Warning: This article contains spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, episode 5, “Chapter Sixteen: Friday The 13th.”
Summary
ThePretty Little Liarsfranchise just copied one of its most frustrating parts of the “A” mystery ten years later in the showPretty Little Liars: Summer School.Based on the books by Sara Shepard, the originalPretty Little Liarsseries ran from 2010 to 2017, putting the Liars through torture and blackmail at the hands of “A.” Because of the soapy nature of the show,Pretty Little Liarsintroduced plot twiststhat revealed many characters as either “A” or part of the A-Team. Not every “A” reveal went over well, and they didn’t always stick for long.
Throughout the series,Pretty Little Liarsalso revealed other major “A” suspects as having different ulterior motives, rather than being the big bad. This meant everyone was a suspect, and viewers couldn’t trust the “A” reveals when they occurred.Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin– which changed the title toPretty Little Liars: Summer Schoolin season 2 – has largely avoided this tactic of pointing the finger at everyone. However,Summer Schoolepisode 5,“Chapter Fifteen: Friday the 13th,” copied one of the most frustrating parts of the “A” mystery, ten years after the original storyline aired.
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InPretty Little Liarsseason 4 – which debuted in 2014 – the show started building up Ezra Fitz as a decent “A” suspect. Unlike others that the show pointed to, Ezra had been there from the beginning, and he had access to information that the villain was using against the Liars. The Ezra “A” reveal made perfect sense while also being devastating. Unfortunately, the writers walked back this reveal, making it so that Ezra was writing a book about Alison’s disappearance instead of being part of the A-Team.Pretty Little Liars: Summer Schoolepisode 5also pulled this move with Dr. Sullivan.
The new Liars soon find that thePretty Little Liarscrossover character recorded their sessions without their consent, undoubtedly “A”-like behavior.
Dr. Sullivan has been a central part of Summer School, guiding the new Liars through the aftermath of the Millwood Massacre. However, their perception of her changes when Imogen finds Rose Waters' Radley file, which reveals Dr. Sullivan as her former therapist. The new Liars soon find thatthePretty Little Liarscrossover characterrecorded their sessions without their consent, undoubtedly “A”-like behavior. Unfortunately,the show wrote off all her sketchy behavior in the next episode with her assertion that she was writing a book. This is a ripoff from the original show and not a particularly good one.
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The Dr. Sullivan Book Plot Reaffirms Pretty Little Liars’ Issue With Characters Abusing Their Power
Pretty Little Liars Endorsed Problematic Characters
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sinwent to great lengths to reverse the show’s ethical issues.
The originalPretty Little Liarsendorsed characters abusing their positions of power in order to get what they wanted. Prime examples of this include the NAT club spying on the young girls, Garrett dating one of the suspects in his case, and everything involving Wren Kingston. However, the worst example is that of Ezra Fitz. Ezra was always predatory due to his relationship with Aria – which she really couldn’t consent to. However, the revelation that he took the teaching job and got into that relationship to write a book about Ali, his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend, makes the predatory behavior significantly worse.
Ian Harding, the actor who plays Ezra Fitz, has spoken out against Aria and Ezra’s relationship in aCosmopolitaninterview.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sinwent to great lengths to reverse the show’s ethical issues. Tabby’s mom rebuked Wes for trying to come on to her daughter. Sheriff Beasley forcing the teens into sexual acts is treated as a horrific act, ultimately killing him.Summer Schooleven destroyed Ezra Fitzby reversing Ezra and Aria’s adoption of Estelle due to Ezra’s “weird vibes.” Unfortunately,this effort is less impactful because Dr. Sullivan abuses her position of power as a therapist, reminding audiences of all the horrible abuses of power approved of by the original Pretty Little Liars show.
Dr. Sullivan Being Bloody Rose Would Fix The Book Storyline
Dr. Sullivan Could Be Lying About Writing A Book
There is one major difference between the originalPretty Little LiarsandSummer Schoolbook storylines. WhilePretty Little Liarsshows a copy of Ezra’s book,Summer Schoolhas yet to produce any book from Dr. Sullivan. The lack of proof leaves opens up the possibility that she lied about why she was taping the sessions with the new Liars. If she was actually Bloody Rose, the word-for-word records of everything the Liars said would make more sense. Moreover,the show wouldn’t be truly copying the originalPretty Little Liars, only using the parallel as a fakeout.
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Dr. Sullivan asPretty Little Liars' Bloody Rosewould also explain why she breached other ethical boundaries, like the conflict of interest in counseling both the new Liars and Rose Waters. Also, if she were Bloody Rose Waters, Dr. Sullivan’s abuse of power wouldn’t be endorsed by the show, since she would be the villain torturing Imogen, Mouse, Faran, Tabby, and Noa. Taping sessions is nothing in comparison to murdering multiple people. Rather than being like Ezra,Summer School’s Dr. Sullivan would be more equivalent to Wilden or Mary Drake DiLaurentis – two characters whoPretty Little Liarspainted as immoral and wrong.
