Season 4-Old Friends and Faces/College:
But besides Rachel, what happened with the other McKinley High Class of 2012 Glee kids? Where did they end up?
Finn Hudson: Finn was absent until the last 30 seconds or so of episode 3. But Rachel wasn’t forgetting him too much. She was still referring to him as her boyfriend, even though they were on some kind of hiatus. Finally, in episode 4, Rachel and fans got the answers they were looking for about where we had been hiding. Turns out he accidentally fired a gun and was semi-honorably discharged from the army. After backpacking through Georgia for a while, he came to New York to see her and figure out his dream. While there, he realized New York and NYADA weren’t for him. Back in Ohio, he was working at Burt’s Tire Shop, when Artie recruits him to help cast Grease. After that, Schu recruited him to direct New Directions in his absence, despite his lack of a teaching degree…or any degree at all for that matter. No matter, he stepped up to the plate and started coaching the kids, and despite a Sectionals loss, encouraged them not to give up and stick together. Sure enough, after the Warblers were disqualified and New Directions was slated to go back to Regionals, Finn’s role continued. But then he did something a little stupid—and kissed Emma during a major freak-out about her upcoming wedding to Schu. The matter was dropped between the two, until Finn came clean to Schu. The two feuded and Schu couldn’t forgive Finn, prompting him to leave McKinley for good. After some inspiring words from Marley, Finn realizes what he is meant to do—become a teacher. The last time we saw Finn he was enrolled in classes at the University of Lima, working towards his degree. Sadly, we all know that now that degree will never be awarded to him, and soon we will have to say goodbye to him for good.
Kurt Hummel: Kurt started the season working at the Lima Bean, not sure what he was going to do with his life since NYADA didn’t pan out. But Blaine encouraged him to still head to New York—which he did, and moved in with a Rachel that desperately needed her best friend. When he arrived, he immediately landed a job as an assistant at Vogue.com, working for Isabelle Wright. He also re-applies to NYADA, but Carmen Tibideaux still isn’t very impressed—until she decided to give him an on-the-spot audition at the Winter Showcase. He brought down the house with “Bein’ Alive,” from Company, and as a result, was granted admission. Once he arrived at NYADA, he joined the Adam’s Apples, NYADA’s Glee Club, which is (surprise, surprise) uncool, though it does introduce him to the very cute Adam Crawford. Besides work, school, and his romantic life, Kurt has been dealing with another major problem this season: His father Burt has cancer. When we last saw Kurt, he was back in Lima, happy that his father was cancer-free, and sticking around to see Regionals—and possibly, a surprise that Blaine has for him.
Santana Lopez: Santana, despite her objections at the end of Season 3, went off to the University of Louisville, where she joined the cheerleading squad. However, she still found time to constantly jet back to Lima for various projects (including being Rizzo in Grease last minute—despite the fact that she was no longer a McKinley student). It isn’t until well into Season 4, and the “Divas” episode, that Sue Sylvester calls her out on the truth-she dropped out of college a while ago, and was doing nothing with her life. After some final encouraging words from Brittany, Santana finally heads off to New York, and begins living rent-free with Rachel and Kurt. Yet, even though she’s in New York, she still hasn’t totally found her way, settling instead for being a go-go girl and cage dancer at a lesbian bar. Finally, she begins taking some extension dance classes at NYADA and begins trying to find her way in the scary post-high school world that doesn’t have much of a safety net.
Mike Chang: There isn’t much to say about Mike Chang and what exactly he’s been up to. We knew at the end of Season 3 that he was headed to Chicago for the Joffrey. Well he did go there, and we learn in the very first episode that he and Tina had broken up over the summer due to the distance. He does reappear in Lima often though, and he and Tina sort of work out some kind of friendship, but it appears the relationship is over for good. He did help choreograph Grease though, and also helped the New Directions for Sectionals and Regionals, as well as Mercedes when figuring out her Music Video. Sadly, don’t expect to see much of him in Season 5—Harry Shum Jr.’s status on the show was demoted down to a special guest star role at the beginning of this past summer, so he shouldn’t be expected back for more than a few episodes—one of which will presumably be “The Quarterback.”
Quinn Fabray: Quinn was barely around for Season 4, and was the last of the old seniors to reappear in Lima. Her first time back at McKinley was for Thanksgiving and Sectionals, where she served at Kitty’s mentor, and revealed that at Yale, she was sleeping with a much older professor (side note: How is she okay with doing the very thing she flipped out on Puck about in Season 3?). She also came back to Ohio one more time for Schu’s wedding, but otherwise, the only other time we saw her was she and Santana’s emergency intervention trip to New York where they convinced Rachel not to do a student film where she would have to remove her clothes. She had already been demoted to a special guest role for Season 4, and rumor has it she actually wasn’t included in the Cory Monteith tribute episode, so don’t hold your breath for her return in Season 5. It looks like her arc has officially come to an end.
Noah Puckerman: Lima’s bad boy almost didn’t graduate from high school, but at the last minute he was given a diploma, and set out for L.A. to be a screen writer. He keeps up with the charade for a while, even though he does come back to Lima a bit, to coach his newly found younger brother Jake. After he takes Jake to L.A. for Hanukkah, he comes out with the truth—he hasn’t been writing his screenplay at all in L.A. In fact, he’s doing the exact same thing he did in Lima—cleaning pools. He decides to come back to Lima to work on the screenplay there (he can write anywhere), and spend time with his little brother. In the meantime he briefly dates Kitty (EWW!), and then eventually starts camping out in Finn’s dorm room to write (even though he isn’t enrolled in classes), party, and keeps his friend on track towards his degree. Another actor who was demoted this summer, we shouldn’t expect too much from him either in Season 5, but I expect there will be a big role for him in the tribute episode.
Mercedes Jones: Mercedes went off to L.A. to be a back-up singer for an Indie label—and somehow got a whole recording contract of her own. She came back to Ohio a few times to deliver a sassy line here and there, but she didn’t really have any storyline until the Stevie Wonder tribute episode. It was revealed in this episode that her producer actually wanted her to give off a sexier image, threatening to even put someone else on the cover of her album. After she continued to refuse, she was eventually released from her contract, and began to sell copies of the CD out of her trunk and online, forgoing the traditional route to musical stardom. She will also be less frequently seen in Season 5 as she was also demoted, but she will still be seen on TV—she’s competing in the newest season of Dancing with the Stars on ABC.