GLEE-CAP: 'Audition!'

Grab your slushies and put on your knee socks, Gleeks. Glee is back. After a quick recap of what you missed last season, Glee charges in with a report from McKinley's own Perez Hilton, Jacob Israel. Jacob, cameraman in tow, begins to harass and stalk the Glee Clubbers with information about their summers, relationship statuses, as well as comments made about them on his popular blog. We come to find Rachel and Finn still a couple, despite Finn seeming less than thrilled with his controlling girlfriend, the possibility of Tina and Mike Chang being a new couple, Quinn back in fighting shape, while Brittany, apparently spent her summer lost in the sewers.

With the new school year comes changes, out with old and in with the new: Ken Tanka has experienced a nervous breakdown, thus the introduction of Coach Beiste (pronounced like ‘beast'), who instantly challenges the structure of how extracurricular activates work by asking for more money for the football team, much to the chagrin of Mr. Schuester and Sue Slyvester, causing them to pair up to take her down. On the Glee Club front, with the transfer of Matt to another school, New Directions is short one member, and with Nationals being in New York, the New Directions kids take to the cafeteria in song, singing Jay Z and Alicia Key's duet, ‘Empire State of Mind' to attract attention and hopefully new members. Two new people catch the eye of Finn and Rachel - a transfer student named Sunshine, and a new kid in town, Sam.

In pure diva form, Rachel goes to stake out this new girl, only to find, through a duet of sorts to Lady Gaga's Telephone, that Sunshine could be a major threat to her status as New Direction's reining diva. Meanwhile, Sue and Mr. Schuester begin to play pranks on Coach Bieste, trying to get their budgets back to the way they were, which entail ends up hurting Coach Bieste's feelings deeply.

Being the nice guy he is, Finn reaches out to Sam and attempts to get him to join Glee Club, having him audition for the boys of New Directions, with the song ‘Billionaire' by Travie McCoy. However, all the anti-New Directions feelings in the school prevent Sam from committing to audition.
Caught in the crossfires of Coach Bieste's deeply hurt emotions, Finn, just trying to help a heartbroken Artie with his wish to be on the football team, finds himself cut from the team and replaced - by Sam.

During cheerleading tryouts, Quinn attempts to win back her position on the Cheerios, only to be shot down by Sue, while Finn, in an attempt to fill the void left by being cut from the football team, displays his best cheerleading moves, emphasis on ‘best'. Sue, apparently furious with Santana's enhanced breasts, demotes Santana from head cheerleader, replacing her with Quinn, reinstating Quinn as a Cheerio. All of this does not sit with Santana, who confronts Quinn in a hallway catfight, while poor Brittany watches from the crowd saying "Stop the violence."

Rachel, in an effort to protect her spot as the queen of New Directions, tries to appeal to Kurt and Mercedes for support in keeping Sunshine from joining New Directions, claiming they will lose solos if she joins, the few they receive, of course. However, Rachel's words fall on deaf ear, because Kurt and Mercedes both want what is best for Glee and are suddenly confused by Rachel's sudden caring about them. Thus, Rachel, feeling alone and completely against a wall, schemes to send Sunshine to ‘audition' --- at a crack house. "Not an active crack house", Rachel claims, but a crack house nonetheless.

Mr. Schuester, after feeling awful for hurting Coach Bieste's feelings, attempts to build a bridge and mend the broken fences, to which Coach Bieste seems keen on, much to Sue's chagrin. Also, Mr. Schuester finds out about Rachel's little plan and allows Sunshine to audition, knocking ‘Listen' from the Dreamgirls film out of the park.

However, Sunshine ends up being courted by Vocal Adrenaline's new mysterious coach, Dustin Goolsby (played by Broadway's Cheyenne Jackson, [insert title of show joke here]), who flings Sunshine's Hello Kitty backpack over his shoulder and exits just as mysteriously as he entered - with Sunshine in tow.

By episode's end, we find Finn and Rachel at a crossroads - Finn without his quarterback postion and Rachel realizing she needs to find a way to let the Glee Club expand, despite it possibly meaning being less of a star. Rachel, in true diva form, finishes out the episode singing ‘What I Did For Love' from A Chorus Line.