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The New Rachel
Season Four, Episode One

First Aired	September 13, 2012
Episode Guide
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The New Rachel is the first episode of Glee's fourth season, and the sixty-seventh episode overall. It premiered on September 13, 2012.

For the fourth time, it's a brand new year at McKinley and for New Directions it means the loss of 9 members, 9 voices, due to graduation and Rory's departure. Blaine, Tina, Brittany and former Vocal Adrenaline lead, Unique, are in competition to decide who's the new leader or in Blaine's words, "The New Rachel." Back in New York, Rachel settles in at NYADA, uncomfortable with Cassandra July's dance teaching and befriending an upperclassmen, Brody Weston. Still longing for Finn after he let her leave for New York in Goodbye, she tries to move on from the heartbreak. In Lima, New Directions' prepare to find new members and hold auditions for the glee club while Kurt struggles to spend time with Blaine and cope with his part-time job at The Lima Bean.

The episode was directed by Brad Falchuk and written by Ryan Murphy.

Plot

Rachel Berry accidentally offends Cassandra July, her dance instructor at the New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts (NYADA) in New York City, who begins to push Rachel as much as she can. Rachel also befriends upperclassman Brody Weston, who helps her adjust to life in the dorm room.

Meanwhile, in Lima, Ohio, Cheerios coach Sue Sylvester introduced her new baby, Robin, named after the late Bee Gees, to Kurt. She then calls Kitty, her new head bitch, saying that she is like Quinn Fabray, except she's not pregnant, manic deppressic or in and out of a wheelchair.

On the mean while, glee club director Will Schuester reunites with the returning members of New Directions –Artie Abrams, Tina Cohen-Chang, Brittany Pierce, Sam Evans, Blaine Anderson, Sugar Motta and Joe Hart – who have become popular after winning Nationals. He announces that Wade Adams has transferred to William McKinley High School and she joins New Directions.

Tina, Brittany, Blaine and Unique begin to compete to see who's going to be "The New Rachel" and perform Call Me Maybe for Artie, who is asked to choose the winner. Meanwhile, graduate Kurt Hummel visits cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester to meet her baby daughter, Robin, and is introduced to Sue's new protegé, Kitty, who mocks him for having ended up a barista instead of attending NYADA.

In New York, Rachel confronts Cassandra about being picked on. To affirm her superiority to Rachel, Cassandra performs Americano/Dance Again. In Lima, New Directions holds auditions to select new members for the club. After multiple unsatisfactory auditions, Jake comes on stage and performs Never Say Never, but becomes angry when he's not allowed to finish the song and storms off.

The next candidate, Marley Rose, performs New York State of Mind. At the same time Rachel performs the same song at NYADA in a class taught by Carmen Tibideaux, under the pressure of knowing the first freshman to sing, performing Ave Maria, got two words out and was summarily cut from the program by Tibideaux. She impresses Brody, who later compliments her and helps her deal with the lack of communication with her boyfriend, Finn Hudson. Marley is welcomed into New Directions, but is disappointed when she hears them making fun of an overweight lunch lady, whom she reveals is her mother. Sam, followed by New Directions later apologize for their behavior, and their actions motivate Kitty to deem them unpopular once more.

Artie chooses Blaine as "The New Rachel," and Kurt advises him to always be a humble leader. Blaine performs It's Time to encourage Kurt to go to New York and follow his dreams. Kurt's father, Burt Hummel, later drives Kurt to the airport and they share a heartfelt goodbye.

Back in McKinley, Blaine invites Marley to lead the club's next performance, and Will learns that Jake is actually Noah Puckerman's half-brother. He invites Jake to the club, explaining that he interrupted Jake's performance because he had already made an impression, but Jake refuses, believing Will is only calling him due to him being Puck's relative.

Marley and New Directions perform Chasing Pavements as Jake looks on, while Rachel is upset and struggling to adapt to her new life in New York. She tells Kurt about all of her problems on the phone, she is then told to "turn around" by Kurt and he is facing Rachel. They share a passionate hug as the episode ends.

Songs

Song Title	Original Artist	Performer(s)
Sister Christian †	Night Ranger	Brody Weston
Call Me Maybe	Carly Rae Jepsen	Wade "Unique" Adams, Blaine Anderson, Tina Cohen-Chang, and Brittany Pierce
Americano/Dance Again	Lady Gaga/Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull	Cassandra July with NYADA Dance students
Busters Get Popped †	Glee	Stoner Brett
Never Say Never	The Fray	Jake Puckerman
Ave Maria †	Franz Schubert	Beatrice McClaine
New York State of Mind	Barbra Streisand	Rachel Berry and Marley Rose
It's Time	Imagine Dragons	Blaine Anderson
Chasing Pavements	Adele	Marley Rose with New Directions

† denotes an unreleased song.

Background Songs

Salsation by David Shire.
Sister Christian by Night Ranger.
Kyoto by Skrillex, danced to by De'wanda Umber

Guest Cast

Special Guest Stars

Guest Stars

Absent Cast Members

NOTE: As of this episode, Dianna Agron and Jayma Mays are no longer considered a part of Glee's main cast, and have been demoted to recurring characters. Chord Overstreet was promoted to the main cast, as his character was only recurring in Season Two and Three.

Trivia

The title of this episode refers to three storylines: the competition between Blaine, Tina, Brittany and Wade to become "The New Rachel", Rachel's new life and challenges in New York, and Marley as "The New Rachel" because of some similarities between her and Rachel (Singing, appearance, etc.)
This is the fourth episode to contain a character's name in its title (after The Rhodes Not Taken, Britney/Brittany, and The Sue Sylvester Shuffle).
As of this episode, every writer has written one pilot episode on his own (Ian Brennan wrote Audition, Brad Falchuk wrote The Purple Piano Project, Ryan Murphy wrote this episode, and the three of them wrote Pilot together).
All the alumni from Season Three apart from Rachel and Kurt are absent in this episode. This makes "The New Rachel" the first episode that Mercedes Jones, Finn Hudson and Santana Lopez don't appear in. Also, Mike Chang is absent for the first time since his introduction.
Rory Flanagan's departure from the glee club is not commented at all during this episode, although it had been established in Season Three that he had to leave the country.
In Hold on to Sixteen, Sebastian predicted that Blaine would be his by the end of the school year and that Kurt would be in a Lima Bean apron. As revealed in this episode, Kurt is working in a Lima Bean apron until he moves to New York towards the end of the episode.
This is the third time Blaine has sang a solo to Kurt in the Courtyard (first being in Born This Way and then in The Purple Piano Project). Though this is the second time Blaine sings in the first episode of a season in the Courtyard.
This episode got a 3.1 rating with a total of 7.41 million viewers. Source

Cultural references

Kitty calls Marley "Mike & Molly's daughter." This is a reference to the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly about a couple who is overweight.
Kitty calls Sam "Richie Poor," a reference to the Harvey Comics character Richie Rich, also known as "the poor little rich boy."
Kitty calls Unique Adams "Pre-Op Precious: Based on the Novel 'Barf' by Saphire," which is a reference to Precious.
Cassandra says that her students should be dancing "at Black Swan levels of psychosis by now."
Artie makes a "Winter is coming" joke, a reference to the TV series Game of Thrones.
Sam does an impression of Taylor Lautner, a reference to the movie, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Errors

When Brody was taking a picture with Rachel, Rachel's teeth were not showing when he took the picture. When Rachel saw the picture her teeth were showing in the photo.
While Jake is walking up to the audition list, another male student is seen signing his name. However, when a close-up of Jake signing his name is shown, De'wanda Umber's name is last name that had been signed before.

Quotes

“	Cassandra: I bet you were a big star back in Iowa. Rachel: Um, actually, I'm from Ohio. Cassandra: Ohio! That's even worse. You ever look at a map? Ohio's like a giant turd that Michigan just can't pinch off.	”
—Cassandra and Rachel, The New Rachel

“	Brittany: That's a great haircut, Mercedes, I thought you graduated.	”
—Brittany to Unique, The New Rachel

“	Cassandra: I may not be a wide eyed ingenue anymore, but I can out dance circles around any of you!	”
—Cassandra July, The New Rachel

“	Jacob: Which one of you is The New Rachel? Blaine, Tina, Artie & Brittany: I am!	”
—Jacob, Blaine, Tina, Artie and Brittany, The New Rachel

“	Brody: That your boyfriend? Rachel: Finn. He's in Army, We haven't been talking much lately. Brody: I had a girlfriend back home when I started NYADA, We lasted six weeks. Rachel: That's not gonna happen to us! I'm not turning my back on him. Brody: Whoa. No one's saying you should. In fact, all I came over to say was: You killed it in Tibideaux's class. Nice job.	”
—Brody and Rachel, The New Rachel

“	Unique: Unique's eyes... They are on FIRE!	”
—Unique, after being slushied for the first time, The New Rachel

“	Brody: (To Rachel) "In case you're wondering, which you were, I'm straight"	”
—Brody, The New Rachel

“	Sue: Kitty's my new head bitch. She's like a young Quinn Fabray, except she's not pregnant, manic depressive, or in and out of a wheelchair.	”
—Sue to Kurt, about Kitty, The New Rachel

“	Unique: I can sing any song at anytime. Just press play and get back.	”
—Unique to Brittany, Tina, and Blaine, The New Rachel

“	Sam: Wade, you can't wear that makeup and stuff in here. You have to understand how this stuff works. It's like Game of Thrones. Artie: Yeah, the peace between us and the truly popular kids is weak... Winter is Coming..	”
—Sam and Artie to the rest of the New Directions, The New Rachel

“

Jacob: Artie Abrams,lunch room sources tell me you've been sitting with Cheerios.

Artie: Well,I'm usually seen sitting.

”

—Jacob and Artie, The New Rachel

“	Brittany: It's hard to make out over Skype. You can't really scissor a webcam.	”
—Brittany Pierce, The New Rachel

“	Burt: Do you know the difference between this place [Lima] and New York? Kurt: Decent bagels?	”
—Kurt and Burt Hummel, The New Rachel

“	Tina: We forgot ourselves. Brittany: Well, I didn't. I was always popular, but I do forget to wear underwear sometimes.	”
—Tina and Brittany to Marley, The New Rachel

“	Blaine: Brittany, I'm sorry, but I won fair and square. You can't just decide not to sing anymore. We all need your voice. Brittany: I had a song in my heart, Blaine Warbler, and you killed it. Now I have a dead song in my heart and pretty soon the corpse of my dead heartsong is going to start to smell.	”
—Blaine and Brittany, The New Rachel

“	Kitty: My iced latte is too cold. Kurt: It's an iced latte. Kitty: It's an iced latte that's too cold.	”
—Kitty and Kurt, The New Rachel