7 OG ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Moments You Missed in the ‘PLL: The Perfectionists’ Premiere
“Someone is about to snap...and kill.”
From those words alone, you know Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists is going to be a wild effing ride. And if you watched the premiere last night on Freeform, you’ll know that it definitely is.
Based on the original Pretty Little Liars series, The Perfectionists takes place a couple years after the PLL finale left off. Although Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and (maybe) Emily all departed from the series, Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) are back and more mature than ever-or are they?
Both of the Liars have left Rosewood to start fresh as faculty members at Beacon Heights University in Beacon Heights, Oregon. Along with Alison and Mona come a whole crop of new characters-including BHU students Ava Jalali (Sofia Carson), Caitlin Park-Lewis (Sydney Park), and Dylan Walker (Eli Brown). At BHU, perfection is expected, and Ava, Caitlin, and Dylan are all feeling the pressure to perform.
On top of dealing with school stress, they’re all in a complicated love/hate-rectangle with a fellow student named Nolan Hotchkiss (Chris Mason), who is part of a very rich and powerful family. Nolan is dealing with the death of his sister, Taylor, but not everything is as it seems in Beacon Heights. Sound familiar?
Even though The Perfectionists is a brand-new show, the ghosts of PLL’s past can’t help but follow. Not sure what we mean? Check out all the OG Pretty Little Liars moments you might have missed in the premiere.
Alex and Mary Drake Escaped from Mona’s Dollhouse
In the very last scene of the PLL series finale, it was revealed that Mona kidnapped Alex and Mary Drake (the evil masterminds who tortured the Liars in their “dollhouse”). Mona moved to Paris under the guise of opening a doll shop, but that was just a cover-up for her real plan to force Alex and Mary to play in her dollhouse. She certainly got her revenge, but it appears the Drakes somehow managed to free themselves from Mona’s clutches.
After showing up to Alison’s new house in Beacon Heights uninvited and wielding a giant knife (#JustMonaThings), she explains why she left France.
“That was great for awhile, but eventually the reasons I was there escaped me,” she tells Alison. And by “reasons,” she probably means Alex and Mary Drake.
Emily Is Still in the Picture...Literally
Aria, Spencer, and Hanna have all gone their separate ways, but for Emily, it’s a bit more complicated. If you remember from the PLL finale, she and Alison were engaged and happily raising their new twin girls, Lily and Grace. But since then, it hasn’t all been bliss for the couple. During a conversation with Mona, Ali vaguely explains their situation.
“Emily loves me; she just can’t get past the past,” she says. “We’re happy, and then we’re not. It all comes back to trust. But I’m not giving up.”
Emily might not be in Beacon Heights, but she’s still in the picture-like, an actual photo. As Alison unpacks her things, she places a picture of herself, Emily, and the twins on a shelf with a wistful look on her face.
TD;LR: It’s complicated.
They Paid Homage to PLL’s Famous Symbol
Hmm, that poster looks awfully familiar, doesn’t it? That’s because one of the original Liars made a very similar pose on the Pretty Little Liars poster.
Clearly the citizens of Beacon Heights have some secrets of their own.
The Theme Song Is the One You Know and Love
Not only did Alison recreate Aria’s famous shhh symbol, but The Perfectionists also uses the same iconic theme song from PLL-albeit a different, shorter version.
In the intro, an eerie voice sings, “If I show you, then I know you won’t tell what I said / ’Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”
Yep, we’re still dealing with dead people. Here’s the original version, in case you forgot:
A New Character Is Scarily Similar to Alison
Alison had her fair share of doppelgängers in PLL, but now there’s another one-with a strikingly similar story.
Alison arrives in Beacon Heights after the death of Taylor Hotchkiss, one of its residents. Both Taylor’s brother, Nolan, and her mother, Claire (Kelly Rutherford), tell Alison that she reminds them of Taylor, and Mona mentions to Alison that Ali’s house was actually owned by Taylor before she died. This leads Alison to look Taylor up online, where she sees from a photo that they look almost like twins.
But it’s not just her appearance that’s similar. Taylor supposedly committed suicide, but she’s not really dead. Sound like any other blondes you know?
The Threatening Messages Haven’t Stopped
Alex Drake might be gone (for now, anyway), but that doesn’t mean the threats have stopped. For years, the Liars were haunted by creepy anonymous messages, and now Alison is on the receiving end of a new stalker. After she found out she was living in Taylor Hotchkiss’s old house, she noticed a tear in the wallpaper. She then ripped off a good portion of the wall, which revealed an ominous warning.
“THEY’RE WATCHING” was written in what looked to be blood, and, understandably, Alison was shook. Could this be Taylor’s way of warning Alison about her suspicious family?
Mona Is Still Up to No Good
Mona might seem reformed now, but let’s not forget she was the original A. Clearly, she’s still scheming. In the beginning of the episode, she’s seen looking at and talking to herself in mirrors. Considering all the batsh*t crazy things Mona’s done in the past, this honestly doesn’t seem that weird by her standards. But later in the episode, we learn there’s actually someone else on the other end of her conversations, and she’s part of something much bigger than her job description. But is it for good this time, or for evil? You’ll have to tune in to the next episode to find out.
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