LOS ANGELES, Calif. – There was a subtle, sad reminder of late “Glee” star Cory Monteith in the TV show’s fifth-season debut episode.

The hour began Thursday with Lea Michele’s character, Rachel Berry, at a callback audition for a Broadway production of “Funny Girl.”

After she overhears the director and star (Peter Facinelli, Ioan Gruffudd) suggest she might be too green, a dejected Rachel walks through Manhattan singing the Beatles’ melancholy “Yesterday.”

At one point, she pauses to gaze at a photo on her cellphone: It’s a group shot of her old high school glee club pals, among them Monteith’s Finn Hudson.

“Oh, yesterday, love was such an easy game to play. Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday,” she sings.

Monteith, 31, died in July of a drug and alcohol overdose. He and Michele’s real-life relationship was mirrored by their characters’ romance on the show.

“Couldn’t have picked a more beautiful & perfect song to start the year with,” Michele tweeted in August, as production on the Fox show got underway.

The new season of “Glee” is beginning with a two-episode salute to the Beatles’ songbook. A tribute to Monteith is planned for episode three, airing Oct. 10, titled “The Quarterback” after his character’s high school football role.

Monteith was among a handful of stars given an individual remembrance at Sunday’s Emmy Awards.

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