Everything you’ve ever known about Sue Sylvester has been a lie! Well, sort of! Check out our recap of Glee season 6, episode 10, “The Rise and Fall of Sue Sylvester.”

The episode starts with New Directions performing “Rather Be” while Kurt enters with a very morose looking Blaine. We find out at the end of the performance that Dalton Academy caught fire and burned to the ground. Will tells everyone that the Warblers are now merging into the New Directions. Sue is not happy about Will getting the Superintendent to allow the Warblers to be part of McKinley. But Becky is even more outraged that Sue wouldn’t let the victims of a school fire be a part of New Directions and says she isn’t her friend anymore.

Will and the Superintendent confront Sue because the Superintendent saw Sue’s Hurt Locker, which includes a creepy doll of his nephew of Myron. There, the Superintendent finds a copy of Penthouse where Sue Sylvester had apparently posed nude. The Superintendent says that he has to fire Sue because of it all and terminates her position.

Fox News correspondent Giraldo Rivera interviews Sue where she claims she will set the record straight. River confronts Sue about many different aspects of her life. He calls her out on all of her lies over the years including Michael Bolton coming on to the show to tell the world he is actually not the father of her child. Giraldo asks what we’ve been asking since season 1: “Do you have mental illness?” Sue claims that she cares about student service, but then Giraldo cues a tape of some of the graduated New Directions talking about the horror over the last few years — including none other than a dreadlock-less Joe Heart! Girlado reveals that Becky was actually the person who ratted Sue out, much to Sue’s displeasure.

It turns out there was at least one person who was willing to defend Sue: Sheldon Beiste. Beiste recalls the different times Sue helped him throughout the years citing the domestic violence, and the gender transition as key examples. The lies continue with Sue’s mom (played by Carol Burnett) admitting that she wasn’t actually a Nazi hunter. After Giraldo reminded Sue that her Mom said she was the daughter she just couldn’t love, Sue stands up and punches him in the face and leaves. At the end of the interview, Giraldo throws to Will’s interview where he is seen talking about their love/hate relationship over the years at McKinley – but Sue isn’t there to hear or see it.

Back at the auditorium at McKinley, Sue’s Mom meets up with her. Sue tells her that she is disappointed in her Mom’s remarks about not loving her. Sue’s Mom says that they always loved her but that she was never interested in reciprocating and sharing their interests, but that she is sorry for how everything happened. Sue then shares the stage with her Mom as they sing “The Trolley Song,” by Judy Garland.

Rachel went back to NYADA to ask for a second chance from Madame Tibideaux. She returns to McKinley to talk to Blaine, Sam and Mercedes about the experience which, unfortunately for Rachel, included Tibideaux asking her to leave. Rachel is writing her a letter about all of reviews of her work when she gets a call in the middle of the conversation. She returns to the table to tell the others that she got a part in a Russell Simmons play that Mercedes helped her audition for. In an instant, she abandons her NYADA dreams and runs off to tell Kurt the good news.

The New Directions and Warblers are practicing together (Warblers in full Dalton Academy uniforms) when they all argue about how different and out of sync they are as a group. Will insists that being students at McKinley means the guys who came from Dalton have to get rid of the jackets — but they push back. Before they can keep arguing, Beiste interrupts to let everyone know that Sue has been hired as the new coach of Vocal Adrenaline.

During a rehearsal with Vocal Adrenaline, Sue tells them that they have to pass the barf test which includes performing “Far From Over,” lead by Clint (Max from The Wanted). Throughout the performance, Sue is burning her old trophies, cleaning out the Hurt Locker, and getting Vocal Adrenaline to push it to the next level. Clint approves having Sue as the coach of Vocal Adrenaline after the extreme and demanding rehearsal.

Sam and Rachel talk about Rachel’s decision to go back to NYADA — he’s disappointed to know that she gave up on NYADA so quickly. Rachel gets another call in the middle of the conversation from Carmen Tibideaux who says she can come back to NYADA if she wants. Sam finds it crazy that she isn’t interested in going back to college but Will insists that Rachel is a big girl and can make the decisions that are best for her herself.

Sue, playing a giant pipe organ in the auditorium, begins the opening notes of “The Final Countdown,” and entices Will to a Europe-off before they launch into a fantasy performance of the song complete with huge ’80s hair! The performance is split between fantasy and reality where the New Directions are watching in horror from the seats of the auditorium (as if they have never done this in the last 6 years). “I mean it was so weird to see you and Sue do a fantasy air guitar battle. Weird. And borderline psychopathic,” says a concerned Blaine.

The Superintendent tells the leaders of the New Directions that if they don’t win Nationals, the money will be cut again for not just the glee club but all of the arts as well. Kurt says that they shouldn’t sweat it — it’s just another challenge they will have to overcome. Blaine tells them that they have finally come to terms on a costume situation. The New Directions and the Warblers come together as another version of the New Directions to perform “Rise” in white dress shirts and plaid ties before wheeling out a rack of new red blazers very similar to Dalton, but suited for McKinley. It’s a fitting (no pun intended) end to the performance as Glee’s own Darren Criss wrote the song.

What were your thoughts about the Sue Sylvester-centric episode?