—Finn for the Actors Studio and Kurt and Rachel for NYADA. Finn and Kurt are rejected, while Rachel is admitted. Rachel decides to defer her admission for a year to help Finn and Kurt apply the next year. She gets into Finn's car to go to their wedding, but instead of driving to the wedding venue, Finn drives her to the train station, and tells her that she has a ticket to New York. He tells her that although he loves her, he does not want to marry her if it means she has to give up her dreams; he also reveals that he will be joining the Army. Will and the glee club meet them on the train platform to say goodbye, and a tearful Rachel sings "Roots Before Branches" as she boards the train and arrives in New York.
Production
The season's final episode was written and directed by series co-creator Brad Falchuk.[2] Shooting began on April 30, 2012, and was scheduled to take two weeks.[3] The cast recorded their final vocal tracks for the episode's songs on April 21, 2012,[4] and the final scene was shot late on the evening of May 10, 2012.[5]
Some scenes for the episode have been filmed on location in New York City. Falchuk tweeted two photos on the evening of Monday, May 7, 2012. One was a photo of Lea Michele sitting on a suitcase on a sidewalk, along with the message, "Two from yesterday. Yep. NYC Sunday, back in LA Monday."[6]
It was originally announced that this episode would include eight songs from the album Glee: The Music, The Graduation Album.[7] However, only five of the album's tracks are used in the episode, none of which have been released separately as singles. These are Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days" performed by Monteith and Salling, Madonna's "I'll Remember" performed by Colfer, New Radicals' "You Get What You Give" performed by the graduating members of New Directions, Rod Stewart's "Forever Young" performed by Morrison, and Room for Two's "Roots Before Branches" performed by Michele and Monteith.[7][8][9] The episode also has new performances of three songs that are not on the album. "In My Life" by The Beatles, performed by the non-graduating members of New Directions, is the only song that has been released as a single available for digital download.[8][9][10] The other two are repeat performances of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys and Dolls, first sung in the show's pilot by Colfer, Michele, Kevin McHale, Ushkowitz and Riley, and Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" from "Preggers", performed by O'Malley, Ushkowitz, and Morris, and both numbers include flashbacks to the original performances. There is another flashback to the pilot episode showing Monteith's a cappella performance of "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.
Gloria Estefan made a special guest appearance as Maribel Lopez, the mother of Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera).[11] Estefan was reported to be in talks to play Santana's mother as early as November 30, 2011, the morning after the episode "I Kissed a Girl" aired.[12] After the episode, in which Santana comes out as a lesbian and her grandmother—the only relative of hers shown on screen—disowns her, though Santana says her parents accepted the news, Estefan tweeted, "Did anyone see Glee last night? Santana could really use a sympathetic mommy right about now, don't you think?? Lol!"[13] Estefan was definitively reported as having signed to be a guest star on December 8, 2011, and as being scheduled to appear in one of the then-upcoming winter episodes,[14] but this episode marks her debut on the show.[11]
Many recurring guest stars are credited as appearing in the episode. These include glee club members Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), Joe Hart (Samuel Larsen), Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty) and Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), synchronized swimming coach Roz Washington (NeNe Leakes), European geography teacher Eleanor Doosenbury (Kathleen M. Darcy), and the parents of many other graduating students: Kurt's father Burt Hummel (Mike O'Malley), Finn's mother Carole Hudson-Hummel (Romy Rosemont), Mike's parents Michael Chang, Sr. (Keong Sim) and Julia Chang (Tamlyn Tomita), Quinn's mother Judy Fabray (Charlotte Ross) and Puck's mother (Gina Hecht). James Lipton of the Actors Studio makes an appearance as himself.[15]
Reception
Ratings
"Goodbye" was first broadcast on May 22, 2012 in the United States on Fox, an hour later than its usual time, in order to air after the first day of the two-day American Idol finale. This was the same time that the previous episode, "Nationals" aired the week before as the second hour in a two-hour special evening. "Goodbye" received a 2.9/8 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic and attracted 7.46 million American viewers during its initial broadcast, a significant increase over the prior episode's 2.5/7 rating/share and 6.03 million viewers on May 15, 2012.[16]
In Canada, which also aired the episode an hour later than usual on the same day as its American premiere and immediately following American Idol, viewership rose by over 4% to 1.63 million viewers from the 1.56 million viewers who watched "Nationals" at the same hour the week before. "Goodbye" was the seventh most-viewed show of the week, an improvement of three slots over "Nationals", which had been the tenth most-viewed.[17]
In Australia, "Goodbye" was broadcast on May 31, 2012. It was watched by 657,000 viewers, up over 6% from the 618,000 viewers for "Nationals" on May 24, 2012. Glee was the twelfth most-watched program of the night, up from seventeenth the week before.[18]
References
- ^ "School's Out on an All-New Season Finale of "Glee"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ a b Falchuk, Brad (May 2, 2012). "Twitter / @BFalchuk: Directing S3 finale. How about a scrapbook?". Retrieved May 2, 2012.
- ^ Michele, Lea (April 30, 2012). "Twitter / @msleamichele: Back at work! Starting our last episode of season 3 today! Only two weeks left before we wrap for the season!". Retrieved April 30, 2012.
- ^ Anders, Alex (April 21, 2012). "Twitter / @alxanders: Just finished up the last cast recording of season 3 with @msleamichele Epic would be the word! Great way to close things out!". Retrieved April 30, 2012.
- ^ Falchuk, Brad (May 11, 2012). "Twitter / @BFalchuk: Last scene of the season and we've got forty one minutes to finish it. Don't stop believing indeed". Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ^ Falchuk, Brad (May 7, 2012). "Twitter / @BFalchuk: Two from yesterday. Yep. NYC Sunday, back in LA Monday". Retrieved May 7, 2012.
- ^ a b "Glee: The Music, The Graduation Album Available May 15". GleeTheMusic.com. Sony Music Entertainment. April 17, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
- ^ a b "The music from "Goodbye" (tonight's episodes) is available NOW on iTunes!". GleeOnFOX. Facebook. May 22, 2012. Retrieved May 22, 2012.
- ^ a b "Goodbye". The Official Music Site for Glee. Columbia Records. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ^ "In My Life (Glee Cast Version)". amazon.com. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
- ^ a b Whitney, Alyse (May 17, 2012). "Gloria Estefan Talks Glee Finale Visit, Supporting 'Brittana' and Having It Out With [Spoiler]". TV Line. Mail.com Media. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Stack, Tim (November 30, 2011). "'Glee' scoop: Gloria Estefan in talks to play [SPOILER] – EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ Gayles, Contessa (December 1, 2011). "Gloria Estefan: 'Glee's Newest Guest Star Along With Ricky Martin?". AOL. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
- ^ Stack, Tim (December 8, 2011). "'Glee' scoop: Rapper Pitbull courted to play [SPOILER]; plus prepare to meet Rachel's gay dads – EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ^ Brad Falchuk (director, writer) (May 22, 2012). "Goodbye". Glee. Season 3. Episode 22. Fox.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|episodelink=ignored (|episode-link=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|serieslink=ignored (|series-link=suggested) (help) - ^ US viewership data:
- "Goodbye": Kondolojy, Amanda (May 23, 2012). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'American Idol', 'DWTS', 'AGT' Adjusted Up, 'Glee' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
- "Nationals": Bibel, Sarah (May 16, 2012). / "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'NCIS', 'Glee' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
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- ^ Canadian viewership data:
- "Goodbye": "Top Programs – Total Canada (English): May 21 – May 27, 2012" (PDF). BBM Canada. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
- "Props"/"Nationals": "Top Programs – Total Canada (English): May 14 – May 20, 2012" (PDF). BBM Canada. Retrieved May 26, 2012.
- ^ Australian viewership data:
- "Goodbye": Dale, David (May 28, 2012). "THE RATINGS RACE: At least Randling beats Embarrassing Bodies -- though Laid doesn't". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved May 31, 2012.
- "Nationals": Dale, David (May 21, 2012). "THE RATINGS RACE: Somebody put Glee, Grey's and the Despos out of their misery". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved May 26, 2012.
