Paltrow's debut performance attracted positive commentary and earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011.

She performed several musical numbers during her appearances, which include critically acclaimed renditions of "Forget You" by Cee Lo Green and "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac.

Holly advises Puck and Lauren (Ashley Fink) that the sex tape they plan to make is illegal, as both are minors, and helps Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera) start to come to terms with their true feelings for each other, later performing "Landslide" with them in front of the club.

She is still dating Will, and suggests to him that in order to help raise funds for the academic decathlon team, the glee club should present a benefit concert at the school that will feature songs by "neglected" artists.

[5] In January 2014, it was confirmed that Gwyneth Paltrow would reprise her role as Holly for the show's special two-part hundredth episode, among other past guest stars.

In the episode, Holly slide through the class after being invited by an apologetic April Rhodes (Kristin Chenoweth) to keep the glee kids and alumni's spirit up by performing.

[18] Paltrow's performance in "The Substitute" episode earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and attracted critical praise.

Online's Kristin dos Santos called her appearance Emmy-worthy, with the former rating it among her best performances, and the latter stating that Holly received "some of Glee's best-ever one-liners.

[22] The Atlantic's Meghan Brown commented that Paltrow "brought a massive spark to what could have been a one-note role", and her co-author Kevin Fallon wrote that her energetic performance saved an episode that might have been "in shambles without her presence".

[24] Brett Berk of Vanity Fair found her "surprisingly great",[25] and James Poniewozik of Time stated that while her casting was somewhat distracting, she was able to make Holly a sympathetic character without overdoing her neediness and commitment-phobia.

[26] However, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) took exception Paltrow's history classroom scene where she role-plays as Mary Todd Lincoln, which it stated "mocked and trivialized bipolar disorder".

The Washington Post's Emily Yahr felt that she was better integrated into this episode, and Raymund Flandez of the Wall Street Journal called her return "infinitely better" than her first appearance: "Back then, she was a puzzle, a loony bin.

She commented that while Paltrow's appearance in "The Substitute" was "relatively fresh", in "Sexy" she was "acting almost like a cardboard cutout version of her former self, overly enunciating her lines [and] treading carefully around her choreography".

Both MTV journalist Aly Semigran and Gonzalez approved of Holly's departure, the latter of whom stating that Glee writers gave the character an appropriate ending and rounded out her arc.

[36][37] In contrast, CNN writer Lisa Respers France was dismayed by the character's exit and favored Holly's "memorable" characterization in the episode.

Club, felt the installment "captured the occasional awkwardness of Paltrow's presence on the show", and wrote that casting such a prominent actress "has its disadvantages when you know that she's only around on a temporary basis".

[42] Paltrow's rendition of Cee Lo Green's "F#@k You", sanitized and retitled "Forget You" and featured on the soundtrack album Glee: The Music, Volume 4, garnered positive critical reception.

[43] Anthony Benigno, an editor for the Daily News, and Time's James Poniewozik criticized the show for sanitizing the song, but while the latter found it inferior to the original version, the former preferred Paltrow's deeper voice and awarded it an "A".

[45] Megan Vick of Billboard favored it as "the most exciting number" of the episode,[46] and Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack went further in his praise: he bestowed a grade of "A+" and lauded it as "one of the most memorable and energetic Glee performances ever, thanks in no small part to Paltrow".

[47][48] Benigno gave her short performance of "Conjunction Junction" an "A", and described it as "a glorious ten seconds", and granted the installment's mash-up of "Singin' In The Rain / Umbrella" a "B".

[20] Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times appreciated the mash-up's choreography and the manner in which "Paltrow's sassiness undercuts [Morrison's] overripe sweetness", and named it potentially her favorite group number of the second season.

Benigno was one of these and was entertained by the number, but he thought Holly's "vocals seem oddly subdued trying to imitate Joan Jett's voice" and gave it a "B" grade.

[54] Roberts deemed Paltrow's tango rigid,[32] and The Atlantic author Patrick Burns commented that white people ought to be deterred from performing Prince.

[30] Flandez, however, enjoyed their dancing and wrote, "The strong holds, the slow cuts, the perfect swivel of hips and the lean-to's were mesmerizingly seductive.

[57][58][59][60] Paltrow's performance of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" received the most praise of the songs in the "Sexy" installment; indeed, both VanDerWerff and Harper named it the episode's best number.

[55][63] Roberts found the performance "pretty but uninspired", though Flandez called it "a dreamy, perfectly pitched power song of lesbian love" and Poniewozik "surprisingly poignant".