Finchel

Finchel is the het ship between Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson from the Glee fandom.

Season One
Finn and Rachel are both introduced in the pilot episode of Glee. Rachel is a member of the glee club, and Finn is the star quarterback. When Will Schuester realizes he needs a male lead for the club, he blackmails Finn into joining them. Rachel falls for him hard and fast, despite the fact that Finn is already dating head cheerleader, Quinn Fabray.

Season Two
At the start of season two, Rachel and Finn are officially a couple.

Season Three
Finn and Rachel are still a couple at the beginning of the third season. Finn encourages Rachel to try out for the role of "Maria" in the school's production of "West Side Story". When Artie suggests that both Rachel and Blaine need to lose their virginities to better understand their characters in "West Side Story", Rachel suggests this to Finn. He is initially hurt that she only wants to sleep with him for her role in the musical, but she later explains that she wants to sleep with him because she loves him. Later in the same episode, Finn discovers that he's not good enough to receive a scholarship for football. Rachel consoles him, and reminds him that he's incredibly special to her. That night, the two finally sleep together.

At Christmas, Rachel provides Finn an extensive list of the items she wants as presents. Finn says that all he wants for Christmas is her, but Rachel insists that he purchase the items from her list. Instead, Finn decides to buy Rachel a star. Initially she thinks that he named the star after her, but Finn explains there already is a star named Rachel Berry; right here, on Earth. Instead he names the star Finn Hudson, so that Rachel knows that he's always looking down on her, no matter where her career takes her in the future.

In "Yes/No", Finn decides to propose to Rachel. She doesn't provide him with an answer right away, so he asks her again three days later. Rachel says that she needs more time to think about it, which hurts Finn as he assumes this means she'll say no. He decides to sing to Rachel, to explain his feelings through song rather than through words. At the end of the song, Rachel finally accepts his proposal. When they tell the rest of the glee club about their engagement, most respond with shock or confusion. Rachel and Finn refuse to let this sway them, however. Rachel's fathers are also less then enthused about the engagement and try to prove to Rachel and Finn that they aren't ready for marriage. They invite Finn to sleepover at their home, and a fight quickly ensues when Rachel and Finn can't figure out how to share the bathroom. However, the two manage to make up just as quickly as they fought. In "On My Way", Rachel suggests to Finn that they get married after winning Regionals. They go to the court house, and Finn sees Rachel in her wedding dress. He seems stunned by her appearance. However, before they can get married, they are informed that Quinn was in a car accident on the way to their wedding. They decide to postpone.

The two attend prom together. Rachel initially doesn't want to go when she sees that Finn and Quinn are nominated for Prom King and Prom Queen respectively, but Finn encourages her to attend. Finn and Rachel end up winning Prom King and Prom Queen after Quinn and Santana stuff the ballots in Rachel's favour. When New Directions travels to Chicago for Nationals, Finn purchases a commemorative glass to smash at their wedding. He also uses their honeymoon funds in a bet, and ends up doubling their money when New Directions win Nationals. When they return back to Lima, Principal Figgins gifts them $5 towards their wedding as a celebration for winning Nationals.

In "Goodbye", the upperclassman of the glee club, including Rachel and Finn, graduate from high school. Rachel, Finn, and Kurt receive their college letters, although only Rachel is accepted to a school in New York. She decides that she would rather stay behind in Lima with her friend and her fiancé than attend NYADA on her own. Rachel and Finn are later seen in the car, driving to what Rachel believes is their wedding. However, Finn drives to the train station instead. He tells Rachel not to give up on her dreams for his sake, and tells her that she's going to New York. Finn tells her that he's joining the army, and that this means the two of them will have to break-up. They both cry, and share a kiss before walking towards the train. Rachel boards the train, and as it pulls out of the station Finn runs alongside it.

Season Four
Rachel misses Finn terribly while at NYADA.

Season Five
Finn's actor, Cory Monteith, passed away between the filming of season four and season five. As such, Finn passed away on the show as well. In "The Quarterback", the glee club alumni return to William McKinley High School to celebrate Finn's life and mourn his passing. Rachel is one of the last students to arrive, and joins everyone in the choir room to sing "Make You Feel My Love" by Adele. She says that she and Finn sung this song together in the car while they were dating. Later, Rachel is seen talking to Will. She tells him that she always had her future planned out; that she always knew that she would end up with Finn. She says that she never told Finn, but she's certain that he knew anyways.

In "The End of Twerk", Rachel and Kurt decide to get tattoos together. Rachel gets Finn's name tattooed onto her hip. In "Opening Night", Rachel saves a seat in the audience for Finn for her Funny Girl debut.

Fanon
Finchel is the most popular het pairing in the Glee fandom. It is Finn's most popular ship, and Rachel's second most popular ship. Many shippers enjoyed the natural chemistry between Finn and Rachel, whose actors were dating in real life at the time. However, Finchel didn't go without its naysayers. Many fans of the show thought that Finn was inattentive to Rachel (such as forgetting to feed her vegan meat in The First Time), and that Rachel looked down on Finn. Their on-again, off-again relationship status didn't help appeal to those fans, either. However, following Cory Monteith's sudden passing, many fans seemed to accept Finchel and think more positively on the ship.

Finchel currently has over 1500 works on AO3 and over 250 works on Fanfiction.net.

Fandom

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Trivia

 * Glee was originally supposed to end with Rachel returning to Lima and Finn, and telling him "I'm home" before fading to black. However, plans had to be changed following Cory Monteith's untimely death in between season 4 and season 5