ringwaldoeuvre

Joining the conversation because I am so pissed they killed Lady Eve and none of my friends watch this show. But y'all aren't happy about it so I feel like I've found my people! Jill Scott was absolutely crushing it and Lady Eve was -- and I almost never think this is the right word -- delicious as a villain. She owned every scene and it was such a mistake to dispatch her so early in the series. She was menacing, charming, had depth, and obviously had more of a backstory. I will happily suspend all disbelief if they can come up with a way to bring her back at some point. Really glad they didn't belabor the acceptance of Anissa using her powers, and excited to see where they go with it. I feel like some kinda shoe's gotta drop with Jennifer. Gambi is shady AF and I am here for it.

Well that was some Dickensian bullshit! Looks like Ashley Marin is about to get into a love triangle with Veronica Hastings over her beloved wine. Now THAT would be a hot sex montage. The wine moms was total fan service, and it gave me strength to get through the episode. All those endings felt interminable like the end of "The Return of the King," but with way fewer gay hobbits. At least Mona lived and she has someone who will treat her like the queen she is. The shipping is one thing, and I'm sort of numb to it at this point. Woulda been much better if Byron told Ezra, "You're fucking lucky Mike isn't here to rip your arms off, dipshit," and I couldn't even pretend to care when his life was in danger. Still, there's no getting away from it. BUT. FFS, did they have to make domestic bliss = having children when they aren't even 25 or...at all? Way to pile on a totally incongruent message about gender norms in a show that is nominally ABOUT women's autonomy and strength. Aria not being able to have kids was the reason for the "I can't marry Ezra in the promo" like THAT is what makes her worth being with Ezra? And we were supposed to go all "awwww" when he was all supportive? I just. Christ. Like, I can't form complete sentences. I need to go set some things on fire. Okay I'm back. Can't stop, won't stop hating Emison. Haleb is usually the ship I can stand and like...why did we have to watch Caleb constantly fight about Mona with Hanna? Toby is the least offensive because he is boring. It was so painful. Didn't realize there was a live chat!

Overall, pretty disappointed and worried that next week is going to be terrible. I was bummed that Tanner didn't make a final attempt at getting them to crack. When she left them all in a room together I was shocked, because a good detective will split them all up into different interview rooms. Then letting them watch Mary Drake's confession handed them the story. She could have put them individual rooms, pocketed Mary Drake's confession, and put one last squeeze on them to see how all over the place their stories would have obviously been without legal representation. Okay Spencer would have had a lawyer, and Ali because she's already gone through the whole arrest-conviction-jail thing and knows she'd need one. Reading through the comments reminded me that Emily and Alison had some scenes in this episode, THAT is how boring they are. That diner scene with Mona got my spidey senses tingling about Caleb again, tho! It's a shame he was only briefly in play as a villain in season one and Ravenswood kinda removed him from the list of viable candidates. Not that they didn't have enough tarmac to make him suspicious, even for a half season, but they would have had to act like Ravenswood never happened. Which like, I'm pretty much fine with? Ezra can fuck right off forever and ever. God. I think I might hate him more than Dawn Summers and Connor. And him and Caleb have really cornered the market on talking down to women. I am guessing the showrunners were trying to make them look protective, but considering one of the strong themes of this show is women's agency over their lives and bodies and how the patriarchy is always trying to put women in their place, they can take their infantilization over to Ravenswood. I was very upset that Marlene et al doubled-down on the transgender villainy of Charlotte. Killing trans people on TV is something that should maybe happen in the first five minutes of an episode of Law & Order, but never after a crazed, vindictive rant. After the blow up over 6x10, I'm pretty shocked that they could be so insensitive or, frankly, ignorant of how their show has done a complete 180 on good LGBT representation. Or maybe they give no fucks because all of their relationships, even the lesbian one, are terrible! Which brings me, last but not least, to Mona. I'm just really disappointed that went full looney bin with her. Not at all shocked she killed Charlotte, even accidentally, but then to make her confession come in the form of a breakdown makes me anxious about where they are going with her. I was really hoping that, at the end of the series, she'd get a nice send-off with a profession that has baller insurance and will allow her to get the mental health care she needs. It just doesn't sit right with me that she might be just a tragic figure when it's all over.

I have a similar experience, but with another liberal, and it really reflects how people's viewing of the same TV show can vary wildly depending on their own lived experiences. An old friend from college invited me over to hers to watch 6x10 and when the A/Cece/Charlotte reveal happened I started chanting, "No. No no no. Nonononono. DON'T DO THIS, SHOW. NONONONONONONO" on repeat. Now, my friend is super pro-LGBT, but even she was like, "why are you saying nononononono is it because you thought it was Wren?" (I did.) I explained it, and she totally got it once I did, but it wasn't something she intuitively picked up. I've even had to explain this AND the great mass TV lesbian massacre of 2016 to gay men who were floored by the Bury Your Gays trope (another one that PLL has in the bag several times over). I've got transgender friends who describe how they feel about TV characterizations, but a lot of people don't have transgender friends and don't really notice because it doesn't touch their own lives. I did have one other friend text me the night of 6x10 with "COME THE FUCK ON MARLENE ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS" so, even in my very small circle of friends who watch this show, at least one other person was as upset as me. It was a "hide the ball" move that backfired in a huge way, and it didn't help that they proceeded to murder the ball.

Caleb mentioning spousal privilege made my spidey senses tingle. Marlene would have to pull a thousand rabbits out of a thousand hats for his motivation to make any sense, but it would at least be a rewarding surprise if he was involved somehow because no one seems to suspect him at all and he's been around since season 1. Unlike the reveal of Sara Harvey which had the entire PLL fandom shouting, "she doesn't even go here!" This is just a prediction, but I'm convinced that Mona killed Charlotte, A.D. knows it, Mona knows A.D. knows it, and her motivation for solving the game is rooted in self-preservation with a side of reflexive love for Hanna. Theirs truly is a love that dare not speak its name. There was decent fodder for the theories about Alison and/or Ezra being A.D.! Alison finding the game in her bed followed by the game disappearing when the cops show up, Tanner knowing her burner digits, and her muteness when everyone said they wouldn't rat each other out. Also the previously with her "fall" but no pay-off? Something's gotta be up. And Ezra...I can't even with that motherfucker, like ever, but for the theories, there were a few things: his ain't-no-thing-but-a-chicken-wing attitude toward knowing about the police report so he could keep Aria in his thrall, the phone planted in their apartment, and the convenience of Aria being let off the hook. Y'all have said pretty much everything that needs to be said about the ships and the shipping montage. You guys, I haven't felt that uncomfortable since the Ezria/Emison montage in 5x05, and that montage was set to "Every Breath You Take." Y'all have also said pretty much everything that needs to be said about Aria. She is so basic. Much fodder for the Twincer theories as well, but I hope it doesn't happen. If you're putting together a puzzle, you like to have all the pieces in front of you. It's so much more rewarding when there are clues woven through a show and when it finally lands on someone, the reaction is either "yes! called it!" or "ugh, I was so sure it was X character, but I can totally see how they did that, well played show." Both reactions, BTW, are signs that the showrunners crafted a viable mystery. Season 1 of Veronica Mars is a perfect example. It's just not satisfying to pull something out of thin air unless it comes from Mona. Mona can do whatever the fuck she wants, and we're all here for it. While I'm on the subject of carefully crafted mysteries, an example of a shitty reveal was how the Charlotte/Cece reveal was an unnecessarily careless handling/introduction of a transgender character. In an effort to pull a gender switcheroo on the audience, Marlene stepped in one of the more destructive tropes about LGBT characters. Also, killing Charlotte when transgender women of color get murdered on the regular is doubly careless. I will never be on board with Emison, but I could actually stand Alison in this episode. For basically the first time not in a flashback, her affection for Emily seemed rooted in something other than being dependent or how Emily feels about her. And she was speaking for the entire audience when she called Aria out for choosing Ezra over them. PREACH.

Wanting and predicting are two different things. Want it to be Alison or Ezra. Predict it will be Melissa or Wren.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster in any forum. Not sure what's compelling me to jump into the PLL conversation with three episodes left other than I have felt a lot of feelings about this show, historically, and you all seem like a fun bunch and why the heck not. So. Hello! I thought I'd just be repetitive and a voice in the choir on Ezra's general awfulness, so it might not be worth mentioning, but the episode actually gave us new grist for the mill. When he said "I truly believe that we are stronger for having weathered those storms. Don't you?" I said "oh you can fuck right off you manipulative, predatory shithead" in such a tone that I had to assure my roommate in the other room I was not talking about him. There's so much to unpack. That statement implies a few fucked up things: (1) the "we" makes it seem like it is something they are both complicit in, not a thing that he, a grown-ass person, did to her, a sophomore in high school; (2) she somehow shares the burden of making sure that their relationship survive, and their relationship is more important than her own agency; (3) "storms" is one way to downplay stalking and seducing a high school sophomore, I guess; and finally, (4) trying to manipulate her back into being cool with his conduct. This fucking guy. My opinions on Aria have been complicated throughout the series, but when I realized she was going along with A.D. because it was all about Ezra, then I am back to being done with her nonsense. In general, I think the Ezria stuff completely suffocated the development of a character that could have been so much more. We get glimpses, especially when Ezra is not around and Aria is engaged in solving the mystery with any of the other liars, such as her recent outing with Emily tailing Sydney, which it makes it that much more disappointing. While the Mona ex Machina might be old at this point: don't care. Love me some Mona and happy to have some progress toward answers about anything, even if Mona pulls them out of a carpet bag. I won't ask questions. The writers know it, the audience knows it, and we're all on board. Just put Mona on the screen reading (or maybe singing!) the phone book and blurting out information every once in a while, and we've got ourselves a spin-off. Speaking of singing, while it was so boss seeing Ezra getting the shit kicked out of him and Veronica speaking for all of us in the dream, it's a shame Lucy Hale didn't get to sing with Janel Parrish! A duet of "Under Pressure" would have been topical. Or "Islands In the Stream," for funsies. Haleb is...Haleb. Shrug emoji. You've all covered Caleb's transformation into an asshole. Moving on. Alison not being in episodes is palpably better. You can almost feel the episode not being weighed down by having to deal with the Emison baby (at least, not on screen) or any of her drama. In general, put me in the camp of wishing she's stayed dead or they didn't bring her back and give her a personality transplant. I think Sasha's great, and it really shows when they give her something real to work with. In real life, sure, anyone would be in her state or worse. In a TV show, it's exhausting and boring. I can't really bring myself to follow the Hastings family tree foolishness, such that I don't think I've even caught everything that they supposedly revealed. I will always love any scene with Spencer and Troian is the shit, I just think the Mary Drake stuff is whack. I can't immediately recall a scene in which I genuinely liked Emily, at least not in a long while. But may the fates guide Emily toward a future where she is not pressuring people to have babies they clearly don't want to have, and where she may endeavor to deserve the opportunity to pretend to be Mona's main squeeze.