Emma Pillsbury is a fictional character from the T.V series “Glee”. She is the guidance counselor for the students of William McKinley High School. The show is based in Lima, Ohio and this is also where she grew up. Her family consists of her mother which shows severe signs of ODC and Mysophobia, and her father who is a “ginger supremacists”. Mr. Pillsbury believes that gingers should be the dominate race. They call Emma their “Freaky Dink” because of her cleaning habits. They constantly make fun of her and make invalidating comments about her relationship status and life arrangements. In Season 3 episode 3 there is a flash back about Emma in her younger ages. Emma and her parents are out to eat when they receive a different waitress, her mom pulls out anti-bacterial wipes and tells her “not to be too careful” while the whole family starts to wipe down their cups. Emma watches her parents and she follows them in cleaning her cup as well. (Glee, 2011). This flashback shows that Emma was heavily influenced by her mother and her abnormal cleaning behaviors.
Childhood traumas can greatly influence a person. Emma has had a past traumatic experience which has stayed with her though the years. The confession comes out when she is helping clean classrooms. Will Schuester (director of the glee club) notices that she had been cleaning the same pencil sharpener for an hour. He asks her to confess a secret about her childhood. This is when Emma tells the story of her trauma. Emma says that she wanted to work on a dairy farm, and so her parents took her to visit one. They let her try samples and see the cows. She had a great time, but near the end of the trip her brother decided to push her into the runoff lagoon. After telling the story she says “I’ve just had a little trouble forgetting the, uh, smell… you know, I just take lots of showers and I, um You Know, I don’t eat dairy.” (Emma, 2010). Will then tries to help her problem by taking chalk and placing some on her nose. Her personal affection towards him makes her forget about the chalk but soon realizes it, freaks out, and runs away (Glee, 2011).
Emma and her personal relationships throughout life have been very few. The first romantic relationship with another person was started when she was 35. She secretly had a huge crush on Will Schuester, but he unfortunately was married to another woman. In many episodes, they share times of intense romantic stare offs but nothing ever happens. During this time Will’s wife fakes a pregnancy to keep Will has her husband because she suspected that he was cheating on her with Emma. Emma gives up on ever thinking that she could be with Will. She decides to settle with the football coach Ken Tanaka. He has a major crush on Emma although she doesn’t like him because he is “Dirty”. (Glee, 2009). The day before their wedding Will shows Emma how to dance. They again start to show intimate feelings toward each other, unknowing to the fact that Ken is watching. He leaves Emma without an explanation and moves out of the state. Emma decides that she should leave McKinley High School since she cannot be with Will. She later resigns and starts to pack up (Glee, 2009).
The next week Will finds out that his wife tried to steal a baby, and found out about the fake pregnancy. He finally realizes he loves Emma. Will finds her packing up to leave, he grabs her and kisses her for the first time. The next few weeks they try to be together. In the episode The Power of Madonna, Will asks Emma if she is ready to be romantically engaged, she says yes. Although during the act she gets uncomfortable and runs away. Emma said she wasn’t ready for a relationship anymore and decides to take a break from Will. As Emma decides how she will move on with relationships, Will “cheats” on her with the substitute Holly Holiday. He tries to apologize to Emma telling her he thought they were over. The last episode of season 1 Emma also has news for will.
Emma comes out to say she now has a boyfriend named Carl Howell who is a dentist. She says that he helps her overcome her ODC by taking her to dirty movie theaters or riding with the car window down. Will of course gets jealous and acts out accordingly He tries to buy an expensive car just like Carl’s to see how Emma would react. Carl soon tells Will to leave Emma alone and Will obliges. He asks Emma to be his guest to a competition for the Glee club but she says no. (Glee, 2009)
Emma suddenly takes a trip to Las Vegas where her and Carl get married. She thinks that she will be forever happy with him but soon shows emotional feelings for Will again. She helps Will practice for the upcoming Musical- Rocky Horror Picture Show- where she sings and displays a sexual character. The scene has her singing the song Toucha Touch Me while she strips Will of his shirt. At the end of the song they almost share a kiss but she runs away again. She tells Carl about what happened and he asks her if she still has feelings for Will. She does not answer and which he then knows that she does. He leaves Emma. The marriage was not consummated so she isn’t actually married to Carl. (Glee, 2011)
Unfortunately, Emma is upset and in the next episode is seen having very abnormal cleaning problems. She has gotten so upset that she cannot have anything out of place on her desk. The episode shows Emma taking a ruler out to measure the space in between objects on her desk. Will sees her becoming more anxious and tries to help her. He makes a new assignment for the Glee club in the Episode Born This Way. They all make t-shirts about what issues or things they do not like about themselves but where born with. He asks Emma to make a t-shirt, she does and puts “Ginger” on it instead of OCD. Will shares his disappointment and lets Emma go her own way. (Glee, 2011)
Now, Emma sees she does have a problem and decides to go see a Psychiatrist. During the first session, she uses the whole hour to clean the chair in the office. The Psychiatrist tells her that she has Severe OCD and prescribes her an SSRI (helps with Serotonin levels in the brain). Unsure she tells the Psychiatrist “I don’t want to start popping pills just so I can turn into someone that other people want me to be. This is how I am. This is who I’m supposed to be”. (Emma, 2011). The psychiatrists then goes on to explain how the medicine would help her “Your illness is not who you’re supposed to be. It’s keeping you from who you’re supposed to be. Look, you’re a guidance counselor, right? So, if a student came to you and said they had diabetes, would you give them insulin or would you say, “Hey, that’s just who you’re supposed to be”. (Glee, 2011).
This all ends in season 3 when in the first episode of the season Emma and Will are living together. They soon get married although Emma runs away the first time. They finally get married. Emma still never has sexual interaction with Will until the last Episode of Season 3 when the Glee club returns from Nationals (Glee, 2012).
Lastly, Emma tells Will she is pregnant in Season 5, during the Episode called Trio. Emma was scared to have a child because of her ODC and how messy babies can get. Although Will helps her see that having a baby is so much more than OCD. Emma’s water breaks and she finally has a baby boy, who they name Daniel Finn Schuster. He is named after a boy who died in the Glee Club. Emma is seen to have more babies but none of them are outwardly named. (Glee, 2014)