Competitions didn’t only affect the kids of New Directions this year, though they did of course face-off against some old rivals on stage. And back in New York, Rachel had her own competitions to worry about.

Lima-Grease is the word:

The first major competition (at least on-stage) at McKinley was the contest to see who would be cast as Sandy and Danny in this year’s musical, Grease. The Sandy contenders are Marley and Kitty, while up for Danny are Jake and Ryder. Of course, romantic entanglements between all the characters have some place in this show down as well, but it’s really interesting to see this scenario play out between someone other than Rachel and whoever she was competing against that week. After all the competing for the roles, director Artie decided to cast Marley as Sandy and Ryder as Danny—beginning the plot line for what would be another one of the love tri/quad/pent/hex/totally made up shape that doesn’t exist yet-angles on the show.

Lima-McKinley vs. Dalton:

Remember when we were introduced to the Blaine Anderson style Dalton Academy Warblers in Season 2? You remember the ones who sang and danced like a well-oiled machine, and were fierce competitors, but still such kind-hearted souls? Yeah, they’re a thing of the absolute past. These Warblers snuck into the McKinley choir room and STOLE NEW DIRECTIONS’S NATIONALS TROPHY. Sebastian Smythe (Grant Gustin) is briefly back, but he’s not up to his usual tricks. No, in fact, he’s just the accomplice. The new leader, and king of slime who steals trophies, is Hunter Clarington (Nolan Gerard Funk). The reason the trophy was stolen? The Warblers want to steal Blaine back! But they don’t succeed. They won’t give up with their dastardly ways though. Even though they specifically have nothing to do with what happens to new Directions at Sectionals, it is later revealed that the Warblers have all been using steroids since Hunter’s arrival. Therefore, they are disqualified from competing again, and everything works out for New Directions again.

Lima-Sectionals:

I’ll cover some quick bios about all of the new characters in a bit, but long story short, Kitty is a B****. She makes endless comments to Marley about her weight, and how if she doesn’t watch what she eats, she’ll end up like her lunch lady mother (who was a source of ridicule at the beginning of the show because of her big size). She convinces Marley that she’s gaining weight by secretly making her Grease costumes too small for her. All of this taps into Marley’s insecurities, and before anyone knows it she’s taking laxatives, and when she eats, she immediately throws it back up. Even after Grease is long over, Kitty still incessantly taunts her, making Marley’s condition worse and worse. It finally gets to the point where New Directions is on stage at Sectionals, performing “Gangnam Style,” when Marley passes out—causing New Directions to be disqualified. But as mentioned earlier, later on in the season things work out for them again, thanks to Blaine and Sam’s detective work uncovering what was really going on with the Warbler’s. The New Directions are going to Regionals!

Lima-Regionals:

In the final episode of the season, New Directions headed to Regionals, facing off against the Waffletoots and HoosierDaddies. Their set included “Hall of Fame” and “I Love It” (By The Script featuring Will.I.am. and Icona Pop respectively), as well as an original song, “All or Nothing,” written by Marley. Original Songs proved to work for the New Directions just like they did in Season 2’s regionals (and had it not been for the Kiss Seen ‘Round the World, probably would have worked at Nationals too), and they coasted to an easy Regionals win…which means they’re Nationals bound next season. The defending champs still have a chance to claim their title for a second year in a row! But will they ever meet (and break) Vocal Adrenaline’s record?

New York-Winter Showcase:

Of course, the competition wasn’t solely left to the stages of Lima Ohio. Naturally, some of it followed Rachel to New York. It’s winter time, and there’s a special winter concert, known as the Showcase, at NYADA. Only 10 students receive their special Golden Ticket invites from Carmen, inviting them to perform. Shocker of all shockers, this year, a freshman has been invited—none other than Rachel Berry! There hasn’t been a Rachel Berry belted-out number in a while, and finally fans were rewarded with one when she wowed the audience with “Being Good Isn’t Good Enough,” and immediately followed it up with “O Holy Night.” She won the Showcase (even more implausible in the NYADA universe), although there was another unofficially entered performance that upstaged her and won the bigger prize—Kurt’s impromptu invitation to sing for his admission to the school. He performed “Being Alive,” from Company, and finally showed he was capable of being in NYADA.

New York-The ‘Diva-Off:’

Of course, now that Kurt has arrived at NYADA officially, his and Rachel’s friendship suffers from their competitive edges a bit. Only four episodes (in reality two months) later, Glee had a “Divas” episode, and a bickering Rachel and Kurt decided to duel it out in a sing-off after Kurt reveals (FINALLY!) to Rachel that he threw their “Defying Gravity” competition in season 1. Their forum is at NYADA’s twice-annual Midnight Madness. The song was “Bring Him Home,” from Les Miserables, and the undisputed winner was Kurt. Rachel got pretty down in the dumps afterwards, but now that the snarky bitching between them was done, Kurt helped her get her self-esteem back, and encouraged her to sign up for the open-call casting for Broadway’s revival of Funny Girl—aka the pivotal Barbara Streisand show with the role Rachel was born to play—Fanny Brice. I love the supportive friendship these two have, even when they’re at one another’s throats competitively.

New York-Funny Girl:

Speaking of Funny Girl, Kurt’s encouragement sets Rachel on the trajectory that forms her big storyline for the end of the season. After she’s sidelined for a bit with her possible pregnancy drama and her bothersome relationship with Brody, she is refocused 100% on her callback auditions for the role of Fanny Brice. Her first callback featured her singing “Don’t Stop Believing” while imagining her best friends and original Glee Club members with her. It wowed the casting directors, who asked her to come in for a final callback, which was featured in the first few minutes of the Season Finale, and Rachel just belted out Celine Dion’s “To Love You More,” sounding almost like Dion herself. So did she get the role? I hope we’ll find out in Season 5. It’d be very disappointing if this storyline disappeared entirely because the show’s writers have had to start from scratch again because of Cory Monteith’s passing.

Stay Tuned Tomorrow for Part III: Meet the New Cast, and See what your Old Friends have been up to