SadieT

Back when she had good material, I always thought Sasha was one of the best actors in the cast, second only to Troian. I think her issue now is the terrible writing for her character. The last time she had any good material was probably the prison/trial arc and since then Alison has been kind of a sad sack without much agency in her own story, so there's really not much for Sasha to work with and it shows. With the exception of Troian, I feel like all of the actresses have had times where you could tell they're kind of bored and phoning it in, or where they're just completely over some of the ridiculous things they have to say and do repeatedly. I agree about Shay though, she's not the best but she's had some good moments too. As far as Alison and Emily moving to this new show, if it's true I think they'll just pop up a few times at the beginning to try to get PLL's audience interested.

Yeah Wilden/Alison is absolutely gross. No way around it. And since the show was okay with 14 or 15 year old Alison sleeping with a 30 year old detective, why did they back off of Ian and Alison and act like they never went past making out in the dirt? Like these writers are obviously cool with statutory rape so why draw the line there? On another less disturbing note, Troian refers to Sara Harvey as "Shower Harvey" in the video and I think Marlene has also done so once or twice, so it's kind of funny to see the cast and crew pick up on these little fandom things.

There's a new Vanity Fair video where the cast has to fill in a diagram of their hookups, and when it’s time to do Alison’s, Sasha picks a picture of Wilden that’s labeled “Beach Hottie.” But then there’s a second picture of him actually labeled "Wilden" that they connect to Ashley Marin and Troian says something like, “oh you guys separated ‘Beach Hottie’ and Wilden” implying that they’re the same person (around minute 8:30)… so yeah Troian knows everything lol. And apparently so does Vanity Fair because they had Beach Hottie written on a picture of Wilden.

I mean I thought it was pretty obvious it was Wilden but they couldn't take like 5 seconds to confirm this? Charlotte could have easily mentioned it in Game Over, Charles when she was delivering 40 minutes of exposition, or Alison could have said something after she saw Rollins wearing Wilden's face. But I love that the showrunner doesn't even know what's going on.

This seems relevant... Not Even I. Marlene King Is Totally Sure Who Beach Hottie Is On ‘Pretty Little Liars’

Such an underwhelming episode. Emily’s turn at Jumanji: Rosewood Edition was just as anti-climatic as Spencer's. Where is this super deadly high stakes game the liars are supposed to be playing? So far Spencer had to enjoy a friendly visit with Toby in the hospital and Emily had to stop some vindictive little brat from destroying her reputation. I didn't find Hanna's dress dilemma all that interesting but whatever brings us Mona is fine by me. Poor Hanna getting locked in that cage. I hate seeing the girls struggle with flashbacks and PTSD but I appreciate when the show remembers that all of them have been through some pretty dark traumatic stuff. Even when Ezra's not in an episode, he's still ruining all of Aria's scenes. He's like a dark cloud that hangs over her as she wonders around her own little Ezria themed world. Wish they would stop teasing us with these shots of Aria staring forlornly at her engagement ring... we all know there's no way in hell she's not marrying that creep. Spencer needs to save the attitude for her man-whore of a father and leave her poor mother alone. The cops had nothing to charge Jenna with? Menacing 5 people with a gun isn't a crime in Rosewood, I guess. I think that was kind of the point. Emily hates bullies, which is who Alison used to be and who Addison is now. Alison has supposedly changed (I know some people don't believe that but Emily does) but Addison hasn't been buried alive by her own mother or repeatedly stalked and almost murdered by various local psychopaths, so she hasn't had that personal growth yet and Emily has no time for her shit.

It's not really a matter of opinion though, there's laws and every state has an age of consent and different laws. Even in states where the age of consent is 16, there's often stipulations about people in positions of power like teachers so Ezra/Aria is statutory rape, although the writers tried to excuse it by saying Ezra was temporarily not teaching when they first slept together. Alison was only 15 when she disappeared so any older guy she slept with would also be guilty of statutory rape, especially Wilden who was like a 30 year old cop (although he's never been confirmed as beach hottie). Byron should have lost his job, but his affair with his student wasn't illegal because she was an adult unlike Aria with Ezra.

If Wilden is Beach Hottie like some people think, then it is canon Alison slept with him because didn't she think she was pregnant that summer? I could buy that Ali and Ezra never had sex because I don't think they spent much time together before she disappeared. Never understood why the show walked back on Ali and Ian and basically said they were sneaking around to hold hands...it made no sense considering this show's otherwise lax attitude towards statutory rape.

Well, PLL does love to dabble with incest so I'm surprised they didn't go that way.

I've seen some theories where people think it's possible Charlotte froze her sperm before her transition and A.D. used that sperm to fertilize Emily's eggs and impregnate Alison because A.D. obviously cared for Charlotte and would want her legacy to live on.

Yeah Addison sucks and I'm really not looking forward to seeing Emily and Alison battling some random teenager. I'm assuming this Addison brat is going to try to blackmail Emily because she's filming Alison talking about being pregnant, which is obviously not cool, but it still seems kind of pathetic to me when adults (and school faculty members in this case) get into drama with kids. I always side-eyed the liars' parents for how they responded to Alison's teenage antics back in the day, because if you're the adult in the situation then act like it and deal with the situation head-on instead of letting some troublemaking kid bait you into their games.

The cast answers questions while playing a life-size version of jenga. This was pretty cute and had a lot of funny little moments. Troian clearly takes her games very seriously. AOL Build Series interviews with Troian and Lucy:

The writers really took the term "endgame" from the fandom and ran with it, huh. So Mary tricked Peter Hastings into sleeping with her by pretending to be Jessica to spite Jessica and the Hastings? Thus making Spencer Melissa's half sister (they share a father), Charlotte's half sister (assuming Charlotte has a different father), Jason's cousin and sister (even though they have different mothers, they'd be genetic full siblings because they share a father and their mothers are identical twins), and Alison's cousin (but genetically half siblings because again, their mothers are identical twins)? Someone needs to draw up a family tree for these people because it's getting ridiculous. Spencer telling Veronica she's not her mother was sad. Uh yeah she is, she raised you. Guess the cops are cool with Noel Kahn's decapitation. I feel ya, Hanna, I would have wanted to smash the damn thing open too. Loved Mona's dedication to helping Hanna get back into designer mode. Hope there's no ulterior motive there and Mona's just being an awesome friend. Really can't stand flip-flopping Caleb anymore and his overly sincere condescending voice. These girls have the worst taste in boyfriends. Ezra still looks like a creep no matter what he's doing. These writers really wasted an opportunity by not sticking with evil EzrA. For Aria's sake, I wish he would stay in NY with Nicole but we all know that's not happening. Why are we wasting time with people like Holden and Paige. Go away, the girls have a ridiculously high tech board game to play. Alison's really not handling this pregnancy thing well. Wonder if it'll get better or worse for her when she realizes it wasn't her con-man dead husband who knocked her up, but that A.D. most likely impregnated her while she was drugged up and chained to a bed in a mental institution. Emily asking Ali why they have to keep showing her that they love her... I don't know, maybe stop falsely accusing her of murder? That'd probably be a good place to start.

So maybe the show and writers are oblivious but looks like the actresses are at least a little bit more aware about the issues surrounding Alison's pregnancy. From an interview with Sasha at Paleyfest where they ask her about the pregnancy: Gross and weird sounds about right for this show.

Yeah I agree. The way they're playing up this pregnancy mystery like it's a fun little game of who's the daddy, when the most likely scenario is Alison was impregnated against her will and without her consent, which is technically rape, is very weird to me. But like no one related to the show--not Marlene, nor the other writers/producers, not even the actresses--seem to think there's anything wrong with it. Actually, I'd love to hear Troian's take on this whole plot-line. I know she's not directly involved in the story but she usually has no problem calling out the show for it's occasional grossness.

I've read 1982-2000. Less frequently I've seen 1980 as the start, so by that standard the big three just make the cut-off depending on which definition you go by, but they don't necessarily feel like millennials to me. Except maybe Kevin. But not Randall though. Which might explain why they clash so often. I've noticed people tend to get passionate about being identified as a millennial or not. The younger millennials, born after 1990, seem to wear the title as a badge of pride and consider themselves more evolved than previous generation, whereas older millennials born in the 1980s tend to reject the label, as if they don't want to be lumped into the same category as their younger counterparts. My older brother was born in 1982 and he goes nuts if you try to call him a millennial. It's actually kind of funny how angry he gets over it, but technically he's part of the same generation as our younger mid-90s born "spoiled and entitled" cousins he complains about.

And yet still not answer to the thread's titular question: who the hell is beach hottie?! We may never know.

Just to reiterate what I said in the latest episode thread… Mariah needs to fire Stella. She’s making this NYE thing all so much worse by lashing out in the press and blaming everyone. Those “sabotage” claims are coming from Stella, not Mariah. Maybe Mariah does feel that way—but it was Stella who actually accused Dick Clark Productions of sabotaging the performance and did all the bad-mouthing in the press, not Mariah herself. Unfortunately for Mariah, Stella represents her so every idiotic thing Stella says in the press reflects poorly on Mariah. I think Mariah was dealt a bad hand. There’s no way she could have sung live in Times Square without her in-ear monitors working as she obviously couldn’t hear or find her place in the track. If she had tried to sing and been off key, people would be saying she can't sing anymore and that her career is over. If she had refused to perform until the issue was resolved or walked off stage, which I personally would have been tempted to do, people would have crucified her for being a diva. So she stayed out there and was subjected to a prolonged public embarrassment. It was awkward and hard to watch and you could sense her frustration with the situation. Maybe she could have handled it better on stage, and surely her camp should have handled it better afterwards, but the public was never going to let her get away with such a massive mishap. Mariah's team claims there were issues with the sound from early on and that Mariah voiced her concerns about them—you can see she’s bothered by not hearing Ryan during their interview. But for whatever reason, Dick Clark Productions brushed off those concerns… maybe they thought she was just being a “diva” and complaining for no reason, maybe they truly believed the sound issues would resolve themselves when they went live. But just like Mariah could have handled the situation better, I think DCP could have handled it better as well. Why no public acknowledgement or apology that there were sound and technical issues on their end that interfered with the performance? Instead they issue a statement saying they had no involvement in the challenges associated with the performance… aren’t they responsible for the sound? The sound was the challenge. I don't for a second believe anyone intentionally sabotaged her, but there was obviously an issue with their equipment that caused the performance to go awry. Initially, I was actually expecting ABC or DCP to issue a public apology to Mariah and the audience after the performance because it was obvious it was a technical issue on their end, but instead both sides got defensive and tried to push the blame off on each other when it was really just a very unfortunate and public case of technical difficulties.

Stella is insufferable. What does Molly have to do with Stella's kids being sick? All that bitching and moaning Stella did about how hard it is to give her pre-teen a cup of tylenol was ridiculous. And then she lashes out at Molly because she's stressed and can't deal. If Stella can't handle her kids being sick while she's working then maybe she should have arranged for child care to accompany her on tour, at her own expense, because it's not Molly's responsibility to hold her hand while she tries to get her kid to swallow some children's tylenol. I feel for working mothers but no amount of stress makes it okay for a person to be an insufferable bully and that's what Stella is. I wish Mariah would fire her but unfortunately it looks like Mariah fell for her BS tough girl act and probably feels some sort of loyalty to her.

When Toby came in all amped up to win Kate back, armed with gifts for the girls and happily introducing himself to the family, I actually thought to myself, "oh maybe he's not so bad after all!" I was even happy for Kate. And then they (most likely) killed him in the middle of what looked like a lovely Christmas Eve celebration so there goes that. I love Sloane and hope she stays. I was wondering where they were going with awful Olivia and was truly worried that they were setting her and Kevin up to be together long term, but if she was just leading us to Sloane then I accept and forgive the writers for inflicting Olivia on us. Kevin looked so enamored during Sloane's Hanukkah story that I thought he was going to announce he was converting to Judaism right then and there. Little Kevin holding onto little Kate's hospital gurney was so sweet. So was little Randall spending his money on a gift for Dr. K. Those little Pearsons sure are adorable. I'll be honest, Miguel's enthusiasm for Christmas decorating won him some point from me. Tess's casual "grandpa's gay, or at least bi" and the look on her parents' faces was one of my favorite moments from the series so far. Loved that it was so obvious to the child but took Randall and Beth a bit longer to catch on. Kate and Rebecca. You could just feel the tension between them in that gastric bypass consultation. And that car scene. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see Rebecca questioning her role in Kate's weight struggles and whether she focused too much or too little on food with Kate when she was growing up. I don't think parents realize how all those "Don't eat that! You don't wanna get fat, do you?" type comments effect a kid growing up, so I appreciated hearing Rebecca admitting that she tried her best but maybe she messed up because it's such a delicate situation. I watch the show with my sister who had to undergo a psychological evaluation before her surgeon signed off on her gastric bypass and she couldn't help but laugh at the Rebecca/Kate scenes because she said the shrink who did her evaluation immediately zeroed in on her relationship with our mother so Rebecca's concern was certainly valid, if not a bit too late. And my mom was sort of like Rebecca in that in trying to help my sister, I think she might have made the issue worse by constantly pointing out what she should and shouldn't be eating, and putting her on diets that weren't designed for kids, and telling her how pretty she'd be if she lost weight because she made everything about her weight and I think that's what Rebecca did with Kate.

Gilmore Girls: Lauren Graham responds to revival backlash

I agree with you on all the April stuff. I wish she had been in more than a couple of scenes in one episode because she's such a big part of Luke's life, and by extension should be a big part of Lorelai's, even though that appears not to be the case. Would have much rather preferred a scene or two of her with Lorelai to expand more on the status of their relationship than all the Kirk stuff or the excessively long musical. I was also annoyed at how no one mentioned her during all the wedding talk. Lorelai asks Luke who he wants there and he doesn't even say his own daughter. I don't know if maybe Vanessa Marano was unavailable when they filmed Fall and perhaps they were just trying to avoid bringing attention to her absence by not mentioning her name, but it was glaring to me. Why not have Luke mention that she's flying in the morning of the wedding, or that she's attending grad school in Europe or somewhere and can't make it back. The way they handled it, made it seem like her own father and soon to be step-mother didn't really care about her. I also agree that Lorelai overstepped by suggesting Luke shouldn't foot the bill for April's studies abroad and April should get a job. Everyone and their mother lined up to help Rory, why shouldn't April's father help her out if he's financially able?

Not just their finances, their whole lives apparently. At the end of the episode, Luke rants about how he keeps his family away from Lorelai and that he expects her to do the same for him because their families are separate from each other and Lorelai had long ago decided they should keep their lives separate. So it looks like Luke was just taking that to heart and the conversation about Luke paying April's way through Germany was just meant to show how, despite being together for 9 years, they still haven't come together on everything. I think Luke even says "she's mine" in reference to April when Lorelai offers to help pay. On another note, I agree with everyone that the musical went on way too long. At first I was excited to see Sutton Foster and Christian Borle, but the novelty wore off after the first 5 minutes.

This seems to be something children do on TV and in movies but not actually in real life. I've seen plenty of kids on screen do the innocent but blunt "you're pretty" thing upon meeting a female character for the first time, typically either the female protagonist or the love interest of the male protagonist, but I've never known an actual child to say such a thing in that situation.