Rachel find herself in quite a predicament as multiple opportunities start presenting themselves to her. Check out our recap of Glee season 5, episode 18, “The Back-Up Plan.”
We’ve fast-forwarded a few weeks and see that Rachel is trying to sign with a talent agency, ICA (Innovative Creative Artists). She says she wants to do movies and be on a hit TV show, but her agent says that she has a face for radio. Rachel is visibly disappointed.
Blaine and Kurt are on a terribly constructed New York City set talking about June Dolloway, a Broadway legend. Kurt gets to sing with her and has invited Blaine to perform with them. Mercedes’ label says that they don’t hear a single on her album.
Rachel is back in her dressing room getting ready for another performance and sings a slowed-down arrangement of Avicii’s “Don’t Wake Me Up.” The performance includes Rachel walking out of her dressing room in costume over and over and over again, highlighting the monotony of a Broadway role. The stage manager reminds her, “46 down, 5,000 more to go.” A man named Lee drops by her dressing room who is an executive at – wait for it – Fox. He asks Rachel to come in and test for a new pilot called “Song of Solomon.” He insists that she is exactly who he sees fit for the role. He tells her to fly out to Los Angeles on Tuesday for the read and pretty much doesn’t give her an option. Later, Rachel meets with Sydney the producer, where she says she is feeling the wear and tear of 8 shows a week. She tries to get a day off but he says “You are the show, and the show must go on.”
Mercedes and Santana are in the recording studio before they head to the elevator and eventually the basement of the building to sing Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop That Thing,” Santana with a Jambox in tow the whole way.
At NYADA, June Dolloway, played by Academy Award winner Shirley Maclaine, takes her seat for Blaine and Kurt’s performance of “Story of My Life” by One Direction. Something feels slightly disrespectful about singing a One Direction song in front of an Oscar winner, but alas, it’s Glee. Throughout the performance it’s clear that Dolloway was more impressed with Blaine. At the end of the performance she asks Blaine to accompany her to an event and not Kurt, where she will talk about Blaine’s future. Cue the jealousy storyline reprise.
“I’m a little jealous but not resentful,” says Kurt adjusting Blaine’s bow tie. At the event, June takes the microphone to “inspire” the folks with the checkbooks. She surprises the crowd by asking Blaine to perform “Piece Of My Heart” with her. They dance around and ask for money, throwing it up in the air, dancing through the piles of it on the floor. And it feels a little bit pimp-ish – her using Blaine for his boyish good looks.
Meanwhile, Mercedes insists that they use the duet with Santana on the album. Her producer says no and that if she wants to have a duet it should be with someone more famous. Santana, clearly bummed out, insists that Mercedes’ album should be all about Mercdes and leaves the studio. In L.A., Rachel calls in sick for a show – straight from the set of “Song of Solomon.”
Rachel auditions for a panel of executives by singing Bette Midler’s song “The Rose” with posters of Fox shows “New Girl,” “Bones,” “American Idol,” and others lining the walls. But, no, there was no Glee poster. During the performance, the executives keep hoping she’ll stop, making faces. Rachel seems completely oblivious. Apparently Rachel thought “Song of Solomon” was a musical show. It’s actually a sci-fi opera that seems completely out of Rachel’s element. Rachel ends up reading with the man playing Solomon in a really awkward back-and-forth where she stumbles over words and pronunciations. Following the bizarre audition she sees she has 15 missed calls from Sidney who informs her that her understudy fell off a lift and can’t go on. He asks Rachel to get to the theater – unaware that Rachel is on the other side of the country.
Blaine and June talk over lunch where she says that she’d like to shine a light on what the world would see by offering him to have his own show. After denying him the opportunity to include Kurt, she insists that Blaine and Kurt break off their engagement. “You have to make a decision: are you going to settle or venture out into the unknown and realize your full potential?”
“Excuse me sir, why is there a traffic jam?” asks Rachel in L.A. traffic. Rachel calls Kurt in desperation saying that he has to help her. Back at the diner, Mercedes shows up with a contract to work on their duet. Kurt shows up in a frenzy insisting they all come up with a way to delay the show until Rachel gets there. In Rachel’s dressing room, Santana spins around and tells Sidney that she will in fact be going on in Rachel’s place.
Back at the loft, Rachel thanks Santana for filling in for her, saying that she has a mandatory meeting with Sidney tomorrow. Rachel can’t believe she has screwed it all up and that she will probably be fired. It should be noted that both Santana and Rachel are wearing black – symbolism for mourning? The end of Rachel’s Broadway career?
Kurt wants filled in on what’s going on between Blaine and June.
Rachel shows up at Sidney’s office where he says he’s disappointed and personally betrayed by her actions. He says he isn’t going to fire her but tried to. He says that if she tries to do something like that again he’ll sue her. She leaves his office crying where she gets a call from the Fox executive who says he wants to do a show all about Rachel. Rachel is excited and thanks him, despite literally just being threatened with a huge lawsuit for her actions.
Where will this go next? It’s hard to say, but get a look at next week’s episode which was written by Chris Colfer:
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