‘Glee’ Recap: The Rachel Berry Project Unfolds In Season Finale

Lisa Timmons | May 14, 2014 6:22 am

After achieving her dream of making it onto the Broadway stage, Rachel Berry quickly had a new dream to conquer the small screen and promptly took a meeting with a network in Los Angeles to lock down a development deal. That’s right, folks, after all that buildup about the New York City theater scene she’s been longing for all these years, Rachel has already decided to cash it all in for a shot at conquering Tinseltown.

The show opens with the gang’s weekly potluck. Britanny arrives unexpectedly to find that Santana is out of town shooting a commercial. However, she decides to make the best of her trip and hang out with the rest of the glee kids. The TV writer working on Rachel’s show, Mary Halloran, arrives shortly thereafter, played by guest star Kristen Schaal.

It quickly becomes apparent that Mary is a Grade-A weirdo (Schaal’s specialty). The neurotic TV writer has a penchant for forgetting names and uses a typewriter. She grills Rachel about her life, promptly making Rachel’s gay dads into NASA enthusiasts. However, when Rachel mentions that she’s a singer, Mary impatiently glosses over this fact.

Mercedes hires Brittany as her backup dancer to launch her mall tour with a performance in a local mall, filmed by Artie. Sam is by her side, ever the proud boyfriend. We’ll see how long these lovebirds last.

Blaine, Shirley MacLaine as musical benefactor and June Holloway meet to plan his upcoming showcase. Blaine fights to see if he can actually get Kurt in the show, but she is adamantly against it.

Feeling torn about the situation, Blaine sings John Legend’s “All of Me” alone on a piano after June leaves. Kurt arrives during the performance and Blaine blurts out the truth that June never wanted him in the showcase. Kurt storms off.

Cut to Sam at a go-see for a magazine cover possibility. With the male models going to to toe with each other, and sexy lady counterparts, it segues into a music video for “Girls On Film” from Duran Duran. Something in the way he moves manages to impress the queen bee photographer for the Treasure Trailz campaign and she invites him to return for the night shoot, hinting at sexy times to come.

Mercedes comes home to an intervention from Kurt and Rachel, encouraging her to break up with him so that he won’t cheat on her while she’s on tour. Meanwhile, Sam tells Artie and Blaine that even though he’s dying for some action, he’s determined to remain true to Mercedes.

Writer and Artie have a weird moment in which she puts a donut in her bra. She interviews Blaine for more info about Rachel. Unsurprisingly, she and Brittany hit it off over their shared weirdness.

In her dressing room at Funny Girl, Rachel, Kut and Brittany talk about the risk she’s taking putting her story in the strange writer’s hands. At the loft, the gang do a table read of the script. Long story short, it’s terrible and inexplicably features Blaine and Brittany jumping into bed with one another. Somehow, it manages to be worse than the actual show. Rachel then decides that the show needs to be in her voice. She’s taking charge!

Blaine dejectedly feeds pigeons on the stoop and Kurt comes to join him. Blaine tells him he doesn’t want to do the showcase without Kurt. Kurt admits that although he was mad, he has forgiven him and that the showcase must go on!

Mary and Rachel meet at the diner for Rachel to figure out a way to alter the tone of the script. She opts to convey her emotions through song by crooning, “Glitter In The Air” from Pink. Despite her strangeness, Mary is, of course, effectively moved. Everyone applauds and Mary immediately gets it and decides to abandon the ironic elements of her script in favor of earnest happiness.

During Sam’s shirtless photo shoot, he’s having trouble being sexy until the hot queen bee magazine editor/photographer woman makes everyone else leave the room. Things get goofy and awkwardly sexy as she shakes Polaroids at him seductively. She corners him and they kiss and he doesn’t seem to put up much of a fight. Sam returns to the apartment to see Mercedes with a bunch of cupcakes and he confesses immediately to cheating. As it turns out, she kissed him and he started crying and ran out. Mercedes decides they should take a break while she’s on tour. He cries but agrees.

For the showcase, June and Blaine sing “No Time At All” from Pippin. Kurt is there and she and June have a little face off. Blaine closes the showcase with a surprise duet with Kurt, much to the chagrin of June. The two lovebirds sing Estelle‘s “American Boy.” Lucky for Blaine, Kurt is completely prepared for this apparently impromptu twosome. At the end of the song, June relents and joins in the fun. They all celebrate with a party.

Back at the loft, the whole crew read a new version of the script and love it. Rachel calls it her dream. Sam drags everyone outside and freaks out to see his Treasure Trailz photo on the side of a bus. Having reached his goal, Sam decides to return home. They make a pact to return to this very spot in six months. It’s all very bittersweet.

Of course, this calls for a song, “Pompeii” from Bastille. Blaine moves back into the loft. It all ends with a phone call to Rachel. The network loved the script and it’s being made into a pilot. And now, a whole new journey begins, presumably in yet another time zone.

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