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Pretty Little Liars Timeline: Is It Even Remotely Possible To Make One?

methodwriter85

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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

Both Degrassi and this show have such jacked up timelines, although this one seems to be trying to stay in a year. Which year, I'm not sure of. They do seem to stay away from a lot of current popular culture on here.

 

My guess is that it's 2011 or 2012 in Rosewood, but again, I'm not sure. Ian/Melissa/Jason's class seems like it was around 2005 or 2006 thereabouts, and they seem to say that they graduated around 7 years ago, which would put to this show being set somewhere in the early 2010's.

 

If we go with the idea that season 1 was fall 2009 and these girls are still in high school, it should be somewhere around early 2011/the graduation semester.

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Chairperson Meow

Chairperson Meow

Labor Day 2009- Ali threatens Jenna in The Blind School, comes back from Grandma DiLaurentis in GA, sees Emily and gives her the snow globe, has a party, drugs the girls, gets buried alive, wears a yellow top, pisses off most of Rosewood

Labor Day 2010- Aria returns from Iceland, hooks up with Ezra, Maya moves into the D'house

September 2010- Ali's body is found, Toby returns to Rosewood High, Jenna also returns, A appears

Sometime in 2009- The Jenna Thing happens, Toby goes to juvi (lol doo rag), The NAT Club spies on the Girls, Spencer and Ian kiss, Ali runs around as Vivian Darkbloom, Aria finds out her dad is cheating, Ali blackmails Byron

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cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

(edited)

Good Job, StarsFallen! I've never been than bothered by the timeline because it kinda always sorta made sense to me (mostly), but I'll confess I never spent a considerable amount thinking about it. But now I want to rewatch S3 and S4 to see if it can fit in the space of a month a half. I wouldn't be that surprised it did. I might be remembering wrong, but I recall a few episodes happening in the same day.

 

Along with the Frozen reference, we should all ignore Emily and Hanna dancing to Bang Bang. I'm sure there are way more discrepancies, besides the fashion and the tecnology that is, which are the biggest ones. Everyone (including myself) has started to chop their long hair off like Hanna and Aria, for a few months now, and I have a dress with a cut very similar to the one Hanna wore last episode, only in red. But I don't blame the writers for not sticking to stuff from, what, three years ago, given that ought to be annoyingly limiting in a show marketed primarily to teenagers.

Edited by cuddlingcrowley
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dwmckim

dwmckim

Product placement in general totally invalidates the timeline - there's been a few instances besides Frozen where they threw in references to latest movies that were total plugs for them when those movies wouldn't have actually been out in the show's time.

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raytch

raytch

Thanks. I try to binge watch the seasons before the new ones if I can.And I totally agree, they have to stay hip and in with whats actually going on, because then the show will look really dated. One thing I like and it might be strange that I notice this is the phone thing, though. It seems most of the girls have had the same phones for a few season, same brand, etc. I don't know if its intentional but it makes me kind of happy, that they all are NOT getting the newest Samsung/Apple that wouldn't have been invented yet. Aria is the only who has changed phones a few times. I only notice this because I remember when that Kin thing came out and they tried to product place that into the show.. horribly, "I'm on my new Kin, I'll try to write on her facebook wall!"

You mean on her Website Page?

Let's not forget INSIDIOUS!

Have you seen Insidious? I'm watching Insidious on my ipad, and on my phone, and my TV. Oh look there's the new Insidious trailer!

And when Aria literally HUGGED all her Treseme hair products.

I find it hilarious more than anything really

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raytch

raytch

Yeah it just forces the characters to like certain things that I'm not so sure they really do like.

I thought Emily listened to cool bands! Didn't she and Toby bond over music in season 1? I doubt that ever involved Katy Perry.

Or Aria with Insidious. We've never seen her watch a movie in color and yet she goes like "Oh my God. The New Insidious Trailer. Must Watch!"

 

There's also all the boards and committees. Like that time Jessica Dilaurentis wanted the girls to be in Ali's memorial fashion show. And the girls were like "thanks but no thanks" and then she was like "But the Board has already approved".

Like, the board people who sit around in a huge conference room and decide whether those girls should be running the cat walk wearing their dead best friend's board. Sure!

 

But as I said I just mostly find it hilarious. It doesn't bother me so much. The Website Page will always be my favorite. Especially when the whole Jackie thing was happening because they kept cramming it into the sentences that it almost seemed like an endorsement for a social network that hasn't been created yet. "I went on her Website Page and she's really pretty" "wait where is she now" "according to Her Website Page..." 

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

"Website page" will NEVER not be funny. It's moments like those that make me wonder if the actresses try to tell the writers/directors/producers that no one under the age of 30 would ever say such a thing only to be given some legal reason why they have to make the girls sound like 85 year old grandmothers.

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methodwriter85

methodwriter85

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(edited)

 

Along with the Frozen reference, we should all ignore Emily and Hanna dancing to Bang Bang. I'm sure there are way more discrepancies, besides the fashion and the tecnology that is, which are the biggest ones. Everyone (including myself) has started to chop their long hair off like Hanna and Aria, for a few months now, and I have a dress with a cut very similar to the one Hanna wore last episode, only in red. But I don't blame the writers for not sticking to stuff from, what, three years ago, given that ought to be annoyingly limiting in a show marketed primarily to teenagers.

They're also showing the guys taking on the current "scruffy facial hair" craze.

 

To be fair to the show, they do try to avoid mentioning the year, as opposed to Degrassi, which insisted that it was taking place in a certain year but didn't really stick to it at all.

 

I don't know why they just don't make up a fake NotFacebook page.

Edited by methodwriter85
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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

(edited)

Hey since everything takes place in the past, it would have been hilarious if Ezra's Website Page was friendster or myspace. Okay, the show doesn't take place THAT far in the past. But yesh, I didn't understand why they didn't just make up a name like other shows do. They could have said it was Ezra's FriendFace page or something (I remember another show used a FaceSpace page). Or hell, Aria could have just said she saw his profile page.

Edited by ElectricBoogaloo
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Giuliano Lanzilli

Giuliano Lanzilli

(edited)

Ha, I just noticed that last week Emily said that Sara was calling from one of Caleb's burner phones and wanted to "face chat." Hahahaha! It's no website page, but still hilarious.

 

OMG so I'm not the only one who picked up on that and thought it sounded weirdly... outdated and dumb? XD

Edited by Giuliano Lanzilli
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raytch

raytch

Now that we know A (Charles)'s definite age, I think we have enough to figure out most of the story.

 

Here's a link on the characters' ages:

http://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/How-Old-Actors-Pretty-Little-Liars-35436781#photo-35436781

 

Note that Wilden on the PLL wikia page is in his late 20s or early 30s.

 

Ian's birthday is: March 23rd 1985 (he was 25 when he died which would make him 28 had he been alive).

In any case he's older than Melissa and Jason.

 

Charles is 1 year and 3 months older than Jason, who is 7 years older than Ali. Which means he was sent to Radley at the age of 9.

Ali went missing in 2009 and she was 15, Jason was 22, so Charles must have been 23 at the time.

The current year of the show is 2012 (3 years after The Night of Many Yellow Tops). Ali is 18, Jason is 24/25, which means Charles is around 26.

 

Wren has to be over 26 years old to be a doctor. If he's actually 24 he'd have to be an intern. Unless he's skipped classes when he was young!

 

The thing that stands out most in the link above, is that Cece is 26. Though on wikia it says she's 23 

 

Facts given by the writers:

- Charles is A

- Mona is no longer A

- A is someone we know quite well

- Black Veil is someone who's had interactions with all the girls

(will update this later)

 

Plot points that need to be addressed:

- All the deaths we've seen (Ian, Garett, Wilden, Mrs. D)

- Marion Cavanaugh's death which happened in 2007 while she was in Radley for a 72 hours psych evaluation. It's important to note that she wasn't a permanent patient there, and that she worked as a nurse.

- A helped Toby figure out that his mom was murdered and that it was not a suicide.

- Ali's pregnancy scare

- The NAT club (it was Jason's idea at first, Ian was paying girls to set up their friends to be filmed, Ian was doing this for someone. Jason was in a constant fugue state at that time.)

 

Safe assumptions so far:

- A has had the dollhouse since Ali went missing. Or at least, he has had the idea for that long.

- A never wanted to kill Ali. He wanted her in the dollhouse.

- A started preparing for the dollhouse to accommodate the girls in season 3 (3.21 Emily goes a carpentry looking for Toby, and the guy already knows her name)

- A found out Ali was alive from Mona when she was admitted to Radley and was doped up.

- A's plan at the end of season 3 was to isolate the liars so Ali would come to see them (which she did). I'm guessing he was hoping to take them to the dollhouse that night too.

- Shana was the wild card that night by setting the lodge on fire, which forced A to pull the liars out of the fire and retreat (except for Hanna who was pulled by Ali).

- Melissa knew Ali was alive from Shana at the end of season 3, which is why she went to the masks guy to see when Ali had made her masks.

 

Please let me know if I'm forgetting something.

 

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Crim

Crim

I'm curious what's the source for CeCe Drake being 26 and Wren being 24. For Wren to be 24 now, he'd have to have been 22 back in season 1, and by then he'd already graduated from Oxford and lived in the US for long enough to get engaged with Melissa and finish his residency (I suppose that was what he was doing) by season 4. Meanwhile, if CeCe is 26, she was 23 back in 2009 and she still hadn't graduated from UPenn - way to be an underachiever, CeCe!

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Crim

Crim

Aside from the characters you mentioned with in-show sources, some wiki comment said Spencer mentioned CeCe being 22 in season 3, IIRC. If that happened, we have a definite age for her. We'd have to go over all scripts in season 3 to check though.

 

I am not aware of any source for Wren's age. I doubt the writers will reveal information about him unless forced by plot requirements - he is some magical doctor that could practice in any specialty needed, in any hospital needed, across continents, with perfect timing. Nothing about him will make sense, just like Toby joining and graduating from Police School and getting a job at Rosewood PD in the course of a few episodes, without any significant time jump, is impossible to add on a timeline.

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dwmckim

dwmckim

I think the maintainers of the PLL Wiki aren't that big on sourced material vs. guesswork...it seems like on the character profile information when it comes to things like ages, they tend to use the actor's age if they don't know the character's age.  Not the most trustworthy source.

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cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

(edited)

Holy cow, that timeline is amazing! I love how the poster added the reveals in the timeline as well, like Lucas being the one who destroyed Ali's memorial, Mona being the one who ran over Hanna, Ali being the one who pushed Ian of the bell tower, the A who Ali was meeting in brookhaven being Mona, Wilden being the one who killed Garret and most likely drugged Aria, and so on.  You really get a great sense of the story as a whole and everything coming together surprisingly nicely. I would gladly watch a mini-series of what went down before PLL started. Definitely a must read! And much needed reminder of the of which mysteries remained unsolved and the ones that were in fact answered. 

 

Now more than ever I wish we got some sort special with MK walking us through all the mysteries solved and unsolved up until this point. And definitely some sort of DVD extra when all is said and done with her breaking down all the mysteries and explaining the answers. Ideally, of course, this should be done on the show. Ideally. But I even would gladly take a helpful little booklet I can use in my rewatches.

Edited by cuddlingcrowley
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Lii

Lii

I like how every time a new cop comes to town/becomes the cop du jour, they murder their predecessor cop. This is a fine Rosewood tradition that should be continued until forever.

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Giuliano Lanzilli

Giuliano Lanzilli

(edited)

I like how every time a new cop comes to town/becomes the cop du jour, they murder their predecessor cop. This is a fine Rosewood tradition that should be continued until forever.

 

You mean how we've never seen Tanner again? XD

Edited by Giuliano Lanzilli
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Lii

Lii

You mean how we've never seen Tanner again? XD

Is it wrong for me to want her to be what's in the barrel even though it would make absolutely no sense?

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ElectricBoogaloo

ElectricBoogaloo

Maybe this is one of those Dr. Drake Ramoray situations ("the only one who could save me was me!"). I'm still not sure how Tanner could find herself in the barrel but I'm sure the writers who came up with Mona's hyperreality could make something up!

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Lii

Lii

It was really her twin in the barrel, but she forgot she had a twin because she was brainwashed into thinking she was Spencer's illegitimate android sister. From the future. Come back to stop Skynet. She's working with Mona, Lucas and Cousin Nate's twin brother's best friend's twin sister's hairdresser who she met in Radley after following a series of elaborate clues written on a napkin that was secretly passed to her on her breakfast tray by the Squirrel Master, but the Squirrel Master ain't gonna be there for you all the time, so she pushed Toby's mom off the roof and peaced out using the jet booster rockets in her robot body, taking young Spencer with her. After having a psychogun implanted into her right arm, she went off on a training arc, leaving Spencer friendless and alone, which is what caused her to turn to drugs and eventually she started smoking crack and she freaked out, man... then she got a chain letter that told her if she went out and bought a yellow top she'd have good luck, so she therefore joined the Sisterhood of the Traveling Yellow Tops, made some dubious friends, made out with some of her sister's fiancees but only like two, and looked into getting some underground plastic surgery in Mexico but kept getting distracted by Aria's unfortunate fashion choices so never managed to get an arm psycho gun of her own, which she later regretted as it would have been hella helpful now and again, yo.

I mean, it's a little tame for this show,I know, but they can probably come up with something to spice it up.

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Ritamarie2344

Ritamarie2344

Speaking of timelines: what I want to know is: When Mr D tells Jason and Ali about Charles, he tells them Charles is their older brother and 15mos older than Jason. Mr D says that Charles was committed to Radley after he tried to kill Ali when she was a baby. He then convinced a 5yr oldish Jason that Charlie wasn't a real person. Jason then asked how did no one in Rosewood wonder or ask about what happened to Charlie. Mr D then states that they didn't move to Rosewood until Charlie was in Radley bc Mrs D wanted to be close to him and Charles was kept a secret. He then tells them that Charles die when he was 16 while in Radley. There are even records from Radley stating this.

Ok so in the show Ali is about 17/18 Jason is about 24/25 that would make Charles 26/27.

So if Jason bio dad is Mr H, how the hell did Mrs D and Mr H get it on if they didn't live in Rosewood yet. So let's say they met somewhere outside of Rosewood, don't you think Mr H would know about Charles? Especially since Charles hadn't been committed yet????

Next weird timeline is the whole Bethany, Lesli, and Charles being committed at the same time. Okay so Bethany and Lesli are the liars age so 17/18 and of course Charles is older by almost 7yrs. Radley's records show Charles dying at 16. But later on Mona says that Lesli states that Charles escaped the same nite Bethany did. So I get that Mrs D would hide their son from Mr D if he escaped. But why would Radley file reports of Charles death and still have him committed for 7 more years while he is alive??? That makes zero sense!! I'm confused!! What do yall think?

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Lii

Lii

Speaking of timelines: what I want to know is: When Mr D tells Jason and Ali about Charles, he tells them Charles is their older brother and 15mos older than Jason. Mr D says that Charles was committed to Radley after he tried to kill Ali when she was a baby. He then convinced a 5yr oldish Jason that Charlie wasn't a real person. Jason then asked how did no one in Rosewood wonder or ask about what happened to Charlie. Mr D then states that they didn't move to Rosewood until Charlie was in Radley bc Mrs D wanted to be close to him and Charles was kept a secret. He then tells them that Charles die when he was 16 while in Radley. There are even records from Radley stating this.

Ok so in the show Ali is about 17/18 Jason is about 24/25 that would make Charles 26/27.

So if Jason bio dad is Mr H, how the hell did Mrs D and Mr H get it on if they didn't live in Rosewood yet. So let's say they met somewhere outside of Rosewood, don't you think Mr H would know about Charles? Especially since Charles hadn't been committed yet????

Next weird timeline is the whole Bethany, Lesli, and Charles being committed at the same time. Okay so Bethany and Lesli are the liars age so 17/18 and of course Charles is older by almost 7yrs. Radley's records show Charles dying at 16. But later on Mona says that Lesli states that Charles escaped the same nite Bethany did. So I get that Mrs D would hide their son from Mr D if he escaped. But why would Radley file reports of Charles death and still have him committed for 7 more years while he is alive??? That makes zero sense!! I'm confused!! What do yall think?

I think they're not even trying any more.

Seriously, this Charles crap has screwed up any semblance of continuity this show ever had.

There are logic holes in a lot of the other theories out there, but at least four or five other people would make a lot more sense than what we've gotten with Charles. Including some of the dead people come back to life theories.

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dwmckim

dwmckim

It has yet to be really explained by the show how Mrs D/Mr Hastings knew each other prior to living in Rosewood in order to have the affair that produced Jason but in the books (where they had an affair but resulted in Ali+twin), prior to living in Rosewood, Mrs D & both Mr & Mrs Hastings went to the same law school.

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raytch

raytch

I think they're not even trying any more.

Seriously, this Charles crap has screwed up any semblance of continuity this show ever had.

There are logic holes in a lot of the other theories out there, but at least four or five other people would make a lot more sense than what we've gotten with Charles. Including some of the dead people come back to life theories.

Seriously. Even AriA is starting to seem quite plausible with all the shit that's been going down.

Btw, your previous post about Tanner and Spencer killed me! You're killing it with this terminator crossover!

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itainttippithebird

itainttippithebird

Yeah, now that the finale introduced events that bend space/time by YEARS, this is effectively a dead project. Which is too bad, I'd been working on my own for years and kinda loved it.  That great GIFed one I posted above deftly managed to deal with the Two Year November, but when events like "Marion Cavanaugh's death" and "CeCe dates Jason" are existing simultaneously in two different half decades, it all falls apart pretty majorly.

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jjjmoss

jjjmoss

Yeah, now that the finale introduced events that bend space/time by YEARS, this is effectively a dead project. Which is too bad, I'd been working on my own for years and kinda loved it.  That great GIFed one I posted above deftly managed to deal with the Two Year November, but when events like "Marion Cavanaugh's death" and "CeCe dates Jason" are existing simultaneously in two different half decades, it all falls apart pretty majorly.

Based on that timeline for the events during the actual show, looks like the # of eps for each month (approximately, as some eps straddle):

September 9, October 9, November 14, December 2, February 5, March 1, April 6

September 12, October 1, November 47, December 1, February 10, March 2, May 10

 

I wonder what would have been the best timing-wise for a semblance of realism, perhaps exactly 2 seasons for senior year the way there was for junior year?

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cuddlingcrowley

cuddlingcrowley

(edited)

Thanks, dwmckim. This looks good although I haven't managed to get around to watching it entirely. The video is over 17 minutes, sort of slideshow like.

 

I remain terribly frustrated an oficial complete timeline hasn't been released to the fans, in whatever fashion that may be. I don't know, maybe it's just me, I feel like growing up every other show had some sort of one hour special with the cast and crew doing a completely unecessary retrospective of the entire thing...hell, I just remembered: True Blood did it! So it hasn't been that long that shows did this. I'd pay good money to see the PLL cast and crew speaking about some of the storylines and resolutions with a straight face.

Edited by cuddlingcrowley
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Perfect Xero

Perfect Xero

The major problem I see is that they're giving the night Marion died as October 1999, to match with CeCe being around 12 that night based on a 1987 birthday for CeCe and most of the dates being given in the pre-show timeline are based on this being assumed as CeCe's age because it's been very strongly indicated on the show that Jason is the same age as Melissa and Ian. The problem is that CeCe also directly states herself as being 5 when she went to Radley.

 

So, based on the 1987 birthday for CeCe she's 12 in 1999, but and it means that Alison was 4 or younger during that flashback with Toby and Marion. Where, yes, they talk about Toby's toys, but they're set up more as a display rather than toys that are played with and Toby says as much. Toby also instantly knows what time it is when Marion comes in and quickly picks up on something being wrong with his Mom and expresses it to Alison, which is all really advanced for a 4-5 year old.

 

Based on CeCe being 5 when she went to Radley, that would place her birth in 1990, if she's 12 when Marion died that makes Marion's  2002, which makes Alison around 8 or younger during the flashback. It's still ridiculous that they'd have used Sasha and Keegan in that flashback, but at least it makes their behavior somewhat more believable.

 

Of course we're told in The First Secret (which takes place in October 2008), that Toby's mom died a year earlier (2007). This would make Ali 13 or younger during the Toby flashback, which makes it much more believable that they'd use Sasah and Keegan, but means that Charlotte was either 20 or 17 on the roof.

 

IMO the easiest way for the timeline to do anything close to working is to assume that CeCe's version of the timeline around the night Marion died was screwed up by all that medication she was placed on right after Marion's death. She was 17 on the roof, but pictures herself as younger and more innocent in her flashbacks, and was only on heavy medication for a few weeks or a month at most and she was quickly taken off once Wilden managed to get it ruled a suicide, it just felt like years to her.

 

In the span of that next year or so, she manages to transition. Then at 18 she gets out privileges, and starts attending U Penn. Then she gets bored, meets Jason, starts (ugh) dating him over the remainder of his Senior year (which would now be the same year that Alison was a freshman), and spends that Summer with them at Cape May before the night of the yellow tops happens.

 

This screws up the idea of Jason being the same age as Ian and Melissa, but we can sort of fudge things so that he was a freshman while they were seniors. It still has problems, but it's the closest I can get to the timeline making sense after 610.

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