The New Rachel

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

Rachel is in now New York attending NYADA. There she finds herself struggling with being separated from her family and friends and her dance-instructor Cassandra July. She finds support in Kurt and her classmate Brody Weston. Meanwhile, Kurt helps out Will finding new members for the glee club, but after Blaine tells him that he doesn't belong in Lima anymore, he goes to New York. Since Rachel has graduated, the New Directions have lost their lead singer, so Blaine, Brittany, Tina, and Wade "Unique" Adams, who has transferred to McKinley, compete for that open position. The Glee Club also tries to recruit new members, including Marley Rose and Aria get’s a shock on the first day back.

Absent: Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Mark Salling, Harry Shum Jr.

Songs

 * † denotes an unreleased song.

Background Songs

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

Special Guest Stars

 * Whoopi Goldberg as Carmen Tibideaux
 * Kate Hudson as Cassandra July

Guest Stars

 * Mike O'Malley as Burt Hummel
 * Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz
 * Alex Newell as Wade "Unique" Adams
 * Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose
 * Dean Geyer as Brody Weston
 * Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman
 * Josh Sussman as Jacob Ben Israel
 * Trisha Rae Stahl as Millie Rose
 * Amanda Jane Cooper as Beatrice McClaine

Co-Stars

 * Bo Barrett as Assistant Manager
 * Pamela Chan as Dottie Kazatori
 * Justin Cone as Benjamin
 * Ashley Galvan as Lydia
 * Ryan Heinke as Stoner Brett
 * Daniel Curtis Lee as Phil Lipoff
 * Jesse Luken as Bobby Surette
 * Madeline Penn as Freshman Girl
 * Hope Olaidé Wilson as De'wanda Umber
 * Chelsea as Jordan Stern

Absent Cast Members

 * Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson
 * Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones
 * Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez
 * Mark Salling as Noah "Puck" Puckerman
 * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang

Trivia

 * Chord Overstreet (Sam),Lucy Hale (Aria) and Avan Jogia (Beck were promoted to main cast starting in this episode, while Dianna Agron (Quinn) and Jayma Mays (Emma) were demoted to recurring roles.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Cultural references

 * 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 Rachel looked at the picture, her teeth were showing.
 * 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.
 * When Rachel looked at the shower and saw Brody naked, she looked back but we can clearly see in the reflection at Rachel's back that she turned around even before Brody opened the shower door.

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."

"Brittany: That's a great haircut, Mercedes, I thought you graduated."

"Cassandra: I may not be a wide eyed ingenue anymore, but I can out dance circles around any of you!"

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

"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."

"Unique: Unique's eyes... They are on FIRE!"

"Brody: (To Rachel) "In case you're wondering, which you were, I'm straight""

"Ezra: This will just end badly, like a tragic love story. Aria: You're an author. You control the ending."

"Unique: I can sing any song at anytime. Just press play and get back."

"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.."

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

Artie: Well,I'm usually seen sitting."

"Brittany: It's hard to make out over Skype. You can't really scissor a webcam."

"Burt: Do you know the difference between this place [Lima] and New York? Kurt: Decent bagels?"

"Tina: We forgot ourselves. Brittany: Well, I didn't. I was always popular, but I do forget to wear underwear sometimes."

"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."

"Sue: Now that is an attractive male educator don't you think?. Will: Excuse me. Sue: If you look like that, any day!."

"Jacob: Sources say that you lost your virginity over the summer, is it true? Aria: Why don't you ask me again when you lose yours in 47 years. Jacob: I'll take that as a yes!"

"Burt: [to Kurt] You can always come back. [to himself] But you won't."