Dr. Sullivan gets a taste of A’s medicine on Pretty Little Liars

Last night’s episode of Pretty Little Liars was kinda weird. However, certain developments occurred which provided us with some new information. Namely:

1. Hanna’s evil stepsister-to-be, Kate, is still evil, and had no intentions of making up with Hanna. Although she does play a phony nice person really well, doesn’t she? She had me fooled. Thank goodness for Hanna’s grandma, who reminds me of a disoriented version of Paula Deen, coupled with the sleuthing skills of Brenda Lee Johnson.

2. Garrett is not A. I must admit that I did not come to this revelation on my own. It was my husband, who only watches bits and pieces (and does so very reluctantly), who mentioned this. How do we know? At the end of last week’s episode, during the end credits, A is taking an appointment with Dr. Sullivan. In this week’s episode, Dr. Sullivan doesn’t recognize Garrett when he comes to investigate who might have bugged her office.  (By the way, hearing Sullivan’s “And I’m … the first person you’ve told about this” on a loop on her voice mail message was just plain freaky.)

I suppose that if Spencer’s right — if A is actually a group of people — Garrett could be involved, but just wasn’t the one to go see Dr. Sullivan. Which makes me wonder if the A we keep seeing in the end credits is always the same person.

3. Spencer’s dad is, as we already suspected, involved in some shady legal business with Alison’s grandmother’s will, and is covering for her family.

So, are we to believe that A killed Dr. Sullivan? Threatened her and made her leave town? Of course it would happen like this. Not only because A doesn’t let anything go unnoticed — or unpunished — but also because that would have been an awfully easy end to the story.

But what’s not easy to accept? Well, quite a few things, most of which revolved around Dr. Sullivan.

First of all, the fact that Emily would have run through the woods at the break of dawn to Dr. Sullivan’s office; that the doctor would actually be there at that hour; and that the other three girls would have also had the idea to go to her at that time … that’s all very hard to believe.

Then, that Dr. Sullivan would be looking through her notes and happen to match up “nosey bitches” from those notes and the photo of her vandalized wall where “Nosey bitches die” was painted. (Also, I thought it was spelled “nosy.” But that’s neither here nor there.)

Finally, that Dr. Sullivan would actually call Emily at that time — it must have been at nine or ten o’clock — and then ask her and her friends to come into the office right away? Sorry, that’s just not logical or believable. She could have told Emily over the phone, talked to the girls’ parents, called the police, or just waited until morning to see the girls. Any of those things made more sense than to ask the girls to come in — and to ask Emily to be the messenger to ask all of them, as opposed to calling each family separately. So, of course, when they show up at the pitch-black office — including a probably still-drunk Hanna; that’s super responsible — they get into the building … how?

Another thing that kind of annoyed me was the way the girls treated Jenna after the assembly, especially when Emily very rudely asked her to “move her stick.” Weren’t they the ones who did something to Jenna first, even if it was accidental?

I kept thinking how ironic it was that Dr. Sullivan’s speech about bullying was based on her conversation with the Liars. They are, in fact, the most popular girls in school. And it’s really easy for a bunch of rich, well-dressed, admired young women to make a doctor believe what they’re saying is true and that they’re not to blame for anything.

Bullying is a really sneaky phenomenon. Sometimes the most formidable bullies are the ones who are constantly trying to put the blame on someone else. I once knew a girl who always played the victim, despite her status as probably the most popular girl in her class. She always tortured everyone, but she did so discreetly, and she manipulated other friends — even teachers and guidance counselors — into thinking that she was the one being bullied.

Not to say that the Liars are still bullies. But Ali was. So I really don’t blame Jenna for what she said about Alison and about the assembly in general. I still see Jenna as a threat, but I don’t see her as a bully. She’s just extremely smart and perceptive. It’s just because she’s so sneaky and cunning that the girls are flustered by her.

I felt really badly for Ella in this episode, but also for Aria. How could Ella ask her daughter to hide what happened between Mike and their mother? I’m hoping that Mike came downstairs to ask for help, so that he (and the rest of their family) won’t have to suffer anymore.

I am so looking forward to the summer finale next week! And if show creator Marlene King‘s tweet is any indication, we should be getting a lot of answers!

Pretty Little Quotes:

“I just got to wipe the dew from my lily.” – Hanna’s grandma, on the way to the ladies’ room

“What did you think of the shrink’s speech? Too little too late, huh?” – Jenna, asking the Liars if they attended Dr. Sullivan’s assembly on cyber-bullying
“What’s that supposed to mean?” – Aria
“Well, it’s a shame Saint Sullivan wasn’t around when your friend Alison was ruling these halls.” – Jenna

“[To Kate] You think you’re pretty sly, don’tcha? [To Hanna] This one was guzzling water. You had the bar all to yourself.” – Hanna’s grandma, after a sniff test of both of Kate’s water bottles

Clacked by Rachel Blum-Jose
on Aug 24, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT