Well on its 7th season, 'Pretty Little Liars' has become an institution for teenage girl dramas. It plays on deceit and lies and at one point or the other, everyone has to or is forced to betray people they love in order to save themselves. But throughout all this, Aria, Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Alison stick together. But the question is why. When the girls were in high school, it was understandable that they were a clique and always stood by each other because of their, well, lack of maturity. However, skip to Season 6B, the girls are out in the real world and have jobs and lives.
Now, why would a grown adult sacrifice their lives for someone who honestly caused and created the worst mess the no one would want to live through?
(Spoiler alert) Is Aria wrong?
As we have seen in Episode 18 of Season 7, Aria is revealed to be working for AD in order to save Ezra and get an out from the game that AD is forcing the girls to play. The other girls look at this like it is a betrayal but psychologically, is that necessarily true? Every child is told as they are growing up to cut the people who are hurting you out of their lives. It is a piece of wisdom time and time repeated because after all, you come into this world and you are going to leave it alone so why not look out for yourself while you can.
And that is exactly what Aria did. When she wanted out, she met up with AD and negotiated terms to save Ezra from going to jail for that police report. In Episodes 16 and 17, Aria had to do many things that seem to betray the other 4 girls such as trashing the nursery in Alison's' house and dropping that phone into a box in Spencers' house that ultimately led to Mr.
and Mrs. Hastings separating. But again, is she wrong in saving herself?
What about Alison?
I think with the recent seasons, we tend to forget what a monster Alison was in the earlier seasons and in fact, she was the reason that Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily got involved in these problems anyway. But right now, just because bad things happened to her, she seems to be forgiven.
Yes, she did have a traumatic past but so did the girls and so did almost everyone in Rosewood. Does that excuse her and make her a great friend?
While Pretty Little Liars makes for great television drama, we have to consider what messages it is sending out into the world. Yes, standing by your friends is a very good attribute but standing by your friends when they have hurt and destroyed your life and threaten to destroy your current happiness is a very wrong idea. Maybe we should all be more careful about the kind of things we watch on television because it can have a profound effect on our minds. But then again, I for one cannot resist the juicy gossip and the dreamy men we get to see every Tuesday.
