#plltp 1x01

[ghostie-hoe]

PLL THE PERFECTIONISTS 1x01 RECAP & THEORIES

So the episode opens with Sofia Carson’s monologue introducing the theme of the show - perfectionism and how the desperation for perfection has lead someone to snap under pressure and kill.

The monologue is talking about prestigious students at the University, so we can be lead to believe that the person who killed Nolan is amongst them - a student. I’d say, let’s keep an open mind and not rule out Dylan, Caitlin and Ava just yet.

In the next scene, Alison is in a Uber on her way to Beacon Heights, claiming that she doesn’t know anyone in town. We then see Alison entering her new home - there’s a sound and suddenly she’s a character in a horror film calling out “Hello?” And of course she checks the basement. It’s easy to fall back into old fears after two years of a safe, AD-free life. Mona then appears out of nowhere holding a knife and box of pie. Classic Mona. Creepy. Alison doesn’t seem to surprised to see Mona, they make small talk. Alison asks Mona “What are you doing here?” and She explains lightly that Mary and Alex escaped her dungeon (without confirming those words) and then moves onto say that she does GAME DESIGN for Hotchkiss. GAME DESIGN.

Let’s just throw back to the original show where Mona was addicted to the game - she became a master at the game and even admired Alex’s board game. In other words she was unhealthily fascinated by it. Why is nobody bringing up Mona doing Game design when we know now that she may have been communicating with someone through mirrors and is in the house where this state of the art security system is located? Link? Coincidence? There are no coincidences in Rosewood therefore no coincidences in Oregon. Mona talking to Alison about fresh starts and trust and Alison expresses wanting to leave the old mean girl behind her and help the kids and Mona replies “You will. I know it.” Mona already knows something. She brought Alison here for a reason knowing that she’d be able to help. “Allison’s determined as she ever was, don’t you think?” I’m not gonna be surprised if Mona is talking to her other personality (more on that later).

Alison and Mona walking to campus together and Alison brings up Taylor Hotchkiss to which Mona says “lovely girl” and Alison gets a little suspicious about the timeline of Mona being in Beacon Heights after Taylor committed suicide and not during. Mona always has an answer for everything “I read up on her” she claimed. From this, I believe that Mona knows Taylor is alive. Mona just knows everything.

Alison begins her first day at Beacon Heights by signing her name on a digital board and this full scene has How to get away with murder vibes. We first meet the mains in this scene. Alison launches into conversation about one of her favourite books by Agatha Christie ‘And then there were none’

Ten strangers, apparently with little in common, are lured to an island mansion off the coast of Devon by the mysterious U.N.Owen. Over dinner, a record begins to play, and the voice of an unseen host accuses each person of hiding a guilty secret. That evening, former reckless driver Tony Marston is found murdered by a deadly dose of cyanide.

The tension escalates as the survivors realise the killer is not only among them but is preparing to strike again… and again...

Marlene always chooses literature that has significance to the story - to her characters. So, let’s say our island mansion is Beacon Heights, who has been lured to Beacon Heights? Alison. As far we can tell as we’re only one episode into the story, nobody has been accused of having guilty secrets - however, Nolan was blackmailing Caitlin. Our Tony Marston is Nolan Hotchkiss, the first and one of many people to be murdered and the killer is amongst them, meaning the killer must be one of the main characters we were introduced to, Dylan, Caitlin , Ava, Dylan’s boyfriend, Caitlin’s secret boyfriend or someone we haven’t yet been introduced to in Alison’s class. At this point, Taylor could’ve murdered her own brother.

Dylan is called on to talk about a theme in the book and he chooses isolation. “The author deliberately picks this remote location so the characters can escape themselves. It’s part of their punishment.” Let’s take note of the significance of the mains answers. Dylan talking about isolation may have significance to his role in the story or his own secrets. Is Dylan out? Does he feel isolated?

We then have Ava who claims that Dylan is always right to avoid answering the answer because she didn’t have an answer. She then goes onto say “Well it’s about dichotomy of something and nothing.” A reflection of how Ava feels about herself knowing that she’s a real person but nothing connotes her self esteem? Or even the whole Nolan - Ava - Caitlin - situation. She then admits that she didn’t read the book because she was too busy focusing on growing her YouTube channel, her outlet for paying her tuition.

And then we have Caitlin. “The author wasn’t subtle. She named a character justice. It comes down to, well, is it okay to murder a murderer?” Caitlin isn’t a subtle person as we can see from the later scenes where she speaks of being inspired by her fantasy to get rid of someone to Alison and then describing how the core 3 could murder Nolan, and it happened in the exact way she said. Caitlin goes on to to say that she would hurt someone that hurt someone she loves. Nolan then says “Don’t worry babe, nobody would mess with me.” Now, Caitlin turns to look at Nolan before he reassures her that nobody would hurt him. We find out later in the episode that Nolan is blackmailing Caitlin with information about an affair between one of her mothers and another person. Little hint that Caitlin wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Nolan for destroying her family - and their perfectionism dynamics?

And finally, Nolan. “Paybacks a bitch. Characters got what they deserved. They did terrible things, they got terrible things done to them. Thought you’d appreciate that world view, Miss Dilaurentis.”

So first of all, Nolan obviously has information on Alison’s history because ‘missing dead girl turns up alive’ would make serious headlines but it seems a little deeper than that. I’d say his insider is Mona. It’s possible that this has significance to the other girls for partaking in bullying ‘Loser Mona’ the Jenna Thing etc. Possibly hinting at Alison coming back and being tormented by Alex and “Elliot”, the insemination. And we all know that seeing a dead body in PLL doesn’t always mean that character is always dead, this could be Nolan’s plan. Fake his death, Make it look extremely convincing ie. a body. One of my followers suggested that Nolan could’ve had a Nolan mask made (not shocking in the PLL universe) and this statement is him talking about his plan to kill people who deserve it in his mind because “people did terrible things and had terrible things done to them.” After saying that the camera pans to Alison, Dylan and Ava. Interesting. His victims maybe?

After the class ends, Alison pulls Nolan to the side and asks Why he thinks she knows about payback and he answers with “My mother is gonna tell you that you’re here because you remind her of my sister. It’s more than that.” Weird answer to bring the Taylor and Alison comparison into it. Rather, Nolan knows that Taylor is alive, faked her death. An early hint that Taylor isn’t dead. You can’t recruit someone because they’re blonde and remind you of your blonde daughter, there’s more to Taylor in Claire’s eyes that reminds her of Taylor. Was Taylor a mean girl?

The group are walking out of the main building whilst Nolan is trying to confirm Caitlin’s attendance at Claire’s dinner party and Caitlin claims that she has plans to which Nolan replies with “Can’t imagine what would be more important than you showing up for me” Showing up for me? That’s not something you normally say to your girlfriend (But Caitlin isn’t Nolan’s girlfriend, she’s being blackmailed into it so that he can date Ava without his mother knowing) Then Nolan talks about the papers that Dylan has to write for Nolan and Ava because he’s the smartest. Nolan has something on him for him to say “I’ll do yours but I can’t do Ava’s” then talks about another academic interest of his. So, Ava is our Hanna equivalent, possibly secretly very smart, interested in her social media presence and was doing fashion design during the monologue. Dylan is our Spencer, academically focussed. Ava and Nolan leave and Caitlin expresses to Dylan how she thought things would be different this year and Dylan asks “Because of Taylor? He didn’t even cry at her funeral” Nolan didn’t cry because he knew that his sister wasn’t dead. She’s alive. That’s why he didn’t cry. Also, it’s socially acceptable not to be crying at a funeral because everyone grieves differently. Caitlin then goes on to ask if she can help him with anything that Nolan has on him and Dylan claims that they’re all his fake friends and they hang out with him to make it look like he has “the perfect posse” Caitlin seems to want to make a real friendship out of the fake friendship, with Dylan anyways. We then get the scene of Dylan walking away, a pan to the camera ontop of the building and a birds eye view shot of Caitlin on her own and people walking in different directions around her. I LOVE THE WAY THIS IS FILMED. Camera cuts to Mona walking through campus and Alison sneaking up on her and startling her.

Alison mentions Nolan’s name and then about how her and Alison were talking all “Summer camp” about fresh starts and Mona doesn’t look surprised but asks “What did Nolan say” instead of giving her a straight forward answer. Mona claims that she didn’t tell anyone information about Alison and that Nolan doesn’t belong because he’s extremely smart. Nolan is now the Mona equivalent. She then says that by her calculations, Nolan could be dangerous.

Alison grading plagiarised papers against the plagiarism policy, at this point we need Spencer Hastings. The song in the background playing about wanting to be out of the familiar, can you help me please? I want to know. Significant? Why is the word ‘meticulous’ being highlighted for us to see. We could see Alison grading papers against that polity and talking to her students about it and we’d understand what’s happened but instead we are shown the scene of highlighting the word ‘meticulous’.. the shot of Alison’s glasses on the page gave me the PLL The Great Gatsby poster vibes (The one with the glasses and the eyes, saying ‘someone’s watching you’ )

Nolan has something on Dylan, his boyfriend questions him on writing papers for Ava and Nolan and he changes the subject to ‘I promised myself I wouldn’t get serious about anyone when I came to college, but the day I met you that changed.”

So then we have Caitlin, naked, laying on her bed doing her homework and her boyfriend comes over to her and they start making out. He strangely looks like Toby from his side profile and he has a British accent. Again, the partners asking why they associate with Nolan and we are given an answer. Nolan appears and starts talking about how even though Caitlin is seeing someone, to the outside world she and Nolan are still a happy couple. He then proceeds to blackmail her with a photo of one of her mothers having an affair with a man and Nolan says that he doesn’t want to have to ruin her political career. “Guess two moms don’t always make a right.” Wow. Emison? I love Emison. Caitlin feels comfortable enough to confide in her boyfriend about Nolan’s blackmailing and suggests that he talk to Nolan and find away to keep Caitlin’s family out of it and not ruin her political career. If this guy loves Caitlin, could he be the one for this very reason to murder Nolan?

Ava working hard on her YouTube channel. Nolan suggests that she takes the easy route and hire someone else to do the hard work. When you come from privilege, this is a common thing to say. He seems to downplay Ava’s ability, getting Dylan to write her paper and now saying that she should get someone else to do the hard work. Ava is a strong character, she stands up for herself and claims that she wants to take care of her own branding. She wants to reclaim her surname Jalali, and have people think of her not her father. Nolan constantly talks about his perfect family image, or at least how it looks to outsiders and claims that Ava will be somebody just by being herself.

We finally met Claire Hotchkiss, as Thebestplltheories pointed out the way she’s filmed to be looking down at Nolan, promoting her power. Claire opens with how she saw Ava and that she doesn’t want him involved with the Jalali family. He’s on the right track with Caitlin. Claire wanted Nolan to lead an extra practice and Nolan objects claiming that he wants time to himself. A healthy thing but his mother says that he can handle it because he always does.

Claire takes a phone call. “I want active surveillance of BH5.” “That’s your son.” BH5? Is Nolan under some kind of brand name or is BH5 the name for the group Ava, Caitlin, Dylan, Nolan And...? Why would Claire want to watch her son? That’s a little strange. I have a feeling that it has nothing to do with Ava.

We then have Alison telling Ava that this “extremely thoughtful and layered “ essay wasn’t written about Ava, and asks if Nolan or Dylan wrote it. The conversation then turns to Ava’s absent father and mother. Ava tells Alison that “My dad had to run, my mum chose to bail.” Which we are then taken to a flashback of an FBI agent interrogating Ava about her parents leaving and Ava claiming that they left her with everything - They did leave money though. Ava then tells Alison that if she wants to help, she should leave her and her friends alone and let it go. And again, Mona is watching. Mona is always watching. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mona has some device that allowed her to hear that conversation.

The party scene. Alison is standing by the window looking down at the party below - Caitlin and Nolan look heated with Caitlin attempting to storm off and Nolan grabbing her arm to pull her back. The camera then pans to Claire joining Alison by the window, “it’s quite the view isn’t it. When my daughter was little she loved to sit up here and watch our parties.” Then Claire starts talking about why she was impressed by Alison and wanted to recruit her. Her academic record? - Wait, girl goes missing and misses most of high school, to my knowledge doesn’t go to college.. pretty impressive academic record. Her essay, and her mean girl to mentor journey. So, Claire sees a comparison between Taylor and Alison and mentions, mean girl to mentor journey. This says to me that Taylor was probably a mean girl. Alison undermining her teen years as nothing to the pressure that the BHU students are under? Umm Alison you literally bullied many students; one of which had a personal vendetta against you and drove you to fake your death for years whilst she proceeded to torture the other girls and then when they thought that was over, your sister took over and built a real life dollhouse where she tortured your friends whilst you were behind bars. Not to mention that this again persisted with your ex husband who was under a fake identity and inseminated you with your fiancé?? Wife??? eggs. Yes, these people so have it harder than you and the other girls. So, then Claire proceeds to talk about just how similar Taylor is to Alison and how the death of her daughter motivated her to keep her students safe. I.e the security system, but suicide usually indicates a mental health problem and I’ve not yet seen any posters up about mental health or even talk of mental so far.. Mona and Claire really keep reassuring that Alison is safe at BHU.

The whole Dylan - Nolan situation. Dylan sees Andrew and Nolan socialising and asks Nolan why he’s talking to Andrew to which Nolan says that he hasn’t told him anything and that Dylan is hot when he’s angry. Dylan then says that he doesn’t want to see him angry. Question raised that I answered one of my followers last night, Am I under the impression that Nolan is biesexual? Honestly, I believe that Nolan is a manipulator, a toxic one who stops at nothing to get what he wants. He could very well be a closet bisexual (I’m a bisexual myself) but I think that he’s using Dylan’s sexuality against him if anything. Claire wanting Caitlin and Nolan to be next to each other in the perfectionism photo. Ava then subtly reaches for Nolan’s hand which he pulls away as his mother makes eye contact with Ava. She knows.

Alison joins Caitlin on the (bridge?) and compliments her on her provocative insight paper and says that it encouraged to take a look into her file. Alison brings up her opposition to capital punishment and that Caitlin almost made her believe that murder could be justified. Then shady Caitlin jokes that her paper was a little too inspired by her fantasy to get rid of someone - Nolan. Who ends up murdered at the end of the episode. We know by now that Alison DiLaurentis doesn’t take lies and bullshit. She saw right through Caitlin and Nolan’s happy couple image and offers her help. Caitlin then tells her that her asking questions will complicate things. Alison tells her that she knows about manipulation and compares her past self to Nolan. Caitlin tells Alison that Nolan will do whatever it takes to ensure that his mother knows she has the perfect son.

Mona leaves a couple that she’s touring to watch Nolan trek into the woods whilst she sips her wine. We see Nolan check for a BHU connection? There isn’t one and he proceeds to take a phone call. This means that there’s a system on the smartphones, possibly just Nolan’s that notifies someone - Miss Hotchkiss? Whoever Mona is working for? about what he’s doing on his phone - recording calls and messages. There’s no connection in the woods. He’s talking to Taylor, and we can’t hear her side of the conversation but this is how imagine it

Nolan: I need to see you

Taylor: Nolan, we’ve talked about this. It’s too dangerous. Mum’s close to knowing

Nolan: Yesh I was afraid of that. She’s ordered surveillance on me and she’ll be watching Ava too

Taylor: Break up with your girlfriend I’m bored.. (Kidding)

Taylor: She never gives it a break, this is exactly I did what I did.. You need to leave Ava. You need to protect her from our mother

Nolan: We need to meet

After this, Alison is talking to Dylan about his talent with words and Dylan says that that’s what it takes to be here. Alison then proceeds to bring up Nolan, how she knows about him and Ava. Asking why he’s manipulating Dylan into doing their papers. We get a flashback of Dylan and Nolan talking about how Nolan took a subject he wasn’t interested in to make conversation with his mother at family dinners. He constantly strives to impress her. Dylan gets envious and brings up how his family are far away therefore he doesn’t share that luxury and Nolan brings up Andrew. And then Nolan manipulates Dylan into cheating on Andrew. Alison knows that game “I know this is important to you, so you can tell me that you wrote those papers or goodbye to music hunny.” Wasnt quite like that but they share a moment when Dylan explains that he came from a small town and he wasn’t accepted for being “different” AKA gay and that music was his escape. It gives him a purpose.

Ava deserves so much better. We know that scene was staged but, I still feel for her because he died with her not knowing that he was protecting her.

Alison researching the Hotchkiss family. That clever and beautifully shot scene where we see her reflection in the laptop screen next to Taylor. This is like all the mirror scenes on PLL such as when the girls search Mona’s room for clues and we see half of Spencer’s face through the crack of the mirror - representing Alex. I genuinely hope there’s no more secret siblings.

Who followed Nolan to Taylor’s hideout? As Nolan enters the gateway, a white car parks up in the drive. Who is in that car?

Taylor is alive. That much was obvious. Nolan and Taylor are talking about how Nolan broke up with her to protect her. Taylor has a system where she monitors the BHU security system and Taylor claims that it can be proved that they’re using Beacon Guard to spy on a select few students. Nolan claims to know someone that they can trust - Alison ? Mona? .

Ava calls a meeting between herself, Dylan and Caitlin about putting a stop to Nolan’s manipulation. Going to Alison’s faculty - with Alison to take him down. Then comes the conversion of Killing Nolan

Caitlin: “I have fantasised about him drying in lots of different ways.”

Dylan: “Agatha Christie wasn’t wrong you guys. Murder can be justified.”

Ava: “Yeah But that’s just fantasy.”

Dylan: Drowning in that pool of his

Ava: “Heart arrack whilst he’s hooking up with some dumb ass bitch.”

Caitlin: “That’s inspired.”

Ava: Yuh, by recent events.”

Caitlin: “We push him off the roof. And it gives him a second or two to think about dying before he’s empaled on the spikes at the bottom.” Then there’s a rustle. Someone heard that conversation.

Mona in her car saying to the mirror. Who is she talking to by the way? “I think I’m doing a really good job, don’t you?” And then Alison fully parallels Hanna by smacking her car bonnet. “WHY AM I REALLY HERE?” Damn Ali D chill out. And then Alison is in Mona’s car talking about how it’s not just Nolan and his mother and Taylor could be her doppelgänger? You aren’t Elena sweetie. The physical similarities? Selected before Mona knew what she looked like. That’s not true though is it Mona? Alison saying what we’re all thinking and a little hint from Marlene here “Did you learn nothing from Rosewood, there are no coincidences.” Mona launches into this story of how Taylor cracked under the pressure and that’s why Alison is here, to help people like her and that’s all we get from that conversation

Another birds eye view. Somebody Is watching the three amigos walk together. “Maybe if there wasn’t a Nolan we’d be friends.” Taking a moment to refer back to the Agatha Christie novel “One amongst them is the killer.” All three want to him to disappear. The song as they all leave and turn back “Always said I was a good kid.” “Always said I had a way with words.” Significantly the camera focuses on Dylan at this point. He is the smartest one. Nolan is on the roof, watching them walk away. Nolan on the roof, “Sorry I’ve been an asshole to you.” Okay personally, I can’t rule out Caitlin yet. Whose to say that the scene where she walks away happens around like 5 minutes before or 10? Giving her time to get up to the roof. We have no timeline here. It could’ even be Mona. It’s unclear. He confirms that it’s not only about him, Taylor’s alive and they need help. Who would they need help from? It’s someone who’s Nolan has been horrible to but he needs their help. Alison lives in Taylor’s house so it’s plausible that Taylor wrote that “They’re watching you” message and covered it in wallpaper or Claire covered it. So we don’t actually see Nolan fall. We don’t see the timeline. Whose to know that someone didn’t just stumble across this and didn’t see it physically happen in front of them. Ava has the most emotional reaction, Mona is extremely casual and Caitlin appears and looks at Jeremy. Jeremy. Hmm. Okay, so Ava and Dylan are gonna suspect Caitlin. The death happened in the exact way, Caitlin imagined after all. There’s a few ways this can go. A few different theories.

1. I saw a post on here yesterday where someone was comparing the bell tower deaths to Nolan falling off the roof. Marion also was pushed off the roof by Bethany. It’s an occurring theme to be pushed off a roof in this show. Marion, Ian off the bell tower and Charlotte. Mona was involved in two of these. This can be enough to suspect Mona. It’s in her character after all. Plus, Mona could’ve done it on orders of whoever she’s communicating with through mirrors

2. The conversation on the roof didn’t actually happen. Nolan lured someone up to the roof, somehow got them to agree to wear a Nolan mask and shoved them off the roof. He was the one that overheard Caitlin’s fantasy and recreated it to make the other two suspect her. He will now spend his days in hiding with his sister, cracking the mystery of the security system and such

3. The timeline isn’t clear. Caitlin had many shady moments in the first episode. She was loud about her fantasy to make Nolan disappear and expressed it on multiple occasions i.e “if someone hurt someone I love then yeah, I’d hurt them back.” telling Alison was a little too inspired by her fantasy to get rid of someone, Nolan and saying that she imagines Nolan dying in many ways, and the way that she described actually happened. Now, just because it seems a little obvious doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. Nolan watches them all depart whilst he’s standing on the roof. Caitlin could’ve met him on the roof around 10 minutes later where she then pushed him because she believes that murder CAN be justified. She was one of the last people to turn up outside the university to see Nolan’s body after all.

The Mona theory may not add up, if she is communicating with someone through the mirrors as she’s asking “What the hell just happened. Was this our fault?” A person in a big room full of security things answers her telling her to go to her safe place. See, this can be interpreted in various ways - Mona has a personality disorder - This has never been said OUT LOUD. But she could really be talking to her other personality asking if this is our fault then being told to go to her a safe place, something therapists promote. But if she is communicating then, it can’t really make sense for that to Mona killing Nolan.

[prettylittleliarsxxxx]

Alison DiLaurentis, PLL: The Perfectionists ‘Pilot’ (1x01)