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jaggedwolf · 7 months ago

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pll rewatch 1x17-1x18

despite what happens at the end of this pair, this feels like a quiet couple of episodes

1x17 is all about parent-teacher conferences. I imagine the teachers' opinions on the liars are

Emily: good kid 👍 could speak up in class more (Pam is satisfied and mentions this in her regular call to Wayne, once she's done being very emotional about Nick McCullers and Emily and all of that) Hanna: she's been skipping classes and got detention at least once for it, (Ashley will vaguely try to remember to discuss this with Hanna and lose it in the hullabaloo of single mom working and lasagna box money. Might even forget to go and Hanna will not remind her.) Spencer: smart kid! ...please give other kids the chance to speak in class (jk jk her parents don't show up to such things, they see her grades and awards online and are like ok satisfactory) Aria: adjusting ok from spending a year in a different country's schooling system (Byron and Ella are both too Ezra-obsessed to care about this :/)

don't ask me which of them is most likely to violate Rosewood's High dress code, I'm not convinced there is one

even when I first watched this show, seeing the scene where Ezra firmly de-escalates Nick McCullers from spewing his shit made me go ....I wish Ella was doing this instead of just looking impressed at him about it

If Emily had to deal with her mom being shit this season, it'd be nice to see one of the other moms be directly good to her about it

instead, Ezra's role above leads into Byron and Ezra having the stupidest conversation about authors. This is a parent-teacher conference! Talk about Aria's education and and not your snobby tastes!

Now that I'm forced to watch these Ezra scenes instead of fast-forwarding through them, can I say that I don't care for his personality either? He's just such a pushover. Why are you so invested in Byron's opinion and need to argue with your underage girlfriend about it? Why do you have zero classroom discipline and who let you direct a school play given that? If you want to take a job at Hollis College so you are less likely to GET ARRESTED for your bad relationship choices why are you immediately running it by said underage girlfriend like you are a married couple deciding to move somewhere.

it's like he used all of his spine against mr mccullers and then had to recharge over the course of the next week

meanwhile why is Aria so pissy about Ezra considering applying to a job at Hollis. HOLLIS IS IN ROSEWOOD AND WOULD MEAN YOUR BOYFRIEND IS NO LONGER YOUR TEACHER. Like, personally, it is still incredibly weird for a 23? 24? year old to be dating a 16 year old, but still way less weird than everything going on here and you can then frickin slow burn the reveal

died of cringe when Aria called him Ezra in school

my final Ezra comment: all of this is made 10x worse by the fact that Byron and Ella clearly think Aria has an acceptable crush on her hot English teacher, because they are bestowing their trust in this high school teacher to not be a goddamn creep about it. alas.

okay moving on to Emily's stuff, where she has a weird time, between the McCullers, her mom, Toby, and Jenna

is a tad odd that we only see Pam and Paige talk to her directly about Nick's rant - her friends and her teachers were right there, and I presume at least the liars did, since later Hanna says on the phone that "Paige is such a knob" re: Nick

in every scene she appears in, Paige looks like she wants to melt off the face of this planet. understandable.

Byron says that Nick is on the library board as well and Ella implies it is not the first time he has brought up the gay agenda....terrible terrible terrible, I'm glad that Rosewood High rallies around Emily here

along with Nick's explicit statements of Emily just getting anchor because she's gay (???) I kinda felt some racial implications this time around, especially with 1x17 having Emily and Pam as the only speaking characters of color

Ella says that "we all know Emily's the best swimmer" which makes what Emily tells Maya in the pilot about just wanting to do her best so funny to me...Emily truly is like I'm just here to have a good time and still does the best and it must drive S1!Paige insane

more insane, that is, because though Paige backs up Pam's assertion that her dad is always looking for someone else to blame, it sounds like the first person he tried blaming was Paige given her little "He wanted to know if I slacked off, but I didn't. You know I didn't." spiel, before he moved on to his homophobia. Because Nick McCullers sure does suck.

Emily's resignation in not mentioning it to her mom because of everything...I'm glad she witnesses Pam going off on Nick.

And then we get the world's worst leadup to a surprise kiss, which was why I knew Emily had to get a car at some point this season. Paige even manages to fuck up apologizing for her dad because she is that wrapped up in her own shit

I think she surprised herself with that kiss. That is the Paige McCullers classic, getting surprised and dismayed by her own reactions.

Emily declines a call from Paige in front of Spencer which leads to a snarky comment from the latter, giving me so many questions. Emily told the liars (or just Spencer) about the head dunk? Spencer must've really felt the heat from her last argument with Emily to not have insisted Emily report that too. Paige is the one calling Emily? Huh.

Speaking of Emily and Spencer, Emily ends up ceding custody of Toby to Spencer. I forgot that the show even has Toby bail on breakfast and have Spencer tell Emily they should call Toby together only for Emily to go no, you should call him yourself (because you both really really need to get laid).

Best A message this week: has to go to A straight up calling an EXTERMINATOR to taunt Hanna that A knows where Caleb is

1x18 is all about the school putting on a production of The Bad Seed, a play in which the 8-year-old killer gets away with everything because her mom is stupid.

Spencer and Hanna are cast in the play, Aria is stage manager, Emily lurks around for so long that I keep going why is she here??? until the very end of the episode mentions she's working in props.

Emily does not strike me as a theatre person in any regard, she got dragged into this via her friends and the class credit.

Hanna on which role she wants: "I want the other mother, the one who's drunk all the time." so real

Spencer in this conversation goes from nagging parent on Hanna hiding Caleb to being horny about Aria/Ezra. She continues to be horny about them the rest of the episode. The order of investment in Aria/Ezra goes Spencer >> Hanna > Emily.

S1!Spencer is really off her game, man. She waits to meet the other liars before looking up Braille, doesn't even note how Braille represents numbers. How excited were the writers to realize that they could encode a motel number in a way the girls would first translate to BAD?

Toby eavesdropped on Jenna and all he got was she mentioned Spencer.

To be fair to Toby he's been through a lot. This is why him being a pushover is far more excusable to me than Fitz's bullshit.

Spencer and Toby have a cute bonding moment post-ankle monitor removal by hanging out on the outskirts of town.

I pay zero attention to this, too distressed by the City of Rosewood Incorporated 1853 sign. Is Rosewood an actual city, unlike it's real-life counterpart of Rosemont, which merely a census-designated place? If it is an actual municipal corporation, why do we hear zero mention of an executive or legislature?

For the sake of my sanity I am going to assume the sign is a historical artifact, where Rosewood used to be a distinct city that has since been absorbed into a larger township.

Toby is soooo stressed about stealing Jenna's phone and the girls don't even get anything useful from it

At some point the girls all stare at Jenna trying on lingerie. Stop being weird in public about the blind girl. She can't see you, but everyone else can see you being fucking weird about her!

Jenna also ominously plays the flute while Emily stares at her. Logging this for later.

The girls all find a trophy with Ian's name on it and what looks like a bloodied corner on it. They are so spooked by the previous disappearing video that they immediately turn it into the cops, without googling golf tournaments or anything of the like

my sweet surbuban teenagers, unaware that that the non-Wilden cops will be dicks to them too

of course it is rat blood, from a little white rat named Spencer.

speaking of naive suburban teenagers, why are the non-Hanna liars and Ashely obsessed with describing Caleb as dark. He's just got shoulder-length hair and wears hoodies and hacks phones. He's smiling whenever he talks to anyone. He's the least dark of all four liars' love interests right now!

....do we think it's because of foster kid thing? that makes me sad :/

also makes me wonder how/why he landed in Rosewood specifically

See the thing I always like about Caleb is his relevance and helpfulness with the plot stuff. He's not sitting around making pining eyes at Hanna, he's helping Hanna figure out that the dead lady's nephew isn't legit, or the liars are handing him a phone to hack

he said the phone looks like it's from 2020 because that is ten years in the future for him. but it already feels a long time ago for me tbh.

I enjoy him making fun of the liars for stealing a blind girl's phone and also for calling said blind girl "Jenna Cavanaugh" instead of "Jenna Marshall". He's new here! He's not up-to-date on all these step-siblings!

Hanna and Aria make up super fast over the A thing after Aria is slightly pissy at one group meeting.

my friend watching A leave flowers at mrs potter's grave: A, did you kill her? did you kill that old lady? I'd forgotten how the first Haleb kiss happened

I remembered the swim meet "date" and the classic shower scene (Caleb apparently has a tattoo down there somewhere, taking suggestions on what it is)

but not that it was Hanna being super weird to him post-shower for a whole day

Caleb says "so you think you have to throw down too?" which is the funniest way to phrase it, but it works for him, Hanna cutely goes "what if I don't want to?" and then "what if I do want to?" and they get a very spin spin spin-around kiss

Next time: I think the cops are going to be mean to the girls?? which would make sense if they let spencer give an insane rant about ian as they turned in that trophy with rat blood. don't let spencer do her insane rants in front of other people, you'll learn this lesson one day

#pll watching #pll #pll 1x17 #pll 1x18 #mine

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zalrb · 17 days ago

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PLL 1x17 Review - As Per Anon Request

Aww, for a second I thought she was going to wear Caleb's beanie.

What is the point of outting that Hanna sent Aria's mom the museum ticket if they pretty immediately make up?

"I don't like knowing what I'm capable of." It needed to be something else. Or Hanna needed to be more active. Caroline actively tries to drive a wedge between Stefan and Elena.

This is odd and off-topic sorta but I was thinking of how name pairings sound because I was like hmm, does it always sound better to me when the guy's name is first? Stefan and Elena, Tyler and Caroline, Cesare and Lucrezia, Max and Liz, Ezra and Aria, Ryan and Marissa, Jonah and Amy, but then I was like Hanna and Caleb sounds better, Spencer and Toby, Brooke and Lucas, Bonnie and Jeremy, Beth and Randall, Madi and Silver. Is it about syllables? Not always. Idk.

All of these clothes look like they've never been worn? It's odd.

"What is with you and the artful dodger?" LOL, Spencer to Caleb is Blair to Dan.

"Well, it seems to me we had this conversation once about Toby." All of them gagged.

And I mean that in the most muted way.

Why is Paige's father more like what Spencer's father is supposed to be than Spencer's father?

Omg, Ezra is soooo dreamy, Ezra is soooo smart, Ezra is soooo attractive. Wait until you find out he's "in love" with your daughter, Piper.

"The lawyer is driving me over to my dad's office" so you DO have parents. How is Jenna just running around wild? It's a dumb question in the context of this show, I know, but Toby's home life is a fucking greek tragedy, the fuck.

"You're reading it wrong. Come back Saturday" JUST TELL HER.

"I don't think it's all her fault." SHE TRIED TO DROWN YOU.

"I can see your mom as a colleague, she's safe. But your dad is your dad" a predator AND sexist??

If this was The OC, Hanna's mom would be having an affair with Caleb.

Aria's dad thinking Ezra is hitting on his estranged wife when really he just wants his daughter.

Of course, this house has creepy dolls on chairs. Jesus.

Toby's speech pattern is odd. It's like he doesn't leave pauses?

I think I'm more into Caleb and Hanna (and "into" is putting it strongly) because I don't think they have chemistry but they have the writing, it's not great writing, but it's there so I can make sense of it. Spencer and Toby, it's all hinged upon vibes, she nearly drops the snow globe, he catches it, their fingers touch, they stare, and it's not working for me, I feel like I'm meant to be getting Max and Liz vibes