After weeks of looking at everyone except their incredibly suspicious therapist, our five Pretty Little Liars finally zero in on the extremely shady Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish).
Miss a Review? Episodes 2.01 – 2.02 / 2.03 / 2.04
“Chapter Fifteen: Friday the 13th”: After a disturbing discovery, the PLLs start to question Dr Sullivan’s intentions.
It looks like after my outrage that none of the girls were suspicious of Dr. Sullivan has paid off. “Friday the 13th” not only features Imogen (Bailee Madison) and Tabby (Chandler Kinney) breaking into the doctor’s office to ransack her files, but all five (!) girls strut into her office the following day to confront her about the unethical recordings she’s made of their sessions.
Is it ridiculous? Absolutely.
Is it satisfying? Also absolutely, particularly when Zaria‘s Faran pointedly states that she never trusted Doc Sullivan from day one or when Maia Reficco‘s Noa chirps “Put that in your book, bitch.”
It’s also gratifying when afterwards Imogen has to confess that she’s uncertain if the confrontation even clears the good doc or not. In truth the revelation that Dr. Sullivan was taping them and planning to write about them explains a few things, but it doesn’t clarify if she is – or isn’t – a killer.
“Friday the 13th” is a much stronger episode than “When A Stranger Calls Back” in large part because it manages to advance each of the individual Liars’ storylines, as well as the central mystery. Dr. Sullivan remains prime suspect number one, but there’s plenty of other weird shit going on around Millwood, including Our Lady of Culty Religion, plus the new Spooky Spaghetti threats about “The Reckoning.” Is the Church and the night of blood atonement connected?
What’s most surprising is that The Reckoning *doesn’t* coincide with Tabby’s Friday the 13th movie marathon, which – in a foreshadowed twist of fate – is forced to relocated from the Orpheum (blame the AC!) to the abandoned Camp Millwood. Seems like a great venue for a horror set piece ala Scream 4‘s Stab-A-Thon, but sadly it winds up being underused.
Here’s hoping that next week’s episode will directly follow the events of this episode because there’s plenty of promise in the camp, the woods, and the trails.
Alas the best “Friday the 13th” can manage is an inferior version of Noa’s big S01 chase. It’s not bad per se, but it pales in comparison to last season. And more problematically, Bloody Rose’s big appearance once again occurs at episode’s end.
Despite reminding everyone about the pact to stop answering Rose’s taunts and avoid going anywhere solo, “Friday the 13th” opts to rinse/lather/repeat the same narrative beat involving a single Liar being “tested” by this season’s villain.
This makes three episodes in a row, folks. It’s getting pretty tired.
Other Observations:
- Yes Imogen, you should definitely be keeping a list of Bloody Rose suspects. You mean you haven’t been doing this the whole time?!
- Imogen’s dinner party freak-out on her father’s new fiancé initially felt extremely overblown, but let’s not forget Dr. Sullivan’s notes that Imogen is on the cusp of a psychotic break. While the moment of violence was written off by Imogen’s new paramour Johnny (Antonio Cipriano), methinks that this will eventually tie back to Imogen’s meds, which are also mentioned repeatedly in the episode.
- Although it doesn’t live up to its predecessor, cross-cutting between Ginny’s iconic chase scene from Friday the 13th Part 2 and Noa’s woodlands chase is a solid visual reference.
- Tabby won me over in her scenes debating the Friday the 13th franchise with Christian (Noah Alexander Gerry) because they’re correct that 2 and 4 are classics, and that The New Blood is better than Takes Manhattan (in part, Tabby explains, thanks to 7’s “Dream Warrior vibes”).
- While the show is occasionally very heavy handed in its political messaging, Tabby standing up for herself when Wes (Derek Klena) suggests her horror short was a PIFT “diversity pick” is well done. Her rejoinder is similar in tone and execution to when Faran stood up for herself against the male lifeguards a few episodes back.
- Speaking of Faran, she finally broke up with Henry (Ben Cook)! It just took walking in on him, Kelly (Mallory Bechtel) and other members of the Church getting extremely cult-y behind closed doors. Thank heavens she pressed the issue because that performative apology bit in the Church earlier? Cringe.
- One nice understated moment is when Shawn (Alex Aiono) tells Noa that he will “always choose you” (over his mom). Compare this with Faran’s ultimatum to Henry wherein he sides with the Church instead of her. Good riddance!
- As for Noa, she gets up to plenty of bisexual drama before her barefoot chase scene at episode’s end. Sleeping with Jennifer (Ava Capri) was inevitable, and surprising no one, doing so has only managed to confuse the pizza girl about who/what she wants. It’s a pretty familiar coming out queer trope and PLL: Summer School isn’t doing anything particularly new with it, but at least writer Katie Avery explores the fall-out of the bi-love triangle with an appropriate amount of emotional gravitas.
- Visual of the episode: Faran *literally* dripping blood from her arm after beating Greg (Elias Kacavas) in an arm wrestling match. Good stuff.
- Finally, what is going on with Mouse (Malia Pyles)’s grandma? We’re hiding knives to prevent Lola from cutting her forehead?! This show is truly wild!
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School airs Thursdays on Max