Bryan Ryan (Neil Patrick Harris), a former McKinley High glee club member, arrives as an auditor from the school board. He speaks to the glee club, asking everyone to write their biggest dream on a piece of paper. He then takes Artie’s (Kevin McHale) paper, crumples it up, and tosses it into the trash, making a point that their dreams will never come true. Having failed to realize his own dreams, he intends to cut the glee club. Will (Matthew Morrison) convinces him that it is not too late to pursue his dreams and sings “Piano Man” with him. They both audition for the role of Jean Valjean in the local production of Les Misérables, directed by Herb Duncan (Paul Vogt), singing “Dream On” as a duet. Bryan decides not to cut the glee club, and even presents them with new costumes and sheet music, but changes his mind when Sue (Jane Lynch) announces that Will landed the lead role. Will gives up his role in Les Misérables to Bryan in order to save glee club.

Rachel (Lea Michele) confides in Jesse (Jonathan Groff) of her lifelong dream to discover the identity of her mother. While they are searching through boxes of records from her basement, Jesse takes a cassette tape from his jacket and pretends that it came from the box. The tape is labeled as a message from mother to daughter. Rachel refuses to listen to the tape, stating that she is not ready. Jesse later meets with Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, in her car, where she reveals that she is Rachel’s biological mother, but a contractual agreement with Rachel’s two dads prevents her from meeting with Rachel. She implores Jesse to convince Rachel to listen to the tape. In one of the final scenes, Rachel enters her room to Jesse inserting the tape into a cassette player and pushing Play. Despite her protests, Jesse leaves and she listens to the tape, on which Shelby sings “I Dreamed a Dream”, leading to a duet with Rachel in a dream sequence, ending with Rachel back in her room in tears.

After Bryan’s discouraging speech, Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) retrieves Artie’s paper from the trash and learns that his biggest dream is to become a dancer. Tina would like to dance with Artie, but he falls off his crutches when he tries to stand up from his wheelchair. Tina comforts Artie by showing him some of the latest research in spinal cord injury treatments. While waiting for Tina to buy pretzels at the mall, Artie has a fantasy, unbeknownest to the audience at the time, about being able to stand up from his wheelchair and dances to “The Safety Dance” in a flash mob dream sequence. He asks Emma (Jayma Mays), the school guidance counselor, for advice on how to cope with the possibility of walking again in light of the new research, but is disappointed when Emma tells him that such treatments may not become available for a long time. Tina continues to offer to dance with him, but he declines, insisting that she choose another partner but agreeing to sing during the dance. Tina chooses Mike Chang as her dance partner as Artie leads the glee club into “Dream a Little Dream of Me”.
“Dream On” is the nineteenth episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on May 18, 2010. It was directed by Joss Whedon and written by series creator Brad Falchuk. Neil Patrick Harris guest-stars as former glee club star Bryan Ryan

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