Funeral (Glee)
| "Funeral" | |
|---|---|
| Glee episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 21 |
| Directed by | Bradley Buecker |
| Written by | Ryan Murphy |
| Featured music | "Back to Black" "Some People" "Try a Little Tenderness" "My Man" "Pure Imagination" |
| Production code | 2ARC21 |
| Original air date | May 17, 2011 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Funeral" is the twenty-first episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the forty-third overall. It first aired May 17, 2011 on Fox in the United States, and was written by series creator Ryan Murphy and directed by Bradley Buecker. The episode featured Jonathan Groff guest starring as Jesse St. James, who is brought in as a consultant to help the New Directions glee club prepare for the National Show Choir competition. Sue Sylvester's (Jane Lynch) sister Jean (Robin Trocki) dies unexpectedly, and the glee club helps Sue plan her funeral.
The episode received a wide range of reviews, from highly enthusiastic to harshly critical. The performances of the five songs covered were generally well-liked, though having four of them arranged as a series of auditions in the middle of the show met with disapproval. All five songs were released as singles, and three of them charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 8.97 million American viewers and garnered a 3.6/10 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The total viewership and ratings for this episode were down slightly from the previous episode, "Prom Queen". Lynch was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards for her work on the show, and submitted this episode for judging.
Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), director of New Directions, the McKinley High School glee club, hires Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff)—an alumnus of championship-winning rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline—as a consultant to help them develop a strategy to win the upcoming Nationals competition. Jesse convinces Will to use Vocal Adrenaline's methodology, which is to identify the club's best performer and center the entire performance on that person, and Will decides to hold auditions to determine who will be featured. Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) and Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) all audition, with Jesse and Will as judges. Jesse is highly critical of the performances by Santana, Kurt and Mercedes, while he praises his former girlfriend Rachel's performance. He tells Will that Rachel is the clear winner, which angers the other three. Ultimately, Will decides to ignore Jesse's advice and instead plans to do for Nationals what brought them victory at the Regionals competition: having the whole group sing original songs.
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