Hell-O, Hello Goodbye

Last night, in an episode entitled "Hell-O," Glee was welcomed back to the small screens with much media fanfare. With all the buzz, awards, and hype building and building during its four-month hiatus, the show returned with its highest ratings ever. And what was not to love? The kids were still showing off their mad singing skills. Sue Sylvester was deliciously diabolical as always. And Broadway divas Jonathan Groff and Idina Menzel made fantastic additions to the cast. The second half of season one will surely be chock full of moments to talk about so onwards...


And well, as one bright shiny show returned, another one ended this week. With much less fanfare, Ugly Betty had its final episode ending a four-year run full of fashion faux-pas, high drama, and heartwarming moments. The final episode, entitled "Hello Goodbye," was light in actual plot and was more focused on giving the fans and the characters some much needed closure. I was totally down with this.

The closures:

• Wilhemina listens to reason from Marc and realizes fighting with the Meades will be the death of her. She reunites with her love and in the end ends up becoming the sole editor-in-chief of Mode anyways.
• Marc stands up to Wilhemina, reconnects with Troy (should've been Cliff, but whatever), and seems to be the new Creative Director of Mode.
• Amanda is not completely failing as a stylist, but doesn't really matter since she's now reunited with her long-lost father.
• Hilda is married to her high school sweetheart, moving out of her childhood home to live in the city with her son...
• Justin is with Austin, both proudly raising their adorable gay flags.
• Ignacio, while sad to see his family leave the nest, is proud of all of them taking their next steps paralleling it to when he first moved to America.

And then there's Betty and Daniel. Oh man. I was so very fearful at what they would do to these two characters, but I think they handled it quite well. Betty risked it all once more and moved out to London to take a hold of her dreams. Daniel, in the meantime, pulled a Felicity and followed Betty to London but thankfully not to declare his undying love for her. Instead, he wanted to work himself to the top, just like Betty did, and in the process get to know Betty as someone other than his former assistant. The ending is so open-ended for both of them that it's difficult for a fan or non-fan of Betty/Daniel to be too upset. Perfect.

Overall, an absolutely beautiful finale. Bravo.