I Feel Like We All Forgot How Messed Up "Pretty Little Liars" Was, So Here Are 26 Moments To Prove It
This show was so completely bonkers in every way.
Pretty Little Liars had a simple-enough premise: In a clique of five girls, one of them disappears. A year later, the four remaining girls start receiving threatening messages about things only their vanished friend would know. But by Season 2, the show had gone completely bonkers, and only got wilder as time went on. Here are 26 moments that prove it:
1. When Hanna got paranoid that Lucas was "A," so she knocked him off a boat and thought she killed him.
Turned out that he'd just gambled away Caleb's money. Why did he have to take her out into the middle of a lake to tell her that?? And why wasn't he more upset that Hanna basically tried to kill him??
2. When Toby let Spencer think he was dead??
Let's also remember that Mona literally got a dead body and gave it Toby's tattoo to convince Spencer. But honestly, that was pretty in character for Mona. How could Toby do this to Spencer??
3. When they had that Halloween episode where Alison told a fictional story about a girl murdering her twin, and then the twin showed up at Hanna's house the next Halloween.
Um???
4. When it turned out Alison was ALIVE after they literally found her body.
Turns out the body was Bethany, some evil chick CeCe knew at Radley, and Wilden switched out the dental records.
5. When a bunch of fake A's just kind of...creepily danced around the Liars in a New York park?
View this video on YouTube
^You really just need to see it to believe it.
6. When Aria killed Shana and it was totally brushed over.
Aria was upset for like an episode or two; then Emily reminded her that she also killed someone (Nate) and it was resolved soon after.
7. EVERY TIME Mrs. Grunwald showed up spouting nonsense about psychic visions and ghosts. AND THEN THERE WAS A PRETTY LITTLE LIARS SPINOFF THAT ACTUALLY HAD GHOSTS.
Five seasons in is too late to introduce the supernatural.
8. When Maddie Ziegler randomly showed up and did a dance for absolutely no reason.
I mean, it was a dream sequence, and the dance was good, but still.
9. That one Christmas episode when Mona's ghost haunted Alison.
This wig :/
11. When the Liars got kidnapped and KEPT IN A LIFE-SIZE DOLLHOUSE!!
How the hell did A afford this? Also, did I forget to mention she created EXACT REPLICAS of all their rooms?
12. When A doused Spencer in blood and tried to make her think she'd killed someone??
This wasn't even the most messed-up dollhouse torture.
13. Also in the dollhouse: when A tortured the Liars by making them play sadistic games.
This was some SVU crap.
14. When Sara Harvey pretended to have been a captive for years, when really, she was working with A?
Yet another bad wig :(
15. When the Liars literally got TRACKING CHIPS put in their heads.
And then they cut them out themselves...OK :/
16. When we found out Bethany straight-up killed Toby's mom and blamed CeCe, and Radley covered it up as a suicide.
How did that place operate for so long?
17. When we found out that the second A was CeCe, who grew up with Jason and Alison before being sent to Radley. And that when she got out, SHE DATED JASON — HER BIOLOGICAL COUSIN/ADOPTIVE BROTHER!!
This was problematic for so many reasons.
18. When Alison kept hallucinating the late Detective Wilden, and then at the end of the episode, it was revealed it was actually Alison's husband, Elliott, in a CRAZY-realistic Wilden mask.
This mask haunts my nightmares.
19. Speaking of Alison's husband — remember when he got her locked up in an asylum and drugged her?
She's not Hannibal Lecter, Elliott!!
20. And when Alison escaped and Elliott went after her, and Hanna accidentally killed him.
I believe that made Spencer the only one who didn't kill someone?
21. When Alison was LITERALLY impregnated with Emily's eggs that she'd sold to make money.
I guess this helped Emily/Alison finally happen, but...it felt a little too far for me.
22. When Hanna was legitimately TORTURED by A and hallucinated Spencer.
Wait, was this actually Alex?? IDK, man.
23. When Noel tripped on his own ax and accidentally decapitated himself.
I'm not including an image of the beheading because it was honestly too disturbing.
24. When we found out the third A was Spencer's twin sister?? AND THAT SHE WAS BRITISH??
Even for Pretty Little Liars, this was a doozy. I don't even know any identical twins — this show made them seem common.
25. And that SHE'D KILLED WREN AND MADE HIM INTO A NECKLACE??
NBD, just a tiny detail that absolutely FLOORED me.
26. And finally, when Mona literally kept Mary and Alex Drake as her dolls in the finale.
Didn't Mona have a life to attend to?? This just seemed impractical, tbh. It's also worth noting that in The Perfectionists, it was implied that they escaped. So...that's terrifying.