Phase two of the experiment has begun. Now we just need a season two of Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists to figure out what’s going on.
Throughout its freshman season, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists has maintained a pretty perfect balance of old and new. It hasn’t forgotten its predecessor, but it’s also established its own corner of the world.
But, in its season one finale, The Perfectionists made a pretty big deviation: no one died! (You’re still on my wishlist though, Dana Booker). Instead, the finale honored a different, but just as important tradition. It gave us our real big bad.
As much as we love – and I mean love – to hate Dana Booker, she seemed like a surface-level villain all season. She was far too eager to own up to her nefarious deeds while lording them over the perfectionists; any PLL villain is much more subtle.
The real threat now is “The Professor.” In a Sherlock-Holmes-meets-War-Games twist, The Professor is the person who really killed Nolan, as part of an “experiment.” Now that Jeremy has served his purpose, the experiment is entering Phase Two.
Like any good professor, it/he/she offers the Perfectionists a prompt: what are you most afraid of?
For Ava, it’s ending up like her dad. He may have been a rockstar in another life, but in this one, Mr. Jalali is just a criminal looking to collect his score. But, as Ava points out, he didn’t raise her to be an idiot.
Thanks to a not-so-subtle prod from Booker, along with pure instinct, Ava easily intercepts the notebook with the bank accounts her father had stolen from.
It’s a heartbreaking moment to see Ava finally shun her father, but it’s certainly a huge leap forward. To cap it off, she deposits some of the money back into Zach’s account. I’m still skeptical on #Zava, but this was an undeniably cute moment.
Unfortunately, things aren’t looking great in Mona’s love life. Though she convinces Claire Hotchkiss to let her stay – because, shocker, Claire slept with Mason too – Mona still intends to stay away from Mason.
She loves her job, and having him in the picture would only fuel The Professor. So her biggest fear? Dying before she finds out The Professor’s identity. Let’s cross every body part and hope that wasn’t foreshadowing.
In order to catch The Professor though, they need to understand it. And so, Alison has jumped over to the psych department. In the process of figuring out the Professor, she might just get some insight into herself.
Could this mean some flashbacks to the time we didn’t see while Ali was missing in PLL? One can only hope.
Either way, it means visiting some dark places of Ali’s mind, and that’s what she’s most afraid of. It was one of the most heartbreaking lines of the night: “I’m afraid I’m too broken to be fixed.”
I have faith in Ali’s ability to figure things out, especially with this group as her team. Caitlin is a little more worried though – not that Ali will fail them, but that she’ll fail herself, and her moms.
Like any good future lawyer, Caitlin managed to convince her mom to let her stay in Beacon Heights. For this writer, it’s a little bittersweet. Yes, Caitlin now has the chance to develop real friendships, but she was going to intern for Senator Hastings. That would’ve made a Spencer cameo much easier.
Speaking of unexpected appearances, Dylan’s bully is in town! His name is Luke, and he mercilessly bullied Dylan in high school for being gay. Yet another “shocker” tonight – it turns out he only gave Dylan a hard time because Luke was also gay.
He swears he’s a changed person, but Dylan is clearly rattled by Luke. His fear is that he’ll have to go back home. Thanks to Claire, the ethics board is giving Dylan a second chance, so would Luke be the catalyst for Dylan’s exit?
Between that, Dana Booker’s next move, and the identity of the professor (which Zach apparently unwittingly knows), the finale certainly left us with a lot of questions.
Now we just have to hope for a season two to get some answers.