The last every Glee season premiere aired tonight and it was a roller coaster of emotions from start to finish.
This season opens with bad news for Rachel Berry: her TV show “That’s So Rachel” debuted with a zero share and has been canceled. “I highly doubt that you’ll ever work in television again,” says Lee Paulblatt, the President of the network.
Season 5 ended with Rachel’s beginnings in TV, but we pick right back up with her apparent ending. Paulblatt tells Rachel she should probably pack up and go home, which prompts “I don’t even know where that is anymore,” as she begins the first musical number of season 6, “Uninvited,” originally by Alanis Morisette. The performance in the episode features Rachel being whisked away from the set in a golf cart, while the driver hands her a box – an overly dramatic way of saying “you’re done here.”
Rachel returns to her bedroom in Lima, pink luggage in tow, when she’s greeted by her father (not Goldberg). He tells Rachel that they’re getting a divorce and that they put the house on the market. “I feel like I died and now I’m in hell,” says Rachel about the never-ending bad news.
Rachel meets up with Blaine at the Lima Bean (where Figgins is now a barista). Rachel asks where Kurt is, to which Blaine fills her in that they’ve actually broken up. “It got pretty rough after everyone left and it was just him and me alone in the loft.” The flurry of bad news continues when Blaine tells her he got so depressed that his scores started to slip and he got cut from NYADA. The Blaine we knew would have used it as emotional energy towards his performances and talent, but we digress. Blaine also announces that he’s the new coach of the Warbler’s at Dalton.
In the second performance of the episode, Blaine and Rachel share a duet in “Suddenly Seymour” from the musical Little Shop of Horrors. We keep waiting to see what the purpose of this performance is, as the location and reason for singing this song. Oddly, the performance finishes, and we cut to the next scene without any explanation whatsoever. We’re 12 minutes in and Glee is back to its old tricks! Oh, the nostalgia!
Anyway, at Sue Sylvester’s McKinley High School, her dictatorship is in full effect with “mandatory weigh-ins,” animal releases through the halls, and kale salads for lunch. “My crowning achievement? Getting rid of that glee club,” says Sue. She also notes that everyone who was in the glee club was “forcibly transferred to other schools,” and that she helped get Will a job at Carmel High. Rachel peeks in at Sue from the newly labeled “Jackson Memorial Computer Lab,” likely named after Becky.
As for Kurt? He’s still a student at NYADA but will soon be doing an internship. We’re quite a time away from the newly-engaged Klaine, where we are now seeing Kurt speed-dating (that’s still a thing?). “I don’t need to be a psychic to know that you’re not over this dude,” says a nameless psychic.
Blaine invites Rachel to Dalton where the latest generation of Warblers woo her as they perform Ed Sheeran’s “Sing.”
At McKinley, Coach Beiste is screaming at football practice, when Rachel visits Sam who is an assistant coach. It’s here we get our first introduction of Spencer, the gay high school quarterback with a serious attitude problem. Rachel meets with Sue at McKinley to talk about a glee club but Sue insists there will never be a glee club and to move on.
As present-Kurt waits for his “hot date” at a restaurant, he has a flashback to past-Kurt who was in the same restaurant. In the past, Blaine tells Kurt that the venue they want for their Labor Day wedding is available, but Kurt seems uninterested. “What’s the matter? Tell me,” Blaine implores as it pours down rain around them. “Maybe I don’t!” screams Kurt when Blaine asks if he even wants to be married. “Let’s call it quits before we completely hate each other,” says Kurt. Teary-eyed Blaine proclaims, “I will never forgive you for this,” before we flash back to Kurt who meets his “hot date” with tears rolling down his face. Kurt says “I have to go,” before abandoning his date and rushing out of the restaurant.
“Ba, ba, ba, ta-ta-ta,” are the first words out of Will’s mouth this season, as he speaks to his infant son as an adult. “Come on, pay attention, you’re the only person I can show this stuff to,” says an out-of-touch Will. He opens up to his infant son about his new job – something an inaudible child definitely wants to know. Just when you think the scene is going to get cute with Will turning on a record player to dance with his son, he counts off his new glee club and we launch into the performance of “Dance The Night Away.” After a killer rehearsal, the glee club rolls their eyes and walk away, clearly not interested in what new-guy Will has to say about their performance. Okay, so Will is awkward and all, but he is a National champion – shouldn’t they be a little more privy to that? Show some respect!
Rachel stops by to chat with Will, who says he doesn’t have any fight left in him, and he likes his new job at Carmel. Even Will, who is happy at his job, isn’t completely content with where he is in life.
Blaine, Sam, Will and Rachel’s Dad have an intervention to watch “That’s So Rachel,” forcing Rachel to come to terms with her past. “That’s So Rachel” is essentially an insensitive satire of season 5 of Glee which includes comedian Carrot Top in the role of Barty: a roommate in a wheel-chair (who poses in the final scene with his legs crossed in his chair).
Rachel goes to the Lima City School Board to try to get the glee club reinstated and persuades the superintendent to make it happen.
Rachel returns to her bedroom to find a sad Kurt sitting in her bed. Kurt tells Rachel that he showed up to the spot Rachel said the gang would converge, reminding her about her sentiment towards their unbreakable friendships. A remorseful Kurt says that he lost the greatest thing that ever happened to him (Blaine), and tries to get Rachel to help mend the broken link between him and Blaine. Rachel says she thinks she has the perfect solution and invites Kurt to assist her in coaching the newly-instated glee club (much to Sue’s chagrin).
Later, Blaine meets up with Kurt at Scandals. “I’m here to get you back,” says Kurt instantly and awkwardly. “I’m seeing someone,” says Blaine before none other than Dave Karofsky comes over and gives him a peck on the cheek. Kurt’s internal dialogue is pretty much exactly what we as fans are all thinking: “When did Blaine start liking bears!?” Kurt excuses himself and goes into the bathroom and has a full meltdown at the reality of the situation.
Rachel moves into her office at McKinley as the coach of the glee club, and gets a visit from Will, who reminds her that she will be competing against him and Blaine this year as she launches into the smash hit “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen.
The premiere episode lacked Glee’s usual over-the-top energy of season premieres, which may leave a bad taste in most fans’ mouths. Instead of quirky one-liners and extreme campiness, the season premiere jumped right into the realities of the trials and tribulations of adulthood. Here’s hoping the rest of the season finds its traditional pop flair.
Episode 2, ‘Homecoming”
In the second episode, which is part 2 of the season premiere, we are introduced to Jane – a girl at Dalton Academy who wants to sing with the Warbler’s. Blaine realizes that there is going to be some push-back from the guys of the Warblers who want to keep the brotherhood tradition in tact. “What’s next? Cat and dog Warblers?” asks one of the more ridiculous members.
Back at the choir room Rachel and Kurt are arguing about organizing sheet music (as they would) when Rachel is suddenly swept away by a voice traveling through the ventilation systems. She heads to the football locker room (where Finn was discovered), but isn’t able to follow the voice through the vents. Rachel tells Kurt about the voices before surprising him with some people she called up: Santana, Brittany, Mercedes, Tina, Artie, Quinn and Puck! The gang’s all back!
Back in the choir room, the old group is back to their old antics. They implore the original gang to help recruit and reboot. “We’re going to find kids that can bring something to it the same way that we did,” Rachel says before launching into “Take On Me.” In this performance we see Artie’s animated storyboards that are also being used in the transitions of this episode. Sue writes herself into the story and terrorizes the group like it’s season 1 again in one of the more visually graphics-heavy performances ever aired on Glee.
We’re also introduced to senior Roderick who is a self-proclaimed “fat kid with headphones” who is a transfer from Chicago with not a lot of friends. Rachel asserts herself into his decision to audition, but she eventually scares him off.
Blaine talks with Jane about auditioning for the Warblers based on talent alone when he introduces her to Rachel who is meant to guide her through the audition process. This doesn’t make sense since Rachel is a “show choir mortal enemy” at McKinley, but she reminds Jane that she’s a woman first and foremost, and she’s doing this to help out with girl power.
Kurt is creepily hanging out in the men’s locker room to recruit gay quarterback Spencer to the New Directions. “I can’t stand Gaga,” this naive high schooler explains to Kurt. “I’m saying no because I think it sucks,” he tells Kurt as he declines Kurt’s offer to join.
Jane performs “Tight Rope” for the Warblers and she’s really great. The Warblers are overwhelmingly impressed, but they voted against having her in the club. Blaine says that he’s going to the board of directors to tell them he’s not interested in coaching the Warblers if she’s not one of them. “This is wrong. Sometimes when you want to make change you have to make a little noise,” says Blaine as he consoles a shocked and saddened Jane.
Meanwhile back at McKinley, Puck, Sam, Quinn, Tina and Mercedes ambush the Tea Party Patriot Club to recruit for New Directions. Mercedes drops a truth bomb on the ignorant students saying “We don’t need you ignorant backwards lily white gay hating Obama bashing clubbers anyway” before Quinn takes her muffins and promptly leaves.
The holy trinity (Quinn, Brittany and Santana) are recruiting some Cheerios with the marching band out on the football field as they perform this summer’s hit “Problem” by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea. After the performance, Kitty makes an appearance telling Artie she has no interest in being in the club. However, two Cheerio twins ask if they can tryout together (in unison, no less). Though other members of the glee club were forced out of the school, Sue apparently kept Kitty around due to her talent as a Cheerio.
Back in the choir room, the old gang hears the mysterious ethereal voice through the ventilation system from earlier. It turns out that it’s Roderick and the group corners him in the library to try to get him to audition. Rachel is desperate for talent and basically begs him to try out.
Meanwhile, Sue writes in her journal that she needs a pawn to dismantle the glee club once and for all and recruits Spencer to infiltrate the glee club, be terrible on purpose, and force everyone to quit. He doesn’t take the bait and says that she’ll need to provide more incentive for him to join if she wants him to pull it off.
In his audition, Roderick sings Mustang Sally for the group. The holy trinity joins him on stage as back up singers and dancers which ends up being one of the highlights of the episode. Rachel is beyond excited and enthusiastically tells him he made the club.
Rachel and Blaine get in to a heated argument because Jane transferred schools to be on the New Directions after being rejected by the Warblers. Blaine thinks Kurt was up to it and orchestrated the whole thing. “This whole ‘friendly competition thing’ is over,” threatens Blaine.
Madison and Mason, the Cheerio twins, join the first glee club meeting along with newcomers Jane and Roderick. Sam kicks off the big finale group number “Home” at the pep rally which gets everyone pumped up including Blaine and Karofsky who are cuddling on the sidelines to Kurt’s horror.
The second episode of the premiere definitely brought Glee back to its roots. Though the music and the story was a little more fun, there just seems to be something missing from these first two episodes. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves feeling excited as the next 11 episodes unfold in this final season.
What did you think about tonight’s 2-part season premiere of Glee?
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