Pretty Little Liars Episode #1: Pilot

Pretty Little Liars

Season #1

❤ Episode #1: Pilot – The perfect little town of Rosewood holds more than its fair share of secrets and for four friends, Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily’s darkest ones are about unravel. A year after their Queen Bee, Alison, goes missing, the girls begin receiving messages from “A”, saying – and threatening – things only Alison would know. When their best friend mysteriously vanishes, four girls believe their secrets are safe forever. But when they begin to receive threatening messages, the truth may be only one text away. Set one year later after the disappearance of Alison, the manipulative and vindictive queen bee of their group, the series revolves around four 16-year-old girlfriends – Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily who have lost touch with one another until each begins to receive mysterious messages from “A”, suggesting that Alison is watching them. Linked by their former bond and the panic and confusion the enigmatic messages cause, the friends are suddenly reunited, though each girl has her own secrets – secrets she wants no one else to know. Artsy and eclectic Aria has just returned to town after spending a year overseas and, while she tries to deny feeling hurt over her father Byron’s indiscretion with one of his ex-students at the college, and keep her mom, Ella, from finding out, she can’t ignore the intense chemistry with Ezra Fitz – Aria’s English teacher. Once-chubby Hanna has transformed herself into the current “It girl,” but still battles the urge to binge. Shoplifting gives her a less-fattening thrill, but when she gets caught, the charges are dismissed only because her mother, Ashley, takes matters into her own hands, eager to keep her own reputation and the image of her daughter untarnished. Spencer is a perfectionist and straight A-student whose pressure to stand out in her overachieving family leaves her feeling alone… until she finds understanding in the unlikeliest of places – the arms of her sister’s fiancée. Emily, an athlete trying to sort out her place in the world, finds herself drawn to her new neighbor, Maya, a free spirit who recently moved into Alison’s old house across the street. When each girl receives a message referencing these most private details that barely scratch the surface of what they are desperate to keep hidden, living in their picturesque community suddenly seems far from perfect as secrets, lies and betrayals threaten everything they hold dear. Even after Alison’s body is discovered, the messages don’t stop. This episode opens in what appears to be a barn. Hanna, Aria, Spencer and Emily are having a sleepover when the lights go out. The four hear noises and go to investigate, but it turns out that best friend Alison was just playing a prank on them. The five girls gossip and share secrets before falling asleep. When they next wake up, there are only three girls on the floor. Aria gets up to look for the other two, and runs into Spencer on her way out of the barn, who tells her that Alison is missing. She also claims to have heard a scream. It is one year later in Rosewood, and Aria has just moved back from a year in Europe. She is still uneasy about Alison’s disappearance, but her mother encourages her to reconnect with her old friends. Her father wants to make sure that she feels okay about Alison’s disappearance, but Aria sees through his questions and reassures him that she’s “still keeping his secret.” After dropping her brother off at lacrosse tryouts, Aria heads to a Bar and Grill, where she meets Ezra – who is about to start a teaching job. He assumes that she is a college student and she tells him that she’s leaning towards a major in English. The two feel an instant connection and it isn’t long before they are kissing on the bathroom counter. In the next scene, Hanna is shopping for sunglasses with former-dork Mona. Hanna sees Spencer across the mall and tells the salesman she’ll “be right back”, and runs off to catch up with her friend still wearing a pair of sunglasses. She and Mona eventually leave the mall with their steals, a scarf and Hanna’s sunglasses. Aria’s father is dropping her off at school, where he tells her that he still loves her mom and hopes she’ll forgive him. We see a flashback in which Alison and Aria are trying to escape Mona’s pursuit and they catch Aria’s father having an affair with another woman in his car. Back in the present, Aria is greeted by Emily. The two walk into their English room where Aria realizes that the Ezra from the Bar and Grill is their new teacher. They awkwardly stare at each other for a few moments before he comes to his senses and introduces himself as Mr. Fitz. Aria receives a text message reading “Aria: Maybe he fools around with students all the time. A lot of teachers do. Just ask your dad. –A.

In the next scene, Emily and her mother are talking about Aria’s return and Alison’s disappearance. They notice that there are people moving into Alison’s old house and Emily brings a welcome basket to her new neighbors. The new girl’s name is Maya St. Germain, and she introduces Emily to weed.

Spencer has just finished converting the barn to a loft, and she’s excited to move in for her junior year – but her sister, Melissa has just arrived with her fiancée Wren, and she claims that as a couple, the two need their privacy.

Aria goes into the English room to talk to Mr. Fitz. She’s interested in continuing their relationship, but he tells her that everything has changed now that he’s her teacher and he walks away. Emily is walking Maya home and tells her the whole story of Alison. The two share an almost kiss – and later that day, when Emily gets out of swim practice, she finds a note in her locker that reads “Hey Em! I’ve been replaced – you’ve found another friend to kiss! –A”

Back at the Hastings household, Wren has just gotten out of the Jacuzzi and asks Spencer if she has a towel. The two discuss her field hockey practice and his running team at Oxford before he offers to massage her shoulders to get rid of the aching. Melissa soon shows up though, and they quickly break apart. Later, Spencer looks out her window to see Wren and Melissa moving into the barn – and she receives an email that reads “Poor Spencer. Always wants Melissa’s boyfriends. But remember, if you kiss I tell. –A”. We see a flashback in which Melissa brings home a different boyfriend, Ian, and Alison threatens to tell her that Spencer kissed Ian. Spencer tells her that if she tells her sister anything, she’ll tell everyone the truth about “the Jenna thing.” Spencer looks out the window to see a flash of blonde hair and thinks that it’s Alison.

Emily and Aria are sitting on a porch swing talking about the mysterious notes they’ve received from “A”. They suspect that it’s Alison sending the notes, but they can’t reveal the things that were written in them. Hanna and her mother are sitting down to dinner when Hanna receives a text message from Spencer that reads “WE NEED TO TALK!!!” The doorbell rings and it’s the police – with video footage of Hanna stealing the sunglasses from the mall. They take her and her mother to the police station, where her mother talks to the officer. Hanna is about to take a handful of candies sitting on the table next to her when she receives a text message that reads “Be careful, Hanna. I hear prison food makes you fat.-A”. Hanna’s mom takes her to their car and gives her a talking-to, explaining that Rosewood is a small town and that she can’t afford to ruin her reputation. She tells her to deny that she did anything wrong because she will take care of it for her.

Emily goes to Maya’s house and Maya tells her that Alison’s body was found. Spencer, Hanna, and Aria stand together as Hanna reaffirms that they made a promise to keep “the Jenna thing” a secret. Later that night, Hanna is at home watching the news when she sees her mother enter the house with the police officer that showed up earlier. She appears to be sleeping with him in return for his silence about Hanna’s crime.

The next day is Alison’s funeral, and Aria is looking out the window when Ezra shows up. He apologizes for being a jerk to her and she tells him that she doesn’t want to get him in trouble. As she walks away, he grabs her arm and kisses her.

The four girls are sitting together in the front row at Alison’s funeral, and they realize that all four of them have received messages from “A”. They turn around and see Jenna, who is blind, being led into a seat. Mrs. DeLaurentis explains that she didn’t know that Jenna and Alison were friends and Spencer tells her that they weren’t. Emily, Spencer, Aria and Hanna are approached by a detective when they leave the funeral, who tells them that because the case has changed from a missing person to a murder, he needs go over each of their statements from a year ago to find out what happened to Alison. It is obvious that they are hiding something. The episode ends with all four girls receiving the same text, which they read out loud, “I’m still here, bitches. And I know everything. –A”