Pretty Little Liars (TV series)/Headscratchers

TV SHOW:

• Why is "liars" in the title? What are the lies?
  • It's a carry-over from the books. After finding the body of Ian Thomas, they try to take the police to it, only to find that it's disappeared and become known as "Rosewood's Pretty Little Liars." Also they are keeping secrets about certain things. (The Jenna Thing, for example.)

• The attitude the Liars have with the video evidence was already stupid once (the video with Alison & Ian that they didn't even attempt to copy, leaving (supposedly) Ian free reign to get Spencer's laptop and cancel it) but to repeat it exactly the same with the videos found in Alison's lunchbox (Emily had them on her laptop AND NOWHERE ELSE, and not only did she leave her laptop unprotected, but even TURNED ON. Predictably, (probably) A cancelled them (along with the rest of Emily's files). Stupid much?

• Do these girls ever think anything through? They know by now that A is constantly watching them and will punish any mistake they make. Yet they all continue to do incredibly stupid things. One recent one being Spencer stealing then pawning her sister's wedding ring, only to have it turned into horseshoe. That was stupid enough even without A involved.
  • I totally agree. My contention is not with Spencer's decision, but with the writers. How can the owner of a pawn shop or whatever it was, hand over one person's ring to someone else? (even if they suspected the ring wasn't Spencer's?) And then take Spencer's 2000 dollars and hand her a worthless horseshoe? What kind of idiot would give 2000 dollars for a horseshoe?? And does A have a camera in the pawn shop too? How else could A have known Spencer went there with Melissa's ring; it could have been anything, the Hastings are wealthy and probably have a lot of jewellery.
  • It was implied that the owner of the pawn shop believed that Spencer had stolen the ring and wouldn't go to the police when the deal went south.

• Hello, Emily, your father is a colonel or whatever in the US Army. They do not take kindly to their family members being stalked and blackmailed. Tell him everything and get it over with before you know... you get involved in another murder investigation or someone else gets run over or you end up in hospital with your sporting career about to get ruined by A.. oh wait, that already happened.

• I've always thought it was ridiculous how A seemed to know everything, and how he/she had such impeccable timing. I mean, unless A was spirit or something, or had a magical 24/7 access into these girls heads, I couldn't see how the writers were going to explain A's omniscience.
  • Eg: Remember when A snuck Ian's phone into Spencer's bag, and it rang just when she and Melissa were really starting to open up to eachother... I mean, how could A have timed it so perfectly?? It was late at night!
  • Or, worse, how on earth could A have known that Hanna's mom stole that money from her workplace? And that they hid it in a box of pasta? Are there cameras everywhere now?? Even inside the kitchen cabinets??
  • And are random motel rooms bugged now too? Remember when Toby and Spencer "sleep" together, and then there's that mysterious green bag which turns out to have ice in it, with a note saying "you're getting colder".
  • Also, the psychiatrist's office is totally bugged by A-Team (hey, that's a good name, now that we know A is more than one person...)Anyway,the shrink's office is also devoid of a security system or camera. It's easy to get in and plant Mr Fitz's diploma (?!) and a cake walk to get in, trash the place, get out, all without leaving finger prints. WTF??
    • And apparently Mr. Fitz's place is also easy to break into... and he didnt notice that his diploma was missing. It was framed and hanging there. Geez, when people are this stupid, no wonder they're such sitting ducks for A.
  • Also, what was A doing that whole year when Aria and family were in Iceland? How did Aria's return trigger the A messages?? And did A start shadowing Aria the minute she landed? I mean, A knew that Aria had met and made out with Ezra Fitz before either of them knew they were going to be teacher and student.
  • And what the hell kind of town is this... don't they believe in security systems? Especially after what happened to Alison? I would have thought that every family with a young daughter would have run out to buy security cameras and alarms. But NOPE... that security in Rosewood homes is lax is an understatement. Windows are left wide open, doors can be easily unlatched, people can enter homes by stealth with their eyes closed (note the pun? Jenna reference... tee hee since she is one of our villians). Not only can they film the girls, but also plant things, like lipsticks, messages, incriminating evidence... and deleted things from laptops, or replace laptops with yearbooks. Have they never had CSU sweep the area? Jesus Christ!!
  • And what was the deal with Emily's cereal in Season 2 Episode 10? The box she chose just happened to be the one A had tampered with? Can you even imagine the preparation that must have taken? First, collect enough "As" from a big box of Alpha-Bits. Second, replace the mini box Alpha-bits with all As plus threatning message. Third, re-seal the cereal box liner with such finess that Emily doesn't suspect anything until she lifts her spoon. Fourth, re-seal the mini box of Alpha-bits. Ok, so let's say someone went to all that trouble... how did they know she would choose Alpha-bits? Was that the only cereal available in their cafeteria?
  • And how the hell is A always one step ahead? Like recently, A removed page 5 from Ali's autopsy report. I mean, not only is A an omniscient mindreader, he/she is apparently a pre-cog too.
    • The finale took this up to 11. Apparently, A can not only leave a huge box on Spencer's porch with no risk of being spotted, A can also break into Emily's car and leave the doll, again with no fear of being spotted. Is A a team of MI-5 trained ninjas?
  • In the early "Homecoming" episode, the PLL's order Chinese food and the cookies that come with the meal have a message from A. Let's assume that A bought the cookies online and didn't need to make them, as such sites exist. How did A know the PLL's would be ordering Chinese just before homecoming, which was presumably a spur of the moment decision? How did A add them to the bag, without a trace?
  • And now has the ability to replace Chinese food with worm filled dirt.
• Now, with the NAT club revelation, the girls have concluded (which frankly they should have done long ago) that A is more than one person. Ok, now the impeccable timing might be explained--- there is one person watching each girl. Let's just suspend disbelief here and operate under the assumption that these four teenagers are important enough to be monitored 24/7. But it still doesn't explain how they receive perfectly timed messages at school, or how, when they have whispered conversations, a text or note appears out of nowhere. I mean, unless the girls themselves are bugged, (or A has managed to outfit their phones with a high tech bugging device)that kind of precision in timing is just not possible. And I totally agree that the girls should tell their parents everything. I mean, Ian is *dead*... and as much as I respect teenagers (like Harry Ron and Hermione) I really think they should tell their parents... all this about how "no one believes them" because "they're pretty little liars" is just stupid. I mean, what have they ever done to earn that distinction? They all seem to have a great relationship with their parents.
  • I think phones and computers bugged is the only reasonable conclusion at this point. It's odd that the girls haven't thought of this yet.
  • The reason they won't tell isn't that they fear they'll be disbelieved, but that they fear A will hurt their parents. They don't want another Dr. Sullivan on their hands.

• When the therapist the girls are seeing realizes who A is, why could she not tell Emily over the phone and have her pass it on? Why was it necessary for her to have all of them meet her in person? Especially when she knew for a fact that A was listening to her.
  • We know that A and Dr. Sullivan were working together though (though Dr. S was probably coerced), it may have just been a set-up in order to get the Liars to play A's game and end up with the murder weapon.
  • I doubt that. Knowing A, it's more likely that she was blackmailing Dr. S than that she was a willing participant. Dr. Sullivan says "I did everything you asked", implying that she was taking direction from A, as opposed to working as a partner. Plus, A handed her a folder with something in it, which I would assume was information she had on Dr. Sullivan. Also, the look on Sullivan's face was closer to the look of a victim than that of a co-conspirator. If you accept the theory that she was being blackmailed, it makes her decision make even less sense. Consider this: If she was being blackmailed when she was realized A's identity, she would never have told them that she knew who A was in the first place, because she'd be afraid of what A would do. Which means there was no reason at the time why she couldn't just say A's name over the phone. (As long she's revealing to A that she knows her name, she might as well say it out loud, after all.) By insisting on meeting in person, she gave A time to get to her.
• Why are the girls STILL keeping 'A' a secret? They assume that 'A' will reveal all their secrets, seemingly missing the fact that by playing 'A's game they're generating more secrets than they would've ever had. They're convinced A will ruin their lives, but the only thing 'A' had on them was the Jenna thing, which they could've honestly said was Alison's plan all along. Now with the events of the second season's summer finale, should they continue to keep their silence, not only will they suffer more than ever before, all four girls will be carrying the Idiot Ball.
  • Emily is on record as using HGH, her parents would never trust her again if they found that out. She also forged a letter from Danby, which is kind of serious business. Aria is having an affair with an older man who could potentially get arrested and definitely fired from his job. It would also completely ruin her family. Hanna's mom stole money from a bank, which is obviously illegal, and Hanna suffers from bulimia which would be humiliating to reveal publicly. Spencer was already a person of interest, so the Jenna thing would only make her look more guilty. It definitely makes sense, in perspective, why the Liars wouldn't A spilling all their secrets, and it's meant to be ironic that by doing everything they can to keep those secrets buried, they only make things worse.

• How did Jackie expect to get away with plagiarizing a paper on Théodore Géricault? The academic community studying Romantic painter is absurdly small. Did she think nobody would notice? On the flip side, how did A figure it out? Is A, in addition to being an omniscient ninja, a student of French art?