Character Analysis
Santangelo may be the leader of the Townies, but most importantly, he plays a critical role in Taylor's quest for her identity. His father, a cop, was the young officer who both arrived on the scene of the accident that killed the Schroeders and Markhams and investigated Webb's disappearance. Because Santangelo's kind of an expert in breaking and entering and knows a lot more about his dad's career than he probably should, he consequently knows a heck of a lot about Taylor—including things that she doesn't know.
As it happens, Santangelo's intimate knowledge of Taylor's past puts a serious damper on the hostility between the factions, especially after he gets Taylor a photo of her father after they finish negotiating for the Club House. Once Taylor sees Webb's picture and feels even more driven to find out about her past, it's Santangelo who helps her break into the Brigadier's tent in search of evidence. Santangelo also "doesn't miss a beat" (21.75) in telling Jonah that if he forgets how bad things were with his dad, Santangelo will help him remember.
While Santangelo spends the second half of the book building relationships with Taylor and Jonah rather than fighting them, there's another friendship that needs healing in his life: He and Raffaela have known each other since childhood, as his father is actually her godfather. There are even some hints that there was more than friendship to the two of them for a while, but then, as Ben says, "He set fire to her hair once in science and I think that killed the romance for her" (20.59). While that would definitely be enough to wreck a relationship with a teenage girl, the collapse of the tension between the factions helps Santangelo and Raffaela reconcile.