'Glee's "100" Was A Wake-Up Call

You really can never leave high school — at least, that's what Ryan Murphy seems to think. The hyped-up 100th episode of Glee , "100," aired Monday night and it was less of a celebration than we thought. In fact, it was sad, and not because of a touching memorial or epic nostalgia, but because it proved none of the show's characters have grown at all. And that's just really disappointing.

Over the course of five seasons, the McKinley High kids have faced hundreds of trials and tribulations, but, apparently, they haven't learned from a single one. On Tuesday night, a handful of the original New Directions returned to Lima and their alma mater to say goodbye to glee club one last time — and everyone still harbors the same insecurities and attitude as they did when they walked the halls in 2009. Just look at April Rhodes.

Yes, Kristen Chenoweth reprised her role as wacky, former super-talented performer and current alcoholic April Rhodes on Monday night. And we all thought she'd be able to save the glee club and Mr. Schue — but it turns out, she's just as phony as she was when he asked her to rejoin the club years ago. Remember that charity she set up to pay for the auditorium and support the club? There's no money left. And when she claimed to have been successful in dating rich men and on Broadway? Well, she has no money because she was dating Bernie Madoff and now she's being indicted. And she lied about all of it — which we should've expected from her in the first place, but she gave Mr. Schue hope so we gave her the benefit of the doubt. And it blew up in everyone's faces.

And how excited were we to see Dianna Agron make her big return as Quinn? We were really excited — until it turned out that she'd changed herself to get a rich guy to like her. She lied about everything in her past (her pregnancy, etc.) because she was too insecure to feel like she was good enough for her Yalie, upper-crust boyfriend Biff. Naturally, it blew up in her face when she tried to come clean. It hurts that time away hasn't given Quinn the confidence she should have.

Last but not least, Mercedes, Rachel, and Santana should actually just go back to high school, because they might have changed the least out of all of McKinley High's alums. Mercedes and Rachel are still trying to figure out which one of them is the ultimate diva of the glee club and Santana's still dishing out insults like free Breadsticks breadsticks. Mercedes and Rachel duked it out on "Defying Gravity" and overshadowed Kurt, who might be the only character who has changed and matured. (And, let's face it — their new duet wasn't nearly as good as the older cover of the song, right?) These two both have successful careers they should be proud of — why are they still battling over their insecurities in the choir room?

And, c'mon Santana — beating up on Berry is starting to get old. When the insults are harmless and snuck into casual conversation, it's not that big of a deal — but standing up and calling Rachel out as the worst person she's ever met? Unnecessarily mean, even for Santana. We crossed this bridge with them a few weeks ago and we thought they'd come to a common emotional ground, but, apparently, we were wrong. Instead, Santana rounded out the overwhelmingly depressing hour of television that more or less told us that evolving after high school just doesn't happen.

We all assumed that "100" would be a celebration and a final goodbye to the Glee that was — but apparently, Glee is still the Glee that was. There are new characters and new stories, but the original characters haven't changed or grown up at all, a whopping 100 episodes later.

Image: FOX