Entropy

Ha, yeah, Mona probably would have won. The shipper stuff intrigues me on a sociological level, but what I'm more interested in is its impact on storyline. I do believe that notwithstanding the American Idol-type voting system, the sample size is large enough that it's a roughly accurate reflection of the collective fan base. So you can see right here why the three, known endgame ships are unsinkable, thus no A.D. involvement or deaths for the significant others . (A cautionary tale is The O.C. after it killed Marissa. If I recall correctly, it lost almost half its audience (and was cancelled after 16 episodes)). But, with respect to Emison, does the show or network have its own data that also indicates that the ship's support is deeper than it is wide, and if so are they willing to bear the wrath of the screaming fangirls on Twitter enough to do something interesting like make Alison A.D.? Probably not. #Emison4eva. The other observation I made about that poll is that I don't even remember some of those characters, and I'm sure I'm not alone. And that fact is emblematic of one of PLL's larger problems. Forget about getting answers. Who even remembers the questions?

The interesting thing is that Emison shippers may not comprise that large a percentage of fans, even though they are undoubtedly the loudest. I'm not sure if this is the proper thread topic for this, but I found this eye-opening: https://www.buzzfeed.com/allysonh12/who-do-you-ship-pretty-little-liars-edition-2jsra Obviously, it's an unscientific poll, and we can assume power voting took place, but presumably the effects of power voting were largely canceled out by the fact that all fan bases would have been doing it. Haleb (82% of the vote, 99.1K votes) Spoby (71%, 86.6K) and Ezria (64%, 82.1K) won landslides. However, when asked who they shipped with Alison, respondents barely chose Emily (37%, 46.5K) over Lorenzo(!) (35%, 43.1K). Moreover, when asked who they shipped with Emily, Alison finished SECOND (27%, 36.1K) behind Maya (34%, 44.3K) and in front of Paige (21%, 27.4K). According to this poll anyway, it seems people may not be buying into either Emison or Paily. Other takeaways: respondents did not back Spaleb at all. Among Spencer's would-be suitors, Caleb finished FOURTH (5%, 5,948 votes) behind Toby, Wren (14%, 17.1K) and Alex(?!) (5%, 6,379 votes). However, I wouldn't automatically conclude that Haleb is PLL's most popular couple. Toby and Ezra faced much more serious competition in Wren and Jason (19%, 24K). Caleb's biggest rival for Hanna was Jordan (5%, 5,802 votes).

What is amazing is that no one even stops to process the WTF-ness of the fact that Jenna and Noel are suddenly in on this micro-illuminati conspiracy they are all victims of. Instead, they treat it as self-evident. Of course, Jenna and Noel are plotting evil deeds because someone is always plotting evil deeds in Rosewood, and Jenna and Noel are there. Someone must always be plotting evil deeds. It's necessary to maintain the balance of Rosewood's moral ecosystem. Now that Noel is dead, someone else will rise to plot in his place. So Hanna goes missing again and, right on cue, Caleb starts being a dick to everyone again. Maybe he's A-Team. A.D. is Pastor Ted. It all goes back to his uncle-father and the church bell........ Ok, Caleb probably isn't A-team (making anyone on the PLL Y-chromosome team complicit with Uber-A would retroactively destroy their respective ship, so that ain't happening). But, he was, um, moving at the end of his sex scene with Hanna. Ew. I don't think Spoby has even had a love scene like that. I wish I had as much confidence in Caleb's field partner. MonA is looking hella suspect right now. First, why would she even think to look for that thumb drive on Noel-- what reason would she have to think he was carrying it? Then, Noel goes free. But, lastly the image of A.D. discarding the mask and back in the black hoodie.... If they reuse an A, I'd rather it be Charlotte, but it would be better to tie A.D. back into an early season plot (N.A.T.!). However, if it is Mona, they better come up with some awesome Monaesque rationale like, "Bitch stole the game from me. I took it back," not that she's still pissed about high school or Hanna. Also, Yvonne should NOT die. Not only would it cause unnecessary sociopolitical backlash, but it's lazy storytelling. Ok, she's a designated Spoby obstacle, but that doesn't mean she should become collateral damage just so she can be removed from their path. It also cheapens their inevitable reunion. Toby wants to choose Spencer. He does love Yvonne in the same way Hanna loved Jordan and Aria loved Liam, but he and Spencer are walking away from each other like they're on death marches because they're trying to "do the right thing" (well, Toby more than Spencer ).... Which brings me to the following: I feel like one of the moral lessons we're supposed to take away from this show is that it's not cheating if you're not naked (along with fellas, she's good to go as long as she's not under the age of consent). In the finale, Spencer cheated with Toby instead of on him, so at least that was a twist (but, hey, if we move the faithfulness goalposts then they and their spit-swapping peers are all paragons of fidelity).

Noel Khan was decapitated! Expect him to appear frequently in 7B. So Jenna is definitely NOT over that whole blinding her thing.... And she is definitely on the A.D. team now. A.D. is a Spoby shipper. Or he just really doesn't like Republicans. Or POCs. Or Republican POCs. Or Toby. Maybe it wasn't A.D. at all, but just some guy whose pool deck Toby never finished back when he was Rosewood's teen contractor. So Noel got free from his chair. Whither Mona? Nicole is my new favorite character. Marco is just an older version of the older creeps who used to hit on the girls in high school. Perhaps he's the founding member of the N.A.T. club. So Emily's romantic choices are between manipulative and deceitful, psychotic and obsessive or stoned and blissfully ignorant. Those home-made baked goods are tasty, Em. Ask Spencer. This show shouldn't end at the end of the season. Instead everyone involved should be condemned to a special circle of hell where they must forever continue their sisyphean quest to unmask Uber-A while acting out circular romantic melodramas.

I was a TV reviewer for another website that shut down after the premiere (yo, previously.tv, holla at me; I got references), and in my recap of that episode, I point out that, on a show where the males are betas, Ezra is the BETA of the betas. There was this unintentionally awesome succession of sequences where it went from Toby breaking into the Lost Woods to Ezra using the key Emily gave him to unlock Alison's front door (whereupon inside he performed such useful tasks as pointing out linen closets and locked compartments). What makes this even more fantastic is that every other member of the core group was once his student.

I seem to recall Paige being a pretty popular character and there being a lot of fans of her and Emily's relationship. I wonder if they're happy that she was brought back for this. Because good god, this is the Paige that tried to drown Emily, and that's basically who she's been since she returned. Since when did she and Emily get close again? They had drinks one night, and Emily confided in her about A.D. Plus, she knows Emily is seeing Sabrina. ....Another thing I noticed about the Canadian promo is that the line "What did you do?" that most people thought was Spencer's (and was looped in with the sound of a gunshot in the US promo) was actually Hanna's. What if Caleb dies? That would be out of left field. I don't think Caleb dies, but I do wonder why he never gets more suspicion that he's A. I mean A.D./ A is obviously a computer genius. Actually, the most plausible culprit, based on everything that A does, is a tandem of Caleb and Toby. Maybe PLL will go for the most misandrist ending ever and have all the boyfriends in on it. Ezra is in charge of writing all the "witty" texts (he seems like the emoji type). But, the other two also make him do all the grunt work and give him wedgies.

It's absurd that Toby and her are even still together. He was at Veronica Hastings' election victory celebration for god's sake. That should have killed the relationship right there. Yes, he was only there because he was helping with the Radley basement break-in, but this was the *most covered state legislative election in history.* (PLL portrays absolutely no societal institutions realistically, but can't they at least consult with someone who has been involved with state elections? State legislative candidates sometimes don't even have their own election watch parties. Often, all the local Democratic candidates (including municipal council and school board candidates) will be in one venue when the results come in, with the Republicans in another. And don't even get me started on Spencer's idea to join her mom's "transition team." In most states, being a state legislator isn't even a full-time job and members don't have their own staff (let alone transition teams) but share the same staff with other members of their party in the legislature). But, what would have taken place at Veronica's election night headquarters at the Radley is that a lot of pictures and videos would have been shot, which in turn would have been posted to social media. It wouldn't take long for someone to recognize that the guy standing next to Veronica's daughter and clapping was the same police officer who earlier in the campaign made a statement on behalf of the daughter of Veronica's opponent (LOL that that would have ever happened or that it would have gotten any coverage though). Soon it would have been picked up by media outlets. There's no way Yvonne would have not seen the photos. And there's no way she would have stayed with a guy who missed her mom's watch party but was celebrating at the party of her mom's victorious opponent with that opponent's daughter, who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend.

The Canadian promos seem like they're always better, on every show. Although if you don't like to be substantively spoiled by promos, you probably wouldn't agree. The US promos tease stuff that's shippy and sensational (Jenna with a gun), but this one confirms a connection between Noel and Charlotte (although not that they're family). Up until this point, many people suspected that any evidence pointing to a link between them was a red herring. That Keegan and Troian video makes me even more doubtful that Toby dies. Obviously, episodes aren't filmed in a day, so it's not like it would necessarily have been Keegan's last day of work. But, the tenor of it (and the fact that they even made it) doesn't seem to square with the notion of it being his final episode. After seeing the Canadian promo, I'm now guessing that Noel dies, perhaps right as he's about to share important information-- like, according to a theory I read the other day that Charlotte is still alive and is A.D. As stupid as the Cece reveal was, I think it could be redeemed if they doubled-back on it and had her playing a very long gAme-- although it still wouldn't make much sense.

The Internet seems to think he's the most likely victim, but it doesn't make sense to kill him off with half a season to go. And the theory seems to be based on two things: the fact that so far there have apparently been no reports of Keegan on set filming 7B and some "goodbye-themed" statements from Keegan and Troian that, honestly, bear the hallmarks of intentional misdirection (along with his absence from the set). The only creative purpose Toby's death would serve is if the writers think Spencer hasn't been pushed far enough and needs to suffer a complete psychotic break. But, Spencer being on the edge is pretty well-covered territory by this point. Now if they had written him out after the time jump, that would have served a creative end. It would have reinforced the message that they feinted at, that people and life change as you get older. But, that's not the story they're telling, and, even if it was, why have Toby loiter around Rosewood for another season? He's still helpful with respect to the mystery, but none of his storylines are critical to the plot. It did seem pretty obvious that he's still around because he's Spencer's intended, or he's A (which, come on, in spite of the fact that he used to have as much motive as anyone and the unfortunate Season 3 storyline notwithstanding-- Toby Cavanaugh as an arch criminal super-villain? With his GED education?) The other reason to kill him off would be if Keegan was in a contract dispute, but that's not the case because, as said, the show is almost over. Also he's not even a regular. Anyway, if there's any karmic justice, if a male love interest dies, it should be Ezra (obviously) or Caleb, whose fall from grace has been swift (thankfully, because he was nauseatingly overpimped). Toby does have that shady interval where he was A-Team, but, big picture-- he came from a broken home, his mom was murdered, his step sister abused him and he was unjustly sent to juvie and falsely arrrested for Alison's death. His life has kind of sucked in a lot of ways. I don't think it was a flashback, but it didn't look like a happy kiss either. It seemed like a goodbye kiss, as in I'm leaving forever, so let's indulge the feelings one last time. That is until Yvonne dies/ witnesses the last kiss/ is revealed to be evil.