Dead Ends

Before next week's finale, Pretty Little Liars decided it's time for everyone to start being just a little bit more evil. Jenna's hiding a huge secret and burning bridges, Melissa shows her real venom and we even get a visit from the original menace. Even outside of that things are still popping off in Rosewood as we discuss Byron's bad plans, Toby acting very strangely (and we...

We're feeling triumphant this week as we get a big reveal for some of our characters. Once Brenton stops celebrating his win we dig into the tremendous pairs of Truth Up Day, Mona tempting Emily to the dark side, everybody trying to rattle Caleb and failing miserably, the horrible conclusion to the Kate photo drama, Maya's suspicious town mingling and weird HR professionals. Pretty Littl...

We're feeling triumphant this week as we get a big reveal for some of our characters. Once Brenton stops celebrating his win we dig into the tremendous pairs of Truth Up Day, Mona tempting Emily to the dark side, everybody trying to rattle Caleb and failing miserably, the horrible conclusion to the Kate photo drama, Maya's suspicious town mingling and weird HR professionals. Episode 22 c...

Hi this is Brenton, feeling like an idiot for not picking up on where Emily was trying to lead me about the Nabakov tie ins. It wasn't until I was editing that things clicked into place, see if you can piece it together before I did. Anyways in this episode we discuss what we think is going on with Holden, Spoby's bumpy road & creepy British men, our uneasiness with Kate's photo...

Sometimes to make things right with someone, you need to row them out into the middle of the lake and yell at them. We discuss Lucas' no good really bad time betting on amateur sports, the big party at Spencer's lake house, Ella being petty to teenagers, Aria's rule of two, a nice moment between Mona and Spencer, Noel being creepy in the background, jilted Garrett spinning out, Emil...

Happy Halloween in July! We treat ourselves to an amazing Pretty Little Liars Halloween special that we were both itching to talk about. We cover the show's liberal use of "Lady G", Wilden somehow being an even bigger creep, Jenna's short turn around to becoming an all time menace, A's past, & Alison's busy day of causing havoc to everyone around her. We also jump...

We have a busy couple of episodes but Brenton is struggling with the dissolution of Spoby. He pulls himself together enough to talk about Jason and Peters strange connection, Jenna and Garrett making harder moves (and getting hot and heavy), what actually happened with Dr Sullivan, the return of Maya (potentially nefarious?), the awful awful Jackie turn, why ruining Tom is always right, Mikes ment...

We come back from this week's rough couple of episodes with one very important question; did Ali really take those pictures? And why only pictures of her friends sleeping? We discuss why this concept is dubious at best but also revel in the weird secretive meetups happening across Rosewood. We also cover Emily being a target and crossing the line by targeting a queer woman's body, Caleb&...

We have a busy week in Rosewood but we still can't get over the weird side tangents with Mike and his strange room decor. We discuss Mike's battles with his family (and the weird cinematography that accompanies it), Emily being canonically Catholic, Hannah becoming a nag and Caleb’s nebulously illegal business, Toby not backing down to Peter (and his beautiful architecture schematics), E...

It's a busy week and Spencer decides to it week off, but in the lurch Emily steps up big time! We discuss Emily's incredible riddle solving skills (even if the reveals don't amount to much) and how much Garret and crew should be scared of her. We also cover the other big news of the week like Aria's shift in love interest, Mike's weird as hell moves, graveyard surprises, T...

All of our protagonists decide to make horrible decisions this week to varying degrees of "bad" (looking at you Spencer). That means we have a great time breaking down the series of dominoes they knock over, Jason's mysterious motivations (and interests?), awkward double dates, which characters are allowed individual growth, strange therapy choices and why Jenna is actually right. E...

It's the start of season 2 and all the boys are flocking back to Rosewood. We get the return of Noel, Caleb and Lucas and a reintroduction to a much stranger version of Jason's character. We also discuss the questionable status of Ian, Garrett and Jenna's exciting secrets, parents not believing their children despite glaring evidence to the contrary, and a truly bad make out in a pa...

We've reached the season 1 finale and start popping off! We discuss new menace reveals and secret partnerships, the altercation in the bell tower and the status of the Liars' relationships. We then transition into Brenton's speculation and graphic design expertise and wrap up with our favorites from the season. Episode 12 content warnings: physical violence, strangulation, stalking...

There are many exciting things happening in these episodes but we're too distracted by Ian's drink choices. Once we get that out of our system we discuss the incredibly hard slap, the search warrant for Spencer's room, Haleb's sad separation, Mona's meddling, and Spencer getting trapped in a funhouse tube. Episode 11 content warnings: bullying, stalking, grooming Pretty Li...

As we approach the end of the season, everyone starts pairing up! We discuss all the pairings shacking up, the importance of the shower scene and Hannah’s agency, the Hastings horrible parenting, Jenna’s increased frequency of meddling, Spoby getting into dangerous situations, and the signal flare nature of Jenna’s flute. Brenton also suddenly remembers Noel which throws all of his guesses into qu...

Spencer and Toby start to get together and we couldn't be more excited. While we would love to just discuss their budding relationship there's also lots of other happenings like Caleb's Parasite-esque living situation, weird marriage drama, sniffing out conmen and missing cash, and a baby on the way for the happy couple of Melissa and Ian. You can find Homestuck Made This World and...

Fitz and Arias relationship starts to get hot and heavy but Brenton can’t get himself to not call him Mr. Fitz. We discuss the introduction of Caleb & Paige, the Marin’s tumultuous secrets, Emily’s liquid courage and the further trouble with Ian. We also try to suss out just how much money Hannah made at the dance. Episode 8 content warnings: homophobia, bullying, drowning, stalking Pretty Lit...

We get some troubling realizations about Ian, Noel threatens Fitz and we realize these people are all the same goddam age. We discuss the unwanted surprise party, Pam reaching new heights of homophobia, the horrors of juvy camp and a bad detour into an after school special. Brenton also shares fond memories of past neighbors and his full proof (note: probably wrong) theories about A. Episode 7 con...

The glamping trip of the year kicks off an exciting week and packed episode! We get more tantalizing reveals and secrets plus a strange visit from Alison in the hospital. We run down shifting character dynamics, the two "A's" theory, Noel's extremely weird white knight behavior, Fitz and Aria's important meeting in broad daylight, attempted murder by car, Emily's awfu...

Despite our seasonal allergies, Brenton comes out swinging with really confident predictions for where the show is going. Apart from the schadenfreude of Brenton being wrong we discuss the introduction of two new characters in Jason and Noel, Wildon finally getting checked & his appearance at the SATs, the amazing Mrs. Hastings, despair over the Byron-Ashley situation & the concept of &quo...

This is it, these are the episodes where to show takes off. Pretty Little Liars fully tilts over into the Soap opera plotlines and pays off big time. Our Homecoming extravaganza has us discussing our love for Toby, Fitz outdoing himself yet again, Spencer's lessons in class disparity and the severe mistreatment of Jenna. And wait a minute, who actually died? Episode 4 content warnings: murder...

This week the girls try to spurn A only to make them more powerful. As secrets start to spill out and things heat up in Rosewood we discuss Fitz showing his true colors, cheering for Hardy, Hannah's job situation and new career in espionage,  and Toby's life as an empath. Episode 3 content warnings: grooming, infidelity, stalking Pretty Little Liars season theme song "Secret of Tiki...

The show starts to move forward and immediately clarifies just what exactly is the "Jenna Thing." We discuss the situation with Wilden, more talk on the situation with Mr Fitz, the depiction of Hannah's body issues, and the hero of the locker room/loner Toby Cavanaugh.  Episode 2 content warnings: death, grooming, disordered eating, sexual abuse, body dysmorphia, fatphobia, homophob...

Welcome to Dead Ends! The new weekly podcast where we discuss mystery shows and starting off we're going to cover the teen drama Pretty Little Liars. Emily is a longtime fan of the show and is going to be taking Brenton through the entire series. We discuss the pilot episode, the wild events happening in Rosewood and it's relative lack of big mysteries. Content warnings: death, murder, g...

We've finally reached the end and we have a lot of negative feelings. We reckon with the huge incident, why Rob Thomas' reasonings don't add up, and posit some alternate the ways the show could've gone instead. Then we end with a series recap and our thoughts on the show as whole. Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey. It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot...