[3] Shelby returns in the second episode of the third season, "I Am Unicorn", having been headhunted to coach a second glee club at McKinley High financed by Sugar Motta's (Vanessa Lengies) wealthy and doting father.

[4] Quinn quickly resumes her normal appearance, but reveals to Puck she is only pretending to behave in order to take Beth back from Shelby, and intends to pursue full custody.

[7] In the season four "Sweet Dreams" episode, which establishes that she is living in New York with Beth and is running a day care business, she tells Rachel to be original in her choice of music at her audition for the role of Fanny Brice in the upcoming Broadway revival of Funny Girl.

[8] During its initial run of episodes, Glee fans lobbied for the Broadway actress (Idina Menzel) to be cast as the biological mother of Rachel Berry, due to the strong resemblance between her and Michele.

The article also noted that her character, Shelby, would be "returning from New York to Ohio to join William McKinley High School as a new teacher".

[14] Upon the character's introduction, Lisa Respers France of CNN wrote that she was "praying" that Shelby would turn out to be Rachel's biological mother, noting the stark resemblance between the two actresses.

"[16] The revelation that Shelby is Rachel's biological mother, in the "Dream On" episode, was greeted as poignant and realistic by VanDerWeff, and as "great" and humanizing by Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack.

[17][18] Respers France was so impressed with the storyline that she was initially concerned it may be a dream sequence, and Eric Goldman of IGN found it the episode's strongest attribute.

[23] Samantha Urban of The Dallas Morning News dismissed the fact that Shelby had been hired to form a second glee club at McKinley as "mind-bogglingly idiotic".

[24] Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times found the idea incomprehensible,[25] and Vanity Fair's Brett Berk wrote, "Given Will's ongoing struggles to fill his own crooning baker's dozen, this is about as realistic a plan as Michele Bachmann starting a rival chapter of PFLAG at Liberty University.

"[26] Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger characterized the notion of "Shelby deciding to give up a burgeoning Broadway career because she was missing her daughter grow up" to take a part-time job in Lima as "ridiculous", and the whole scenario as "more than a little bizarre".

"[34] At the time, Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal described the number as one of the most poignant duets the series had done, and concluded that "the vulnerability they conveyed is stunning in its simplicity and perfection.

[36][37][38] VanDerWerff spoke of "absolute perfection",[17] while Blair Baldwin of Zap2it acclaimed it as "an ideal pairing of wicked-great vocalists," and as the show's best musical sequence since its inception.

[39] The acoustic performance of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", in the "Theatricality" episode, sung by Rachel and Shelby was met with mixed reviews.

Both Anthony Benigno, writing for The Faster Times, and Rae Votta of Billboard compared it favorably to their previous duet, "Poker Face", from season one.

[45][47] Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman was not impressed and characterized it as "Lite FM snooze that does nothing to showcase these Broadway belters in a new and exciting way", and Amy Lee of The Huffington Post named it "pretty bland".

[49] The mash-up of "You and I" by Lady Gaga and another "You and I" by Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle, in the "Mash Off" episode, performed by Menzel and Morrison was well received by critics.

"[51] Slezak awarded the performance a "B" grade, and opined: "I loved the audacity of mashing up Lady Gaga with an Eddie Rabbit–Crystal Gayle chestnut, and the results had the sheen of '70s a.m. radio fare.