Quinn Fabray and the Prom Queen Endgame: Thoughts on Glee 2×16 – “Original Song”

I have many thoughts about last night’s episode of Glee.

First, while the lyrics for the original songs “Trouty Mouth,” “Big Assed Heart,” and “Oh Hell to the No” fell into the “so-bad-it’s-hilarious” category, the melodies for said songs were quite catchy and interesting.  They were certainly much better than the songs they performed at Regionals, which sounded like they came from the first draft of High School Musical but were rejected for being too twee and robotic-sounding.

Second, Kurt and Blaine finally kissed and set the world afire.  I loved absolutely everything about that moment – the way Blaine just went for it, Kurt’s initial hesitation like he couldn’t really believe it was happening, then touching Blaine’s face, letting his hand fall with a thud once they pulled away like the kiss was so wonderful it almost bowled him over…and, most of all, I loved that they kissed a second time, the camera cutting away halfway through, hinting that those boys kissed for a long time.  (No, I haven’t watched that scene ten times already, why do you ask?)

Third, I was amused – and not in a good way – by the show acknowledging that Blaine gets all of the Warblers solos, while still giving all of the New Directions solos to Rachel and Finn.  *sigh*

But even though all of those issues deserve long, ranty posts of their own, I want to take some time to talk about Quinn.

Quinn’s pregnancy was one of the main plots of the first thirteen episodes of the show, but she’s had less to do since the true paternity of her baby was exposed.  She’s one of the more problematic characters on Glee, and for this show, that’s saying something.  She vacillates among the roles of ice queen cheerleader, dewy doe-eyed misunderstood girl who’s oh so pretty when she cries, status-seeking social climber, and, weirdly, a feminist who calls out Will and Rachel for their backwards antifeminist thinking.  (Umm…sure.  Okay).  During her pregnancy, the writers did an impressive job showing Quinn’s motivations and making her somewhat sympathetic even as she was behaving horribly, but they dropped the ball on her, big time, by never showing the real ramifications of what she did to Finn, or how she felt about giving up her baby.  Instead, they saddled her with the Other Woman/Obstacle role: the girl who, for some reason, wants to get back together with Finn, for no other purpose than to temporarily separate Finn and Rachel, the show’s designated star-crossed lovers.

Tonight, the writers finally gave us some real insight into Quinn’s character that has been sorely lacking for almost a year.

When Rachel confronted Quinn about her relationship with Finn, Quinn responded in kind: “Do you want to know how this story plays out?  I get Finn.  You get heartbroken, and then Finn and I stay here and start a family.  I’ll become a successful real estate agent and Finn will take over Kurt’s dad’s tire shop.  You don’t belong here, Rachel, and you can’t hate me for helping to send you on your way.”  She then ironically accuses Rachel of living in a schoolgirl fantasy.

That could have been another ice queen bitchy speech from the hot cheerleader to the nerdy choir girl, but that’s not the way Dianna Agron played it.  Quinn was on the verge of tears, her voice breaking, as she resigned herself to a life that she knew she didn’t want.

With the necessary caveat that there’s nothing wrong with being a real estate agent and being married to a man working in a garage, it seems pretty clear that Quinn doesn’t want that life, yet she hasn’t ever thought of doing anything else.  She’s fixated on becoming Prom Queen because she sees high school as the high point in her life.  The rest of her life will only be a disappointment, so she has to grab the glory while she can.

This is a sad, yet believable, commentary on high school and the rules women set for themselves.  Quinn is very pretty, and as a pretty girl, has probably been told her entire life that she’s such a pretty girl that she doesn’t have to be anything but a pretty girl.  She mocks Rachel for being annoying but envies Rachel’s talent.  She sees Rachel as achieving greatness in her life.  She sees herself as being normal and boring while her beauty will eventually fade.

Quinn has the potential to be an interesting character again.  Even her spontaneous, seemingly out-of-character, feminist comments can be reconciled with the girl we saw in this episode.  Maybe she’s critical of Rachel for “setting the feminist movement back fifty years,” as she said a few episodes back, because she expects better of Rachel even as she doesn’t expect better for herself.  She has feminist ideals but is too cowardly and insecure to wave her own flag, so she expects Rachel to do it.

Unfortunately, the writers haven’t shown an ability or willingness to commit to any real character development for her.  If I squint really hard, I can reconcile Prom Queen Quinn with Flag-Waving Feminist Quinn.  But I can’t reconcile this Quinn with the Quinn of the five previous episodes, the Quinn who kissed Finn but then admonished him for expecting to kiss her again, the Quinn who seemed turned on by cheating.

There’s a fine, fine line between writing a complex character and writing an erratic character, and so far, Quinn has fallen into the latter category.  I hope I’m wrong about that and we see more development for her in future episodes.