Taylor Swift Visited The Glee Set For This Bizarre Season 5 Episode

If you’re both a Swiftie and a Gleek, you know that Taylor Swift’s Glee ties go way beyond her music being performed on the show, which only happened twice, with “Mean” and “Mine” in seasons 3 and 4, respectively. Early during the show’s six-season run, Swift was photographed hanging out with both Chord Overstreet and Cory Monteith — the latter of whom may have even served as the inspiration for “Mine,” according to fan theories.

There’s also Swift’s friendship with Dianna Agron, which some fans theorized to be more than platonic. While Agron shut down those rumors long ago, it’s clear that the Glee cast became friends with Swift via Agron anyway. In fact, Swift even stopped by the set during the filming of a Season 5 episode, “Tested.” Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz discussed the surprise visit during the Jan. 26 episode of their podcast, And That’s What You Really Missed.

The 2014 Glee episode, which saw Artie test positive for chlamydia and, at one point, dress up as an actual STD (no, really), was McHale’s least favorite storyline for his character. But filming wasn’t so bad, he said. “It was fun because it was insane.”

McHale got word that Swift was on set while he was filming one of the episode’s musical numbers. “She was filming on Paramount that day, and we all knew her through Dianna.” The visit made McHale feel “very famous,” he continued. “I was like, ‘Don’t worry guys, we’re friends. It’s fine.’”

Agron herself may not have been around during Swift’s visit, as her only two episodes during Glee Season 5, “100” and “New Directions,” aired weeks before “Tested.” But clearly, Swift had other familiar faces on hand to welcome her to set.

Though “Tested” itself is a bizarre entry that tends to rank fairly low in popularity among other Glee episodes, perhaps knowing that Swift was hanging out backstage will make your rewatch experience just a little bit more fun. While it might seem like the perfect opportunity for Swift to have made a Glee cameo, it simply wasn’t in the cards — though creator Ryan Murphy revealed in an earlier podcast episode that he regrets that. “I really wanted to do a Taylor Swift tribute episode ... I think she’s so amazing and those songs would’ve worked so well on Glee,” he said. “Taylor Swift was kind of the one that got away.”