Laughter and tears filled the Season 1 finale of Glee, the year’s most talked-about new series. The episode, “Journey,” saw the culmination of everything that’s been building all season: the highly-anticipated Regionals competition featuring the final showdown between feature Glee club New Directions and rival Vocal Adrenaline, the solution for Quinn and her baby, the confrontation between Will and Emma and even a surprising final-act twist involving tough-as-nails cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester.

It was absolutely, positively fabulous. Read on only if you’ve already seen it - or, don’t mind a bunch of spoilers!

Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) dropped the bombshell right at the top of the episode: she would be one of many celebrity judges at the Regionals competition. This little announcement, naturally, led to extremely low spirits, which culminated in a heartbreaking and tear-filled end-of-season party at Will Schuster’s (Matthew Morrison’s) house.

After a talk with Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), Mr. Schue finally remembered himself, listened to a little Journey on the radio and became inspired all over again. Thusly, New Directions performed an absolutely stunning Journey medley at the competition. It was everything we might have wanted: Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) told Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) that he loves her, then the two beautifully belted out “Faithfully,” before the club launched into “Lovin‘, Touchin’, Squeezin’.” In the best moment of the season, the Glee club reprised their greatest song from the season: “Don’t Stop Believin’” to wrap up their set. No, never!

But then, Vocal Adrenaline took the stage. Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) sounded fantastic, the choreography was absolutely out of this world and their performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was every bit as slick and polished as it could have been.

In the judges room, Sue Sylvester quickly made enemies of Josh Grobin and Olivia Newton-John (both playing themselves) and local TV anchor Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones), who has appeared on several episodes through the season. The three teamed up against Sue Sylvester, comparing her to the New Directions kids and mocking her star power (which she prizes quite highly).

On the big stage, Sue read the results of the competition: Vocal Adrenaline won. Time for tears. New Directions stood on stage, dejected, as the appalling reality that they did not even place in the contest began to hit home. Just like that, it was all over. Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) has made it quite clear that if the Glee club doesn’t place at the competition, it’s cut from the school.

Emma went to Figgins’ office to scream at him, but it was to no avail. While Emma tried to fight for the Glee club, Will decided to fight for Emma by laying another unexpected (but, we suspect, not unwanted) kiss on her. In the most tearful scene of the episode, Rachel arrived to escort Will to the auditorium. There, New Directions sang their swan song: “To Sir, With Love,” the beautiful title track in the film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier as an inspirational teacher. The moment was almost too perfect to be real…and touching enough to melt even the ice around Sue Sylvester’s heart. After seeing the true devotion the kids have to Mr. Schue, Sue went to Figgins for one final act of blackmail: re-instate the Glee club for another year, and she’ll never play the blackmail card with Figgins again (the two engaged in sex after Sue drugged Figgins one night).

Will Schuester gave the news to kids, along with a stirring performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in a lovely final moment. New Directions has been given the gift of another year, Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel) adopted Quinn Fabray’s (Dianna Agron’s) baby Beth and Sue Sylvester isn’t a cold-hearted monster after all…at least, not all of the time.

It was, again, just fabulous.