She comes back to McKinley with all of the McKinley graduates to try to help Rachel recruit new members for the glee club in the episode "Homecoming". She later tries to convince Rachel to chase her dreams to be on broadway and gives her blessings for Sam and Rachel to pursue a relationship. In the series finale, Mercedes is going to be Beyoncé's opening act for her upcoming world tour, and gives a tearful farewell to her friends. In 2020, she is headlining her own world tour, and watches Rachel win an award. She's now dating Sam again. She attends the McKinley auditorium rededication to Finn Hudson, sings one last song with every former members of New Directions, and take a final bow with the rest of the Glee cast. As Mercedes, Riley features in many ensemble musical performances, has had several solos and duets, which have been released as singles, available for download, and included on "Glee" soundtrack albums. Her first performance, "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, was included in full on the series' first DVD box set, "Glee – Volume 1: Road to Sectionals". In the episode "Acafellas", her performance of Jazmine Sullivan's "Bust Your Windows" was called "showstopping" by Raymund Flandez of "The Wall Street Journal". It was included on the album "", and released as a single, which peaked at number 35 in Ireland. Riley recorded a version of Dionne Warwick's "Don't Make Me Over" for the episode "Hairography". It was used as an instrumental within the episode, rather than performed by Mercedes on-screen, but was included in full on "". Her performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" in the episode "Sectionals" also features on this album. It peaked at number 85 on the Canadian Hot 100. The rendition of Aguilera's "Beautiful" in the episode "Home" was called "so forced that it loses any power it might have from what's a genuinely nice arrangement of the song" by Emily VanDerWerff of "The A.V. Club", while Tim Stack of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that it was "a great moment for not only Amber Riley but for the entire show." The number peaked at 39 in Ireland, and 44 in Canada. Riley duetted with Colfer on "4 Minutes" by Madonna, which was included on the extended play (EP) "", and reached number 32 in Ireland.