While FOX’s hit musical comedy series Glee centered on Rachel Berry and her unforgettable rise from annoying overachiever to genuine Broadway star, viewers often found themselves gravitating towards some of her fellow members of McKinley High’s New Directions. Quinn Fabray started out as the school’s head cheerleader and Celibacy Club president, but over the course of the series’ six seasons, the cold-hearted Queen Bee developed into an incredibly complex character whose development became one of the highlights of the series.
Dianna Agron’s fantastic portrayal of Quinn helped her earn a Female Breakout Star nomination at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards and win a Screen Actors Guild award that same year for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series along with the rest of the Glee cast, and her character only got more and more popular with fans each season. Quinn may have been introduced as a fairly one-dimensional mean girl, but over time, she overcame body issues, teenage pregnancy, bullying and a variety of other relatable high school struggles and ended the award-winning series a far more confident and compassionate young woman.
There was definitely a lot to love about Quinn Fabray, but a few things about her character just never really made much sense. Even though Glee’s final episode aired over three years ago, these frustrating character flaws and confusing details and plotlines continue to bother fans today.
Here are 20 Things That Make No Sense About Quinn Fabray.
20. PRESIDENT OF THE CELIBACY CLUB
Members of McKinley High’s Celibacy Club were supposed to promote abstinence, and as the club’s president, Quinn Fabray made it clear to her boyfriend Finn Hudson that she intended on practicing what she preached. She repeatedly told him that they couldn’t be fully intimate with each other, but Finn and the rest of the school didn’t know that she was secretly sneaking around with Noah Puckerman and violating all of her own rules.
Quinn didn’t seem to have any problem breaking her celibacy vow with Puck, so it was definitely weird that she was in charge of this particular club. Most of her fellow cheerleaders were very open about how active they were with guys, so it’s not like anyone expected her to stay abstinent. She probably could have maintained her image of being the perfect teenager without leading a club that had a primary objective she had no intention of staying true to.
19. CONVINCED FINN HE GOT HER PREGNANT
When Quinn discovered that she was pregnant, she immediately convinced her fairly ignorant boyfriend that he was the father of her child, even though it was actually his best friend Puck’s baby. Quinn didn’t think Puck could properly provide for her, and knew that her lie would create less of a scandal and help her trick Finn into doing anything she wanted. Finn and Quinn never technically “went all the way,” but Finn didn’t bother to question Quinn’s claims and did everything he could to provide for the daughter that he believed was his.
Finn definitely wasn’t known for being one of Glee’s more intelligent characters, but there’s no way a real teenager would just believe Quinn’s lie and never fact check with an adult to see if her story was really even possible.
18. MADE PLANS TO HELP TERRI FOOL MR. SHUE
Quinn’s pregnancy stripped her of her position as head of the Cheerios and threatened to damage the social status she had worked so hard to earn over the course of her high school career. The New Directions were there for her during this difficult time, so she found herself befriending and really coming to care about the members of the glee club she once tormented.
Even though Quinn owed a lot to Will Schuester, she secretly made plans with his manipulative wife to give the Schuesters her baby so Terri could continue to trap her husband in a fairly loveless marriage. Quinn was pretty cruel in Glee’s first season, but her betrayal of the teacher who was willing to help her when her own parents had cast her out of their home seemed too evil.
17. COULDN’T FIGURE OUT HER FEELINGS FOR PUCK
Quinn Fabray always had a hard time choosing between wholesome quarterback Finn Hudson and rebellious ladies’ man Noah Puckerman. Being with Finn helped her maintain her status as the school’s Queen Bee since they were McKinley’s “it couple,” but Quinn seemed to have a lot more fun with Puck and he was the first guy she was willing to break her celibacy vow for.
For six seasons, Quinn struggled to figure out her feelings for Puck. It seemed like he was exactly what she needed in her life, but since he didn’t fit into her vision of her perfect future, it took Quinn years to finally open up her heart to Puck and become his girlfriend. If she just did what she wanted instead of what other people expected of her from the start, she probably would have been much happier.
16. how she got INCLUDED IN the CHEERIOS YEARBOOK PICTURE
When Sue Sylvester found out about Quinn’s pregnancy, she kicked the head cheerleader out of the Cheerios. Quinn briefly accepted Sue’s decision, but when it came time for yearbook pictures to be taken, she resolved to stand alongside her fellow Cheerios and was willing to resort to some sketchy tactics to make sure that happened.
Quinn blackmailed Sue by threatening to reveal the fact that the Cheerios made profit, something that their league and school explicitly forbade. Sue had no choice but to let her back on the squad, but Quinn decided at the last minute that she’d rather Sue give up one of the Cheerios’ yearbook pages to the New Directions as she wanted to be with people who accepted her for who she is. Quinn’s inability to make up her mind and constantly-fluctuating moral compass made her extremely difficult to understand.
15. HER FRIENDSHIP WITH MERCEDES
When Quinn’s father kicked her out of his home upon discovering that she was pregnant, Quinn’s fellow New Directions member Mercedes extended an invitation to live with her and her family. It was an incredibly sweet gesture, but since Quinn and Mercedes were never particularly close up to that point, their sudden friendship didn’t make much sense.
While Quinn was giving birth, she asked for Mercedes to join her in the delivery room. Fans thought sharing this life-changing moment together would solidify the duo’s bond, but they weren’t shown to be that close with each other after Quinn had Beth. In fact, Mr. Schuester pointed out in a later episode that Quinn never even thanked Mercedes for letting her stay with her family.
14. WENT BACK TO FINN WHILE DATING SAM
At the start of Glee’s second season, Finn was finally dating Rachel and Quinn was entering into a relationship with new New Directions member Sam Evans. Sam seemed to be the perfect guy for Quinn, as he was attractive, popular and didn’t judge her at all for her teenage pregnancy scandal the previous year. They sounded great singing together, and fans swooned with Sam told Quinn he loved her and she accepted his promise ring.
Unfortunately, when Finn became single again, Quinn abandoned Sam in favor of reuniting with her ex. She and Finn kissed before she broke up with Sam, even after Finn told her how hurt he got when he found out Quinn had cheated on him with Puck. Quinn is a smart girl, so it didn’t make sense that she was so incapable of learning from her past mistakes.
13. HER BRIEF PUNK PHASE
When Quinn Fabray returned to McKinley High for her senior year following summer vacation, her peers were shocked to find that she had undergone a complete makeover and was hanging out with a dramatically different group. Quinn dyed her hair hot pink, got a nose piercing and an “ironic tattoo of Ryan Seacrest” on her lower back, and lost her love of performing, cheerleading, and academics.
Quinn’s transformation was her way of reacting to giving up her baby and getting dumped by Finn Hudson. Fans understood her anger towards her former New Directions and Cheerios friends, but this sudden punk phase seemed a bit extreme. It was even weirder when she completely abandoned her new look and went back to being her old self just a few episodes later.
12. SHE TRIED STEALING HER BABY BACK
In the first season of Glee, Quinn gave her and Puck’s baby to Shelby Corcoran, Rachel Berry’s biological mother and the coach of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline. While a part of Quinn was sad to give up her daughter and she wrestled with the decision for weeks before giving birth, she knew Shelby could offer Beth a better life and seemed happy with the idea of securing Beth’s future with someone who would truly love and care for her.
Beth was barely mentioned during the series’ second season, but at the start of the third season, Quinn was suddenly overcome with the desire to get her daughter back. She plotted to make Shelby look like an unfit mother in hopes of regaining custody. Manipulation like that might have been expected of Quinn back when she was a mean girl, but she had grown significantly as a character since then and it made no sense for her to go back to her wicked old ways like that.
11. WANTED TO HAVE A SECOND BABY WITH PUCK
When Quinn realized that Puck had developed feelings for Shelby, she invited him over to her house in an attempt to win him back. Once things started to get intimate, Puck paused to point out that they didn’t have protection, but Quinn stated that she didn’t care. She didn’t mind getting pregnant again and making another “perfect baby.”
Puck made sure Quinn understood that she didn’t need anyone else to make her special and that she was destined to leave Lima and make something of herself. His touching words helped Quinn change her mind about having another child, but her traumatizing experiences over the past year should have made his speech unnecessary.
10. DIDN’T LEARN FROM HER PAST
When Lauren Zizes dug up dirt on Quinn in an attempt to sabotage her bid for Prom Queen, she discovered that before Quinn transferred to McKinley, she went by her actual first name of Lucy and her peers at her old school used to call her “Lucy Caboosey” because she was overweight.
Quinn had rhinoplasty and completely reinvented herself, so she panicked when her friends discovered the truth about her past. The Lucy Caboosey revelation was especially surprising for fans, since Quinn was such a bully when she was first introduced to the show. It didn’t make sense for someone who was traumatized by the cruelty of her peers to be so cruel when she finally found herself in their shoes.
9. ENCOURAGED RACHEL TO CHANGE HER APPEARANCE
Throughout Glee’s six-season run, the series taught viewers that even people who come from humble beginnings can accomplish their dreams without changing who they really are. Most of the show’s primary characters stuck to this ideal, but Quinn Fabray had to dramatically change her appearance and attitude to feel comfortable in her own skin and actually encouraged Rachel Berry to go through surgery to change her appearance as well.
When Rachel considered getting a nose job to look more like Quinn, her rival-turned-friend actually encouraged her to do so and went with her to the plastic surgeon to be the model for Rachel’s new nose. Rachel ultimately decided against it, but it was upsetting to see Quinn feed into her feelings of physical self-consciousness.
8. HEALED TOO FAST FROM CAR ACCIDENT
While driving to Rachel and Finn’s wedding, Quinn ran a stop sign because she was busy texting Rachel that she was on her way and got hit by a truck. The next time viewers saw Quinn, she was in a wheelchair. She seemed to be in good spirits and happy to be alive, but it quickly became clear her optimism came from her belief that she’d be able to dance with the rest of the glee club in time for Nationals.
This wasn’t the most realistic goal, and Artie did his best to make Quinn understand that and learn to live in a wheelchair the way he had for years following his own car accident. It turned out that Quinn was right, though, and she was miraculously out of her chair and walking a mere four episodes after her near-fatal accident.
7. GAVE PROM QUEEN CROWN TO RACHEL
No one at McKinley High fought as hard to become Prom Queen as Quinn Fabray. She spent almost her entire high school career doing everything possible to maximize her popularity and appear to be the perfect teenager, and nearly every decision she made, she made to better her chances of earning that coveted crown. Yet when she finally earned it, Quinn just handed the title over to Rachel Berry.
Quinn used being confined to a wheelchair to her advantage to earn some sympathy votes, and when Finn discovered that she was healed and able to stand up, he told her how disappointed in her he was for being so manipulative and dishonest. Quinn and Santana then counted the votes for Prom Queen and Quinn found out she finally won, but realized she didn’t feel any different and decided that it would mean a lot more to Rachel. In one moment, she just threw away something she wanted for years.
6. WASN’T IN FINN’S TRIBUTE EPISODE
Quinn Fabray was an incredibly big part of Finn Hudson’s life. Quinn frequently manipulated and deceived Finn, but it was always clear that she did actually love him in her own way and that he cared about her as well. That’s why fans were shocked that Quinn didn’t appear in The Quarterback, the Finn Hudson tribute episode which followed Cory Monteith’s tragic passing.
When Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy was asked why actress Diana Agron was absent from the heart-breaking tribute episode, he told reporters, “I think she was working. I don’t know.” Agron herself never explained why she didn’t appear in that particular episode despite appearing in other episodes that same season.
5. CONSTANTLY LEFT YALE TO VISIT MCKINLEY AND HER OLD CLASSMATES
Quinn couldn’t wait to get out of Lima, so when she was accepted to Yale, she was absolutely ecstatic. By moving to Connecticut, she could reinvent herself again and start over with a clean slate, with people who had no idea what kind of a person she was during a few of her more regrettable years at McKinley High. Yet once she did go away to college, Quinn constantly found herself traveling back to the hometown she disliked so much.
Quinn and her fellow New Directions graduates constantly just put their education aside to spend time with Mr. Schuester’s new glee club. They mentored the club’s members, spent an entire week lurking around McKinley during Homecoming, and just seemed to have a lot of difficulties moving on with their adult lives. This made sense for a few of the graduates, but not for Quinn.
4. DIDN’T DISSUADE KITTY FROM her plan
When the new members of the New Directions were assigned graduate mentors, it made perfect sense for Quinn to get paired up with Kitty Wilde. Kitty was a mean girl and head Cheerio, just like Quinn was when she first joined the glee club, and she hung up a picture of Quinn in her locker to serve as a reminder to always do what Quinn would do.
Quinn loved finding out that her legacy lived on after she left McKinley, and enjoyed all of the attention and praise Kitty showered her with. That’s why when Santana told her that Kitty was giving laxatives to Marley, Quinn sided with Kitty and refused to believe she could do something so twisted. Quinn should have known what Kitty was capable of, since they were so alike.
3. EXPERIMENTED WITH SANTANA
Quinn and Santana spent a lot of time together throughout high school and they were two of the three members of the “Unholy Trinity,” but it often seemed like they were more rivals than friends. They frequently fought over boys, exchanged harsh insults, and when Santana tried telling Quinn the truth about Kitty’s cruelty, Quinn accused Santana of merely projecting onto Kitty because she was jealous of Quinn.
Quinn and Santana’s friendship rarely seemed healthy, but at Will Schuester and Emma Pillsbury’s Valentine’s Day wedding, they couldn’t stop giggling and flirting with each other. Quinn found herself actually enjoying being with a woman, so they spent the night together. Their brief experimentation was never mentioned again.
2. LIED TO HER BOYFRIEND BIFF ABOUT EVERYTHING
During one of Quinn’s trips back home to Lima, she brought her boyfriend and fellow Yale student Biff McIntosh with her. Since Biff’s family planted the first ever Macintosh apple orchard in Pennsylvania, he was incredibly rich and Quinn did everything she could to try to impress him. She refused to tell him about her teenage pregnancy and brief punk phase, and when her friends talked about those experiences, she lied and told Biff they were just kidding.
Later that episode, Puck moved Quinn to tears by reminding her about the past and made her realize that she shouldn’t just pretend the experiences which helped shape her never happened. It shouldn’t have taken a song from her ex to make Quinn realize she shouldn’t feel a need to lie to someone she supposedly cares for about her past.
1. DIDN’T ATTEND SANTANA AND BRITTANY’S WEDDING
Quinn’s absence from the Finn Hudson tribute episode was definitely surprising, but her absence from Brittany and Santana’s wedding was an even greater shock. Quinn was the third member of the Unholy Trinity, and the couple’s closest friend, so she definitely received an invitation.
She spent an entire week at McKinley earlier in Glee’s final season helping Rachel and Kurt recruit new members, and she returned to Lima in the show’s final episode to provide backup vocals in New Directions’ final performance, so it’s not like she was too busy or focused on her education to celebrate Brittany and Santana’s special day. She just didn’t show up, and fans will probably never stop wondering why.
Does anything else not make sense about Quinn Fabray in Glee? Let us know in the comments!
