cuddlingcrowley

1x11 - To quote tumblr, Noel is such a cinnamon roll. From his pov, Aria seems to be acting insane but dude has been so great with her. And in this episode, he simply has the best reaction ever to seeing her and Ezra making out. He offers to go with her to the principal so they can send Ezra to jail. Oh hon! On the other hand, Lucas did a great job of reminded me why I loathed him for the longest time. Thank you, Lucas! It's almost enough for me not feel bad about Mona's bullying. Speaking of Mona, it was so obvious she was the one who hit Hanna wasn't it? I remember getting it right even back then and was so frustratred with the Noel thing. The guy just wanted to visit Hanna! Geez! One of my favorite A-messages happens on this episode: Sorry for losing my temper. My Bad. Love, A on Hanna's cast. It's always gives me a tingle. It's so intimate and creepy. Like an abusive lover. Like fucking Mona. Alison is so sweet to Hanna. I found a good explanation for some of the things she might be hitting to. The line about telling the truth to the wrong person at the wrong time was obviously about Mona. I also think the one about the truth being complicated might be in relation to Ali knowing her own mother buried her. The one about the girls knowing what really happened that night and that the liars remember more than they think that's when it gets tricky. But that just might be something Alison herself believed and not a fact. I'm going to sleep on that and see how I feel about it tomorrow. Also first time the possibility of A and Ali's killer being different people was raised. But since when did these girls thought A was Ali's killer? If so than they have been awfully calm. Iconic moment: A+ for the most realistic reaction from parents to a gay kid with mama and papa fields.

For what's worth, I'm rewatching it and I'm having an absolute blast! Characters like Wilden and Jenna get ten times creepier when you actually know what we know now. Ezria is a lot more tolerable when you keep in mind Ezra approached Aria to write a book about Alison. Melissa and Spencer's relationship makes more sense as well when you consider Melissa believes Spencer killed Alison and has been covering it up. It's helping me see the show hasn't been that bad at answering questions. But, yeah,I'm afraid of when I start noticing the inevitable quality drop. Although, things are always smoother when you binge watch a show than when you're watching it weekly. I'm hoping that by the time I reach the end again my faith in it gets renewed.

Back when I first watched the show, Spencer started as my absolute favorite and somewhere along the way Hanna got neck in neck with her, I don't remember when though. She surpassed Spencer to me after the TobiAs storyline. Sadly, I never looked at Spencer's character the same after that. What's really weirding me out during this rewatch is that Aria hasn't annoyed me yet. By binge-watching the show it's a lot easier to get a sense of her as a person and feel for her given her family, in her words, blows up, and she tries her best to keep it together. My fear is that when I first watched the show I was just out of my teenager years and Aria is such a teenager hence why she annoyed the heck out of me. Now, I'm...farther from my teenage years and find myself thinking: this poor child. Oh god. I'm ready to dislike her again, any day now show. Ready when you are. I still love Spencer but she isn't as fascinating now that I can see her without rose colored glasses. She's this hot mess who's her own worst enemy and tries as hard as she can not to be. I was always more into her when she was making her mistakes than when she was trying to do better.

From this point on, Ezria is basically Aria and Ezra saying fuck it and agreeing "not to care together". Ooooh, I like this! We got a probable "when" the bracelet might have been made, at least. 1x10 - My other husband Ian has arrived! Between Wren, Ian, Noel Kahn and Wilden this was the show's golden age in more ways than one. What happened with the casting department that the quality of the looks of male actors dropped so bad in the later seasons? On another note, how much do I love that the Camp Mona uniform was a: BLACK HOODIE!!! I love this episode so so much. I think it kicks most of the other finales in the ass and it's just a mid-season finale. The shot of Hanna being hit by the car will never not being incredible. Remember back when this show answered mysteries in a timely fashion? On this episode alone we learn why Toby called Ali on the night she died, what his tattoo means, why did Alison have his sweater on. But also, we learn who's the "older boy" Alison was seeing which also exclaims why she was always so bitchy about Spencer/Ian and that Ian is the one she's talking to in the video and not Toby By this point on the show we've also been answered what was The Jenna thing, what Alison saw in the Cavanaugh's garage, what she had on Jenna and Toby, what was really going on between Jenna and Toby and more. It's also strongly hinted Lucas was the one who ruined the memorial. I hope against hope we get to learn more about the Noel and Alison alliance and when it started.

1x09 - Lawd all mighty is my husband Noel Kahn dreamy! I'm forever a sucker for the Emison library scene. Ezria - Ezra royally freaked out in the episode he saw the A text on Aria's phone (that was like 5 minutes after they started to hook up) and things have been really tense since then. I remember their relationship being a lot less dramatic than this. Huh. There's a lot of talk about them being together being wrong both because he's a teacher and because he's an adult and she's a child. Both issues are adressed very clearly on text and Aria and Ezra even get in a couple of fights over them. This episode also underlines another thing that up until this point had only been subtext: that their "relationship" is Aria acting out because of her parents' separation. Ezra's face when he realize this is utterly priceless. One of the great things about rewatching these first few episodes is that Mona is almost always on the background of a scene. You don't get that kind of treatment for any other minor character. Alex and Spencer are more boring than I remember. They have decent chemistry, but the whole class divide thing has been done to death. Iconic scene: Mama Hastings laying the smack down on Wilden never gets old!

Both of those things happened but it's unclear whether they happened at the same time. Ali ran into Mona in Brookhaven (the place A and Ali had set up a meet) where she game Mona the tips. Mona helped/conviced Ali to run away and helped fake her identity after Ali had already been almost murdered on the night of a thousand of yellow tops and Mona saw her wandering about. They hid at the Lost Woods resort together and in the next morning Alison said goodbye, leaving her Alison Jenna Thing bracelet behind. But if I remember correctly Ali also might given Mona some tips here. I'm not sure. My confusion is in regards to who put a copy of Alison's bracelet on Bethany Young's body. We know Ali had her original one with her at least until early the next morning after the night of a thousand yellow tops and Bethany was wearing a copy when she got hit. I personally don't understand how Cece could have had a copy of the bracelet (which Bethany would have stolen) since the bracelet was a thing Alison did for herself and her friends. It's doesn't make sense Mrs. D would have given one to Cece along with a yellow top so that would have been so in order for Cece to have one, she'd have to have it made herself. What for? Sure, Ali was her doll but I didn't get a sense Cece wanted to be Ali, you know? The matching outfits was just a thing Mrs. D. did. I don't know why this is bothering me so much. I can't believe I forgot to comment 1x08 is the first episode its raised the possibility of Spencer having killed Alison. That's one mystery that only got better with time. We now know Jenna thinks Garret killed Alison so the mindgame she plays on Spencer here is really sick. Spencer, of course, completely falls for the lie that Alison was afraid of Spencer because that's her worst fear being spoken outloud -- that she might have been the one to kill Ali! There's also this great shot of Darren Wilden looking moved by the speeches. I still wish he had been Charles but his behavior fits perfectly with someone who's desperately trying to cover his own ass by pinning the murder on someone that's not Charlotte..

I doubt that's a real scene. Actors usually audition with "sides" don't they? Those rarely turn out to be real scenes. This. And I also like Spencer and Caleb's friendship better than Haleb so I'm double game! Jordan being hot as hell can't hurt. I hope Hanna and him have good chemistry together.

Did she though? I found that scene really ambiguous and my first thought was that she got emmotional not because of the realization but because she was finally coming clean with the girls about it (about being the one who tried to kill Alison and have contributed to killing someone else). I find it really unlikely that once a body was found in the pilot which at the time was identified as Alison's, Mona didn't have herself a "Oh, shit!" moment given it should not have there been a body at all from her pov.

That would be simplest answer. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with the timeline because Ali left the bracelet with Mona in the next morning. By then, Mona would have already hit Bethany and Melissa would already have buried her.

Ironically, I think there was something sort of beautiful about Toby 1.0 with the mop of hair and the hauting eyes. I think the overall look really helped Keegan feel like Toby. After they took that way he became this generic character. 1x08 - the place I knew would be problematic arrived sooner than I had anticipated. This the memorial episode in which we got the hotness that was Jason 1.0 who gives the girls Alison's Jenna thing Bracelet which he claims was found in her body. Which we know was actually Bethany's body. Anyone got an answer about how that could have gone down? I get Bethany wearing the same clothes as Alison because Mrs. D would have clothes for Ali and Cece but how come she had a copy of Alison's bracelet as well? (why yes, I spent the better part of my saturday doing a pll marathon) Given Ali leaving her bracelet on the Lost Woods Resort with Mona was highlighted and we know Mona would be making copies of the original one she left for the girls to find in the woods(and try to pin it on Spencer) than I'm thinking that suggests that she had to have gotten one of the copies onto Bethany's body or passed it off to someone else who did before the body was found. That implies Mona was in on the cover up.

I really, really hope that happens too! My predictions are that we're not done with Bethany Young. The whole thing with her supposedly wanting to kill Mrs. D. made very little sense to me and appeared to be a lie. I also think Melissa will be back in a big way at some point. She was with Wilden when he killed Garret and locked him in a casket with Aria. She was there that night in the phone very likely with Wilden and talking to either Bethany or Cece. That whole gang (Jason, Cece, Darren, Melissa) hung out together. I don't buy her innocence. Never will. Besides, she loathed Alison. The only reason she hasn't had the same end as Wilden is because she pulled a Jenna and hightailed out of Rosewood when Charlotte came back. And Wilden was neck deep in A stuff, having actually helped Charlotte! Melissa didn't even have that in her favor. I have a really strong feeling Melissa was supposed to be Black Widow but the writers decided to push way foward the confrontation between her and Spencer. Also, I predict the writers will essentially say "fuck it" about not giving answers about things before the time jump. That will be just another lie.

SUPPOSED LEAKED AUDITION SCENE WITH NEW CHARACTER JORDAN (THEORIZED TO BE HANNA'S FIANCE)!

1x05 - Spencer starts this episode by being such a baby. How can she be shocked her Dad doesn't want her to humiliate the client he's hoping woo? Toby and Emily are the absolute sweetest together! They have no so much sexual chemistry, but this great natural chemistry. It's amazing because they're two of the weakest actors of the bunch but they really elevate each other on these first few episodes. It makes me wonder if they would have worked better as a couple than Spoby, if Emily was to be straight, that is. They remind me of those quiet, sweet, drama-free couples who tend to go the distance. 1x06 - I wanna go to this homecoming dance!! Even the extras look like they're having a blast. Where were they on 6x10? Those extras looked dead on their feet. First mention of Aria's claustrophobia. Priceless moment: Gipsy from Gilmore girls reading Spencer's fortune and asking Spencer whether she's a worrier. Spencer is too busy worrying to answer. This one never gets old! At the risk of being disowned by you guys, Ezra and Maya aren't annoying me yet. I remember back when I first watched the show I was pretty much done with both of them by now. But this time around, given I know I'll have to put up with them for a while I decided to give everyone a chance to make a new impression on me and/or just have fun with the bad stuff. Not work myself up with it. I'll confess watching the Ezria scenes from Ezra's pov, knowing he approached Aria to write a book about Ali, makes everything ten times better. It gives a much need edge to their ultra sacharine relationship. Also, detective Hanna!

I hadn't head about that petition. Man, if there's a finale that would have been reshot is the one from HIMYM, given, you know, they already had the footage for it and they didn't! And I know that even without being part of the fandom, that's how big the whole thing got. That said, I agree with who said the petition serves more as a way for the fans to express their level of disapointment and I'd rather people do it that way than by throwing personal attacks. And I also would rather people keep speaking up because it's only thing the fans can do as a way to influence the writers to DO BETTER NEXT TIME.

I think this is a matter of perception, along with the whole "Mona is a hero" thing. I personally don't see it and I think the show has done a wonderful job in evolving her character to ally status without erasing history and without making her character uninteresting. Things that should have been done with Ezra, Toby and Alison but I won't go there. She might appear as the "fifth liar" on occasion when she teams up with the girls and largely during their dollhouse stay because they were all going through hell together and I dare you not to bond during that, but as soon as they were out and Lesli started appearing suspicious, they immediately starting suspecting Mona again. I think Mona has overestimation of her so called "redemption". She actually thinks it's possible to redeem herself, for one. From the girls' end, she's an extremelly useful ally so keeping her close is only smart on the off-chance her whole redemption thing might actually be for real. As far as Hanna goes, that's an entirely special situation circunstance. Her and Mona were best friends and there's still a lot of love there from both ends which neither managed to shake up, so them sharing a soft moment here and there, personally, has never bothered me. I don't think Hanna has forgiven her or trusts her but there's a part of her that still loves Mona you know? Sometimes you can't help that. But I get why Mona being such a fan and writers' favorite can seem to some viewers that people have started to see her as hero which I don't think is the case at all. On another note, thank you for the answers on the Wilden thing. I'm oficially gonna use this timeline.

I...don't know about that, to be honest. I think mercfan3 made an amazing post on the social and cultural thread about how the writers go about feminism and patriarchy in big ways but mostly small ways, imo. Which managed to pull the entire show into focus for me, but also made me see how they go about it and I don't think this show will ever be as obvious as say Buffy would be, when it comes to this kind of thing. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this will keep being a show about flawed and interesting young women who would do anything for each other in a world they're constantly trying to survive patriarchy and every once and while get a small win here and there. But this isn't a show about big wins. Basicaly, this is more Angel the series than Buffy, I think. Nothing they do matters and patriarchy will never be completely defeated so all that matters is what they do. The moments with the girls being themselves and being happy is the biggest win we can hope for, imo. I wish we'd get to see them grow to be more active when it comes to ditching toxic relationships, though. This is my very positive spin on the fact that I am entirely disenganged from the mystery from here on out.

That's 1x04, I'm there as well, dwmckim! It's also the episode the A messages escalate from just texts to full on "pranks" which was an interesting thing to note. Aria also has this great flashback with Alison telling her to tell Ella the truth or "someone else will". Later on in the series we learn, through Ali's diary, that she told this to Aria because she didn't think Aria would "have the courage to stand up to him, that's why I picked her." But now that we know Alison was being stalked and her advice actually ends being good advice because someone does end up telling the secret and, for a while, Aria loses both Ella and Byron. And the person who tells is Ali's stalker herself! So, I'm thinking there's another layer to Alison's advice, possibly the non-horrible part of her talking. My unintentionally hilarious moment was in episode 2 or 3 when Mrs. Fields invites Maya to stay over. That's the start of a puzzling and bewildering traditio.

This might sound really stupid, but I don't get the argument going around (not only in these parts) that Wilden would have been too young to be paid off by Mrs. D. He was already a cop in "The First Secret" and that was the october prior the summer Alison "died". Alternatively, I've see people say he was too young to cover up the truth about Marion's murder. But he was from the class of 96 wasn't he? That would have made him in his late teens, early twenties then. I also spent years confused about people being confused about Wren's practicing medicine all over the place when it was obvious he was still in medschool and that's a thing medical students need to do in the later years (sorry, my english failed me here).

Well said, MissL. That's pretty much how I feel as well. I'm under the opinion that, as a rule, the finales on this show tend to lean on the clunky side, for some reason. The writers try to pull off Big and it tends to look awkward really, really fast. Way too much running in ballgowns that got uglier and uglier as time went, mind you. The huge exception to that being the season 1 finale which might be one of my favorite episodes of the show, from start to finish. I have a feeling they tried to be whimsical or campy here and when they pull it off, it's awesome. For a while there, the humor on PLL created with the A tags and A messages was like my favorite thing ever, it was confidently ridiculous that's how I'd describe. But here it backfired. BAD. Having the girls being stuck on the spaceship like room was one the laziest and most amateurish things I've ever seen. And, like you said: unforgivably boring. Yes, exposition is a challenge for every writer, especially large amounts of it, but trying to make it good is an opportunity to create special. If there's one criticism of this episode that I read and that stuck with me is that we were robbed of a much earned victory for the girls to figure out who A is by themselves. Instead, yet again they were locked somewhere against their will and fed this insane story that, frankly, at first I thought it was weird, but now I don't blame them for not caring to stay until the end, like Mona. Who could garantee everything wasn't just another big great lie? It was the most anticlimatic thing ever. They earned so much better! And worst, this was such an wasted opportunity for drama. The much waited and fought for victory at finally trapping A and learning their story could have come at great cost for each of the girls. The kind of thing I would have liked to watch was they girls using the dollhouse as a trap for A by turning The Game against A but in order to pull it off they had to seriously damage a relationship with one of their loved ones/actually physically harm someone/betray each other. Sacrificing all the love interests in a satanic ritual could work as well. Basically willingly doing all the things A forced them to do in the dollhouse just way worse and for real as a way to lead A into this trap. Like a much darker and much more personal "Jenna thing" which could come back to hunt them when they were adults. There, you have an explanation for why they drifted apart and a lead in for the mystery after the time jump.

I'm at 1x04 in my rewatch and, boy, I didn't remember how done with Alison Hanna has been since the beginning! She seems by far the least sad by her "death", at this point at least, and she seems to be forever rolling her eyes whenever Ali gets mentioned by the other girls. It's probably because Hanna believes she isnI't really dead but I don't think I really buy it's all that especially considering what we know. Also, Jenna is ten thousand kinds of creepy!! When you realize she believed Garret killed Alison this whole time, knew the girls were involved in blinding AND is worried they know she raped Toby and will reveal that secret, her character goes to this whole new level. No wonder she's so intense! Another one who got a lot creepier is Wilden. Finding a scapegoat for Ali's murder in order to keep the fact that he was paid off to lie about Charlotte's presence at the Dilaurenti's yard being the reason behind his obsession (the word seems fitting) with finding what the girls know about "the night of a thousand yellow tops" and working to pin the murder on them works, imo.

Reducing the number of episodes from 24/25 to 20 won't make a difference, we agree on that. For there to be a difference they should make 10/13 episode seasons. We'd be rid of the fillers and the writers would have more time to create a good story instead of getting wasted on coming up with useless storylines for fillers. This is all hypothetical of course. At this point, nothing less than a remake will fix this show.

Troian speaking what should have been obvious to anyone for the last three years but you know, whatever. Anyone else game for a PLL remake? I feel like it's inevitable. See y'all again in 5 years! (if the show has ended until then that is)

I get that. I personally don't see the point of not lying, you know? I'd rather she comes up with some crazy excuse like that about the flashback between Alison and Toby than say: our bad, it was bad continuity, like another member of the crew has done before. At least, that way I have the option of suspending my disbilief so it won't ruin the story. I think the same thing and I wish that on this instance they owned up to it because it has offended a lot people. And you know, it happens. As a writer, sometimes an idea can seem great and it completely flies over your head why it would be problematic because you're uninformed at the time you came up with it and you get attached to it. In tv, stuff moves really, really fast so you really don't have the luxury of going back and re-think your decisions like you'd have with a book for instance. So some humility here would be ideal I think. I do see how a transgender character might seem like they natural next step for PLL. Which is where MK probably came from but the execution was simply horrible. Their explanation that a person who was treated like nothing would become a person who treated people like nothing sounds great when you say it like that, but that message got kinda lost, to say the least.

I hate to be "that fan" but I'm starting feel a little bad for Marlene King. She has been raving about this episode for weeks and was clearly proud of it but the backlash has been insane! I'm talking mainly about twitter. Things are brutal over there. I wish the fans focused on asking the questions that were left without answers and/or criticised the social issues that were mishandled. And not the other stuff, the personal attacks. She's not backing down and her justifications are getting progressively worst but she's trying really, really hard to stay polite and you can tell it's been taking its toll on her. I'm in the minority where I don't want her to back down and accept she failed on the delivering what she promised she would (as far as the answers goes). What would be the point? The end-product is lacking, nothing will change that besides her attempting to salvage this thing anyway she can (not the transgender "twist" which was doomed from the start). But I honestly don't think it was for the lack of trying which is probably why I feel for her. If it seemed like she didn't care about the show I'd be the first raging and possibly hate-quitting like I did with Supernatural but it seems to me she failed because the challenge was too great and she simply was incapable of living up to it. I really sucks they didn't take a break after filming the finale and are so far ahead filming S6-B because this crew needs to stop this train and re-group. This is a whole new fandom they're dealing with. I know a lot of people will continue watching but I think the "let down" feeling is pretty universal and she really needs to do something to get the fans excited again otherwise a S7 won't be a sure thing, let alone a S8. ETA: tumblr has started fixing it.

I wonder if Spencer will be an interior designer after the time-jump...