New Directions: Taking A Look At Glee’s New Cast Members

Season 4 of Glee has begun and last night’s episode featured new talented blood, both at McKinley High and at NYADA. With new characters coming in, it’s a perfect time to take a look at the new characters and the actors that are portraying them.

(Note: This list only includes characters who first appear in the season premiere, “The New Rachel.” More — including Sarah Jessica Parker — are coming!)

Kitty (Becca Tobin)

Becca Tobin is a new face for probably the majority of the Glee audience as the role of Kitty marks Tobin’s second acting role on TV after a guest appearance as “Heather” on Wiener & Wiener. We are introduced to Kitty as Sue Sylvester’s new “Quinn Fabray,” or Quinn Fabray 2.0: 100% less depressive from pregnancy, car accidents and dramatic break-ups and instead, 200% more…a word that rimes with itchy. She is a friend of the New Directions who has had way too many cocky pills after winning their first nationals. Throughout the episode, she gets nastier and nastier, being a typical shallow cheerleader who turns on the New Directions when they wake up from their arrogant coma and seems to become their latest enemy.

After seeing this character, I kept thinking of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Cordelia Chase who started out the same way; annoying, vain and shallow but a character that I – after two seasons of BTVS – started to like because of the character’s evolution and change of heart. I’m feeling the same about this character, she very Quinn-ish for sure but something felt different and I have the feeling that she might become the snarky Santana type but from a different angle. Tobin’s performance was solid, nothing that really “wowed” me but we are only one episode into the fourth season, so there is plenty of time for her to wow me which I hope she will.

Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist)

Jacob Artist is relativetly new to the TV industry, having done some guest appearances on shows like Melissa & Joey, How to Rock and Bucket & Skinner’s Epic Adventures. He joins the fourth season of Glee as Jake Puckerman; half-brother of Noah Puckerman. Just like Puck the 1st, Jake fills the shoes of the previous Puckerman, filled with a lot more anger and violence than the previous Puckerman. He auditions to the New Directions with the song “Never Say Never” but really upset when he isn’t allowed to finish the song and storms off, without knowing why he wasn’t allowed to finish the song. However, he had already impressed Mr. Schuester.

By the end of the episode, Will finds out that Jake is the brother of Noah Puckerman and wants to recruit Jake so that he – like his brother – can change. Jake refuses as he has no intention of changing who he is only for a Glee club. During a performance by the New Directions, Jake is seen standing and watching from a distance, and something tells us that he might have a change of heart after all. I liked this character; the show always needs bad-@$$es and with the absence of the older Puck, some new Puckerman blood is appreciated. Artist made a great impression on me, he did a good job of being the “Mini-Puck” but at the same time, doing his own thing, both as a character and a singer. This character is someone where I’m looking forward to see where he came from, where he has been all these years, and if we are in for a new round of “Puckerman becomes a good guy.”

Marley Rose (Melissa Benoist)

Melissa Benoist has also a history of a couple of guest appearances from shows like The Good Wife, Homeland, Law & Order (both Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent) and Blue Bloods. Her character, Marley Rose, joins the show as a sophomore who wants to join the New Directions but isn’t a big fan of the Glee Club’s cocky behavior and especially their company, Kitty and her circle of football guys. When Kitty along with Artie (the only Glee member who dares to follow her in order to keep the popularity) makes fat jokes about a lunch lady, it is later revealed that she is Marley’s mother which the two of them keep a secret in order to avoid the same mess that happened at Marley’s last school. Marley’s audition with the song “New York State of Mind” proves that she truly has “magic in her throat” as her mother said and she joins as the only new member of New Directions. Being with the members of the Glee club is not exactly like she had imagined, though, as she gets upset after Kitty’s continuing jokes about the fat lunch lady, at which time she reveals that she is her mother. The Glee Club later apologizes to her and is later confronted by Kitty and her gang who slushies Unique and Marley.

Marley was truly my favorite new character in this episode. I loved that she was the wake-up call that the Glee club needed because they were getting way too cocky, especially when Artie followed the trend of joking about the lunch lady. Her voice was extraordinary and I’m glad that she didn’t start out as just a “shy cute new girl.” Instead she was immediately unafraid to confront people like Kitty for example. Benoist was to me the best casting out of the five new characters.

Brody Weston (Dean Geyer)                  

Dean Geyer starred on Terra Nova as Mark Reynolds and Neighbours as Ty Harper, two shows where he was a regular. Geyer’s character Brody becomes Rachel’s newest friend at NYADA, being a junior and gets off to a good start with her. He fills the absence of Finn, and gets impressed by her performance in the NYADA round room (or as he called it, “room of the freshman reaping”).

He, like the rest of the new blood in Glee, also had a lovely voice and he kind of surprised me at first when he started to get to know Rachel. I expected him to be predictable, but in the end he wasn’t…at least not much.

Cassandra July (Kate Hudson)

I doubt that the beautiful and talented Kate Hudson needs any introduction. Her character, Cassandra July is introduced as a NYADA dance instructor, and unfortunately for Rachel, she is nothing like Will Schuester; instead, she is more like Sue Sylvester minus the cheerleading. Rachel doesn’t seem to like the way how Cassandra teaches and gets disturbed when she picks on (or as Cassandra says, motivating) her. Her big number in the episode is a mash-up of Americano and Dance Again, where she shows Rachel and the other students that she is a force to be reckoned with. After a number of complaints about Rachel’s dance moves, by the end of the episode, she actually compliments her. She seems impressed of Rachel’s spirit and motivation to get better, and says that she will enjoy making Rachel’s life a living hell.

I enjoyed Hudson’s character and the fact that Rachel has a teacher who is hard and strict; something that she didn’t had to deal a lot with Mr. Schuester during her time at McKinley. I will admit that I hadn’t seen the previews before the episode so I was surprised by Hudson’s Americano/Dance Again which was my third favorite after “Call Me Maybe” and “It’s Time.” She is an interesting character and it will be a joy to follow this character in the coming episodes, and see how her methods will affect Rachel.

Wade/Unique (Alex Newell)

Even though he isn’t a new character to the show, Alex Newell’s Unique was something worthy of a shout-out; he is exactly what Glee is and I’m so happy that he is part of the New Directions.

Overall, with the addition of all of these new characters, Glee Season 4 is off to a really good start! It will be great to see what happens next.

Glee airs Thursdays at 9PM on Fox.