SEASON 10 ANALYSIS
One of the biggest reasons I love Drianca is because of their dynamic. I believe it’s a lot more complex than the show gave it credit for. The love triangles, silly engagement, and other drama kind of distracted from some of the more beautiful parts of their story.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Drew and Bianca were just a male and female version of the same person in S10. Think about it, they both walked around with bad, apathetic attitudes. They both treated people terribly and lashed out in similar ways when they got upset. They both exhibited deplorable behavior toward a member of the LGBT community. Neither felt remorse for breaking up a relationship, etc. I found the two of them equally unlikable in season 10.
A lot of Bianca’s behavior, though inexcusable, made more sense once we learned about her background. We don’t know exactly what happened to her parents, but we know her past is bad (she even said herself that Drew was the first good thing she ever had). And, judging from her interactions with her aunt in Hollaback Girl, Bianca did not have much emotional support growing up. Hollaback Girl also outright tells us that Bianca has always felt that she isn’t good enough: a deep-rooted insecurity that was no doubt a result of her upbringing. Plus, early season 11 showed us the kinds of things she had to deal with. In retrospect, it makes sense for her to have been a bitch.
And then there’s Drew. On the surface, season 10 Drew seems like a douche for no reason. There’s not much later on that suggests otherwise. Unlike Bianca, he had a loving family and a stable, wealthier upbringing. He seemingly had no reason to be a dick.
It’s harder to detect, but the show does provide some information that leads me to think there was more going on with s10 Drew. For one, even though the show never explained what happened, we do know Audra was not always in his life. Considering his biological mother is never mentioned, it can be assumed she was not very involved in his life (if she was even still alive). And because Omar was always working…I get vibes Drew probably didn’t get much proper attention the first few years of his life. And then when Audra came into the picture, she probably gave him too much attention (maybe to overcompensate for not being his bio mom?). You can tell by the way Audra acts in season 10 that she spoiled him. That at the very least could explain his entitled attitude (hell, Audra immediately accusing Alli of “doing something” to Drew in All Falls Down speaks volumes to me).
And, ultimately, he and Bianca had the same insecurity: not feeling good enough. His speech to Alli in the photo booth, where he told her that “people have been calling him dumb his whole life”, reminds me a lot of Bianca’s quote in Hollaback Girl “everyone is so quick to think the worst of me.”
Ultimately, I do believe Drew and Bianca were two peas in a pod in season 10. Bianca had an inferiority complex due to a past of emotional neglect and abusive relationships. Drew appeared to have both a superiority and inferiority complex, due to Audra spoiling him and possible neglectful circumstances in early childhood. Both put on a cocky “I don’t give a shit” front, but at the core neither of them were truly happy. Until they got together.
In The Way We Get By, they quickly realized that they liked hanging out with each other. They clicked really fast, because they identified with each other. They found in each other what they had both been needing their whole lives. Validation, understanding, a person exactly like them, whatever you wanna call it. They filled that void for each other.
You can tell this by how happy they both were after they got together. Again, think about it. Both expressed a much more likable side of themselves in The Way We Get By. They didn’t do much for the rest of season 10, but their behavior (individually and together) improved tremendously. Neither did anything nearly on par with the terrible shit both were doing earlier in S10.
And, ultimately, you never saw either of them smile like this until they got together 😉
SEASON 11 ANALYSIS
One thing I think we can all agree on regarding Drianca is that the writing for their season 11 storyline was not handled very well at all. There were many issues with it, most notably that screentime was not distributed fairly. I’m going to be laying out my feelings on the whole storyline and explaining why, despite the shitty way it was handled, Drianca are still my OTP.
I’ve already talked about Boom Boom Pow before since it’s my favorite episode of theirs, so I don’t feel the need to analyze it (plus there’s not much about the narrative in that one that I find to be negative). So I’ll jump right into What’s My Age Again.
I think the writers already messed up here by shoving Drianca’s story into an episode with 3 other plots. There were probably only about 10 minutes devoted to it overall, and, considering how big of a deal their plot was in Boom Boom Pow (seriously, the writers truly went there in that ep), the follow-up was pretty underwhelming. I feel like two characters getting mixed up with a gang, one of whom murdered someone in self-defense, should’ve had a better follow-up than Drew talking to lawyers for 5 minutes and then finding out Vince was released in a rushed scene toward the end. Not to mention, Bianca was barely in the episode at all.
The one thing that stands out to me positively about that episode is Drew defending Bianca to Audra. I actually didn’t really remember this happening until I rewatched, but Drew is insistent that what happened wasn’t Bianca’s fault, and then Audra says, “She can’t undo her past, and now neither can you.” After this, Drew seems hesitant, as though Audra’s words have affected his mindset. This takes me back to my S10 analysis, where I talked about Audra putting blame on everyone else but Drew in various situations and Drew buying into it.
That’s what I think is going on here and why Drew’s attitude toward Bianca changed during Idioteque. I think being with her was initially helping him mature break out of his sheltered lifestyle/away from his mother’s influence, but the severity of this situation made him backpedal. He was a scared, spoiled kid, and because of the fear, he let his mother get into his head once again. That definitely doesn’t condone the stuff he said to Bianca, but I do think it was a case of him succumbing to his upbringing rather than him just being annoyed by her.
Now, the end of the episode. I do think it’s important to note that when Drew broke up with Bianca, he was not aware that she was raped. When she told him she “took care of things” with the gang, he was concerned and even asked her if she was okay. He also asked her what she did to get them to back off, and she said she didn’t want to talk about it. You could argue he should’ve known something suspicious was up, and I would agree, but when it comes down it, he didn’t (again, sheltered kid with not a lot of common sense). He was genuinely under the impression that everything was done with and they were both safe when he broke up with her. My heart broke for Bianca, of course, especially knowing things Drew didn’t, but I can’t fault him for this part of the episode. He wanted to break up with her because the situation (which, again, he believed was over) had negatively affected their relationship, not because her problems were too much for him to handle.
It wasn’t until later on in the episode that he found out she was raped. And when he found out, he did seem horrified. And, if what happened next didn’t happen, I’m positive he would have tried to help her. This is not me using Drew getting beat up as an excuse for him to dismiss Bianca, just to make that clear. It was definitely selfish of him to never think about her or where she was, especially since he now knew A) how dangerous Vince really was and B) what she had done to protect him. But again, I don’t think it was out of malice or heartlessness. I think his judgment was clouded by PTSD, and that he was a scared kid dealing with something major for the first time in his life and he just wasn’t handling it properly at all. He was being selfish, but he wasn’t just happily going on with his life and dating new girls while she suffered for him (he didn't even know about the forced relationship until Dead and Gone, which I'll get into later). He was traumatized and he was not thinking the way he should’ve been. He dated Katie because she helped him, not because he was rebounding. Again, he wasn’t purposely dismissing or giving up on Bianca because he couldn’t handle her or because he found her to be an inconvenience—he was simply not right in the head.
All of that being said, let’s get into the biggest issue of this storyline: Bianca’s lack of focus. This is one thing about Drianca that will always piss me off. The show trivialized Bianca’s ordeal in favor of Drew’s, even though she was in a much worse situation. She should’ve had her own plots during this time period, not just a subplot in an episode that was mainly about Alli playing poker. She should’ve had a PTSD storyline of some sort. She’s definitely a strong girl, but there is no way she would’ve gone through a situation like that without more drastic effects. I mean, did the show forget she killed someone in self-defense? Where was the follow-up to that?
The storyline should have been primarily from her POV, with Drew’s side sprinkled in here and there. Both of them were going through a hard time, but Bianca being in a forced, physically and sexually abusive relationship after murdering a guy who tried to rape her definitely should’ve gotten more screentime than Drew’s MMA stuff.
Speaking of which, what the fuck was that? I guess the writers didn’t do their research, because I’m pretty sure PTSD is not quickly cured through MMA fighting. If anything, that seems like a band-aid solution. He needed therapy, and it was incredibly unrealistic for Audra to just drop that possibility in Should’ve Said No. I think the whole MMA thing A) was definitely fanservice so people could see Drew shirtless and B) sort of took away from the seriousness of his side of things. And again, even if they did handle his side of things better, they absolutely should have spent more time on Bianca’s. The fact that they spent more time on Drew—and his storylines were pretty weak, is a mess and I completely understand why this turns people off from the ship.
Anyway, Dead and Gone comes around, and when Drew is mentally doing much better, he finally realizes what Bianca is going through. He is horrified when he sees her bruises and when he finds out what she’s doing for him, and he spends the whole episode trying to help her. This is why I believe he would’ve helped her in/right after Idioteque if not for him being attacked. I 100% believe everything he did in Dead and Gone would’ve happened earlier if he had been right in the head at the time. I also don’t believe he would’ve left her in Idioteque if he had known she was raped beforehand. I can’t say whether or not he would’ve gotten back together with her, but I know he would not have cut ties with her completely.
Another interesting thing to note in Dead and Gone is Drew sort of rises above his tendency to let Audra get into his head. In his very last scene, when Audra tries pinning everything on Bianca again, Drew shuts her up and asks her to get Bianca a lawyer. This moment proves to me that their relationship, and all of these unfortunate circumstances, really helped him grow up (which is undone later in S11, but, that’s another rant).
So, that’s my analysis of S11 Drianca. The storyline definitely could have been handled better on Drew’s part and especially on Bianca’s part. It was written problematically and the way the writers treated Bianca’s character was, frankly, disgusting. But the way I see S11 Drianca is two scared kids in a situation neither of them should’ve ever had to be in. Drew, as a spoiled, self-centered kid, was facing significant hardship for the first time in his life and he didn’t know how to handle it well at all. Bianca, a girl with a rough background that she couldn’t seem to escape from, was facing even more hardship and, unlike Drew, didn’t have a stable support system. The two of them were split apart because of a bad circumstance, but when Drew—the one who’d always had it easier—reached a better place—he came to Bianca’s aid and even used his easier circumstances to help her out of her much more drastic ones.
These two found their way back to each other and were able to heal together from a situation that initially tore them apart. I only wish the show had spent more time--or hell, any time—focusing on the aftermath of this ordeal, and that they had gotten back together that way instead of the Hollaback Girl mess.
SEASON 12 ANALYSIS
Warning: Controversy as I’ll be discussing the Drew/Katie mess
So this is the final chapter in me analyzing Drianca from start to finish. Even though the writing for them was not the best in S12, I think I can add some clarity to it now that I’ve completed earlier analyses. I’ll be discussing what I think was up with the writing and what I think was up with the characters based on behind-the-scenes and canonized information.
Hollaback Girl was in S11, but it set the scene for Drianca in early S12. I’ve said it before, but this episode really annoys me. It was obvious they just wanted to end Krew and get Drianca back and they rushed it and made an unnecessary mess out of things. Drew and Katie easily could have broken up amicably because of her addiction, but because they wanted fast drama, they threw in a cheating plot and took Drew’s character back to the beginning. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they made it even worse in S12.
I’ve talked about Come As You Are several times before, but since this is an in-depth analysis I will go all in. I respect differing viewpoints on this situation completely but this is just how I personally see it:
Here’s what I think was going on with the writing: the writers wanted Drew and Katie to have sex for additional drama, but they knew Drew and Katie having sex wouldn’t make any sense, so they threw alcohol into the equation to make it happen. This is highly problematic and so is the way the narrative was treated afterwards. I don’t blame Katie or even really see the situation as rape at all because she did not take advantage, but I also don’t like how they portrayed it as Drew happily cheating on Bianca/happily sleeping with Katie and then dumping her the next day. Because that’s not what I saw at all.
I do want to make it clear that the reason I find the situation iffy is not because I’m a Drianca shipper. Even if it were three completely different characters in the situation, I would still feel the same way. It’s not so much I refuse to believe that Drew would cheat on Bianca (obviously, he’s cheated in the past), but because the writing itself made it seem like he didn’t want to. He had a distant look on his face right before the sex happened and then the next day he wasn’t happy when he found out about it. He himself even said, “Why would I have sex with Katie if Bianca is the one I love?” and that, to me, says a lot. The idea of Drew sleeping with Katie after he dumped her for Bianca was ridiculous, and Drew himself thought it was ridiculous when he was sober, and the writers clearly thought it was ridiculous and that’s why they felt the need to throw alcohol and concussions into the storyline.
Speaking of which, I fully acknowledge that the reason Drew forgot about the sex was because of his concussion and not the alcohol. But still, in my opinion, the person in the video that was shown in Gives You Hell had no business having sex and the fact that Drew didn’t want anything to do with Katie until he drank a lot of alcohol is troubling to me.
In that sense, I’ve always called this situation a gray area and I also don’t like how Drew was portrayed as a villain here. I don’t think Katie should have been either and I’m not part of the “Katie raped Drew” group, but I also can’t watch this and say Drew happily cheated on Bianca. I saw someone once describe it as the writers wanting him to “unintentionally cheat” somehow and then accidentally coming up with a controversial situation, and I think that’s exactly what happened. They were asking for trouble with this, especially with the “he forgot but it was actually because of the concussions!” plot twist. This honestly never should have happened and the worst thing about it is it was just for drama and it really amounted to nothing except controversy. I mean, what exactly did this contribute to the plot?
Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest lol. I’ll get into analyzing Drianca’s relationship in S12. Writing wise, I think most of Drew’s plots this season were written with the idea of holding him back in mind. They had to make him look really immature in order to make the whole “dropping out of school” arc work and that’s why I think the maturity gap between him and Bianca is a lot more obvious here. It didn’t need to be that way, since they easily could have developed together and both graduated at the end of season 12, but alas…
Another issue with their writing in S12 is Bianca still didn’t get any plots of her own. 90 percent of her screentime in s12 was with Drew and any time she did get her own focus, it was a Drianca plot. This was problematic and similarly to S11, a lot of Drew’s plots were weak which didn’t help matters. I was not a fan of how Drianca was written in most of Showdown and I’ll get into that now.
Character-wise, I think we’re looking back at Drew’s insecurity that I mentioned back in my S10 analysis. The one where he’s not meeting Audra’s expectations and feels like he’s not good enough. Of course, this time around we understand Audra more since her expectations really weren’t unrealistic—she just wanted him to go to school lol. But I think, since Drew’s concussion was making school even harder for him, this insecurity came back in full-force. He wasn’t doing well at school, he couldn’t play sports, and the job at the mall was the only thing he had that he was good at, so he put all of his energy into that. I do find this whole storyline dumb and filler, but I think now I can add some clarity to it.
This is where I think Drianca gets negatively impacted. The first time around, when we saw Drew’s insecurity, being with Bianca helped him overcome it since she had the exact same insecurity. But now, it’s not like that. Bianca has reached a point where she’s happy with herself and her life and is doing well in school, and I think Drew resented that because of his own unhappiness, which is definitely not fair. We saw him resent Alli for this reason back while they were dating, and the way he was with Bianca in early S12 reminded me a lot of Dralli (trust me, I cringed at a lot of Showdown Drianca moments).
Now, the proposal. Writing-wise, I think this was just Ramona Barckert trying to keep Drianca away from Jatie lol. Character-wise, I think the proposal was a desperate attempt on Drew’s part to save their relationship. Bianca was one of the few good constants in his life (especially at this time), and he felt her slipping away and rising above him. I don’t think he was purposely trying to drag her back down; I think he was scared of losing her, didn’t feel like he was good enough for her, and the proposal was him trying to “be serious” and change that. It’s ironic, but he was misguided. And Bianca was equally misguided when she accepted the proposal.
This is where I come back to my “Drew and Bianca are the same at the core” conclusion from S10. They’re both misguided because of their insecurities, which were caused by different upbringings. Drew was insecure because of Audra’s high expectations of him, and Bianca was insecure because of everyone’s low expectations of her (and again, both had extenuating or possible extenuating circumstances in their family lives that contributed). These two identified with each other in S10 and they clung to each other in S12 (especially after all they went through in season 11). In retrospect, them wanting to get married so young does sort of make sense. Drew clung to Bianca because she was the one person who understood him and because she inspired him to be better; Bianca clung to Drew for the same reasons and because he was the first good thing she ever had. Neither of them thought they could ever have anything better.
The biggest downside of all of this is that they both lost their relationships with Audra, which was especially important to Bianca. I think Drew felt that Audra had given up on him, and the events of Sabotage led him to fear that Bianca would give up on him too (again, hence the proposal). And Bianca felt Audra had given up on her too, when she misconstrued Audra’s unhappiness about the engagement. This is what made Bianca fully on board with the engagement, as we saw in Building A Mystery. The “screw Audra” scene, to me, is just proof that Drew and Bianca’s insecurities were acting up again due to different interactions with Audra. Their insecurities brought them closer together once again—this time in a totally misguided way.
We see this come to a head in Las Vegas. Drew, again the one with the easier upbringing, realizes that the wedding is a bad idea and calls it off. Bianca’s insecurity acts up again, as now she believes she isn’t good enough for Drew and that he thinks so too. She believes Audra got into his head, a reverse of what happened on Drew’s part earlier in the season.
Drew and Bianca reconcile with Audra, which I do think are some underrated moments, and they spend the rest of the season on the same page. I do find their relationship to be a lot more equal and healthier at the end of season 12/the beginning of season 13. They seemed to be around the same level of mature, and they supported and encouraged each other (one of the best and most consistent things about Drianca). Drew supported Bianca getting into university (who can forget the twirling scene) and Bianca supported Drew by trying to make his senior year more fun and bringing out the potential she saw in him. As soon as he started doubting himself, she gave him a wake up call. He did the same thing for her in Hollaback Girl (one of the few positives about that episode).
This is what I believe Drianca could have and should have been all along in S12. A much more mature, healthier, happier, and mutually supportive version of themselves (as individuals and a ship).
Another thing I wanted to discuss real quick is how I still noticed individual similarities between Drew and Bianca in S12 (and even a little in 13), despite how different they seemed in Showdown when they had scenes together. I noticed that the way they interacted with people outside of each other was similar. Bianca consoling Cam was similar to Drew consoling Fiona. Bianca being funny with KC and giving advice to him was also similar to Drew being funny and giving advice to Fiona, Adam, Dallas, etc. I also noticed that in S12, Bianca did Drew’s assignment for him when he had a concussion, and in S13, Drew typed Clare’s article for her when she had chemo brain. I think these two do have a lot more in common than it seems.
And rewatching some of S13, I…I really don’t think they needed to break up. I understand the circumstances (especially with Bianca getting out in the world and Drew staying behind), but they didn’t really do a good job showing us that they were growing apart. Their relationship was perfectly stable after Las Vegas, and they seemed to get even closer after Adam died (and side note, him having Bianca as his phone screen in S13 is the most subtly cute thing ever). And honestly, I think it’s easy to see Bianca’s influence on Drew in the beginning of S13 even though she wasn’t around. Drew was a lot more responsible with the camp; he was a good friend to everyone after Adam’s death (the way he looked out for Dallas especially reminded me of Bianca); future events aside, he adamantly rejected Zoe’s advances, which is something he probably wouldn’t have done a season or two before, and he didn’t really do anything that bad until Bianca broke up with him (I’m not blaming Bianca for Drew’s disgusting behavior the rest of his time on the show, more-so just pointing out how he was a much better character while they were together). Rewatching You Oughta Know, where Drew was more of a minor/background character and was just there to support people and be president…I don’t see why the rest of his time on the show couldn’t be like this and why Drianca couldn’t be endgame.
If I were to try to add some clarity to the mess that Drew’s character was after the end of Drianca, it would be that he lost Bianca, Adam, and sports—aka his main sources of validation—in such a sort amount of time.
But, we all know it was just bad writing.
