"He forgave us for what we did, right?" "A long time ago. We saved him, Rachel was his soulmate".
Welcome to a Milestone Celebration of this gleeful noise.
McKinley principal Sue Sylvester finally succeeds in disbanding New Directions at the school, and former members and friends of the glee club return to bid it and director Will Schuester farewell. He gives them a final assignment: reinvent their favorite past performances to celebrate the club.
Next Time: The celebration continues, with a reconciliation, graduation, and the final performance of the song that defined Glee.
Songs:
- "Raise Your Glass" by P!nk, performed by April, Will, and all New Directions. Originally performed by Blaine and the Warblers in Original Song.
- "Toxic" by Britney Spears, performed by the Unholy Trinity. Originally performed by New Directions in Britney/Brittany.
- "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, performed by Rachel, Kurt, and Mercedes. Originally performed by Kurt and Rachel in Wheels.
- "Valerie" by The Zutons (Amy Winehouse version), performed by Santana and Brittany. Originally performed by Santana with Brittany and Mike in Special Education.
- "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne, performed by Puck with all New Directions to Quinn. Originally performed by Rachel and Finn to Quinn in Throwdown.
- "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, performed by Holly, April, Will, and all New Directions.
Tropes include:
- 100% Completion: Kevin McHale has been in all 100 episodes up to and including this one. He, however, misses most of the rest of season 5 after the glee club at McKinley is shut down and before Artie moves to New York.
- Actor Allusion: Kristin Chenoweth's beaming smile during the shots of Rachel singing "Defying Gravity" with her in the background, followed by the comment that the "song should be on the Broadway", Cheno playing Glinda and watching Idina Menzel sing it in the original Broadway run.
- Call-Back: With all the old songs.
- Disposable Love Interest: Biff is a textbook example.
- End of an Age
- Foreshadowing: April calling Blaine a "prep-school boy" then proceeding to grab his nose between her fingers as a joke foreshadows Quinn attacking her preppy boyfriend this way.
- Also, Quinn wearing a pilot's cap in the Imagine Spot parts of "Toxic" foreshadows her getting together with Airman Puckerman.
- Funny Background Event: After April throws her glass away in "Raise Your Glass", Mike - who's led down and holding his own - manages to catch and spin it in the back.
- Long Bus Trip: It should be easy to call Matt Rutherford up and arrange for him to come back - as it would have been for Finn's memorial - but it doesn't transpire until the two-part Grand Finale.
- Meaningful Echo
- Ms. Fanservice: The Unholy Trinity never fail to deliver.
- Preppy Name: Quinn's old-money Yale boyfriend Biff McIntosh. a.k.a. "Preppy McDimplebutt"
- Race for Your Love: A minor version, with Quinn chasing Puck through the hallways of McKinley.
- Relationship Upgrade: Quinn and Puck.
- Shot-for-Shot Remake:
- Not the whole number, but the old New Directions dance to "Keep Holding On" in front of Quinn just like they did in season 1.
- Similarly, Blaine resurrects his dance moves from his original performance of "Raise Your Glass".
- Holly's entrance to the glee club, where she slides in on butter and says "Hola, clase".
- Averted with "Valerie" - a lot of the moves are similar but have been reworked so that two girls can do them together and sing more easily.
- Shout-Out: When Santana interrupts Puck, she starts "I'mma let you finish, but...", just as Kanye West did when infamously interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards.
- Techno Babble: From Brittany about whatever MIT have her working on.
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: Quinn in her Yaley persona, wearing pearls and refusing to talk about anything that happened in high school. No, seriously, her perfect WASPy boyfriend - Biff McIntosh - doesn't know that she has a kid. When she tells him and he flips, she stops faking it and tries to break his nose.
- The Cameo:
- Dianna Agron as Quinn Fabray.
- Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones.
- Mark Salling as Airman First Class Noah Puckerman.
- Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang.
- Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce.
- Kristin Chenoweth as April Rhodes.
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Holly Holliday.
- Who Names Their Kid "Biff"?
