Meanwhile, out in the lobby, Jesse St. James catches up with Carmen Thibodeaux and, after he introduces himself as Vocal Adrenaline's coach and reminds her that he himself auditioned for her two years ago, he urges her to reconsider Idiot Rachel's application to Fake Drama School In New York. Madame Thibodeaux is initially frosty, but when she remembers he performed "Giants In The Sky" from Into The Woods and proceeds to compliment him on his "admirable" "passion and vocal range," it becomes pretty clear this little gambit of his has worked. Well, I think it's pretty clear that it worked -- I mean, Idiot Rachel is totally going to Fake Drama School In New York in the fall, right? Right. Oh, and by the way, when the eminent Madame Thibodeaux notes that Jesse St. James's "diction wasn't crisp enough to handle what is arguably Sondheim's most challenging work," Whoopi Goldberg completely mangles her enunciation of the word "arguably." Way to go, Glee.

And without further ado, it's time for The Forty-Eighth Annual National High School Show Choir Competition's awards ceremony. Of course, only three teams are on the stage at the moment, even though last year's Nationals competition featured something like a hundred of them, and the performance rounds spanned a period of several days. I guess this sort of downsizing is what happens when your sole corporate sponsor's been out of business since the closing days of the Clinton administration. In any event, those three teams are New Directions (of course), Vocal Adrenaline (of course), and "The Portland Scale Blazers," the latter of whom apparently offered the audience a stirring tribute to that timeless Andrew Lloyd Webber classic Starlight Express when nobody was paying attention.

First up is the competition's "Individual Show Choir MVP Award," and while Idiot Rachel obviously covets that particular trophy, it ends up going to Not Really All That Unique. And now that I'm getting a good look at Not Really All That Unique's fellow students from Carmel High, it's pretty clear Jesse St. James has continued Idina Menzel's fine tradition of deploying twelfth-year seniors, because that guy on the left is definitely pushing thirty. Possibly from the other side, even.