Glee finally about to depart our screens

Fans of Glee, and especially those who have not dipped in for some time, take note that the finale will air on ELEVEN next week.

But first it will air one of the weirdest episodes I have seen in a long time, this Friday night.

“2009” takes us back to where it all began for the original New Directions kids (and even Blaine from the rival Warblers). But this is no clip show.

Instead they have had current cast members act out new scenes that tell us more about the character arcs, such as a conversation between Kurt and his father or the moment Sue first confronts Will to not start up the Glee club (ok admittedly that sounds like every other episode). I suppose you could think of these as excised scenes which never made the Pilot (and Rachel Berry’s eyebrows deserve a show of their own)

Many principal characters are absent for this episode.

Most references to Finn (the late Cory Monteith) are made with him out of the scene -duh. But there are moments when a jock’s hand is wheeling Artie, strategically filmed, of course.

The irony in watching this is that these are actors are all much older in playing the characters they first portrayed in 2009. No wonder the director called it one of the oddest episodes he had ever directed.

This becomes very obvious when they end the episode with actual 2009 footage of the first performance of Don’t Stop Believin’ including with Cory Monteith. Everybody suddenly looks a whole lot younger.

But I also found the final song very sentimental, sucessfully taking me back to what was once a trail blazing show.

With that in mind I’m looking forward to saying goodbye next week.

Glee airs 9:30pm Fridays on ELEVEN.