‘Glee’ season 5, episode 17 review: Rachel Berry’s ‘Opening Night’; Sue finds love

You’ve waited for it for years, just in the same way that Rachel Berry has. But on Tuesday night, the big opening night episode of “Glee” was finally here. “Funny Girl” debuted on Broadway, and for the first twenty minutes or so, we got a one-way ticket to the Berry anxiety party.

Of course, she did eventually make her way to the stage … albeit with some surprising encouragement from Santana of all people. Naya Rivera returned this week, and there were also appearances from Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch. Will wasn’t around for long, though, as Emma was off giving birth in Ohio. Meanwhile, Sue Sylvester actually did the last thing that we would ever imagine from her in the Big Apple. She found love!

Through around the first 50 minutes of the episode, we were starting to genuinely think that we were going to be right smack in the middle of one big party. The show went well, there was a party at a gay bar, and all seemed to be good … until of course Rachel ended up telling Sue off after she slept with her new man-friend all over her apartment.

In the end, we were waiting for another shoe to drop that never came. Rachel got rave reviews for her performance, Will is now a father to Daniel Finn Schuester (a nice touch by the writers), and Sue realized that she loved New York … but she loved being in Lima more. This entire episode was a nice sweet win for most of the characters, and we do still think there will be struggles ahead. There will just be a different sort of struggle. At least this episode brought us so many game-changing moments, and also a sort of idealism that is okay to feel from time to time. Grade: B.

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Photo: Fox