This page is for all New Directions members who joined in the fourth season, after half the original students graduated, the "Second Generation" if you will. All members aside from Kitty are no longer part of New Directions as of season 6 due to Sue making them all transfer to different schools, though they all sans Marley came Back for the Finale.
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Unique
Unique
Ever since I was a kid, I would play this game where I pretend I was a different person, the person where I dreamed to be. The real me. I even have a different name: Unique.
Portrayed by: Alex Newell
Voiced by: Miguel Ángel Ruiz (Latin-American Spanish), Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese)
Birth name Wade Adams. A transgender student from Carmel High, and former member of Vocal Adrenaline. While normally shy and introverted, she's created a female alter-ego for herself named Unique who represents everything she wants to be. Transferred to McKinley for a less pressuring atmosphere and naturally joined New Directions.
- Ascended Extra: From a two-episode guest starring role in season three, to a regular in season four.
- Becoming the Mask:
- Invoked. Unique is just an alter-ego, but as a trans person she would like that to become her true persona (or at least the female portion of it).
- In her fake online relationship with her crush Ryder, the exchange weren't meant to be that serious at first but it got way too deep for her to stop.
- Dancing Bear: Vocal Adrenaline used her like this. Most of the focus during her time there wasn't about her singing so much as her gender and how much of an inspiration she was.
- Defector from Decadence: Left the rival show choir team of the first three seasons to join New Directions.
- Expy: Of both Kurt and Mercedes.Unique: Kurt Hummel, Mercedes Jones, Unique worships the red carpet you walk on. If you two had a love child, it would be Unique.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Unique confronted Ryder Lynn about kissing Marley, who is dating Jake Puckerman. This only ignites a feud with Ryder, because he calls her a "dude" and refuses to acknowledge her as a girl.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: After she performs spectacularly at her Regionals competition, she's made into a role model for basically every transgender, queer, or just plain different teenager in America. The stress of it gets to her and she almost leaves in the middle of Nationals.
- Incompatible Orientation: Unique, who is transgender, has a crush on Ryder, who is straight and wants nothing to do with her.
- Promoted Fanboy: Alex was one of the runners-up on The Glee Project.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Some viewers take issue with the name "Unique," thinking it more fitting of a Drag Queen than a transgender woman. It might not be a common name but it's not unheard of for a black girl.
- Satellite Character: You could argue that Unique is the "new Tina."
- Secret Identity: Katie. Unique has a crush on Ryder Lynn, but is too afraid to demonstrate it, so she creates a fake online profile, Katie, in order to get close to him.
- Shrinking Violet: When not Unique, "Wade" is so timid that not even Jesse channeling Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is enough to make her raise her voice from a whisper.
- The Cameo: Made an appearance in the final season episode "Transitioning", helping Coach Bieste as he made his own transition from female to male.
- Third-Person Person: Unique does not have time to refer to her gloriousness in the first person, fools!
- Token Good Teammate: She was the only member of Vocal Adrenaline who was kind and civil towards New Directions (except Sunshine, but we all know what happened there).
- Twofer Token Minority: Black and trans.
- Trans Tribulations: Unique occasionally has to deal with bullying and harassment for being transgender. When she goes to the men's bathroom, she is harassed by three jocks who pick on her and throw her wig into the toilet.
- Trans Relationship Troubles: She has a feud with Ryder due to the latter's refusal to acknowledge her as a girl,
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Ryder confronts the club about who is catfishing him. After Marley covers for her, Unique finally admits that she is the catfish and that she has a crush on him.
Marley Rose
Marley Rose
You are ready for this. You look really good. Your voice is strong. It's time to make a little girl's dream come true. I'm so hungry. But at least my dress fits.
Portrayed by: Melissa Benoist
Voiced by: Sofía Huerta (Latin-American Spanish), Lynn (Japanese)
A new student at McKinley in Season 4. She wants to be a singer and has tremendous talent, but struggles with insecurity based on being the poor daughter of the lunch lady.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She goes after Jake in spite of being explicitly warned of his womanizing ways literally seconds prior.
- Alphabetical Theme Naming: Her mother's name is Millie.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Inverted. It's Marley's mother who goes out of her way to distance herself from her daughter in public, so that Marley can have a chance to make friends.
- Berserk Button: Making fun of her mom.
- Beware the Nice Ones
- Break the Cutie
- Compressed Vice: Averted. In "Glease", Kitty manipulates Marley into making herself vomit in order to maintain a healthy weight. Even though Ryder talks her out of it at the end of the episode, a conversation with Kitty in "Dynamic Duets" reveals that she's still doing it and by "Thanksgiving", she's apparently begun using laxatives as well.
- Deadpan Snarker: For an ingenue, she can dish out the snark with remarkable skill when the situation calls for it
- While Kitty is giving her speech in the "Left Behind" club, Marley asks Jake if being half-Jewish means that he'll only ascend to Heaven half as quickly. It's not especially pointed in snarking terms, but her tone suggests that she finds the whole thing just a bit ridiculous.
- She gets a much more pointed (and satisfying) example when Bree cracks a joke about her twerking in Season 5:
- Disappeared Dad: Her father was not mentioned once.
- Everybody Knew Already Sam soon catches on that Marley's clothes just have name brand tags sewn on, since his mom did the same thing.
- I Just Want to Have Friends
- Innocent Blue Eyes
- Irony/Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: She puts so much pressure on herself not to let down the club that she ends up doing exactly that.
- Nice Girl
- Plucky Girl
- Power-Strain Blackout: At the end of Gangnam Style. High energy dancing and Bulimia are not a good combination.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: In season 5.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Lampshaded by Sue when she's dumbfounded on how the obese and homily lunch-lady is her mother.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The reason she didn't came Back for the Finale is because Melissa Benoist is busy with Supergirl (2015).
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Retroactive Recognition: Marley Rose is one of Kara Zor-El's alternate universe doppelgangers. - Shadow Archetype: She could have been Rachel's Expy due to her role being very similar to the latter's. They even shared a duet with in her first episode - albeit she's in Ohio, while Rachel's in New York. However, she doesn't hog the spotlight as much and is more interested in being a pop singer than a Broadway actress.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: As Victoria Beckham and Karie Perry.
- Skewed Priorities: "I'm so hungry, but at least I fit into my dress." And yes, it's every bit as disturbing as it sounds.
- Taking the Heat: She confesses to Ryder that she's the one who pretended to be Katie so he won't find out it's really Unique. It's not a "crime" per se, but the spirit of the trope is there.
- Tempting Fate: During "Thanksgiving", a famished and sleep-deprived Marley says during her inner monologue that she isn't going to let down the team. Guess what happens during Sectionals...
- Again in "A Katy or a Gaga": Jake, in an effort to assure Marley that he genuinely loves her, comments that if he just wanted sex, he could get it from any girl in school. Marley angrily responds "So why don't you go sleep with one of those girls then?" He does.
- Too Dumb to Live: Believes she is getting fat because she's having trouble fitting into her Grease costumes (because Kitty is altering them without anyone knowing) but the fact that she could fit into her normal clothes, or hasn't bothered to weigh herself didn't set off any bells.
- The Ingenue: She fits this trope more than any other female member seen so far.
- She's so pure that Sue can't even make fun of her; she praises her to hell and back.
- She herself lampshades it in "Sadie Hawkins" by saying that she always tries to see the best in people.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Her mother is the obese and homely lunch lady. Lampshaded by Sue.
- Two First Names: Rose is a common girls name. And Marley is also a common unisex name.
- Weight Woe: She suffers this throughout season 4, eating very little to nothing, forcing herself to purge and abuse laxatives in secret till she collapsed on stage. She eventually developed anorexia and bulimia, no thanks to her "friend" Kitty.
Jake Puckerman
Jacob Puckerman
Half-brother. Our dad's like an NBA player, there could be 50 other Puckermans running around Ohio.
Portrayed by: Jacob Artist
Voiced by: Emmanuel Bernal (Latin-American Spanish)
Noah Puckerman's long-lost half-brother who comes to McKinley in the fourth season. Like his brother he has a wonderful voice but also an extremely troubled upbringing and bad attitude.
- Ambiguously Brown: Even more so than Puck. It is later established that he is half-Black.
- Anti-Hero: Starts as a bit of a selfish jerkass who's only in the club to pick up Marley. Eventually he opens up and becomes a lot nicer.
- The Casanova: It’s likely to run in the Puckerman genes.
- Chivalrous Pervert: In "Britney 2.0", it is shown that he cuts class to watch the girls during gym.
- Combat Pragmatist
- Composite Character: Aside from his brother, he's also an Expy of Finn. Will trying to convince him to join New directions is very reminiscent of the former goading Finn in Season 1 (minus the planted drug, of course). His Love Triangle involving Marley and Kitty also mirrors the Finn-Rachel-Quinnnote triangle in the inaugural season.
- Cool Shades: On "Glee, Actually".
- Cute but Troubled
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The Danza: Jake is played by Jacob Artist. - Don't You Dare Pity Me!
- Expy: At first glance he's very similar to Puck, even though he says otherwise.
- As noted above, he's also similar to Finn. Composite Character indeed.
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Being mixed, he deals with prejudice for being too white for the black kids and too black for the whites.
- Heroic Bastard
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ryder. They initially fight and are not in good terms due to both liking Marley, but thanks to Finn's assignment in "Dynamic Duets" they start getting along better and become good friends.
- Hidden Depths: Takes dance lessons. But don't tell anybody.
- Hot-Blooded
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Defends Marley's mother from bullies.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: Due to the above-mentioned Half-Breed Discrimination, he doesn't really have any friends until he joins the New Directions.
- Long-Lost Relative: Puck's half-brother whom Puck does not know about, though Jake comments that their dad got around so much there's probably 50 more Puckermans out there.
- Mood-Swinger: Goes from adorable crooner to stage-trashing jerk in the blink of an eye.
- Mr. Fanservice: Takes a while but he finally goes shirtless in episode 10 of Season 4 and the shirtless scenes remain pretty regular between then and the time he leaves the show.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: In Season 5.
- Rebellious Spirit
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: He’s The Manly Man to Ryder’s Sensitive Guy.
- Twofer Token Minority: He's half-Black half-Jewish.
Ryder Lynn
Ryder Lynn
I don’t understand. All I do is study. I haven’t even seen Dark Knight Rises yet!
Portrayed by: Blake Jenner
Voiced by: Pablo Sosa (Latin-American Spanish)
A football player who's struggling with his grades due to dyslexia. When looking for the perfect Danny Zuko, Finn scouts him out and encourages him to join the school musical.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Marley chooses Jake over him.
- Always Second Best: He feels this way because while he does have his talents he's not particularly good at any one thing, be it football, dancing, or schoolwork. In "Thanksgiving", Jake lets him win the Gangnam Style dance solo just so he can feel like he won something.
- Book Dumb: Though not for lack of trying. He studies twice as hard as everybody else but still only pulls a C-. This is because he is dyslexic.
- Dogged Nice Guy
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: He was molested by his teenage babysitter when he was eleven. Though the show treats his and Kitty's later confessions as tragic, Sam and Artie consider his to be "any teenage boy's dream".
- Establishing Character Moment: Beiste comments that Ryder's a sweet kid, but isn't the best football player. Cut to him breakdancing in the end-zone.
- Expy: Of Finn. Fitting, then, that Finn is the one who recruits him into the musical, as well as Sam, with the actions and learning disorder which is ironic as Sam was the original Finn Expy.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Jake. They initially fight and are not in good terms due to both liking Marley, but thanks to Finn's assignment in "Dynamic Duets" they start getting along better and become good friends.
- Ironic Name: "Ryder" and "writer" are oronyms... and he's dyslexic.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Actually portrayed very realistically.
- Meaningful Name
- Mr. Fanservice: A somewhat in-universe one as his arms are consistently referred to as 'hunky'. He also gets a few shirtless scenes albeit nowhere near as many as Jake and Sam.
- Nice Guy: The first thing he tells Marley after introducing himself is how awesome her mom is.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Transphobic to be precise. When he learns of Unique's crush on him, he calls her a "dude" and refuses to acknowledge her as a girl.
- Promoted Fanboy: Blake Jenner was the winner of the second season of The Glee Project.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: In season 5.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: He feels this way.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Jake’s Manly Man.
- Two First Names: Lynn is commonly a first name.
Kitty Wilde
Kitty Wilde
You do not want to break up with me, okay? I am like a bad Carrie Underwood song once I get going.
Portrayed by: Becca Tobin
Voiced by: Jocelyn Robles (Latin-American Spanish)
Sue's new head bitch in Season 4, and she certainly lives up to the title. She is initially bitter towards the Glee Club, yet she joins after the performance of Grease. By the time Season 6 rolls around she's gone back to the Cheerios thanks to Artie dumping her and the other alumni forgetting that her and her friends existed.
- Actor-Shared Background: Becca Tobin has real-life cheerleading experience, cheering in middle school.
- Alpha Bitch: Her official title from Sue.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: She's gradually grows into one midway through the fourth season, which is later helped by her relationship with Artie.
- As of the Season 6 episode "Homecoming", she regressed back into a full-on Alpha Bitch, due to her bitterness towards Artie over their breakup and feeling abandoned by the rest of the Glee Club. She gets better after she decides to rejoin.
- The Atoner: "Previously Unaired Christmas" suggests that she went through a phase of this after her Heel Realization. Included in her atonement was denying herself a chance to play the Virgin Mary in a live-action Nativity Scene put on by the school, at least until Marley and the rest of the club convinced her that she should.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She pretends to be Marley's friend, all the while playing on her anxieties about getting fat like her mother, secretly altering her costumes for the school play to make her think she's gaining weight and leading her to use laxatives and skip lunches in order to stay thin. By the end of "Thanksgiving", Marley collapses at the end of her performance. Kitty finally tells her about this during the lockdown in "Shooting Star".]
- Card-Carrying Villain: In "Guilty Pleasures".Brittany: So, Kitty, everyone at school hates you because you're a two-faced lying slut who no-one can trust.Kitty:True.
- Character Development: Was initially a very mean Alpha Bitch who came to actually like and care about Glee club.
- Commuting on a Bus: Was absent from Episode 14 of Season 5 until Episode 2 of the final season. She is however the most successful of all the new characters introduced after the departure of many of the regulars at the end of season 3 and arguably the most popular of all those introduced past season 1.
- Composite Character: Despite Sue Lampshading her being an expy for Quinn, she's more like a composite character for the Unholy Trinity. She fullfils Quinn's role as the blonde mean girl and Sue's Dragon, her insults more closely resemble Santana's, and she has dance skills to match Brittany's.
- Further, she is a distillation of the Unholy Trinity's worst attributes. Quinn's manipulative nature, Santana's caustic personality and Brittany's airheadedness.
- She actually is kind of a teenage Sue.
- Crying Wolf: She gets a minor dose of this in "Tina In The Sky With Diamonds", when the rest of the New Directions refuse to believe that she didn't put up the campaign posters supporting her candidacy for Prom Queen. Lampshaded:Kitty: Why does no one believe me? *Beat* Oh right, habitual liar.
- Disproportionate Retribution: She manipulates Marley into developing an eating disorder all because she believes Marley is responsible for Jake breaking up with her. (Something that is, in truth, entirely her own fault.)
- The Dragon: To Sue.
- Easily Forgiven: Leave it to Marley to be unable to hold a grudge against the girl who talked her into a potentially life-threatening eating disorder.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- She absolutely hates the new Alpha Bitch Bree and despises everything that she does. Lampshaded:
Kitty: That girl is a vile human being *Beat* and yes, I know that's saying something coming from me.- Also, even when she was at her absolute worst in Season 4, it was clear that Marley getting physically hurt was never part of her plan. She's as horrified as anyone when Marley collapses.
- Evil Is Petty
- Expy: Blonde, bitchy cheerio - just like Quinn, particularly from Season 1. Notably, however, she has a lot more common sense than Quinn tends to exhibit and actually ends up being the voice of reason for several other members once she Took a Level in Kindness.Sue: She's like a young Quinn Fabray except she's not pregnant, manic-depressive, or in and out of a wheelchair.
- Fan: In-universe, she claims to be one of Quinn.
- False Friend: She pretends to be nice to Marley Rose, only to gaslight her and enforce toxic patterns and behaviors (like eating disorders) onto her.
- The Fundamentalist: Remember Quinn's religious fervor from Season 1? Well, Kitty makes that look tame. The girl clearly dove head first off the religious deep end some time before her introduction. The worst part is she seems to regard religion as just another way to get what she wants.Kitty: Who the hell is Patty Simcox? I don't understand, I prayed really hard about this!
- Green-Eyed Monster: Is visibly jealous that Marley gets a lot of attention from both Jake and Ryder, and seems convinced that Marley is doing it to hurt her.
- Heel–Face Turn: Towards the end of season 4, she's changed a lot from what we see early in the season.
- Heel Realization: As soon as Marley passes out on the stage and Santana tells her that it's her fault, she has a slight nonverbal one.
- She finally reveals everything to Marley and apologizes during the episode "Shooting Stars". Having your life put in danger because of a potential shooter at school really put things into perspective.
- It's All About Me
- Jerkass: Was one of the most despicable characters of the show for a while, until Character Development hits her, making her more a...
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Don't be mistaken: she's still a bitch most of the time. But she realized that what she did to Marley was wrong, confessed and apologized to her, and showed that she cares about the other members of New Directions (such as the time she decided to escort Unique home because she was bullied, and when she went behind Artie's back in order to make sure he would pursue his dream).
- Karma Houdini: She cons Marley into developing an eating disorder, causing her to collapse on stage from severe hunger. She suffers no comeuppance for this whatsoever. In fact, Santana is the only one to even have a vague suspicion that Kitty did anything wrong and no one believes her. This is rather striking considering that both Quinn and Santana, the previous alpha bitches, both suffered bouts of Laser-Guided Karma note for decidedly less serious offenses.
- Subverted in the fact that New Directions, a club she has come to enjoy and care about greatly, comes in 2nd in Nationals and is subsequently shut down by Sue. Then her boyfriend, who she risked any chance at keeping her social life intact by dating, dumps her as he heads off to New York and she is soon forgotten by him and the other New Directions alumni. This is followed by Sue forcibly transferring Unique, Marley, Jake, and Ryder to different schools, leaving her alone and friendless.
- Kick the Dog: With Marley being the dog she kicks with passion. Although, she mellowed out of this halfway the 4th season.
- Leg Focus: In "Sadie Hawkins", Puck can't help but notice her legs.
- Lonely at the Top / I Just Want to Have Friends:
- Claims this when inviting the New Directions to a sleepover, but it's pretty clear that it's just part of her plan to manipulate Marley.
- Double-subverted later on: as her character matures, she came to really like her friends in the Glee club and loved dancing and singing. She actually feels miserable during season 6, when it is revealed that everyone pretty much forgot about her and she feels she was treated poorly (especially by Artie, who dumped her). She also doesn't trust Rachel, who she sees as an egoistic and selfish girl who she is sure will bail as soon as a better opportunity than the Glee club shows itself, and doesn't want to come back initially because she doesn't want her heart to be broken again.
- Lying Finger Cross: She does this in "Girls (and Boys) on Film" when Marley asks her to swear to keep what she's about to tell her a secret.
- Meaningful Name: Obviously, she's the picture of chastity and wholesomeness.
- Ms. Fanservice: Becomes the token provider of Male Gaze upon Quinn (who even encouraged her to be this), Santana, and eventually Brittany's graduation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Marley collapses and has to be dragged backstage, Kitty has a non-verbal version of this reaction.
- Never My Fault: Completely fails to recognize her own role in ruining her relationship with Jake, choosing instead to blame Marley.
- The Nicknamer: Sue taught her that well.
- Only One Name: For various episodes, she was just Kitty, until it was casually mentioned at the end of "The Role You Were Born to Play".
- Pet the Dog:
- In "Sadie Hawkins", she shamelessly praises Puck's screenplay. Granted, she probably just did it because she wanted Puck to like her, but it's still the only scene that makes her seem like a human being rather than the mean girl she's supposed to be.
- Her apology to Marley in "Girls (and Boys) on Film" sort of qualifies. In her own unique Alpha Bitch style, she did appear to be expressing genuine regret.
- After Unique has a frightening experience with a group of female bullies, Kitty joins Ryder, Marley and Jake in offering to walk her between classes, and calls her a "friend".
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Unlike Quinn, she seems rather racist and transphobic at first glance.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: In season 5.
- Punny Name: Perhaps unintentional, but Kitty Wilde ->Wildcat?
- Rape as Backstory: "Lights Out" reveals that she was molested by an old friend's older brother at a sleepover.
- Secret Relationship: With Artie, of all people, in "Love, Love, Love" — it doesn't stay secret for long.
- Ship Tease: With Jake during the "Everybody Talks" performance in "The Role You Were Born to Play", and Ryder in "Lights Out", before she "officially, publicly, shockingly" hooks up with Artie.
- The Sociopath: Arguably. She seems to be capable of empathy and regret, just never seems to actually show any. Has had maybe one or two sympathetic moments throughout the entire season. Has been truly nice to someone (as in, without ulterior motives) exactly twice (the first two Pet the Dog moments listed above) in the first 75% of the season. Finally began being more sympathetic later though.
- Strawman Political: Anviliciously so.
- Token Evil Teammate: Her reason for joining New Directions in the first place? To keep a close eye on Jake, and screwing with Marley. Character Development kicks in after a while.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She's certainly not as extremely evil as she was at first. At one point, she defends Unique and classes her as a "friend" when learning of how she was harassed by a group of girls, while earlier in the season she herself was very dismissive of Unique and her identity.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Villainous example: Her need to spite Marley ultimately results in New Directions being disqualified from Sectionals. Note that she's only "unwitting" in the sense that she neither predicted nor intended that particular outcome. She knew fully well what she was doing.
- What Would X Do?: Her motto is "What would Quinn Fabray do?", though she seems to have a limited grasp of the answer to that question.
- You Are in Command Now: Becomes the team captain of New Directions upon rejoining them in Season 6.
