S07.E14: Power Play

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Ali's turn at the game forces her to face a monumental personal decision, made even more difficult when A.D. triggers Ali to remember a forgotten trauma. Spencer has a long overdue conversation with her father about his past sins and recent whereabouts. Emily continues to navigate working at Rosewood High with both Ali and Paige, especially when Ali comes to a troubling realization about her pregnancy, and Paige makes a big decision. Aria continues to question the fate of her relationship with Ezra and bristles under A.D.'s taunts. And in the search for Mary Drake, Hanna and Spencer run into a familiar face with a shocking secret.

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[mac123x]

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ali's turn at the game forces her to face a monumental personal decision, made even more difficult when A.D. triggers Ali to remember a forgotten trauma

 

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ali comes to a troubling realization about her pregnancy

Oh no, they really are going the "Emily's implanted eggs" route. 

 

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

And in the search for Mary Drake, Hanna and Spencer run into a familiar face with a shocking secret.

We're supposed get the reveal of who killed Mrs. D, and according to IMDB (so take it with a grain of salt) Pastor Ted is on the guest cast.  If he killed Jessica I'm going to throw things.

 

From that sneak peek, AD says that Jessica kept detailed records, and if Ezra knew what was in Aria's file, he'd choose Nichole, and she would be visiting him in jail.  So information in Aria's file would cause Ezra to be arrested - for what?  Statutory rape is the only thing I can think of, and the statute of limitations might have already run out.  He's also complicit in covering up Shana's death, but Jessica wouldn't have that in her records because she was busy being dead when that happened.

[Complexity]

14 minutes ago, mac123x said:

Statutory rape is the only thing I can think of, and the statute of limitations might have already run out.

Some areas have changed the statues to not have any limitations. However, most places it runs until the victim is 10 years after their 18th birthday (so 28 yrs old). So it should still be possible to prosecute Ezra.

I just can't imagine them doing that now after allowing it for so long and with only a few episodes left in the series.

[Peanut6711]

Pennsylvania's age of consent is 16 so a statutory rape charge is probably off the table, but he could be charged with corruption of minors.  Then again, this is Rosewood, Pa where they plant flowers in the wrong season and walk around w/out heavy coats all winter so who knows what legal universe this is set in. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Here's a thought Aria -- don't answer unknown video chat calls FFS !

I don't think that "the game" was said enough in those clips -- and who's kidding who, we are never going to find out who killed Mrs. D.

Edited May 4, 2017 by ottoDbusdriver

[Froippi]

Yea that would have to be it unless mrs. D knows about him watching the girls

[Chinspinner]

Are they really going the Emily/ Ali baby route? I hope they handle this with a little more tact than every other storyline in the show; but I'm guessing there will be a half episode of angst followed by the realisation that "if I had to be forcibly restrained and have my body violated against my will resulting in an unwanted pregnancy by a sociopath who ruined my life- well at least it's yours Emily, so everything is now okay."

The Emily/ Ali /Paige triangle is also tedious now. If you ignore all the ridiculous nonsense swirling around the main plots, the main plots really are dragged out beyond forbearance.

Edited May 4, 2017 by Chinspinner

[Perfect Xero]

On 5/3/2017 at 8:45 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ali's turn at the game forces her to face a monumental personal decision, made even more difficult when A.D. triggers Ali to remember a forgotten trauma

Ali is having a flashback to something that she didn't previously remember about Ali until someone or something reminded her? If she wasn't already, she's officially one of the Liars now.

[Chinspinner]

4 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

Ali is having a flashback to something that she didn't previously remember about Ali until someone or something reminded her? If she wasn't already, she's officially one of the Liars now.

Or another random plot point has been introduced out of left field as part of a retcon or nonsensical new story line.

Being British, I remember those good old traditions of Agatha Christy and its many incarnations on TV, and the many derivative works it spawned, where you were given CLUES that might lead an astute individual to the KILLER; rather than being splattered with bullshit until you can't even remember the names of the many, many red herring characters. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clip:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

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Edited May 9, 2017 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Eneya]

On 5/6/2017 at 1:05 PM, Chinspinner said:

Or another random plot point has been introduced out of left field as part of a retcon or nonsensical new story line.

Being British, I remember those good old traditions of Agatha Christy and its many incarnations on TV, and the many derivative works it spawned, where you were given CLUES that might lead an astute individual to the KILLER; rather than being splattered with bullshit until you can't even remember the names of the many, many red herring characters. 

Almost all stories of Christy have a behind-the-curtain moment in which somebody finds out, knows something or sees something without the reader knowing or being explained, so... yeaaah... I kind of disagree. :)

[Chinspinner]

6 hours ago, Eneya said:

Almost all stories of Christy have a behind-the-curtain moment in which somebody finds out, knows something or sees something without the reader knowing or being explained, so... yeaaah... I kind of disagree. :)

To a degree, but they do have consistent internal logic.

[mac123x]

7 hours ago, Eneya said:

Almost all stories of Christy have a behind-the-curtain moment in which somebody finds out, knows something or sees something without the reader knowing or being explained, so... yeaaah... I kind of disagree. :)

Funnily enough, I just watched Murder on the Orient Express (1974 version).  Most of the clues are easy to see in retrospect (I even caught a few as they happened, like Ingrid Bergman understanding the word "emolument" despite her otherwise halting English) but one that made me call "shenanigans!" was Princess Dragomirov calling the secretary "Miss Threebody", which Poirot said was word-association based on the name of a dress store in London.  I don't know how anyone in the audience could have caught that.

 

Still, much better that PLL's "answers" which require doppelgangers, transgender villains, time travel and magic to make sense.

[Eneya]

Oh, I am not comparing it with PLL, which is random.

[mac123x]

Show of hands, who else started yelling "Fuck you, Show, FUCK YOU!" at the screen as soon as the baby-store clerk said "donor"?  I just can't believe they went there.  It's so sick and gross and offensive to basically all human, animal, and plant life on the planet, including fungus and paramecia. 

 

Ted is Charlotte's bio-daddy.  Okay, random, but I can accept that.  I can't accept that 1) Charles attended Ted's summer camp (he was incarcerated at Radley for his entire childhood) and 2) That he was friends with Lucas (the age difference is too great).

 

Sidney created the game and is running it?  Whatever.

 

According to Peter, Mary killed Jessica then buried her in the Hastings' back yard.  Well, no, Charlotte buried her.  Retcon or shitty writing?  (I know, embrace the healing power of "and").  Of course Spencer hits us with the "are you sure?  They were twins" clue-by-four, so obviously Jessica has been masquerading as Mary since the end of season 4.

[SadieT]

I knew the baby story was going to go in this direction but it was still pretty gross to watch it play out and to hear Alison describe how she was strapped down to her bed in Welby and couldn't stop it. And the scene of Ali having to register baby gifts for a baby she had at that time decided to abort was just kind of sad. Kind of surprised they were so direct with the abortion talk though, they seemed to be avoiding the word up until now.

Mary being Jessica's killer and Ted being Charlotte's father were technically answers, and we've been promised answers so I feel like I should be happy about that, but they were pretty lame reveals.  

I can't take anything Sydney does or says seriously so her being A.D.'s minion just made me laugh. 

Ezra is still the worst. I'd be more excited for Aria turn at playing for the dark side if it wasn't being driven by her feelings about Ezra and Nicole. 

Edited May 10, 2017 by SadieT

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, mac123x said:

Ted is Charlotte's bio-daddy.  Okay, random, but I can accept that.  I can't accept that 1) Charles attended Ted's summer camp (he was incarcerated at Radley for his entire childhood) and 2) That he was friends with Lucas (the age difference is too great).

Yeah, I think the show forgot that Charles/Cece was put into Radley when Ali wasn't even in grade school and that Lucas is NOT Cece's age and is Ali's age, so the age difference between them as friends don't work with that photo. Unless Charles was given permission to go to summer camp, and unless Lucas is the new Andrew and was secretly in his twenties in the first season. 

So...nobody is surprised at the Ali/Emily outcome. Of course Ali will keep the baby, Emily will choose Ali over Paige, and they'll live happily ever after with this baby. I do appreciate that they have acknowledged on the show that it is all sorts of wrong and a huge violation for Ali and Emily. It really is disturbing and hopefully, this show never portrays the baby as some sort of romantic end game for these two.

I think they're trying to give us Aria on the A Team without ending the series with Aria as A.D. And I'm going to assume that A.D threatened Sydney to confess, because she just feels like a minion and nothing more. Also, Ezra is The Worst. Aria, girl, you're most likely better off working for A.D than being with Ezra. 

So...Mary killed Jessica. Right. What a lackluster confession. I guess Marlene King just stopped giving a shit about revealing all. 

[marinaalexis]

Well we certainly got some answers in that episode...but they were basically the worst possible.

I, like many others, predicted the Ali/Emily baby long ago so I wasn't surprised in the least, but still...still. If this wasn't the last season I would absolutely have to stop watching. I don't know how I'm going to stomach this, especially if it leads to some ridiculous Emison romance. I've never cared much about Paige but Paily can rise after this episode! Their little scene with the bike was sweet.

Pastor Ted as Charlotte's father...what? It's so obvious that they just didn't want to go down the obvious route of having it be Peter, even though that would have made much more sense. They just did this for shock value. I really can't see this storyline going anywhere relevant.

I predicted Mary killing Jessica as well, although I'm pretty satisfied with that only because it is consistent with Mary wearing the same clothes Jessica died in when she pretended to be her to scare Alison last season. 

[Artsda]

So what's in Aria's file that would make Ezra choose Nicole and then end up in jail? It sounds like something happened to her and Ezra would kill that person, but it also doesn't make sense because AD is saying he'd choose Nicole. I like Aria going dark and saving herself to miss her turn. 

So Emily being the egg donor was obviously going to happen, question is who is the sperm donor?

No Caleb? No Toby? 

[GaT]

They brought Ted back? WTF for?

I can't keep track of who is whose bio parent anymore, apparently everybody screwed around with everyone & nobody grew up with their real parents.

So if Aria isn't really A (or AD whatever the hell that means), then she wandered through the woods following directions on her phone & got into a strange car without a clue if anyone was in it or what could happen to her, & of course told no one where she was going.

Who is Sydney? I don't remember her from before this season, & I barely remember her this season. Why is someone I can barely remember suddenly a major character?

How is this show so screwed up?

[kissedbyarose]

This show is trolling us all at this point. I'm ashamed that I'm still going to see this until the very dark, twisted, nonsensical, bitter end.

[DigitalCount]

Sydney was a plant Jenna used to get information from Emily in S5 or S6. She was part of the unintentionally hilarious scene involving four tall brunettes all wearing sunglasses. More recently, she pretended to be Jenna in order to throw Caleb and Mona off of Jenna's trail long enough to let Jenna get to the #PLLDeathTrap so she could try to shoot them with a gun. <= quite possibly the biggest hole in Jenna's sob story that Noel was controlling her

If the writers knew they were going to reveal so many things by the hiatus, they should have spaced them out better over the first 4 episodes. Having 3 filler episodes and then an episode where

• CeCe's parentage is confirmed;
• Jessica's killer is revealed;
• Lucas' tie to CeCe is revealed;
• Mary reappears and was legitimately the ghost in Spencer's room;
• Baby Dunhill's parentage is confirmed;
• The police are aware of Archer's death;
• Sydney's allegiance is revealed; and
• Cacophony goes cuckoo for cocoa puffs

is just bad pacing. It was like everyone just collectively decided to do and say everything this week after being Johnny Tightlips for years. Peter in particular is basically in disgrace for sitting on everything he knew, and Ted is almost right behind him. Never mind that neither plot point makes a lick of sense, because both Mary and CeCe were institutionalized for large chunks of their lives that included the time periods reflected here, but whatever. You just know that Marlene only watched the episodes with Mary and CeCe in them to make sure it "fit," completely forgetting somehow that the episodes where they don't appear might be significant as well.

I have to say though, it was at least entertaining, but it's hard to enjoy such gaping retcons.

[WhosThatGirl]

As much as "Ali is impregnated by Emily's eggs" was written on the wall, I still had a tiny bit of hope that the show wouldn't do it. Like it's not romantic and since it's somehow obviously going to be what brings Emily and Ali together for good, the show is painting it as such. It's not.

Also I've realized how terribly I've not stocked my liquor intake for this season as in I'm stone cold sober watching this hot mess and that's clearly a problem. Because I find myself going "huh" about everything this show tries to make an answer to. The answers don't make sense! The answers do NOT exist with the questions that need to be answered. 

This show. 

I just don't have words anymore.

Can this thing just end with one of the girls being in a hospital and playing with a snow globe already? Oh cmon. At this rate, no one can believe that this town actually exists and that this season even can exist even in PLL universe. Better yet I hope it all ends with Ezra being an author and writing this all as a novel. It would be so terrible and at this point I'm okay with that stupid ending being the end. Because I know at this point I'm going to be a disappointed with whatever ending ends up happening.

Edited May 10, 2017 by WhosThatGirl

[Spencer Hastings]

So Hanna is going to move out of Lucas' apartment now right?  She didn't go when it spontaneously combusted but this for sure should do it.

[Perfect Xero]

And now the mystery of Charlotte's age being retconned down to "slightly older than Jason" (Jason's age having already  been retconned down to a few years older than the girls) is solved, it was so Charles could be at summer camp with Lucas! Brilliant!

[Eneya]

I think Ali will lose the baby but not by abortion but spontaneously, because the ick fact of this being what connects her and Emily is too great.
Also, why do the eggs change anything, ffs? It is still a gigantic violation, I am shocked they are even considering it. Why would a bunch of so dysfunctional people want a baby especially in such circumstances??
Damn, I am not in the tween Tumbl verse or wherever these things are discussed but I am interested how it is going and how are they reacting to it. :)

Ted... yeah, okay, hi dude, bye dude.
Aria going on her own... ok, this could be solved so easily with a piece of paper and "I am trying to fight them on their turf, keep shush"...
Sydney... so... she was a victim of A but chose to become a part of the team, because I can't explain that comment any other way.
Paige... I don't care.... actually I really don't care for any of these characters anymore, this show went 3 years too long...
How many episodes are left?

Edited May 10, 2017 by Eneya

[Snow Fairy]

Why is Ali keeping the baby, even if it's Emilys? Even if it were my eggs, I would say abort. No one of them is infertil, they don't know who the father is - and really you want to give birth to that child? I can see the future where the baby is taken from them.

When Hastings Dad said Mary killed Jessica, and Spencer made the twins comment, I could see that it's Mary who's dead, not Jessica. But does that make sense? Does it even matter if it makes sense?

Also, I had a feeling Sydney is afraid of the person behind her.

[dwmckim]

7 hours ago, mac123x said:

 

Sidney created the game and is running it?  Whatever.

 

No.  She's a minion.  She was serving as a mouthpiece for A.D.  Later, Aria noticed the wire in her ear and pressed her to answer why she herself was doing this.

I guess this is the Unpopular Opinion here but i had no problem whatsoever with Sydney and Ted's roles in this episode.  As i mentioned in last episode's thread, she may not have had as much screentime in the grand scheme of the series, but i do consider Sydney to be an important part of the puzzle and among the various unanswered questions/open plotthreads that needed to be addressed.  Regardless of the season she was first introduced or how much airtime she's had, she's one of the characters who have been very close to Jenna...one of her closest allies.  She was part of the meeting between Mona, Jenna, herself and an unknown fourth person.  She and Jenna later became part of Alison's Entourage of Twins at the Ice Ball when the Liars were suspecting Sli of being A or at least Mona's killer.  I like getting some kind of confirmation that Sydney is not only aware of the A Game but is part of it.  Hopefully that's paving the path to one of the answers i want satisfactory closure on:  how far back has Jenna known about the whole A Game thing and how much?  Was she ever actually a part of Mona's original A Team or was she actually an unknown puppet master of Mona's?  Jenna has ties with the original NAT Club - does that tie in with the origins of the A Game?  Everyone always seems to have forgotten the Season 2A cliffhanger where it revealed Jenna/Garrett had an active role in framing the Liars and must have either been a part of the A Team or knew enough about it to "piggyback" off it.

 

As for Ted, i always liked him and missed him when he wasn't as much a part of the show.  Not only am i happy to finally see him again post time jump  but back when they namedropped that the baby under Mary's care who died while babysitting was named Ted seemed like a purposeful nod (obviously not the same Ted but it seemed like a "heads up" type of callout.)  Ted's also had access to the NAT Club flash drive videos that Ian lost in the church after his confrontation with Spencer in the S1 finale.  He's not only been engaged to Ashley but before that attempted to date Ella...interesting that he's attempted to get close to two of the PLL's mothers.  Ted was with Ashley the Halloween night she had a visit from the Twin Ghost Girl.  There's always been a little bit of an undercurrent of "is there more going on with this character than The Good Pastor"?  I'm satisfied with the reveal of him as Charlotte's father.

 

Various thoughts:

Is it just me or near the end as Ali was looking out the window did anyone else start singing "Death is everywhere - there are flies on the windscreen"?

When Aria knocked down the wine glass, i so wanted the game to award her a carnival style stuffed animal for her successful throw.

In between Toby and Marco, Spencer's catching up to Ali's record of sexing up members of the Rosewood PD.  A large part of me wishes Ali would be more jealous of that that anything Paily related.

Spencer's starting to remind me of Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs:  "Not The Mama!"

There was a time when Author/Amateur Detective/Superspy Ezra (back when his life was about his True Crime Book and stalking the Liars even more than the actual A seemed to be doing) had suspected Mrs. DiLaurentis of being A.  And if memory serves that was around the time that was flashbacked to tonight when "Jessica" turned up behind Spencer in her house.  Can Show PLEASE remember about and bring back that Ezra who could actually have some really real relevance to the mysteries and not just bogged down in EZZZZria drama?  Get him away from that suckfest and get him spilling about all he knew at the time about Jessica and why he believed she was A?  Did he actually ever know about Mary in all his research?  Was any of this in his Boxes of Secrets that he warned Peter he may not want opened and revealed?

Aria gained some points tonight for being approached to be part of the A Team (which should give all the Aria-as-A theorists a nice consolation prize to be content with even if she's not "Big A") but also lost just as many for walking in a room with pages of an Ezra Fitz manuscript thrown all over the floor and failing to flashback to the time when she was the one who had done the manuscript throwing/apartment trashing.  Is that the guy you want to choose you over another fiancee?

The other PLLs don't yet know about Aria being approached by AD to switch sides so Massive Fail for not one of them uttering a line along the likes of "Damn it Aria, why is it A - no matter which A it is - always seems to give you a pass in comparison to the rest of us?"

[AftermathTV]

What was the point of last week's end scene if we weren't going to see Nicole and Aria interact, or Nicole in person at all tonight? I guess if the catalyst of all this drawn out filler angst was given a voice we'd remember they are the victim here and not Aria.

Speaking of characters that it was a massive mistake to leave out this week.....Toby. You don't just go from his wife dying to Spencer in bed with Marco. Spencer mentioned it to Hanna way too casually, talking about it like she was the one that needed comforting. Why doesn't Emily know/care? I know he is signed on for far less episodes than other main love interests, but this needed follow-up even if it was just the girls all briefly talking about it and mentioning Toby was with his dad. Nix the "sexy" Sparco bed scene and pretend for an instant that Yvonne had an impact.

I don't blame Paige for snooping on the pamphlet, Emily needs to learn to stop leaving girls in the dark while leading them on a hook. Mentioning the pregnancy would've taken no time at all, and Paige was clearly understanding. Paige really is only in this position waiting on Emily, and if Emily gave the faintest damn about Paige's feelings she would've clarified.

Having said that, the bike scene was a return to Paily form. But of course, that was a cruel tease because in the next scene Emily has a violation baby and suddenly that changes the whole playing field of an abortion. HMMMM, NO IT SHOULDN'T. And you can't make Uber A sympathetic this time, how'd they even plan that so far in advance? WHY would they take it to that level? Is it going to turn out Uber A is the one of the disturbed Emison fanbase members? This can all be undone with one little appointment, but I guess they'll rationalize it as sticking it to A by making it their "choice" to keep the baby and treat it as a gift.

Now that Hanna's done questioning Mona's support for her, we're going to get into a Hanna/Lucas trust arc now that we know Lucas and Charlotte were tight. That was likely the girl Lucas was dating that Hanna never met. Wouldn't surprise me because CeCe got around as much as her mother.

Let's talk about Ted. The previously on made it seem like Ted/Ashley would be addressed. Idk, maybe they could finally GET TOGETHER? But instead, Ted is used as an answer for something the writers probably didn't think of sooner. Still crossing fingers that Ted/Ashley resolution isn't off the table, but this might've been all the time they reserved for him in the trip down fanservice nostalgia lane.

How is Peter aware of Mary killing Jessica? Did he witness it? He is such a colossal coward. I'm glad we got a flashback to Spencer's bedroom visitor. That was an unsettling and clever hint. One of the few instances of smart planning.

Sydney is a master class at being emotionless and dull. Not sure what stopped Aria from being as aggressive as she was last time, I would've rolled down that screen in a heartbeat.

I want the old Hanna that makes smart quips back, not the one that whines every week about having to pull her weight.

Aria's file is the last interesting thing about her. I hope AD sends Ezra to jail so that we can have that scenario for at least one episode. A "what if" universe where appropriate actions are taken.

When we're back from the two week break I'm sure Paige's job transfer will be reconsidered thanks to Satan's spawn. So much for the only ship with any likeable chemistry left.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One the plus side, we finally get some anger directed at the correct people. It's about fucking time that Aria got even the slightest bit pissy with Ezra. But I wish she hadn't done that passive aggressive "I'm fine" thing before she finally told Ezra that Nicole was going to have a lot of questions when she woke up. When Ezra said that Nicole ran from the clinic to the last place she remembered as home (Ezra's apartment), I was like whoa, when did they live together in Rosewood? Didn't he and Nicole go abroad right before the time jump?

I laughed so hard at Aria grabbing her little figurine, throwing it so weakly, and miraculously hitting a wine glass. Please. Why was she stupid enough to keep it a secret from the other girls that AD had Jessica's file on her? They all agreed to play the game at this point so it's not like they were going to judge her for following instructions. But keeping it a secret and then wandering off while Alison was at the baby store was a shitty and selfish thing to do. None of the messages that Aria got said she couldn't tell the others.

Of all the people to give a bigger role, Sydney was not a good choice. She is a terrible actress. And she is obviously a minion once again, not the one pulling the strings or masterminding anything.

When Spencer shoved Peter's passport in her pocket, I was hoping that she would keep it out of spite. No more international travel for you, Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater!

No surprise at all that Ali is carrying Emily's little zygote. I guess the only question is who the father is. I don't understand why knowing that it's Emily egg is making Ali consider keeping it. If it's Archer's, why would you want to keep that devil spawn, regardless of whose egg he fertilized? Even if the father is someone else, Ali was artificially inseminated without her consent or knowledge. Having this baby will just remind her of that every single day. Plus she's a 23 year old single income high school teacher. Can she really afford to have a baby and take care of it by herself?

Speaking of Who's Your Daddy, Ted is Charlotte's father? Ooookay then. Look, I want answers before the show ends, but just randomly bringing back Pastor Ted so that he can tell Hanna he knew Mary in college and is Charlotte's father is lame. And that's assuming that both Mary and Pastor Ted are telling the truth. For all we know, she lied to him about being Charlotte's father or Ted is lying to Hanna about it. Hey, it's Rosewood AND he's a man. I have to assume he's probably lying about something, right?

Also lame: Peter telling Spencer that Mary killed Jessica and tried to frame him for it. How does he really know that? Did Mary admit it? Or is Peter just blaming someone who he already hates/fears to convince Spencer to stay away from Mary?

Honestly, it feels like MK was like okay, we have a shitload of mysteries/questions that we need to take care of before the last episode so let's just put the names of every character who's ever been on the show in here and we'll start working our way down the list of questions and pulling names out of the hat.

I wish the show runners would quit retconning shit without referring to the original timelines/previous episodes. It makes no sense that Charles and Lucas were childhood friends. Charlotte was in college when Ali and the PLLs were high school freshmen (which we know because of the party where Noel pushed that girl), so Charles was 5-7 years older than Ali, the PLLs, and Lucas. No matter how old Lucas and Charles were supposed to be in that photo at camp, there's no way that they were BFFs outside of camp. First of all, Charles was locked up at Radley. Secondly, why would a 7 year old Lucas and a 12-14 year old Charles be hanging out together? And where?

7 hours ago, SadieT said:

Kind of surprised they were so direct with the abortion talk though, they seemed to be avoiding the word up until now.

They're still avoiding it. Ali told Emily, "I've made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy." The only time the word abortion was actually used was when Paige saw the pamphlet (Making Your Choice: A Woman's Guide to Medical Abortion). Later when Ali called to cancel, she said, "I want to cancel my appointment."

[Perfect Xero]

6 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Secondly, why would a 7 year old Lucas and a 12-14 year old Charles be hanging out together? And where?

I thought they were saying that they were friends at the camp, not outside it?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

1 hour ago, Perfect Xero said:

I thought they were saying that they were friends at the camp, not outside it?

I thought he meant that they already knew each other before camp, but maybe they only knew each other at camp. I thought that summer camps were divided by age groups so it seems unlikely that Lucas and Charles would be put together, but it's Rosewood so who the hell knows? Maybe "camp for troubled boys" is code for "where we teach Rosewood boys to become creepy perverts." I mean, they have to start somewhere, right?

Pastor Ted: Fifteen years ago, I ran a camp for troubled boys. Charles was one of my campers. He was soft spoken, sweet, way smarter than all the other kids. I had no idea.
Hanna: That she was your child. The other boy in this photo - do you know his name?
Pastor Ted: That was Charles's only friend. Luke, Lucas, maybe.

[insubordination]

I realise I don't care about any of these mysteries because it's just done by a bad fan fiction writer(s) who can't end their own story because of all the shit they threw in there.  However, I did like Aria being separated from the other liars. The four liars usually stick together and it would be interesting if they didn't, such as in the dollhouse when they had to torture each other to save themselves (or something...I don't remember very well) -divide and conquer.

Ted is a bit of a silver fox.

[mac123x]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

When Spencer shoved Peter's passport in her pocket, I was hoping that she would keep it out of spite. No more international travel for you, Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater!

Peter probably has a half dozen fake passports under aliases including Carlos Danger and Humbert Humbert.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

30 minutes ago, mac123x said:

Peter probably has a half dozen fake passports under aliases including Carlos Danger and Humbert Humbert.

Ha, good point. And he has go bags hidden in several locations. You know, just in case.

[Peanut6711]

Kudos to Spencer for getting a piece of Fury before MK ships her back to Toby. Too bad it’s obvious he’ll turn on her once she looks suspicious.  Since there aren't that many episodes left I supposes they'll just jump over Yvonne's funeral and any more grieving from Toby. It will be his turn to be there for Spencer when Marco turns on her, and then they'll live happily ever after in that house he was building for her all along. 

11 hours ago, Artsda said:

So Emily being the egg donor was obviously going to happen, question is who is the sperm donor?

This is the question I really want the answer to!  Since I saw the writing on the wall that Allie was carrying Emily's egg for a while now too, that reveal wasn't surprising at all.  It's who fertilized the egg that could put a further spin on things. Somehow I'm doubtful it will be Elliot's.  Wonder which Rosewood male made a donation to a sperm bank at some point. 

And since I already saw the "donation" thing coming, I was more appalled this episode over the Ezra/Nicole/Aria mess.  I just don't know where to begin with all the things wrong w/that scenario. Certainly Ezra needs to stop writing books about people without their permission. I hope Nicole sues his ass for invasion of privacy, halts the book’s publications, and ruins Aria and Ezra’s reputation. How can he possibly move forward now with Aria as his co-writer? It's one thing for the publisher's PR department to spin it as a story of losing love and then finding love again. It's a whole other story when Nicole survives, Ezra doesn't choose her, and then publishes NICOLE'S story with his new girlfriend who is actually a former lover and student of his. 

[Writing Wrongs]

I can honestly say that I have no idea what's going on or what the end game is supposed to be. I've lost track of most of the previous plots.

[mac123x]

I was confused by this bit of dialog:

Aria: You shot Spencer. You helped Jenna escape. You made up the game.

Sydney: Correct.

Was Sydney speaking for herself, or was she parroting whatever AD was saying into her ear-piece?  Is Sydney a real human being or a ventriloquist dummy?  Or was that actually not Sydney at all in the car, but actually AD wearing one of those ludicrous Mission Impossible masks?

8 minutes ago, Peanut6711 said:

It's who fertilized the egg that could put a further spin on things. Somehow I'm doubtful it will be Elliot's.  Wonder which Rosewood male made a donation to a sperm bank at some point. 

Peter Hastings presumably.  Or Jason.  Eww. 

11 minutes ago, Peanut6711 said:

Certainly Ezra needs to stop writing books about people without their permission.

I got an unintentional laugh at Ezra trying to sort the pages after Nichole tossed them all over the place.  Not only is he such a hipster that he had type-written pages rather than some sort  of electronic media, he didn't even bother numbering them. 

I guess it's a real page turner, since Nichole had time to read the entire thing before scrawling something on one of the pages.  Or the prose is so infantile that you can speed through it like it's a Dr. Seuss book.

[Miss Bones]

I just realized, that Ashley hooking up with Jason was even more awkward for Ted, with the new info we've learned.  This means that Ashley slept with Ted's daughter's half brother.  This frickin' town!

[Peanut6711]

25 minutes ago, mac123x said:

Peter Hastings presumably.  Or Jason.  Eww. 

It appears that Peter likes to go the direct donation route when helping to populate Rosewood so he's not on my short list of baby daddy suspects this time around.  I'm almost expecting some reveal where Caleb needed money (ya know to finance that trip he took with Spencer or something) and visited a sperm bank. I mean, hey, he's sampled Hannah and Spencer's spicy tuna, why not Emily's eggs? Pretty soon he'll have the full course meal. (Feel free to throw up in your mouth a little.) ;-) 

Edited May 10, 2017 by Peanut6711

[WhosThatGirl]

14 minutes ago, Peanut6711 said:

It appears that Peter likes to go the direct donation route when helping to populate Rosewood so he's not on my short list of baby daddy suspects this time around.  I'm almost expecting some reveal where Caleb needed money (ya know to finance that trip he took with Spencer or something) and visited a sperm bank. I mean, hey, he's sampled Hannah and Spencer's spicy tuna, why not Emily's eggs? Pretty soon he'll have the full course meal. (Feel free to throw up in your mouth a little.) ;-) 

Seriously. This show isn't even entertaining lately when I think back in a lot for it, it's gross. Like legit gross. This isn't even like gross in the way of friends dating exs and making their friend circle so small with their hookups, like on normal teen tv shows. This is gross where not only do we have that but then parents are hooking up with friends siblings and dating friends siblings brothers and etc. 

Remember the simpler times when the grossest thing was this show selling us the epic Aria and Ezra love story? 

[Peanut6711]

14 minutes ago, WhosThatGirl said:

Seriously. This show isn't even entertaining lately when I think back in a lot for it, it's gross. Like legit gross. This isn't even like gross in the way of friends dating exs and making their friend circle so small with their hookups, like on normal teen tv shows. This is gross where not only do we have that but then parents are hooking up with friends siblings and dating friends siblings brothers and etc. 

Remember the simpler times when the grossest thing was this show selling us the epic Aria and Ezra love story? 

Maybe that's MK's end game--make Aria and Ezra relationship seem tame in comparison. The way she caters to those shippers it wouldn't surprise me.  

[DigitalCount]

1 hour ago, mac123x said:

Was Sydney speaking for herself, or was she parroting whatever AD was saying into her ear-piece?  Is Sydney a real human being or a ventriloquist dummy?  Or was that actually not Sydney at all in the car, but actually AD wearing one of those ludicrous Mission Impossible masks?

Presumably parroting, directed by AD to act as a decoy.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Thanks to Peter Hastings, we have had so many gross/weird relationships.

First of all, let's just talk about his fidelity issues. He had affairs with Jessica DiLaurentis, Mary Drake, and Bethany Young's mom. Poor Veronica.

His one legitimate kid who has grown up knowing who her real biological parents are is Melissa.

His other two kids grew up being lied to about their parents. Spencer thought that Peter and Veronica were her parents, but she was really the product of Peter having an affair with Mary Drake. Jason grew up thinking that Jessica and Kenneth DiLaurentis were his parents, but he was really the product of Peter having an affair with Jessica.

Sidenote: since Jessica and Mary are identical twins, meaning their DNA is identical, and Peter is the father of both Spencer and Jason, does that make Spencer and Jason genetically full blooded siblings (as opposed to the half siblings that we thought they were)?

In addition, Mary slept with Pastor Ted, producing Charles/Charlotte (I'm really not trying to be disrespectful of Charlotte's gender identity - I'm also including the name Charles because that's who Pastor Ted knew).

Jason dated Melissa, who he shares a father with. He also dated Charlotte, who turned out to be his cousin, rather than his sibling so - yay? How is Jason not in therapy?

[Chaos Theory]

Interesting:  Aria screwing over the other liars. Aria I have never found you so interesting.

Funny as Hell:  One of the few things about the show that is actually from the pilot is that the both Hastings Parents rarely appears in the same episode.  This episode it's Petet's turn.  Hi Peter'

Not sure if I find it funny or not;    Is Alison carrying Emily's baby?  

[mac123x]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

First of all, let's just talk about his fidelity issues. He had affairs with Jessica DiLaurentis, Mary Drake, and Bethany Young's mom. Poor Veronica.

Wait, what?  I must've missed when was that established.  I remember that Jessica was stepping out on Kenneth with Bethany's dad, but as far as I recall, Peter only slept with the Drake twins.

 

ETA -- Peter has been absent because he's been looking for Mary Drake.  How did he know that he needed to do this?  Veronica didn't find out that Mary was back in the picture until Spencer told her, which was after the "your dad is having passport issues" story.  I mean, passport issues LIE. 

 

Also, Peter apparently knew that Charles was actually Charlotte prior to the dollhouse.  So once Tanner and the rest of the cops knew they were searching for Charles DiLaurentis during season 6A, he sat on that information?  "Spencer, I love you and will do everything I can to protect you from this person... except reveal this very relevant detail that I'm hiding for no particular reason".

Edited May 10, 2017 by mac123x

[Jack Shaftoe]

If it were another show I would have some hope "Emily's eggs" is a red herring but in PLL these days the stupid you see is exactly the stupid you get. I bet there wasn't a single viewer who actually thought Ali would go through with the abortion and most of us probably guessed about Emily's eggs too. Well, they haven't made Emily and Ali feel that the situation is oh, so romantic yet but I am sure they will in an episode or two. Paige is just around for a bit romance angst. I guess there is still something of a Paige/Emily shipper in me because I did enjoy their kiss (despite the terrible music). And Emily taking off her shirt earlier? Hot.

Peter Hastings is so, so stupid. He is a millionaire lawyer with plenty of connections but he thinks some random woman with history of mental illness would totally convince the authorities that he, not she, murdered Jessica. Again, he could be lying but probably, Marlene probably got tired of fans asking about Jessica's murder so she pulled something out of her ass.

I so do not care about Sydney. And once again the villain's motivation is pure nonsense. I want to be on the winning team. Say what?

I laughed out loud when Hanna immediately jumped from "random guy Charles's age named Luke" to the Lucas she knows. Same for Pastor Ted conveniently having hooked up with Mary once upon a time.

I wish Ashley would stop shouting literally half her lines. I know Hanna has been through a lot but there other ways of conveying that. Probably the directors' idea, though.

Edited May 10, 2017 by Jack Shaftoe

[insubordination]

1 hour ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

"Emily's eggs"

 

1 hour ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

Well, they haven't made Emily and Ali feel that the situation is oh, so romantic yet but I am sure they will in an episode or two.

Shhh! You leaked the title of Marlene's spin-off.

[Kaboom 2.0]

I'm so grateful for you guys, this show has been confusing me for years and I know I can come here and be reminded of who did what to who and when and why. 

I don't have high hopes for any resolutions by the time of the finale to actually make any damn sense. (rubs temples)