Entertainment

'PLL' Fans Will Be Very Happy About This 'Ship News

by S. Atkinson

Detective Marco Furey, The Brew waitress Sabrina, and that publishing dude Liam Greene. Those are just three of the more insipid Pretty Little Liars Season 7 love interests that I'm struggling to care even a tiny bit about. And I suspect I'm not the only one, since the writers didn't even bother giving poor Sabrina a second name. But fans of the show can rest easy, because the Pretty Little Liars original couples may end up back together. We just might have to be patient.

Executive producer Joseph Dougherty told Entertainment Weekly about my least favorite love triangle, between Spencer Hastings, Toby Cavanaugh, and Yvonne Phillips:

“It takes a long time to resolve that. Toby’s relationship with Yvonne is something that has to be resolved before anything else can happen, if anything is going to happen between Spencer and Toby.”

Sure, Dougherty. "If." We all know what "if" means in a publicity article, right? Most likely, when. He then moved on to baiting me via my most favorite love triangle, the Aria-Ezra-Nicole connection:

“Nicole does physically return to Rosewood. Ezra has to decide what he owes these two women and how he can be a mensch in this situation.”

Please, for the love of all that's sacred, no. I can't stress how little I'm rooting for Aria and Ezra to reunite. Lest we forget, they first discovered their star-crossed love for each other when Aria was his student. That's not cool, will never be cool, and I don't care that she's now graduated both high school and college. It's too creepy.

But Dougherty goes on:

“[Showrunner] Marlene [King] was always interested in seeing where the original relationships were and revisiting them at the end.”

We're not so far off that now. After all, Hanna and Caleb are reunited after a not-very-convincing Caleb and Spencer merger, and they're deeply in love. And, if we're talking about the "original relationships," then the only sustainable, healthy love interest we witnessed for Alison in Season 1 was her connection with Emily, which we saw via flashbacks — i.e. when she asked Emily to tie on her friendship bracelet for her, or when she asked Emily who she'd take to Kissing Rock. And there's definitely an argument to be made that Emison are end game.

While Toby and Spencer and Aria and Ezra seem like they have to overcome insurmountable odds to get together (a fiancee who isn’t Spencer, a girlfriend who’s returned from the dead), this in itself is all the evidence I need that they’re going to end up together. After all, the ABC show has never made a lot of sense, whether you think about plot holes, Pretty Little Liars characters we never saw again, or character development (that CeCe Drake reveal still has me confused about why she hated Liars). So, arguably, the very fact that Spoby and Ezria make the least sense mean they're the two most likely couples to be end game.

Look, nobody's watching this show because it adds up. You watch it for adorable couples, beach wave hairdos, and Hanna Marin's one-liners. So, while, no, it doesn't make sense that Toby would pursue and nurture a relationship with someone who's effectively a more together version of his ex-girlfriend to jump ship at the last minute, that's almost certainly what's going to happen. Stay tuned, my fellow fans, for the most unlikely plot twist of all: a happy ending.