Rory Flangam

"I thought America was all about different, unique people coming together and accepting one another."

"I thought America was all about different, unique people coming together and accepting one another."

Rory Flanagan is a recurring character on the third season of Glee. He was an Irish exchange student who attended his sophomore year at William McKinley High School.

He is an Irish foreign exchange student. He resided with the family of Brittany Pierce during his time at McKinley. He was introduced in Pot o' Gold, the fourth episode of Season Three and was a member of the New Directions until the last episode of that season. During this time, Rory had a relationship with Sugar Motta. At the end of Season three, he departed the United States and went back home to Ireland. His last appearance was in Glee, Actually, the tenth episode of Season Four, where he reappeared in Artie's dream. He is also seen during flashbacks in City of Angels in Season Five and also in We Built This Glee Club in Season Six.

He is portrayed by The Glee Project Season One co-winner, Damian McGinty.

Biography
S3= Pot o' Gold

Rory makes his first appearance in Pot o' Gold. He is an Irish foreign exchange student, who has been living in Brittany's house (whom he appears to have a crush on her and wants to get her "pot of gold" which means have sex with her) who believes he is a leprechaun. Rory is shown to be incredibly naive about America, expecting it to be like an idealized country; instead, he is constantly pushed around and insulted by the jocks at McKinley for everything from his accent to his clothes. Rory's first song on the show is a dream-sequence rendition of the classic Kermit the Frog's song Bein' Green. Throughout the episode, Rory, in the hope of finally losing his virginity, pretends to be a real leprechaun and "grant" Brittany's wishes as she has promised him that after she gets three wishes fulfilled, she will let him into her "pot of pold." Brittany's first wish is to get a Lucky Charms box of cereal with only marshmallows in it.

Rory is later in an empty classroom sorting through 3 boxes of Lucky Charms cereal for marshmallows. For Brittany's second wish, she wants Lord Tubbington, her cat, to poop chocolate bars. Rory sneaks into Brittany's room and places chocolate bars into Lord Tubbington's litter box. Brittany walks in as Rory finishes settling the candy in the box. Brittany asks how he got into her room and Rory responds, "I just blinked." Brittany finds the chocolate bars, and, delighted, she splits it in half and she and Rory enjoy it together. Brittany's last wish was never made since Finn told her to "grow up" and she no longer believed in leprechauns. Rory admires Finn, whom he recognizes from an online video of him kissing Rachel at last year's Nationals. Rory soon manages to awkwardly befriend Finn. Afraid that he will steal Brittany, Santana intimidates Rory into convincing Brittany to follow Santana in defecting from New Directions into rival glee club The Troubletones, which leads to a confrontation in the halls between Finn and Brittany which disillusions Brittany. After being saved by Finn from the bullies, Rory follows him and joins New Directions, singing Take Care of Yourself. His performance is generally well-received, Rachel even describing it as "magical," although when Rory displays that he can also achieve an impressive falsetto, Kurt is visibly disturbed and possibly jealous as this was previously a skill he held over the other kids.

The First Time

Rory is seen playing Indio in West Side Story; his accent makes him quite distinctive - Shannon Beiste, one of the directors, remarks that she had to work hard with him.

Mash Off

He walks in the halls with Finn, and they see Santana. Rory tries to help Finn get back at Santana for trash-talking him, but Santana retaliates with "that is the lamest thing I didn't understand a word of" and Brittany agrees. Finn lets Rory have a solo in I Can't Go For That/You Make My Dreams to prepare him for Sectionals although Rory feels he isn't ready for that "honor." He plays dodgeball along with the rest of New Directions and The Troubletones, though he didn't know what dodgeball was. Once the game had ended, Santana and some of the Troubletones ganged up on and viciously flew dodgeballs at him, causing to his nose to bleed. He is comforted by Kurt when this occurs. Later, Rory stands up for Finn when Santana calls him names.

I Kissed a Girl

He makes brief appearances during the New Directions Girl's performance of I Kissed a Girl and also during Santana's performance of Constant Craving. He is seen shocked when Rachel announces she stuffed the ballot box in Kurt's favor and is banned from competing in Sectionals.

Hold on to Sixteen

He is seen in the choir room when Sam returns and after asking those around him who he is while the others greet Sam, he joins in the festivities welcoming him back. He seems to enjoy Sam's performance of Red Solo Cup with the rest of New Directions' members. He also practices choreography with the New Directions for Sectionals. When Puck says they need more girls in order to win, he agrees and makes a brief comment about the situation which leads to Sam's idea of using the boys' "sex appeal" in their choreography. He then goes on to actually perform with the New Directions at Sectionals and makes a few appearances as a back-up dancer. During Glee Club's performance of We Are Young, Brittany and Rory are shown to be hugging and being friendly with each other. However, it is not known if they have rebuilt their friendship and have become friends again.

Extraordinary Merry Christmas

Rory reveals that he is homesick, especially after his mother is now unable to come visit him over Christmas. He sings Blue Christmas and dedicates it to his family and 'the King', meaning Elvis. Sam invites him to spend Christmas with his family as he can relate to Rory spending time away from his. After Artie reveals what his Christmas special is going to be about, Sam says he doesn't want to have a part in it as he doesn't agree with not showing the sad and melancholy side of Christmas and asks Rory to leave with him. After seeing the expectant faces of the other glee club members, Rory stays to do the Christmas special. This reply makes Sam leave, disappointed, as he had expected Rory to understand his point of view of Christmas, especially as they had formed a bond over similar isolated feelings. During the special, Rory is supposed to read 'Frosty the Snowman' but ends up reading verses from the Bible about the birth of Jesus, revealing the true meaning of Christmas through his eyes. The reading urges the New Directions to not turn away from the sad and forlorn parts of Christmas and thus they show up at the homeless shelter to give a performance. During the song Rory is revealed to be reading to a group children. At the end of the episode Sam and Rory are collecting money for the Salvation Army, he asks Sam to be his Valentine's Day sponsor. Sam agrees, as long as Rory helps him with his impersonations.

Yes/No

Rory is with the New Directions Boys as Sam sings Summer Nights, and Rory has two lines in this song. Besides this, Rory has very little time on screen. He is shown walking down a hallway and grinning at Becky whilst she is thinking about boys who could be her boyfriend and Becky turns Rory down in her head saying he grins too much. He is later seen in the swimming pool performing We Found Love along with the rest of New Directions.

Michael

Rory is seen dancing to Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. He is next seen in the choir room then seen dancing during Bad. He is seen again when the New Directions find out the Warblers stole their set-list. He is last seen singing and dancing to Black or White.

The Spanish Teacher

Rory is seen dancing throughout the performance of Sexy and I Know It. He is then later seen watching Mercedes' performance of Don't Wanna Lose You, and he then helps backup Sam in Bamboleo/Hero. Next, he appears when Coach Beiste is instructing the boys about the importance of cleaning their jockstraps using Emma's pamphlets to help explain the concept to him and the other boys. His final appearance of the episode is him watching both David Martinez and Will perform. He seems to enjoy both of their songs.

Heart

Rory makes his intention clear to take Sugar as his date to "Sugar Shack," clashing with Artie who had intended to the same. Sugar herself can't decide which one to date, so Rory (just as Artie) tries to win her for himself. He makes her several presents over the course of the next day. At first he gives her a pack of heart-shaped sweets. Next, he presents her with a heart-shaped pillow embroidered with "Be Mine." Sugar, however, is more impressed by Artie's gift this time. At last, he gives her a living puppy, about which Sugar seems to be more happy than about Artie's toy-puppy. He, however, seems to lose her again when Artie dedicates a song to Sugar. Rory decides to fight back in the same manner. He sings Home for Sugar, playing on his heart strings how his visa won't be extended and that he'll have to leave at the end of the year, and also how much he misses his family. Sugar then says that she feels more pity for him than she does for Artie. She asks Rory to be her date to the Valentine's Day party, and he accepts.

They can be seen tightly embraced at Sugar's party on Valentine's Day. Sugar expresses that she is going to miss Rory once he is deported. Rory awkwardly tells her not to worry about it, implying that he lied about getting deported to win Sugar's heart and his date to the Sugar Shack on Valentine's Day. To this, she suggests that her father buys Ireland for him to stay which he giggles at.

On My Way

Mr. Schuester brings peanut butter for Rory to eat because he has never tried it before. Rory says that it is the best thing that he had ever tasted. When Mr. Schuester asks everyone what they are looking forward to in the future, Rory says that he is looking forward to winning Regionals. Later he is seen dancing to Fly/I Believe I Can Fly with the rest of New Directions and he is seen standing on the balcony with Finn during Here's to Us.

Big Brother

Rory is seen in the choir room during several occasions, for example, he is seen when Quinn and Artie are singing I'm Still Standing, and he attends all of the acting classes hosted by Cooper. During a conversation with Cooper Anderson, Rory asks if he has ever asked George Clooney, to which he responds that he hasn't, and both of them then get a picture together. He is seen next at Six Flags. However, in the song Up Up Up when the New Directions (minus Artie and Quinn) are in the roller-coaster he's not sitting next to Sugar but next to someone we don't know. Kurt is sitting next to Sugar in Six Flags. It is shown Rory and Sugar are still an item, due to the fact that he constantly has his arm around her throughout the episode.

Choke

He can be seen training in the weight room with the guys, when Finn comes in and announces that he wants to make Puck graduate. Rory then becomes part of the group that wants to try and bring Puck back to McKinley. When Finn explains his plan to the others, he gives Rory the task to just look out, to which Rory ask what, besides Puck, he should look out for. However, since the latter walks through the door that very second,this plan is never put into action. Rory then agrees to help Puck study for the test he needs to pass in order to graduate. He can be seen later on, obviously exhausted, studying with the others in the middle of the night. He bursts into the performance of The Rain in Spain together with his friends as soon as Puck gets an answer right and is also there to confront Puck after he wrote his test and although Rory and Puck were never before shown to be friends, Puck thanks him just like he thanked the other New Directions Boys for being a positive role model and substitute dad to him. He is also seen dancing with Santana in Cell Block Tango.

Prom-asaurus

In the choir room, Rory is spun around in a chair by Joe. He walks out of class with Joe and turns him around when he was staring at Quinn. At Prom, he performs What Makes You Beautiful with Mike, Sam, Artie, and Joe. Later, he dances with Brittany as Santana and Quinn sing Take My Breath Away and takes a picture with Joe and Artie on the dinosaur.

Props

He can be seen discussing and practicing the New Directions' set-list. When asked, he says that he'd like to have a solo at Nationals before he has to go back to Ireland. He's also present making the costumes for his fellow glee-club members together with the other newbies, though he doesn't seem to be very good at it, because he cuts his finger. He takes the appearance of Sam in Tina's dream, looking initially distracted and possibly bored (as Sam often does) whilst she performs, but eventually enjoying it and ending with Sam's infamous wide armed clap.



Nationals

He calms Sam down when he gets in a fight with Puck. He is one of the six New Directions members, who sing back-up for Rachel in It's All Coming Back to Me Now. When the verdict is about to be announced, he holds hands with Quinn. When they are announced as the winners, he can be seen jumping with Kurt. When the New Directions get back to school with their National Championship trophy, the school greets them warmly and Rory is kissed by two school girls. During the celebration, Rory is seen getting sprayed with sparkling cider by Sugar. He later sings back-up in We Are the Champions for Will with the rest of New Directions. He supposedly hugged Will, even though their hug wasn't shown onscreen.

Goodbye

Together with the underclassmen, Rory sings In My Life as a tribute to Finn and the graduating seniors. Rory is shown with the underclassmen, parents, and faculty at the graduation ceremony, cheering on the graduates. He is last seen among the group waving goodbye to Rachel as she heads for New York. He leaves to go back to Ireland during the summer. S4= When The New Rachel starts, Rory has already left New Directions and apparently departed McKinley. Nobody mentions his departure or if he was actually deported.

Glee, Actually

Rory appears for the first time since Goodbye. He appears in Artie's dream sequence as his "Christmas Guardian Angel" to show him what has happened now that he is not in a wheelchair. He first shows himself to tell Artie that Tina never stopped pretending to stutter because the two never became friends. He next appears in the auditorium and tells Artie that he was too busy with football to join glee club  and that he was "the glue of glee," the quiet boy who kept the groups "heart" pumping. He shows up one final time, when Artie fails to get the glee club back together and shows him a wheelchair at the end of the hallway. He says that it was Quinn's wheelchair and that without the encouragement from her friends, she never learned to walk again and that the reason she does not appear in the alternate reality is because she died of a broken heart. The dream then comes to an end.

This episode marks the last appearance of Rory in the series. S5= City of Angels

Rory briefly appeared in the episode recap. He was also seen via flashbacks during the song numbers. S6= The Hurt Locker, Part One

When Will confronts Sue at McKinley, she mentions how some Glee Club members were neglected by him such as, "that poor, Irish idiot Rory".

We Built This Glee Club

Rory can be seen in flashbacks when the current members of New Directions are putting old trophies (which, one of them is from the 2012 Nationals) back in their old place.

Personality
At first glance, he appears to be very calculating, especially when it comes to girls, since he tried to manipulate Brittany into sleeping with him. He also either lied about being deported at the end of the school year, or used the fact in order to win Sugar Motta as his "Valentine's Date."

Most of the time he seems to be friendly, however, making an effort to befriend his fellow glee-club members and being grateful every time someone approaches him. He even sort of looked up to Finn and Sam after they tried to become his friends. But he also seen eating with a large group of the New Directions in "Heart", meaning that New Directions do value him to some degree.



Rory appears to be rather naive, due to his lack of knowledge about the life in America, which became apparent when he asked Finn to become his friend, though it isn't the way here. This could be culture shock, although it's implied that he was socially awkward before arriving in America.

He also appears to have little self-esteem, since Santana had an easy time threatening him and declined having a solo in the Mash-Off at first, since he thought he wasn't ready for it yet.

Relationships
Brittany Pierce=

(Brory/Flapierce)

Brittany's family is Rory's host family during his stay in America. Brittany, at first, thinks that Rory is a leprechaun, and asks him to grant her three wishes. He tries to make these wishes happen, because he hopes that she will sleep with him as a reward. However, before Rory can make all the things Brittany wishes happen, Santana convinces Brittany that Rory is only pretending to be a leprechaun, which leads to Rory ultimately being rejected by her. Sugar Motta=

(Sugory/Flamotta)

In Heart, Rory announces that he plans to make Sugar his valentine's date for her own party, taking himself on with Artie who has a crush on Sugar himself. After he and Artie try to outmatch each other several times, Rory moans how much he misses his family, but how he's sad that he won't be able to spend the rest of his schooldays at McKinley. Sugar then feels really sorry for him and becomes his girlfriend. Sam Evans=

(Sory/Flanevans)

In Extraordinary Merry Christmas, Sam and Rory bond over the fact that they miss their respective families. At first, Sam is saddened when Rory chooses to stick with Artie and his ideas about Christmas. Ultimately, Rory convinces the New Directions to join Sam in the homeless shelter. They further bond talking about their families while collecting donations for the Salvation Army. In Heart, Rory implies that Sam would be one of the many people he would miss upon getting deported.

Songs
Total = 8

S3=
 * Solos


 * Solos (In a Group Number)

Trivia

 * The name "Rory" is Irish for "famous ruler of red." Red happens to be Damian McGinty's favorite color, as evident in many of Rory's items of clothing.
 * Following their The Glee Project wins, Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen mentioned in an interview that they wanted a storyline with either Dianna Agron or Heather Morris. When their characters were introduced, Damian received a storyline with Heather while Samuel received a storyline with Dianna.
 * He is the only former male member of New Directions to not appear in the series finale.