The episode's plot centers on the impact Finn's death has on the characters, specifically Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), Noah Puckerman (Mark Salling), and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).

Three weeks later, they reunite at McKinley High, where glee club director Will Schuester invites them to honor Finn through song, as their personal memorials for him.

Principal Sue Sylvester allows the students to turn Finn's old locker into a memorial, and plants a tree in his honor, which is later stolen.

Santana Lopez, unable to cope with her grief, leaves to visit Finn's memorial, only to find a group of Cheerios taking it apart on Sue's orders.

Football coach Shannon Beiste notices that Noah "Puck" Puckerman is continuously drunk following Finn's funeral and confronts him.

New Directions places drumsticks on Finn's memorial, where they meet Rachel Berry, who performs "Make You Feel My Love".

She conveys that she is especially uncertain of the future, as she always planned to have a successful Broadway career and "maybe do a Woody Allen movie" before reuniting with Finn in Lima for them to spend the rest of their lives together.

[1] Fox President Kevin Reilly told the Television Critics Association on August 1, 2013, that Finn would be written off the show in the season's third episode, and also that the contents might include previously unused footage and outtakes involving the character.

"[9] Reilly said that a series of public service announcements dealing with the topic of drug addiction would be filmed by the Glee cast and creators for airing during this episode.

[7][10] Recurring characters in this episode include former glee club members Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling) and Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.), Finn's mother Carole Hudson-Hummel (Romy Rosemont) and stepfather Burt Hummel (Mike O'Malley), McKinley guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones),[8] McKinley janitor and former principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), cheerleader Bree (Erinn Westbrook) and McKinley freshman Dottie Kazatori (Pamela Chan).

"[18] Allison Keene of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review to the episode saying "Ultimately, "The Quarterback" was respectful, and was successful as the cathartic memorial—for both the cast and viewers—that it was intended to be.

Kurt, his father Burt (Mike O'Malley), and Finn's mother Carole (Romy Rosemont) all talked about the sadness and tragedy of losing a family member, and the moment when the three of them huddled together on the floor to cry and comfort one another was truly the episode's show-stopper."

"[19] Lauren Hoffman of Vulture gave the episode a 4 out of 5 saying that "If you want to distill last night’s Glee down into two sentences, those (spoken to Puck by Coach Beiste) might be the best...It’s tragic.

"[23] He did, however, comment positively on the episode's transition from comedic to serious; its song choices; and its overall effect, which "was indeed a sense of finality, particularly as it relates to the fleetingness of fame.

And so he, too, summed up an episode of good intentions and mixed success, that was less a story and more of a loosely structured narrative space to contend with the theme of grief, messy and hard.

[24]Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the episode a mixed review, saying "perhaps it is best to think of Thursday's broadcast as a labor of love, and to presume it worked best for those who are most devoted to the show and its often heady blend of musical flash, after-school-special preachiness and high-and-low humor.

It could not have surprised anyone that the episode whipsawed between clashing tones: A scene with Sue spewing out no-one-would-ever-say-that insults crashing up against a that's-how-it-must-feel monologue from Finn's mother about the loss of her child.

And if people behaved even more irrationally than usual (would an adult really steal a dead teenager's letter jacket), you can chalk it up to their not being in their right minds.

"[25] He then concluded "It's almost impossible to do a story about the death of a teenager that doesn't induce tears, particularly when the plot is tied into the real-life loss of a well-liked young actor.

"[25] Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times also commented on the absence of an explanation for Finn's death, saying "teens and young adults often die for highly preventable reasons much like Monteith did, and while a drug overdose would have been too on the nose, any of numerous other explanations — from drunk driving to other risky behaviors — would have made this not just a somber sendoff, but a teachable moment to the younger quadrant of the program’s audience.