# Glee 1.22 "Journey" (Season Finale)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 9, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501 "2010-06-09T03:38:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/41 "2010-06-09T22:38:08Z")

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According to the closed captioning, it _was_ Aural Intensity. So hilarious!!

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**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/42 "2010-06-09T23:00:15Z")

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Yeah, I think the Aural/Oral confusion is an intentional joke by the writers.

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**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/43 "2010-06-09T23:25:55Z")

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> [@waterj2](#):
>
> Great episode all around, though the ending felt a bit forced. They stick around for another year just because Sue’s got a heart? I’d have loved to see Emma get the best of her. It just feels somehow unsatisfying that after suffering for a year of Sue’s capriciousness, the glee club achieves their goal not through besting her in any way, but because she’s also fickle.

> [@sachertorte](#):
>
> I didn’t see it that way at all.  
> When Olivia Newton-John was belittling Sue, Sue became a proponent for New Directions. “They’re just kids,” which I agree is out of character, but that was the motivation. The whole discussion of her just wanting to toy with Shue was her cover since she won’t let herself simply say New Directions deserves to exist. Deep down she sees they have talent and the “losers” actually have something worthwhile. But she won’t publicly admit it.

I have yet another take on the matter. 🙂

I agree with **sachertorte** that Sue does care more about the kids than she’s willing to admit, but what made this work for me was that we also know that Sue is very competitive. It’s not just that she likes to win, she also relishes a good fight. I think she also has a personal code of honor, albeit a rather twisted one. For instance, while she has no problem with leaking the New Directions setlist to a rival team or getting herself appointed judge just to make things difficult for them, Sue would probably consider something like ballot tampering to be beneath her. Conventional ethics wouldn’t necessarily even come into it, but I can see Sue feeling that some forms of cheating or fighting dirty are just being smart while others are weak or lazy.

Sue went in prepared to do what it took to convince the other judges that New Directions should not win. But she didn’t expect or want to have victory handed to her, and the reasons her fellow judges had for favoring the other teams struck her as stupid and offensive. So while she was only there because she wanted New Directions to lose, it would be against her nature to just go with the flow – especially since the other judges were getting on her nerves and she already had personal problems with two of them.

This alone might not have made Sue change her position, but it at least caused her to pause long enough to think about the kids in New Directions. Between that, her desire to win on her own terms, and the fact that she does actually enjoy having a semi-worthy rival at McKinley, I could buy that she would (temporarily) turn her energies towards saving the glee club. She’ll fight them another day, but it’ll be her way.

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**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/44 "2010-06-10T05:12:25Z")

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> [@Wile\_E](#):
>
> Actually, I think it was Aural for ear, not oral.

A friend of mine took Aural Skills when she was in college. I still make fun of her for it. 😃

> [@](#):
>
> I thought the Vocal Adrenaline Queen song to be rather cliche, and as someone else pointed out it, it was Jesse with a back-up group.

I agree here too. Though I’m not sure Don’t Stop Believing is really that much less cliche.

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**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/45 "2010-06-10T20:48:38Z")

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> [@jayjay](#):
>
> It looked like Kurt was going for sailor fashion. That was definitely a sailor’s hat, and he was in all white, with the striped kerchief/tie.

In one of the interview clips I watched on Hulu, the actor says, “You know those outfits you see in fashion magazines and you think ‘No one would ever actually wear that.’? Those are my wardrobe for the show.”

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/46 "2010-06-10T20:54:56Z")

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> [@Saltire](#):
>
> In one of the interview clips I watched on Hulu, the actor says, “You know those outfits you see in fashion magazines and you think ‘No one would ever actually wear that.’? Those are my wardrobe for the show.”

Well, sometimes fashion-forward laps itself…

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**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-1-22-journey-season-finale/542501/47 "2010-06-10T20:58:06Z")

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> [@Cyberhwk](#):
>
> A friend of mine took Aural Skills when she was in college.

I’m sure she’s extremely popular.

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