Glee catch up: Season 2 Part 1

The season 2 opener finds New Directions after summer vacation. Some new developments in relationships are: Tina has dumped Artie for Mike, and now Artie is dating Brittany, and the New Directions are one team member short. Matt, one of the football players, has transferred to another school. Mr. Shu has the glee club perform "Empire State of Mind" in the school courtyard to encourage more people to sign up. Though most of the people laughed or paid absolutely no attention, they did manage to find two people who might think about it and would be excellent additions to the team: Sam Evans; a sophomore who just moved to town, and Sunshine Corazon. Finn befriends Sam, who is very open to the idea of joining glee club, until he sees Finn kicked off the football team and bullied. He decides not to audition and focus just on fitting in and making friends for a while. When Rachel puts up signs for glee club in the bathroom, she sees Sunshine and recognizes her from when they did "Empire State of Mind" (Sunshine was one of the few people paying attention and enjoying it). Rachel tells her she should audition, but later finds out Sunshine is an extraordinary singer and feels threatened by her. In the end, Rachel gives Sunshine a fake address for an audition to scare her. Rachel does eventually apologize, and Sunshine gets a real audition, but the director of vocal adrenaline catches wind from Sue (who is still out to get the glee club) about Sunshine's talent and gets her to switch schools and join vocal adrenaline. A few weeks later, Sam finally comes around and joins New Directions. The assignment for the week is duets, and to make it more fun, Mr. Shu added the prize of a free dinner for two for the winner. Quinn is partners with Sam and at first tries to push away her feelings for him, but when they go to dinner at Bread sticks for winning the assignment, Quinn tells Sam he can't use the gift card because a gentleman always pays on the first date. The week of sectionals the kids are fighting like never before and everyone is angry with each other. First Mr. Shu informs them that they will be featuring Mike and Brittany's great dancing. Rachel asks confused, and sort of annoyed, "Wait, they're going to be dancing in front of me while Finn and I sing?" Then Mr. Shu drops the bomb, "No, you're not singing at sectionals." He decides to have Quinn and Sam sing a duet as their opening number, and Santana to sing their final one. Needless to say, Rachel is furious about not being in the spotlight. Meanwhile Tina is worried that Mike is cheating on her with Brittany, and Tina warns Artie about it. So the four of them are arguing, and while Rachel still doesn't get to sing, she finds out a secret Finn has been keeping from her and is threatening to not even compete (she would be a 12th member) when Mr. Shu comes in and tells them to get a grip and go perform. They have a spectacular performance (my personal favorite) and the choreography is simply amazing. They tie for first place and are moving on to regionals. After they win, Rachel tells Finn that she cheated on him with Puck when they were fighting, and Finn promptly breaks up with her, leaving her heartbroken.In the Christmas episode before the break, Rachel tries to get Finn to talk to her, but he avoids her and tells her he's not ready to get over what she did.

New Directions performance of Valerie :)