Random thoughts about Season 3A Quinn

So the other day I brought up in another thread the scene in 3x02 where Will blows up on Quinn and tells her to "grow up". And then I actually started thinking a lot about it, because as much as I hate this scene, it's quite interesting. And then that got me thinking about Season 3A Quinn in general and how it all ties in.

What I think Will (and most everyone else) doesn't really understand is that all Quinn has been trying to do for the last year is grow up. That might seem counterintuitive considering she spends Season 2 trying to go back to a time when she was younger and things were easier (especially after quite literally being forced to grow up in Season 1), but on the whole she basically tries to pretend everything that happened to her during sophomore year never existed and she's still the same top bitch she always was. Her actual actions notwithstanding (b/c some of them were obviously not great) she tries to be mature about her trauma and move past it in a way that makes people think she wasn't that badly affected. That's why, even when she absolutely makes decisions out of trauma in Season 2, they're a lot less sympathetic because she seems well-adjusted for the most part.

But, yknow, it's still really hard, obviously, because she still breaks down in New York after that entire plan goes off the rails. Which brings me to my next point. As far as most of her friends know, her transformation was quite sudden. The only people who really know the true extent of how she's doing are Santana, Brittany, and debatably Rachel, because they saw her start to crack towards the end of Season 2 and they know that at her core she's just really sad and having a hard time. And even then I don't think Brittana expected her to spiral the way that she did. So I think that's something that also frustrates me about Will in this scene. The way he speaks to her makes it seem like it's been an ongoing thing and people have done everything they can for her, but that's not true. Her behavior is a direct byproduct of trying and failing to "grow up" but this the first time she's really acting out over it. Which is not even getting into the fact that Sue is obviously pulling the strings in this particular situation, but I've talked about that before so I won't take up time doing it now.

And then obviously the real kicker is what happens afterwards. She does, in a way but not really, take what he says to heart, and she once again reverts back to her normal, blonde self where she projects that image of being okay to everyone else when this time, she really isn't. And that's reflected in her actions.

Now, I'm definitely not saying Will is responsible for all the crazy illegal things Quinn tried to do—she made those choices herself—but I do think there's a progression here. Will says she's a trainwreck -> Quinn thinks about what she's doing with her life -> Quinn thinks Beth is all she has going for her -> Quinn tries to steal Beth. Obviously, Shelby coming back had something to do with that too, but this is just a general outline of what happened. Again, Quinn made her own bed in some ways by unfairly trying to frame Shelby (and putting the expectation on her infant daughter to fix her/her life is... not good), but I really can't help but wonder what would have happened if Will had just reacted differently and not so harshly to her. Not just him either, because by the end of 3x02 there are 3 adults (4 if you count Quinn's mom, which, honestly, I do) who have seen how unstable she is and essentially don't do anything or they make it worse. Excluding Shelby b/c she was never a constant in Quinn's life, Will was the only one of those adults who, up to this point, hadn't already failed her in some way like Sue and her parents had. Tough love can be good—that's not what this was. It was a tipping point for everything that followed.

Personal accountability is obviously important, and I understand the whole "You can't help somebody who doesn't want to help themselves" rhetoric (though to be honest none of the aforementioned adults really seemed to try much in the first place), but I also don't think that's what's going on here at all. We have seen Quinn when she doesn't want help—again going back to Season 2, when her entire arc is based around repression and she doesn't want anyone's pity, she just wants to avoid making the same mistakes. But this Quinn seems like everything she does is a cry for someone to notice that she's not doing well. She just doesn't seem to know how to ask for that help directly because I don't think there's ever a time where she actually does that.

All of this long, long analysis is to say that this is probably why so many people still feel sympathy for Quinn despite how insane some of the stuff she tries to do this season was. I said this in my other Quinn S3 post, but I do think a lot of the damage could have been prevented, and to me a lot of it traces back to this scene, as it was essentially the last event prior to her completely spiraling.

It's my least favorite season for Quinn (both because of her own actions but also because she feels like a punching bag for the narrative), as well as probably her worst-written one, but she still never stops being fascinating to me. Her story in general is unsatisfying in so many ways but peeling back the layers of that is part of why she's still my favorite character after everything, so cheers to that I guess.