Once again, you're clearly playing another game or you didn't pay attention at all. You don't understand Quinn & MC relationship at all.
In the first few episodes, during season 1, you either hated Quinn or loved her. She liked teasing and pushing buttons, and she showed little to no regards to others beside herself at first glance. Agressive and rude were words that perfectly describes her, together with wild. Epitome of the meaning Bad Girl. These first impressions are strong and stay with us, it defines the character and makes us see her through lenses of our making. It shapes our view and may distort the truth since we already formed pre conceptions about what Quinn is and what her character, as in personality, is like. It takes someone open minded and mature - or maybe someone with a very peculiar taste - to see past that initial wall right out of the gate. It takes us time and comprehension to see what actually lies beneath. Most of us didn't see that at first. At least not you.
It's easy (and probably intended) for you to antagonize Quinn. She doesn't need your empathy and she doesn't want it either. She won't take lightly your kind actions and shows nothing but despite for you if you try to defend your friend, Maya. She steals your clothes and abandons you naked in campus while screaming pervert to everyone around you, allegedly talks with Josy after messing up with your phone, and not after that she lets you in on a prostitution ring of her making. Not only that we (not the main character) discover she's also a drug dealer to some of the character we barely know so far. Yeah, all of that spells one thing. Quinn is not a good girl.
But, why is that, the more I play this game, the more I get convinced that this is not exactly the case? What do we know about Quinn? After so many episodes of this story (9 episodes so far), we can confidently say that we seen a lot about her, yet what exactly do we know about her ? This game has not been shy about showing her character to the public. Not only route specific scenes either. We get dedicated "happens every playthrough" scenes that happens to her or characters around her. We get to see her in very different angles. Alone. With others. With her friends and/or strangers too. This is actually the first thing I wanted to point out, which is basically the obvious. This game is given us a lot of Quinn, even in the generic and mainstream route. Simply displaying what her character is and what we can expect from her. During the first couple of seasons, Quinn was a big agent that moved the plot of this game. The biggest example is how her little fight with Tommy basically made them act rashly and crash the alphas, making them (allegedly) retaliate, destroying the DIK's Mansion. But this is beyond my point.
The main thing about Quinn. She is a façade. From the makeup, to the bitchy attitude and the agression, probably to the way she dresses. The way she carries herself and shows you have no importance and you should obey her. That she is in command and there's nothing you could do to shake that. She is in control, she is in power, she is never in the wrong, and you're wrong for thinking that.
We see Quinn in a less callous and more - as the protagonist puts it - subdued state in a few moments during the game. Obviously, the biggest one is in episode 6. We see her bloody and walking alto her house, coincidentally or not, she is not dressed in her usual way either. If MC manages to bring her to his room she also loses her makeup.
Let's get a bigger (metaphorical) dive here. Moments before we see Quinn left her house, we get an entire scene where she is putting make up on and then choosing her clothes. She goes from bare (with nothing to hide) to clothed with make up on, and her Dad's tattoo made as face paint. That's her mask. That's Quinn how we know it. At this point, that's her identity. Then we met her down in the rain. She tells us to fuck off but she doesn't do much to her than that. If you have DIK affinity you, for the first time, can overpower her identity and drag her around to your room. There, MC takes care of her bruises. But her clothes are wet and she takes her off, and her make up is ruined. Again, we go from Quinn as we know her to Quinn as she is. No make up, no clothes, no mask. Just Quinn, Quinn and her problems. We see Quinn fragile and dare I say weak. And we got a entire conversartion with her where she chose to be more honest. She confides about the money problem and aknowledges to MC. Dare I say he is the first person that knows about her money problems after Riona, even if he still clueless what the real problem is.
During Episode 6 we also see nitpicks of this, when Quinn looks around her old home, and for a little bit with Buddy while they chat. We see her roam the mc room that before belonged to Vinny - which we now know that had some sort of history with Quinn. Once again, she is curiously and wondering in a room that may bring her memories and feelings. She finds and grabs a magic 8 ball and asks something to it, that answered a 'Don't count on it' to her. She softly touches the MC's guitar, inspecting it.
And I even think that her sex scene with MC isn't a excuse for her to get out of the conversation (but it's a narrative excuse for DPC). Let's analyze this for a bit. Quinn straight up kisses MC. Again. Quinn. Kisses. MC. If you played her route you know how weird that is, right? Quinn, the one who would gut punch you if you ever tried to get a centimeter close than what she considered safe, goes for a kiss. Let's couple this with that Sage dialogue if you crashed in the HOTs. Quinn doesn't shut up about you. Sage is Quinn's mother and so spent a lot of time with her. She knows Quinn "as we know her" and see how her whole act kinda cracks after she meets MC. Even if it's purely out of physical attraction, it gets to her in a way it never did before. And, during ep6, she kinda let go. She dives in and kisses you and initiates what – I think – she wanted to do for a long time. The way she looks at you, the way she doesn't say any word, the way she takes your jacket and wears it. That's Quinn as we never seen before up until now. She only get her walls up back together when she's leaving. By that point she's already dressed (again, mask on), and she tells you she doesn't do sleepovers and ask you to shut up about everything that happened.
Dare I say this is the most true Quinn. The one that we barely know. Always curious, and watching. Always doing things when no one seemed to notice. Creeping up on the room while her dad talks with his friend about a movie, or carefully listening to his dad explaining how chess work to her. Reminiscing about what kind of food she liked as a child. So fervently telling you that she doesn't do sleepovers when she cuddles you when you're not looking or too high to notice. Telling you she has no feelings for you when she kisses you like that. Another good one is in her rooftop scene with Tommy. Tommy explains what went down with Vinny and Quinn takes off her literal mask and looks genuinely concerned. Her eyes evidently telling you that she is worried about what happened and what it means to everyone involved. Her, Tommy, and bystanders like MC who is none the wiser about it.
I guess the biggest question is: What exactly are Quinn's motives ? Because if Quinn was just a drug dealer, she wouldn't be as caring or concerned with the general bystanders she happens to know. She wouldn't be as visibly worried that Vinny showed in a party besides the fact that she could steal clients. She would be worried, but not THAT worried. And the way Quinn runs business is completely different and it doesn't make a lot of a sense for a drug dealer. Vinny is a complete drug dealer. Not caring, ruthless and only cares about his profit. He probably sells a lot hard drugs Quinn doesn't touch, and I don't think Quinn choose this way of operate out of carefulness. If she was focused in gaining a lot of money she would be selling it. We already seen that, she was going to sell it to Rich, before he bailed on it. So, what gives ? What makes her act in this strange way?
It ties in to what Rox is going to show her in that safe. It might be money he was keeping from associates. Money that they discovered it was being hid and now they have a bomb around his neck that will trigger unless Quinn does something about it. Maybe his father is just in jail and Quinn needs money to pay to take her father out of prison or just he is in a hospital and needs to pay for it every month. Whatever it is, I think that she is hiding something that might hint in why she's a drug dealer and why she is doing things the way she is. I don't see Quinn as a bad person anymore, she just seems to be in big trouble, a hostage to a situation. That also ties in with the visual hints of the fly landing on her, the ripper pointing its scythe in her general direction... and it makes sense when you start to consider that Maya and Quinn has always been pitched one against each other.
Now, I don't want to go in another tangent to explain this, but I'm sure you've realized that they're opposite ends in a spectrum, yet they're similar in attitude in some ways. Both are stubborn, both has problems with honesty, and both want MONEY. So, would it be crazy if Quinn also is as much of a hostage as Maya because of their parents, but in a different way? MC just never realized it because Quinn doesn't ask for help. we can't forget that this game's largest theme is about family and what it means.
Maya, Josy, Bella, Sage, Jill, and also Quinn. They all have family related problems. some more than others. The rest are main girls and their story have a big impact in the game. So, why would Quinn be different? I think DPC was trying to hide this from us since the start as writing her off as an antagonist. Even if we're not in her branch, I think she will have a huge impact in the story moving forward, and I don't think she is downright evil. Not a princess, but definitely not bad. At least all the hints points to something more than Quinn just being bad because she decided to.
