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GORGEOUS Little Liars!!!
OMG guys I seriously CANNOT WAIT for tonight’s episode. I’ve been loving Pretty Little Liars even more than usual and OMG THEY’RE GOING TO TELL HER.
I imagine by the time I see comments for this I’ll have seen 420, but I have NOT BEEN SPOILED FOR ANYTHING so no spoilers beyond there, thanks!
I LOVED the Ezra reveal the moment it happened and I’m so excited they’re seriously sticking with it, not going to take it back a la Toby. It’s so perfect. Aside from the sweet sweet confirmation that the writers knew how creepy that relationship was, it totally works with who Ezra is. His first few episodes way back at the beginning really showcased his manipulative side (conscious or unconscious - of course now I think conscious!) in the way he repeatedly talks about his guilt or whatever in a way that forces Aria to disagree, to reassure him that he’s not a predator.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pocochina said something - paraphrasing - about how Ezra’s talent and danger was always his ability to appear harmless, and it’s SO TRUE. Which makes me adore even more the conversation with Mona where he chooses to abandon that harmless mask.
And it’s… much as I have love for girl!A, for specifically young women as threat, it’s so perfect that it’s Ezra. I remember having a deeply sarcastic response to that line of Spencer’s way back when - “we all know who had a thing for younger girls” - and OMG. Yes. The Ezra/Aria relationship was the only thing that tainted PLL for me (with a soupcon of WHY SO MANY AGE-INAPPROPRIATE MEN?!) and now it’s made AWESOME. It’s really cool that an adult man with a sexual interest in these Pretty Little Liars ends up being the threat AFTER PLL has spent seasons showing it as conflicted and sympathetic and generally harmless. (Well. Not quite. I always thought that line of Aria’s about “you totally mess me up and I’m miserable sometimes but you don’t make me unhappy” was totally real and true to a teenager in that situation.) And a teacher as the threat in this teenage programme has its charms, too - this particular brand of power Ezra uses against them.
And I’m so happy with the reveal. Ezra hasn’t devolved into smirk!Morgana and he’s SO TERRIFYING. Plus PLL’s tendency to go for surprise over suspense has occasionally frustrated me and I love that this time they’ve really played up the suspense, with the reveal and then Spencer working it out, then Hanna finding out, then Emily. And the noir episode dragged out it out fantastically before, you know, REVEAL TO COME. (So excited!!!)
I loved the noir episode passionately. I’ll make an argument for PLL as Gothic any day of the week but it made me wonder if I’m missing noir elements?? Certainly it was really wonderfully meta, and extra-perfect given Aria and Ezra’s initial connection over stories and old (noir?) films, the way Aria has more than once said their story was like a movie or a book - it’s how she understands her life - and their conversation about heroes not being what they used to be. It almost made me wonder if Aria, on some level, suspects - “I got fascinated with the villain.”
But either way, SO GREAT. A hallucination that may well make Spencer vulnerable re: her mental health. The OTT-ness of the ADHD pills is very OTT but also does kind of work for me - Spencer not being able to stop once she experiences that level of focus, especially right now, makes sense. I loved the Emily/Paige stuff and MONA (and OMG that shot of her face repeated in a zillion mirrors from different angles!!! I am trying to make an icon that conveys the awesome). I loved the general playfulness and that PLL did that three episodes to the end and the gender reversals - “down these mean streets a girl must go who is not herself mean” - which comments so nicely on the feminist awesome of having the murdered, objected blonde from these kinds of stories invested by four varied young women instead of a man, young women who were her friends. I liked that Toby was such a dick - I am not Toby’s biggest fan. And omg that whole scene in the car, that they COULDN’T BRING THEMSELVES TO TELL HER.
There’s another A and I have two assumptions - that it’s a girl (I love PLL and its varied women) and that it’s someone close - that line of noir!Toby’s about being afraid to work it out seems like it HAS to foreshadow something. Of course that would work with it being Wren, and enjoyably hammer home ADULT MEN WHO PREY ON TEENAGE GIRLS ARE PREDATORS EVEN IF THEY’RE HANDSOME AND SEEM NICE.
The horror element’s been ratcheted up, I think - OMG THE DENTIST THING NOOOOOO. And Emily’s experience in the school. I mean there’ve always been big elements of creepy but I have been freaking out at PLL way more than usual lately. WE WERE CAUGHT IN A WORLD OF GRIM OBSESSION.
Oh, another bit of awesome - I’m really liking Emily and Alison’s interaction and what’s going on there. I think Emily is wrong about her realisation - Alison can and did and does love Emily, she’s totally capable of love. Leaving aside the textual evidence for that love - and whether or not the love is partly romantic, I do think Alison is bi - one of my favourite things about PLL is that Alison seems so real, in her cruelty and caprice and attraction, like girls who really do exist. Girls who generally grow up to be better women than they were girls, but who knows if Alison will get that chance?
I imagine by the time I see comments for this I’ll have seen 420, but I have NOT BEEN SPOILED FOR ANYTHING so no spoilers beyond there, thanks!
I LOVED the Ezra reveal the moment it happened and I’m so excited they’re seriously sticking with it, not going to take it back a la Toby. It’s so perfect. Aside from the sweet sweet confirmation that the writers knew how creepy that relationship was, it totally works with who Ezra is. His first few episodes way back at the beginning really showcased his manipulative side (conscious or unconscious - of course now I think conscious!) in the way he repeatedly talks about his guilt or whatever in a way that forces Aria to disagree, to reassure him that he’s not a predator.
pocochina said something - paraphrasing - about how Ezra’s talent and danger was always his ability to appear harmless, and it’s SO TRUE. Which makes me adore even more the conversation with Mona where he chooses to abandon that harmless mask.And it’s… much as I have love for girl!A, for specifically young women as threat, it’s so perfect that it’s Ezra. I remember having a deeply sarcastic response to that line of Spencer’s way back when - “we all know who had a thing for younger girls” - and OMG. Yes. The Ezra/Aria relationship was the only thing that tainted PLL for me (with a soupcon of WHY SO MANY AGE-INAPPROPRIATE MEN?!) and now it’s made AWESOME. It’s really cool that an adult man with a sexual interest in these Pretty Little Liars ends up being the threat AFTER PLL has spent seasons showing it as conflicted and sympathetic and generally harmless. (Well. Not quite. I always thought that line of Aria’s about “you totally mess me up and I’m miserable sometimes but you don’t make me unhappy” was totally real and true to a teenager in that situation.) And a teacher as the threat in this teenage programme has its charms, too - this particular brand of power Ezra uses against them.
And I’m so happy with the reveal. Ezra hasn’t devolved into smirk!Morgana and he’s SO TERRIFYING. Plus PLL’s tendency to go for surprise over suspense has occasionally frustrated me and I love that this time they’ve really played up the suspense, with the reveal and then Spencer working it out, then Hanna finding out, then Emily. And the noir episode dragged out it out fantastically before, you know, REVEAL TO COME. (So excited!!!)
I loved the noir episode passionately. I’ll make an argument for PLL as Gothic any day of the week but it made me wonder if I’m missing noir elements?? Certainly it was really wonderfully meta, and extra-perfect given Aria and Ezra’s initial connection over stories and old (noir?) films, the way Aria has more than once said their story was like a movie or a book - it’s how she understands her life - and their conversation about heroes not being what they used to be. It almost made me wonder if Aria, on some level, suspects - “I got fascinated with the villain.”
But either way, SO GREAT. A hallucination that may well make Spencer vulnerable re: her mental health. The OTT-ness of the ADHD pills is very OTT but also does kind of work for me - Spencer not being able to stop once she experiences that level of focus, especially right now, makes sense. I loved the Emily/Paige stuff and MONA (and OMG that shot of her face repeated in a zillion mirrors from different angles!!! I am trying to make an icon that conveys the awesome). I loved the general playfulness and that PLL did that three episodes to the end and the gender reversals - “down these mean streets a girl must go who is not herself mean” - which comments so nicely on the feminist awesome of having the murdered, objected blonde from these kinds of stories invested by four varied young women instead of a man, young women who were her friends. I liked that Toby was such a dick - I am not Toby’s biggest fan. And omg that whole scene in the car, that they COULDN’T BRING THEMSELVES TO TELL HER.
There’s another A and I have two assumptions - that it’s a girl (I love PLL and its varied women) and that it’s someone close - that line of noir!Toby’s about being afraid to work it out seems like it HAS to foreshadow something. Of course that would work with it being Wren, and enjoyably hammer home ADULT MEN WHO PREY ON TEENAGE GIRLS ARE PREDATORS EVEN IF THEY’RE HANDSOME AND SEEM NICE.
The horror element’s been ratcheted up, I think - OMG THE DENTIST THING NOOOOOO. And Emily’s experience in the school. I mean there’ve always been big elements of creepy but I have been freaking out at PLL way more than usual lately. WE WERE CAUGHT IN A WORLD OF GRIM OBSESSION.
Oh, another bit of awesome - I’m really liking Emily and Alison’s interaction and what’s going on there. I think Emily is wrong about her realisation - Alison can and did and does love Emily, she’s totally capable of love. Leaving aside the textual evidence for that love - and whether or not the love is partly romantic, I do think Alison is bi - one of my favourite things about PLL is that Alison seems so real, in her cruelty and caprice and attraction, like girls who really do exist. Girls who generally grow up to be better women than they were girls, but who knows if Alison will get that chance?