Hell-O

Hell-O is the fourteenth episode of Glee's first season and the fourteenth episode overall. It premiered on April 13, 2010, after a four-month hiatus.

Fresh off their monumental win at Sectionals, New Directions is on top of the world. With an extra spring in their step, they get to work on new numbers for Regionals. But when Rachel and Finn's budding romance hits a bump in the road after she becomes involved with a competitor, Jesse St. James (special guest star Jonathon Groff), it threatens to derail the entire club. Mr. Schuester pays a visit to Shelby Corcoran (guest star Idina Menzel), coach of Vocal Adrenaline, to confirm Jesse's motives. Meanwhile, Will is newly single, but is he ready to take his relationship with Emma to the next level? And to top it all off, Sue Sylvester returns from her condo in Boca with a renewed focus on destroying Will and disbanding the glee club.

The episode was directed by Brad Falchuk and written by Ian Brennan.

Plot
Following the suspension from her position at William McKinley High School, as seen in Sectionals, Sue blackmails Principal Figgins, slipping him a date rape drug and taking an incriminating photograph of them in a compromising position. He allows her to return to work at McKinley, where she immediately returns to plotting to bring down the glee club. Will helps Finn with his Hello-assignment by singing Hello, I Love You. Finn and Rachel are now dating, although Finn is still not over his ex-girlfriend, Quinn, who is now with the father of her child, Puck. Sue enlists cheerleaders Santana and Brittany to seduce Finn. He breaks up with Rachel and goes on a date with both Brittany and Santana but comes to the realization that he does want to be with Rachel. When Rachel found out that Finn was dating Brittany and Santana she sang a rendition of Gives You Hell.



In the interim, Rachel meets Jesse St. James, the lead singer of New Directions' rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, at a local music library. The two perform an impromptu duet of Lionel Richie's Hello, and Rachel becomes enamored with him. Eventually, the New Directions members learn about the blossoming relationship and conclude that Jesse is using Rachel, and they threaten to expel her from the club unless she breaks up with him. Rachel asks Jesse to keep their relationship a secret and turns Finn down when he asks her to get back together with him.

Will and Emma begin dating. Emma suffers from mysophobia and is uncomfortable kissing Will. She admits that she is still a virgin, and requests that they take their relationship slowly. While dancing, Will sings Neil Diamond's Hello Again to her. When Emma is preparing dinner for Will several nights later, Terri arrives at the apartment and tells Emma that she and Will danced to Hello Again at their prom in 1993. This distresses Emma and makes her OCD act up a little. On a visit to Carmel High,Will walked in on Vocal adrenaline performing Highway to Hell. Will meets Shelby Corcoran, the coach of Vocal Adrenaline She and Will end up at his apartment making out, but Will is unable to continue and tells her about his relationship problems. Shelby suggests that as Will had been with Terri since he was 15 and has immediately moved on to a new relationship, he ought to take some time out for himself. When Emma later confronts Will with a copy of his high school yearbook, confirming that Hello Again was his and Terri's song, he is apologetic. He and Emma decide to put their relationship on hold in order to deal with their separate issues. The episode ends with New Directions performing Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles, with Emma watching, and a depressed Rachel leaves after the performance.

Songs

 * ‡ denotes that the song was cut from the episode entirely

Unreleased Songs

 * Hello Again by Neil Diamond sung by Will Schuester.

Background Songs

 * Don't Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl. Background music when Rachel is walking confidently down the school's hallway before being slushied.

Special Guest Stars

 * Jonathan Groff as Jesse St. James
 * Idina Menzel as Shelby Corcoran

Guest Stars

 * Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins
 * Patrick Gallagher as Ken Tanaka
 * Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez
 * James Earl III as Azimio Adams
 * Josh Sussman as Jacob Ben Israel
 * Max Adler as Dave Karofsky
 * Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce
 * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang
 * Dijon Talton as Matt Rutherford

Co-Stars

 * Jeanine Anderson as Waitress Sandy
 * Ayla Rose Barreau as Dottie Westerton
 * Ashley Fink as Lauren Zizes
 * Hayley Holmes as Liz Schneider

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first official appearance of Jesse St. James. This is a plot-hole, because Vocal Adrenaline had first appeared in Pilot and he is said to have been its top performer for several years.
 * Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff had worked together before on Spring Awakening prior to Glee.
 * The pinky holding that Brittany and Santana do was actually taken from Naya Rivera and Heather Morris who added it in themselves. Ryan liked it, so he kept it in.
 * Heather Morris said at Paleyfest 2010 that one of her favorite lines was, "There was a mouse in mine," because it was so unexpected.
 * As of this episode, the recap section starts saying "here's what you missed on Glee" instead of "here's what happened last week".
 * This episode contains one of Brittany's most famous lines: "Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?"
 * This episode marks the last time until The Purple Piano Project (31 episodes later) that all credited cast members appear.
 * It is never explained how Emma got her job back after resigning in the previous episode.
 * All the songs sung in this episode have the syllable hell in their titles.
 * On August 3, 2012 Ryan Murphy released the 'Hello 12 scene' that got cut on his twitter.
 * In the library, just before Rachel picks up "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie, she looks over the sheet music for "Hello Again" from "The Jazz Singer," which is featured later in the episode.
 * Before the performance of Hello, I Love You, Will tells Finn that he is like Jagger (Mick) and Morrison (Jim). Will's actual last name happens to be Morrison, and you can actually see the actor smirking real fast when he says the name.
 * Emma mentions Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, both of whom would appear on the series later.
 * When Rachel goes to the library to find a song, you can hear someone playing Tiny Towers in the background.

Errors

 * Lauren Zizes tells Rachel that in freshman year she fell for a boy on the opposing wrestling team. However, in an earlier episode, Burt Hummel already stated that a girl had just joined the team. This may just be a clerical error, as Lauren is also presumed to be a senior by Season 4, but because of her dialogue, suggests she should have already graduated.
 * During Finn's voice-over, he looks over at Quinn, who is leaning against the wall with her hands by her sides. The next shot is a close up of Quinn who now has her hand rested on the wall and is leaning away from the wall. She couldn't have moved in the seconds between the shots.
 * When Terri sees Emma's DVD of The Jazz Singer, Emma comments that she got it because she and Will made "Hello" their song, and Terri retorts that she and Will made it their song way back at their prom. "Hello" is actually the song by Lionel Richie sung by Rachel and Jesse at school; the Neil Diamond song from The Jazz Singer that Will and Emma danced to is "Hello Again."
 * When Finn is playing basketball and Rachel is cheering him on in her "Team Finn" shirt, the game countdown keeps going down to 25 and then back up to 30 in an instant. This is impossible.

Quotes
": Rachel: Get used to it guys, we're stars now, up to par with all the jocks and popular kids. Oh, it's the dawn of a new era here at McKinley and we are going to rule this school! (Gets slushied in the face by two boys.)
 * Boys: Ooh, welcome to loser town - population you!"

"They give their dancers human growth hormones."

":Will: (While drawing a stick figure on the board.) Hello. (Turns around to face the students.) Hello?
 * New Directions Members: (Scattered and in different tones.) Hello.
 * Will: What do you guys say when you answer the phone?
 * Mercedes: What up?
 * Artie: Who 'dis be?
 * Kurt: No, she's dead; this is her son."

"Brittany: Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks? Santana looks at Brittany curiously. Brittany: Yeah..."

"Santana: This food was NOT satisfactory. Brittany: There was a mouse in mine."

"Brittany: Did you see what Rachel was wearing today? Santana: Yeah, I know. She looked like Pippi Longstocking but like, Israeli. Brittany: Those sweaters make her look home-schooled. Finn: Hey guys, c'mon, dont make fun of Rachel. She's kinda cool. Brittany: Finn, that's mean."

"I want us to be together, a real couple. I even circled some dates on your crazy calendar."