In the second season, she forms a bond with newcomer Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), and later romances her first boyfriend Finn, reigniting her animosity with club co-captain Rachel Berry (Lea Michele).

Quinn subsequently receives a college acceptance letter from Yale, and while driving to Finn and Rachel's wedding, her car is struck by a truck and she suffers a spinal injury that requires her to use a wheelchair for many weeks.

[2] Quinn is introduced as the captain of the cheerleading squad (The Cheerios) at William McKinley High School, coached by Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch).

[4] When her boyfriend Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) joins the glee club, New Directions, Quinn worries about his interaction with the group's star, Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), and joins New Directions herself along with her fellow Cheerios Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) and Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris).

The real father is Finn's best friend Noah "Puck" Puckerman (Mark Salling); he offers to support Quinn and the baby, but she rejects him, saying he is too irresponsible to care for a child.

[10] Quinn blackmails Sue into letting her rejoin the Cheerios, but ultimately decides against it, preferring to remain with the glee club, where she feels accepted.

[14] She gives birth to a daughter, named Beth by Puck, who is adopted by Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), coach of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline and Rachel's biological mother.

[17] She begins dating new glee club member Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet),[18] and later accepts a promise ring from him.

[19] When Sue forces Quinn, Santana and Brittany to choose between cheerleading and the glee club, all three initially go with the Cheerios to retain their popularity, but are later convinced by Finn to defect to New Directions.

[30][31] When Quinn is nominated for prom queen, Finn agrees to campaign with her, but is outraged when he discovers that she has been hiding the fact that she can now stand for the sympathy vote.

Quinn returns to Lima for Thanksgiving in the eighth episode of the season, and helps to mentor the new members of New Directions as they prepare for Sectionals competition.

Kitty convinces Quinn, whom she idolizes, that Jake Puckerman (Jacob Artist), Puck's half brother, is pressuring Marley into having sex with him.

[33] Quinn travels to New York to give Rachel helpful advice over whether or not to do a nude scene in a short film in "Naked".

They later start a relationship again, which is later confirmed in the next episode after Quinn and Puck perform a duet of Pink and Nate Ruess's Just Give Me a Reason to the glee club.

She returns in the last minutes of the series finale "Dreams Come True" performing backing vocals for "I Lived" with the rest of the Glee Cast for the re-dedication of the Auditorium.

In casting Glee, series creator Ryan Murphy sought out actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles.

He also revealed that some of the original cast will leave as early as 2012: "I think you have to be true to the fact that here is a group of people who come and go in these teachers' lives.

"[43] Quinn was originally conceived as the antagonistic queen bee head cheerleader, a departure from Agron's actual high school experience.

[48] Reviews of her storyline became increasingly negative,[49] though Agron was praised for her dramatic acting during the confrontation scene with Quinn's parents in "Ballad".

[50] Gerrick D. Kennedy, writing for the Los Angeles Times, was critical of the ongoing pregnancy plot in the episode "Hairography", and noted that he cringed whenever Quinn appeared on screen.

[51] Conversely, Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle enjoyed Quinn in the episode, and wrote: "I love that she can keep her Mean Girls edge while being heartbreakingly sad or as joyful as she was singing "Papa Don't Preach".

[52] Reviewing the episode "Journey to Regionals", Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich called Quinn's birthing scenes—interspersed with Vocal Adrenaline performing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"—both "brilliant" and "terrible".

But both of them have changed—Quinn more so than Finn—and having them dating again seems like they're going back to the days when Quinn was the icy lead Cheerio and Finn was the nice but dumb star quarterback.

[56] The Atlantic's Kevin Fallon called it "the most interesting thing Quinn has done since giving birth to a baby to the soundtrack of 'Bohemian Rhapsody'",[57] but VanDerWerff suggested the development hinged on the fact the producers no longer knew how to utilize Agron.

[59] Several songs performed by Agron as Quinn have been released as singles, available for digital download, also featured on the show's soundtrack albums.

[62] Aly Semigran of MTV observed that Quinn spontaneously bursting into song brought Glee "dangerously close to High School Musical territory".

[63] Agron later performed a solo in the episode "Hairography" singing Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" after her father learns she is pregnant.

[64] In season two, Quinn performs "Lucky" with Sam Evans in the episode "Duets", which was named by some critics as "the most impressive number of the evening"; others called it "absolutely fantastic" with particular praise for Agron, who was said to be often overlooked.

[66] Quinn's duet performance with Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) of the mash-up "I Feel Pretty / Unpretty" was the highest charted single featured in the episode "Born This Way", debuting at number twenty-two on the Billboard Hot 100.

[70] Entertainment Weekly's Joseph Brannigan Lynch called it "a nice summation of her character's journey, but not vocally impressive enough to justify listening to outside of the episode" and gave it a "B".