It was an exciting
episode of Glee tonight when the club had their second annual boys versus girls
mash-up. For this competition, however, Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) poses
a challenge: the girls must perform songs traditionally sung by guys and vice
versa for the boys. In attempt to redeem themselves from the year previously,
the girls sing an excellent rendition of popular rock and pop singles, “Start
Me Up” by the Rolling Stones and “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi.

Puck (Mark Salling)
is out of juvenile detention but must perform community center and decides to
help Artie (Kevin McHale) by earning him money by singing “One Love/People Get
Ready” by Bob Marley and the Wailers and also getting him a date with Brittany
(Heather Morris). However, when his parol officer believes he is not making
enough of a commitment, he faces the chances of returning back to juvenile
detention unless he can find a better project.

Meanwhile, outside of
glee club, Finn (Cory Monteith) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) are struggling to
find pleasure when spending quality time with their girlfriends. Finn explains
to Sam that he thinks of hitting a postal worker as a way of cooling himself
off, and Sam starts to use the strategy by thinking of football coach Shannon
Beiste (Dot Jones) in unconventional fantasies. However, soon this strategy
begins to become a resource for many other members of the glee club. When
Beiste discovers that she is being thought of in these fantasies, she grows
upset and resigns as the football coach. 

Although audiences
often find that Puck and Beiste come off as strong, independent characters, we
see tonight that there is actually a person underneath with emotions. Although
Puck presents a confident nature about his time spent away, he later admits to
Artie that it was awful, and he realized that there were people more
threatening than him. Artie explains that he needs a positive role model in his
life and offers to tutor him in geometry and and model a more positive
influence on him.

When Mr. Schuester
confronts Beiste about quitting football, we learn she was hurt not only
because of what the boys did, but because she admits she’s not a lesbian but
actually shows affection for men but has never been kissed. Knowing that Mr.
Schuester has one of the most caring and compassionate hearts of any of the
characters, as he hears Beiste courageously share this information, he leans in
to give her first kiss and helps boost her confidence. The boys of the glee
club also dedicate their mash-up to her as an apology, singing The Supremes,
“Stop In the Name of Love” and En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind.” Once she sees the
boys performance, she admits they were talented performers, and they all huddle
a group hug as she accepts their apology.

Yet, Beiste was not
the only character with their first meaningful kiss. After continually being
shoved into lockers by football player Karofsky (Max Adler), Kurt (Chris
Colfer) grows continually frustrating having to battle his loneliness day in
and day out at school. Meanwhile, after learning from Mr. Schuester they will
competing against a boys private school at sectionals, Kurt takes a trip to the
school to spy on their club where he meets their lead singer, Blaine (Darren
Criss) and watches the club perform an heart-warming version of Katy Perry’s,
“Teenage Dream.”

After watching the
perform, he has a chance to sit with Blaine where he shares the problems he is
having at school. However, instead of encouraging him to transfer schools,
Blaine explains he needs to use his courage to confront Karofsky rather than
runaway from his problems, which is exactly what he did. So, when Kurt does
confront Karofsky, he is surprised to find that instead of being physically attacked,
he is actually kissed. However, in the words of Blaine, Karofsky “won’t be
coming out of the closet soon.”

Although there were a
couple times where I was screaming at the television this episode, my favorite
part was during Blaine’s performance of “Teenage Dream” when the camera posed
on Kurt. As Mr. Schuester points out early in the episode, Kurt is not happy,
but as Blaine sings, we see a real, genuine smile on his face. Having Blaine in
his life brings happiness to Kurt whether it’s spending time with Blaine,
receiving texts, or looking at his picture on the inside of his locker. Is a
relationship between Kurt and Blaine blossoming?

Let’s not also forget
that glee club has to compete in order to remain a club, and Mr. Schuester also announces their
competition for sectionals. As previously explained, this includes Blaine’s all
boys school as well as a high school for senior citizens who are trying to earn
their G.E.D.’s. While the glee club may not have had previous success during
regionals the year before, they are starting to look strong this season.