Last week's Glee episode finally dealt with the death of Finn Hudson, the character played by actor Cory Monteith, who died in a drug overdose earlier this year. Adjusting to the death of any talent in any production is a struggle, but the show's co-creator, Ryan Lewis, told Rolling Stone that Monteith's death has forced him to re-conceptualize the entire future of the show.
Adams said that the next season, the sixth and recently announced as the final for the show, would revolve heavily around Finn and girlfriend Rachel Berry, played by Monteith's real-life girlfriend Lea Michele.
The final year of the show was designed around Rachel and Cory/Finn's story," he said. "I always knew that. I always knew how it would end. I knew what the last shot was, he was in it. I knew what the last line was...she said it to him. So when a tragedy like this happens you sort of have to pause and figure out what you want to do, so we're figuring that out now."
Obviously the fictional trauma brought to Rachel should provide plenty of fodder to fuel a final season of the show, but of course Adams also has to take into consideration how such a plot would impact the real life stress that Michele herself is going through.
Glee was never meant to last for a Law & Order type run, as the main characters can obviously only remain in high school for so long, but Monteith's passing only strengthened Adams' and the network's resolve to end the show. Sales of episode playlists have also seen a decrease on iTunes over the last few seasons. The soundtrack of last week's episode, "The Quarterback," was the first in more than two years that cracked into the Top 10 of iTunes' digital downloads charts, a feat that the show formerly accomplished on an almost weekly basis during its early seasons.
