Glee’s newest cast member, Darren Criss, made his big debut Tuesday night -- and, it was awesome.

Criss plays Blaine, the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers. New Directions must beat the Warblers to win at Sectionals. They performed “Teenage Dream” during Kurt’s spy mission to the Dalton Academy, imposed upon him by the male members of the club. But instead of focusing on beating the competition, Kurt is sleeping with the enemy. He and Blaine hit it off instantly, and Kurt spoke about how painful it is for him at William McKinley High, where he is constantly bullied (and ignored by his fellow glee clubbers). Blaine encouraged Kurt to fight back, since it’s unlikely he can afford the Academy’s tuition.

Kurt’s story was the focus of the night, but there’s lots of other stuff happening in the halls of William McKinley right now …

Artie (Kevin McHale) wants to get back together with Brittany (Heather Morris). Since Puck (Mark Salling) is now out of juvenile detention, he’s decided to make Artie his community service project. This led to a truly wonderful solo where the two performed “One Love” in the courtyard (though, it was incredibly odd when students who apparently know how to play Jamaican steel drums showed up out of nowhere), and a double date with Brit and Santana (Naya Rivera).

When Artie refused to dine and dash on the date, Puck decided to kick him out of the friendship circle. The wrinkle: Artie isn’t viable community service, anyway. When Puck’s social worker came to school to explain that to him, he blew up and stormed out of Principal Figgins’ office. Artie kindly approached Puck and offered to tutor him in geometry while he picks up trash to fulfill his community service commitment.

Meanwhile, things are heating up between Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Sam (Chord Overstreet) … maybe a little too much. Sam is having trouble keeping his cool during their make-out sessions (where is her mom, again?), so he turned to Finn (Cory Monteith) for advice. Together, they come up with the plan for Sam to think about Coach Bieste (Dot Jones) in order to kill the mood when things are hot and heavy. Turns out, Finn's idea actually works.

Maybe too well. Word spreads, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) finds out about it all, and soon she manages to exploit it. This led to a wonderful scene where Sue shot off her brand-spanking-new confetti cannons for Will Schuester’s (Matthew Morrison’s) benefit … then told him to clean up the mess. Her celebration, and cannons, came when Coach Bieste decided to quit. She found out about the growing trend involving her, and the hurtful experience was painfully revealed in a set of beautiful scenes featuring Bieste and Will.

For their assignment, New Directions celebrated another boys vs. girls sing-off -- but this consisted of four scenes total, and no winner was ever announced. The girls, led by Lea Michele and Amber Riley (playing Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones, respectively) were fantastic with a mash-up of “Livin’ on a Prayer” and “Start Me Up.” The guys were equally amazing with their blend of “Stop! In the Name of Love" and “Free Your Mind," which they dedicated to Coach Bieste to get her to stick around … and it worked. Ah, the power of song.

And sure, it was shocking when Coach Bieste showed her softer side to Will Schuester and admitted that she’s never been kissed (the title of the episode … how clever.), but it was even more surprising when Will leaned in and laid one on her. We smell a future sexual harassment suit.

But that’s not the kiss everyone’s going to be talking about. In fact, go ahead and forget all about it. Glee managed to throw a huge twist at us in this episode, and it continues to boggle the mind. The football player (whose only known name is “Neanderthal guy”) who continually shoves Kurt around is actually a closeted, self-hating homosexual (insert obligatory GOP punch line here). We discovered his true persuasion when he kissed Kurt directly on the lips during a heated confrontation.

Just don’t expect him to go walking down the hall holding Kurt’s hand anytime soon. When Kurt and Blaine attempted to confront him, he was predictably angry and close-minded. As Blaine noted, “he’s not coming out any time soon.”

Kurt’s got a lot to think about … and so do Gleeks. Next week is shaping up to be a real doozy of an episode: Jessalyn Gilsig (Terry Schuester) and Gwyneth Paltrow (substitute teacher Holly Holiday) will share screen time. Uh-oh.