#brittanalyzing

Essentially, Brittany feels like she’s going to fail her assignments no matter what she does or how hard she tries not to, because her teachers have proven to her, class after class, year after year, that they are unwilling to deal with her and/or give her a fair shake. She therefore decides (either consciously or subconsciously) that if she’s going to fail regardless, she is at least going to choose the mechanism by which she does so—and somehow it hurts less to fail because she writes her assignments in crayon than it does to fail because her teachers think that her ideas are stupid/wrong.

Remember that math test Sue whips out in episode 4x02? The one that Brittany draws “Happyville: the Town Where Math Was Never Invented” on?

Notice that Brittany doesn’t even bother to write down answers on that test.

Maybe she doesn’t write down answers because she’s using the crayon drawings as a defense mechanism. 

If her teacher is just going to pick her apart anyway, why bother to put in any sort of real effort? The faculty all view her as an imbecile, so she’s going to give them what they expect. She’s not going to make herself vulnerable by expending her actual brainpower to come up with an answer that they’re just going to (arbitrarily) strike out because she’s her.

I would wager that as a yet undiscovered math genius, Brittany probably finds it difficult to “show her work” in the way that high school teachers typically require. She probably just “knows what she knows” intuitively/instinctively, and since she can’t write down the answer without showing her work, lest she be accused of cheating on the exam, she opts not to write anything at all. Things are just easier that way.

As I talk about in this Brittanalysis, Brittany may also be “crying for help” with the crayon drawing, hoping against hope that maybe someday, some teacher (possessed of both a brain and a heart) will realize that any twelfth grader who’s drawing stick figures in crayon on their math midterm probably needs help and actually pull her aside to ask her, in a genuine way, how they can be of assistance.

She’s too scared to ask for what she needs directly, so she hints at it—with Crayola cartoons—instead.

Unfortunately for Brittany, the only person who does seem to notice and/or care about the crayon drawings is Sue, who only cares insofar as this increasingly erratic behavior is having a bad influence on the younger Cheerios, and so summarily kicks Brittany off the squad.

Admittedly, a hole in this theory is that Brittany does seem to continue using crayon to write long after she has left both WMHS and MIT, even into S6, where we see her working on the Euler Brick problem using a rather impressive Crayola collection.

However, we can perhaps explain this usage by means of our simpler explanation from above: i.e., by this point in her life, now that Brittany is no longer beholden to academic rules and is just doing math for fun because she’s good at it, she uses the crayons because they’re colorful and pretty and because they make her calculations pop on the page.

Also, she may use crayons because she is potentially numerically synesthestic, as a few math geniuses, including famous nonnormative thinker Daniel Tammet, are. Note that in her Euler equations, she alternates colors, perhaps indicating that different calculations are chromatically different in her mind. (“The square root of four is rainbows,” anyone?) 

Anyway, that’s what I’ve got!

_______

Because I know so little about the MBTI system, I read through thedescriptions for Brittany and Santana’s types on the sites I linked above. Ithen made lists of all of the descriptions that seemed to really fit the girls,as I understand them in canon. 

Here are those lists with some commentary: 

Brittany the ENFP

ENFPs are often popular.

For all of her quirks, Brittany is one of the most popular girlsat WMHS for many years running. While both Quinn and Santana occasionallysuffer sharp downturns in their popularity (e.g., when Quinn is pregnant and whenSantana is outed), Brittany is depicted as being fairly consistently well-liked. Notonly does she become senior class president, but also never once is sheslushied. People may not always understand her, but they do seem to enjoy hercompany. Her energy attracts people. She’s the life of the party.

ENFPs, for all of their socialsuccesses, may, however, also face certain difficulties, such as beingunfocused and becoming easily distracted, overthinking personal issues, beingbetter at “the theory” than “the practice,” not handling stress well, and beingindependent to a fault.  

Brittany’sacademic difficulties may stem from an inability to focus and/or to put intopractice the ideas and theoretical concepts that she learns.

Overthinking is likewise an issue for Brittany, not only throughout S4 (when she gets so worked up over personal problems forwhich she sees no fixes that she experiences two total meltdowns, one in episode4x02 and one in episode 4x22) but also in S6as she is prepping for her wedding.She gets so in her head that she panics until Santana talks her down.

When faced with stress (particularly ofthe interpersonal variety), Brittany tends to resort to making jokes, playingdumb, and downplaying the situation rather than taking ownership for what’shappening. Though she becomes better able to handle stress as the series goeson, particularly as she finds grounding in her relationship with Santana,early on, she is highly avoidant in stressful situations (see, for example, herreaction when the glee club confronts her for spying in episode 1x13).

Being independent to a fault islikewise a big thing with her. As I say elsewhere: “Having difficulty asking for help is a characterflaw she comes by naturally. That a girl who’s been told ‘no’ her whole lifewould be scared to ask anyone to take a chance on her and say ‘yes’ makessense”—though, of course, it certainly doesn’t make her life any easier. Asmentioned above, Brittany will often meltdown when her problems overwhelm her,acting out (and acting outrageously) rather than asking for help. She will alsosometimes simply suffer in silence, keeping her troubles to herself until it’stoo late for anyone to do anything to help her (such as when she fails tograduate in episode 3x22).

ENFPs are bothidea- and people-driven. They see everyone and everything as part of a cogent,cosmic whole.

While Santana is (generally) moreplan-reliant than Brittany, Brittany is actually (typically) abetter planner than Santana because she comes up with innovative, long-gameideas and doesn’t get too caught up in logistics.

See, for example, her Project Unicorn campaign for the seniorclass presidency in episode 3x02. 

Brittany is also a people-person, insofar as she is a skilledreader of people, and she sees how individuals fit into the collective. Thoughshe doesn’t always get along with everyone in the glee club, she does know howall of the various players function to make the collective work.

See, for example, her Heart Locker speech in episode 2x22, inwhich she advocates for Santana to forgive Rachel, not only for the good of thegroup but because she understands how much Santana craves friends, even thoughshe personally does not like Rachel much at all. 

Brittany’s big, beautiful math brain affords her a uniqueperspective on the world. Brittany is a nonnormative thinker who forms connections that maynot be apparent to other people.

See, for example, her “infinity” speech to Santana in episode6x03, which lays out her whole understanding of the universe not only in termsof numbers but in terms of love.

ENFPs learn globally. They don’t mindapproximations (whereas other types may want exactitude).

As I talk about elsewhere: “Brittany’s is a unique mind. It is unclear towhat extent book-learning and traditional education work for her. She has atendency to metaphorize concepts, suggesting that she is an abstract thinker.Her flair for malapropisms also intimates that her mind is organized in ‘webs,’with various like-words grouped together by loose strings of associations.Though she is mathematically intelligent, she is also emotionally intelligentand physically intelligent, as well. Early on, her genius seems highly intuitive,as she is able to pull numbers out of the air, though she is not always equallyable to explain how or by what means she has done so. In time, her methods seemto become more examined and deliberate, with theory underlining what was once amore reflexive capability. She is perhaps something of an autodidact, able, forinstance, to teach herself Spanish, though she apparently doesn’t fare well inthe class in high school.”

While these thinking patterns are all apart of Brittany’s nonnormative genius, they can also get her into trouble inthe public school system, which expects conformity. Her “close is good enough”attitude may contribute in part to her failing her senior year.

ENFPs are outgoing and warm, possessinga “zany charm” which can endear them to more stodgy types in spite of theirunconventionality.

I mean, could there be a more fitting description of Brittana’srelationship dynamic?

Though stodgy Santana manages to build walls to keep out virtuallyevery other human being on the face of the planet, she’s helpless to resistBrittany’s outgoing personality, warmth, and zany charms. Santana’s lowtolerance for social aberration, sentimentality, and even silliness flies outthe window when Brittany’s involved. Brittany gets her to embrace theunconventional and open herself like she never has before.  

ENFPs possess strong values andviewpoints, which those around them may find surprising. They attempt to gentlybut enthusiasticallypersuade others of the rightness of these views,using all of the social skills at their disposals.

First example of this trait in Brittany: Brittany’s earnest,enthusiastic attempts to persuade Kurt to adopt her anti-bullying platformduring his senior class presidency campaign in episode 3x02.

Note that Kurt finds both Brittany’s strategy and her enthusiasmfor the platform itself surprising. At first, he has no idea that there’s a“method to her madness.” He is truly taken aback when he realizes that not onlyis Brittany’s platform about more than just pink paper and glitter glue butalso that Brittany has a personal stake in the fight she wants him to join, asshe’s a member of the LGBTQ community herself.  

Second example of this trait in Brittany: Brittany’s earnest,enthusiastic attempts to reconcile Alma and Santana before the wedding in S6.

Brittany attempts to persuade Alma to reconsider her relationshipwith Santana at first through gentle insinuation and a soupçon of deception.Only after Alma rejects these initial (more passive) overtures does Brittanybreak out her hardline stance, making her fierce speech about generationalturnover in episode 06x06.

ENFPs make affectionate, demonstrative,and spontaneous mates who light up the lives of their partners. However, anENFP’s romantic partner must be willing to manage the practical and financialaspects of the relationship, accounting for the ENFP’s spontaneity, dreaminess,and wanderlust.

I think Santana would agree thatBrittany possesses all of the positive traits listed here.

Not only is Brittany physicallyaffectionate toward Santana (see all of their S1 touches on the back row of thechoir room), but she is also verbally affectionate, constantly praisingSantana’s “awesomeness” and reminding her of her exemplary qualities. Brittanydemonstrates her feelings for Santana in numerous ways, such as by giving hergifts (see episode 3x12) and making speeches to her and about her love for her(see episodes 2x18, 2x22, 5x12, and 6x06).

Brittany is constantly surprisingSantana in the best ways possible, by putting herself out there for the sake oftheir relationship and always knowing the right—if unexpected—thing to say(see, for example, the Heart Locker speech in episode 2x22 or what Brittanysays to Santana at the end of episode 4x13).

Santana herself tells us that Brittanyis the light of her life (see her marriage proposal in episode 6x03).

That said, Santana would probably also agree that at timesBrittany can lose sight of the minutiae of everyday life, such as when Brittany fails to graduate high school—and neglectsto mention her failure until it’s too late to do anything about it (see episode3x22).

Luckily, ESFJs like Santana are great with money and practicaldecisions. Santana’s strengths naturally balance out Brittany’s weaknesses. Thegirls complement each other nicely.

See, for example, in episode 5x13, when Brittany wants to move toLesbos with Santana to escape their social pressures and responsibilities.Santana reins Brittany in, convincing her to simply take a vacation rather thanto permanently abandon her whole life.

ENFPs can go from serious to silly in atrice. When they need to, they can get down to business. However, if given halfthe chance, they’ll gladly break out the hijinks and jokes.

Brittany can be serious when she needs to be, but she is also agrade-A, professional goofball who makes odd quips whenever she can. Shecan quickly switch between gravitas and jocularity—such as, for instance, inepisode 2x15, when she intersperses her very heartfelt entreaty to Santana toseek advice regarding their romantic relationship with pithy one-linersregarding breakfast foods.

ENFPs thrive on human connections,which can make them great friends. However, their willingness to uphold theirend of a relationship no matter what can also lead them to be victimized bypersons who would take advantage of them. They have difficulty being alone, andfor this reason they may opt to keep “bad company” rather than go with nocompany at all.

InS1 and early S2, Brittany submerges her own needs in order to placate Santana. Her desires take a backseat to Santana’s fears.Because she is so desperate to maintain a relationship with Santana (even ifthat relationship is not on her terms), sheis willing to play by Santana’s rules, however convoluted or unbearable theymay be. Only later in her development doesshe learn to advocate for herself, even if doing so isdifficult, such as during the Shirt Locker scene in episode 2x18.

ENFPs are empathetic and social. They believethat feelings (and the recognition and expression of feelings) is important. 

“With feelings, it’s better,” anyone?

Brittany understands long before Santana does that denying howthey feel for each other is detrimental not only to their relationship but tothem as individuals. She spends much of the Back Six of S2 encouraging Santanato first recognize and then embrace her feelings (see, for example, her promnight speech in episode 2x20).

ENFPs are highly devoted to the peopleto whom they commit their hearts.

While Brittany has a reputation for promiscuity—and by her ownadmission has made out with everyone at her school—she is emotionallymonogamous with Santana from start to finish on the show. When she tellsSantana “I’m yours, proudly so” in episode 2x15, that statement isn’tconditional or limited in its scope. Brittany means forever, which is something she proves by her willingness to waitfor Santana time and time again throughout the course of the series. While shewill occasionally date other people, like Artie and Sam, and even love these othe people in a way, it’s clear that herheart has only ever truly and fully belonged to one person. Santana is her first and lastchoice, always. Brittany says so herself in her infinity speech (see episode6x06).

Fun Fact: Some of the MBTI sites Ilooked at mentioned that ENFPs may be attracted to journalism, and that, inspite of their more whimsical qualities, ENFPs can also excel in mathematics.Sounds a bit like our favorite Muckraker contributor, FF2 host, andcertified math genius, no?

Anyway.

In general, ENFPsare known to be free-spirited “campaigners” who form deep emotional connectionswith the people closest to them. They are charming, intuitive, and full ofsurprises. As romantic partners, they are deeply, deeply devoted.Professionally, they are interested in everything—sometimes to the point ofdistraction. Though their practical skills may be lacking, they are good “bigpicture” thinkers able to see the grander view. They are often the life of theparty and can be found at the center of the dancefloor.

Brittany’sBrittanyisms, enthusiastic political activities, and loyalty to Santana are allhallmarks of her ENFPness, as are her nonnormative thinking and attraction toand participation in a wide variety of extracurricular activities (e.g.,cheerleading, glee club, dance, student newspaper, senior class presidency,quiz bowl, motocross racing, astronomy club, superhero club, etc.). Theacademic troubles she experiences during high school may link to a lack offocus and/or an inability to put into practice the theoretical concepts thatshe learns, which are classic ENFP foibles. Her series-long devotion to hertrue love Santana and her high emotional intelligence likewise mark her asENFP.  

Santana the ESFJ

First off, anacknowledgment:

Santana makes for atricky ESFJ because she not only tends to suppress many of her natural ESFJtraits—and particularly the more positive ones—but she also often straight updoes the opposite of what comes naturally to her. 

Baby Girl is a study incontradictions, a born sensitive sweetheart who so deeply fears beingvulnerable (and having her vulnerability used against her) that she forcesherself to become recalcitrant, combative, and mean. Early on in herdevelopment, she pretends not to care about anyone or anything for the veryreason that she actually cares so much,but she doesn’t want to get hurt. Instead of using her ESFJ micromanagement skillsto care for the people she loves, she weaponizes them, plotting out detailedplans in order to derail others’ romantic relationships, wreck team bonds, andgenerally make others miserable. Rather than forming loyal bonds with those shecares about, she often goes out of her way to prove that she doesn’t want or needanyone, even though she is actually desperately lonely inside.

Just on a surfacelevel, she might appear to be something she very much isn’t, seeming like adifferent MBTI type altogether—such as, for instance, an ESTJ. Only in lookingat what lies beneath with her (and how she comes to be in later seasons of theshow, when she starts to lean into her natural tendencies) do we see her trueESFJness at play.

So:

ESFJswear their hearts on their sleeves.

THIS!!!TRAIT!!! IS!!! SO!!! SANTANA!!!

AsI’ve written about elsewhere, Santana is ather core an extremely reactive person, which means that, by nature, she wears her heart on her sleeve. When she’s happy, she’s really, really happy and smilingher huge, gorgeous smile. When she’s sad, she’s really, really sad and weepingin the hallway because Rachel fucking Berry said she would grow up to be astripper and her heart is so deeply hurt.

One site I looked at mentioned that ESFJs can have explosive tempers and unload onothers when they are angry, which is certainly true of Santana, particularlyearly on. (See, for instances, all of the times when she lashes out at Rachel—to thepoint where she must be physically restrained by other members of the gleeclub—in S2, such as in episodes 2x07 and 2x22.)

Thoughearly on Santana pretends to be heartless and “too cool for school,” the truth isthat her emotions run both very strong and very close to the surface—andnowhere is this trait more readily apparent than in her relationship withBrittany.

For asmuch as Santana tries during S1 and early S2 to suppress and tamp down how shefeels around Brittany, she ultimately cannot help but light up when somethingto do with Brittany makes her happy or to appear crushed when something to dowith Brittany makes her sad. As she tells Brittany herself in episode 4x04, atthe very times when she was trying hardest to rein in her emotions, she wasactually counting the number of times that Brittany smiled at her and “dying”on days when she didn’t. For as unaffected as Santana attempts to be, the truthis that everything Brittany does—and really everything that happens in her lifein general—deeply affects her.

AfterSantana finally acknowledges this truth about herself (see her Hurt Lockerspeech in episode 2x15), she starts to give into her feelings more and more—notonly regarding Brittany but regarding everything in her life, including herlove for performance, her friendships with various glee club members, her hopesand dreams, etc. By the conclusion of the show in S6, she’s behaving in a waythat is much more natural to her, openly showing her emotions, crying at thedrop of a hat, smiling so widely her dimples show, being demonstrative in herlove for both friends and family, etc., etc.  

ESFJsvalue security and stability. They tend to preserve the status quo.

There’sa reason why Santana chooses to sing “Landslide” in her first real act ofself-expression on the show: “I’ve been afraid of changing” could be the mottoof her life.

BabyGirl fears the unknown. She’s constantly building things up in her head,worrying about what might happen, fretting about contingencies and unexpectedturns of events. Even in situations where the status quo isn’t ideal, Santanawould rather stick to her routines than to assume the risks inherent indeviating from them in order to forge new paths. She spends early S2 miserable,languishing as Brittany dates Artie and her and Brittany’s sexual/romanticrelationship is relegated to “side dish” status. However, she remains reluctantto seek a change, even after she reaches her lowest emotional point, becauseshe fears what could happen if she rocks the proverbial boat (“I’m angry because I have all of these feelings—feelings for you—that I’m afraid of dealing with, because I’m afraid of dealing with the consequences. And, Brittany, I can’t go to an Indigo Girls concert. I just can’t”). It takes Brittany pleading with her to consider a change to finally prompt her to take those first steps toward doing things a new way.

Theinteresting thing about Santana is that she spends most of her tenure on theshow outside of her comfort zone, lacking stability and being forced to changeand adapt in spite of herself. Sometimes she reacts poorly to the discomfortshe feels as she’s pushed from her norms—such as in S4 and early S5, when shecontinually flails as she lacks a clear career path, suffers through shakysocial relationships, is without the grounding influence of her and Brittany’sromantic relationship in her life, etc.—but she ultimately ends up poweringthrough, enduring these sea changes and coming out generally better for them onthe other side.

Ofcourse, just because Santana eventually learns to deal with uncertainty becauseshe has to doesn’t mean that she disvalues security and stability when she has them.Look no further than S6 to see just how much Santana thrives when she feels anchored. Having Brittany by her side andfeeling secure in their relationship does wonders for her confidence. Becauseshe knows she has an advocate in her corner, she can deal with other, moreminor stresses in her life with ease.    

ESFJsare excellent micromanagers who enjoy seeing to the care of those around them.As caretakers, they tend to be wary of dangers to their loved ones. Theirdistrust of the world causes them to be hypervigilant of potential hazards.

Onesalient example of this behavior: In episode 3x11, Santana sits Kurt down tostrategize about what to do about Warbler bully Sebastian Smythe, who hasrecently scratched Blaine’s cornea with rock salt. Santana then tapes a voicerecorder to her underboob, infiltrates Dalton, challenges Smythe to a rapbattle Michael Jackson sing-off, catches him admitting to maiming Blaine ontape, and uses this evidence to blackmail Smythe. Her actions go way beyondwhat Kurt is comfortable with and probably also way beyond what is reasonable—asting operation? underboob?—but, boy howdy, do they show what Santana’saffections look like in action. 

If you’re one of the select people she caresabout, she will insert herself into your life, push convoluted schemes, dressin a fedora, take a slushie to the face, and risk life and limb to make sureyour needs are met. For as much time and energy as she expends plotting todestroy her enemies in S1-S2, she will expend just as much or more time andenergy plotting to support her friends in S3-S6.

Particularlyearly on in her development, Santana often mentions her distrust of people (andthe world in general). She maintains a pessimistic attitude regarding people’sintentions and has a hard time believing that good things will come to her. Wesee her sometimes try to protect Brittany, who possesses a more optimisticworldview, from the nastiness she perceives around them (see, for example,episode 3x04). Only over time, and with encouragement from Brittany, does Santana learn to drop her guard a bit and give others a chance to prove themselves.    

ESFJsmake excellent team members. Situations where everyone benefits bring them joy.

Atfirst glance, the above statement may seem like it doesn’t hold true forSantana. After all, her relationship with the New Directions remains strainedat best all the way up until episode 6x06. And Santana happy when everyonebenefits? Sounds fake.

Here’sthe thing, though: While Santana does certainly make more than a couplemissteps as a member of the glee club team (e.g., spying on them for Sue,helping to leak their set lists, waging biological warfare against many of herteam members, breaking up various couples within the glee club, going on wildlyoffensive and demoralizing rants regarding her teammates, defecting from theNew Directions to start the Troubletones, etc., etc.), she tends to resort tothis negative behavior either because she is under duress from Sue or becauseshe’s acting on hurt feelings, lashing out because she perceives that the grouphas rejected her.

That’snot to justify her shitty behavior—just to say that she’s acting in response tostimuli. She’s not just pulling these stunts out of nowhere.

Thetruth is that when left to her own devices, without Sue commanding her tosabotage anyone and when she feels safe and secure to be herself without fearof rejection, Santana is actually a pretty standup teammate who takes great joyin the group’s achievements.

Gleeclub is the best part of her day, okay?

That’swhy when Sue poses her with an ultimatum, she chooses glee club over Cheerios(see episode 2x11). That’s why she goes out of her way to bring Kurt back toWMHS from Dalton (see episode 2x18). That’s why she neutralizes Karofsky’sthreat on Kurt’s behalf (see episode 2x20). That’s why she tries to get Quinnto rejoin glee club after she drops out at the start of S3 (see episode 3x01).That’s why she eventually rejoins the New Directions in time to prepare forNationals (see episode 3x08). That’s why she goes after Sebastian Warbler toavenge Blaine (see episode 3x11). That’s why time and time again, she gives herall to supporting her teammates, singing and dancing her heart out, and doingwhatever it takes to make sure that the New Directions come out on top. That’s whyshe returns so often even after she graduates to participate in interventionsand alumni events. That’s why she seldom looks happier than she does when she’ssurrounded by her glee club family, basking in a shared triumph, feeling like apart of the collective.

So,yeah, Santana can be a shitty teammate sometimes. But when given even half achance, she can also be an excellent teammate—the kind of person that everyonebe lucky to have in their corner (as Mercedes points out in episode 5x18).

ESFJscare about other people’s feelings and try not to offend or cause damage toanyone.

Atfirst glance, the above statements may also seem like they do not hold true forSantana. After all, this is a girl who seemingly delights in verballydestroying people and spouting off ultra-offensive rants, whose own soulmateopenly acknowledges her penchant for “vicious, vicious words.” Santana hasnever been shy about saying whatever pops into her head, no matter how uncouthor outright hurtful the thought may be, right? So what kind of ESFJ does thatmake her?

Well,here’s where the acknowledgment I made at the top of her section comes in: Thistrait is one that Santana actively works against in herself, particularly earlyon.

Mytheory has always been that Santana is a born sweetheart—that the kindhearted,bashful, soft soul she is around Brittany reflects who she really is inside andperhaps who she could have been at all times had her life experiences not promptedher to develop her “bitch persona.” Snixx is a façade, an act, and a means ofusing offense as defense to keep Santana (and Brittany) from being eaten alivein their unforgiving social environment. The insults Santana fires off, thebullying she engages in, and her whole aggressive “Lima Heights Adjacent” energy areall defense mechanisms, and practiced ones at that. They come about fromSantana, who is herself incredibly sensitive and easily wounded, knowing how tohit people where it really hurts so as to avoid herself being hit.

Makeno mistake: The consequences of Santana’s meanness are real, and I am not atall trying to absolve her of her cruelties.

However,what I am saying is that deep down, Santana doesn’t actually enjoy being mean.In fact, I’d care to wager that if she felt safe enough to drop her defenses,she’d prefer not to offend or cause relational damage. She’d like to be softer,if possible. Santana herself essentially admits that such is the case inepisode 3x08, when she tells her grandmother that pretending to be someoneshe’s not and constantly having “to fight all the time” exhausts her.

It’snotable that in later seasons, when Santana feels more comfortable beingherself and is more enmeshed with the group, she becomes noticeably kinder, andher rants become both less frequent and (for the most part) more toothless.

Of course,that’s not to say that she never flies off the handle in later seasons, asshe’ll still go for the jugular when provoked (such as when she verballyeviscerates Kurt after he disparages her and Brittany’s engagement in episode6x03), and she always maintains her hallmark snark even in situations whereshe’s relaxed. Old habits die hard, after all.

ESFJswhose attentions have been rejected tend to falter. They don’t fare well insituations where their caring attitudes and heartfelt reactions prove to be aliability.

Thetrait very much relates to two previous traits discussed.

Santanawants so much to give and receive love. She craves approval and acceptance. However,particularly early on, she seldom gets those things.

To befair, in the early seasons of the show, she certainly doesn’t do much to makeherself likeable to her glee club teammates, and she downplays and evenstraight up denies that she desires to be part of the group, to the point wherethey have every reason to consider her an outsider and even potential threat.

She sofears being rejected for reasons beyond her control that she opts to make herself unlikable for reasons she can control, so that when she is inevitably rejected, it will be on her terms (which, she subconsciously rationalizes, is somehow a more livable alternative).

Still.Even after she drops her façade and starts to openly show howmuch she cares about her teammates, they remain wary of her, not accepting thatshe is a changed person. Time and timeagain, the New Directions (both as a group and in individual instances) rejecther genuine and heartfelt gestures of love and friendship, misunderstanding theintentions behind them by expecting that her niceness comes with stringsattached or else is bait for some kind of trap. Whenever these occurrences takeplace, Santana is crushed.

Nowhereis this trait more apparent than during the Pezberry feud of S5. When Santanamoves into the Loft, she tries so hard to prove to Rachel that she has changedsince high school and goes out of her way to earn Rachel’s trust andfriendship. She offers Rachel a crying shoulder during her pregnancy scare; she takes action to extricate Rachel from her toxic relationship with Brody, resortingto the “micromanaging and getting overly involved in her friends’ lives”behavior described above; she bonds with Rachel over their personal andprofessional troubles as young twentysomethings trying to make it big in NewYork; she supports Rachel’s Broadway aspirations; she is there for Rachel after Finn’sdeath; she gets Rachel a job at the diner; she confides in Rachel about her fears anddreams; etc., etc., etc.

But Rachel never seems to fully accept Santana’s efforts atfriendship as genuine, as is proven in episode 5x09, when Rachel accuses Santanaof trying to steal her role in Funny Girlout from under her, failing to recognize that Santana is trying to emulate herrather than usurp her success.

Trueto ESFJ form, Santana is so deeply hurt by Rachel’s rejection of her friendshipthat she falls into a tailspin. Within a few weeks’ time, Santana’s retaliatorybehavior has resulted in Kurt and Dani kicking her out of their band, Dantana’s relationship deteriorating to the point of beingunsalvageable, and Santana sabotagingany and all chances that exist for reconciliation between herself and Rachel,the last of which occurs in episode 5x18, when, once again, Santana comes to Rachel’s aid, only to haveRachel second-guess her reasons for doing so (“Is that the kind of friend thatyou think that I am?”).

ThoughPezberry eventually (by S6) get back to a place where they can be civil to eachother, Santana never dares to attempt close/intimate friendship with Rachelagain. Her feelings have been too deeply hurt, and she durst not put herself ina position to get burned again.      

ESFJshave a tendency to become preoccupied with social status and influence, a traitwhich heavily influences their decision-making. They can become rigid and avoidcreativity and individual expression for fear of “rocking the boat.” ESFJs mayalso fixate on what is socially acceptable (and what is not). They are cautiousconcerning the rules and critical of anything or anyone that breaks from thenorm. ESFJs are often unwilling to experiment or step out of their individualcomfort zones. They fear of appearing—let alone being—different.

Thesetraits are more straightforwardly recognizable as “Santana,” particularly in S1and S2.

BabyGirl is obsessed with social statusand climbing the proverbial ladder of popularity. She calculates how every moveshe makes at WMHS will affect her image and refuses to take any action that shedeems too risky. She is all about accruing social capital, even at the expenseof others. Everything about her, from how she dresses to what she says to howshe interacts with her peers, is meant to keep her riding high as an HBIC.  

Shealso isn’t above pointing out how uncool others are to make herself look coolerby comparison.

ThroughoutS1 and early S2, she is constantly dragging others down in order to pullherself up. She is especially hard on anyone who deviates from social norms, whichis why she bullies Kurt for being gay and mocks Finn for dating tragically unhip Rachel.  

Soreluctant is she to jeopardize her status that she actively suppresses many ofher natural inclinations and hides her true interests—hence why though she’lladmit to her teammates that glee club is the best part of her day with onebreath, she’ll threaten with another to deny that she’s made such an admissionshould that information leak to anyone outside of the New Directions.

Ofcourse, Santana’s fear of making herself stand out or appear “different”greatly influences her early interactions with Brittany, as she remains trappedso far inside the iron closet in her mind that she can scarcely even admit toherself—let alone to anyone else, including Brittany—what her true feelingsreally are.

Eventually,thanks in large part to Brittany’s influence, Santana does largely overcome herfear of going against the grain, learning that it’s more important to be likedfor who she truly is than to be feared for who she pretends to be. Though shenever fully loses her edge, as the seasons wear on, she becomes increasinglytolerant of persons who deviate from social norms and increasingly comfortable withdeviating from social norms herself.

ESFJsmay find it challenging to change their tendencies toward rigidity andconformity because they are sensitive to what they perceive as attacks on theirconcepts of self. If someone close to them criticizes any aspect of theirself-identity (from their character to their beliefs to their habits), ESFJsoften become defensive. Their feelings are easily hurt.

Asstated above, Santana does eventually overcome some of her rigid and conformistbehaviors—but doing so is no easy task.

Santana’smost deep-seated fear is that she is unlovable, and any time someone criticizesor attacks an aspect of her intrinsic self-identity, she feels that her fearhas been justified. While she can “live with” people hating her for beingbitchy or looking down on her for being shallow (though even those slightshurt, in their own ways), she would rather die a thousand deaths than havesomeone reject her because of her true personality or due to her sexualorientation—and especially if that someone is a person who matters to her.

WhenSebastian Smythe snipes at her for being brassy (see episode 3x11), she candeal. But when Rachel Berry, who should be her friend, misjudges her character(see episode 5x09), she’s heartbroken.

Santanathen reacts to this heartbreak by going on the defensive, which is what we seefrom her in episode 5x12, when she calls Rachel out in front of the whole gleeclub, telling her she is a terrible person. That’s very much Santana’s woundedsense of self talking—which is not to justify her behavior but simply to say,once again, that, contrary to what Rachel and other characters on the showerroneously believe, Santana’s meanness doesn’t just come out of nowhere.

ESFJs thriveon appreciation and praise. Without it, they feel insecure and will fish forreassurances.

Ofcourse, the flipside to Santana being criticism-avoidant is that she is eagerfor praise.

Overthe seasons, she says numerous times that she lives for applause—but the truthis that her need for validation runs even deeper than what she lets on. It’snot just empty clapping from strangers that she’s after. She needs words ofaffirmation from people who matter to her, including genuine and heartfeltstatements that build her up and reassure her.

For asmuch bravada as she puts on, Santana is one insecure kid. As stated above, shesecretly fears that she is unlovable. Unfortunately, a lot of what shehears—from her peers, from her teachers, from the world—reinforces that beliefin her. She’s constantly being told that she, individually, is a bad person.She’s also constantly being told that she, as a member of the LGBTQ community,is generally bad and/or immoral. It’s little wonder that her self-esteem isn’tgreat, especially to start out with. Though she seldom lets on that such is thecase, she’s dying for someone to tell her that despite what everyone thinksshe’s actually a decent human being, worthy of love and capable of achievingthe dreams that matter to her.

Honestly,throughout the show, there are only two characters who really fulfill Santana’sneeds, in this regard.

Thefirst is, of course, Brittany, who is basically an endless fountain ofSantana-validation. She constantly reminds Santana to “embrace all theawesomeness that [she is]” and on many occasions enumerates Santana’s goodtraits to her. While others tell Santana how horrible she is at every possibleopportunity, Brittany is adamant that Santana is the best person she knows, whois capable of achieving anything she sets her mind to. That’s what Brittanytells Santana in a dark room at their junior prom (see episode 2x20). That’swhat she tells her as she sends her off to New York to chase her dreams (seeepisode 4x13). That’s what she tells her again when they reunite before jettingoff to Lesbos (see episode 5x13). It’s something that she says the night beforethey get engaged (see episode 6x03), and it’s undoubtedly something that she’llkeep saying again and again for the rest of their married lives.

Theonly other person on the show who offers Santana similar encouragements (thatshe doesn’t then later rescind or cover with disparagements) is Mercedes, whoparticularly in S5 goes hard on reminding Santana that she is not only atalented performer with a lot of potential but a great friend with manypositive qualities.  

ESFJslike to shower people with the attention and reassurance that they themselvescrave. However, they may go overboard in involving themselves in the lives oftheir friends and loved ones, taking actions that are ultimately unwelcome. Intending to the needs of others, ESFJs may forget to tend to their own needs.

Santanaisn’t just a cheerleader for the football team. She’s actually a huge supporterof her friends.

Admittedly,much of her “cheerleading” comes mixed in with a hefty helping of snark. Still,there’s no denying that the praise is in fact there. She sings to cheer Quinnup after her accident (see episode 3x17). She spends much of S4 and S5reassuring Kurt and especially Rachel of how talented and poised for successthey are. When Mercedes gets her record contract, she’s all over telling herhow deserving she is and how she’s destined to go far (see episode 5x18). And,oh yeah, remind me of her catchphrase when it comes to any and all thingsBrittany? That’s right: “You’re a genius.”

Hersupport for her friends and loved ones goes beyond mere words, though. She’salso—as discussed above—quick to offer direct action in order to keep herpeople safe and cared for. Sometimes what she does is welcome, such as when shesings “Valerie” to Brittany is episode 5x12 in order to remind her of hercreativity and love for dance. Other times, she takes things a step or fiftytoo far, such as when, after making several unsuccessful attempts to get Rachelto break up with the untrustworthy Brody, she goes behind Rachel’s back tosummon Finn to New York City for the purpose of kicking Brody’s ass (see episode 4x16). Santana,of course, views this action as “tough love” for Rachel—a necessary override,as it were. Rachel, naturally, sees things differently, at least initially, failing to appreciatethe intentions behind Santana’s meddling.

Learningto respect boundaries is another long process in Santana’s development. Part ofit involves becoming more mindful of what other people are comfortable with.Another part of it involves becoming more mindful of her own needs and notsacrificing her own well-being for the sake of others.

ThroughoutS4 and S5, Santana nearly kills herself trying to win Hummelberry’s approval.While both Kurt and Rachel are more than happy to have Santana rush to theirrescue when they’re in fixes, they’re also quick to kick her to the curb thesecond she steps out of line or does something to upset them (such as, for instance, in episode 4x16 after she confronts Brody at NYADA). In times ofconflict, they evict her from the Loft, form ranks against her, and eventriangulate with her girlfriend to disenfranchise her from the group. ThoughSantana certainly is no angel, she also certainly isn’t the coldhearted villainthey—and particularly Rachel—make her out to be, either. Hummelberry constantlydangling their friendship and love over her head does a number on her heart.They’re like Lucy, their acceptance is the football, and Santana is CharlieBrown, winding up to take the kick again and again and again, despiteexperiencing the same result every single time. By the time the Pezberry feudfinally comes to a head between episodes 5x09 and 5x12, Santana is an emotionalmess who doesn’t know which end is up anymore.

Ittakes resident Santana Lopez-ologist Brittany to undo the damage thatHummelberry have done to Santana’s self-esteem and to encourage Santana to justwalk away from the whole enmeshed situation because it’s detrimental to her(see episode 5x13). Santana very much takes her words to heart, deciding thenand there that while she can be civil to Hummelberry, particularly from afar,she’ll no longer keep giving them her heart to stomp on. She’ll maintain heremotional distance, keeping their “friendship” at a surface level withouttrying to achieve any sort of real social intimacy. She’ll also tend to her ownemotional needs before she tries to tend to the emotional needs of others sothat she doesn’t get burnt out again.

ESFJsmake for loyal, trustworthy romantic partners who view romantic relationshipsas sacred. They require partners whoare likewise both devoted and supportive, who provide them with senses ofsecurity and stability. No other kind of relationship is as important to anESFJ as a loving, committed, romantic bond.

Backwhen Santana is still in the habit of dating boys, infidelity is her hallmark,as she frequently cheats on her male partners and will swap one boy out foranother on a whim so long as doing so suits her social purposes. She and Puck arenowhere near monogamous. Finn is a pit stop for her, at best. She cheats on Samwith Brittany and then starts dating Karofsky before she and Sam even properlybreak up. Ask any of her ex-boyfriends if they would consider her either “trustworthy”or “loyal,” and they’d probably laugh right in your face.

Butnot so with Brittany. Though Santana does break up with Brittany in S4, have aone-night stand with Quinn shortly thereafter, and eventually date DaniWaitress for a time during S5, Santana remains emotionally monogamous with Brittanythroughout the duration of the show, and at times when she and Brittany aredating she is entirely faithful to her. Though in early seasons of the show,Santana and Brittany cheat on other partners with each other, once they becomea committed couple they never cheat on each other with anyone else—a rare featfor a Glee couple.

In fact, the second that Santana realizes that she is even mildly attracted to another girl while dating Brittany, she immediately breaks up with Brittany, for fear that her attraction could potentially lead to unfaithfulness (see episode 4x04).

Still,Santana’s loyalty and trustworthiness as a romantic partner for Brittany runseven deeper than just emotional monogamy and fidelity. She’s also loyal andtrustworthy in the sense that Brittany can rely on her as a stalwart support—assomeone who’ll be there for her no matter what.

ThatSantana views her and Brittany’s relationship as sacred is clear from both herwords and her deeds. She frequently describes Brittany’s goodness and theedifying effect that Brittany’s love has on her life (see, for example, herspeech about Brittany to Rory in episode 3x04 or her proposal in episode 6x03).She also treats Brittany with tenderness and appreciation, being kind to, patient with, and compassionate towards her in a way she is to no one else. 

Asdiscussed above, Brittany is the biggest source of support and stability inSantana’s life. Santana falters at times when they’re apart and thrives attimes when they’re together. Just watch the choir room scene in episode 5x13 orthe bedroom scene in episode 6x03, and you can see how much Santana physicallyrelaxes in Brittany’s presence. It’s clear that Santana never feels safer thanshe does in Brittany’s arms. It’s also clear that as long as Santana hasBrittany by her side, she’ll be okay, no matter what obstacles and challengescome her way.

ESFJsmate for life, with a strong desire for marriage and family.

Earlyon, before she is at a place in her life where she can believe that her dreamswill come true, Santana talks a big game about not needing anyone and muses thatshe’ll marry an NFL player someday, not for love but for “reliability.” Butonce Santana realizes that Brittany reciprocates her love and that theyactually stand a chance to be together for the long run, she gives in to hertrue romantic nature and starts seeing things in terms of always and forever.

Itmeans so much to Santana when she and Brittany can finally be married—you canjust see it written all over her face, in that big, effulgent smile she wearson their wedding day (see episode 6x08). Her eyes actually sparkle. Brittany is her dream girl,her North Star, her family, and she is so happy to take Brittany as her wife.It’s something she’s wanted since long before she ever allowed herself to fullyprocess the desire. It’s her perfect happy ending, an absolute dream come true.

FunFact: Some of the MBTI type sites I visited mentioned that ESFJs make greatcheerleaders and can be talented stage performers. Sounds like a certain formerCheerios captain and frequent high school musical show-stealer we know of, no?

ESFJsare known as the “consul” type, meaning that they are comfortable in leadershippositions, possess excellent planning skills, and highly value loyalty. Theyoften take on the concerns of others as if they were their own. They don’t shyaway from sharing their evaluations—especially regarding the behavior ofothers—with the world. However, while they can dish criticisms out, theysometimes can’t take them, particularly if those criticisms challenge theirsenses of self. ESFJs are not only deeply emotional but also highly expressiveof their emotions. Everyone knows what they feel and how. Socialization plays a big role in their lives, and they canfrequently be found filling “host” positions at gatherings, organizing thepeople around them.  

WhileSantana does (particularly initially) suppress and act against some of hernatural ESFJ tendencies, the truth is that she fits the type pretty well. She’sa born planner and schemer who is heavy into social politics and big on lookingafter the people she cares about, and she thrives on validation, especiallyfrom those she is closest to. She never hesitates to give her opinion on thepeople around her, whether she’s snarking about their wardrobe choices or,later on, extolling their positive qualities to boost their self-esteems.Though her feelings are easily hurt and she can sometimes be a conformist, sheis also capable of being an awesome friend, both supportive and protective ofthe people who matter to her. Her leadership skills are apparent when shecaptains the Cheerios. Her care for others is likewise apparent in the ways shetries to help her friends, especially in S4 and S5, as well as in her andBrittany’s relationship.  

Ididn’t spend a lot of time looking into it, but a cursory glance around the ol’interwebs would suggest that ENFPs and ESFJs tend to complement each other wellin romantic relationships, possessing a good balance of commonalities anddifferences.

Anyhow,I’ve gone on long enough now.

___

First thingsfirst:

Theout-of-universe stuff.

Glee is a show that’s difficult to categorize because while it ostensibly takes place withina realistic fictional universe (as opposed to say a fantasy or science fictionone), there are times when it noticeably deviates from reality.

Though thecharacters seemingly live in suburban Ohio in the early 2010s and areregular human beings living “regular lives,” there are certain aspects of theirexistences that absolutely strain credulity (even when one actively tries tosuspend disbelief).

Some ofthese breaches are obvious, like when Lord Tubbington is shown as being capableof using a computer. However, others manifest more as gaps in logic—the typesof minor “glitches” in believability that cause the viewing audience to go,“Wait a minute. That’s not how that plot development would play out in reallife.”

One exampleof this second type of breach is how between S4 and S6, the young charactersliving in New York, most of whom are supposedly tight on money, arenevertheless able to jet set back and forth to Lima seemingly every otherweekend, as if plane and train tickets are free and travel takes no time orenergy at all. Another is that Sue Sylvester could do all of the illegal,immoral, and just flat-out batshit insane things she does without ever being firedor prosecuted. Still another is that nineteen and twenty year-old kids likeBlaine, Finn, and Sam could be hired to coaching positions at their respectivehigh school alma maters, even though none of them holds a college degree orteaching certificate.

The breachin realism that is pertinent to our discussion has to do with Brittany’sacademic history—which as depicted in show canon is replete with gaps and holesand just doesn’t make much sense.

In episode1x07, we are told that for years Sue has been doctoring the grades of herCheerios, including perhaps Brittany’s. However, even after Will puts his footdown and flunks many of their teammates, the Unholy Trinity, including Brittany,continues to attend Cheerios practice. They are the only Cheerios who do.

How theyalone of the whole squad retain their academic eligibility is not clear.Santana may not be taking Spanish, as she’s not shown in the class. However,Quinn and Brittany most definitely are, so either they must be passing (whiletheir teammates are not) or else Will must have decided against giving them thefailing grades they would otherwise deserve, perhaps because he doesn’t want torender them ineligible for glee club.

WillSchuester is nothing if not a hypocrite, so honestly I wouldn’t put it past himto walk that particular low road.

In any case,the show never really clarifies to what extent Brittany may rely on Sue tomaintain a passing GPA.

ThroughoutS1, Brittany is reported to cheat off of Becky’s schoolwork in math class (seeepisode 1x09) and is shown attempting to cheat off of Quinn’s tests in Spanishclass (see episode 1x07), incidents which suggest that she does at timesstruggle with academic performance during her sophomore year. 

However, herstruggles are not explored in depth, and her continued eligibility for theCheerios would indicate that either she somehow manages to make passing grades,struggles notwithstanding, or else that interference from Sue renders herstruggles moot.  

Kurt alsoreports that Finn sometimes cheats off of Brittany’s math assignments (seeepisode 1x10). We don’t know if this cheating represents an isolatedincident or a pattern of behavior. However, if it’s the second option, then given that Finn maintains his academiceligibility for football even after having cheated off Brittany’s work, andconsidering that, unlike with Brittany, Sue is unlikely to have doctored Finn’sgrades, we can perhaps surmise that Brittany at least occasionally managesto earn passing grades on her own.

Even if Sueis pulling strings to keep Brittany on the field, come S2, the situationchanges, as in episode 2x11 Brittany quits Cheerios, at which point whatever“help” Sue had been giving her is almost certainly rescinded.

Shortlythereafter, in episode 2x13, Brittany remarks that hergrades are bad (“Totally. Most teachers think that by cutting class, I mightimprove my grades”), perhaps suggesting a drop-off due to a cessation in Sue’shelp. 

Even so, it would still seem that Brittany isn’t altogether failing, asshe apparently passes the eleventh grade and commences thetwelfth grade with the rest of her class.

The shownever specifies to what extent Brittany and the other glee kids must maintaintheir grades in order to stay in show choir. On the one hand, glee club is notan athletic program, so the rules for eligibility may be different than withcheerleading or football. On the other hand, glee club is seemingly anextracurricular activity in which students may “letter,” and it does have itsown governing board and competition requirements, so perhaps its eligibilityrequirements are similar or even identical to those for prep sports. To whatextent there may be “house rules” specific to WMHS as opposed to district orstatewide rules for all competitive show choirs remains unclear.

My guess isthat there’s got to be some kind of statewide threshold for eligibility,particularly as we’re told, per Jesse St. James, that the Carmel High kids in VocalAdrenaline cheat and doctor their grades in order to maximize their practicetime and minimize their schoolwork.

Whatever thespecific requirements may be, the fact that Brittany remains eligible toparticipate in glee club throughout her junior year is another point that maysuggest that even without Sue’s interference Brittany maintains a passing GPA. ThatBrittany is eligible to rejoin the Cheerios come her senior year also suggeststhat her eligibility remains intact as she finishes out the eleventh grade.

However,things seem to take a sudden downshift from there, both in terms of Brittany’sprospects and in terms of narrative sense-making.  

Come S3, we arefinally told that Brittany has a 0.0 GPA, though it’s never specified if that’sher semester, yearlong, or cumulative GPA. My guess is that it’s the secondoption, given that Brittany is told she must repeat the twelfth grade (asopposed to just making up a few credits during summer school or repeating multiplegrades).

That said,the situation surrounding her failure remains murky.

Prior to S3,Brittany has seemingly maintained a passing GPA, as is evidenced by heraforementioned progress through her freshman, sophomore, and junior years ofhigh school and her continued academic eligibility to participate in Cheeriosand glee club.

However, theshow never reveals how she has come by this passing GPA.

Our threemain options for explaining this phenomenon seem to be:

We can infer that Sue hasmanipulated Brittany’s grades in order to keep her academically eligible forvarsity sports.

We can infer that Brittanyhas achieved passing grades through her own efforts.

We can infer that perhaps somecombination of the above two options has taken place (i.e., that Sue hasmanipulated some of her grades, while others she earned through her ownefforts).

On the onehand, the show heavily implies that Brittany is a very poor student who wouldprobably be incapable of passing her classes if not for Sue manipulating thesystem on her behalf. On the other hand, given that Brittany maintains academiceligibility for Cheerios even when Will flunks many of her teammates in hersophomore year AND that she spends a significant portion of her junior year offthe Cheerios and still manages to pass, it would seem that Brittany is able tomake grades even during the times when Sue isn’t propping her up.

The questionsthen become: If Brittany can pass the eleventh grade “on her own,” then whydoes she fail the twelfth grade? Furthermore, how come Brittany is allowed toremain on the Cheerios and in glee club even once her grades start slipping?Why does her failure only come to light after it is essentially too late forher (or anyone else) to do anything about the problem? How come Sue, who hasnever had any qualms about manipulating her cheerleaders’ grades in the past,seemingly “allows” Brittany to fail her senior year? How come not a singleteacher or counselor at WMHS makes any efforts to help Brittany, even thoughshe is obviously struggling?

After all, Brittany’s 0.0 GPA seems to be a reflection of a chronic problem.

The firsttime we hear about said failing GPA is in episode 3x19, which is the sameepisode that features the WMHS senior prom.

For mostAmerican public high schools, prom takes place anywhere between March and June,which means that somehow Brittany is allowed to fail for at least one or two fullsemesters (or, more likely, given that many Midwestern American public schoolstend to run on the quarter system, two or even three full quarters) before Figgins tells her what’s up.

The school thenseemingly takes no action—at least as we see play out on screen—to helpBrittany course-correct for the final semester or two quarters of her senioryear.

She’s notput on academic monitoring or probation. She’s not assigned a tutor. MissPillsbury doesn’t set up any meetings with her to discuss her options or determineher future. No one writes her an IEP. She just crashes and burns until the endof the year, at which point she fails to graduate.

It strainscredulity that in today’s day and age Brittany could flunk out as “quietly” asshe did, without anyone—including her parents, coaches, guidance counselor,and/or girlfriend—realizing she was in trouble at any point along the way.

Where werethe midterm progress reports? The report cards? The summonses to MissPillsbury’s office? The failed tests that required the signature of her parent orguardian? Santana glimpsing an F on her Spanish essay and ripping Mr. Schue agoddamn new one because who is he to tell Brittany she isn’t conjugating verbsright when he can’t tell his own ass from an ñ?

Shouldn’tsomeone somewhere along the way have noticed something was wrong while therewas still time enough left to do something about it—and particularlyconsidering that Brittany is not only a student but a student athlete?

Per the OhioHigh School Athletic Association, a student must earn “passing grades in aminimum of five one-credit courses, or the equivalent, in the immediatelypreceding grading period” of athletic competition in order to be eligible toparticipate in a varsity sport, so in theory, after she fails that first term,Brittany shouldn’t be able to compete as part of the Cheerios squad at all, letalone be one of the senior leaders.

For therecord, the real life school districts in Lima, OH require a minimum GPAbetween 2.5 and 3.0 for student athletes.

One has towonder: Where is Sue in all this? How come she doesn’t intervene once she seesthat first bad report card?

After all,Sue has no qualms concerning academic dishonesty. By her own admission, she’s meddledwith her cheerleaders’ grades for years. Why shouldn’t she simply meddle in this case, too? Wouldn’tit be in her best interest to keep Brittany eligible to compete?

Come S4, Sueherself blames a “haze of pregnancy hormones” for preventing her from noticingBrittany’s S3 academic nosedive (see episode 4x02). Another contributory factor to her negligence may be her vicious congressionalcampaign against Reggie Salazar and Burt Hummel.

However,that Sue would allow Brittany to fail still presents a narrative problem, nomatter what her excuses for doing so may be, because the fact remains that academiceligibility is an issue that extends beyond her sole purview.

OnceBrittany fails the first academic quarter of the 2011-2012 schoolyear, shebecomes ineligible to compete in interscholastic competitions. The issue is outof Sue’s hands and into those of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.Some state official somewhere has the responsibility to mark her fileand bar her from any further participation in state cheer events.

—and yetthat never happens.

Somehow,Brittany remains a cheerleader (and member of the glee club) for the duration of the schoolyear, despite not passing a single class.

It’s one ofthose lapses in believability—those “Wait a minute. That’s not how thatdevelopment would happen in real life” instances—that takes Glee out of the realmof passingly realistic fiction and into the realm of exaggeration and camp.

There’s noway that Brittany could fail an entire year of school without facing anyacademic consequences—that’s just not the way that the American school systemworks, particularly when it comes to athletic eligibility.

How comeFiggins only notes Brittany’s failures in springtime? What is going on during the fall and winter?

For the record, episode 3x19 originally aired on May 8th, 2012. Within the universe of the show, the action of the episode may take place on the same date or at least a proximal one.

By allaccounts, someone somewhere along the way should notice what’s going on—if nota faculty member at Brittany’s own school, then some official on an athleticeligibility committee, or a college cheerleading coach scouting Brittany for anNCAA scholarship, or an auditor working for the superintendent, or a rivalcheerleading coach digging for dirt on Sue Sylvester’s stars.

Someone!

But no onedoes.

I mean,that’s what the show purports. 

Figgins knows enough to inform Brittany thatshe’s failing, but he doesn’t do anything to help the situation except to lectureher for neglecting her duties as the senior class president and badger her intoplanning the prom. 

Will and Emma, too focused on rescuing Puck from a similarfate, seemingly remain either oblivious to or unconcerned about Brittany’sacademic woes until she’s on the verge of failing her SECOND consecutive senioryear in S4. 

And Santana? She’s blindsided. Somehow, even though she andBrittany take classes together and meet up during every passing block and spendall of their spare time in each other’s company outside of school, she has noidea that Brittany is in academic jeopardy—not until Brittany springs the newson her at BreadStix just before what should be their joint graduation.

Not untilit’s too late.

That’s canonas TPTB at Glee wrote it.

It makes nogoddamn sense, but it’s what we’re stuck with.

So.

Onto thesecond order of business, then:

Thein-universe stuff.

Returning toyour original questions: Why does Brittany fail her senior year—from asituational and character perspective? How come she doesn’t work harder not tofail?

Though earlyon, Glee at times tried to play Brittany off as an accidental or even dubiousgenius—such as in the scene in episode 4x22 where she’s first shown solvingcomplex equations for the researchers at MIT—they later fully committed to herprodigy, acknowledging it as the real deal.

By episode5x12, Baby Girl is shown as being capable of tackling the Riemann Hypothesis.Her work at MIT is serious. By S6, she’s doing complex math for fun, albeitwith kitty doodles drawn in the margins. The Brittany of episodes 6x03, 6x06,and 6x08 is able to slip in facts and impressive logical arguments alongsideher usual Brittanyisms and one-liners. Her intelligence is no longer subject todebate.

So what’sthe deal with her flunking out of high school? How can someone capable ofprocessing the most complicated calculus there is fail at high school algebra?

Here’s thething: While Brittany is indeed a certified math genius, there’s not always aneat one-to-one correlation between “raw intelligence” and “academicsuccess.”

Lots offolks who are plenty bright—including many who have impressive naturalaptitudes in certain areas—fail in traditional classroom settings, even inclasses that by all accounts they “should be good at.”

Some havebehavioral tendencies that are incompatible with the classroom culture. Others findthe course materials boring, either because they already know the materialbeing taught or else because the material is being taught in a way that isn’tconducive to their learning style. Still others learn at a different pace thanwhat the curriculum may allow for, working either faster or slower. Many simplytest poorly or have trouble focusing. Organizational issues, language barriers,home circumstances (which may interfere with one’s ability to complete homeworkor come to class rested and ready to learn), individual teacher-studentdynamics, problems with bullying at school, health or disability factors, etc.,etc. may also affect one’s ability to “make grades.”

Many of thesmartest people there are have failed in formalized academic settings. Conversely,many people of average or even below average aptitudes have found ways tosucceed in the classroom. Other factors such as one’s work ethic, connection toteachers and mentors, support networks, accommodations, etc. can also impacteducational success.

In Brittany’scase, there are myriad reasons why, despite her certified genius, she fails herclasses.

For onething, WMHS is a substandard learning environment, just to start out with.

Theatmosphere there is toxic. Bullying runs rampant, with the staff either whollyapathetic toward, powerless to intervene in, or even sometimes party to theperpetuation thereof. 

The administration routinely mismanages its resources,spending an inordinate amount of money to support the cheerleading and footballprograms, though lacking certain other necessities—such as a functional specialeducation department, adequate handicap accommodations, and up-to-datetextbooks.

They also hire teachers who are both underqualified (such as Will,who teaches Spanish for years despite not actually speaking the language) andfrequently abusive (such as Sue, who should literally be serving jail time forthe way she treats the student body). 

Multiple times, it’s stated that theirstudents test at below average reading levels. 

While only a small percentage ofwhat Sue says should ever be believed, her claims that she doctors the gradesof her Cheerios to maintain their academic eligibility to participate in avarsity sport are seemingly accurate, as Will and Principal Figgins aver that such is this case. 

Not a single permanentteacher, principal, or guidance counselor at the school, with perhaps theexception of Coach Beiste, appears competent to do their job.

The hijinks ofvarious staff members and students regularly interfere with the learning day.

Rememberthat old post about JennaB. Lacey, the Hogwarts student who just wants to get a proper education but isconstantly prevented from doing so because she has the misfortune of being inthe same year as one Harry Potter, whose adventures and misadventures areconstantly interrupting her lessons and preempting her exams? Just replace “Harry Potter” with “Rachel Berry” or “SueSylvester,” and you’re basically describing the life of your average WMHSstudent.

Though wedon’t spend a lot of time following the New Directions kids through theirregular classes, the few glimpses that we do get suggest that much of thecurriculum they are subjected to is either outdated or else straight upobjectively incorrect.

While theepisode plays the situation for laughs, Holly Holliday’s points about the sexeducation at WMHS being painfully inadequate aren’t at all off the mark. Mrs.Hagberg seems to experience episodes of dementia while teaching (and is aself-admitted painkiller addict). She frequently forgets her spatiotemporallocation and has on occasion been known to teach that the Nazis won WWII. Will speaksSpanglish and buys into racist stereotypes about Latinos. Sue promulgatesconspiracy theories and unsubstantiated revisionist history, purposefullyspreading misinformation as if she were the White House Press Secretary.

Later on, inS6, it’s shown that a complete overhaul is necessary to update the school’stechnology and curriculum in order for the students to start performing up tostandards on their state tests.

—and there’sBrittany, who learns differently than most people do, stuck in the middle ofall of this chaos.

Honestly,it’s a wonder that any of the kids at WMHS achieve any kind of mainstreamacademic success. That Quinn gets into Yale and Tina into Brown is kind of ascholastic miracle, all things considered.

So she’s upagainst a lot of impediments as barriers to her learning just as a baseline.

Then add inher individual difficulties on top of the other stuff.

Brittany’sis a unique mind. It is unclear to what extent book-learning and traditionaleducation work for her. She has a tendency to metaphorize concepts, suggestingthat she is an abstract thinker. Her flair for malapropisms also intimates thather mind is organized in “webs,” with various like-words grouped together byloose strings of associations. Though she is mathematically intelligent, she isalso emotionally intelligent and physically intelligent, as well.

Early on,her genius seems highly intuitive, as she is able to pull numbers out of theair, though she is not always equally able to explain how or by what means she hasdone so. In time, her methods seem to become more examined and deliberate, withtheory underlining what was once a more reflexive capability.

She isperhaps something of an autodidact, able, for instance, to teach herselfSpanish, though she apparently doesn’t fare well in the class in high school.

Though fewpeople on the show, save Santana, realize as much, she frequently runs abouttwo or three steps ahead of everyone else in terms of her conversations andsocial maneuvers. Her zany quips and seemingly innocent demeanor throw peopleoff, to the point where they don’t pick up on just how wily and keen she canbe.

On the onehand, this phenomenon affords her some social leeway—because, after all, she’sjust “Brittany being Brittany.” On the other hand, it sometimes results inthose who fail to understand her talking down to her, infantilizing her, andblowing her off. 

Frequently, both Brittany and the people who engage with herwalk away from their interactions frustrated, Brittany because she’s beencondescended to, her conversation partners because they find herincomprehensible and off-putting. 

So. 

Considerthat many of her teachers—including Will—seem to be confused by the way shetalks and find her irksome to deal with and so tend to be dismissive of herduring classroom discussions.

Because herintelligence is non-normative, a teacher talking about A subject can get her thinkingoff on a tangent about B subject, C subject, and D subject, and pretty soonshe’ll be blurting out a question or comment about Z subject, which from herteacher’s perspective does not relate to the discussion topic at hand and mayeven derail the lesson, distracting the other students. The teacher then eitherreacts to Brittany’s question or comment with annoyance, shutting her down(such as Ms. Hagberg does in episode 3x02); or reacts with bafflement, ignoring her andglossing over what she’s said (such as Will does in episode 1x10). Either way, Brittanydoesn’t get her questions answered or her comments responded to in aconstructive manner, which means that, invariably, she doesn’t get what sheneeds to out of class.

By the timewe first meet her as a sophomore, Brittany’s reputation as a nuisance and“numbskull” precedes her.

Her teachersmake no effort to hide their low opinions of her intelligence.

In episode2x04, everyone ribs Puck for crashing his mom’s car into an ATM and gettingarrested. Brittany joins in the fun, remarking, “He may be the dumbest personon this planet—and that’s coming from me.” Though the moment is generallyjocular, the fact that Brittany’s teacher Will says nothing to defend her toherself speaks volumes. The incident is also not an isolated one, as later inthe season, in episode 2x17, Will directly questions Brittany’s intelligence toher face (“I get the three of you being on [the Brainiacs], but Brittany?”).

Tack on allthe instances when he responds to Brittany’s comments during rehearsals (andeven her later “cries for help” during S4) with bafflement at best and disdainat worst, plus the way he clearly talks down to her as if she were a youngchild rather than a teenager, and there’s no question that he thinks she’s adolt.

And he’s notthe only member of the WMHS faculty who feels that way, either.

SueSylvester is likewise a serial offender when it comes to calling Brittany dumband infantilizing her. Ditto for Hagberg and Figgins. Though we don’t get tosee Brittany interacting with many other members of the staff aside fromSheldon Beiste, Holly Holliday, and Shelby Corcoran—the last two of whom areonly at the school briefly—it stands to reason that there are other teacherswho share the same negative attitude toward her that the featured teachers do.  

At onepoint, Brittany even says that her teachers have told her that her grades mightactually improve if she were to slough her classes.

Brittany’s“stupidity” is widely viewed as a given.

Time andtime again, the show depicts people taking her intelligence for granted andassuming the worst of her capabilities. Such attitudes undoubtedly influencethe way that her teachers approach educating her. If a smart kid like Quinn orArtie isn’t grasping a concept, then teachers will try changing their pedagogyup, teaching the lesson in a different, more effective way. The same is trueeven for an average student like Mercedes. If she’s struggling, a teacher’simpulse will be to show her patience because there’s a good chance thateventually (with some hard work and extra credit) she’ll get it. But not so with Brittany, whom most teachers seem to viewas an idiot. Why slow down a class for her? Why assign different readings? Whytutor her after school? Their assumption is that she is a lost cause.

Sue potentiallydoctoring her grades—and those of the other Cheerios—also exacerbates theproblem.

Thoseteachers who are aware of Sue’s meddling, and especially the ones who have beenbullied by her into being complicit, may feel a lessened sense of obligation toreally teach Brittany or attempt to accurately evaluate her learning because,after all, no matter how Brittany performs, she’s going to be handed a passinggrade in their classes anyway.

Conversely,those teachers who remain unaware of Sue’s meddling may believe that givingBrittany a failing grade will result in meaningful academic consequences forher, which will then lead to her getting the help and attention she needsvis-à-vis the systems that are in place to prevent kids from “falling throughthe cracks.”

Of course,because Sue changes Brittany’s grades after the fact, Brittany never receivesany such help.

The systemsdon’t attend to her. Nothing in her file gets flagged. No one pulls her aside.She just gets passed along from year to year and class to class without anyoneever really taking an interest in her learning.

Either way,she’s left ill-equipped to succeed in high school.

On top ofeverything else, Brittany may also have an undiagnosed learning disability,such as ADHD or ASD. Though of course the show never states that she does havea disability (undiagnosed or not), some neurodivergent fans see in Brittany a kindred spirit whose experiences inthe public school system resemble their own.

It’sdefinitely possible that she could benefit from some accommodations.

But as faras we know, they’re never offered to her—not only because, as we learn from Sueregarding Becky Jackson, WMHS doesn’t offer special education classes, but alsobecause everyone thinks that she’s just “Brittany being Brittany,” and she’s a hopelesscase from the get-go.

So howeversmart Brittany may naturally be, she’s got alot stacked against her at WMHS, including antagonistic teachers, theabysmally low expectations people set for her, Sue’s interference with hergrades (and then the sudden cessation of that interference), her non-normativelearning strategies, and other possible factors.

Add in thatduring her senior year, she’s also dealing with some extra pressures outside ofthe classroom, and what we have is a recipe for a disaster.

Note: Ofcourse, the show deprives us of hearing Brittany talk about the aftermath ofSantana’s outing, suspension, and disowning in her own words, but HeatherMorris’s nonverbal cues show that Brittany’s upset during this period is hardfelt. It’s a stressful time in Brittany’s life, and even after the initialwounds have healed somewhat, Brittany still devotes much of mental andemotional energy to trying to ameliorate the situation, to keep Santana in agood place, to help her smile, and carry on. That’s not to say that Brittana’srelationship or Brittany’s efforts to make Santana happy cause Brittany to failher classes. It’s just to say that Brittany’s senior year is one in which shehas a lot on her mind beyond the regular cares of just being a teenager.

Thesituation as it is, it’s perhaps unsurprising that she should struggle.

However, thequestion still remains: Why doesn’t she ask for help?

No one, includingher parents, teachers, or girlfriend, seems to notice she’s academicallydrowning until it’s too late. But just because they don’t notice on their owndoesn’t mean that Brittany can’t alert them to the situation, right? So whydoesn’t she turn to Mr. Schue and say, “I need some extra help on my historyhomework,” or confide in her parents that she’s just bombed another Englishexam, or ask Santana if they can perhaps study for chemistry class together?Wouldn’t it be in her best interest to do so? Shouldn’t she want to graduate sothat she can get on with her life (and follow Santana)? Why not just reach outto someone?

Easier saidthan done.

Brittany hasspent her whole life being disparaged for “not being smart enough.” Is shereally going to admit she’s struggling to many of the same people who are activelycontributing to her struggles?

Sure,ostensibly, Mr. Schue is her teacher, and he’s supposedly an advocate for her.But can she really turn to someone who has routinely made her feel like anidiot and confess to him that she’s not understanding her classes—andespecially when she’s fully aware that, even if she were to ask him for help,he is probably not the best person to offer it, considering that he’s not actuallya qualified teacher?

The samegoes for Sue, who habitually preys upon Brittany’s vulnerabilities and has beenknown to blackmail students whenever she has any sort of leverage over them.Brittany would have to be an even bigger fool than the one people take her forin order to ask a favor of a megalomaniac of Sue’s caliber.

If Brittanywere to turn to her, the best case scenario would be that she would once againresort to doctoring Brittany’s report card—which is not necessarily an outcomethat Brittany wants. The worst case scenario would be that she would find someway to make Brittany’s life hell for having even approached her.

Brittany has to wonder: Is there any good that could come of prompting Sue totake action if she hasn’t already done so (unprompted) yet?

Not evenEmma is a safe bet, considering that she seems completely oblivious toBrittany’s plight, even though it is literally her job to be on top of it.

She doesn’t pushWill to include Brittany in his Saturday Night Fever competition alongsideFinn, Mercedes, and Santana (see episode 3x16). She isn’t present to participatein the “come to Jesus” meeting Figgins calls Brittany in for before the prom (seeepisode 3x19). Nowhere along the line does she show any concern for Brittany’sGPA, even though she has access to Brittany’s records and presumably has aprofessional imperative to counsel with her concerning her future.

If she can’tbe assed to take an interest in Brittany’s academic struggles even though she’sbeing paid to do so, then Brittany’s not going to beg her to get involved.

Her inactionhas already sent the message loud and clear: Brittany is on her own.

As for whyBrittany doesn’t turn to her parents or Santana for help, things arecomplicated on that side, too.

Since wedon’t know much about Brittany’s relationship with her parents aside from thelittle we see of it in S6, it’s difficult to say why she doesn’t approach themfor help. Maybe she fears disappointing them. Maybe she feels that they won’tunderstand why she’s failing. (They might assume she’s being lazy or goofingoff rather than facing legitimate roadblocks to her learning.) Possibly,they’re dealing with some kind of crisis of their own at the same time thatBrittany realizes that she’s failing, so she doesn’t want to “bother them” withwhat she’s going through. Perhaps she does approach them but they either can’t or won’t helpher.

There’s alsothe possibility that Brittany is reluctant to involve her parents in her issuesbecause she fears the consequences if they find out that Sue has been doctoringher grades for years. How can she explain to them why she’s gone from having apassing (and perhaps even impressive) GPA in years past to having a failing(and even abominable) GPA this year? She’d have to admit that Sue’s been fudgingher report cards to preserve her academic eligibility—and doing so might resultin her parents asking her questions that she doesn’t want to answer.

Either shewould have to say that she had gone along with Sue’s meddling (even though sheknew what Sue was doing was wrong) OR she would have to admit that Sue hasbasically been abusing and blackmailing her and the other Cheerios, making herscared to come forward about the academic dishonesty. The first option oversimplifiesthe situation. The second option is the truth but one that’s probably difficultfor her to cop to.

In any case,for whatever reason, Brittany either doesn’t bring her problems to her parents’attention or she does but they can’t (or won’t) help her.

WithSantana, things are different.

Brittanyknows that if she approaches Santana with her problem, Santana will not onlycare but also understand all of the extenuating circumstances. Santana knowsabout the Sue stuff. She also sees how teachers and other staff members tend toreact to Brittany. She’s fully aware of the injustice. She’s also fully awarethat Brittany’s genius is misunderstood—that Brittany is smart, though her smarts don’t necessarily translate to hertopping the Honor Roll every semester. Santana has the full view of thesituation, and there’s no question that she’d be sympathetic to Brittany’sissues and do everything in her power to get Brittany help, if Brittany justsaid the word.

The troubleis that Brittany doesn’t want to say the word—not when Santana has been dealingwith her own troubles, which, on the whole, from Brittany’s perspective, seem so much bigger and moreagonizing than Brittany’s own.

Brittanycan’t bring herself to interject, “Um, excuse me, Santana, but can we take a break fromdealing with you being outed the entire state of Ohio, suspended from school,disowned by your grandmother, and homophobically bullied so that we can talkabout my algebra test?;” not when she knows that if she points out that she isfailing, Santana will pump the brakes on her own plans and ambitions in orderto stand by her side.

She doesn’twant to hold Santana back when Santana is on her way out of their stifling, gay-bashingtown, onto bigger and better things. She doesn’t want to drag Santana herpersonal turmoil, not when Santana is just finally getting clear from theturmoil in her own.

—andespecially not when Brittany views her own failure as inevitable.

Yeah, shecould tell Santana, and, yeah, Santana would try to move heaven and earth tohelp her. But in the end, there’d be nothing Santana could do. Brittany wouldstill fail, not due to any lagging efforts on Santana’s part, but becauseBrittany has never been able to succeed in school no matter how hard she tried,because the whole system is rigged against her and always has been. No matterhow much effort Brittany expends to show people she’s got a fine brain in herhead—by winning a quiz bowl championship, writing for the school newspaper,becoming class president, dishing out wise advice, etc.—no one except for Santanahas ever been willing to give her a chance. They always see her as an imbecileor a child. Even Santana can’t change the status quo. So why drag her into it?

InBrittany’s view, it’s better for her to help Santana pursue her dreams outsideof Lima than to do anything that might cause her to turn back or slow down.

ThoughBrittany often projects confidence, the truth is that just like the other twomembers of the Unholy Trinity, she has some serious and deep-seated self-esteemissues. After so many years of people calling her an idiot and treating herlike a child, part of her wonders if they aren’t perhaps right (see her speech in episode 4x22). 

While shedoesn’t want to believe what the haters are saying, she also can’t help butfeel that maybe she is destined for Lima Loserdom. If so, then the last thingshe wants to do is drag Santana down with her—hence why she doesn’t mention herfailure to graduate until she’s sure that Santana leaving town and going toLouisville is already a done deal.

Is refusingto seek help from anyone a wise choice on Brittany’s part? No.

But havingdifficulty asking for help is a character flaw she comes by naturally. That agirl who’s been told “no” her whole life would be scared to ask anyone to takea chance on her and say “yes” makes sense. The behavior pattern is a consistentone that she displays throughout the show, such as, for example, in S4, whenshe stages not one but two separate public meltdowns in situations where sheneeds help but doesn’t know how to ask for it (see episodes 4x02 and 4x22).

Note: Thefact that Brittany actually brings herself to ask Santana if they can seekadult help regarding their relationship troubles in episode 2x15 shows just howmuch the issue means to her. Normally, Brittany would never suggest seekingoutside counsel, but in that case she wants so badly to set things to rightsbetween her and Santana that she petitions Santana to approach Holly Holliday.Her love for Santana outweighs her fear of making herself vulnerable.

Brittanydoes want to graduate high school. She does want to be with Santana andcontinue their relationship. She wants to escape Lima. She wants to prove thenaysayers wrong. She wants to start a new life somewhere where she’s notnegatively stereotyped and looked down on by everyone. She wants to livehappily ever after with the woman she loves. She wants all of these thingsdesperately, more than anyone really knows.

But she alsodoesn’t know how to get what she wants.

She feelsboxed in and like her situation is hopeless.

So she justtailspins until she crashes.

—and thetruly tragic thing is that nobody notices what’s happening with her until it’stoo late, either because they remain oblivious (like Santana) or because theyare apathetic (like Brittany’s teachers, coaches, and guidance counselors).

Per usual,Glee tried to play the situation for laughs, but there’s really nothing allthat funny about Brittany’s academic failures at all.

Like manystudent athletes, Brittany is a kid whose physical abilities have been valuedover her learning. As long as she’s helping the Cheerios to winchampionships—and make no mistake, like Quinn and Santana, Brittany is one ofSue’s superstars, whose dance and choreography talents are one of the main advantagesthat make the squad elite—then nobody cares if she struggles in her classes.It’s all about what she can do for the school and not what the school can dofor her.

Of course,in Brittany’s case, there’s even an added element of administrative apathy atplay beyond the usual “Just pass the girl so she’s competition eligible” bit.

Because ofthe way she thinks and acts, her teachers assume that she incapable of and/ordisinterested in learning. They allow their annoyance and exasperation with herto supersede whatever obligation they might feel to provide her with a realeducation.

The sad reality is that no one’s going to go out of theirway to teach a girl that they consider a) a nuisance to have in class; b)incapable of learning; and c) someone for whom grades don’t really matteranyhow, given that she’s one of the moving parts in Sue Sylvester’schampionship cheerleading machine.

So that’show Brittany makes it through grades nine, ten, and eleven: By being passedfrom hand to hand, with the faculty and administration turning a blind eye towhat’s happening because, ultimately, no one really cares about her educationanyway.

But thenBrittany enters grade twelve, and for whatever reason this system suddenlyfalls apart. Though she has previously made passing grades—some of themostensibly without Sue’s “help”—the coursework in her senior year gets thebetter of her.

Maybe thetwelfth grade material proves substantially more difficult than the eleventhgrade material. Maybe years of inadequate learning finally catch up to her. (Ifone never masters the basics of a given subject, then one can’t very wellnavigate more advanced material, after all.) Maybe the stress in her family andsocial life so distracts her from her schoolwork that she is no longer able to juggle it all, and she ends up dropping the academic ball. Maybe herteachers finally have enough of her antics and decide to grade her punitively. Maybea confluence of issues affects her.

Whatever thecase, she fails.

That no onein the WMHS administration takes an interest in her case is a tragedy. Thatshe doesn’t feel safe enough to ask any of her teachers or coaches for help isutterly heartbreaking. Particularly when we compare her story to Puck’s, thenumerous ways in which the system has failed her become painfully apparent.

No childshould flunk out of school because her teachers find her annoying.

—andespecially not when she is willing to learn, if only given the chance.

Throughouther time at WMHS, we frequently see Brittany taking notes in her classes andvolunteering answers during lectures, incorrect though some of those answerscertainly are. She isn’t a girl who sleeps through her schooldays or cutsclasses or goofs off. She’s trying her best. And as the way she really comesinto her own after she leaves WMHS proves, she isvery much capable of learning, albeit at her own pace and in her own way.

Imagine howvery different Brittany’s story could have been if even one teacher had realizedher potential—or had even just given her a chance of any kind. 

Not onlywould it perhaps have been possible for her to graduate with the rest of herclass, but her genius could have been recognized sooner. The entire course of her life could have been changed for the better.

As thingsare, Brittany eventually succeeds inspite of her experiences in the education system, not because of them.

Hers remainsa sobering story.

Anyway.

Then, toanswer your second question:

No, I don’tthink Brittany drops the “—if it were, Santana and I would be dating” line onpurpose. I honestly think it’s a slip on her part.

Here’s thething:

ThoughBrittana don’t get a lot of foreground development during S1, they do have asubtle subtextual, “in the background” storyline that centers on the tension between howSantana thinks they need to be versus how they really are.

Whilethey’re both truly happiest when they’re monogamous with each other, Santanacontinually insists that they maintain publicly visible sexual relationshipswith popular boys at the same time that they’re sleeping with each other—youknow, to project at least the illusion of “straightness.”

However,despite her interest in appearing “heterosexual,” Santana is never able to keepup her sexual relationships with boys for long. Puck inevitably cheats on her.Finn inevitably turns back to Rachel. She invariably ends up back in amonogamous sexual relationship with Brittany, who is more than happy with thearrangement, given that she and Santana are actually in love. The cycle repeatsitself ad nauseum, until eventually, between episodes 1x10 and 1x13, Santanaand Brittany fall into a prolonged period of exclusivity with eachother.

During thistime, they’re sleeping together, plus doing all of their regular “best friend”things—you know, like sharing meals and going out to movies and sittingtogether in the back of the class and writing each other cute notes andcuddling and linking pinkies and generally being, you know, GIRLFRIENDS—whichis why Brittany feels confused about the status of their relationship.

Santana hastold over and over again that just because you’re having sex with someonedoesn’t mean you’re also dating them.

But she andSantana aren’t just having sex. They’re also doing all sorts of relationship-ystuff. Plus, you know, they’re in love with each other.

So doesn’tthat mean that they’re dating?

That’s thequestion that’s in Brittany’s mind going into the infamous party line scene inepisode 1x13.

To quoteextensively from thispost:

During S1,Santana feels secure in her arrangements with Brittany as long as she maintainsa sexual relationship with Puck and he brags about it around school. As long aseveryone knows that Santana has sex with a hot boy and “likes it,” then Santanafeels safe to also have sex with Brittany, per her own druthers. Even afterSantana and Puck officially break up circa episode 1x03, things are cool becausethey still keep having sex and Puck keeps broadcasting the fact that they do totheir peers.

But then circa episode 1x10, somethingshifts.

Though Puck and Santana continue to haveintermittent sex, Puck ceases to boast of their encounters starting around episode1x10, when he begins to woo Quinn in earnest, trying to prove his worthiness asa father and partner to her.

When Puck ceases to brag, Santana getsnervous and feels as if he has rejected her. Is she doing something wrong?Doesn’t he like it anymore? Does he know her secret?

In episode 1x11, Santana sexts Puck in adesperate attempt to rekindle his interest in her, but her efforts don’t panout. Pucktana likely stop sleeping together between episodes 1x11 and 1x13,and, when they do, it likely causes Santana to fear immensely for herreputation.

Ironically, though the thing Santana mostfears in losing Puck as her beard is that people will find out the truth abouther relationship with Brittany, Santana can’t help but run to Brittany when shefeels Puck’s attentions waning. She panics her way right into Brittany’s bed,seeking the approval, affection, acceptance, and validation there that shedoesn’t get from Puck. In so doing, she probably reveals some emotionalvulnerability or even neediness to Brittany.

Considering that Brittany is in love withher, it’s hard for Brittany not to read significance into her actions and thinkthat they signal something big.

Hint: They do.

Brittany starts thinking more and moreabout what’s going on between her and Santana. Since Santana isn’t dating Puckanymore, maybe Santana could date Brittany instead.

It’s because Brittany has the idea ofdating Santana in her mind—and heart—that she blurts it out to the group in1x13.

“Sex isn’t dating.”

“—if it were, Santana and I would bedating.”

It’s Brittany voicing what’s in her heartbefore she can really stop herself.

That she has no premeditated intention ofouting herself and Santana is clear from the look on her face the second thewords leave her mouth and she realizes what she’s just said. She spoke what wasmeant to be a private thought aloud, and she’s scared to death about what theconsequences might be now that she has. She immediately glances to Santana,gauging her reaction, wondering how badly she’s just fucked up theirrelationship. Though the conversation quickly moves on from that point, herheartbeat most likely doesn’t resume a normal pace for minutes afterward.

Anyway, I’ve jabbered for a good, ol’long while now.

_______

In Brittanaland, “With feelings, it’s better” has long been a watchcry, but also potentially a misleading one if taken literally, because, honestly, with Brittana, the feelings have never been lacking.

The real issue? Acknowledging feelings for what they are. Communicating straightforwardly about how one feels. Not obfuscating or sidestepping. Just being honest. 

This issue lies at the heart of Brittana’s journey from emotional distance to peak emotional intimacy. As the girls learn how to disclose to each other about how they feel—and essentially to “call a spade a spade” when it comes to what their relationship means—they’re able to move from confusion, heartache, and unnecessary angst to connection, certainty, and emotional openness like never before. This evolution as a couple tracks closely with Santana learning to embrace her sexual identity and with Brittany learning to advocate for herself and stand up for what matters to her.   

We see this process start early on, when Brittana presents something of an “emotional intimacy paradox,” insofar as the girls are simultaneously both incredibly emotionally intimate in some ways and incredibly emotionally closed off from each other in others.

On the one hand, they are best friends of the closest kind:

They confide in each other.

See, for example, in 2x12, when, after maintaining her “bitch” front in the face of everyone else, Santana finally breaks down in the hallway with only Brittany present, revealing the depths of her upset.

They are attentive to each other’s feelings.

See, for example, in 2x02, when Santana sticks up for Brittany when she catches flack for not wanting to perform Britney Spears like the rest of the glee club.

They support each other’s successes.

See, for example, in 2x09, when they are excited about each other’s respective dancing and singing solos at Sectionals.

They make use of an extensive lexicon of intimate touches through which they communicate with each other (e.g., pinky-linking, back rubs, playing with each other’s hair, sweet lady kisses, etc.).

See all of S1, while they’re sitting on the back row.

They understand each other’s quirks, tics, and personality traits like no one else does.

See, for example, in 2x19, Brittany’s defense of Santana during the Blurt Locker scene.

We don’t get to witness a lot of their “alone time” together play out on screen, but anyone with eyes can tell that they are extremely close to each other—more so than they are with anyone else on the show. They talk to each other more than they do other characters. They act differently toward each other than toward other company. They demonstrate all sorts of care for each other in myriad different ways. Both of them are more “themselves” in each other’s presence than they are otherwise. 

Of course, on the other hand, they also have a giant emotional wedge between them which impedes their emotional intimacy—namely, Santana’s unwillingness to acknowledge the true nature of their relationship and/or their respective sexual orientations (or to allow Brittany to do so).

For all intents and purposes, Brittana are in a romantic relationship with each other throughout the entire history of the show, and yet in the early seasons, Santana refuses to either acknowledge or to permit Brittany to acknowledge said relationship as romantic. She’s so terrified of anyone knowing the truth about her sexuality that she tries in every possible way to bury it. 

Even though she and Brittany are sleeping together, hanging out all the time, and doing quintessentially coupley things, they aren’t (according to her) girlfriends; they are “best friends.” 

Even though they have a passionate, regular sexual relationship—that is even seemingly monogamous between episodes 1x16 and 2x06—what they’re doing isn’t (according to her) serious; it’s just a recreational time-kill in the absence of boys. 

Per Santana, sex isn’t dating, and cuddling in the choir room isn’t a big deal. What she feels for Brittany is only best friendly affection, not passionate love. She rationalizes and downplays and represses EVERYTHING, insisting that Brittany do so, as well, freaking out and retreating any time Brittany even gets close to suggesting that their relationship is at all romantic.

—and because Brittany fears that if she freaks Santana out, she’ll lose her, she goes along with Santana’s charades, as ridiculous and unconvicing as they sometimes are. If Santana says that sex isn’t dating, then sex isn’t dating. If Santana says that they have to get with boys, then they have to get with boys. Brittany, at this point, is a passive entity. Her m.o. is to go along to get along and not do anything that would possibly cause Santana to spook.

She keeps her mouth shut, even though she knows in her heart that what Santana’s selling her is bullshit.

In Santana repressing and in Brittany humoring her, Brittana experience complications with their emotional intimacy, including (among other issues):

While they are both skilled readers of each other’s cues, they often can’t discuss what they see going on with each other. They have to pretend that they don’t know why the other girl is upset or conflicted or angry or sad or confused—or at least they have to tiptoe around the subject very carefully, being cautious not to mention their feelings for each other or sexual orientations in the process. 

For example, in episode 2x12, Brittany knows very well that Santana’s upset about Valentine’s Day has a lot to do with her gay panicking and fear that she is going to be alone for the rest of her life. However, because of Santana’s moratorium on talking about feelings and the topic of their sexual orientations, Brittany can’t very well say to Santana, “Don’t worry. You won’t end up alone! One day, you’ll be with a girl you love—and I hope that that girl is me.” Instead, she can only look on with concern while Santana flails, offering physical comfort but no address to the underlying problem.

Santana’s repeated verbal devaluation of her and Brittany’s relationship  conflicts with the physical cues she sends Brittany, which causes Brittany a kind of emotional whiplash. On the one hand, what Santana says can be downight cruel (“I’m not making out with you because I’m in love with you and want to sing about making lady babies. I’m only here because Puck’s been in the slammer for about 12 hours now, and I’m like a lizard. I need something warm beneath me or I can’t digest my food”), but, on the other hand, what she does, from the back rubs to the kisses to the lovemaking, is so sweet and attentive. Between the two extremes, Brittany doesn’t know where she stands or to what extent she is allowed to make known her own feelings.

Hence Brittany’s occasional “flubs,” where she wears her heart on her sleeve and tells Santana how she feels, believing, based on Santana’s recent behavior, that her expressions of affection will be reciprocated, only to have Santana suddenly shoot her down (e.g., in 2x04).    

The girls perpetuate a dizzying cycle in which every time Santana allows hereself to be emotionally vulnerable with Brittany—in some way revealing how much she needs, wants, and loves her—she then panics and emotionally retreats, attempting to date boys (and encouraging Brittany to do the same) in order to reassert their “heterosexuality.” This behavior causes both girls heartache and confusion, as every step forward they might take—for instance, their long period of monogamy between episodes 1x16 and 2x06—is then immediately wiped out by the proverbial two steps back—for instance, Santana roping them into a double-date with Puck and Artie, which eventually segues into her (once again) sleeping with Puck and Brittany (for the first time) sleeping with Artie.

In this sense, the girls are also very emotionally closed-off from each other, insofar as they can’t acknowledge their feelings for each other in any other way than on a physical level. They don’t talk about their romantic relationship in terms of it being a romantic relationship. They don’t talk about what the sex means, even though sex for them is incredibly meaningful. They deliberately mischaracterize their interactions as “platonically friendly” and attempt to hide the fact that they are each other’s primary partners, even though such is clearly the case.

The walls Santana builds up as a self-protective measure create emotional dissonance between them, which eventually results in Brittany deciding to take her at her word—i.e., that they’re not dating, despite all evidences to the contrary—and pursue a relationship with someone else instead, namely Artie Abrams.

From her relationship with Artie, Brittany learns the importance of being at liberty to discuss one’s feelings with one’s partner (“But when Artie and I are together we talk about stuff like feelings”). She also experiences the joys of having a formalized relationship. Artie, despite not fully understanding Brittany and oftentimes underestimating her intelligence, is generally an attentive and positive partner. Brittany’s time with him tends to be happy.

However, for as much as she flourishes in her relationship with Artie, she also finds herself unwilling to completely break off her relationship with Santana, with whom she is still deeply in love. Unlike Artie, Santana does fully understand her, and the feelings between them run so deep and so strong. 

This unwillingness on her part to forsake her relationship with Santana eventually leads to cheating between her and Santana while she’s still dating Artie, and the cheating eventually leads to the implosion of the Bartie relationship.

In the meantime, Santana’s experience with suddenly being Brittany’s “side dish” as opposed to her primary partner proves to Santana something that for years she has attempted to deny: that she is deeply in love with Brittany, craves intimacy with her, and can’t stand to be without her.

So cue first the Hurt Locker scene and then the Back Six of S2, where Santana finally allows herself to name her love for Brittany aloud and to acknowledge to Brittany that she wants them to be together, and, shortly afterward, Brittany suddenly becomes “available” again.

From there, Brittana’s is not an all-at-once transformation, where the girls go from being emotionally impeded to emotionally intimate in every way, but rather a step here and a step there over the course of the Back Six, with Santana learning (with much help from Brittany) to “embrace all the awesomeness” that she is and accept her own sexuality, becoming increasingly emotionally transparent in the process, and with Brittany learning to assert herself and be her own person, refusing to swallow her own feelings to preserve Santana’s ego. 

At the same time that Santana is gathering the courage to put on her  “LEBANESE” shirt and wear it proudly (see 2x18), Brittany is gathering the courage to stand up to the next person who calls her an idiot (see 2x19) and to tell Santana that she deserves to be treated well in their relationship and have her feelings acknowledged (see 2x18). It is a period of individual growth for both girls, and that individual growth paves the way for them to come into themselves as a couple. 

They suffer a few setbacks along the way—such as when Santana stands Brittany up on Fondue for Two (see episode 2x19)—but, gradually, by the end of S2, they reach a place where they can be honest with each other about what their actions toward each other mean and how they feel about each other and their relationship (see the Heart Locker scene in episode 2x22).

This progress continues into S3, when they officially start dating and take the first steps toward negotiating their emotional intimacy in public. Here, we see Brittany being wonderfully mindful of Santana’s comfort levels in terms of their coming out process as a couple (see episode 3x04) and Santana opening herself to Brittany in ways she never has before.

Santana becomes willing to cop to her feelings for Brittany not only when they are alone together but also before others, even in Brittany’s absence, and even to hostile audiences, like Principal Figgins or her abuela.

Unfortunately, Brittana—and especially Brittany—don’t get a lot of dialogue as the season progresses, but it’s still easy enough to see that they’re closer than they’ve ever been before. 

Hence why it so strains credulity when the Glee writers make it so that, somehow, Santana has no idea that Brittany’s not going to graduate, though that’s a rant for another day.

Of course, if we were charting Brittana’s emotional intimacy on a line chart, the “up curve” they’d experienced between S1 and S3 would take a sudden downturn come S4, when their breakup—precipitated by distance—suddenly reintroduces uncertainty into their dynamic, the likes of which they haven’t experienced since before Santana could bring herself to say the words “I love you.” 

Again, as before, the problem isn’t in the feelings. 

It’s in the inability to express them.

As discussed here, Santana and Brittany are still very much—truly, madly, deeply—in love when they break up, but because the entire object of said breakup (as Santana conceives of it) is to permit them both the freedom to pursue other happinesses while they can’t for the moment be together, they have to try to move on from each other, which means giving up the trappings of their former formal relationship. If they’re going to do the “find your bliss elsewhere” thing, then they have to do it right, and that means that they can’t function like a couple. There have got to be some boundaries.

The difficulty comes in deciding where those boundaries lie and then somehow enforcing them.

Throughout their entire “broken up” period between S4 and early S5, neither one of them is certain how to interact with the other now that they’re uncoupled. They still crave each other’s company (see, for example, 4x06 and 4x13), but they’re not sure how much they can do or say or even where to draw the line when it comes to physical touch. How much disclosure is too much? At what point are they crossing a line? 

Santana, in particular, is so afraid of getting her wires crossed that she finds it difficult to maintain regular contact with Brittany, especially once Brittany starts dating Sam.

Remember: Even in the primordial days of S1, when the girls were still pretending that they were “just” best friends, there was always a romantic element to their relationship. They’ve never known how to maintain a strictly platonic dynamic. 

This uncertainty creates some notable awkwardness during S4. Though at various points, the girls vow to each other that they’ll always be best friends and remain close, even when they’re dating other people (see, for example, in 4x06 and 4x13), their communication—at least as far as we’re shown it in canon—appears both sporadic and far less open than it once was. They’re careful around each other in a way they haven’t been since S2.

It takes Brittany’s misery at MIT and Santana’s misery in New York to reopen their channels of communication (see episodes 5x12 and 5x13). Because their concern for each other’s well-being is always paramount even when they’re not officially “together,” when each one learns how unhappy the other one is in her current living situation, they each attempt to counsel and support each other, despite their previous awkwardness, and those attempts eventually lead to them talking about their relationship. 

Brittany bravely admits that she wants her and Santana to be together again, and her act of emotional disclosure causes Santana to realize that she wants the same thing, too. 

They talk about first their fears and then their hopes in getting back together. They make plans. They tie up loose ends. 

From there, their emotional intimacy only increases and deepens.

The Brittana we see in S6, fresh off of their months-long vacation to Lesbos and concert tour as Mercedes’s background singers, have seemingly only grown closer in the time they’ve spent together since S5. 

They are extremely communicative, talking together about their feelings both negative and positive. They also help each other problem-solve and build each other up in times of stress and duress. They’re incredibly attentive to each other’s wants and needs and united in the front they present to the world.

And most importantly?

Their words and deeds align exactly. 

They tell each other how much they love each other with handholding, nose-nuzzling, kisses, hugs, and lovemaking, but they also say it in words—with “I will love you until infinity,” “I choose you over everyone,” and “I do”—and mean every one through and through, from the very depths of their hearts. 

There’s no more discrepancy between what’s actually going on with them and what they say is going on with them. 

They’re on the same page, 100%.

Brittany has metamorphosed from the yes-woman who went along just to get along. She no longer allows anyone to step on her, and she doesn’t sacrifice her own emotional truth to placate other people. She expresses her feelings clearly and is active in making decisions regarding her and Santana’s relationship. Gone is the girl who looked on, brokenhearted, while everyone told her who she was and how she should feel. Now she knows how to advocate for herself, for Santana, and for their love even—and even especially—when the stakes are high (see, for example, her speech to Santana’s grandmother in 6x06).

Santana, too, has undergone a remarkable, seasons-long change. No longer is she the girl who is too afraid to admit, even just to herself, that she’s in love with her best friend. Now she’s the woman who almost can’t help but tell the whole world how much she loves her wife at every opportunity, and she’s willing to prioritize her relationship with Brittany, even when doing so isn’t easy or without personal cost to her. While she once imposed ridiculous rules on herself and Brittany to try to keep their love a secret, now she breaks all the rules so that they can be together. She allows herself to be vulnerable and to show her innate sweetness. She allows herself to be honest about what she feels. 

—and, ultimately, that growth and honesty for both girls allows Brittana to enjoy a high degree of emotional intimacy during their engagement and marriage.

Their scenes together in episode 6x06 are some of the most emotionally intimate in the whole show—and I’m not just talking about them standing side by side to take on Alma at the end of the episode, but about Santana confronting Brittany in the hallway and about their ensuing conversation about Santana’s boundaries and how they’ll work together from now on to achieve common goals. That communication is so healthy and expressive. It’s so adult and straightforward. It’s something they never would have been able to do early on. It really shows their growth.

Looking forward, one can only imagine that as married women, they continue to learn each other better and to make use of their well-honed communication skills. Their “I love yous” undoubtedly continue to be frequent, their acknowledgment of who they are and how they feel absolutely their norm.

In any case, I’m rambling now, but TL;DR? Brittana’s biggest obstacle regarding emotional intimacy is the issue of being able to acknowledge their feelings for what they are. Once they learn to do that—together—they cohere in a remarkable way, emerging as the most cohesive, communicative, emotionally intimate couple on the show.

“With acknowledging feelings, it’s better.”

__________

“Oh, please, you guys love me”: On Brittana, Character Development, and How Self-Perception Shapes Their Relationships with the New Directions

The main factors that affect how Brittana’s respective views of their teammates change over time are their individual character development and perceptions of themselves as people.

In the beginning, both Brittany and Santana have bad reputations, Brittany as a “dumb slut” and Santana as a “mean” one. While deep down, the girls don’t like that their classmates view them in these ways, they feel helpless to do anything to change the status quo, particularly as at the time they’re both guarding deep, personal secrets that they feel they cannot reveal without then suffering lasting social consequences.

Brittany’s secret is that despite her reputation as the ultimate easy girl who is too stupid and aloof to care about who she sleeps with, she is actually deeply in love with Santana, and if she had her druthers she would choose to be with Santana exclusively.

Santana’s secret is of course that despite her reputation as a sharp-tongued, hyper-heterosexual bitch who’s screwing half the football team, she is actually secretly a sweetheart with an ooey-gooey center and deep and monogamous love for her female best friend, Brittany.

Brittany can’t stop pretending that she is indiscriminate about her sexual partners for fear of upsetting Santana and causing her gay panic about their relationship, while Santana can’t drop her “mean girl” guard and show her sweet, caring side for fear of making herself socially vulnerable and perhaps even causing her peers to realize the truth about her sexuality (see here).

So they both carry on, not only passively “allowing” their classmates to think poorly of them but oftentimes actively contributing to the perpetuation of their own negative stereotypes (see here).

For as much as Brittana don’t necessarily enjoy being pariahs in glee club and knowing that their teammates distrust and even in some cases dislike them, they’re both too scared to drop their guards and let everyone see who they really are inside. In this early stage in their development, they feel that it is better to be misunderstood and rejected than it is to be understood perfectly and rejected anyway. Sure, it hurts when people don’t like them based on the personas they project, but it would hurt even more if people didn’t like them based on who they really are inside and after knowing the things that are nearest and dearest to their hearts.

So for a long time, Brittana go along playing the bad girls.

Brittany is very much in the business of letting things slide. If someone treats her badly, more likely than not, she’s going to just take it and not do anything to confront the person or stand up for herself. With few exceptions, most people treat her poorly, so she’s just kind of “gotten used to it.” She expects her classmates to call her stupid, disparage her sexuality, and treat her like she is a child, and she’s even convinced herself that if they do these things in a “gentle” way, she can still count them as her friends. She’ll just let their meanness roll off her back.

It isn’t until S2 that she starts to really grow out of her go-along-to-get-along mode of operation.

Part of her learning process involves taking ownership of her own feelings and realizing that she doesn’t have to “settle” when friends or even lovers treat her poorly. Part of it involves quitting Cheerios and refusing to accept Sue’s bullying anymore. Part of it involves joining the Brainiacs and proving that she isn’t dumb like everyone thinks. Part of it involves making a conscious decision to be hopeful about her future (see episode 2x22). Part of it involves recognizing that she is so much happier being herself than she is pretending to be someone else. Part of it involves standing up first to Santana (see episode 2x04) and then to Artie (see episode 2x19), demanding that they treat her with the respect she deserves.  

Brittany learns to advocate for herself and starts to actively seek after her own happiness. It takes her a while, but eventually she gets to the point where she is no longer willing to allow anyone to treat her badly, whether that person is her true love, her former cheerleading coach, the boy she’s dating, her glee club instructor, the captain of the football team, the school’s biggest diva, or anyone else. No more passes for people who call her stupid. No more forgiveness to people who do things to hurt her (or Santana) and then fail to sincerely apologize and change their ways. Brittany is all out of fucks to give, and she isn’t about excusing people’s bad behavior anymore. It’s not enough to just be “less mean” to her than others are. If you really want to be her friend, you have to actually be nice.

It is with this attitude in place that in the later seasons, Brittany starts to lose her patience with a lot of the kids in the New Directions, to the point where by S6, most of them are on her shit list.

She has tried to be nice. She has tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. But so many of them have been nothing but condescending to her and mean to Santana right from the very start, and she isn’t cool with it anymore.

She gets that when she and Santana first joined glee club, they were far from saints, but she also believes that they should be allowed to change and should be accepted for who they are now, not condemned for who they were in the past (see her Heart Locker speech in episode 2x22).

The problem is that from her perspective, the New Directions aren’t adjusting their perceptions based on the new evidence.

Over the years, she has proven that she’s not stupid or daffy like everyone thinks she is. She’s been an academic decathalon champion---who carried her team to victory at nationals---an SAT high-scorer and a certified MIT math genius, but the glee kids still look at her like she’s nuts whenever she opens her mouth.

But what’s even worse, in Brittany’s view, is how they still regard Santana as a bully despite the fact that Santana has opened up and shown them “all the awesomeoness that [she is.].”

Back in the day, Brittany swore to Santana that if she would just drop her guard and make an effort, the glee kids would welcome her with open arms and recognize her as the brave, sweethearted person she really is inside.

But that’s not what happens. Santana tries to make friends---especially with Hummelberry---but is never unreservedly welcomed by the group. Her acceptance always comes with a caveat and is frequently revoked due to petty reasons. Brittany isn’t present to witness the full rigmarole in person, but she hears enough to understand that no matter what Santana does, the New Directions are never going to fully forgive her for the things that she did when she was a sophomore and junior in high school.

---and knowing that they won’t both breaks Brittany’s heart and infuriates her.  

While she refrains from directly confronting the New Directions largely for Santana’s sake, she doesn’t hold back from making passive-aggressive comments about them left and right or from trolling them when the opportunity strikes (see for example her mean comments to Tina in episode 6x03 and the way she teases Kurt about his love life in episodes 6x02, 6x03, and 6x08).

Since most of the kids in glee don’t understand Brittany’s wit and erroneously believe that she is incapable of holding grudges, they just ignore her spitefulness, writing her jabs off as “Brittany being Brittany.”

However, if you watch the later seasons with an eye for it, the truth becomes increasingly clear: Brittany no longer believes in what she told Santana during her Heart Locker speech. With few exceptions, the members of the glee club aren’t her family. They’re just a club, and she’s about done with them and their hypocrisy and exclusivity.

There are a few good apples in the bunch, but the rest of them are a bunch of petty narcissists who don’t deserve the time of day from Santana, let alone her friendship.  

Now, with Santana, things are different.

Santana starts out being super aggressive and hostile toward everyone in glee club except for Brittany. Aside from the outside pressure she gets from Sue, her biggest reason for being so truculent is that she is trying to use offense as defense. Simply put, Baby Girl feels vulnerable and like if she lets anyone too close, they’ll hurt her, so she keeps everyone—except for Brittany—at arm’s length for her own emotional safety. Hers is a “strike first or be stricken” mentality.

Of course, the interesting thing is that for as much as Santana purposefully drives everyone in the glee club away from her, at her heart, she just wants them to love and accept her. She builds a high, unbreachable wall around herself in the hopes that maybe someday someone will care enough to climb it.

For the longest time, Brittany is the only one who does, and no one else.

Eventually, Brittany tells Santana that if she wants the glee club to accept her, then she’s going to have to make the first move and show them “all the awesomeness that [she is]” (see episode 2x22). It’s a scary proposition for someone as insecure as Santana, but Santana makes a go of it. She’s still prickly, of course, because that’s just her nature, but she tries to also be sweet and supportive and at times even generous, and she does make many concerted efforts to reach out to the people she has formerly bullied, such as for example when she tries to help Kurt defend his boyfriend from bullies (see episode 3x11).

But the sad thing is that even though Santana really does try to change, most members of the glee club never accept her efforts and still regard her warily all the way up through S5 (see episodes 5x12, 5x13, and 5x18).

For a long time, Santana tries her damnedest to get in their good graces, but eventually—circa the events of episodes 5x12 and 5x13—she seems to realize that no matter what, the New Directions are never going to accept that she’s changed, no matter how many evidences she shows them.

From this point forward, she continues to be her reformed self, but she stops holding her breath waiting for the love and acceptance she is never going to unconditionally win. With few exceptions, she settles for surface-level acquaintanceships at best, which is what we see from her throughout S6.

So onto our discussion of the individual relationships themselves.

__________

Finn Hudson

Finn’s history with Brittana is complicated at best. They start out in the same social strata---he a football player, they cheerleaders---and come into incidental contact through their respective relationships with Quinn and Puck. However, as Sue starts to target the New Directions, she essentially sics Brittana on Finn and instructs them to run interference in his burgeoning relationship with Rachel.

This mid-S1 development causes Brittana to have more direct interactions with Finn and ultimately starts the three of them down the path that will lead to Santana taking Finn’s virginity, Finn outing Santana to all of Western Ohio, and Finn becoming one of the most troubling figures in Brittana’s collective history.

We’ll start with the Brittany side of things.

Early on, Brittany doesn’t seem to give Finn much thought. He’s a football player and for a time Quinn’s boyfriend but not someone she has a lot of personal interest in herself. She may occasionally cheat off his math assignments, but it is not as if they are friends. He only really comes onto her radar as she notices Santana becoming increasingly fixated on him throughout the school year.

Brittana go on one unsuccessful date with Finn in episode 1x14, and then in episode 1x15, Brittany suggests that Santana make another attempt to get with Finn, this time solo.

From an outside perspective, it is difficult to understand why Brittany would tell the girl she loves to sleep with a boy she knows said girl doesn’t care about.

But Brittany does have her reasons.

While Brittany knows better than anyone that Santana isn’t truly romantically or sexually attracted to Finn---despite what Santana may be trying to tell herself---she also knows that Santana is not one to drop an obsession once she’s gotten it into her mind.

The thing is, Brittany isn’t putting ideas into Santana’s head that weren’t already there to begin with.

Santana has long been interested in possessing Finn for herself, not because she actually has any personal interest in him but because she feels insecure about her ability to make and maintain lasting relationships with guys and she is jealous that Quinn and Rachel have had success in that pursuit when she hasn’t.

Particularly after Sue sics Brittana on Finn but they fail to seduce him, Santana is left wondering why she can’t manage to get Finn into bed with her. Shouldn’t he want to sleep with her when she’s giving him the option to? Is she not sexually attractive to him? Does some part of him know she isn’t really interested in him? Does he realize that there is something “wrong” with her?

Santana feels so conflicted inside. She knows she “should” want Finn, but the fact is that she doesn’t. Her head and her heart are constantly at war, the former telling her that she has to get with boys, the latter not wanting to. The less her heart wants her to be with boys, the more her head tells her that she must do exactly that.

Part of her feels so relieved when her and Brittany’s BreadStix date with Finn ends before it even really begins, but another part of her feels guilty that she feels relieved.

In her mind, she should want Finn, or at least she should want to want him. She clings so hard to that belief, and ultimately she convinces herself that she has to get with Finn even if the mere thought of doing so makes her feel sick.

Brittany knows what’s going on inside Santana’s mind and heart in her intuitive, Brittany way, and she sees that Santana is going to go after Finn regardless of how she really feels about him, so she tries to ameliorate the situation---because that’s her m.o. at the time.

Sure, it breaks her heart to see Santana throwing herself at a boy she doesn’t actually give a damn about, and, yeah, she knows that Santana will walk away from the situation feeling terrible once all is said and done. But Brittany isn’t yet in the habit of calling Santana out on her bullshit. Santana’s gonna do what Santana’s gonna do, and since Brittany can’t stop her, Brittany’s only recourse is to try in advance to minimize the damage.

By essentially giving Santana her blessing to go after Finn, Brittany hopes that maybe Santana will at least not feel guilty where she’s concerned. She’s basically telling Santana, “Go do what you feel like you have to do. I understand. I’ll be here to pick up the pieces when it’s over.”

Now, throughout all this drama with Santana, Brittany’s opinion on Finn himself doesn’t actually change much. She would prefer that Santana not sleep with him, of course, but she also knows he’s not really doing anything wrong. He isn’t the pursuer in this situation, and he also isn’t at fault for not being romantically attracted to Santana even though Santana wants him to be.

He is just an object in Santana’s larger power play, and Brittany knows as much.

So.

Brittany remains mostly ambivalent to Finn throughout S1. But in S2, her opinion of him starts to change.

Here, Finn makes a few missteps that cause Brittany to occasionally side-eye him, the most notable of which occurs right in the season finale, when he kisses Rachel on stage at Nationals, and his actions get the New Directions disqualified from competition. While Brittany isn’t herself overly upset by this turn of events, Santana is, and Brittany takes note that Finn has the propensity to hurt people through his thoughtless behavior. Still, she is willing to allow that everyone makes mistakes from time to time and to both move on from the incident herself and encourage Santana to do the same.

Cut to S3.

No surprises here: Brittany’s true dislike for Finn starts during Santana’s outing arc. First he calls Brittany stupid and offers only the lamest apology afterward (see episode 3x04). Then he has the audacity to not only out Santana to the entire school but act like he is a hero for doing so (see episodes 3x06 and 3x07).

“Lady Music Week” is what changes Finn from acquaintance to enemy in Brittany’s books.

Of course, Glee doesn’t actually allow Brittany to talk for most of S3, so we don’t get a lot of dialogue to confirm Brittany’s feelings in this regard. It’s all in her furious silence, which is something that the genius Marjorie discusses at length in this post.

Note: Marjorie has retired from the Brittana fandom. Please respect her privacy while you enjoy her archived work.

Now. Had Finn properly apologized to Santana for violating her privacy and really seemed to learn from his mistake, then Brittany probably would have forgiven him---because, after all, she has herself made some mistakes in how she has approached Santana’s coming out process (see episodes 1x13 and 2x19), and she’s had to learn from them and do better (see episode 3x04). But from Brittany’s perspective, Finn never acknowledges that he has even committed any errors. He just rationalizes what he has done by saying that he was motivated by his concern for Santana’s welfare. He isn’t sorry. Just smug.

So going forward Brittany gives him no more free passes. She starts holding him accountable for being thoughtless and self-important. As he continually condescends to her during his S4 tenure as the glee club director, she becomes increasingly passive-aggressive toward him, at one point even presenting him a severed Barbie doll head just to mess with his mind.

Ultimately, Brittany thinks that Finn is a bad leader, and she never forgives him for the way he treats Santana.

When he dies, she opts not to attend his funeral because she knows she doesn’t share the same positive opinion of him that most of the other kids in glee club do. To her, Finn Hudson wasn’t a heroic person or great leader. He was just a selfish boy who often hurt other people through his thoughtless words and actions and never really seemed to learn from his mistakes. While she certainly isn’t happy that Finn died, she also isn’t about to pretend he was perfect when she knows for a fact that he wasn’t.

Now for the Santana side of things.

Like we discussed above, early on in her development, Santana fixates on Finn because he represents everything that she thinks she “should” want. He is the popular, handsome stud quarterback, and any would-be prom queen such as Santana would socially benefit from being his girlfriend.

Of course, no matter how much Santana tries to force her feelings for Finn, the truth is that she isn’t ultimately into him, and the fact that she isn’t frustrates her. Eventually, she lashes out at Finn as the object of her frustrations. When she can’t manage to “hold onto him” even after she takes his virginity (see episode 1x15), she switches tacks, trying her best to sabotage his love life as he dates first Rachel and then Quinn.

It is only after Santana comes to terms with her sexuality that her attitude toward Finn shifts and she for the most part gives up on being actively aggressive towards him. While his self-righteousness as the glee club captain and smarminess in his relationship with Rachel still annoy her, she’s no longer interested in either possessing him or destroying him. If left to her own devices, she probably would have mostly ignored him going forward.

But Finn doesn’t leave Santana to her own devices.

Instead, when Santana and Brittany defect to the Troubletones in S3, he takes their departures from the New Directions as a personal affront and starts harrassing them about their choices. In the process, he calls Brittany stupid, and Santana gets riled. She shoots back a litany of insults of her own, until finally her and Finn’s quarreling comes to a head when Finn outs her in a crowded high school hallway.

Santana is understandably furious about what Finn has done to her, but even though he never truly apologizes, she still somehow eventually finds it in herself to forgive him.

Nobody in the New Directions would believe it, but Santana is actually an incredibly forgiving person, perhaps because she so craves forgiveness for herself.

Going forward, Santana and Finn don’t have many more personal interactions. Still, when Finn dies, Santana is deeply affected, largely because she feels guilty for her contentious history with Finn over the years.

In what is more than a little bit of a retcon, she claims that Finn was nice to her as they were having sex. She seems very touched when Kurt tries to give her Finn’s letterman jacket as a memento to remember Finn by.

Rachel Berry

Brittana’s history with Rachel is a fraught one. While Brittany basically dislikes Rachel from start to finish, Santana goes from disdaining her to admiring her to trying (unsuccessfully) to be her friend to realizing that she will never fully extend her acceptance and somewhat moving on.

To be fair: Brittana are really awful to Rachel during S1 and S2, so it’s not as if they are innocent parties in everything that goes down. However, to also be fair: Particularly in the later seasons, Rachel dishes out just as much as she gets, and she is very hard on Santana, even during times when Santana is legitimately trying to be her friend and confidante, so there is blame to be shared all around.

Getting into the details, then:

Brittany hates Rachel.

In the beginning, it is just because Rachel dresses badly, talks down to her, and is full of herself, but as the seasons wear on, Brittany’s big sticking point becomes Rachel’s mistreatment of Santana.

Brittany can’t understand why, but for some reason Santana craves Rachel’s approval and friendship, and after S3, she works damn hard to earn them. Sure, Santana and Rachel get off to a bad start when they are in high school, but Santana changes a lot as she becomes increasingly comfortable with herself, and once she graduates and moves to New York, she makes a real, concerted effort to become a part of Rachel’s inner circle.

Santana scores Rachel a job at the diner, supports her fledgling Broadway career, and, oh yeah, helps her through a pregnancy scare, and yet Rachel still treats her with patent disdain and distrust, kicking her out of the Loft and then getting her kicked out of the band, accusing her of stealing her theatrical glory, and constantly questioning her motivations for doing nice things (R: “Well, I mean, I wanted to see what you wanted in return.” S: “Is that the kind of friend that you think that I am?” R: “Yeah”).

Brittany isn’t present to witness all these slights firsthand, but she hears about them through the grapevine, and she sees how much Rachel has beaten Santana down, particularly after the accusations Rachel makes against Santana in front of the glee club in episode 5x12 (“You’re so cruel, Santana. You’re only doing this to me because I’m the lead of Funny Girl, and you’re just the lowly understudy. You want to make me feel bad because I’m better than you, and you’re an awful person”).

Brittany understands that no one is obligated to forgive their high school bully even once they reach adulthood and even if said bully has reformed, but she doesn’t understand why Rachel keeps stringing Santana along, pretending to be her friend for short stretches of time just to then reject her again immediately afterward. To her, it seems like Rachel is using Santana and wants her friendship only when it is convenient or profittable but never otherwise.

In Brittany’s view, if Rachel isn’t ever going to forgive Santana for what happened between them in high school, then Rachel should just say as much and be done with it. She shouldn’t keep giving Santana hope that they can be close only to then steal that hope out from under her. That’s just shitty behavior, and especially when Santana is being so earnest and contrite.

—and that is why during S4, S5, and S6, you can see just how 1000000% done Brittany is with Rachel and why she takes every opportunity to troll her.

If Rachel is going to disregard Santana’s attempts to be friends with her, then Brittany is going to mess with Rachel’s mind and vague the hell out of her at every opportunity.

She isn’t going to confront Rachel on Santana’s behalf because that’s not her place, but she also isn’t going to make any secret of the fact that she thinks that Rachel sucks.

As for Santana’s own feelings about Rachel, they’re fairly complicated, too.

Early on, Santana fixates on Rachel much in the same way that she does on Finn, mainly because she is jealous of Rachel’s emotional transparency.

When Rachel wants something, everybody in the world knows that she wants it, and Rachel never backs down or apologizes for pursuing her desires. To someone like Santana, who at the time feels trapped by her fears and is repressing a huge part of who she is, Rachel’s unapologetic Rachelness is enviable. Santana wishes she could be as brazenly herself as Rachel is. She wishes she could go after what she wants. But since she feels that she can’t, watching Rachel just frustrates her. It pisses her off that someone as unpopular and obnoxious as Rachel is out there achieving her dreams when she can’t herself do the same.

Among Brittanalysts, there is some debate as to whether or not Santana has an unwilling crush on Rachel. I personally don’t think she does, but regardless:

Throughout high school, Santana behaves aggressively towards Rachel due to her frustration, and it is only in their senior year that they start to make amends.

Following graduation and Santana’s brief stint at Louisville, when Santana ends up moving in at the Loft in NY, she does so knowing that she has been horrible to Rachel in the past and feeling guilty for it (“I think I just have this weird guilt-trip thing about being friends with you because I was so awful to you in high school. Quinn and Britt hated you, too, and that’s mostly just because you sucked so bad and you walked with that weird feet-pointing-out thing. I made Quinn look like the boss, but I was really running the ‘hate on Rachel’ parade”).

She tries her best make amends, but, as described above, Rachel frequently rejects her overtures, deeply hurting her feelings. While there are definitely occasions when Pezberry seem genuinely endeared to each other (see episode 4x15), they never seem to last, with Rachel refusing to believe that Santana is capable of altruism.

Rachel consistently expects the worst from Santana, and confirmation bias causes her to interpret Santana’s behaviors in the least charitable way possible. Santana, unable to win for losing, then lives down to Rachel’s low expectations, causing Rachel to feel justified in her original opinions. The longer this cycle goes on, the more frantic Santana becomes.

The final straw is their fight over Santana’s role as Rachel’s understudy in Funny Girl, the fallout from which I describe at length here and here.

Suffice it to say that in the end Rachel never really gets Santana’s motivations for behaving in the way that she does—hint: Santana doesn’t go after the role because she is in any way trying to undermine Rachel, and she also ultimately doesn’t relinquish the role because she is in any way lazy or unmotivated—but Santana reaches a place where she no longer cares.

Brittany teaches Santana that she can just walk away from Rachel if she’s not getting anything out of their relationship (“You have spent most of your life in the closet because you cared about what people thought about you. Walking away from a dream that you don't actually care about is you winning because it's you saying, ‘This is not who I am, and I don't care who knows it’”), so that is exactly the thing that Santana does.

Though she is still kind to Rachel when they come into contact later in the season, she clearly isn’t desperate for her friendship in the same way that she was before (see episode 5x18). When Rachel misjudges her, she allows it to roll right off her back. She can be the bigger person even if Rachel doesn’t realize that that’s what she’s doing. She can go high when Rachel goes low.

Santana closes out the show comfortable in the knowledge that she will never be Rachel’s bosom friend and that whatever “friendship” they have will always be mostly superficial. Rachel serves as a bridesmaid at her wedding and is someone she probably keeps in contact with throughout her life, but theirs is never really an intimate friendship, and, finally, after so many years, Santana is at peace with the fact that it isn’t.

Quinn Fabray

Brittana’s relationships with Quinn are complicated and presented ambiguously throughout the series.

While the Unholy Trinity often purport that they are best friends, Brittana frequently ostracize Quinn, and Santana frequently fights her. It is also uncertain to what degree Brittany has a personal relationship with Quinn independent of Quinntana’s personal relationships with each other.

Still, despite all the complications and unanswered questions, I do tend to believe that deep down the Unholy Trinity are friends and do care about one another, albeit in their own particular way.

I’ll link you to this post, where I discuss the issues at length.

Noah Puckerman

Brittany’s relationship with Puck is very minimal, at least as it plays out where the audience can see on screen.

While Santana insinuates that Brittany may engage in a casual sexual relationship with Puck sometime prior to the start of S1 (see episode 3x01) and Brittany may participate in a threesome involving Puck and Santana as late as the events of episode 2x06, in general, Brittany has far fewer personal interactions with Puck throughout the course of the series than do either Santana or Quinn.

By her own report, Brittany thinks that Puck is dumb (see episode 2x04). However, despite what fanon tells us, we have no indication that Brittany bears any secret or special animosity toward Puck, even though Puck is Santana’s boyfriend and sexual partner throughout S1 and some of S2.

As I discuss elsewhere,

It is worth noting that, historically, Brittany has always responded to Santana showing romantic attention to persons other than herself with a sort of quiet stoicism sometimes tinged with sadness and reservation, such as we see when she approaches Santana during the Dirt Locker scene (“Wait, you’re still dating Sam?”), in episode 4x13 with her heartbroken look as Santana kisses Elaine in the choir room, and during her speech to Santana in episode 5x12 (“And I’m sure your girlfriend’s great, but you can’t recreate what you and I have”).

As much as fanfiction likes to imagine Brittany being openly hostile toward anyone Santana bats an eye at, we don’t have much canon evidence to say that she would do so. Even when she’s suggesting that Santana should break up with Dani, Brittany is not insulting toward Dani or disparaging of her character. She respects Santana’s choices and attractions, even if she would prefer that Santana not date anyone but herself.

That being the case, I don’t think Brittany hates Puck even though Santana long uses him as a beard—and particularly because Puck, for as crass and rude and opportunistic as he can often be, never does anything in particular to hurt Santana, unlike, say, Finn, whose actions end up hurting Santana a lot in the long run.

Yes, Puck uses Santana for sex, but Santana uses him for sex right back. Moreover, Brittany knows that sex is all there is between Pucktana. There is no emotional connection there and nothing for her to really be jealous of. Ultimately, Santana isn’t even attracted to Puck. She’s just flaunting him for the social benefits, and Brittany knows as much.

While Brittany certainly doesn’t like the arrangement and would prefer that Santana not feel the need to maintain a beard at all, she does understand that Pucktana’s relationship is both reciprocal and consensual and that Pucktana are at liberty to do what they will in regards to each other.

The times when Brittany finds Pucktana’s relationship most hurtful are the times that Santana rubs it in her face (episode 2x04), and in those instances, Puck is just the tool Santana is using to hurt Brittany, not an active participant in bringing hurt to Brittany himself. Brittany’s sense of sadness and frustration in these situations is therefore directed at Santana, not at Puck.

Once Pucktana go their seperate ways in S2, Brittany doesn’t seem to give Puck much thought thereafter. The fact that Puck attends Brittany’s wedding to Santana shows just how much of a nonfactor she considers him to be.

As for how Santana feels about Puck, as I discuss in another post,

Making her private business with Puck public knowledge affords Santana some cover. If she is having sex with the most popular boy in school and everybody knows that she is doing so, then most people won’t give a second thought to her close relationship with Brittany. Consequently, the more Puck brags about sleeping with her to his buddies, the more secure Santana feels in her life.

It also works for Santana that she and Puck are scarcely friends outside of their sexual relationship, as frankly she has no real interest in Puck as a person—he’s just a means to an end for her. Constantly berating Puck, keeping him at arm’s length emotionally, and making him perfectly aware that her relationship with him is entirely contingent upon his ability to service her social needs are all tactics that she uses to keep Puck from getting all needy on her.    

In fact, as we see in episode 1x18, when Puck makes an ill-advised attempt to form a deeper emotional bond with Santana, looking to her for comfort in his time of emotional vulnerability, he gets himself burned in so doing—and badly. Not only is Santana totally unsympathetic to his plight, but she cuts off his access to her sexually because he no longer appeals to her after having lost his alpha male status.

Throughout S1 and early S2, Santana’s relationship with Puck fluctuates according to the pattern I describe here.

Basically, she turns to him whenever she is feeling insecure and needs to “reassert her heterosexuality” but then also frequently ignores him in favor of Brittany. Her lack of real attraction to Puck causes her frustration and anxiety and prompts her to occasionally lash out at him, weakening their already tenuous bonds to each other.

By my estimation, the last time Santana and Puck sleep together is circa the events of episode 2x06. Thereafter, Puck completely abandons his sexual relationship with Santana in order to romantically pursue Lauren Zizes, and he even emphatically tells Santana that he’s finished with her come episode 2x12.

Eventually, Santana replaces Puck with Sam, using him as her beard instead.

From then on, Pucktana have little contact throughout the rest of the series. Like Brittany, Santana doesn’t seem to bear Puck any ill-will going forward, but she also isn’t at all close to him and doesn’t maintain any kind of real friendship with him after they graduate.

My guess is that in adulthood, Santana probably doesn’t like to dwell on her memories of Puck, not because he was necessarily horrible to her but just because she was so deeply unhappy during the time when she was with him. It’s sad to think back on herself at fifteen years old, scared to death, believing that her farce of a relationship with Puck is perhaps the best “romance” that she is ever going to experience. She’s glad that she eventually grew up and grew out of that stage in her life, and she doesn’t want to really revisit that old headspace even now that she’s clear of it.  

Kurt Hummel

Both Brittany and Santana have complicated relationships with Kurt over the years, which I have written about at length here.

Mercedes Jones

Though at first they mostly ignore her, Mercedes eventually becomes one of Brittana’s best friends from S3 onwards, and particularly once she hires them as her background singers on her nationwide mall tour between S5 and S6.

Santana is generally closer to Mercedes than is Brittany. However, both girls get along well with Mercedes on an interpersonal level.

I have rambled a lot about their individual dynamics with her here.

Tina Cohen-Chang

Early on in the series, Brittana tend to ignore Tina, having few personal interactions with her on screen.

Though in S2, Brittany participates on the Brainiacs with Tina and Tina serves as Santana’s accompanyist for “Trouty Mouth,” we see no one-on-one conversations between them.

In S3, Tina acts alongside Santana in West Side Story and shows tacit support for Brittana’s relationship, but there are again no definitive exchanges between her and Brittana either individually or as a couple.

It is only in S4 that Tina seems to come onto Brittana’s radar, and only then because she starts to become obnoxious to them. In the S4 premiere, Brittany jockeys with Tina to become “the new Rachel” of the glee club. Then in episode 4x06, Santana returns to Lima and “steals” Tina’s dream role in the school musical, much to Tina’s chagrin.

During this time, Brittana still remain mostly oblivious to Tina, though she starts to resent them, feeling as if she has waited years for it to be her turn to shine only to have them continually steal her opportunities and overshadow her.

Tina gets her revenge on Brittana in episode 4x13, when she springs the news that Brittany is dating Sam on Santana in a surprise phone call.  

As I say elsewhere,

In the long run, Santana is more upset by the message than by the messenger who brought it to her and seems not to hold anything against Tina for letting the proverbial cat out of the bag. Their relationship doesn’t much evolve from this point forward.

Brittany, on the other hand, never truly forgets the slight—which is why we see Brittany be downright mean to Tina in S4 through S6 (such as, for example, when she cuts Tina a new one in episode 6x03 when the glee girls go to talk to Becky).

Artie Abrams

While fanon likes to imagine lots of bad blood between Brittana and Artie following S2, I honestly don’t think that such is the case.

For a long time, both Brittany and Santana basically ignore Artie’s existence, to the point where when Brittany approaches him in episode 2x04, professing her supposed sexual interest in him and asking him to be her duet partner, he has reason to question if she even really knows who he is (“Okay. Sorry, I’m just a little confused. You’ve never even made eye contact with me”).

Of course, at this point, Brittany really doesn’t know Artie much at all and she has no actual personal interest in him. She is just using him as a pawn in the emotional chess game she is playing with Santana, trying to get back at Santana for shooting her down and hurting her feelings the night previous.

She chooses to make Artie an accessory in her revenge plot specifically because she knows that he breaks every “rule” Santana has set for her regarding their dating relationships (see here).

Brittana only date boys for the social perks, but Artie isn’t popular, and if anything being with him will hurt Brittany’s reputation. Plus, Brittany is pushing his wheelchair around like he is her boyfriend-boyfriend, and that is a status she and Santana typically don’t afford their male dates. They’re not supposed to treat boys like partners, just objects. Santana wouldn’t be caught dead holding hands with Puck, so what the hell is Brittany doing sitting in Artie’s lap? Everything about the way Brittany approaches Artie is meant to agitate Santana.

---and it does.

Big time.

Brittany seduces Artie, and then Santana confronts Artie, revealing to him that Brittany is using him. Hurt, Artie unloads on Brittany for cheapening his first sexual experience.

Only then does Brittany really even seem to see Artie for the first time and realize that he is not just some object she can use to mess with Santana. He is an actual person with thoughts and feelings and considerations of his own, and she was wrong to assume that sex didn’t mean anything to him.

Though it takes Brittany until episodes 2x06 or 2x08 to really start dating Artie in earnest, the things he says about sex being special really seem to stick with her and make her think in the interim. 

For years, Santana has been telling her that sex isn’t dating, but now Artie wants sex to be a part of dating---and a part that conveys real feelings and functions within a larger network of affections. Unlike Santana, Artie is actually proud to be by Brittany’s side. He loves being able to say that the most popular girl in school is his girlfriend. Plus, he is sweet, and unlike every other boy at the school, he hasn’t called Brittany stupid. 

Sure, being with him isn’t like being with Santana, and Brittany’s feelings for him, though warm, don’t come close to her true love, which is reserved for Santana alone. Still, if she can’t be Santana’s girlfriend, being Artie’s is maybe the next best thing.

So Brittany dates Artie between episodes 2x06 and 2x19---and during that time, she does really come to care for him. Even though she is in love with Santana, she does come to love Artie and value his feelings, and she learns a lot from being with him about what she wants and needs from a relationship and about how important it is to communicate emotions to one’s partner.

For as unpopular as Bartie is with our fandom, the truth is that Artie is a pretty good boyfriend for Brittany.

His downfall is mostly that he misunderstands her.

Like my dear friend Roch points out,

The problem with most people in the Gleeverse and their understanding of Brittany is that there’s often a failure to balance 1) Brittany’s belief in "magic" and unconventionality, and 2) Brittany’s ability to reason and behave like most other people do. Most often, people rely on the second option too much, which accounts for the raised eyebrows when she speaks in Brittanyisms.  

What results is that people fail to respect her nonnormative way of approaching the world. However, when people rely too much on the first option, they tend to infantilize her and treat her like her understanding of “magic” means that she completely disregards any facet of reality.  What results is something like Artie’s “magic comb” scheme from “Special Education.”

Note: Roch has retired from the Brittana fandom. Please respect her privacy while you enjoy her archived work.

Like most of the New Directions, Artie believes that Brittany is of below average intelligence. However, whereas most of the New Directions across the board look down on Brittany for being “dumb,” Artie actually finds her “dumbness” somewhat endearing.

To him, Brittany is a whimsical but ultimately simple creature whose joie de vivre and naïveté on the one hand make her attractive but on the other hand cause her to be particularly susceptible to being taken advantage of. Artie likes the idea that Brittany needs him to protect and guide her, but it also scares him that she could so easily be swayed. He is allowed to sometimes trick her when his doing so is “for her own good,” but he doesn’t want anyone else swindling her or exploiting her for their own gain or at her---or really his---expense.

Though Brittany doesn’t actually come from a “magical land,” Artie acts as if she does, and he is the benevolent human man whose job it is to guide her through our harsh and unforgiving reality.

At one point, he literally tells her that her brain "exists in this magical other dimension where anything is possible," and he means what he says in a pretty straightforward way.

It’s all a take on the Born Sexy Yesterday trope.

Of course, in a classic Born Sexy Yesterday relationship, the woman typically has no sexual experience prior to meeting the man. Obviously, such is not the case with Brittany and Artie, as in fact she has much more sexual experience than he does. Nevertheless, the trope still applies inasmuch as while Artie is not Brittany’s first sexual partner, he is very much her first serious boyfriend, and he believes that he possesses greater emotional maturity than she does regarding sex. For all her worldly experience, Artie still can and does conceive of Brittany as an ingénue, believing that she knows nothing about love or being in a committed relationship and that he will therefore be in a position to teach her and mold her to his liking.

The problem (for Artie) is that Brittany wasn’t actually born yesterday.

For as much as Artie thinks that he is doing what is best for Brittany and treating her well, the truth is that it is his very belief that he has a better understanding of her life than she does that ultimately leads her to sever her relationship ties with him.

Brittany will humor Artie when he wrongly assumes that she still believes in Santa Claus and possesses a Dumboesque trust in magical objects (like combs), particularly early on in S2, when her basic m.o. is still to just go along to get along and to not confront people about their bullshit even when remaining silent causes her to look foolish.

But when Artie asserts to Brittany that he knows more about Santana than she does and decries Santana’s actions to her as if he holds greater insight into them than she, that’s Brittany’s line in the sand. Artie says that Brittany is stupid because she can’t see that Santana is manipulating her, and between how much the insult hurts her and how wrong Artie is to disparage her true love’s character, she decides she won’t take it anymore.

She’s done.

Now, even in the aftermath of the Blurt Locker, Brittany doesn’t necessarily hate Artie. Her primary feeling is rather disappointment---in him for so underestimating her and her cognitive abilities and in herself for “allowing him” to persist in treating her like a child for so long. She had known for the entire duration of their relationship that Artie had the wrong idea about her and her intelligence, but she figured that since he was being relatively nice about it, she would let it slide. Only recently has she acquired enough confidence in herself to realize that she deserves better and that even the kindest of condescension is still condescension.

Of course, deep inside, Brittany also knows that she doesn’t get to walk away from this breakup along the moral high ground. She was cheating on Artie, and despite how she tries to rationalize that behavior to him, the fact is that she had always known that what she was doing was wrong. Santana wasn’t fooling anyone---least of all Brittany---by claiming that sex doesn’t count when the plumbing is different. Brittany just hoped that maybe Artie would see things that way so she could have her boyfriend and be with her soulmate, too.

But when Artie calls her out, she knows in her heart that he is right to feel hurt. She has wronged him, and the fact that her affair was with Santana doesn’t somehow make it more excusable. Once again, she has made harmful assumptions about how Artie values sex and monogamy.

She may have never meant to hurt him, but she has.

Going forward from the Blurt Locker experience, Brittany realizes that she has some things she needs to work on in herself before she gets together with anyone, including Santana (see episodes 2x19 and 2x20).

Part of that work involves making active decisions about her love life.

So when Artie tries to woo her back to him in episode 2x20, Brittany doesn’t give in. In S1 or early S2, she may have. But now she tells him, “Artie, that was lovely, but I’m not gonna go to prom with you. You called me stupid, and I really didn’t like that, so, I’m sorry, but I’m gonna go to prom by myself and really work on me and dance with other people’s dates.”

Brittany stands her ground, and Artie says he understands.

---and from that point forward, Brittany never really looks back at Artie.

Like I said before, Brittany doesn’t go away hating the kid, but she also realizes that he was never the one she really wanted and that she isn’t going to settle for him anymore. Brittany wants to be with Santana, so when Santana is ready, that’s what she does, and she soon becomes so absorbed in their relationship that she seems to completely forget about the bizarre, old Bartie days, to the point where, in S4, when Artie mentions that he and Brittany used to date, Brittany can easily pretend she has no idea what he is talking about (see episode 4x03).

Despite Artie’s initial bid to win Brittany back following their breakup, he eventually comes to share in her resignation. They were fundamentally incompatible as a couple, and with time and distance, they both realize as much. There are no regrets on either side that they couldn’t make it last. For as difficult as things were in the moment, they can both agree that everything worked out for the best in the end.

Though Artie serves as Brittany’s campaign manager and running mate in the class election of S4 and her and Santana’s wedding planner during S6, they never resume their former closeness. They are friends but not close ones, and that’s just fine with both of them.

Now.

On the Santana side of things, Baby Girl completely ignores Artie until suddenly he’s dating her one true love. Then, in classic Santana style, she freaks out.

Like I talk about in this post,

Unfortunately, the fact that Brittany has a relationship with Artie is misery for Santana.

Despite her initial jealousy towards him in episode 2x04, Santana never really considers Artie a rival for Brittany’s affections prior to when he and Brittany officially start dating in episode 2x08.

Sure, Brittany had had sex with lots of boys in the past, but she had never had a real boyfriend or even acted like she wanted one before she and Artie became a thing. Both she and Santana had always remained emotionally aloof from the boys they had hooked up with. That was their basic mode of operation. They could fool around with however many football players they liked, but they always went home to each other at the end of the day. In Santana’s mind, that was the way things had always been and the way they would always be.

Consequently, after Santana quashes the early Bartie relationship, she figures that she has made her point and that things will “go back to normal” between her and Brittany thereafter. She never expects that Brittany and Artie will start dating in earnest, let alone that Brittany will develop feelings for Artie. Seeing Bartie not only together but happy comes as a total shock to her. She has no coping mechanisms to deal with losing “her girl” to a male rival, and especially a socially undesirable male rival like Artie Abrams.

Brittany dating Artie breaks all of her and Santana’s rules. Artie isn’t popular, so he doesn’t boost Brittany’s social cred. He also isn’t really a side thing, so Brittany being with him isn’t a corollary function to her and Santana’s relationship. He quickly becomes Brittany’s main partner, supplanting Santana, which is something that has never happened between Brittany and Santana before.

When this great shift occurs, Santana feels jealous and hurt, but she doesn’t know how to express her feelings, not when, by her estimation, she isn’t supposed to even be feeling said feelings to begin with.

During this time, Santana lashes out at various other happy couples in glee club but doesn’t dare go after Bartie or even just Artie for fear that if she does so, Brittany will fully choose him over her once and for all. Instead, she watches from a distance and frets, worrying that even though Artie is infinitely less popular than she is, she still can’t compete with him just because he’s a boy and he can be himself and he and Brittany can have a “normal” relationship in a way that she and Brittany can’t.

Eventually, most likely sometime between episodes 2x11 and 2x14, Brittana recommence their sexual relationship, with Brittany cheating on Artie with Santana. When they do so, Santana tries desperately to justify their actions, telling both herself and Brittany that what they’re doing “doesn’t really count” because they’re both girls and they’re just doing as best friends do.

Of course, in her heart of hearts, Santana knows that what she’s saying is a load of shit, and she knows that Brittany knows that what she’s saying is a load of shit. She’s just so scared to lose Brittany again that she tries to rationalize their bad behavior, giving them an excuse to continue.

The situation is a miserable one because for as much as Santana craves a relationship with Brittany, the kind of relationship they have now---where they’re both cheating on their boyfriends to be together, making excuses for their intimacy, and pretending that their sexual encounters don’t mean anything when clearly they do---isn’t truly fulfilling her needs. Though she has tried for years to deny it, Santana wants/needs to be Brittany’s primary (and really only) partner. Having to share is killing her.

By the events of episode 2x15, the center cannot hold, so Santana approaches Brittany willing to make some huge admissions and at the same time ask for the things she wants. Unfortunately, what she wants isn’t yet tenable, because it’s for Brittany to break up with Artie without telling him the real reason why and then be with her in the same way that they have been together before, secretly and constantly dreading that someday the jig will be up.

It’s not that Brittany needs Santana to come out in order for them to date.

S3 proves that she doesn’t.

What she needs is for Santana to be honest with herself.

The Hurt Locker is a big first step in that direction, but there’s still more work to be done. Brittany understands that. Santana doesn’t.

Like I talk about in my tags on this post,

It takes Santana totally by surprise when Brittany doesn't dump Artie on the spot in response to her Hurt Locker confession.

Going into that moment, Santana never even imagines that Brittany might turn her down because Brittany has never turned her down before.

Brittany’s demurral throws her completely off balance because suddenly all her biggest fears are being realized: Brittany ''doesn't want her.'' She isn't ''good enough.'' Artie does have something that she doesn’t have. She has made her big, brave gesture, and there isn’t going to be any payoff for it.

The thing Santana doesn't realize is that Brittany turns her down not because she is somehow inadequate but because Brittany wants them to have a real chance at being a couple. She doesn’t want them to be this hasty, dishonest, unjust thing anymore. Brittany loves Santana too much to do that to her.

If they’re going to be together, she wants them to be together in a way that’s going to last. Out or not, they need to be able to be honest with each other.

But of course Santana just thinks the worst.

---and that’s why after Brittany turns her down, Santana does start saying mean things about Artie (see episode 2x16).

From her perspective, Brittany clearly chose Artie over her, and the fact that Brittany did lends credence to the notion that Brittany’s heart does perhaps belong to Artie after all. Santana feels second best and frustrated and mostly scared. She put her heart on the line, and Brittany, in her words, “blew [her] off” (see episode 2x16). She doesn’t know how to handle the rejection except to be vicious about it.

Still, for as much as she rags on Artie, the truth is that she isn’t really angry at him. She’s angry at herself and the situation, and she’s scared about her future and sad because she thinks that she is never going to get the thing she wants most in the world.

But she can’t really even bring herself to hate Artie---not when, deep down, she knows Brittany’s right, and Artie hasn’t really done anything wrong.

So for a while, Santana sulks, and she licks her wounds, and then she comes up with her ridiculous plan to win Brittany away from Artie---as if that is really the issue---only it turns out that her machinations are all for nothing because Brittany and Artie break up without any prompting from her.

When Artie calls Brittany stupid, Santana is pissed at him, sure. But mostly she’s just concerned with helping Brittany to feel better. For the first time in a long time, she is able to forget herself and her own petty problems and just focus on cheering Brittany up.

With Bartie split up, Santana’s focus shifts entirely onto what she needs to do to set things between her and Brittany to rights, and she very quickly forgets about Artie, particularly as the events of episodes 2x19, 2x20, and 2x22 play out.

---and for as much as certain fanon likes to imagine that Santana carries lingering resentment towards Artie into later seasons, I think the truth is that she doesn’t much fuss about him going forward. 

As she becomes increasingly comfortable with herself and in her and Brittany’s relationship, all the things about Artie that used to cause her to feel insecure just kind of fade away. She no longer has to worry about whether or not he is better than she is or if Brittany prefers him to her. Once he is no longer Brittany’s boyfriend, he recedes into the background again, and Santana mostly ignores him, to the point where she is fine with Brittany hiring him to plan their wedding.

Santana and Artie never become close friends, but they also aren’t in any way enemies. He’s just one of the glee kids, same as the rest. Both Brittany and Santana are okay with him.

Mike Chang

Mike is a football player when Brittana are cheerleaders, and he is their glee club teammate for three years and Brittany’s Brainiacs teammate for one season. On several occasions, he serves as either Brittany or Santana’s dance partner (see for example episodes 3x09 and 5x12).

That said, despite some subtextual suggestions that Brittana—and particularly Brittany—may have a friendship or even a dating relationship with Mike early on during their sophomore year, the truth is that Brittana never share any conversations with Mike on screen and seldom even refer to him when they are speaking to others, so it is impossible for us to gauge exactly what their feelings about him may be.

Fanon, of course, loves to imagine Bike bonding as the glee club’s two resident dancers, and some fic writers posit that Mike is such a likable person that he is one of the few boys in glee club whom Santana can actually stand, but canon offers no main text confirmation for these ideas.

Even after six years, Brittana’s feelings towards Mike remain a mystery.

Sam Evans

Glee tells us two very contradictory stories regarding Brittana’s feelings towards Sam Evans.

The one story unfolds in S2, S3, S5, and S6, the other only in S4.

The first story is one mostly of ambivalence. The second is one of longstanding jealousy, animosity, and love triangles.

The fact that these two conflicting narratives exist within the same series can be attributed to various retcons and shifting priorities on the parts of the writers.

Unfortunately, their very existence complicates our understanding of the entire Bramtana dynamic.

Throughout S2, it seems that Brittana are mostly ambivalent towards Sam.

To Santana, Sam is a social multitool: something she can steal away from Quinn as payback for Quinn stealing the Cheerios captaincy from her; a new beard to replace Puck now that she has lost him to Lauren Zizes; a boyfriend she can use to perhaps make Brittany jealous; a football player to boost her ailing popularity and help her, as she frames it, “have some buzz at [sic] school.”

Though in her initial attempts to convince Sam to date her, Santana acts as if he is the party who will most benefit from them having a relationship, the truth is that it is her who really stands to gain.

Throughout most of S2, Santana is in a tailspin. At the time when she starts dating Sam, she is off the Cheerios; on the out-and-outs with both Quinn and Brittany; heartbroken and frustrated due to Brittany’s relationship with Artie; confused about her own feelings and sexuality; a social pariah in the glee club; and just generally directionless and flailing. She needs something to help her reassert herself as the HBIC at McKinley, and that something turns out to be the Machiavellian plot she pulls to break up Fabrevans and score Sam as her boyfriend.

To her, their relationship is just smart business.

—but that’s basically all it is.

Obviously, Santana has no real feelings for or attraction to Sam. He is just the only vaguely popular boy she can entice into dating her at the moment. She doesn’t have any real interest in getting to know him or in spending time with him in private. Instead, she needs her classmates—and especially Quinn and Brittany—to see her sitting on Sam’s lap and sucking his trouty lips in public. It’s all a power play, and Sam is just an accessory.

Case in point: Santana gets as much mileage as she can out of Sam between episodes 2x13 and 2x18. Then when she is done with Sam, she immediately moves on to using Dave Karofsky without even dumping Sam first.

Come S3, her attitude toward Sam shifts to reflect her increasing comfort with herself and her sexuality. Since she no longer needs to use Sam to help her pretend to be something that she is not, she can drop her guard around him and show him more of her true character, which is exactly what she does.

When he returns to McKinley in episode 3x08, she greets him with a litany of insults, but the insults are purely affectionate—a fact that Sam actually recognizes himself at the time (“I missed you, too, Santana”), despite what later retcons may say.

Though she and Sam don’t have many other personal interactions throughout S3, Sam does show tacit support for both the Troubletones and Santana’s relationship with Brittany, and Santana seems to appreciate that he does.

Throughout both S2 and S3, there is nothing to suggest that Santana particularly hates Sam or has it out for him. At best, he is an acquaintance she feels somewhat friendly towards. At worst, he is a tool she uses to mess with Quinn and Brittany and maintain the illusion of her own heterosexuality. Even when Santana is mean to Sam, the meanness seems to derive more from her own frustrations with herself rather than from genuine animosity towards him. He is collateral damage, not the real object of her anger.

During all this time, Brittany is only aware of Sam insofar as she is aware that Santana is using Sam as a beard, and she feels sad that Santana is still so uncomfortable in her own skin that she feels the need to pretend to be someone she isn’t (“Wait. You’re still dating Sam?”).

Yes, Brittany and Sam kiss at the Rachel Berry House Party Trainwreck Extravaganza in episode 2x14, but their interaction occurs on a purely physical level, and there is no evidence that either one of them goes away from the encounter yearning for anything more, particularly as they both remain with their respective partners thereafter.

Indeed, Brittany doesn’t even have any one-on-one conversations with Sam in either S2 or S3. The first time that she ever personally addresses him is in episode 4x02.

—which is why what Sam says in S4 about how he has always felt attracted to Brittany and Santana has always known that he did and felt jealous of his interest represents such a major retcon.

Simply put, Sam’s supposed S2-S3 infatuation with Brittany just doesn’t exist, and neither does Santana’s supposed S2-S3 jealousy of and hatred towards him. Prior to S4, Brittany and Sam aren’t even really on each other’s radars, and Santana uses Sam to her own purposes, but she never indicates that she feels any personal animosity to him, and especially not on Brittany’s account.

But the trouble is that at least in the bizarre, self-contained OOC universe that is Glee S4, Sam’s supposed longstanding crush on Brittany and Santana’s supposed animosity towards him are canon—as are the supposed depth of Brittany’s feelings for Sam and the love triangle that exists between Bramtana.

During the days when S4 was originally airing, it was hard to make sense of it all. It’s only now that the rest of the show has played out that we can look back and see what was really going on.

To quote another post at length,

One of the first rules you learn as a writer is “Show, don’t tell.”

The Glee writers really wanted to make Bram fetch happen, but in the end they fell short of their goal because what they were telling us didn’t carry much weight and didn’t match up with what we were shown.

They told us and told us that Bram was the real deal, but their telling seemed quiet in comparison to the louder, more glaring cues we saw—and particularly as we compared Bram to Brittana and watched Bram eventually unravel and disappear into oblivion, never to be mentioned on the show again.

Sure, the writers engineered a Bram “wedding.” Sure, they had Brittany say that she loved Sam and that Sam was the person she was thinking about during the school shooting. Sure, they had Brittany spout nonsense about how Sam’s the one who really gets her.

But that was all telling, and poor telling, at that.

Brittany’s initial reluctance to date Sam spoke louder than much of her eventual dating him did. Her unenthusiastic response to many of Sam’s romantic gestures towards her spoke louder than all the writers’ telling, telling, telling about Bram as a great romance. The fact that she would rather serenade Lord Tubbington than Sam drowned out anything the writers had to say about how she felt about Sam as her boyfriend. The fact that she would kiss Santana while she was dating Sam spoke volumes.

Think: She would have never kissed anyone else when she was exclusively dating Santana. She and Santana would never cheat on each other, even in that small way.

Look to Brittany’s facial expressions throughout S4. Look to how sad she seems and how she appears to just be going along with things to get along. She uses her Brittanyisms as defense mechanisms, and when she’s with Sam she spouts almost nothing but Brittanyisms—baffling statements meant to keep him at arm’s length and confound him. She’s sometimes downright mean to the kid, such as when she talks about how stupid he is when he bombs the SAT and frequently condescends to him after she is proven a math genius.

Her “marriage” to him reads like a huge misunderstanding on her part—and especially because Sam says in his vows to her that they’re soulmates, and she very pointedly does not reciprocate and instead talks about how she honestly never noticed Sam when he first joined glee club (see here and here).

Her fear for and thinking of him during the school shooting scare is genuine, but her statement that he was the only person she thought of in that bathroom stall rings hollow (see here).

When she fears graduation and what might become of her in the future, she blocks Sam completely out and dumps his ass via an incredibly harsh, even vicious text message.

Then, once Bram is over, it is OVER, full stop.

Brittany never regrets ending the relationship. She never pines for Sam or wonders what might have been with him. She never tries to win him back. In fact, eventually, she seems to completely forget they were a couple. By the time she and Santana get back together, it is as if Bram never even happened to begin with.

Bram do, of course, have some coupley moments. They do express affection for each other. They’re certainly physically intimate, and Brittany does choose to remain with Sam throughout S4.

But, like I said, all of that is just quiet, largely unsupported telling—and what it tells isn’t what the writers seemed to have intended to say.

If you look at the big picture with Bram, it is abundantly clear that Sam was never the love of Brittany’s life—and you can especially see that when you compare Bram to Brittana.

Look back to S2, when Brittany wants so much to date Santana and works so hard to make it so that they can be together. Her pining for Santana from afar, her lovelorn expressions as she watches Santana try to come to terms with their feelings for each other, her heartbreak whenever something sets their relationship back, her genuine excitement and gratitude whenever something pulls their relationship forward, her emotional responses to “Landslide” and “Songbird” and her and Santana’s every locker conversation—all of those things speak volumes, and loudly.

Brittany is so enthused by even the smallest romantic gesture coming from Santana.

(Compare, for example, her reaction when Sam sings a song to her to when Santana does. In the first case, she most often looks amused. In the second case, she most often looks as if an angel has just come down from heaven and shown her a miracle.)

She is so open and heartfelt with Santana.

When she and Santana are dating, and she has a problem or experiences self-doubt, Santana is the first person she turns to and the first person she discloses to. She trusts Santana to give her good advice and to help her find her way—and that is even the case when she is dating Sam. It is ultimately Santana who helps her embrace her genius and make the decision to leave Lima to attend MIT.

It is also Santana to whom Brittany returns to time and time again throughout the series. She dates Artie in S2 and completely forgets she dated him come S3. She dates Sam in S4 and completely forgets she has dated him come S5. But Santana she never forgets about, whether they are dating or not, never mind the season or the day or the hour.

Notice how many times Brittany name-drops Santana, even while she’s dating Sam.

Santana is always the object of Brittany’s heart, from S1 when they are in love in the background to S2 when they try so hard to figure out how to navigate their feelings to S3 when they finally date each other to S4 when distance separates them to S5 when Brittany seeks Santana out again to S6 when they finally work out their happily ever after.

Even when Brittany is with Artie and Sam, it is clear that she never falls out of love with Santana.

Her statement that she is Santana’s, proudly so, is never conditional. It is perpetual. No matter who she is with or where she goes or what the official status of her and Santana’s relationship is, her heart is always, always Santana’s—which is something Brittany very much proves in S5 with the speech she makes to Santana in 5x12.

In retrospect, then, the story Glee actually tells about Brittany, Bram, and Brittana is this, regardless of what the writers intended to say: Brittany has been in love with Santana from the start, and Santana is always both her first and last choice. At times, she and Santana can’t be together—first, because Santana isn’t ready for them to be, then because distance and circumstance separate them. Whenever a relationship between them is impossible, Brittany accepts what she can’t change and waits. One of her greatest virtues is her patience. She dates other people and tries to find momentary happiness where she can. But Santana is always her endgame, her end goal. Sam is a stopgap. She cares for him, and she loveds him in a certain way for a time. He makes her laugh. He is, for the most part, kind to her. He throws himself into their relationship and tries very hard to be a good boyfriend to her. But, ultimately, he never fully understands her, and when she pictures her long-term future, it is never with him. She is always waiting for Santana, until suddenly she doesn’t have to wait anymore.

There is such a difference between the hedging, well-I-guess-so way Brittany gives into dating Sam in S4 and the determined, bold, triumphant way she wins Santana back in S5. In the one case, she is completely passive. In the other, she is a girl on a mission, out to woo her soulmate and restart their relationship on the way to forever.

Brittany may have loved Sam, but she is in love with Santana—and being with Santana has actually taught her what love is, the full infinity of it.

Really, to discern the difference between Bram and Brittana, one needs look no further than to Brittany’s willingness to fight for those respective relationships.

In Bram, she is a passive entity. She falls into the relationship, moseys along until it runs its course, and then goes her way and never looks back. She never once fights for anything with Sam. She never once initiates anything with him.

Like I indicate above, the really strange thing about Bramtana is that for as much as the writers insist over and over again in S4 that Santana hates Sam and Sam has always loved Brittany and Brittany and Sam are perfect for each other and should be together forever, by S5, it is as if that entire story arc never happened.

Brittana get back together, and they proceed to completely ignore Sam for the entire remainder of the series, to the point where they’re even chill with him attending their wedding despite the fact that they have both dated him in the past. Ultimately, the whole middle part of Bramtana history reads like a complete aberration.

So where does that leave us in terms of understanding Brittany and Santana’s respective feelings towards Sam?

My read is that neither Brittany nor Santana is ever as invested in Sam Evans as the Glee writers would tell it. To Santana, he is first a means to an end, then a rival and representation of the unknown, and then a neutralized threat and complete nonfactor. To Brittany, he is Santana’s beard, then a friend, then a means to some temporary happiness on the way to “happily ever after,” then nothing, really—not even a lasting memory. 

Looking forward to the future, they probably only really consider him within the context of his relationship with Mercedes.

Blaine Anderson

Neither Brittany nor Santana has much of a personal relationship with Blaine to really speak of. Their interactions with him occur almost entirely within the context of him being Kurt’s man.

For more discussion on this dynamic, see this post.

__________

Conclusion

While Brittana do make a few good friends in the New Directions, the fact of the matter is that they have always been each other’s best friends, and in the end their relationships with their teammates are never as strong as they perhaps could be.

With all of their other teammates, they get off to a bad start. Though some forgive them and eventually recognize that they’ve changed, the majority never learn to fully accept or even remotely understand them. 

To most of the kids in glee club, Brittany is a talking mad-lib and Santana is just plain rude. There’s not a lot of deep disclosure happening between them.

Though Brittana---and particularly Santana---would like to have strong bonds with the in-group, ultimately they come to terms with the fact that most of the glee kids are still a bit wary of and perplexed by them, even after so many years.

While this once-removal between Brittana and the New Directions makes sense within the context of their fictional universe, particularly given their tumultuous historites with one another, it also reflects a larger failure on the part of the Glee writers to create and maintain workable friendships across the whole show. 

To be fair, changing characters introduced as antagonists into full-fledged members of the main protagonist group is a difficult writing maneuver to pull off successfully.

It’s just that Glee proved especially ill-equipped to handle such a transition, and Brittana’s friendships from S3 on really suffered for that ineptitude.

_______________

First, let’s recap some Brittana history up to this point:

I promise we’ll eventually circle back to your questions.

Sometime prior to the start of S1, Brittana commence asecret sexual relationship.

Within the confines of said relationship, the girls aresweet, affectionate, and doting with each other. Brittany, who is a highlykinesthetic person, interprets this physical intimacy, demonstrative as it is,to mean that she and Santana are in love. However, whenever she tries to broachthis subject with Santana, Santana verbally shuts her down, claiming that theirsexual encounters are emotionally meaningless and that she and Brittany are platonicbest friends, not girlfriends.

Though Santana is adamant about the supposed insignificanceof her and Brittany’s sexual encounters, Brittany can’t help but feel in her heartthat Santana is wrong. She can tell by the way that Santana treats her whenthey’re alone together that Santana is in love with her—the same as she knowsthat she is definitely in love with Santana.

Unfortunately, at this point in her development, Brittany isstill highly submissive to Santana, and she fears that if she pushes the issue,she will scare Santana off, losing her entirely. She knows she has to play bythe unwritten but binding set of rules Santana has imposed on theirrelationship and that, if she steps out of line, Santana will freak out.

Santana’s rules for their relationship are perhaps equallyconvoluted and simple:

Sex is not dating, and they are not girlfriends, just bestfriends who like to have sex.

The sex doesn’t mean anything.

Still, no one should know that they have sex.

If anyone does know that they have sex, then they should derive some socialbenefit from their secret being out: girls should be intimidated, guys shouldbe titillated, and everything should add to their cool “slutty, popularcheerleaders” mystique.

Sex with each other is allowable as long as they both also have sex with malesexual partners on the side.

Said male sexual partners should be superior or equal to them in popularity.

Everyone should know that they are having sex with these male sexual partners.

Everyone should know that these male sexual partners are completelyreplaceable.

They’re not to be monogamous with any one boy.

All dating needs to stay casual—nothing steady or committed.

They’re not to allow their relationships with boys to interfere with theirrelationship with each other.

Don’t get pregnant.

Don’t fall in love.

Take down female rivals for boys not from jealousy but because boys are socialcapital and robbery is a crime.

Don’t give socially inferior boys the time of day.

Remember that appearances are paramount.

Brittany spends S1 acquiescing to Santana’s demands. 

Santanasays sex isn’t dating, so Brittany agrees that sex isn’t dating. Santana says thatin order for them to sleep together, they also have to date boys on the side,so Brittany dates boys on the side. When Santana wants herself and Brittany tobe close, then they’re close. When Santana panics and wants distance betweenthem, then Brittany backs off and watches Santana flail, throwing herself atNoah Puckerman and Finn Hudson in a desperate attempt to reassert her“heterosexuality.”

The same cycle repeats over and over again ad nauseum:

Santana fights against her true nature, forcingherself to have sex with boys, even though she isn’t really interested in them.

Brittany follows Santana’s lead because that is whatSantana encourages her to do.

Because she is generally uncomfortable in herrelationships with men, Santana tends to treat her male sexual partners with baselinehostility.

This stonewalling between Santana and her malesexual partners complicates and eventually destroys her relationships withthem.

Santana, in her frustration and upset with boys,eventually turns to Brittany for comfort.

Because the girls aren’t in the habit ofdiscussing their feelings openly, the only means by which Brittany can comfortSantana are physical.

The girls have sex.

Sex with each other proves much more satisfyingfor them than does sex with random boys to whom they are not emotionallyattached.

For a time, Santana forgets herself and happilyfalls into her relationship with Brittany.

The girls secret themselves away, becomingincreasingly affectionate with each other in private.

Inevitably, something happens to remind Santanathat “straight girls like her” shouldn’t prefer sweet lady kisses with theirfemale best friends to sex with male partners.

Santana panics and attempts to prove toherself—and, by extension, to Brittany—that she doesn’t value her sexualrelationship with Brittany over her sexual relationships with boys.

In her panic, she verbally downplays herrelationship with Brittany and attaches herself to whatever socially acceptableboy will have her.

Santana fights against her true nature, forcingherself to have sex with boys, even though she isn’t really interested in them.

The cycle continues, as before.

Because we don’t know when exactly Brittana start sleepingtogether, we can’t say for certain how many times this cycle plays out betweenthem in total. However, we see it unfold at least a couple of times during S1,notably in microcosm between episodes 1x13 and 1x15.

The cycle starts anew in episode 1x15 but interestingly doesnot progress as it has previously.

Instead, between the end of S1 and beginning of S2, Brittanaget hung up on steps #9 and #10, going for a very long time without datingboys.

In fact, we have no evidence to suggest that Brittany sleepswith anyone other than Santana between episodes 1x10 and 2x03, and the onlyboys she “dates” during this time are ones with whom her relationships areinherently nonsexual (i.e., Wes Brody, a child, and Kurt Hummel, a gay man).

In the meantime, Santana’s sexual relationship with NoahPuckerman cools off circa episode 1x13, and after her one-and-done sexualencounter with Finn Hudson in episode 1x15, she has no other male sexualpartners that we know of throughout the remainder of S1 or beginning of S2,meaning that between episodes 1x16 and 2x06, Brittany is most likely also Santana’sonly sexual partner.

If we overlap those two windows, then it would appear thatBrittana are most likely sexually monogamous with each other between episodes1x16 and 2x04, a timeframe which encompasses the end of their sophomore year,entire summer vacation, and the beginning of their junior year, over the courseof several months.

Because the girls are monogamous with each other for solong, Brittany starts to feel as if maybe Santana is coming around to the ideaof them being girlfriends. She has been burned for getting her hopes up in thepast, but she can’t help but wonder if this time won’t be different, given thattheir patterns have shifted.

In episode 2x04, Brittany musters her courage and suggeststo Santana that they make their relationship more official, albeit in aroundabout way (“We should do a duet together”). She is cautious about askingfor what she really wants, but she also believes that she has good grounds onwhich to ask, Santana’s recent affections considered.

Of course, she is devastated when Santana shoots her down inthe harshest way possible (“I’mnot making out with you because I’m in love with you and want to sing aboutmaking lady babies. I’m only here because Puck’s been in the slammer for about twelvehours now, and I’m like a lizard: I need something warm beneath me or I can’tdigest my food”).

In that moment of rejection, Brittany’s heart breaks, andshe realizes that she can’t keep going on in the same way that she had gone onbefore.

For the first time, Brittany takes Santana at her word.

If Santana doesn’t want them to be dating, then they’re notdating, and that means that Brittany is free to date somebody else—in thiscase, Artie Abrams, whom she seduces, has sex with, and subsequently breaksup with, all in episode 2x04.

Note that when Brittany starts dating Artie, it representsthe first time in Brittana development that Brittany has initiated anattachment to a male sexual partner sans Santana’s prompting, another deviationfrom her and Santana’s typical cycle.

Brittany’s original motivations for dating Artie have moreto do with getting a rise out of Santana than they do any genuine attraction orinterest in Artie on her part. However, after Brittany learns that sex ismeaningful to Artie, she starts to reconsider her whole approach torelationships and realizes for the first time that there could be other peopleout there willing to meet her needs if Santana can’t or won’t.

That said, at this point, Brittany is still deeply in lovewith Santana and relatively emotionally unattached to Artie, so when herinitial relationship with Artie crumbles, she is more embarrassed than she isupset or regretful, and she happily returns to Santana for the next severalepisodes, scarcely giving Artie another thought.

But for as easily as Brittany gives up on Artie, Artiedoesn’t give up on her, and as her relationship with Santana takes a dip backinto steps #11-15 on the cycle (circa episode 2x06), Brittany becomes more opento the idea that she might like to be Artie’s girlfriend if she can’t beSantana’s.

Even though Brittany doesn’t feel the same way about Artiethat she does about Santana, in episode 2x08, she starts dating him in earnest.

Honestly, though he is by no means her first male sexualpartner, he is very much her first real boyfriend, and her relationship withhim differs from any relationship she has ever had before. In time, she growsto value the transparency she has with him. That she and Artie can beopenly affectionate with each other, talk about feelings, and acknowledge thesignificance of their sexual encounters means the world to Brittany. UnlikeSantana, Artie actually seems proud to have Brittany as his girlfriend, and hedoesn’t try to foist her off on other people no matter how real things getbetween them.

To Brittany, their relationship comes as a breath of freshair.

Unfortunately, the fact that Brittany even has arelationship with Artie is misery for Santana.

Despite her initial jealousytowards him in episode 2x04, Santana never really considers Artie a rival forBrittany’s affections prior to when he and Brittany officially start dating inepisode 2x08.

Sure, Brittany had had sex with lots of boys in the past, butshe had never had a real boyfriend or even acted like she wanted one before sheand Artie became a thing. Both she and Santana had always remained emotionallyaloof from the boys they had hooked up with. That was their basic mode ofoperation. They could fool around with however many football players theyliked, but they always went home to each other at the end of the day. InSantana’s mind, that was the way things had always been and the way they wouldalways be.

Consequently, after Santana quashes the early Bartierelationship, she figures that she has made her point and that things will “goback to normal” between her and Brittany thereafter. She never expects thatBrittany and Artie will start dating in earnest, let alone that Brittany willdevelop feelings for Artie. Seeing Bartie not only together but happy comes asa total shock to her. She has no coping mechanisms to deal with losing “her girl”to a male rival, and especially a socially undesirable male rival like ArtieAbrams.

Brittany dating Artie breaks all of her and Santana’s rules.Artie isn’t popular, so he doesn’t boost Brittany’s social cred. He also isn’treally a side thing, so Brittany being with him isn’t a corollary function toher and Santana’s relationship. He quickly becomes Brittany’s main partner,supplanting Santana, which is something that has never happened betweenBrittany and Santana before.

When this great shift occurs, Santana feels jealous andhurt, but she doesn’t know how to express her feelings, not when, by herestimation, she isn’t supposed to even be feeling said feelings to begin with.

Her inability to process her frustration and griefconcerning Bartie eventually translates into her displacing her negativefeelings about them onto other happy couples.

Since she can’t lash out at Bartie in the way she longs to, Santanagoes after Finchel, Fuinn, Fabrevans, and Pizes instead. Between episodes 2x08and 2x12, she acts as a force of relational devastation, waging physical,emotional, and even biological warfare against various couples in the glee club,cutting down egos and hearts left and right, exposing infidelities, and sewing distrustand discord wherever she goes.

While to everyone else, and even the general viewingaudience, Santana’s actions look like haphazard villainy perpetrated for noother reason than that she is a bully with a mean streak a mile wide, Brittanyknows what really underlies her destructive tendencies.

Santana is hurting, and because she’s hurting, she wantsothers to hurt, too. She thinks she is going to be alone forever, so she can’tstand to see other people paired off in romantic relationships. She feelstrapped inside an iron closet, frustrated by the fact that she can’t be withthe girl she loves, and convinced that if she tries to come out, she’ll loseeverything she needs to survive, from her popularity to her fierce reputationto the love and acceptance she gets from her family. She is sixteen years old,and she is already certain that she will never know what it is to be happy—thather life is essentially over before it has even really begun. Underneath allthe anger, what she really is is heartbroken. In her mind, her true love is lostto her, and, at the end of the day, she feels she has no one to blame butherself.

Seeing Santana suffering in that way does a number onBrittany’s heart. For as rewarding as Brittany finds her new relationship withArtie, Santana is still the love of her life, and Brittany’s impulse is alwaysto uplift Santana in whatever way she can.

—and, at this point in their relationship, the only way shecan is through physical intimacy.

Brittany and Santana are not yet to the place where they cantalk about their feelings, so the only way that Brittany can think to showSantana that she still cares about her and that she’ll never leave hercompletely alone is through making love to her.

By my best estimate, the cheating probably starts sometime circaepisodes 2x11 and 2x12.

While both episodes see Santana in stressful situations, episode2x12 in particular represents a true emotional low point for her, a day whenshe is surrounded by happy heterosexual couples doing cutesy things witheach other while she is alone, and the people in her social circle repeatedlytell her that she is both unwanted and unlovable.

Under this emotional duress, Santana lashes out, not onlyattacking Lauren Zizes and sabotaging the Fabrevans relationship but going on atirade against the whole glee club, making herself wildly unpopular with theNew Directions.

She is in a downward spiral, and no one seems to noticeexcept for Brittany, who rushes to her side to comfort her (“Maybe try rockingback and forth. People do that in movies”).

It doesn’t require a stretch of the imagination to supposethat this scene segues into more intimate encounters between the girls, andespecially as we know that they are already back in the habit of sleepingtogether by the time episode 2x15 takes place.

Now.

Recall that circa episode 2x06, Brittana complete yetanother one of their cycles, returning from step #15 to step #1, with Santanarunning back to Puck in response to the gay panic she felt following the eventsof episodes 2x04 and 2x05.

Brittany starting to date Artie then seemingly fits as step #2.

However, as discussed above, as the Bartie relationshipprogresses and develops beyond any of Brittany’s previous hookups with boys,for the first time in their history, Brittana start fully deviating from theircyclic patterns.

Not only does Santana fail to maintain even a superficialrelationship with Puck or any other boy beyond episode 2x06, but Brittany doesn’tdrop everything to be with Santana once Santana makes herself sexuallyavailable to Brittany again.

From episode 2x08 forward, Brittana move “off script,” nolonger following their former steps.

This move occurs early on in the season, meaning that by thetime episodes 2x12 to 2x14 take place, Brittany and Santana have completelylost their bearings.

By this point, Santana is scrambling, frantically trying toget back to the way things used to be.

While Brittany was dating Artie and she was single, Santanadidn’t know how to cope. In general, she was standoffish with Brittany, unableto even maintain a friendship with her while their sexual relationship was nolonger viable. Now that she is back to sleeping with Brittany again, Santanareturns to what she knows. She is “allowed” to be with Brittany if she alsomaintains a sexual relationship with a boy, and maybe if she maintains a sexualrelationship with a boy, her relationship with said boy will offset Brittany’s relationship with Artie, and she and Brittany will once again becomeeach other’s primary partners.

Santana wants to get her and Brittany to get back to steps#1 and 2 because that’s what she knows and that’s something she can live with,so in episode 2x13, she starts dating Sam Evans.

Sam is not necessarily the most popular boy in school, buthe is the most popular boy Santana can get at the moment, and he’ll do in apinch. He’ll allow Santana to sit in his lap and make out with him in public,so even if they aren’t having sex, the madding crowds will mistakenly believethat they are, a misconception that Santana can work with from a PR standpoint.Sam is also fairly submissive, so Santana can push him around when she needsto. Since he is on the out and outs with Quinn and Brittany is off the market,Santana is the most popular girl he can hope to land—and he does care aboutpopularity at least on a superficial level—so he’ll have to put up with hershenanigans or else be single, which is an unattractive option to him.

Going after a boy in order to establish equilibrium in herrelationship with Brittany is a familiar move on Santana’s part and somethingshe has done many times in the past.

However, in this case, the formation of Samtana doesn’tactually reset the Brittana cycle as Santana supposes that it ought to. Eventhough she and Brittany have resumed sleeping together and both of them haveboys on the side, their relationship still isn’t exactly how it used to be,largely because both of them are still breaking their old rules.

For one thing, Santana isn’t actually sleeping with Sam.

In later seasons, Sam claims that he lost his virginitywhile working as a stripper in S3, which means that he most likely didn’t havesex with Santana in S2.

For another thing, Brittany is still dating Artie, not justfooling around with him.

Furthermore, neither girl is deriving much social profittheir respective relationships with their male sexual partners.

In the past, the girls only associated with boys who wereequally as popular as they. Now, they’re both dating boys who are inferior tothem in popularity.

Moreover, for the first time, their male partners have theexpectation of monogamy within their respective relationships.

Brittana are also not weaponizing their sexual relationshipwith each other for social gain. Instead, they’re keeping their sexual encounterswith each other a secret for fear of upsetting their boyfriends.

Again, the whole situation is “off script,” which makes thisperiod of time a particularly volatile and transformative one in Brittanahistory.

Between episodes 2x12 and 2x15, the girls are playing anentirely new ballgame.

Never before have they both had actual boyfriends, andespecially not at the same time. They have also never been each other’s “sidedishes.” Previously, they were always each other’s main relationship, with anyand all relationships with boys functioning as secondary to their own. It’sstrange to them to have to negotiate their relationship around therelationships they have with boys, as opposed to the other way around.

Consequently, they have never felt their friendship asstrained as it currently is. Even though they’re back to having sex, it isstill difficult for them to figure where they stand in terms of their bestfriendship.

Santana, in particular, isn’t sure that Brittany valuestheir bond as much as she does, and she fears that if she asks Brittany torecommit to her, she risks Brittany choosing Artie over her. Her sense thatArtie may be more important to Brittany than she is causes her to feel nervousin Brittany’s presence, and especially as she becomes increasingly aware of atruth she has long attempted to suppress in herself—namely, that she is deeply inlove with Brittany and doesn’t know how to be happy without her.

The situation compounds itself.

The more Santana feels she needs Brittany but can’t fullyhave her, the more miserable Santana becomes. The more miserable Santanabecomes, the more Brittany attempts to comfort her. However, since the comfortBrittany offers always has to be maneuvered around the Bartie and Samtanarelationships, it ultimately contributes to Santana’s sense that she can’tfully have Brittany and is “losing Brittany to a boy.” That sense causesSantana to feel miserable, perpetuating the pattern again.

This stress and misery come to a head for Santana in episode2x14, which brings us up to the limens leading into the Hurt Locker, and,finally, to a place where we can answer your questions.

Let’s start with the second question first, as its answer ismost straightforward.

Why doesn’t Santanaparticipate in the Spin the Bottle game at the Rachel Berry House Party Train WreckExtravaganza?

Santana’s unwillingness to play this game very much relatesto the fact that she is currently operating “off script.”

At this point in her development, Santana looks at allsituations in terms of potential gains and losses. When faced with the choiceto take action, she considers if she will win, lose, or draw, and she typicallyonly proceeds if she feels that she can win or at least come out even.

In her mind, the purpose of party games is to accrue socialcapital. In order to maintain or advance their social statuses, popular kidshave to show off their ability to hold their liquor. They also have to make outwith the right people where others can see them doing so and exude a certainnonchalant vibe, demonstrating a willingness to break rules and hang loose. Theway they behave at drinking parties is all highly calculated, a balancing actinvolving well-measured risks and payoffs.

As Santana sees things, this particular game of Spin theBottle provides her with no opportunities for social advancement, mostly due towho is involved.

Barring Quinn and Brittany, she is the most popular girl atthe party, and she is already dating the most popular boy available to her, soit is not as if kissing anyone in the circle will help her to climb the socialladder. The glee kids already view her as a rule-breaker, and they know thatshe is willing to make out with both boys and girls, so there would be no shockfactor involved in her playing.

Best case scenario, she would end up having to kiss someonewhose popularity was on par with her own, like Finn Hudson, Quinn Fabray, or NoahPuckerman. Worst case scenario, she would end up having to kiss someone shefound abhorrent and/or who was infinitely less popular than she, like LaurenZizes or Artie Abrams. More likely, she would end up having to kiss a “nobody”somewhere in the middle, like Mike Chang or Mercedes Jones, whose popularity pHbalance runs neutral. Popular, unpopular, or neutral, none of thosepossibilities would help to boost Santana’s street cred in the way she’d like,so why risk having to kiss a loser—and especially when, if she were to join thecircle, she might also end up having to kiss Brittany in public, which, at themoment, is something she is emotionally unprepared to do?

Back in the day, prior to their early S2 shakeup, Brittanawere willing to make out with each other in front of an audience, insofar asthem doing so would benefit them socially (see episode 1x15). They probablyattended at least a few bashes where they kissed each other to titillate otherpartygoers. In those situations, the kissing was all part of their PR campaign—somethingthey did to prove that they were sexually adventuresome, rebellious, cool, andfun. The kisses they shared then were undoubtedly different than the sweet ladykisses they shared in private, all about the sex and not about the feelings.They were engineered for the male gaze, and both Brittany and Santana knew howto use them to achieve maximum social profits.

That kind of kissing was “on script.” It fit within Santana’srules. Both Brittany and Santana understood what it meant and didn’t get ittwisted.

But now they’re “off script,” and Santana isn’t sure thatkissing-for-an-audience is something they can still do. For one thing, they bothhave boyfriends now, so they don’t really have a reason to titillate randomboys. For another thing, Santana has been finding it harder and harder tocontrol her emotions around Brittany lately, and especially in situations wherethey are being physically intimate, so she isn’t sure that she could “be cool”kissing Brittany, even in front of a crowd. If she kissed her too passionately,people might take notice. Then again, if she kissed her too weakly, peoplemight also notice, and Brittany might confront her about it (“What gives?”),and things could get weird. She’d be damned if she did and damned if she didn’t,and all because she can’t obfuscate or suppress or ignore her feelings in theway she once tried to.

As I discuss elsewhere,

Before the events of episode 2x08 or even episode 2x04, Santanacould make out with Brittany at parties and not have to worry about what itmeant that they did so. They could just be them—friends who occasionally fuckedeach other—without Santana having to wonder about feelings and futures.

But after episode2x08, when Brittany gets a boyfriend?

Santana does haveto wonder and she does have to worry about what public kisses between themmean. Yes, Brittana have a private sexual relationship going again by the time episode2x14 rolls around, but “dancing in the dark” is one thing, while putting theirinteractions with each other on display in front of a crowd is something elseentirely. 

Whereas before, Santana knew the exact meaning of Brittana making outin public—i.e., that it was a social gesture which functioned to accrue themsocial capital—now she has no way to categorize such an interaction.

While Santanafeels comfortable taking body shots off Brittany’s abs in this situation, shedoesn’t feel comfortable with the prospect of kissing her. She can know for certainthat body shots are a purely sexual thing, whereas a kiss would mean somethingmore, and, moreover, something more infinitely unmeasurable.

Perhaps ironically, when Santana felt assured that her sexualrelationship with Brittany did mean something but wasn’t yet ready to admit asmuch, she could pretend it meant nothing. But now that Santana isn’t sure whather sexual relationship with Brittany means and she stands on the verge offinally admitting that she wants it to mean something, she durst not pretendthat it means nothing, for fear that that might actually be true, in Brittany’scase.

In the past, Santana always maintained that theirbest friendship and their sexual relationship were two completely separatethings, and that neither one of them had anything to do with romantic love(“I’m not making out with you because I’m in love with you and want to singabout making lady babies”); however, the fact that Santana could not maintain abasic friendship with Brittany once Brittany started dating Artie speaks to thefact that, for Santana, a link exists between sex and friendship with Brittany—essentially,at this point, she cannot have one without the other.

So.

Given that she stands to make no social gains by playing the gameAND that playing the game could lead her to have an awkward and emotional publicencounter with Brittany, Santana decides to abstain. 

Her goal is to hang back,acting too cool for school until the activity shifts.

Unfortunately for Santana, even though she’s not playing, the gamestill takes a troubling twist when Brittany and Sam end up kissing. 

Santana’s reactionto their kiss is kneejerk, and it reveals just who it is that Santana is reallypossessive of between the two blondes.

Hint: It’s not Sam.

Watching Brittany and Sam kiss upsets Santana on multiple levels,not only because it draws attention to the fact that the old rules for theBrittana relationship aren’t being adhered to but also because it causesSantana to feel deeply insecure. Brittany obviously likes kissing boys, and shecan—in Santana’s view—be happy bouncing from partner to partner. But Santanaisn’t like that. She is miserable kissing boys, and she languishes being apartfrom Brittany. Seeing Brittany smile into a kiss with Sam “Trouty Mouth” Evansis agony for her. Despite her protests, when she slaps at Sam’s head to breakup the kiss, it isn’t him she’s jealously protecting.

It’s Brittany.

So cut to our next—your first—question.

To what can weattribute Brittana’s increased closeness during episode 2x14?

Back when S2 was originally airing, fans viewed episodes2x08 to 2x11 as a “Brittana drought,” with the girls having so few interactionsduring that time. Eventually, episode 2x12 brought a single but poignant Brittanainteraction, though episode 2x13 saw things cool off again. Finally, episode2x14 marked the full end to the drought, with the proverbial floodgatesopening, and Brittana everywhere.

Not only were Brittany and Santana back in their two-shot,but Santana was taking shots off Brittany’s abs and Brittany was comfortingSantana on stage after the “Blame It on the Alcohol” performance. Fans wereoverjoyed to see the ship back together, but we also wondered how to accountfor Brittana’s sudden new-old closeness, which had been so noticeably lackingfor most of the season to date.

The answer lies in the emotional patterns behind Brittana’scheating behavior, which we have previously discussed.

By episode 2x14, Brittana have resumed their sexualrelationship—only this time on the DL, behind the backs of their respective boyfriends.

The cheating is a poor fix to their problems.

Santana is miserable because she wants Brittany all toherself but can’t have her, and she can’t bring herself to acknowledge herwant, not when the implications of her doing so would be so staggering.

Of course, Brittany is equally distraught because she isaware that Santana is miserable and has a good idea as to why, but she feelsthat she is stuck in a holding pattern, unable to change the situation, one wayor another.

Brittany can only offer Santana physical comfort, knowingthat what she is offering is ultimately not what either one of them reallywants. This physical comfort then complicates the Bartie, Samtana, and Brittanadynamics, all in different ways.

Santana encourages Brittany to rationalize their cheating,so Brittany does, even though, in her heart of hearts, Brittany knows that what they’redoing is wrong. She just can’t bring herself to pull away from Santana, notwhen they’re still in love with each other, never mind that, at this point, shealso has feelings for Artie (albeit different from those she has for Santana).

The worse both girls feel, the more they turn into eachother, convinced that it is better to not have enough rather than to have nothingat all.

In short, everything between them is messy.

—and alcohol only compounds that messiness.

The Rachel Berry House Party Train Wreck Extravaganza istruly a watershed moment in Brittana history, as it brings so many feelings tothe surface for the girls.

Brittany sees weepy, drunk Santana socially flailing,throwing herself at Sam even though she doesn’t really want him, sobbing abouta “blonde and awesome and so smart” girl who is eclipsing her. Brittanywants to be able to say, “Santana, I’ve always been yours, and I’ll be yourgirlfriend if you’ll let me,” but, honestly, she has had her heart broken alot, and now Artie’s in the picture, and she isn’t sure what she should do.

In the meantime, Santana watches helplessly as Brittanykisses first Artie and then Sam, seemingly flaunting an attraction to boys thatSantana is all too aware that she has never herself felt. The drunker she gets,the more she realizes that she is destined to end up alone with no boyfriendbecause she can’t keep a man and no girlfriend because she is too scared to admitthat she wants one.

By last call at the Berry’s minibar, Santana is thoroughlyin crisis. She just wants Brittany back, but she is so scared, not only of thepotential social consequences for coming out but also that Brittany will rejecther.

Deep down, Santana fears that she is unlovable, just likeeveryone has always said she is.

Cut to the next day and the “Blame It on the Alcohol”performance, when we see Brittana at peak closeness—and, by no coincidence,also at their peak distress.

As I describe elsewhere,following their routine, the glee club assembles onstage to face Mr. Schue. Ashe talks to the kids about their performance, Santana starts to break down, andhere’s the play-by-play of why and how she does so:

Phase 1: Santana notices thateveryone else on stage seems to be paired up with each other while she isalone. 

Phase 2: Santana notices that Brittany and Artie are paired together inparticular. 

Phase 3: Santana tries not to think of how she’s so lonely and nobodywants her and she’s going to be alone forever. She fails. 

Phase 4: Santana starts to cry. 

Phase 5: Mr. Schue says something about death rates, causing Santana tocry harder. 

Phase 6: Brittany runs her fingers through Artie’s hair, and Santanasees her do so. Everything gets worse. 

Phase 7: Santana’s crying becomes uncomfortably visible. Mr. Schue asksif she is okay. 

Phase 8: Santana is not okay. 

Phase 9: But Santanaclaims she is okay because what else can she do? 

Phase 10: Brittany knows that Santana needs her, so she pulls Santana infor a hug and kisses Santana’s cheek, never mind that they are in public withboth of their boyfriends watching. 

Phase 11: Brittany tries to impart to Santana that she wants Santana andthat Santana isn’t going to be alone forever because Brittany will always be there for her. 

Phase 12: Some part of Santana gets it. Kind of. She relaxesinto Brittany’s arms. It is a temporary placation but still highly significant,as Santana is starting to realize that she can’t live without Brittany and thatmaybe it is time to face her fears so that she can have a chance at beinghappy.      

So that’s the closeness that we see in this episode: BothBrittany and Santana are arriving at their breaking points. The center cannothold in their relationship. They can’t keep being each other’sgirls on the side. They have to address the feelings that they have for eachother. They can’t keep pretending that everything is okay when it’s not.

They’re both scared, so they cling to each other.

It will take until the next episode—none other than episode2x15—for Brittany to summon her courage and ask Santana to talk to an adultabout their situation, and, by that point, Santana will finally be ready to sayyes.

______

When episode 2x22 “NewYork” originally aired, spoilers per Brad Falchuk suggested that Brittana would end S2 “with abang.” 

Many fans hoped that this “bang” would take the form of a first onscreenBrittana kiss and/or Santana coming out of the closet and/or the girls finally decidingthat they were officially dating.

Instead, the “bang”played out as the Heart Locker, a scene which gave us a reaffirmation ofBrittana’s best friendship, a really sweet hug and a pinky-link, and Brittany tellingSantana that, for them, “anything is possible” because they love each othermore than anything else in the world.

Initially, therelative quietness of this “bang” left many fans feeling underwhelmed. For allthe ups and downs that last six episodes of S2 had provided, Brittana had neverthelessmade very little in the way of measurable progress towards dating. No one wasexactly sure where they stood or even if TPTB at Glee were going to continue topursue a romantic storyline for them come S3.

During the summerhiatus between S2 and S3, rumors and fears abounded. Some fans worried that thewriters might introduce a new love interest for one or both of the girls comeS3. Others worried that once S3 started, Brittana would once again be relegatedto background status and all forward development for them would cease.

As the summercontinued, hopeful spoilers started to leak out, and the fandom allowed itselfto imagine some more favorable scenarios: Maybe Brittana would kiss or startdating in the season premiere. Maybe Santana would begin S3 out. Maybe she andBrittany would already be dating by the time S3 started. Maybe we would seeflashbacks to what they did with their summer vacation or at least hear aboutit in a JBI retrospective.

But, again, thingsdidn’t unfold exactly as the fandom expected.

Episode 3x01 “ThePurple Piano Project” was not the Brittana watershed we were hoping for.

The S3 premiere sawBrittana back on the Cheerios for the first time since episode 2x11 “The SueSylvester Shuffle,” with Santana being awarded dual captaincy with Becky.

In Brittana’s firstscene together, Santana got a lunch tray for her and Brittany to share andwalked with her arm-in-arm to their seats. They did talk to JBI but not abouttheir love lives, only about Santana’s plan to rock her senior year andBrittany’s efforts to assemble a functional time machine.

There was no explicitconfirmation that Brittana were dating each other—but, then again, there wasalso nothing to say that they were dating anyone else, either.

They tried to re-recruitQuinn to the New Directions and Cheerios together, but it was unclear what, ifanything, Quinn knew about their relationship.

The girls were onceagain a two-shot, appearing in almost every scene together. They danced on thetables with each other during “We Got the Beat” and sat side-by-side followingthe food fight (“Those are your nipples”).

Later on, Sue seemedto intimate that she knew the truth about Santana’s sexuality and used thatknowledge to blackmail Santana into sabotaging Will’s piano project. Santanadid not appear to be out, but she and Brittany were being awfully chummy inpublic. When Santana got kicked out the glee club, Brittany appeared noticeablydistressed, to the point that even Finn seemed to notice.

Everything was,frankly, ambiguous.

There was nothing tosay that Brittana had made progress between S2 and S3. There was also nothingto say they had regressed.

After working throughsome initial feelings of disappointment, the fandom held its collective breath,waiting to learn more. 

Some fans, myself included, wondered if Brittana werealready secretly dating and suspected that maybe a big reveal would come about at somepoint later in the season. Other fans fretted that maybe we would never see anymore mainline development for romantic Brittana at all—that this “Are they oraren’t they?” ambiguity was all we were ever going to get.

True to form, Gleestrung us along. The next two episodes of S3 tiptoed around Brittana’srelationship, with each new episode offering tantalizing clues but never delivering anything definitive.

In episode 3x02 “I AmUnicorn,” Brittany seemed bound and determined to make WMHS a safe space forLGBTQ kids, and she attempted to use Kurt’s campaign for the senior classpresidency to achieve that end. When Kurt rejected Brittany’s designs,Santana made a point to compliment her genius and encourage her to believe inherself. Everything was very sweet and seemed significant, but, again, nothingwas explicitly explained.

In episode 3x03 “AsianF,” Brittany showed up the Booty Camp, seemingly in support of Santana. Later,she performed “Run the World (Girls)” with Santana singing backup. Theperformance was definitely sexy and suggested Santana’s devotion not only toBrittany’s cause but to Brittany herself. However, it was perhaps lessintriguing, from a Brittana perspective, than Mercedes’s dream sequence performanceof “It’s All Over,” in which Mercedes clearly identified Brittana as a powercouple and talked about Santana “knocking off that piece who thinks she’sbetter than everybody running for president”—i.e., Brittany. Once again, fanswere left wondering what, if anything, was the deal with Brittana. Were theydating or what? If so, did the whole school know about it? Or was Mercedes aspecial case?

Finally, episode 3x04 “PotO’ Gold” provided some answers—though, again, not the answers fans perhapsexpected.

It turned out thatBrittany and Santana had been going on dates—eating out at BreadStix, takingromantic baths together, etc.—only Santana wasn’t sure if that meant they were actuallydating. Brittany reassured her that they were, in fact, dating if she wantedthem to be dating (“I ordered shrimp”). And Santana did want them to be dating, just with the stipulation that their relationship remain private (“under thenapkin”), at least for the time being.

This developmentfilled in some blanks for the fandom:

Santana was not yetout.

Brittana had spent the summer and early school year going on dates but notdefining their relationship.

Brittany was fine with taking things at Santana’s pace.

Santana was ready to date Brittany and be in a committed relationship with herbut not yet ready to make their relationship public.

What it didn’t tell uswas how, exactly, Brittana had spent their summer vacation or to what degreethey had discussed Santana’s coming out process to date. Did they have a planfor how they were going to proceed or were they more playing things by ear?

To this point in showhistory, we, as the audience, still had yet to meet Santana’s family on screen, soquestions remained as to how accepting or unaccepting they might beconcerning her sexuality. 

There had been some hints to suggest that Santanafeared their potential reaction to her coming out but nothing had beenexplicitly stated. 

Fans wondered to what degree the Lopez family would figure into Brittana’sstoryline going forward. 

They also wondered how much or how little Brittana’sromantic development would feature in the show throughout the rest of theseason.

When spoilers startedto leak for Santana’s “coming out” arc, set to feature in episodes 3x06 “MashOff” and 3x07 “I Kissed a Girl,” the fandom hoped that maybe we would learnmore about the nature and history of Brittana’s relationship from the end of S2until present.

But that’s the thingabout Glee: The writers very rarely examined developments in retrospect. Thingshappened off screen, through insinuation, and in passing and were never againrevisited. No new details or developments were made, and the story clipped alongat its same heady pace, full steam ahead.

So was the case withBrittana’s relationship.

We got developmentsgoing forward in S3, but the narrative never looked back or provided any newinsight into what had happened to get Brittana from the Heart Locker in 2x22 to “Iwish you’d hold my hand” in 3x04.

That being the case,there just aren’t that many concrete answers to be had about the summer S2-S3 hiatus period in Brittana history. All we can dois make inferences and write fanfiction.

My personal inferencesabout that “lost summer” are these:

I believe that,following the Heart Locker conversation, Brittany and Santana’s relationshipachieved a state of new equilibrium.

Things weren’t thesame as they had been pre-Hurt Locker, where they were friends who slepttogether but never talked about feelings (even though feelings were obviouslythere). Things also weren’t the same as they had been throughout the Back Six ofS2, with so many stutter steps and hesitations and backslides andcomplications, each new week trading heartbreaks and triumphs.Neither one of the girls was dating anyone else, and they weren’t desperately tryingto maintain the image of heterosexuality, as they had in the past.

Instead, Brittana achieved a new normal.

They spent timetogether—probably lots of it in each other’s homes, as we can infer from thefact that they occasionally bathed together—and they gradually resumed theirphysical intimacy, only this time it was different, because the feelingsunderlying it weren’t being suppressed and secreted anymore.

Though fans hadoriginally inferred that Brittany wouldn’t be ready to date Santana untilSantana came out, the truth was that Brittany was ready to date Santana as longas they were exclusive with each other and there was no more obfuscationbetween them about the nature of their feelings.

They didn’tnecessarily have explicit conversations about the nature of their relationship,hence why Santana remained uncertain, even going into the new school year, asto whether or not Brittany was actually her girlfriend. Brittany, on the otherhand, knew that she and Santana were steady dating, but she wasn’t about toforce Santana into labeling their dynamic before she was ready, so she just playedthings cool, waiting for Santana to come to her.

In the meantime, thegirls decided—together—that they would rejoin Cheerios and attain leadershippositions in Sue’s organization.

They also decided thatthey would try to reform the Unholy Trinity and get Quinn to rejoincheerleading and glee club with them.

When the school yearbegan, they essentially hid their new and improved dynamic in plain sight.Santana didn’t come out to the school, and she and Brittany didn’t tell anyonethey’d been going on dates. However, the girls also made no efforts to hide theircloseness or to beard with boys, as per their m.o. in years past. If people sawthem together and made inferences, then so be it. They just weren’t going tomake any public announcements themselves—and especially not before they haddefined their relationship between the two of them.

There was perhaps somesense between them that they were gradually working towards “going public”—thatSantana was trying to become more comfortable with herself and that they werebuilding up the kind of social capital that would afford them the freedom to dowhat they wanted within the walls of WMHS—but I don’t think they had a stricttimeline on coming out or even a real plan as to how that process might unfold.

Things were still newbetween them, and they were still figuring out how to bridge the gap betweenwhat they had been in the past and what they were now—hence all the ambiguityduring the first few episodes of S3.

Honestly, this periodin Brittana history is one of my favorites to imagine, specifically because itis so open to interpretation, so I’ve written a lot of fic about it. If you are interested, you can find my main “summer between S2-S3″ stories here: 

AndEverything is August You

Can’tHelp but Fall Just to Land

Of course, these stories are just my take on this particular period in Brittana history, and other authors have imagined things in delightfully different ways.

As stated above, we don’t have many hard answers about how Brittana made the transition between S2 and S3. We just have the sense that things were keenly different between Brittana, starting their senior year.

In any case, I have jabbered a lot now.

__________

Santana very much believes that Brittany is a genius—and that point has already been established by the time episode 3x04 takes place. 

We’ve seen Santana laud Brittany’s intelligence in episode 2x22 during the Heart Locker scene and in episode 3x02, when she alone understands the genius of Brittany’s unicorn campaign—and none of what Santana says in either of those cases is just lip service. 

Santana puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to praising Brittany’s smarts, proving that she believes in Brittany’s brilliance by the way she responds to the things that Brittany tells her. 

Santana is the type of person where, if she truly thought that Brittany was anything but sharp, she would disregard what Brittany told her to do and probably be mean about it. I mean, the girl does not suffer fools, and if she thinks that someone is an idiot, she lets them know about it, such as is the case when she interacts with Finn Hudson. 

With Brittany, she not only doesn’t insult Brittany’s brainpower, but she actually praises it, and she routinely turns to Brittany for advice, which is something that no one else at McKinley would ever deign to do. Whenever Brittany tells Santana that she ought to do something, Santana seriously considers what Brittany has told her, and then almost inevitably takes Brittany’s advice, even if she has to work up the nerve to do so over time.

(See, for example, Santana wearing the “LEBANESE” shirt in episode 2x18, or returning to the prom after she loses for prom queen in episode 2x20, or starting to be more herself throughout the course of Seasons Two and Three.)

So what we’re seeing here is not a case of Santana talking up Brittany’s intelligence in Brittany’s presence but disparaging it when Brittany’s not around, because, frankly, Santana isn’t like that, and especially not with Brittany.

Instead, what we’re seeing here is Santana talking about Brittany’s belief in “magic.”

Brittany actively believes that the world is a magical place, not in the sense that everything is enchanted like in a Disney movie but in the sense that there are reasons to be optimistic, even when facing extreme difficulties. 

Every day, Brittany makes a conscious decision to trust that the impossible is possible, that good things can happen even when the world sometimes seems bad, that love wins out even in the face of opposition, and that the things that make people unique will ultimately help them triumph, even if they’re disparaged for them at first. 

Brittany’s no fool, and she knows that life can be hard for anyone who exists outside the realm of what society considers “normal,” but she clings to the belief that the traits that make people different also make them special. 

That’s what she’s talking about when she says, in episode 3x02, that she’s starting to believe in her own magic.

That’s her whole philosophy regarding her and Santana’s struggles throughout late Season Two and early Season Three—i.e., that because what they have together is “magic,” things will work out for them, because that’s just what happens regarding true love.

Right will conquer, you know?

Santana is well aware of Brittany’s belief in magic. She’s seen it in action for as long as she and Brittany have known each other, and especially over the course of the last year in show time, when she and Brittany have been through so much both individually and together, and Brittany’s belief that things will turn out has never wavered. 

Honestly, it’s one of the things that Santana loves most about Brittany—that Brittany can believe in good things coming, even when she can’t believe in those same good things coming herself.

All of Brittany’s speeches about how if Santana were to embrace all the awesomeness that she is, everyone would accept her, and how Brittany believes that, because she and Santana love each other more than anything else in the world, anything—and everything—is possible for them, have truly touched Santana and resonated with her in an abiding way. 

It means the world to her that Brittany continually believes that she is better than most people give her credit for, that she is good and brave and kindhearted and loveable, and that she can do even the things that scare her the most.

Part of why it means so much to Santana that Brittany believes in her that way and that Brittany believes in magic in general is because Santana herself doesn’t. 

She tries—really, truly she does—but she finds it almost impossible to trust that good will win out in the end and that she’ll eventually overcome her obstacles. She wants desperately to believe that what makes her different also makes her special, but she’s seen so much evidence to the contrary. 

Brittany is the only person in her life who consistently tells her that she’s awesome and worthwhile and that she deserves to have nice things. Everyone else tells her how awful she is and makes no secret of the fact that they enjoy it when she loses out. 

That being the case, Santana has this constant war raging between her head and her heart (see episode 3x07): On the one hand, she has her own natural pessimism in her head telling her to give up because she’s never going to make it. On the other hand, she has Brittany’s optimism in her heart telling her to keep going because she is so incredibly close to getting everything she’s always dreamed about.

Sometimes, for a few brief, shining moments, Santana can believe in magic like Brittany does—like when she bravely returns to the prom after losing the race for prom queen, and it turns out to be the right decision for her to make (see episode 2x20); or when she finally musters up the courage to ask Brittany if they’re really dating, and Brittany says yes, and then she asks Brittany to hold her hand, and Brittany does, and it’s wonderful (see episode 3x04).

But, inevitably, those moments never last long for Santana.

There is always something that snaps her back to reality, like how, after the prom, things started to look up for her for a while, but then Finchel made the New Directions lose Nationals in New York, and she and Brittany still weren’t together, and she didn’t know what to do (see episode 2x22); or like how, just as she and Brittany were getting together, Rory appeared and started giving them a hard time, and things got really strained between Santana and the New Directions, and Santana was faced with the choice of whether to join Mercedes and Sugar’s new glee club or not (see episode 3x04); or even how her own fear set in after just a few milliseconds of her holding Brittany’s hand in public, so she had to cover their hands with a napkin (see episode 3x04).

Santana wants so much to believe in magic like Brittany does, but she just can’t help but feel afraid that she’s never going to win out—or, worse, that she will win out, only to then immediately have everything she’s won taken away from her.

Over the course of her life, she has just had too many bad outcomes—too many experiences that have reinforced to her that people can’t be trusted, that even those who are good and worthy don’t always overcome, that underdogs are underdogs for a reason, that dreams that seem impossible usually are, and that even forces as powerful as true love aren’t always powerful enough to make a difference. She’s been taught that being different can be bad, and that her specific kind of differences are inherently bad. She’s been told that she is a terrible person who doesn’t deserve nice things.

So Santana can’t believe in magic like Brittany does—even though she wants more than anything to do so.

And, to me, that’s what Santana is saying here.

She’s saying, “Brittany’s worldview is beautiful. Brittany believes that people are generally good, that good will overcome, and that her dreams will come true. She also believes that I’m good, and that means everything to me. But, Mercedes, you and I both know that, no matter how beautiful Brittany’s worldview is, the world isn’t actually like that, and Brittany is setting herself up to get hurt. Brittany is the type of person who believes that if she steps out into the street, cars will stop for her because she’s a pedestrian, and that’s the way the world is supposed to work. But I can’t help but check for cars, even when there aren’t any in sight. I can’t believe that people obey traffic laws, just because they’re supposed to. Optimists like Brittany need pessimists like me. Because when things don’t work out the way she hopes they will, I’m able to come in and pick her up and dust her off and help her to keep going. That’s why I can’t leave her alone with the New Directions. She has such high expectations for them, but they’ll let her down, the way they’ve let you and me down. I have to be there to make sure that she can go on believing that the world is good and that nothing crushes her spirit. Her belief in magic is so important to me, so I have to make sure that she can hold onto it. She has to be able to go on believing for the both of us. I need that.”

Santana’s specifically thinking of what happened with Kurt’s senior class president campaign when she’s talking about these things. 

Brittany became Kurt’s campaign manager, fully believing that what made Kurt different made him special and that she would be able to help him see that and that everyone would appreciate his uniqueness and that the world would ultimately become a better place for what they were trying to do together. 

But, ultimately, Kurt rejected Brittany’s campaign, and he even yelled at her for pointing out the things that make him different/unique. He told her that her belief in magic was stupid—and, in so doing, he almost crushed Brittany’s spirit.

Santana couldn’t allow that to happen, so she intervened and helped Brittany to maintain her magical belief system.

She was able to say to Brittany, “Look, this campaign is brilliant—completely!—and if [Kurt] doesn’t get it, then he doesn’t deserve to have you as his campaign manager. There’s no one like you. You’re a genius, Brittany. You are the unicorn,” using her understanding that the world can sometimes be a bad and disappointing place to help Brittany continue to believe that what she was trying to accomplish was a good and worthy goal.

And, really, that’s the thing: Ultimately, even though Santana finds it almost impossible to believe in herself, she finds it easy to believe in Brittany, and she will do just about anything to help Brittany maintain her unique Brittanyness, which includes her magical worldview. It’s supremely important to Santana that even if she can’t believe in magic, Brittany can.

So, to me, that’s what she’s talking about when she says the line in question to Mercedes—and the line itself has nothing to do with Santana’s views on Brittany’s intelligence.

Santana understands that Brittany is a genius AND someone who believes in magic and that both of those things are part of Brittany’s core identity.