Summary
Six seasons. 121 episodes. 728 musical performances. 23 main characters. And one hell of a ride. It's been a roller coaster of a Journey, ups, downs, triumph, tragedy. And it all ends... now.
The episode is a flashback to the show's pilot episode, exploring how in 2009 the original members of New Directions—Rachel, Kurt, Mercedes, Artie and Tina—came to join the club. Kurt is friendless and depressed; believing him to be suicidal, guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury contacts Burt to warn him of his son's difficulties. As a result, Burt orders Kurt to join a school team for his own good. Hoping to please his father, Kurt befriends Rachel and Mercedes; the former suggests that he audition for Will Schuester's new glee club, while the latter helps him choose his audition song. After signing up herself, Mercedes is targeted by Rachel as a potential rival for the position of lead female vocalist, and the two immediately butt heads. After Will gives the first female solo to Rachel, Mercedes' confidence is shattered until she is given a pep talk by her church's choir director. Artie and Tina both audition because of a dare from Tina's Goth friends, and Sue and Will are on good terms with each other until he refuses to give up on the glee club in order to maintain their friendship. After Will's wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) tells her husband that she is pregnant and convinces him to give up teaching and take up accounting, Rachel tries unsuccessfully to get Terri to change her mind. The five original members of the glee club are also at loggerheads over Finn Hudson's leadership, questioning his commitment after he quits and later rejoins. During a meeting between the five, Rachel and Artie convince the others to give Finn another chance, as they believe in his good qualities. The episode concludes with the pilot episode's now-iconic staging of "Don't Stop Believin'", which is what convinced Will to stay on as choir director.
Songs featured in "2009" include:
- "Popular" from Wicked, performed by Kurt and Rachel
- "Mr. Cellophane" from Chicago, performed by Kurt
- "I'm His Child" by Zella Jackson Price, performed by Mercedes and church band/choir
- "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry, performed by Tina
- "Pony" by Ginuwine, performed by Artie Abrams
- "Don't Stop Believing"
Tropes included in the episode:
- Actor Allusion: Rachel says that she wouldn't play black Dorothy, Lea Michele has played white Dorothy, however.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Emma and Burt talking about Kurt
- Back for the Finale: (Next to Finale, actually). Terri, Karofsky, Matt, Puck, Tina.
- Book Ends / Call-Back: To the Pilot and later episodes of Season 1.
- Call-Back: Though it had been implied before, we now know at least one instance that Kurt was explicitly referencing when he said that "without a doubt" if it wasn't for Will he wouldn't be alive back in "New Directions".
- Continuity Nod: Terri's mention of being a little psychic, like she has a few times before; Rachel being in every single school club; Will having left a sign up sheet for the footballers.
- Driven to Attempted Suicide: Kurt.
- The Ghost: Finn is mentioned at multiple points during the episode by the other founding members of New Directions, but because Corey died years prior he only appears in the stock footage at the end of the episode.
- Origins Episode: It shows how Rachel and Kurt came to know each other as friends as rivals, and what Tina, Mercedes, and Artie were doing before they joined New Directions. It also sheds more light on how much Sue despised glee and Will for keeping it going.
- Series Continuity Error: Rachel was the last to sign up for glee club, probably for the dramatics of it in the Pilot. However, that also suggests that she didn't see the sheet until the other four had added their names, something that happens over a period of days in this episode and kicked off by Rachel mentioning the sign up. However, it could be averted if Rachel either thought she didn't need to sign up again as she'd been in glee before, or if she was deliberately going for the drama. Additionally, Karofsky was only a hockey player, not a footballer, in season 1.
- Social Circle Filler: Bex and Lysander, Tina's goth friends who were never mentioned before or since after she joined New Directions. Though considering how poorly they treat her and Artie, it's probably justified.
- Stock Footage: Naya Rivera & Dianna Agron, both only appearing in footage from the Pilot, even though they were credited.
- Synchronous Episodes: It takes place before and during the events of the Pilot, with a few scenes tying them together via stock footage.
- Take That! /
Technology Marches On: Blockbuster and MySpace were thriving in 2009. In 2015, not so much. - Time-Shifted Actor: Sort of. The actors revert to their hairstyles (and in Rachel's case, less-plucked eyebrows) of their 2009 counterparts, but they still look like their 2015 selves.
- Whole Episode Flashback: To 2009, just before and during the Pilot. The episode itself contains flashbacks and flash forwards, too, just to be confusing.
