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I’m just rambling off the top of my head here, but I may have started to figure out something about this mysterious list.

My thinking is that the list is used to identify people on campus who are capable of doing “bad things.” We know that when it was used as Mona’s admissions system, it was able to flag potential students based on certain personality traits, and I believe that this is the reason why the Professor hijacked it. He or she wanted to come up with a group of people who have the capability to become immoral and/or criminal.

Why Ray, Alison, and Caitlin were on the list from the beginning, I have no idea. But I do think I know why Ava, Mona, and Dylan, at least, were added when they were. We saw their names added to the list at the start of the gala, long before they covered for Taylor shooting Jeremy, so it obviously wasn’t that incident that got them pegged.

I think that the list was the reason for the strangely parallel stories of all three of them nearly being kicked out of BHU. Ava was using the money her father had embezzled from innocent people for her own benefit, instead of returning it, which is objectively wrong. Mona was knowingly sleeping with a student at the school, which, as long as it’s against the school’s policy, is objectively wrong (and morally ambiguous). Dylan was blatantly plagiarizing and attempting to skirt around the consequences, which is also clearly wrong. All three of these incidents were coming to a head at the time of the gala, and I think that’s why they were all added to the list at that time - it was determined that they were all capable of doing, once again, “bad things.”

It was all seven names being added to the list that gave the Professor the evidence he/she needed to end the surveillance stage. They’d all proven that they were capable, in some way, of doing something immoral or illegal. 

Claire literally heard a recording of Dana Booker admitting to attempting to frame the Perfectionists for Nolan’s murder, and brushed if off with the excuse that Booker is doing what she wanted her to, by getting to the bottom of his death no matter what.

But…if she’s aware that Booker is literally setting people up to take the fall, that means she’s also aware that in doing this, Booker is not actually figuring out Nolan’s real killer. This whole thing makes it seem like her real goal isn’t getting justice for her son, but just putting an end to the case in whatever way is easiest. But why? As a mother, she should want to do everything possible to make 100% sure that her son’s actual killer is found…

…unless the actual killer is her other child.

This episode proved that Taylor is genuinely and obviously unwell. She openly admitted that she was actually spiraling before she faked her own death, not eating or sleeping, and she was obviously and scarily out of control in tonight’s final scene.

And when it comes down to it, Claire and Taylor are basically doing the exact same thing. They’re both absolutely insistent on finding Nolan’s killer and bringing that person down. But both of their strategies involve latching onto the first possible suspect they’re aware of (for Claire it’s the Perfs, and for Taylor it was Jeremy), and adamantly insisting that that person(s) is the killer, right from the get-go.

Almost like they’re both trying to push the murder on someone else. 

Are people actually scared we won’t get renewed? If they renewed Famous in Love with similar ratings, they’ll renew PLL. They’re not going to let this ship sink that easily. They’ll give it a second season and if they’re smart, they’ll make a LOT of marketing changes to actually try revive it. They’ll be absolutely stupid to just renew it and carry on normally. Clearly, something isn’t clicking with the general public, so they need to renew it and make adjustments.

I won’t be that person who demands action and provides no potential solutions so I’ll give a couple ideas:

Stop competing with Riverdale. That show is in its third year and it has a dedicated fan base. Freeform, air it on a different night.

Get rid of Pretty Little Liars from the title. Just call it The Perfectionists. Some people aren’t tuning in because they didn’t watch/finish PLL and are scared they can’t jump into this because they won’t understand it or because of spoilers. This needs to be its own standalone show. Make the link to PLL known by spelling out The Perfectionists with the iconic, cursive PLL font. Make the link to PLL known visually, rather than by shoving it down people’s throats with an excessively long title. This way, people may feel it’s safe to dive into The Perfectionists because it’s different to PLL rather than a sequel to PLL. Also, having Pretty Little Liars in the title confuses people on Twitter. People don’t know what to hashtag. We can’t trend on Twitter because a fifth is tweeting PLL, another fifth tweeting PLLTP, another fifth tweeting TP, another fifth tweeting Perfs, another fifth tweeting PLLPerfectionists. Make it simple: The Perfectionists. Trend on Twitter with #Perfectionists. Simple! (Trending on Twitter is necessary to gaining viewers. When the trend appears in people’s explore tab, they’re more inclined to check out that show that’s gaining attention. Hence why I actually care about twitter attention.)

Stop copying and pasting storylines from the original PLL. Blonde dead girl isn’t dead and is scared of her mother? Getting run over by a car? Calling the enemy A? Animal in the trunk? Let it go. These aren’t cool throwbacks, they’re cringeworthy because it shows an inability to create new storylines that can outdo the original series. The aim should be to top PLL, not to copy PLL. Little one liners like “I’m from Rosewood” and quick references to Mona being A are cool but relax with the literal copy and paste of storylines. They’re turning hardcore fans away rather than retaining hardcore fans because it’s making this show seem like a cheap downgrade of the original series and that’s not what hardcore fans want to see. Hardcore fans are here for new stories and to try solve a new mystery. Again, throwback one liners are fine, copy and pasting of old storylines is not fine.

Probably the most important is to get the show on Netflix. I know this is easier said than done (lots of paperwork, licensing, money, etc) - but it has proven success. Riverdale aired all of season 1 on Netflix before season 2 began and the day season 2 aired, everyone was caught up and ready to watch live. Boom, the season 2 premiere doubled their ratings (and was their highest rating episode to date, I’m pretty sure). Heck, in worst case scenario and the season 2 ratings aren’t a dramatic increase like Riverdales, at least we’ve got the millions upon millions of people tuning in on Netflix. Pop the show in the “NEW!” tab and put a pretty thumbnail of the cast - bam, millions of viewers guaranteed. That leads to a social media presence, which leads to Twitter trends, and the cycle goes on and on.

Something about her last scene with Ali, where she insists that she needs to be the one to take the evidence to Claire, rubbed me the wrong way. She said it was so her mother would realize how valuable she is and give her full access to Beacon Guard, but that barely makes sense and really doesn’t mean it has to be her and her alone. Maybe I’m alone, but it just seemed like a weak excuse to get her hands on the evidence.

Kate here from Team EndgAme, gearing up for tonight’s episode (impatiently waiting)! I can’t believe we are more than halfway through season 1 already…

With a show that’s all about giving us answers (at last, Marlene, at last!), I feel like we could find our who killed Nolan at any time. For those who have read our previous posts, this theory isn’t a new one but one that I think bears some more exploration…

Theory: Claire Hotchkiss killed Nolan!

I know, I know… it sounds kind of crazy, BUT this is PLL and we know not everything is simple. Or normal! Claire seems like the devastated mother who lost her husband, daughter, and now son. She lead and funded the Beacon Guard initiative to keep students “safe”, and make BHU the safest campus in America. (Interesting, isn’t it, that the only students to have died, or allegedly died, at BHU we’re her children?) Claire was so devastated by Nolan’s death that she brought on a former FBI agent to head up security. She’s so distraught at losing the last of her family that she’s attached herself into Caitlin and to Ali…

But what if she was the one who did it?! If you haven’t read it yet, please check out Gavin’s post on our theory that Claire is suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP for short), and not only killed her husband but also tried to hurt Taylor. I won’t repeat here what he’s already written, but want to add some additional flame for that fire.

BG was blacked out during the time of Nolan’s death in the area where he was killed. Who has access to BG? Claire (and Taylor, who hacked in). Claire has just ordered extra surveillance on Nolan so clearly, she suspected something was up with him… Maybe he met with Taylor without Claire officially knowing, but clearly BG has a pretty far reach! Was she spying on him and knows he was somewhere mysterious?

Here’s my theory: I think it’s possible that she heard The Perfectionists talking in the woods (through BG), and heard them fantasizing about killing Nolan or about enjoying life more without him around… She would likely feel so betrayed, especially by Caitlin who she’s know since Caitlin was a child. I imagine she would want to find Nolan to talk to him about what she heard and then, she intercepts Nolan’s text to Ali about meeting him on the roof of Thorne Hall, so she cuts off access to BG so she can talk to him unobserved. We saw that Nolan was blinded a bit by the lights when the person who killed him came onto the roof, so he couldn’t see them clearly. Ali and Claire are both blonde, and he was expecting Ali… so maybe, when Nolan blurts out that Taylor is still alive Claire - terrified of being found out for killing her husband and causing Taylor to fake her death - reacted by pushing Nolan to his death in the exact way she just heard Caitlin describe. Though she’d be angry or hurt by any of the Perfectionists wanting to kill Nolan, she’d be the most hurt by Caitlin and would likely want to take her down…

Then, to play the victim and get the sympathy she needs, she hires Booker to “find Nolan’s killer” - neatly diverting any suspicion from her but reaping all of the sympathy and attention.

What do you guys think?! Do you think it could be Claire… or do you have another theory on who killed Nolan? Hit us up!

See you tonight at 8pm Eastern for live blogging!