Pretty Little Liars EPs Unpack Summer School Finale, From [Spoiler]’s Death to That Chilling Ending

By Andy Swift

Andy Swift

Executive Editor

@AndySwift

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June 20, 2024 8:00 am

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Spoiler alert: We’re about to reveal the ending of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School. If you haven’t streamed Episode 8 yet, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The second season of Max‘s Pretty Little Liars reboot reached a horrifying conclusion on Thursday with the long-awaited unmasking of Bloody Rose, the somewhat surprising reveal of her accomplice, and the death of a beloved character. Just another week in Millwood!

Let’s start with Bloody Rose, who was revealed to be none other than Mrs. Langsbury, just as Tabby suspected. With the help of her psychotic sidekick (more on him later), Chip’s mother aimed to clear her son’s name by having Tabby recount her accusations as part a live-streamed horror event. But Tabby, being the bad-ass final girl that she is, refused to change her story, once again confirming her and Imogen’s sexual assaults to the world.

Following a near-fatal confrontation, both Mrs. Langsbury and her associate were put behind bars, but this was hardly an “all’s well that ends well” situation. Not only are most of the Liars’ relationships in shambles (except for Tabby and Christian!), but there’s at least one — and more likely several — key threats still on the loose, leaving us with lots of questions about the future of this not-yet-renewed franchise.

Fortunately, we were able to get some of those burning questions answered by co-showrunners Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring, along with some intel about a key moment you didn’t get to see:

Tabby's Final Test
Not only was Bloody Rose not working alone, but we learned that Wes was actually the brains (if you can call them that) of the operation. And in a particularly stomach-turning moment, Wes tried to blame Tabby for his actions, implying that he was merely a victim of a broken system, one in which straight white guys can’t catch a break anymore.
“We liken a character like Wes to a serial killer who’s killing people to get famous,” Bring says. “You hear those guys who are like, ‘I want people to know me.’ Wes was this disgruntled guy who’s managing a movie theater when he feels like he should be at his own movie premieres. But the thing he’s not doing, which Tabby is doing, is actually making movies. He looks at Tabby as if she represents the reasons why he hasn’t made it. We, of course, know that’s completely not true and totally unhinged. So Wes is definitely willing to burn it all to the ground.”
Adds Aguirre-Sacasa: “Our executives were like, ‘What’s the logic of this? Does he think he’s going to get away with this?’ And we were like, ‘No. He knows it’s over, and there’s no coming back from this. Stop thinking in non-horror movie terms. He thinks he’s going out in a blaze of glory.'”
Tabby eventually impaled Wes with a pitchfork, which was incredibly satisfying to watch, but she didn’t finish the job. So, why didn’t Tabby kill Wes? The answer is simple: “We hate killing villains because we want as many of them out there as possible,” Bring says.
The Noa–Shawn Closure You Didn't See
The last time we saw Noa’s ex-boyfriend, he was watching in horror as she took a bat to every inch of his beloved car. It was payback for him allegedly yelling at Jen and putting a hole through Noa’s wall, but did he even really do that? You probably assumed that this finale would include at least one scene between Noa and Shawn with which they could bury the proverbial hatchet, and while your instincts would be correct, the scene in question was not to be.
“We shot a scene that actually didn’t make it into the finale just because of the running time and stuff like that,” Aguirre-Sacasa reveals, adding that the scene was “Noa and Shawn unpacking their relationship a little bit. It does feel like their romantic relationship is over, but their friendship is not over. … We’re half-tempted to just release [the scene] ourselves.” (Editor’s note: Uh, yes, please do!)
And should the show return for a well-deserved third season, it sounds like Jen would as well.
“We love Jen,” Bring says. “And we love Jen and Noa, and we love how different Jen is from Shawn. I mean, we love Alex [Aiono], and we love Shawn, but Shawn has made some mistakes. Let’s not forget that Shawn was taking steroids and lying about it — lying to Noa about taking drugs — which was triggering to her because of her mother [being an addict]. Jen is someone with a more similar background to Noa, who has dealt with addiction and issues with her mom. They connected with each other in a different way.”
She continues: “At the end of the day, they are both beautiful girls who are attracted to each other. They’re 16, so they’re not getting married, but they’re definitely having a fling and a courtship. We love that relationship, and we definitely would want to continue exploring it.”
Imogen and Johnny on Ice
Imogen’s relationship with Johnny was one of the few bright spots in her life this season — but all of their progress went down the toilet in the finale when she thought she saw dead bodies in the ice cream freezer, prompting her to hit him over the head with a wrench and lock him inside. Unsurprisingly, Johnny decided to end their relationship after that, a fact that was only briefly mentioned towards the end of the episode.
“Their breakup was a very last-minute decision,” Aguirre-Sacasa admits. “We kept getting the note of, ‘Would Johnny ever forgive Imogen for hitting him over the head and locking him in the freezer?’ And this probably tells you more about me and Lindsay than you care to know, but we were like, ‘What’s the big deal?’ And we kept getting the note over and over again, and the executives would be like, ‘She has to make up with him or they break up.'” Having the couple call it quits “felt a little bit right that it wasn’t all tied up with a bow.”
But don’t give up on this couple just yet. Bring says she could definitely see the ice cream shop sticking around so the Liars “have a place to go,” and “there might a version of Imogen working her way back into Johnny’s good graces.”
R.I.P., Dr. Sullivan!
It’s only fitting that the girls decided not to continue their sessions with Dr. Sullivan after all of this, because, you know, she’s dead. After breaking out of the Ravenswood (!) Penitentiary, Archie showed up at her office, interrupting a shady phone conversation with her editor. Knowing that her bogeyman had returned to kill her, Dr. Sullivan didn’t even put up a fight. Instead, she begged Archie to confirm that he killed her son Sebastian, a final request he refused to grant before stabbing the good doctor through the head.
Aguirre-Sacasa says that Annabeth Gish was “totally game” for her character’s big finish, adding that she “played that scene deliciously.” In fact, not only did Gish not object to Dr. Sullivan’s grim demise, but “her only concern was making sure that the kill was great.”
As for the lingering questions surrounding Dr. Sullivan’s son, it doesn’t sound like we should expect answers, even if Max does renew Pretty Little Liars for a third season.
“The most hellacious thing was that, even at the moment of her death, she wouldn’t have an answer to the question that’s haunted her all these years,” Aguirre-Sacasa explains. “We talked a lot about that, and we got network notes from our executives that were like, ‘You have to answer that question,’ and it’s like, no, that’s not how horror movies work.”
One thing we can expect from a potential third season is that Dr. Sullivan’s book about the Liars’ traumatic experiences “totally might come out” posthumously.
Who Were Those Masked Girls Anyway?
And what would a Pretty Little Liars finale be without at least one last tease of the potential horrors still to come? As Tabby told Imogen about her next movie idea, one that will feature “several” new villains, viewers were treated to some disturbing images of a five girls menacingly roaming the halls of Millwood High School. And just to make this spaghetti even spookier, the girls were wearing masks resembling the Liars.
“As we were breaking Season 2, we were hopeful about getting a Season 3, so we wanted to lay in little bread crumbs,” Aguirre-Sacasa says. “We needed a great horror tag, and we thought, ‘Oh, maybe there’s an offshoot of Spooky Spaghetti — a splinter group of teens who become obsessed with the girls and want to become some sort of like evil doppelgängers of the girls. We referenced Jordan Peele movies throughout this season, and we loved the doppelgängers in Us.”
Adds Bring, “We want to have as many villains as possible out there, so if we get a Season 3, we’d love to brew up some new ones.” Choosing to leave the ending somewhat ambiguous, Bring explains, “There’s a version of this that’s just Tabby fantasizing about the movie she’s making, but there’s also a version of this where these doppelgängers are kind of like The Purge — Spooky Spaghetti fans who are disgruntled and going after our girls as our girls. We love all those possibilities.”
So, What Did You Think?
Did the Summer School finale meet your lofty expectations, or did it leave you wanting more? Were you surprised by the Bloody Rose reveal, or that Wes was her accomplice? And what do you make of those supposed doppelgängers? Grade the finale and season via our polls below, then drop a comment with your full review. What would you like to see happen in a potential Season 3?
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