Pretty Little Liars: Summer School Successfully Brings Out Scares Beyond "A"

In its season two premiere, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School played with the loose ends of Archie Waters, or "A's," escape from police custody. However, season two also makes the interesting decision to evade the more predictable route of letting him run rampant by actually catching him.

In doing so, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School sets up its next Big Bad, Bloody Rose Waters, another slasher serial killer haunting Millwood. However, this time, as of season two, there are no mysterious or dangerous messages tagged with "A's" signature.

Instead, season two sets up a world outside of the mystery of "A," which allows the series to expand on the lore of the Waters family origins and the lengths the series is willing to go to lean into its horror genre roots and place its leading Final Girls in mortal peril.

Rather than suggesting that running from "A" is just a part of the normal high school experience, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School actually addresses the trauma the five main girls experienced from their Final Girl days, especially Imogen, who faces concerns about the well-being and safety of the baby she gave away for adoption, and Tabby, who still faces rage surrounding how she and Imogen never saw justice for being raped by Chip.

The girls are even shown to be hesitant in giving out their phone numbers, which plays into showing that this series is not behaving that undergoing near death experiences and being stalked is only a minor inconvenience when it comes to studying for final exams.

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School does not hold back on the scares or brutal killings, as it takes out a handful of people in its opening two hours with the promise of more to come. Potentially moving beyond the original "A" as a villain may be a step outside what the Pretty Little Liars brand is known for, but it gives this new iteration the chance to spread its wings and define itself not only by its choice of leaning into the horror genre, but by expanding on the villains, which opens the doors for new characters, new mysteries, and new motives to take center stage.

While Pretty Little Liars: Summer School may not have seen the last of the notorious "A" villain, this series is proving that it knows how to keep things exciting.