Pretty Little Liars’ 2nd season premiere creates more questions than it answers

Just when I thought I’d gotten my head around the intricacies of the first season of Pretty Little Liars, the second season premiere comes along and leaves my head spinning again. Oh, how I’ve missed you, Liars! (You, too, “A.”)

You know you’ve gotten yourself into a mess when even the cop assigned to a case has to pull you into a seedy alley in order to “get your story straight” before going into the station for questioning. That’s something I guess I always take for granted: that the cops will always come from a place of honesty and ethics. But, oddly enough, “A” still seems to be the only one who can bring justice to Rosewood.

I mentioned in my review of the first season finale that sometimes you can work yourself up into such a frenzy that you don’t know what’s real and fake, right and wrong, and so on. So are the girls suffering from such stress that they really do believe that Ian is dead, even though he’s not? Or was what we saw (Ian hanging from the ropes in the church) the truth?

I know they’re not lying; they believe that Ian’s dead and that someone moved the body. But what is the reality? I’m not really certain how much of a psychological drama PLL actually is — in other words, I’m not sure how much is supposed to be left up to interpretation. If we consider the show a mystery rather than a “mind-bending thriller” (yes, I totally got that genre category from my Netflix instant queue), we should probably take it at face value that Spencer did not hallucinate the entire encounter, from black-hoodied stranger to Ian’s death … right? Oh, I wish I could just live inside Marlene King‘s head for a day!

Now onto the relationships.

Can I get a high five from Hannah for not turning into a pile of jelly the second Caleb told her he loved her? (Okay, she waited five seconds for him to leave before breaking down, but still.) Instead of taking the predictable route, PLL decides to keep Hannah as a strong character who isn’t going to just take one apology (technically two, including the letter) to make it right. How many episodes will it take? The writers are going to have me practically begging for them to get back together!

Onto Aria and Ezra. To be honest, I could hardly pay attention to what Ezra was saying during their conversation about Jackie because of those abs staring me in the face! (Although part of me thinks they might have been a spray-on six-pack.) Does that sound superficial? It’s alright, because I’m sure I’m not in the minority here.

Spencer and Toby’s story made me sad. I was upset that they didn’t get to see each other for almost the entire episode. I’m glad he finally showed up in the end … despite the fact that he scared the crap out of me and that I thought Spencer was going to accidentally stab him with that kitchen knife.

I’m glad these girls are finally getting therapy. And I had not one, but two near heart attacks during their sessions (first, when they got the false-alarm simultaneous texts that everyone thought must have been from “A,” and second, when Spencer saw Ezra’s diploma in Dr. Sullivan’s office and realized that “A” knew they were seeing a counselor.

Here are some things that I’m currently trying to figure out:

• What’s going on with Jenna and Garrett?
• What’s going on with Noel “the creep” Kahn and Mona? (Side note: his scary theme music is highly entertaining.)
• Where is Ian?
• What role will Jackie Molina play in Season 2?
• Now that “A” has the key to Ezra’s apartment, what other stunts will he or she pull before he gets a chance to change the lock?
• Will the girls attempt to seek further help from Dr. Sullivan despite her terminating their therapy?
• Is Melissa in on Ian’s game?
• Will the Liars’ families insist that they take some time apart from one another? If so, how will they cope with the stress alone?
• What will the Liars do now that ‘A’ erased the files on Emily’s computer?

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited for this season!

Pretty Little Quotes:

“Look at Suzy Lipton struttin’ her bony ass in those skinny jeans. I heard she lost all that weight drinking breastmilk.” — Mona
“What?!” — Hannah
“Boob milk. You can buy it online!” — Mona

“Most of my life I have felt alone, even when I was with people. That is, until I met you.” — Caleb, to Hannah

“Caleb really did hurt me. But this hurts more.” — Hannah, to Mona, after finding out she kept Caleb’s letter a secret from her

“That’s not a Playboy, that’s a Playbill.” — Aria, telling Hannah that she’s not seeing a dirty magazine in the photo of Ezra’s apartment

“How is ‘A’ always one step ahead of us?” — Aria, after the Liars discover Ezra’s diploma in Dr. Sullivan’s office
“Yeah, I’m starting to think that bitch has superpowers.” — Hannah

Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose
on Jun 14, 2011 @ 22:35 EST5EDT