There's a Major Connection Between 'The Girl From Plainville' and 'Glee'

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from The Girl From Plainville Episodes 1–4.

The eerie story of Michelle Carter has been dramatized in the Hulu original TV series The Girl From Plainville. Her case, which sparked nationwide attention, raised the question of whether a person could be found criminally responsible for someone's death if they encouraged them to kill themselves via text message.

But a deeper look into Michelle Carter's case revealed a strange tie to the musical series Glee, which premiered in 2009 and starred Lea Michele as Rachel Berry and the late Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson.

As viewers familiarize themselves with the real-life case of Michelle Carter through the Hulu series, some may be wondering about the connection between The Girl From Plainville and Glee. Keep reading to learn more about it.

In 2017, Michelle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after she urged and encouraged her suicidal boyfriend, Conrad Roy, to follow through with killing himself. It all went down via text messages that date back to 2014.

Now, Michelle is 25 and has largely stepped away from the limelight following her release from prison in January 2020. It’s unclear what she’s up to these days, whether she still lives in Plainville, and what her opinion is about the Hulu series.

But back to the Glee connection: Episode 1 of The Girl From Plainville ends with Michelle (Elle Fanning) staring at her reflection, crying in front of the mirror, and rehearsing lines that Lea's character, Rachel Berry, says on Glee. Michelle is specifically honing in on the episode titled "The Quarterback," in which Rachel deals with her grief and sadness over Finn's untimely death.

The premiere of The Girl From Plainville concludes with Michelle singing “Make You Feel My Love" in an overly emotional way that suggests she might be able to make herself cry on cue.

To viewers, it’s almost as if crying on cue is something Michelle is practicing in order to invoke pity from an audience who may one day see her perform a cover of the song in honor of Conrad's death. Also, when Michelle's parents start questioning her about her involvement with Conrad‘s death, she instantly begins quoting a line from Glee — which her sister recognizes and calls her out for.

In one major scene from Episode 4 of The Girl from Plainville, Michelle finds herself dressed up in a Glee-inspired schoolgirl outfit like the one Lea wore on the show. She breaks into song in the middle of the road near her neighborhood and envisions Conrad standing there, belting out the lyrics back to her. He too is notably wearing a letterman jacket similar to the one Cory wore in the Fox series.

Michelle and Conrad are matching in red, looking like characters plucked right out of a classic Glee episode. Is it possible that Michelle wanted to encourage Conrad to end his life so that she could receive the same amount of attention, empathy, and recognition that Lea Michele received when Cory, her co-star and boyfriend at the time, passed away?

In real life, that's what the prosecution claimed. Michelle Carter sent her friends "thousands of text messages ... before, during, and after Roy's death" in which "she placed herself at the center of his suicide and blamed herself for not stopping him," prosecutors said, per BuzzFeed News.

But almost more uncannily, upon reviewing the texts, which were read aloud in court, BuzzFeed News readers pointed out that several of the messages appeared to be lifted — nearly word for word — from the aforementioned episode of Glee.

Episode 5 of Hulu's The Girl From Plainville premieres on April 12, 2022.