After a disappointing second season revolving around each week’s random guest star, Glee’s third run has been a satisfying turnaround for the show, with fan-pleasing plotlines and a far stronger selection of songs. As the title of this finale indicates, the last episode of Season 3 is dedicated entirely to schmaltz. Or at least it seems like it’s going to be that way from Matthew Morrison’s performance ‘Forever Young’.

However, things go from sickly to inspired pretty quickly. Burt’s performance of ‘Single Ladies’ in homage to his son is probably the most delightful moment of the entire season, while Kurt’s rendition of Madonna’s ‘I’ll Remember’ is perfectly subtle and a wonderful choice of a lesser known track that Glee doesn’t shy away from.

Elsewhere in the goodbye songs, Finn’s lead on ‘You Get What You Give’ is as cringey as ever, but for the first time, we roll our eyes and grin. He’s a buffoon, but he’s our buffoon. The group performance on the whole is magical in a way that the show hasn’t been for a long time.

Finn is also given an overdue tribute. After being made to mope and look confused about his future for almost the entire season, when he isn’t flapping his two left feet around and yelping through performances, we finally see a driven, mature Finn, and we are reminded of how much he has changed since the quarterback jock from the show’s first year.

In fact, the tributes come thick and fast in Goodbye. Despite some dodgy storylines this season, Quinn’s transformation from school queen bee to the mature woman we see in this episode is very well played, Puck graduating and returning to his former swagger is incredibly satisfying and Gloria Estefan’s sassy turn as Santana’s mother, and the relationship between the two characters, gives Santana a whole new level of warmth to finish the season with.

However, suitably, the episode’s close focuses on Rachel, and the twists and turns resulting in her breaking up with Finn and going to New York on her own are genuinely unexpected, and the final scenes of Rachel and Finn are a step up in emotional power and drama for the show. Such is the sudden believability of the once contrived love story that Finn running after the train Rachel is on somehow seems suitable. The final number, ‘Roots Before Branches’ by Room For Two, sung incredibly by Rachel as she departs, is undeniably one of the season’s highlights and ends the show on a high.

Where Glee goes from here will be very difficult to pitch effectively, and whether or not branching out from the high school environment will work or not remains to be seen. But there’s no doubt that now more than ever, we feel deeply attached to the characters behind all the music, dance numbers and gaiety, so it’s a relief that this is not the last we’ve seen of them. After all, they’ve only just started to grow.

Airs at 9pm on Thursday 24th May 2012 on Sky1.

> Buy the Seasons 1-2 boxset on Amazon.

> Order the Season 3 boxset on Amazon.

What did you think of the Season 3 finale? Let us know below…