How Cory Monteith's Death Will Affect Glee's 5th Season

So this past weekend was pretty depressing. Not only does George Zimmerman walk after killing Trayvon Martin, but Gleeks everywhere woke up on Sunday to the news of the shocking death of actor Cory Monteith. Monteith is best known as the adorably awkward Finn Hudson on Fox's Glee and news of his death echoed most of Sunday as co-stars and other friends of Monteith poured out their condolences to an apparently popular person.

Cory Monteith: 1982-2013

Grievances have been done to death, but I'll put my own opinion on it. Honestly, the death of an actor hasn't been this much of a shock to me since Heath Ledger's death back in 2008. I remember hearing the news and much like now I had too much trouble accepting it as actual fact. Eventually, the truth set in that Cory Monteith is gone, and we'll never see him again. That's how I felt about Ledger, they both had so much talent and potential and they're gone. Monteith was someone I looked forward to watching each week and share the common interest of hockey (he was a Canucks fan though). We can't anymore and it really sucks.

Monteith's character, Finn Hudson, was probably the most consistent of any character the show had and he was what kept it together. So how is Cory's passing going to affect the show. Monteith was one of the only graduate characters to be kept on as a regular so we could've expected a major storyline for Finn. At the end of it all, I was seeing him take over for Will as the director of the Glee Club at some point. With that thought in mind, there's pretty much one solution to what the show has to do with Finn: kill him.

Finn Hudson in a memorable scene for the character

It's been done before, when a star of a still running series dies, they kill off the character. It was done to John Ritter on 8 Simple Rules, and it was done more recently with Larry Hagman's character on Dallas. Finn needs to be killed off because he's too important a character for him just to disappear. Like I mentioned before, by the end of season four, he seemed destined to take over as director of New Directions should Will ever decide to leave. A character like that can't be written off by him simply leaving and never coming back, he's too attached to McKinley and the glee club to simply never return to what made Finn who he was when he graduated. Besides, Finn's death opens so many more possibilities for like finally having a constant story arc on the show, and a possible tribute episode where they perform a bunch of Monteith's favourite songs (I imagine Cory and Finn shared common music tastes anyway).


It's not complicated, Glee needs to kill Finn for the benefit of not only the show, but Cory Monteith's memory and what he brought to Glee.



"Interviewer: What's the best part about Glee?
Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray): Cory Monteith"