By LTG | Season 5 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.11.2014
Somehow things get sorted out without Will going to jail. (Maybe having a U.S. Congressman there with him helped? Or is that no longer part of the show's reality now?) As the kids head towards the elevators to go up to their rooms, Blaine notices the entrance of a large group of attractive young people dressed all in black and gets very excited. Nobody else in the New Directions has any idea who these people are, because Blaine is the only one of them who reads the show choir blogs. The group of attractive young people is Throat Explosion, and their leader, Jean Baptiste (played by Skylar Astin, of Pitch Perfect fame). Blaine gives us Jean Baptiste's mini-bio, which is basically that he was a Cirque du Soleil baby who somehow ended up in high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, "where he used his French-Canadian circus stylings to turn the entire show choir world upside down." And he apparently did this all in the single year since the last Nationals, since we'd surely have heard of him by now if Throat Explosion were part of that competition. Right?
Jean Baptiste clearly recognizes the New Directions, giving them a hearty, highly exaggerated, and terribly accented "Bonjour!" He also recognizes Blaine (due to the aforementioned show choir blogs). But Sam steps up and introduces himself as the leader of the New Directions (much to Tina's confusion). Jean Baptiste sees through Sam's bluster and promises to crush the New Directions like bugs. As everyone walks away from his encounter, Blaine mutters "he smells like a winner."
New Finn knocks on Stupid Idiot New Rachel's door and asks to talk to her. He's there because he saw that on her product-placed social media profile page she changed her future occupation from "singer-songwriter" to "undecided." He's worried about her. It turns out that she submitted some songs to a songwriting competition and never heard back. So she's decided she's awful and that it's best to give up on her dreams. And she's going to follow through on that plan by quitting the New Directions after Nationals. That sounds like the right decision.
It's nighttime. The New Directions, flashlights in hand, stumble onto the stage of the auditorium where they will be performing. Everyone's worried they'll get in trouble, but Blaine assures them, "Trust me, when I was in the Warblers, sneaking onto the stage the night before a show was tradition. We had other traditions, but I can't really speak about them." Oh, Blaine -- those other things weren't "traditions." That was just some horny teenage boys taking advantage of your naiveté. But now that they're on the stage, nobody's quite sure what to do. So Sam calls them into a circle to share a surprise with them -- he's brought the portrait of Finn that hangs on the choir room wall with him to L.A. And then Jean Baptiste interrupts "the Directions Nouveaux." It turns out the members of Throat Explosion are there for their own pre-show ritual. And rather than entertain us with a sing-off or a rumble, the kids of the New Directions just slink off with their tails between their legs. But not before Jean Baptiste demonstrates that he's not a total prick by demonstrating that he's aware of the fact that the New Directions are dealing with Finn's death and that he thinks it's wrong to poke that sore spot. Commercials.