Pretty Little Liars: Summer School on Max picks up right where Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin left off: the stalker known as A has been apprehended, but there’s no real peace of mind, because strange things are still afoot in Millwood, PA. Our main cast is coming to grips with the fact that they’re all basically the final girls in a horror movie, because even though A is locked up, there’s a new slasher in town who seems hell-bent on finishing what A started.
Opening Shot: It’s Christmas morning and Imogen (Bailee Madison) and Tabby (Chandler Kinney) are together exchanging presents as Imogen’s baby, Estelle, snoozes next to them. In a callback to the end of last season, the girls seem content and safe knowing that their stalker, A, has been caught…until Kelly Beasley (Mallory Bechtel) calls them, frantic, to tell them that A escaped police custody and has gone on a killing spree, murdering Kelly’s father, Sheriff Beasley, and Chip.
The Gist: With A back on the loose, the core group of friends (who I’ll refer to as The Liars) targeted by this unidentified assailant are terrified. (This assailant was eventually identified in the Original Sin finale as Archie Waters, the secret, illegitimate son of high school principal Marshall Clanton and brother of Angela Waters, the young woman who killed herself after relentless bullying from The Liars’ mothers when they were in high school.) The girls theorize that Archie would only go back on a killing spree to tie up loose ends, i.e. killing everyone who was left alive in the school gym at the end of last season.
But because The Liars are savvy, they deduce when and where Archie will be on New Year’s Eve using Tabby’s Meta Horror Movie Logic™ and Archie is apprehended, again, and will face trial and everyone will be safe from him… At least for now. We then pick up in June; A is still on trial for his crimes, and each of The Liars is struggling in some way. Imogen is anxious that her baby, Estelle, adopted by a local couple, is a sitting duck if A is acquitted. Noa (Maia Reficco) has been living in her boyfriend Shawn’s house, but Shawn’s mother is less than hospitable, so Noa moves out on her own for the summer. Kelly has become an evangelical Christian, choosing to spend her time in church and away from her old friends. Faran (Zaria) appears to be giving up on her dream of being a dancer by turning down an offer to attend a prestigious dance academy. Tabby, who made a film about her assault by Chip, feels silenced after Chip’s mother serves her a cease and desist letter. And Mouse (Malia Pyles) is obsessed with the conspiracy theory/true crime website Spooky Spaghetti, where fans post theories about A and his life. A loose serial killer plus all their other trauma has resulted in the five main Liars (excluding Kelly) failing their Spring semester and needing to take summer school, meaning that any grand plans for fun and adventure are on hold for now.
That would all be fine, except for the fact that in her internet searches, Mouse stumbled on a particularly threatening theory that A’s mother, Rose Waters, who was unhinged and abusive toward Archie, has returned to Millwood to Avenge him. Mouse reveals that the local lore has it that if you say “Bloody Rose” five times in a mirror, she will appear, so The Liars try to conjure her (WHY? Haven’t they had enough!?). Even though Rose doesn’t appear before them, she makes her presence known before long.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There’s the obvious connection to the original Pretty Little Liars, but thanks to the pop culture references and the way the show calls out the very horror movie tropes it uses, it’s taking a major cue from the Scream franchise, too.
Our Take: Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who has also helmed Riverdale and Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, has a knack for creating dark, retro-looking but also modern universes that manage to appear dreamlike and beautiful while depicting our worst nightmares. On each of his shows, it’s as if he’s saying, regular high school is a breeze, wait till you get a load of what these particular kids have to deal with. On this rebooted Pretty Little Liars, the generational trauma caused by the Liars’ mothers has turned their otherwise normal world into a blood-soaked slasher movie they can’t seem to escape.
The fact that the five Liars on the show are in group therapy together for the shared trauma the endured last season is the grounding force of the show, an acknowledgement that this creepy place they inhabit is rooted in the real world. In therapy, they validate and give voice to their problems, but they struggle to find normalcy or solutions. That dark, dreamy setting Aguirre-Sacasa and co-creator Lindsay Calhoon Bring have come up with exudes fantasy qualities – the fact that Mouse suggests they conjure Bloody Rose in the mirror feels like we’re veering into the supernatural, but no one truly had to conjure anyone, the killer was lurking there the whole time. The new season brings a new killer, new romances and friend dynamics, and enough changes from last season to make it feel like it’s not just treading the same ground.
Sex and Skin: For high school sophomores, there’s a decent amount of implied sex, making out, and hot girl summer/skin-baring wardrobe, but nothing scandalous.
Parting Shot: [SPOILER ALERT} Amateur sleuths Nick and Sabrina approach Bloody Rose’s cabin in the woods. When they don’t find any sign of Rose there, they decide to have sex there instead, but while they’re getting it on, Rose appears and, well, that’s the end of Nick and Sabrina.
Performance Worth Watching: Call me crass but if I have to pick a favorite member of the cast, it’s Maia Reficco, whose foul-mouthed Noa is up there with Susie Essman in terms of artfully delivered “fucks.”
Memorable Dialogue: “Please don’t break up with me because I’m insane,” Mouse tells her boyfriend Ash, who is increasingly concerned about her obsession with following the leads posted to Spooky Spaghetti.
Our Call: STREAM IT! The Liars said it themselves in the first episode of this season of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School – this season, they are all the Final Girls in the horror movie. With a new killer on the loose and anxiety running high, it feels like the stakes are even higher this time around, because in horror movie sequels, sometimes the rules change. Final Girls usually survive, but they still have to run for their lives.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
