Having heard about the sudden and unexpected death of Glee star, Cory Monteith, I was in shock for much of the morning.
A star dying young – he was just 31 – has never been all that surprising. Everyone from James Dean to Amy Winehouse has done it.
And Cory had admitted to a previous addiction problem.
But this Canadian actor had just successfully finished rehab and was in a healthy relationship (he and cast mate, Lea Michele had been dating for two years).
Reporters and editors liked him. Canadians were proud of this young man. So it’s shocking to see one of our own gone with little warning.
But even more upsetting is … what will happen to Finchel?
For those who are not diehard Gleeks, Finchel refers to the glee club teen romance between Cory Monteith’s character Finn Hudson and Lea Michele’s Rachel Berry. He, the popular quarterback; she, the pushy but talented outcast.
She awkwardly throws herself at him time and again. He innocently believes he’s gotten his ex-girlfriend pregnant by swimming in a hot tub.
Their path is anything but smooth.
Yet, by graduation, their love is strong and Finn has grown into a respectable and insightful man; Rachel, a beautiful and talented woman heading for New York.
Insert eye roll here. I know. They’re not real. They’re characters in cheesy TV-land. But they gave us hope.
They were kids we knew in high school. They were the promise of young love that grows into something deeper, instead of fading away.
So although even diehard fans were finding their devotion to Glee challenged with its disjointed storylines, disappearing students and the split focus between New York and McKinley High, viewers still wanted Rachel and Finn to get back together.
Amid misunderstandings and unfaithfulness, they’d separated, it seemed, permanently.
Yet, Finn still watched out for his girl, telling her new (and unfaithful) paramour, “Stay away from my future wife!”
At that moment, Gleeks everywhere went silent. We took those words to heart.
We knew that our dynamic duo needed more time to grow up and explore the world. But a promise had just been made to Finn, to Rachel (though she didn’t hear it) and to us.
The fact that the actors had continued their relationship into real life was just icing on the cake.
And now Glee creator Ryan Murphy must deal with the loss in script.
Production was set to begin again before the end of this month.
Now, beyond the grief, there’s the issue of new scripts and necessary storyline changes.
Who knows when everyone will be ready to return?
Will Gleeks get over it? Cory was part of our happily-ever-after. That’s part of what we’re mourning.
We thought we had found our adult fairy tale. Instead, we lost our happy ending.
