Rachel's TV show is canceled after a single episode, so she returns to Lima only to find out that her fathers are getting a divorce. When she finds out that Sue has stripped McKinley of all arts, Rachel convinces the Lima Superintendent to reinstate the Glee Club, but he insists that she lead it. Blaine has also returned to Lima after Kurt severed their engagement and he flunked out of NYADA; he is coaching the Warblers, Will is now coaching rival Vocal Adrenaline, and Sam is the assistant coach for the McKinley football team. Kurt misses Blaine and decides to do his NYADA third-year project in Lima helping Rachel with New Directions, but discovers that Blaine has moved on and is dating Dave Karofsky (Max Adler).
Next Time: Homecoming, featuring welcome returns, the first members of the New New New Directions, and the return of a Wilde and scorned Cheerio!
Songs:
- "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette, performed by Rachel.
- "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors, performed by Rachel and Blaine.
- "Sing" by Ed Sheeran, performed by Blaine and Skylar with the Warblers.
- "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen, performed by Clint with Vocal Adrenaline.
- "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel, performed by her daughter.
Tropes:
- Ascended Extra: Dot-Marie Jones is finally added to main cast.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Apparently, Rachel's show offended many special interest groups like UNICEF, the ADL, NAACP, PETA, and NAMBLA.
- Celebrity Paradox:
- Rachel singing an Idina Menzel song. It's actually a bit of a mix of both Idina Menzel and Demi Lovato's versions, and they've both been recurring characters.
- Max George playing Clint, Vocal Adrenaline's new lead, when some of his songs have previously been performed on the show.
- Demoted to Extra: Amber Riley's name is in the credits for some reason.
- Downer Beginning: Tearing them down to build them back up at its most obvious, because the creators love Lea Michele, Darren Criss, and Chord Overstreet way too much, and way more than the rest of the cast, to be awful to them.
- Finale Season: It had been announced during season 5 that the sixth season would be the last (season 5 and a front order for season 6 were granted before Cory died, and they decided not to ask for any more). The way that this episode goes, it really is the beginning of a back-to-basics finale.
- Hypocrite: Although Rachel extols the virtues of all the Arts, she really only means the glee club. Also, Sue, to act like Rachel wasn't completely justified to tell her off in "Opening Night".
- Shout-Out:
- Rachel's sucky show was called "That's So Rachel", like That's So Raven starring Raven-Symoné.
- Blaine and Karofsky's nicknames for each other are characters in Yogi Bear.
- Show Within a Show: "That's So Rachel", which sucked.
- The Bus Came Back: Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch rejoin the cast for the home stretch.
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief: Employed for the entire season, fans possibly giving up on realism and watching it for the funny and the music and the characters getting what the actors want for them. RIB knew this was the final season, so it was all about closing up loose threads and giving (some of) the cast a happy ending.
