Entertainment
Rachel Needs a New Love Interest On 'Glee'
Tuesday night, Glee brought up a plethora of standout issues: STDs, abstinence, the freshman 15 (gasp!) and slut shaming, to name a few. But perhaps the most poignant matter in the episode was the one that was given the least amount of air time. In two brief yet emotionally staying scenes, Mercedes and Rachel breached the topic of sex and dating and how Rachel isn't ready to do that again just yet, which is completely understandable.
In fact, the way Glee has handled the glaring loss of Finn (and Cory Monteith) is admirable. They didn't dwell on it nor did they ignore it. Much like any one who grieves, the show expertly mimicked the roller coaster of what it is to lose someone. Sometimes, Finn's absence was quietly felt and at other times it was as if the hole that he left was so big that they could all fall into it. That's the way that grief works — you can't predict when a sudden wave will wash over you or if the tide will be unusually calm.
If you've ever suffered through it, and odds are you have, you know that grief doesn't abide by the constraints of time. It doesn't the know minutes that feel like hours or the days that feel like years. For Rachel, Finn's death will always seemingly be fresh. When you lose someone who was "your person," or your soul mate, you quite literally feel as if part of you is missing. It's disorienting and lonesome and frustrating and you suddenly realize that when you were once part of a team you are now facing life on your own. The loss of a partner is something you don't ever get over, it's something you get through. You learn to live with it.
Glee, and in essence Ryan Murphy, has had the near impossible task of deciding when the character of Rachel will reach that acceptance stage and begin to move on. It's a problem for a few reasons, the first being the fans who were so invested in the relationship between Finn and Rachel and their youth and their misunderstanding that moving on equals forgetting. The second and perhaps most important reason is that Lea Michele, who portrays Rachel, is actually suffering the real life loss of her partner and no one wants to disrespect the difficult journey she's been on. The third reason is that the death of Cory has been sewn so intricately into the fictional loss of Finn that it's sometimes hard to differentiate between the two.
Murphy explains this dilemma further, "We talk about this in the writer's room all the time, and I think that that's, you know, it's a really hard, very painful, very difficult thing for the show." He continues, "It's something that I think we'll consult with Lea about and to be quite honest, we just haven't been able to crack it, because I feel like it's such a sensitive topic and I think the fans have such an idea about it. I think half of them feel like yes, Rachel should go on, and I think half of them probably feel like no she shouldn't, and I probably think, you know, we'll follow Lea's lead as we have so many times this year."
You can count us on the side that thinks yes, she should go on. The show has spent a very tactful season that has spanned a full year (thanks to the time jump) in which Rachel wasn't held to being a romantic interest. She was just her, in all of her diva-like glory, navigating grief and success at the same time. Murphy revealed that Glee will time jump yet again in the 6th and final season and that there will be a change of setting. We're happy about the change of scenery because it puts distance between the characters and Finn quite literally. For Glee to be a full-circle show, Rachel should move on and we should get to see it, because after all hasn't Glee always been about overcoming? Glee should do its fans a service and read the message loud and clear that life after loss does go on, and it can still be beautiful.
Below are the main reasons we think Rachel Berry should be able to move on next season:
1. She deserves to share her success with someone.
2. Romantic duets.
3. Rachel needs someone to ground her.
4. Finn would want her to find happiness with someone else.
Here's hoping Murphy obliges.
