BRADLEY & RELATIONSHIPS . . .
bradley thinks she's morally superior than those at UBA , but the truth is bradley is worse in many many many ways . dissecting the relationships she has with laura and cory in particular , she actively pushes them away . bradley isn't a thinker , she's a doer and this gets her into the most avoidable situations . she loves to tell people she's honest and she's a sharp shooter , but in reality she can't actually be direct with anyone when it comes to her feelings .
with laura , bradley finds ways to pick the relationship apart , she clings onto this notion that laura hates her family because of their political views or their ways of living . i think the reality of laura's tolerance to bradley's family is that they weigh her down emotionally and it's hard for laura to cope with that . bradley never really talks to laura about herself in a raw and honest way , she creates this baseline of who she is and doesn't even try to remain consistent .
bradley's bisexuality is something she initially struggles with , but she can use this struggle to jibe at laura and become quite distanced from her . the way bradley presents to laura in the beginning is a southern belle type ; naive , boxed in , lonely and vulnerable . bradley is none of those things , she is a social chameleon when around laura because she's trying to fit in really bad .
whilst i do think laura meant a great deal to bradley and there was a lot of love there , she actively finds ways to end the relationship or for laura to do it for her . because she doesn't think , bradley reacts and uses the people around her to cope instead of being honest with herself .
with cory , it's slightly different and i actually think worse , she knows the hold she has over him and uses him . bradley plays with cory's emotions , whilst she stops him during his confession of his love for her , she runs away . confronted with something scary , authentic and raw . . . it frightens someone like bradley because they genuinely don't know what to do with it . their love for each other is very real but also complicated by obstacles and misunderstandings .
their immediate closeness feels intoxicating because it’s rare for both of them , but it’s also charged and messy precisely because they’re feeding each other’s worst tendencies . bradley actively hurts cory in so many ways more than she ever did to laura , and she still thinks she's an okay person . in season 4 , she basically says to cory : i will always think you are possible of doing the worst to whoever for the sake of business as long as you get what you want .
in the whole wolf river investigation , which impacted thousands. of people , she thinks cory is capable . again , actively searching for ways to push him away . she could have asked cory outright or in a better way , but she chose to manipulate him and deceive him . the worst part of it was she did this after they spoke honestly with each other for the first time since season 1 and after she made a move on him . she reopened all of his feelings for her and then stepped all over them .
when cory confronts her , he tells her the truth about who she is , a liar and a manipulator . it's when cory is no longer an option does bradley tell someone , chip , that she cares about him and always had . but to alex , she just glazed over that feeling and just basically said : hey , i was fucked up and slept with cory . there was no attachment to him in her words to alex and yet for cory it was most likely an act of love .
bradley is not a good person and she creates a trail of carnage wherever she goes . i think the only person that sees this is alex , i think alex is the only one who understands how much pain bradley is in and actively listens to her .
