‘Glee’ Cory Monteith's Tribute Heartbreaking but Why Finn Died without a Reason
"Glee" finally bid goodbye to one of its most loved characters, Finn Hudson, portrayed by the late Canadian actor, Cory Monteith. The episode three of "Glee" Season 5, "The Quarterback," interred Finn but did not provide a reason behind his death.
Cory Monteith, 31, died on July 13, 2013 because of a toxic combination of heroin and alcohol. The actor had a history of substance abuse and had checked in and checked out of drug rehabilitation. However, his character Finn, 19, had no such history of substance abuse, and the tribute episode does not provide a "definite" closure to the character by not revealing the cause of his death. It is left to viewers' imagination and Finn's storyline seems incomplete.
"The Quarterback" was one of the most awaited episodes of "Glee." The episode picked-up three weeks after Finn's death. In the opening scene, Finn's stepbrother, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) says: "Everyone wants to talk about how he died, too but who cares ... one moment in his whole life. I care more about how he lived. Anyone has a problem with that should remember that he was my brother."
The episode, "The Quarterback," celebrated Finn's life and as Ryan Murphy, co-creator of "Glee," had said, it showed how young people grieve. In an interview with Deadline.com in Aug., Murphy had said that they did consider showing Finn dying of "accidental drug-overdose" but decided against it.
"The idea being, how somebody died is interesting and maybe morbid, but we say very early on in the episode: 'This episode is about a celebration of that character's life'," Murphy had said.
The creative brains behind "Glee" felt it was "really exploitative" if Finn's death in the musical-drama-comedy was handled in any other way.
"We're trying to craft an episode that's not just about us grieving but about a lot of the young fans grieving," Murphy had said at the time.
The tributes were heartfelt and the episode was touching and heartbreaking. The episode provided an opportunity for fans to grieve. After the episode, "The Quarterback," was aired, the Twitter exploded with fans posting their tributes and expressing their grief as it left them emotional and heartbroken. The fans shed tears while watching it and once tears dry and reason returns, the same fans may question: how did Finn die?