Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Season 5 begins with New Directions facing Sue’s demand that the club win Nationals while Rachel and Kurt pursue New York careers: Rachel is cast as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, and Blaine proposes to Kurt, who accepts. The early episodes continue the McKinley competition year, but Finn’s death brings former and current members back to Lima for “The Quarterback.” The club and alumni mourn him in different ways, and Puck decides to enlist in the Air Force. New Directions later travels to Nationals with Finn’s memorial plaque and songs chosen in his honor, but places second to Throat Explosion. Sue closes the choir room, and Will tells the students the club is over.
The alumni reunion cannot save New Directions, and the graduating students leave McKinley as the choir room closes. In New York, Santana quits her role as Rachel’s Funny Girl understudy, ending a feud that had broken their friendship. Rachel leaves NYADA to concentrate on Broadway, while Kurt is hospitalized after intervening in an anti-gay assault. He recovers and returns to performing. Rachel’s opening night succeeds, but an unauthorized trip to audition for television nearly costs her the Broadway job. Blaine and Kurt struggle over their engagement, while Mercedes and Sam rekindle their relationship before deciding their diverging careers make it unsustainable. Sam returns to Lima. Television writer Mary Halloran follows Rachel and her friends, then revises her script after Rachel challenges its portrayal of her. Despite Mary’s doubts, the network asks Rachel to film the pilot.