Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars — led by Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Ashley Benson, and Troian Bellisario — follows Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer, respectively, as they are stalked and tormented by a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows that holds every single one of their secrets over their heads. The series, which aired from 2010 to 2017, became a hit throughout its run, as viewers were drawn to the girls, on their own and in their friendship, and the intriguing mysteries that remained fun and exciting with many twists and turns for multiple seasons before their (usually abysmal) end. However, the inability to finish a mystery on a compelling note that actually adds up logically is just a result of a much bigger issue seen throughout the entire series, which is the writers’ inability to actually commit to their story.
Many of the plot holes introduced throughout the series are the result of a very clear shift into a new direction that the writers never intended to follow. The most atrocious example of this is the reveal in Season 3 that Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen), Spencer’s boyfriend, is part of the A-Team with the original “A”, Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish). In a twist that shocked viewers, seeing Toby’s face beneath the black hood changed everything. The signs had been there for quite some time, making it such a satisfying reveal. (At least at first.) Toby’s hatred of Alison (Sasha Pieterse) rivaled Mona’s at the time, as before she went missing Alison ensured Toby was framed for Alison’s blinding Jenna, and he was sent to juvenile detention. The signs were all there that he had been on the A-Team for quite some time: Mona had been with Hanna when Emily received a massage from A, the “pretty eyes” comments from a waitress in the Season 2 mid-season finale to an unseen A and then again in the Season 3 finale directly to Toby, and Toby being able to find Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) just so conveniently when Mona revealed herself as A and needed Dr. Sullivan to come back.
After, likely because of the backlash they received, the writers tried to press an “undo” button in the Season 4 premiere, revising history in a way that didn’t make any sense and effectively putting in motion the beginning of the end for any bit of logic on Pretty Little Liars. The massage Emily received in Season 2 is pinned on Lucas (Brendan Robinson), despite him explicitly stating that he didn’t start to help Mona until after she went to Radley in Season 3 — and, really, he had no reason (and the show didn’t give him one) to lie about that. Then, all of Toby’s actions are excused with him simply stating that he was always trying to protect Spencer, despite there being absolutely no evidence to support that claim. In fact, there’s more evidence to the contrary, as Toby took part in multiple A schemes that ultimately landed Spencer in Radley Sanitarium. But, it’s excused, and suddenly there are no issues and the writers pretend like the previous season never happened between Spencer and Toby when the fourth season begins.
Unfortunately, Toby is just one major example of this. Other prime examples of this inability to commit to a story are Alison and Ezra (Ian Harding). Like Toby, Ezra has his own spell as the notorious A in the latter half of the fourth season. While stalking the girls, he also made some questionable decisions, like revealing Spencer’s drug addiction from her confidential school file to Aria and enlisting Mona’s help to uncover information. During his time as a bad boy, we learn he had a brief romantic relationship with Alison the summer before she disappeared after she had lied about how old she was. But, all of this is walked back to reveal Ezra had never been their tormentor but had been writing a book about Alison’s supposed murder/disappearance. His past with Aria is revised to show he knew who she was when they had their meet-cute in the bar before the school year started and purposely pursued a romantic relationship with a minor. Then, again due to the backlash, this is dropped in-between seasons, and Ezra is basically immediately forgiven because he took a gunshot wound to the abdomen for the girls in New York. Ezra and Aria pick up almost immediately where they left off before she discovered the book, and everything reverts to normal without any real consequences for Ezra’s betrayal, so the writers could pretend he was still the good guy we all believed him to be before.
With Alison DiLaurentis, the eventual fifth Liar, the writers couldn’t decide until far too late whether to make Alison evil or not after her return to Rosewood at the beginning of Season 5. There’s so much back-and-forth over this, with nearly half of the fifth season dedicated to showing Alison as an antagonist in the girls’ story. Then, in Season 6, both before and after the five-year time jump, Alison chooses her long-lost sibling over her friends at every turn — the sibling being the person who has been torturing her supposed best friends, having kidnapped them and locked them away in an underground dollhouse. It’s revealed that Alison had been petitioning the court to have Charlotte (Vanessa Ray) released from the day she was admitted to Welby, a hospital for the mentally ill. However, in the midst of Alison’s unforgivable choices that caused the other girls to suffer, the writers couldn’t decide on if Alison should remain as part of the group with the other Liars or not. Eventually, like with Toby and Ezra, all of Alison’s misdeeds are washed away and excused, so she can be best friends with the girls again.
On the other hand, in their attempt to never make anyone we know actually bad and irredeemable, the writers completely destroyed whatever stories they were trying to tell with Mona. They could never commit to a path to follow with Mona. When Mona allows the girls to figure out she’s A, the season ends with a voiceover from Mona about how things are going exactly as she and her team wanted. Because they change Toby’s involvement on the A-Team, this loses all meaning as we’re then supposed to believe Mona didn’t have anyone on her side at that point. Later, after Charlotte takes over as A, Mona starts building toward an actual redemption story. She has a real romance with Aria’s brother Mike (Cody Christian) and is consistently helping the Liars as their lives are threatened.
Mona’s attempt to help them, by faking her death so she can secretly uncover A’s identity, even leads her to be trapped in CeCe’s dollhouse for months longer than the rest of the girls. It’s only Mona’s recon and knowledge of the dollhouse — based on hard-learned experience — that allows the Liars to escape as quickly and relatively safely as they do. But, this growth is completely wiped away by the writers using Mona as a scapegoat and pinning two major mysteries on her. We learn, despite the many issues in the logic, that Mona hit Bethany Young over the head with the shovel before Melissa (Torrey Devitto) buried her the night Alison went missing, and that Mona accidentally killed CeCe in the flash-forward. Thus, everything Mona had done to grow from the past and all she had done to help the Liars is wiped away… all because the writers refused to follow through on making anyone else bad.
There are numerous other supporting characters that were harmed by the writers’ inability to commit to basically any story, too. Whenever it is convenient, the writers make all the characters look suspicious, but it eventually stops without any resolution. Melissa is a shining example of this, as she may be the person the girl suspected the most throughout the show’s run, and the girls’ suspicion suddenly caused that person to act incredibly shady. Another example is Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok), an antagonist for the girls from the very beginning that, like Mona, would have moments where she had turned over a new leaf before turning into their top suspect in a matter of episodes. The list goes on, and it is exactly why basically none of the stories — especially none of the mysteries — on Pretty Little Liars were ever solved in a fulfilling way. Aside from Mona, the other Big Bads turned out to be characters who we either didn’t see enough to care about or, in the case of Alex Drake (also played by Bellisario), somebody we and the girls had never met. The writers made everybody and their mother seem sketchy in Rosewood but ultimately were too afraid to follow through on the seeds they had planted along the way.
After seven long seasons of the series, nothing makes sense. Every bad action was blamed on Mona or a character that happened to be dead already, like Wilden (Bryce Johnson) and Jessica DiLaurentis (Andrea Parker), as scapegoats. This happened even when it didn’t make sense, like the fact that the writers changed Wilden’s age about four times throughout the series, the last time being his involvement in the events of the night Alison went missing. The fact that nothing adds up, and every story is riddled with plot holes is absolutely due to the fact that the writers wouldn’t commit to any of the stories they were telling. Their refusal to make any other characters bad makes so much of the show pointless, as the girls spend so much time suspecting various characters with believable reasons for torturing them for naught.
Pretty Little Liars shined with the girls’ friendship but failed intensely with the mystery on all accounts. Now five years after the series ended, it is incredibly frustrating to think back about the wasted potential of the fascinating stories, like Toby helping Mona as A and the ramifications of that, which are later undone. By the end of the show, nothing makes sense because the writers refused to commit to any of their stories. The writers’ only real commitment was to the friendship between Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer, and that is the only reason to bother rewatching the show.
Hopefully, the HBO Max spinoff Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin will put more effort into their mysteries.