The Gleek Critique: "Never Been Kissed" Episode

Kurt's surprising first kiss!  Image property of Fox.

So Glee decided to skip a week again.  Lame.  I'm getting tired of this every other week thing.  I need my Glee fix on a weekly basis, thank you!

This week, the Glee kids are getting all hot and heavy with their make-out sessions, and in order to calm themselves down, they decide to start thinking about Coach Beiste because she's, let's face it, not sexy.  Beiste finds out though, and is so hurt by it that she quits.  It's up to Will to get her to come back.

Puck is back from juvie and needs to do community service or he'll be sent right back.  So he decides taking care of a "cripple" is good enough, and spends all his time wheeling Artie around.  Puck also takes it upon himself to teach Artie his bad boy ways to get girls... specifically Brittany who Artie still has some feelings for apparently.

Then there's Kurt, who's being bullied relentlessly for being gay and nobody seems to care.  So he decides to check out a nearby private school for boys, where he meets Blaine.  Kurt obviously wants to go to school there, where they have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying, but Blaine advises him not to run away from his problems but to meet them head on.  To have courage.  So Kurt decides to stand up to his bully, and lo and behold, the bully is a little gay too...

The Pros:

• Puck and Beiste are back!  My friend Rebecca's theory is that the two of them secretly ran away together on some romantic vacation.  Ha ha!  But no matter why they've been absent, we're sure glad they are back. 
• Darren Criss is on Glee now!  Yay!  I've loved him ever since he played Harry Potter in A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel (with songs written by him I might add)... so to see him join the cast of my favorite show is just like Christmas coming early!
• When Beiste said, "You crap on my leg, I'll cut it off!" to Quinn I laughed so hard I almost crapped... but not on her leg.  Just in my pants.  That's embarrassing... but I really did laugh really hard.  
• Seeing Beiste all dressed up in lingerie and cheerleading uniforms was pretty hilarious as well.
• Oh, and Will kissed her!  Oh yes he did.

The Cons:

• They revealed who they are competing against at Sectionals...  what happened to the glee clubs from last year?  No bad girls?  No deaf kids?
• Happy about Darren Criss, but sad that he had to cut off all of his hair.  I liked his curls.
• Karofsky, the football player who bullies Kurt kissed him!  He kissed him!  Kurt's first kiss was with a guy who he doesn't even like... how sad is that?  And what's worse... I have a sneaking suspicion that he'll actually end up being the boyfriend Kurt's been rumored to have this season.  Ryan Murphy said he'd be a regular guy struggling with his feelings, and this guy fits that bill.
• Unless I'm forgetting one, there were only four musical numbers this episode... and only one of them was good.