In preparation for an interview with Splits Magazine, Sue demands that new cheerleader Mercedes Jones lose ten pounds in a week. She reserves the school auditorium for cheerio practice, so Will has to find the club a new rehearsal space.
He visits a local roller rink where he finds former glee club member, April Rhodes, who tells him that she is the mistress of the wealthy tycoon (Buddy) who owns the rink. Upon learning that Will is looking to sublet his apartment, April invites herself to visit. After spending the night sharing a bed, Will forbids April from staying over again and tells her she is worth more than being a mistress. April says she will break up with her tycoon.
Mercedes struggles to eat healthily and her mid-week weigh-in shows that she has gained two pounds. She begins extreme dieting and faints in the school cafeteria. Quinn sympathizes with Mercedes knowing what she is experiencing, commending her for being so comfortable in her own body and advising her not to let being a cheerleader detract from that. Though Mercedes is embarrassed, Quinn tells her that she is beautiful. On the day of the pep rally, Mercedes abandons the planned routine to sing Beautiful by Christina Aguilera.
Kurt is not as supportive of Mercedes as usual in this episode, pushing her to lose weight and going on a crazy diet himself. This is partly due to his preoccupation with Finn, and partly because of Kurt's desperation to remain a Cheerio and therefore part of the "in crowd". When Mercedes sings Beautiful, Kurt realises his mistake and admits he was wrong.
The journalist from Splits Magazine assumes that Sue engineered the performance and expresses his admiration for her saying that before he was going to publicly humiliate her before, but he now promises her positive publicity from his article.
Mercedes hallucinates Artie as a slice of cake.
Kurt sets up his widowed father Burt with Finn's widowed mother Carol. He believes that it will help him become closer to Finn for whom he has feelings. Finn is upset when Carole sells their old furniture and stops his late father's recliner from being sold. He is initially hostile to her dating someone new but begins to bond with Burt over sports at a group dinner. Kurt feels left out and later asks Finn to help him break up their parents.
Kurt singing A House Is Not A Home
Finn initially agrees, but relents after Burt tells him that he loves Carole and would never hurt her. They watch a basketball game together and Finn allows Burt to sit in his father's recliner, while Kurt watches on sadly through the window. When April attempts to break up with her tycoon, he has a stroke and dies. His wife gives April two million dollars as hush money, and April uses some of it to buy the auditorium for the glee club. She plans to go to Broadway to launch the first all-white production of The Wiz. The episode ends with April and the glee club performing Home from The Wiz.
