Rachel Barbra Berry is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Lea Michele, and appears in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Rachel was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. Rachel is a main vocalist in the glee club of the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, where the show is set. She faces alienation and bullying from her peers due to her Broadway ambitions and overbearing personality, but is ultimately kind-hearted and willing to help others, even if her help is sometimes unnecessary. In the show's first season, Rachel develops romantic feelings for Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), a member of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, as well as quarterback and glee club co-captain Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), to whom she eventually becomes engaged.
Michele based Rachel on herself when she was younger, and also drew inspiration for the character from films including Election, and television portrayals such as the Gossip Girl character Blair Waldorf. "Rachel will never be popular because her looks aren't considered beautiful," said Michele, "and when I was in high school it was the same for me. I didn't get a nose job, and every single girl around me did. Therefore, I was out. What's so great about Glee is that it shows you how that kind of stuff hurts, but it doesn't matter: You can still be who you want to be."
Rachel is a "strong, driven girl" but somewhat neurotic, and Glee follows Rachel's journey to become more of a team player as well as fulfil her own aspirations. Michele was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2010, and for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 2010 and 2011 for her performance in the role. Rachel received mostly positive reviews from critics: Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune praised Michele for making the character "more than a humorless stereotype", though The Wall Street Journal‘s Raymund Flandez has described Rachel as "insufferable". Several songs performed by Michele as Rachel were released as singles, available for digital download, and featured on the show's soundtrack albums. Rachel is the most frequently seen character on the series, with “Dynamic Duets”, "The Role You Were Born To Play" and "Shooting Star" (all in season 4) being the only episodes where she does not appear.
Storylines
Season 1 Rachel is Jewish. Her fathers named her after Rachel Green from Friends, and her middle name is in honor of Barbra Streisand. She joins the newly reconstituted glee club hoping that fame will increase her popularity and help her find a boyfriend. She is bullied by members of the school cheerleading and football teams, but is pleased when self centered quarterback Finn Hudson joins the club, developing a crush on him. The two share a kiss in the episode "Showmance", although he asks her not to tell anyone and continues dating his jealous girlfriend, cheerleader Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron). Rachel quits the glee club when she is not assigned a solo she wanted and takes the lead role in the school musical, Cabaret, unaware that Sue Sylvester was using the musical as a means of destroying the glee club by luring away their most talented member. Finn uses Rachels feelings for him to try and get her to return to glee and takes her on a bowling date where they kiss again. Rachel finds out he was only using her as a means of getting a music scholarship to one day take care of his and Quinn's baby. Finn apologizes and insists he has feelings for her, but she's angry and slaps him and refuses to rejoin the club. However, she later quits the musical and rejoins the glee club when she realizes that she would rather be in a group in which she has friends. She has a brief relationship with another glee club member, Puck (Mark Salling), who is also Jewish, and is a football player who used to bully her, but she breaks up with him due to her continuing feelings for Finn. She later discovers and reveals to Finn that Quinn's baby isn't his, but that Puck is the father. Finn attacks Puck, breaks up with Quinn, and drops out of New Directions. He returns the day of the group's first major competition, the Sectionals, to undo sabotage by cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch); the group makes up a completely new set list, which Rachel opens with a solo of "Don't Rain on My Parade", and New Directions wins by unanimous decision.
For a short time Rachel believes that she is dating Finn, but he tells her that he needs to take time out for himself. He changes his mind soon after, but Rachel has already begun dating Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), the lead singer of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline. The rest of the glee club presses Rachel to break off with Jesse believing he is just a spy, but he transfers to William McKinley and joins New Directions, which defuses their concerns. Finn is quite jealous of Jesse and serenades Rachel by singing Rick Springfield's Jessie's Girl in glee club. Rachel tells Jesse that her dream is to find her birth mother and surrogate, and he offers to help her do so. However, he already knows who it is: Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), who has asked Jesse to befriend Rachel so that she might reconnect with her daughter, whom she is not allowed to contact directly until Rachel is eighteen. When Rachel discovers that Shelby is her mother, they both confess to not feeling an immediate attachment and eventually decide not to pursue a relationship. Jesse betrays Rachel and returns to Vocal Adrenaline, leaving her devastated after throwing eggs at her in the parking lot at McKinley. Finn and Puck attempt to avenge Rachel by slashing the tires of all Vocal Adrenaline members cars but Shelby catches them. Rachel later kisses Finn after he gives her a pep talk about her being glee s true leader and it appears they are finally officially a couple. In the episode "Journey to Regionals", as Finn and Rachel are about to go onstage at Regionals, Finn tells her that he loves her. New Directions loses to Vocal Adrenaline which means their glee club will be shut down. Rachel gathers the club together to show their appreciation to Mr Schue as their mentor. As it happens Sue Sylvester helped save the club for one more year.
Season 2 At the start of season 2 Rachel is shown to be very insecure. Rachel recruits a potential new glee recruit (Sunshine Corazon (Jake Zyrus)) but later feels disheartened by her talent and in revenge after Sue silences her in the bathroom, sending her to an inactive crack house. In the end this action angers her teammates except for Finn and Sunshine ends up transferring to Carmel High and joining Vocal Adrenaline thanks to an evil plot from diabolical cheer coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). Rachel is happy when Finn is temporarily cut from the football team, feeling if they are both unpopular they are more even in their relationship, but is disappointed in him after he throws a tantrum in front of Sam Evans and Coach Beiste whom he bullied to get kicked off. When he gets back on the team, she initially asks him to quit but later apologizes, saying she needs to trust him and allow him to grow. Despite these tests, their relationship remains quite strong through the beginning of season two and they vow never to break up with each other. The two work together to throw the glee club's duets competition so newcomer Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) wins instead. Rachel eventually discovers that Finn slept with cheerleader Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) the previous year while Rachel was dating Jesse, and lied about it, though Rachel herself had lied and said she had slept with Jesse when she hadn't; hurt, she makes out with Puck to hurt Finn back; this betrayal causes Finn to break up with her. Rachel tries to win him back, but he instead rekindles his feelings for Quinn and starts dating her. Wounded by Quinn telling her that the two of them are back together, Rachel writes an original song for Regionals, "Get It Right", and when New Directions wins, is named the club's competition MVP.
Just before junior prom, Jesse returns, having flunked out of UCLA, and Rachel invites him to the prom with her, Sam and Mercedes (Amber Riley). Jesse and Finn are kicked out of the prom when an obviously jealous Finn picks a fight with Jesse for kissing Rachel on the dance floor, which effectively ends Finn and Quinn's campaign for prom king and queen. Finn ultimately breaks up with Quinn when he realizes he has a deeper connection with Rachel. At Nationals, Finn invites Rachel on a date and takes her to Sardi's restaurant. He tries to kiss her but she denies him and walks away. Later as the New Directions are about to go on stage, Finn begs Rachel to get back together with him, but though she professes her love, she refuses, still torn between her love for New York and Broadway and her love for him. At the end of their duet—"Pretending", a song written by Finn for Rachel —an enthusiastic audience falls silent when Rachel and Finn share a long passionate unscripted kiss; the glee club comes in twelfth. Back in Ohio, Rachel and Finn discuss their loss and agree it was worth it since they are now back together. Finn reminds Rachel that she has a year until graduation and moving to New York; he kisses her, and their relationship resumes.
Season 3 Rachel, along with Kurt, plans to attend a performing arts school in New York City after graduation. School counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) suggests they consider The New York Academy of Dramatic Arts (NYADA), a highly desirable school. The two attend an Ohio "mixer" for potential applicants, only to discover that their competition is very much like them, and quite talented. Rachel proposes that McKinley do West Side Story as the school musical, since she believes herself to be a shoo-in for the lead role, Maria, and she needs the experience for her NYADA application. However, Mercedes also auditions for Maria, and the directors, unable to decide between the two of them even after head-to-head callbacks, decide to double-cast the role, giving Rachel and Mercedes each a week of the two-week run. Mercedes, believing she did better in the callbacks, refuses to accept the double-casting and withdraws from the show, leaving Rachel to be Maria. She and Finn decide to have sex in the episode "The First Time". In the episode "Mash Off", Rachel abruptly withdraws from the race for senior class president in favor of Kurt after she realizes he might not get into NYADA with her if he doesn't win. She goes even further in the next episode, "I Kissed a Girl", when she stuffs an election ballot box in Kurt's favor to keep him from losing. He loses anyway, and she confesses: she is suspended from school for a week and forbidden to compete in Sectionals with New Directions, though the glee club wins without her. At the end of the episode "Yes/No", Finn asks her to marry him, and after hesitating for several days, she accepts. Their parents find out in "Heart", and hope to discourage the pair, but their plans backfire and the wedding date is moved up to May. Even that date seems too distant, so Rachel and Finn later decide to marry after Regionals in "On My Way".