‘Pretty Little Liars’ Proves There Is An ‘A’ In Trauma

Warning: This article may contain spoilers for Season 6 of Pretty Little Liars.

Pretty Little Liars explored the aftermath of trauma this week with the exploration of how each of the liars is dealing with the aftereffects of their three-week long ordeal, and by the end of the episode, there couldn’t have been many PLL fans left feeling that the girls were coping well with all that had happened.

In this Pretty Little Liars episode, A didn’t make his presence known, possibly because the A mastermind is in police custody, but PLL fans know that probably isn’t really the case. Andrew Campbell is just another pawn in the A game. Right?

Yet, A could be seen in every scene in Pretty Little Liars, “Songs of Innocence,” especially for the PLL fans with a critical eye. It was almost as if there was a game exclusively for PLL fans and the name of that game is: “A is for…”

Anger

Outwardly, it seems Emily coped with the ordeal of being trapped in that dollhouse with far less ease than the other Pretty Little Liars characters. The first time PLL fans saw Emily shooting off her anger at the gun range it seemed she was shooting at more than just a faceless target. By the time Emily returned to fire off a few rounds, proving skills that may serve her well later on in the Pretty Little Liars season, it was obvious that she was seeing something to which PLL fans weren’t privy. That one flashback, giving a glimpse of the torture A had subject the liars to, revealed just an inkling of the trauma this liar is trying to overcome.

Agitation

Hanna was equally affected by the incidents of last season’s Pretty Little Liars finale, but she displayed her P.T.S.D. in slightly different ways. Geographically, Hanna was far removed from A’s prison camp, but it seemed nothing could stop her from running. Hanna ransacked her own room, getting Toby to pull every last piece of furniture out of sight, until the room was bare and unrecognizable. There can be no doubt in the minds of PLL fans that she was still running away from A.

Artifice

Apparently, Aria never heard the phrase “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” How many times has Aria lied to add credence to something she believed to be true only to find out in later episodes of Pretty Little Liars that her deceptions actually made matters worse? Well, she’s done it again. Adding to that fact that it had to have been the least convincing lie she’s ever told. It was one of those moments that left every PLL fan doing a classic face-palm. In a classic Pretty Little Liars moment, even her mother looked on with disbelief.

Addiction

Spencer Hastings. What can be said of this classically tragic Pretty Little Liars character? At first, the revelation that Spencer would not receive the same anti-anxiety medication as her friends had PLL fans looking at her mother like she was A, herself. Whatever sympathy PLL fans had for Spencer was replaced with disbelief as opportunity presented her with the option of stealing Aria’s meds. This can come to no good end, Spencer.

Amity

Most of Pretty Little Liars was spent with the girls dealing with the trauma of their experiences alone, away from those that would most understand their issues: each other. The episode revealed a part of that reason to PLL fans with flashbacks of A forcing them to torture one another, but even that couldn’t keep the friends apart. By the end of the episode, PLL fans watched what they had been waiting for throughout the entire episode, as the liars came together via cell phone calls. That closing scene of this week’s Pretty Little Liars revealed that, whether or not Andrew is A, they will still have each other, and from that, they can each draw strength.

[Featured image: Shay Mitchell, Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, and Troian Bellisario courtesy of ABC Family/Pretty Little Liars]