William "Will" Schuester is a character on Glee. He is one of the main protagonists in the series. He took charge of the William McKinley High School Glee Club, which he named New Directions after Sandy Ryerson was suspended. He was married to Terri, but the couple divorced after Will found out that Terri lied to him about being pregnant. He is currently in a relationship and living with Emma Pillsbury.
Will is portrayed by Matthew Morrison.
Biography
He had a wife named Terri Schuester who he had been with since high school. They divorced after Will found out she was faking her pregnancy. He was close friends with the football coach Ken Tanaka and is still close with the school counselor Emma Pillsbury, and enemies with Sue Sylvester, the school's cheerleading coach who despises the Glee Club.
Season One
Although the kids are each revealed to have musical talent, the first rehearsal goes terribly leaving Will disheartened. Will is also forced to make the agreement that his group will show at regionals, or risk being shut down. Unfortunately, they lack enough members to even compete at sectionals, which they must win before competing in regionals. Will ends up discovering a powerful new talent in Finn Hudson whilst hearing him sing in the locker room shower. Unfortunately, as no members of the football team would be willing to risk the social scorn that would accompany an audition for the Glee Club, Will resorts to a shocking bit of manipulation and blackmail by planting marijuana on Finn (courtesy of Sandy Ryerson, who is now selling it).
At the same time, Will's home life is shaken when his wife, who has been longing for children, announces that she is pregnant. Although overjoyed by the announcement, Will realizes that he can't afford to raise a child on his teacher's salary and intends to quit, much to the surprise of the Glee kids and the pain of Emma Pillsbury who has a deep-seated crush on Will. She gives him some honest advice before he leaves. This advice, along with hearing the Glee kids perform Don't Stop Believin' on their own, convinces him to stay.
Despite money being tight, Will is bullied into deciding to buy a new house for Terri and the baby. It is revealed however, that Terri is not really pregnant, but instead suffered from a hysterical pregnancy – a medical condition in which she wanted a baby so badly that her body mimicked the symptoms of pregnancy. Rather than admit the truth to Will, Terri panics and continues to claim that she is still pregnant, while for the first few weeks trying to get Will to impregnate her with constant love-making. When Terri discovers that cheerleader Quinn Fabray is pregnant, in an effort to have a baby, she convinces Quinn to give the baby to her, though without offering any support payments and without Will ever knowing. Meanwhile the Glee Club suffers constant dangers, mostly from Sue, who makes multiple attempts to disband the group so that all their funding will be redirected to her Cheerios. She attempts to place spies in the group, and even becomes a co-director during Throwdown. Sue and Will eventually come to a mutual agreement, and Sue backs off trying to destroy Glee, while still remaining a thorn in Will's side. Unfortunately, it is revealed that Sue went back on their agreement as she has given the Glee Club's selection list for Sectionals to their competitors, with the hope that she can get Glee shut down by getting the judges to believe that Will's group cheated.
Things become worse for Will, when at last the truth of his wife's pregnancy comes to light. After searching for some clothes in his wife's drawers, he finds one of her pregnancy pads, and at last realizes he has been lied to. Furious beyond measure, he confronts Terri, who admits that she lied to him about the baby because she believed he planned to leave her. Hurt and unable to even be in the same room as his wife, Will leaves Terri. He heads to the school, where he finds a stack of mattresses given to the Glee kids after they did a commercial for a mattress store, and uses one of them to sleep on. Later however, Sue gladly uses the commercial as grounds to get Glee Club pulled from Sectionals, as they went from amateur to professional by doing the commercial and accepting the mattress as payment. Unwilling to let the kids suffer because he used the mattress, Will resigns as the head of Glee, thus taking the blame for the kids and allowing them to compete.
Will later talks to Emma about his wife's actions and while she too finds it disgusting and insane, she says she cannot fault Terri for being afraid of losing Will, as he has a lot to offer a woman.
Later during Sectionals, Will returns home, and inadvertently runs into Terri. Terri informs him that she is seeing a therapist of sorts for her issues, and Will tells her that while he hopes the best for her, after her betrayal, he just cannot feel the same way about her as he once did. As sectionals comes closer, Will is surprised when Emma decides to take the glee kids to sectionals on her wedding date (she decided to push the wedding back a few hours, allowing her to do both). During the competition, Will receives news that the other schools had the Glee Club's set list, and immediately realizes that he was right about Sue's intentions from before. After
confronting Sue, he convinces Finn to return to the Glee Club as they need a leader. He listens to part of the club's performance through Emma's cell phone, smiling proudly with tears of joy in his eyes. After Sue's actions against the Glee Club come to light, Will is pleased to hear that Sue will be suspended for five months. Sue however is undeterred, swearing eternal vengeance against Will and the Glee Club. Meanwhile, Will discovers that Emma's fiancé Ken Tanaka left Emma at the alter, feeling that she had chosen Will over him yet again. Emma, feeling heartbroken because of Will and embarrassed because she took advantage of Ken as a runner-up boyfriend, decides to resign from the school. However, as she leaves the school, Will stops her and their share their first kiss. In Hell-O it is revealed that Will and Emma have finally begun a relationship together. Later, while the two begin to kiss, Emma has to stop and becomes upset and tells Will she feels that might leave her due to her severe phobias and OCD. Will assures her that is not the case and sings, Hello Again to her. When Will finds out that Vocal Adrenaline member Jesse St. James is flirting with Rachel, he confronts the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, Shelby Corcoran, and they quickly go back to his place and make out. Will then tells Shelby a
bout his relationship problems to which Shelby replies that he has been in a relationship for so long, he doesn't know who he is on his own and needs to take some time to figure that out before he'll be ready for one again. When Emma finds out that "Hello Again" was the song that Will and his ex wife, Terri danced to at prom, she realizes that he isn't really over her. In The Power of Madonna, when he overhears the girls of New Directions talking, he realizes they lack empowerment. In response, he makes the assignment of the week to do a Madonna song in hopes to instill some female empowerment within the girls as well as help the boys come to have more respect for women. When Sue tells Emma she doesn't have the confidence to take control of her body, she approaches Will and tells him that in order to take control of her body "just like Madonna", she will go to his place and "do the nasty"
with him, an offer Will gladly accepts. The two engage in foreplay while singing, Like a Virgin but it turns out Emma decided not to go through with losing her virginity to him. Will then realizes that it was wrong to agree to have her over his place when she was clearly not truly ready. He says they should wait to date again at least until his divorce with Terri is legally finalized.
In Home, Sue books the auditorium for cheer practice so Will has to find a new space for New Directions to practice. He visits a roller rink where he finds the owner is April, who is now a mistress to a rich tycoon. She immediately offers the rink for the glee club to practice. He then tells her that he's looking to lease his apartment and April jumps at the opportunity and says she will be over to look at the place. At first, Will insists she sleep on the couch, but while they sing One Less Bell to Answer/A House Is Not a Home, April makes her way to the bed and Will doesn't object. After this, Will decides he can't allow April to stay over again and tells her he thinks she's worth more than just being a mistress. Later, April returns and purchases the school auditorium for the glee club with some money she'd just received as a deal to keep her affair with the tycoon a secret.
In Bad Reputation, someone posts a "Glist" around the school which ranks the glee club members on sexual promiscuity and Figgins tells Will to find the creator or else he'll disband the club. He questions the members of the glee club but no one comes clean, so for their assignment, they have to choose songs with bad reputations and uses Vanilla Ice's song Ice Ice Baby as an example. During the episode, Sue tells Emma of Will making
out with Shelby Corcoran and sleeping with April Rhodes and convinces her to confront Will and embarrass him in front of the staff. He apologizes to her but she tells him that she can't continue a romantic relationship with him. While leaving her office, he notices a depressed Quinn and suspects that she's behind the Glist and after questioning her, she confesses. However, Will lies to Figgins and said he found no culprit and that the Glists have stopped and drops the matter.
In Laryngitis, Rachel tells Will that she's pulling the team's weight and doing all the work. So he has them do solos that best represent their feelings.
In Dream On, Will's high school rival Bryan Ryan arrives as an auditor to the school and threatens to cut glee club. He convinces Bryan to pursue his old dreams and that it's not too late. They both audition for a play singing the same song for the same part. Will wins the lead role and Bryan decides to cut the club. Will gives Bryan the part to save glee.
Will and Bryan sing-off in "Dream On"
In Theatricality, Will has the boys do a KISS assignment and the girls and Kurt do a Lady Gaga assignment. He finds out that Rachel found her birth mother and that it's Shelby Corcoran. He talks to her, concerned that she isn't into the relationship as Rachel is. Shelby confesses that she can't have more children and Rachel doesn't need her.
Will and Sue (almost kissed)
In Funk, Will and Terri finalize their divorce and he becomes distraught. He gives the members of the Glee club an assignment to perform funk numbers. Tired of Sue's incessant bullying, he tries to seduce her and sings Tell Me Something Good. He asks her on a date, stands her up and humiliates her. When Sue withdraws from the cheerleading competition, Will realizes that many of the cheerleaders might lose scholarships and apologizes to Sue. Toward the end, he has the glee club perform Give Up the Funk in front of Vocal Adrenaline when they find that they can't do a funk number.
In Journey, Sue is the third judge at Regionals and this worries the members of the glee club. Will leads them to Regionals having them perform and pay tribute to Journey. Although getting a standing ovation, the glee club comes in last and Vocal Adrenaline takes first place. Figgins disbands the club and the members perform To Sir, With Love in appreciation for all that Will's done for them. Sue is touched by their performance and has
Figgins give the glee club another year. She explains to Will that she may not like him, but respects him as a teacher. Will tells the club of the extension and performs Over the Rainbow with Puck in celebration.
Season Two
Sue and Will doing a prank on Coach Beiste in the second season premiere of Glee.
After summer break, Will's certain that kids will be lining up to join Glee club. This is quickly found out to not be the case. Sue tells Will that in order to make people want to join, he has to make it a more exclusive club. Will stands by his decision that anyone who wants to join glee club can join. Principal Figgins calls him into his office to tell him that he and Sue will both be losing ten percent of their budget to the new football coach. Will protests that they're barely getting by on the budget that they have, but Figgins remains adamant. Will then thinks that students only think that New Directions is only about show tunes and has the kids show the cooler side of glee club by staging a performance of Empire State of Mind during lunch, which also fails to boost their reputation. Will, who is still on relatively good terms with Sue, talks to her about students defacing the New Directions sign-up sheet. Sue says she defaced it as a wake up call to will, saying that if Beiste isn't stopped, they will continue to lose more of their budget and Will would eventually be forced to cut kids from his club. She proposes they team up to rid the school of Beiste once and for all, to which Will agrees. They begin hazing Beiste, hoping that she won't be able to bear it and quit her job. However, when Sue has Brittany make up a story that Coach Beiste had inappropriately touched her, Will realizes that things have gone too far and convinces Brittany to admit it was a lie. He then apologizes to Beiste and they shake hands.
Will and Carl.
When Will attempts to set New Directions an easy-listening assignment, Kurt informs them there is a Facebook group petitioning the club to perform a Britney Spears number at the McKinley High homecoming assembly. Will refuses, stating that Spears is a bad role model and that it wouldn't do anything special for the club anyhow. He is encouraged by Brittany, who reveals that her full name is Brittany Susan Pierce and she has always felt over-shadowed by the famous Spears. Will discusses his thoughts with his close friend (love interest) Emma. While in her office, he finally meets her new boyfriend. His name is Carl and he is a dentist, and offers to talk to the Glee club about dental hygiene. Will agrees, and the Glee kids begin to get their teeth checked up on by Carl. However, when they go under anesthesia, they begin to have strange hallucinations of them performing Britney Spears songs. Advised by Emma to relax more, Will learns that Carl recently purchased a new Chevrolet Corvette and buys one himself, in a hope to show his change—not only for himself, but for Emma. He is forcefully attacked by his ex-wife Terri, who insists that he return it and stop wasting their savings immediately, as it was doing neither of them any good. Seeing the positive effect Spears had on the glee club students, Will relents and allows them to perform Toxic at the homecoming assembly. He later joins them on the stage in a hope to show his 'relaxed' side to Emma, however, everything goes downhill when the audience get sexually aroused and Sue sets the fire alarm off. Emma tells Will to stop trying to be someone he is not. He returns his new car, and tells the club they will not be performing any more Spears numbers as they were far too arousing and inappropriate for the McKinley Glee Club.
In Grilled Cheesus, Will encourages everyone to learn about religion. When Kurt's father has a heart attack, he and Emma take Kurt to the hospital. Sue Sylvester tries to stop him from doing songs about God, but when New Directions is singing One of Us, she does not object.
Will compliments Mercedes and Santana's performance of "River Deep-Mountain High" in Duets
In Duets, Will doesn't have a major role. He assigns a project to do a duet. He then announces the winners to be Sam and Quinn.
The Rocky Horror Glee Show, Carl interrumps the rehearsal of The Rocky Horror Show, accusing Will of stealing his girlfriend, Emma. This episode continues in flashback format, with Will recalling the events leading up to Carl's accusation. When Will learns that Emma and Carl attended a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show which has helped to lessen some of her obsessive–compulsive behaviors, he decides to direct a school production of the musical, with members of New Directions as the cast members.
Will and Emma practice 'Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me'
As his students rehearse Dammit Janet, Sue convinces Will to involve her in the production. Sue wants it because she is approached by news station managers Tim Stanwick and Barry Jeffries about producing an undercover exposé of the play. Carl also joins, playing Eddie's part and Will becomes jealous because of this. So he decides to play Rocky instead of Sam, and asks Emma to rehearse the provocative Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me with him, conveniently forgetting the disturbing fact that one of his students will be singing the number to him during actual performances. Will is later called into Principal Figgins' office, where he learns that Finn has been suspended for walking through the hallway in his underwear, attempting to become comfortable with his costume. He is able to convince Figgins to reduce Finn's punishment, and the episode returns to the present moment as Carl confronts Will over his private rehearsal with Emma.
Becky alerts Will to the fact that Sue is planning an exposé of the show. He confronts Sue, but concedes that his motivations in putting on the production were questionable. He cancels the show and tells Emma that he will cease interfering with her relationship. Will tells New Directions that they will still perform the musical, but for themselves rather than for an audience. The episode ends with the club performing The Time Warp.
In Never Been Kissed, Coach Beiste, confused, eventually goes to Will Schuester, who reveals the "cool down" method that he had recently talked the club out of. This ultimately leads to Coach feeling horrible and depressed. It leads to her actually wanting to quit. We find this out through Sue, who calls Will into the auditorium and reveals that Beiste quit, firing her confetti cannons. Will catches Beiste cleaning out her office and tries to convince her to stay, telling that the New Direction kids will apologize and make it up to her. Beiste refuses and starts to leave before Will demands that she stay and talk. They have a heart-to-heart, in which Beiste reveals that she's never been kissed at the age of 40, and that she feels lonely and ugly. Will states that she's beautiful, inside and out, and gives her an innocent kiss! He also invites her to come over to the Glee club tomorrow at four.
In The Substitute, Will comes down with a case of the flu, and has to stay home. While Will is sick, Kurt asks the Spanish sub, Holly Holiday to fill in for Mr. Schuester, but Will isn't informed about this. Mean while, Terri comes over to take care of Will while he's sick. She tells him about how she is on medication and how she is seeing a shrink for her controlling problems. When Terri offers to put vapor rub on Will, she gets intimate with him. It is seen that Rachel is clearly jealous of Ms. Holiday and goes over to Will's apartment to tell him how much the kids love Holly and that if he doesn't come back soon, Holly might take his spot. Will has a dream when he was sleeping, and he performs make 'em laugh with Mike Chang. When Will comes back, Sue stops him in the hallway and tells him that she is the new principal and that he is fired and Holly Holiday will take his job. Angered by this, Will confronts Holly, asking her to resign, but Holly refuses, saying that this is a great opportunity for her. Holly later then comes over to Will's house, talking about a big mistake she made that got her fired, and why she was so cool with the kids. Will then gets his job back, and invites Holly to sing Singin' In the Rain/Umbrella with the glee club.
In Furt, Will helps the glee club with a number for Burt and Carole's wedding. He sings Sway at the wedding reception. Karofsky's bullying of Kurt also comes to Will's attention after Karofsky scared Kurt. Will sees this and takes him to the then-principal Sue. She suspends Karofsky but after the wedding it is revealed that the school board has let him come back to school due to there being no witnesses of Karofsky actually physically hitting Kurt.
In Special Education, it is once again competition time. Will invites Emma to accompany him and the club to sectionals. Emma accepts and Will begins to tell her about their setlist. Emma interrupts and guesses the set-list correctly. Will is shocked by this and Emma gently tells him that they do the same thing every year and that he should try to highlight the other talent in the club. Will, following Emma's advice, gives Rachel and Finn's solos to Quinn and Sam. Rachel is furious at this and arrives at glee club the next day with tape covering her mouth. Will shouts at her, demanding she take off the tape. He lectures the glee club, saying that there is a lot of 'me' talk going around which isn't what glee club is about. On the day of the competition, everyone is feeling morose, thinkng that they will not win. Emma arrives and tells Will that she can't go with him to Sectionals. She and Carl had argued the night before and he wasn't happy with her going. At the competition, Rachel is refusing to go on and perform because of Finn's lies and Tina and Artie won't go on because they think that Mike and Brittany are cheating on them respectively. Will is annoyed with them and tells them that last year they had no set-list and no hope in winning - but they did. He tells them he doesn't care if they hate each other he just wants them to go on and perform and for those few minutes remind themselves that they're not alone. New Directions tie with The Warblers, meaning they can proceed to Regionals. Will walks into Emma's office and shows her the trophy. She tells him to sit down and she tells him that while he was at Sectionals, she and Carl had gone to Las Vegas and gotten married. Will is shocked and hurt by this and leaves. Will congratulates his glee club on their victory and offers Rachel a solo. She declines, stating she is too upset by her break-up with Finn. She instead defers it to Tina and Mercedes and they sing Dog Days Are Over.
In A Very Glee Christmas, Will announces to the glee club that they will be raising money for the homeless. They go around the school caroling but they only succeed in being booed and getting a shoe thrown at them. Will buys them a Christmas tree, in an attempt to get them into the holiday spirit. For the faculty 'Secret Santa' Will gets Sue, which he is not pleased about. He visits his former pupil, Kurt, to ask him for advice on a gift. Will soon discovers that Sue had rigged the Secret Santa so she would get all the presents. Will has his glee club perform Welcome Christmas for the faculty, which Sue sees. Later, when Will arrives home, he finds Sue and his glee club decorating a Christmas tree. Rachel tells him that 'No one should be alone on Christmas.'
In The Sue Sylvester Shuffle, Will arranges with Coach Beiste for the football players to join the glee club for one week so they could understand what it was like and to also try and dispel the rivalry between them. Sue makes her Cheerios choose between her and glee club. The Cheerios choose to stay with Sue, meaning that the football team have lost their half-time show. Will announces that the glee club, including the football players, will be performing in Thriller/Heads Will Roll at the half-time show. Though reluctant at first, the football players seem to enjoy performing with the glee club. That is until they get slushied by the hockey players. This causes them to quit glee club and get kicked off the football team. The remaining glee girls-Rachel, Tina, Mercedes and Lauren-offer to become football players. Coach Beiste accepts this offer. At half-time the football players and the three Cheerios come back and perform. The glee club is also awarded Sue's budget, seeing as she had to forfeit Nationals and therefore has no squad to train.
In Silly Love Songs Will gives the glee club a love song assignment.
In Comeback, Will and Emma find a note from Sue, implying that she is committing suicide. They rush to her house to find that she tried to kill herself with gummy bear vitamins. Emma suggests that Sue joins the glee club, to help with her depression. Will is horrified at the idea but agrees to it. Will has given the glee club anthems as their assignment. Will takes Sue to the hospital and brings her to the pediatric cancer ward to show her that she is lucky to have her health and that she has a lot to live for. They sing This Little Light Of Mine with the kids. Sue tells Will that his glee club have no idea what an anthem is and offers her own, SING. Sue later tells Will that she is the new coach of Aural Intensity.
Will and Shannon watch the glee kids perform 'TiK ToK'
In Blame It On The Alcohol, Will tells the glee club to find songs that sends an anti-alcohol message. They tell him that there is no song with that message because alcohol isn't bad. Will decides to put this theory to the test and goes out to a honky-tonk bar with Shannon Beiste. He gets quite drunk and sings One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. He also drunk-dials Sue thinking it was Emma. Sue then plays his drunken message over the school intercom to display Will's drinking "problem." The glee club perform TiK ToK after drinking Rachel's alcoholic concoction. Brittany and Santana throw up during this performance but, lucky for them, when Principal Figgins calls them into his office he praises them on their acting abilities. Will hands out a pledge form to each of his glee kids asking them to refrain from drinking until after Nationals. He also gives them his number and tells them to call him if they need him, no matter what time it is or where they are. He also signs the pledge form.
In Sexy, Holly Holiday is back as the Sex-Ed teacher. She informs Will that his glee kids know nothing about sex and aren't prepared at all. He invites her to teach them through song and she sings Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) Emma is annoyed about Holly's teaching methods and asks Will if her Celibacy Club can perform too. He agrees and they perform Afternoon Delight. Holly is confused at their song choice asking Emma if she was supposed to be promoting celibacy. Emma does not know the real meaning of the song and her husband, Carl asks her for help. Will asks Holly to help him with the song Kiss. They kiss at the end of the song and Will tells her he wants to be with her. She rejects him stating that she will hurt him. She later performs Landslide with Brittany and Santana and takes courage from the song and approaches Will. She wants to be with him too but she doesn't know anything about romance. Will tells her he happens to be an excellent educator and kisses her.
In Original Song, it's time for Regionals. He gets a letter (which was actually from Sue) stating that they couldn't perform SING at Regionals. The group then decide to write original songs. While Quinn and Rachel are writing their own song, Will helps the rest of the glee club write a song. After a few failed attempts from Santana (Trouty Mouth), Puck (Big Ass Heart) and Mercedes (Hell To The No) the group write a song called Loser Like Me which sums up the bullying they get from their classmates and Sue. At Regionals Rachel performs her original song Get It Right followed by Loser Like Me with the rest of New Directions. New Directions win Regionals which means they get to go to Nationals. At the end of the episode Will announces that by a unanimous vote, Rachel has been awarded MVP for all her hard work. Rachel is touched by this and gives a heartfelt speech which ends in a group hug.
In A Night Of Neglect he wants the Glee Club to sell salt water taffy to make money for them to go to Nationals, since Sue has hidden the Cheerios funds in off-shore accounts where Will can't access them. The Glee kids shoot down his idea, complaining they can't possibly sell enough candy since, despite winning Regionals, they are still at the bottom of the social status at McKinley.
Disheartened by the whiny attitude of the glee club members, Mike reveals that he, Tina, Artie and Brittany are in the finals for the Academic Decathlon TV show "Smarty Pants," but their club (the Brainiacs) can't afford to go, so Mr. Schue formulates a plan to raise money for them as well.
Holly and Will discuss the Glee Club and Brainiacs fundraising troubles while on a date, but Holly doesn't like Will's idea. She blames Terri for crushing Will's dreams and thinks they should hold a benefit concert, titling it 'A Night of Neglect'. Will loves the idea, and stipulates that they will only do songs by neglected artists. The Glee kids take this to mean artists that are underappreciated in the music industry as a whole, and artists that are neglected by the Glee Club.
Will finds Emma trying to clean up; her OCD has gotten worse since Carl left her. Will offers to be there for Emma as a friend, to help her get better. Holly oversees the moment, and is jealous.
Holly has another of her infamous lessons in History class (this time about supposed hermaphrodite and Nazi sympathizer Wallis Simpson). Dustin stops by and attempts to flirt with Holly but Will overhears and it almost turns into a fistfight before Holly breaks it up. Will and Holly argue, but agree not to have a silly fight over jealousy. Holly is still upset, however, and says she doesn't want to practice their duet for the benefit.
On the day of the benefit concert Tina performs first with I Follow Rivers with just 6 people in the audience but was cut short when she ran off the stage after being heckled off by the Heckling Club and cries for over an hour. Artie suggests canceling the benefit but Will encourages them to keep going because it's a good practice for nationals. They decide to give the hecklers the salt water taffy (specifically Quinn, using it as a minor bribe to vote for her for Prom Queen). Mike's dance performance to Jack Johnson's Bubble Toes is a hit, as the taffy keeps the Heckling Club quiet.
As New Directions wonders what to do next with the Heckling Club, Will suggests they will simply have to leave them in awe of their terrific performances, so there will be nothing to heckle about. He looks for Mercedes, but she had left the benefit after how she has been treated. The Glee Club is sent to find her, while Holly decides that she will handle the hecklers. She pulls them into the library and tells them how bad heckling makes people feel, and offers them the chance to do something good. They all decide to leave the benefit instead.
After that Holly performs Adele's emotional hit "Turning Tables" as Will watches.
After the show ends with Mercedes singing Ain't No Way, Holly comes out of a janitor's closet (her office) and reveals to Will she got a 4 month job teaching French in Cleveland. When Will points out that this will be the end of their relationship, Holly reminds him of her commitment issues, and tells Will about Emma. Holly has been counselling Emma, and Emma does love Will. But just before Holly leaves, she agrees that one day she will be back.
When Will gets back to the choir room, New Directions is joined by Sandy who has decided to use his drug money to fund the trip to Nationals and the Brainiacs' trip.
In Born This Way, aiming to help New Directions achieve self-acceptance, he urges them to embrace their perceived flaws after hearing Santana Lopez using Rachel's broken nose as a launching point to highlight the other group members' flaws, by printing them on T-shirts to be worn during a group performance of Lady Gaga's Born This Way. He also encourages Emma to confront her OCD.
In this number, they all wore the t-shirts reflecting the traits they have learned to accept namely, he printed "Butt Chin" in his.
In Funeral , he reunited once more with April Rhodes and invited him to join the broadway, to leave the New Directions because it was the kid's dream and not his. Emma was supportive of tthis because she knows that Will is really talented and capable of reaching success.
Will
In New York , he accompanied the New Directions for their Nationals competition in New York City. He had a moment in the broadway stage and sang. He thought of leaving the club for broadway until Dustin Goolsby revealed his plans to the ND (in which Dustin thought would shake the glee club's confidence to perform). He decided to stay and settle their unfinished business. Although they only placed 12th at the Nationals, he was still happy.
Season Three
In The Purple Piano Project he is seen waking up in the same bed as Emma and with them both packing lunch together. At the school he lays out the past trophies New Directions has earned and tells them to see the difference of 12th place and 1st. Afterwards he says they will be starting a project and he rolls out three purple pianos, donated by Al Motta. He is present when Sugar Motta tries out for Glee stating afterwards "Oh Sh-ugar". He is also in a scene with Coach Beiste eating lunch, in a scene with Emma in bed watching the news and also waking up with Emma.
In I Am Unicorn, Will is first seen, welcoming Shelby Corcoran back to McKinley, and also happy with the idea of there being two Glee clubs within the school, as he has since the season opener, advocated for arts education. When Quinn Fabray storms into his office, putting all her past troubles down to both to the arts and the New Directions, Will, after a very heated argument, tells her to "grow up". As Quinn finally comes to her senses, abandoning her delinquent behavior and her questionable clothing, Will, along with the members of the Booty Camp welcomes her back with open arms.
Profile
Singing is what Will is all about. As a student at William McKinley High School, he helped the glee club win the 1993 National Show Choir Championship cup - it was one of the best moments of his life. But after graduation, he stopped performing, married his high school sweetheart and left college with a safe degree in accounting. A few years later, Will found himself back at McKinley, this time as the school's Spanish teacher. And when choir director Sandy Ryerson is fired for inappropriately touching a student, Will offers his services as a replacement, hopeful that it will capture some of the joy from his youth. Of course, Will gets the job and New Directions is born! At home, Will tries to balance the needs of his demanding wife Terri (who says she is pregnant with his baby), the anxiety of fatherhood, and the close bond he's forming with fellow McKinley faculty member, Emma Pillsbury.
Personality/Appearance
Will Schuester can easily be described as the ultimate "Mister Nice Guy". Sweet, compassionate and even a bit naïve, Will is always trying to do his best by not only his loved ones, but also his friends and students. He tries to see good in everyone, and wants to bring that good out of others, especially if it turns out to be musical talent. He is often willing to overlook obvious personality flaws and can at time be completely oblivious to the manipulative and malicious behavior of other people (such as his wife Terri, and at times the intents of Sue).
Unfortunately despite Will's inherent goodness, he's an extremely driven and at times obsessive individual when it comes to his personal desires. He pushes not only himself but his students to their best, to the point that he overlooks or ignores their personal feelings. He is also willing to resort to dark methods in order to get what he wants, such as blackmailing Finn into joining Glee and failing the Cheerios to get back at Sue. Will can also be extremely paranoid, particularly towards Sue (although rarely without reason).
Will can also be hypocritical in his beliefs such as after telling Sue to be fair to people, but then becoming upset at Sue for not giving a handicapped girl special treatment. He also allows his 'liberal guilt' to be unfairly manipulated because although he wants to make everyone happy and desperately doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, others take advantage of that.
His female students have tendencies to fall in love with him and express their love with a gift. As Will said "It always starts, with a novelty gift."
Relationships
Emma Pillsbury
- Main article: Emma-Will Relationship
Will and Emma's first kiss.
Emma Pillsbury is the school guidance counselor who suffers from mysophobia and OCD. She is one of Will's closest friends and he usually comes to her for all of his problems. She's been in love with him for some time now, despite him being married. He too has deep feelings for her, but never acted on it due to his marriage and supposedly expecting wife Terri. Emma, tired of pining after Will, became engaged to football coach Ken Tanaka, who is deeply in love with her but his feelings are one sided.
In Sectionals, Emma moves back their wedding time to take the Glee Club to their sectionals competition as a favor to Will. Ken is very upset by this and declares their relationship over knowing that he could do nothing to prevent the fact that Emma truly loves Will and not he. Will arrives at the wedding and finds Emma sitting alone. She tells him that Ken has dumped her and she admits to Will that she was settling for Ken and if Will had shown any interest in her, she would've been with him in an instant. She tells him that she is resigning from the school because she is ashamed of her actions towards Ken, and heartbroken over Will. He tries to stop her by saying that he has just left his wife but she feels it's too soon for him to move on.
Will and Emma dancing
On the day of her resignation, Will realizes that he can't let her leave. He runs to her office but it's empty. He finally spots her across the hall with a box of her belongings as she is about to leave. He catches up to her, takes the box, shushes her as she is about to say something, and then kisses her for the first time. Afterwards they both look nervous but are smiling.
In Hell-O, Emma stays and they go on a date, which gets very intimate. Emma breaks it off and reveals that she's never been intimate as it makes her uncomfortable and she hasn't found the right person. Will doesn't seem pleased by this news but tells her its okay. In The Power of Madonna, Will and Emma attempt to sleep together because Emma wants to take power of her body. Will later files for a divorce and tells Emma to wait for him. In Bad Reputation, Emma finds out about Will kissing Shelby and sharing his bed with April Rhodes, although she thinks he actually slept with her, via Sue. Sue tells her she needs to stand up for herself and let Will know how he made her feel. Emma confronts Will angrily calling out that he is a slut and she is through with him. He tries to apologize to her later but she is indifferent. In Journey, Emma tells Will that she is seeing someone else now and he vows to fight for her. Despite any relationships Will has had, the actor who portrays him has said that Will's heart is truly with Emma.
In The Purple Piano Project he talks about starting a family with Emma and they seemed to have moved in together, for they are seen waking up in bed together/in bed together many times.
Terri Schuester
- Main article: Terri-Will Relationship
Will and Terri.
Will and Terri started out as high school sweet-hearts, the "it" couple William Schuester and Terri DelMonico. who after graduation got married. Although Terri and Will have been in love for years, it is clear that their relationship is not a healthy one, at least from Terri's end. While Will tries his best to be kind, supportive and understanding, Terri is rude, selfish, manipulative and shows no concern for the consequences of her actions and who they might hurt. The key example of this is when Terri fakes her pregnancy. Rather than admitting to Will the truth, she hides the fact her pregnancy was never real, and behind his back makes plans to adopt Quinn Fabray's baby. Will remains convinced that Terri is a good woman, however as the series progresses he begins to show discontent with the relationship, particularly after Terri begins giving kids medication during a brief stint as a school nurse, and manipulating his student Rachel when she had a crush on Will. Upon discovering that Terri has been lying to him about the pregnancy, Terri reveals that she was unhappy with how Will was more confident and happy, and was afraid that he would leave her, as they were no longer the same people they were as kids. Will is furious and almost on the verge of being violent, as he storms out of the house, with Terri sobbing behind him. The next time we see Terri is in Sectionals, where she tells Will she has began therapy. He tells her that he doesn't feel love for her anymore, and ends up leaving her for Emma. In the episode The Power of Madonna, Will files for a divorce and it's finalized in Funk. In The Substitute Terri looked after Will when he got sick with the flu and Terri started rubbing a oil on his back and then they sleep together. Terri says that she is his wife in front of Holly but Will said to never come back. Terri later Sue's 'League of Doom', the objective of which was to bring down the Glee Club. Later, when Sue had a change of heart, Terri gave Will first class plane tickets to New York for when the New Directions went to sectionals. She then announced that she was moving to Miami to open a new branch of 'Sheets n' Things' and the pair parted on good terms.
April Rhodes
- Main article: April-Will Relationship
Will and April singing Alone.
April Rhodes was a girl who in high school, Will had the biggest crush on. Unfortunately, at the time she was seeing someone else, and more or less had no idea that he existed. Years, later, when Rachel Berry quits the Glee club, Will decides to recruit April as their leading singer. He offers her the chance to get her high school diploma by doing one more credit of Spanish (she dropped out of high school, just short three credits). Will is shocked to find April an alcoholic, has-been, down on her luck, but still offers her the chance, which she takes. The two begin a flirtatious friendship, that falls apart upon discovering that April is leading the rest of the Glee Club down a bad path of drinking and partying. In the end, Will makes an attempt to fire April, who stops him and admits her own failings and how it was not her place to begin with to even be there. She leaves Will and wishes him and the kids well. But recently, in the episode Home, Sue has taken the auditorium for cheerios practice so Will resorts to asking April for a hand. April had begun seeing a very rich man which allowed her partly own a local skating rink. When Will asks her if the glee club could borrow the rink April doesn't even hesitate. April stays the night in Wills apartment, and the two end up sleeping in Will's bed, only sleeping, due to both feeling lonely.
Holly Holliday
- Main article: Holly-Will Relationship
Will pursues and kisses Holly in the episode Sexy, but she saying that she destroys nice guys like him. She later changes her mind, saying that maybe it's time she learns something about romance, and they start dating. They are shown speaking on the phone in the episode Original Song. They break up in A Night of Neglect.
Rachel Berry
Rachel looks deeply into his eyes but Will doesn't like it.
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- Main article: Rachel-Will Relationship
Rachel, his student, had a quite large crush on him for most of the episode Ballad. She gave him a tie, and cleaned and cooked in his house. Will was annoyed and stressed about her inappropriate behavior and tried a variety of methods to tell her he wasn't interested, such as in song, before telling her directly. However, she eventually got over the crush and they mended back their relationship.
Suzy Pepper
Schuester and Pepper
Suzy had a crush on him,. and hinted her attraction to him in class, by asking how to conjugate 'to love'. She gave him a novelty gift and called him in the middle of the night, upsetting his wife. Will told her he wasn't interested directly, causing her much sadness and a hole in her esophagus due to the consumption of the world's hottest pepper. She ended up in a coma as a result and later spent two years in therapy. Will quotes her as crazy.
Songs
Solos
Season One:
- Leaving on a Jet Plane (Pilot)
- Bust a Move (Mash-Up)
- Thong Song (Mash-Up)
- Don't Stand So Close To Me/Young Girl (Ballad)
- Ice Ice Baby (Bad Reputation)
- Tell Me Something Good (Funk)
Season Two:
- Make 'Em Laugh (The Substitute)
- Sway (Furt)
- O Christmas Tree (A Very Glee Christmas)
- Still Got Tonight (New York)
Solos (In a Duet)
Season One:
- Alone (April) (The Rhodes Not Taken)
- Endless Love (Rachel) (Ballad)
- Fire (April) (Home)
- One Less Bell to Answer/A House Is Not a Home (April) (Home)
- Dream On (Bryan) (Dream On)
- Over the Rainbow (Puck) (Journey)
Season Two:
- You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch (k.d. lang) (A Very Glee Christmas)
- One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer (Shannon) (Blame it on the Alcohol)
- Kiss (Holly) (Sexy)
- Dreams (April) (Rumors)
Season Three:
- Fix You (Artie) (Asian F)
- Yoü and I/You and I (Shelby) (Mash Off)
- Christmas Eve With You (Emma) (3x09)
Solos (In a Group Number)
Season One:
- Gold Digger (Showmance) (With Artie and Mercedes)
- I Wanna Sex You Up (Acafellas) (With Puck, Finn, Ken and Sandy)
- Like a Virgin (The Power of Madonna) (With Rachel, Emma, Finn and Santana)
Season Two:
- Toxic (Britney/Brittany) (With Brittany, Rachel, Santana and Quinn)
- Singing In the Rain/Umbrella (The Substitute) (With Holly and Artie)
Season Three:
- It's All Over (Asian F) (With Mercedes, Santana, Finn, Kurt, Puck and Mike)
Unreleased Songs
Season One:
Season Two:
- Sailin' (Britney/Brittany)
- I've Slept With Him (April) (Rumours)
Trivia
- Often wears plaid shirts under a sweater vest with jeans or khakis.
- Favorite song is Bust a Move.
- Married his high school sweetheart and first girlfriend Terri Del Monico.
- Is ridiculed by Sue for his thick curly hair but secretly she is jealous because she dyed her hair with bleaching agents as a kid and was forced to have it cut short.
- Loves 80's music.
- Plays guitar and ukulele.
- Visits the local hospital once a month to sing with kids in the pediatric cancer ward.
- Always eats a cookie with his lunch.
- As a student at McKinley, had a crush on April Rhodes, joining Glee to be near her.
- Drives an old hatchback then buys a corvette, but soon returns it.
- His favorite movie is Singin' in the Rain from 1952.
- Wants to have children.
- Santana said he belongs in a 12 step program because of his "vest addiction".
- Fears head lice.
- Is a "horny drunk".
- Obsessed with the band Journey.
- Of German descent.
- Will has a degree in accounting.
- Has a closet full of vests.
- Gets slushied by the Glee Club in Mash-Up.
- Used to be the star of his glee-club when he was in high school.
- While in this club he placed 12th at nationals, missing the top 10.
- Does not regret his relationship with Terri.
- Has been in love with Emma Pillsbury for well over 3 years.
- His best friends are Emma Pillsbury Shannon Bieste and Henri St Pierre.
- Was 'Teacher of the Year' in the 2008 William McKinley High School Year Book.
- Has a pornography collection. (Implied heavily in Asian F.).
Quotations
- Main article: Will's Quotations
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