You probably remember the A reveal from Pretty Little Liars season 2, but do you remember everything that got us there? If not, our ultimate guide will get you back up to speed.

The #PLLEndGame is drawing ever nearer, and we’re getting ready for the end of Pretty Little Liars by taking a look back at the past seasons. We started with season 1, and now we’re moving on to the show’s sophomore season! We want to go back through every message the Liars received from A, the beginning of our favorite ships, every crazy theory, and even every seemingly meaningless moment, so we’re fully ready for the final 10 episodes.

We’ll be posting one of these “ultimate guides” once a week, until season 7B premieres on Tuesday, April 18, so keep your eyes on Hypable in the coming weeks. If you’ve never watched Pretty Little Liars before, we won’t spoil anything beyond the season that we’re talking about, so feel free to watch/read along with us! Let’s dive into all of the texts, videos, flashbacks, reveals, and creepy dolls that made up Pretty Little Liars season 2!

Major storylines

Pretty Little Liars season 2 begins right where season 1 left off. The Liars are just being taken away from the church, where Spencer witnessed Ian’s supposed murder. The mystery of Jason DiLaurentis, discoveries from Alison’s past, and the continued fear of Ali’s lurking killer were some, but not even close to all of the big ticket items in Pretty Little Liars season 2!

Who is A?

A continues to mess with the Liars in Pretty Little Liars season 2, taking a special interest in Emily. From fake college scout letters, to fake suicide notes, A was all over the place. When the Liars’ parents deduce that something is seriously going on with them, they advise/force them to see a therapist.

Although the girls are hesitant, at first, they actually start to look forward to their visits with Dr. Sullivan. However, when they start opening up to her, Dr. Sullivan, herself, gets targeted by A, and “NOSEY BITCHES DIE,” is written on the wall of her ransacked office.

A stages a public attack against the Liars at the fashion show. While the girls are walking in Ali’s old dresses, and an Ali tribute is playing in the background, the music and slideshow suddenly change to one where Alison is demonized. Noel was running the slideshow.

After Emily receives a text instructing her to tell Ella about Ezria and runs away, the girls decide to confide in Dr. Sullivan. They tell her everything about A, and she actually puts the pieces together, since A is one of her other patients! She calls the girls and tells them to meet in her office, but when they get there, she’s gone. A texts them saying, “the doctor is out.”

A lets the Liars know that Dr. Sullivan is still alive, but being held captive, and they use that to get the Liars to comply with their demands. The Liars are given dolls with tasks, and as they complete them, A gives them information.

A leads Emily to a garage, and locks her in there with a running car. She’s pulled out by Alison(!) and is safe when the other Liars find her. The Liars find a shovel next to the garage with coordinates taped to it. They bring the shovel (read: murder weapon) to what they think is where Dr. Sullivan is buried, and the police show up to arrest them.

Somehow, getting caught with a known murder weapon only gets the girls community service, thanks to Veronica Hastings. During their service, they stage a fight, with Emily saying that she wants to make a deal with A, and Spencer disagreeing. Emily says that they have something A wants. She says there’s something in a box of Alison’s things, which Jason gave to Aria, which exposes A. A, being all knowing, contacts Em about making a deal, and they pick the greenhouse as the drop point.

The plan doesn’t go super smoothly, since A tries to strangle Emily and the other girls don’t show up in time to unmask them, but they do get A’s phone out of the deal! They give it to Caleb and he starts uncovering things. The first thing he uncovers is a picture of dolls, which was taken at Spencer’s lake house. They deduce that A was using the lake house as a hideout.

Spencer finds a receipt for “Smitty’s” with a bag of phones in the lake house. She and Aria go to check it out, and it’s right next to Jenna’s school for the blind. She speaks to one of Jenna’s peers about how determined Jenna was, and she steals the sign-in book. She sees that Garrett signed Jenna out the night that Ali disappeared. When Spence returns to Rosewood, she realizes that Mona was on the same train as her.

Next, Caleb starts uncovering videos of the N.A.T. club. Spencer and Toby found out that Jason, Ian and Garrett all formed this club while they were packing up Ian’s yearbooks. N.A.T. stands for Nos Animadverto Totus, which means “We See All.” One of the videos showed a close up of the box that Jason gave Aria. They see an ID that depicts Ali with dark hair, with the name, “Vivian Darkbloom.”

Upon looking at the box more closely, they realize that Ali had hidden notes inside one of the dolls. The notes were threatening, and they were from A! We also see Ali receiving texts from a flashback episode that Ali was receiving texts from A at Noel Kahn’s Halloween party. During the episode it was clear that she was mean to Mona, she and Jenna were shaping up to be rivals, and somebody tried to hurt her when they took Noel’s place in a prank.

A quick Google search of “Vivian Darkbloom” leads them to Lolita, which leads them to Ali’s copy of Lolita, which contains a coat check ticket. The coat check ticket leads them to…a red coat!! The red coat has a phone number in the pocket, which they call. They speak to someone named Jonah, whom they meet. He specializes in tracking calls and texts, and he met with Ali when she was trying to figure out who A was. Apparently, he gave Ali an address, and she never paid him. He offers to let the Liars pay for the same info, and since they have Spencer “the money” Hastings, they oblige.

The address is inhabited by an old man, so they’re pretty disappointed. Then, through Ashley, they figure out that the building used to be a law firm, which Melissa Hastings interned at. They set a trap for Melissa using Caleb and Mona (they make out right in front of her) to see if she’s A. Hanna receives a text right after, so they consider that confirmation. Even though Mona was part of the plan, and had been receiving texts from A, herself, Hanna lies to her about getting the text.

Jonah later calls Aria and tells her that Ali had been receiving texts from more than one number. He gives her another address, which leads them to the Doll Hospital. The owner’s creepy, psychic son tells the Liars that Vivian had come in asking about who purchased a voodoo doll and that he told her to stop looking, because a man and a woman were trying to hurt her. However, it was later revealed that A paid the owner off.

Jason gives the Liars another box of Ali’s things that Maya had apparently dropped off. At first, they don’t think anything’s in there, but they keep looking. One night, Spencer wakes up and sees Alison rummaging through it. Ali says that she’s sorry for not telling her about Jason, and takes some of her painkillers. Spence thought it was a dream, but when she wakes up, the door and the pill bottle are both open.

After Spencer’s conversation with Ali, they find highlighted newspaper, in Ali’s bag, and discover that Alison corresponded with A through classified ads. They also find a pen and a postcard from the Lost Woods Resort. They go there and see that she checked in the morning before she went missing.

At the masquerade ball, Mona tells Spencer that she saw Ali in Brookhaven a week before she went missing, and that she was watching someone. Brilliant Spencer figures out that one of the rooms at the Lost Woods Resort hadn’t been checked into in months, because it’s been rented! She and Mona go there, they find A’s lair, and Mona reveals herself as A!

Mona knocks Spencer out, kidnaps her, and offers her a spot on the “A Team,” while threatening to kill her if she doesn’t join. Spencer sneakily calls Aria and slips in their location and the Liars race to get there. Mona reveals that she was jealous of the Liars and their friendship with Hanna, so she started messing with them. When Mona sees Hanna pull up, she freaks out and tries to push Spencer off a cliff, but she, herself, falls off.

Dr. Sullivan returns, saying Mona had threatened her son, and tells the girls that Mona had been living in a state of hyper reality, and with the right treatment, she could get better. Inside Mona’s head, she’s thinking that her capture has lured the girls into a false sense of security. We later see her telling someone in a red coat that she’d done everything they’d asked.

Who killed Alison?

It doesn’t take long for the “Ian killed Alison” notion to crumble, in Pretty Little Liars season 2. Frankly, Rosewood never believed the Liars’ story, but even the Liars start to second guess themselves, pretty quickly.

Let’s start back at the scene of the crime. The Liars are being not-so-silently judged by the entire town, outside of the church, when good ole Officer Garrett takes them away. He tells them to not tell anyone about Ian’s videos, because the blackmail that they attempted is a “serious crime.” Garrett’s just looking out for number one, but in reality, that kind of thing on their record wouldn’t be awesome, since Rosewood already thinks they committed another crime: killing Alison. To avoid further suspicion, the parents tell the girls not to hang out.

Jason moves back into the old DiLaurentis house, after Maya’s family leaves, and Jenna and Garrett really aren’t into it. They spend countless hours spying on him, and remarking that people can’t find out about “the Jason thing.”

The official theory of the Rosewood PD (and if you can’t trust them, who can you trust?) is that Ian fled town. Melissa doesn’t believe it, saying that Ian would never believe her. Spencer soon discovers that Melissa has a really great reason for not believing that he’s dead, or gone, since she’s been receiving texts from him.

The Liars follow Melissa one night, and discover that she’s meeting Wren and picking up pills. Luckily, Wren still has a thing for Spence, so she gets him to help the Liars figure out where Melissa’s supposed to meet Ian. The location is at an old barn. When the Liars get there, they hear Melissa scream, so they run into the barn. Ian’s dead body is there, with his hands still clutching a gun and a suicide note, in which he confessed to killing Alison.

A texts Emily and says “does that suicide note look familiar?” From that the Liars figure out that the note is made up of old A texts, and that it’s not an actual confession from Ian. This leads them to believe that A actually was involved in Ali’s murder.

At her local post office, Emily finds the delivery guy from the night they tried to blackmail Ian. He pretends he doesn’t know her, but she figures it out. He said he never met Ian. He responded to an internet posting and talked to a woman on the phone about the job. After Garrett finds out that Emily knows this, he pays Logan to keep quiet and calls Jenna, saying, “it’s taken care of.”

When Ian’s confession becomes public, Jason is relieved. He tells Aria that he has no memory of the night that Ali disappeared, as he was under the influence for that entire summer. The morning after she disappeared, he found a note in his pocket that said, “I know what you did.” He’d thought there was a chance that he killed her.

Unfortunately for Jason and his misplaced relief, the girls start getting seriously suspicious that Ian was innocent. A really drives the point home when they lead them to Ali’s grave. There, the full “I know you wanna kiss me” video is projected and the Liars see that Ali got up and walked away from Ian at the end of the video.

When Toby was working on the Hastings property, he found a buried hockey stick with the name “Hastings” on it, right on the property line between theirs and the DiLaurentis’ yards. Peter Hastings freaks out when he sees that Toby found it and he asks him not to tell Spencer. Of course, Toby had already told Spencer, and she recalled that she’d given the stick to Alison the summer before she disappeared, and they deduce that it was the murder weapon. Spencer later finds her father burning the hockey stick.

The Liars finally realize that they can’t trust Garrett when Aria finds the vase that she’d witnessed Jenna making in their pottery class in Mike’s stash of stolen goods. He tells her that he got the vase from Garrett’s house, and they figure out that Jenna and Garrett are in a relationship. Garrett realizes that they know when Spencer starts backtracking on questions she’d asked him, in the past.

Determined to figure out, once and for all, what the murder weapon was, the Liars sneak into the morgue and steal Alison’s autopsy report. It was ruled that she was hit from behind with a curved blunt edge – bingo – hockey stick. They also see that she had dirt in her lungs, which means she was buried alive! All that info is in the report, but one thing that isn’t there is page 5, which we later find out is the analysis of trace evidence found on the body.

The night that the girls get arrested, when A frames them with the shovel, which is the actual murder weapon, Jenna shows up at the police station to see Garrett. He gives her page 5 of the autopsy report. They say that there’s nothing left to link them to that night, and that Ali “deserved to die like that.” After the arrest, during the one month time jump between episodes, Garrett and Jenna’s relationship becomes public. They then break up soon after Toby and Spencer hear them fight about how they made a mistake by “pulling in somebody else.”

Just because they’re broken up, doesn’t mean Jenna and Garrett are off the hook. The videos that Caleb uncovered from the night that Ali disappeared showed that Ian, Garrett and Jenna were all together, in Ali’s room. Garrett and Jenna were telling Ian that he’d gone too far with the videos. Later, they find out that Melissa was in the room that night, too.

With the proof of Melissa on the video and the intel that Jonah gave them, the Liars, other than Spencer, are ready to go to the police. Spencer obviously isn’t keen to turn on her family, and she wants to hear Melissa out. On top of the video and texts, Melissa had also lied to Spencer about meeting Garrett one night, so she had a lot of explaining to do.

She tells Spencer that she needed to talk to Garrett because she didn’t believe that Ian killed Ali. However, she confesses to Spencer that she thinks she told him too much about their family. She told him that Peter and Veronica had been fighting the day that Ali went missing, and when the news broke, they suddenly stopped and Peter “almost seemed relieved.” Melissa also says that she confessed to Peter about sending angry texts to Ali that day, regarding Ian. After that, Peter was worried that Melissa might’ve killed Alison.

While at the Doll Hospital, someone mistakes Aria for Vivian. She meets with them, and discovers he knows Ali’s real name, and has no idea that she disappeared. Apparently, he saw her the day before she went missing, when she asked him to fly her from North Carolina to Philadelphia. He’s a pilot, obviously. From this, the Liars figure out that Ali was in town for hours before they‘d thought she was.

After Jenna’s surgery, when Toby is pretending to be close to her again, Jenna gives Toby a page that Garrett gave her and pretends she doesn’t know what it is. It’s page 5 of the autopsy report. She asks him to take it to the police. Later, after kissing Melissa, Garrett is arrested for Ali’s murder. Jenna later meets someone in the park, with her glasses off and full vision. She says, “they’re all gonna be at the party. You know what you need to do.” The Liars later see Jenna with Lucas and the “black swan” at the masquerade ball.

Jason and Spencer, S-I-B-L-I-N-G (S)

Spencer hears her dad on the phone, yelling about Jason returning to Rosewood. She figures out that it was Jessica DiLaurentis, and sees them fighting again at the fashion show. Peter tells Spencer to stay away from Jason. A while later, when Spencer and Toby are making out in his truck, they see shadows in the upstairs window of Jason’s house. Peter storms out and yells at Toby for no apparent reason.

At the beginning of Pretty Little Liars season 2, Jason keeps asking Spencer to get Peter to call him. When Spencer confronts her dad, Peter explains it by telling Spencer that a week before Alison went missing, his grandmother had cut Jason out of her will. He changed the date on the will so it wouldn’t look like Jason had motive to kill Alison.

When she recalls a conversation that she’d had with Alison about how Melissa and Jason would be a “match that the God’s would frown on,” Spencer figures out that Jason is her brother. She talks to him about it, and he tells her that he found a box of Ali’s with letters from his mom to Spencer’s dad, and money.

They start to believe that Peter blackmailed Alison to keep quiet, but he says that he never gave a cent to that family. When Spencer finds a bank statement showing $15,000 leaving her dad’s account around that time, he tells her he hired a private investigator to solve Ali’s murder, because he was worried Melissa was involved.

For a refresher on the friendships and relationships in Pretty Little Liars season 2, go to page 2. To catch up on every message from A, every A scene, and more, go to page 3!

Love and friendship

All of the Liars have had more than their share of kisses, over the years, but let’s look back at some of their best ones from Pretty Little Liars season 2.

Aria’s love life

When season 1 ended, Aria was just finding out about Ezra’s previous engagement to Jackie. She was less than impressed that he’d left out that tiny little detail about his life, but when Jackie showed up to Aria’s house for a Hollis faculty mixer, she was livid.

In the beginning of season 2, Ezra tries to talk to Aria about what happened with Ian, but she’s still upset. Soon after, Ezra leaves Rosewood High to teach at Hollis, and he basically masks his ode to Aria as a goodbye speech to the class. As he packs up his things and heads for the parking lot, Aria checks her pride and sprints into his arms and kisses him. The whole thing is definitely an Ezria highlight!

When Ezra starts his job at Hollis, he and Aria have trouble adjusting to the fact that they don’t have to be quite so secretive. When Jackie walks in on them talking in his office, he addresses her as his former student and she says she’s actually there to see her dad. They agree to take a baby step by introducing each other as friends.

While Aria and Ezra are trying to figure out how to proceed, Jason begins opening up to Aria and showing interest in her. He tells her that he thought her pink hair was cool, confides in her about not remembering the night that Ali disappeared, and lets her little brother off the hook for breaking into his house.

The whole thing comes to a head when Aria’s parents invite both men to their house for a dinner party. After her parents get called to the police station because of Mike, Ezra sees Aria and Jason having an intimate conversation. He asks Aria if he should be worried about Jason, and she scoffs as if there could be no more ridiculous notion!

And then, the sex dreams started happening. Aria enjoys a series of dreams where she got to make out with both Ezra and Jason! Understandably, the girl was confused, so when Jason finally kisses her, soon after that, she doesn’t stop him right away. Eventually, though, she tells him that she isn’t available. Aria does (accidentally) tell Ezra about the kiss, so things get slightly rocky for a while.

When Spencer believes Jason to be connected to Ali’s disappearance, she jumps into Ezra’s car and tells him that Aria’s in danger. The mere thought of that compels Ezra to tell Aria that they need to tell people about their relationship. However, they still don’t, until A forces Aria to blackmail Jackie, using her plagiarized paper. When Jackie threatens to expose Ezria, that’s the last straw. First stop on the confession tour, Aria’s parents’ house! In the middle of all that there’s some drama with Ella thinking Ezra was dating Spencer, but it’s pretty inconsequential.

Less inconsequential, is Aria’s family’s reaction to the news. Mike punches Ezra in the face, Ella forbids Aria from seeing him, and Byron tells Ezra to stay away from her. They also put Aria under serious lockdown. It all seems pretty bleak, until Aria’s old family friend, Holden, comes back to town. The two of them pretend they’re dating so that Aria can see Ezra in the city and Holden can do karate..? To each, his own, I guess.

Even though they’re doing a great job at hiding their relationship, it isn’t enough for Byron. He orchestrates a prestigious job interview for Ezra in New Orleans. Ezra tells Aria that he doesn’t see how it can work out between them, because Byron will know why, if he doesn’t take the job. Luckily, after seeing Aria crying, Ella shows up at Ezra’s apartment and agrees to hear them out. With this ray of hope, Ezra tells Byron that he won’t be bullied into leaving. Ezra gets fired, but he and Aria have sex for the first time, so…you win some, you lose some, right?

Emily’s love life

Emily met Samara in season 1, when they were supposed to be helping Paige, who was a no-show, and they immediately hit it off. At the beginning of season 2, they go on a date and the sparks continue to fly. Unfortunately, things get confusing when Samara shows up to Emily’s fashion show holding another girl’s hand, and there was no coming back from Emily giving Samara’s friend her phone number, per A’s demands.

Don’t fret, Emily’s not heartbroken for too long, because Maya comes back to town! They agree to start again, as friends, but things get back to normal pretty quickly. Well, normal, except for the fact that Maya keeps receiving weird texts and calls, and says they’re from a guy that she dated at True North. Despite that, an inappropriate dinner with Pam, and a suspicious convo with Noel, Maya and Emily say that they love each other when Maya romantically decorates her room to look like a pool!

At Emily’s victory party, she catches Maya smoking a joint, outside. Her parents also find a joint in her room (she had told Emily it was old), and are threatening to send her back to True North. Maya tells Emily that she wants to go back to San Francisco to avoid going back to the juvi camp. Then, she leaves.

While Emily’s worrying about Maya, she and Paige end up fundraising together. Paige tells her that she came out to her parents, and Em is thrilled. However, when Paige kisses Emily after she consoles her about Maya’s absence, Emily reacts just about as well as she did when Paige first kissed her, in her car.

The police eventually come to Emily’s house and tell her that Maya left a note, packed a bag, and ran away. Emily and her father go to the bus station to investigate, and they find out that Maya bought a bus ticket to San Fran, but the attendant can’t confirm that she got on the bus. He saw her talking to someone in a dark colored car, outside the window.

Soon after that, Emily gets a text from Maya saying that she’s okay, and later, a long email, basically saying that she’s not coming back, but that she loves her. Knowing her parents are worried, Emily lets them know that she’s okay. Later, Emily gets an angry text from Maya, saying, “thanks for telling my parents.” Emily does get a call from Maya while the Liars are at the Lost Woods Resort, but the reception isn’t good enough.

After the ‘A’ reveal, the Liars see police cars outside of Emily’s house. Emily runs to her lawn and her mom informs her that they think they found Maya’s body.

Hanna’s love life

Thinking his chances with Hanna were shot, Caleb left town at the end of Pretty Little Liars season 1. That is, he tried to, until Lucas went to bring him back. Caleb apologizes to Hanna for leaving and explains that he wrote a goodbye letter, which Mona never delivered. Despite his apology, Hanna says that she’ll never be able to forget the fact that he used her.

When Lucas develops a crush on Danielle, a cute girl from the yearbook club, he begs Hanna and Caleb to double date with them. Caleb’s all for it, and Hanna reluctantly obliges. After the double date, things begin to thaw for Haleb, and Hanna eventually lets him back in.

Caleb confides in Hanna about getting in trouble with some criminals before he came to Rosewood, so when Hanna notices that someone’s following him, she’s understandably concerned. Hanna confronts his stalker, but it turns out it’s just someone his mother paid to find him. After talking to his mother, he spends a lot of Pretty Little Liars season 2 in Montecito, with her and her family. Hanna’s sad that he’s away, but the relationship doesn’t suffer because of the distance.

That doesn’t mean that things are perfect in Haleb land, though. When the Liars get A’s phone, they immediately think to turn to Caleb, to hack it. Hanna doesn’t want to involve him, but the other girls overpower her. When Caleb starts to figure out that the videos he’s decrypting have something to do with Ali’s murder, Hanna freaks out and puts his USB stick, with all of his work, in the blender. It literally just bounces around, but we’re to believe it’s irreparably damaged.

Caleb figured out enough to know that Hanna could be in danger, so he goes to the other Liars and tells them he’ll continue to work on the phone, but only if they keep it a secret from Hanna. When Hanna finds out, she doesn’t get mad, she just tells him about the money her mom stole, and that A could expose her if he keeps working.

At “Truth Up” day, A takes Caleb’s computer and downloads illegal files onto it. Later, at school, Garrett shows up and seizes Caleb’s laptop. They can’t get into it, so they eventually call him down to the station to go through the files. He manages to call Hanna and say that he needs help, and using information that he’d taught her, and skillfully putting together his password, which included the date that they slept together for the first time, she and Spencer manage to delete the illegal files before the police find them.

After that, Caleb goes away again, but Mona arranges for him to come back to surprise Hanna at the masquerade ball. Haleb is going strong, moving into Pretty Little Liars season 3.

Spencer’s love life

At the beginning of Pretty Little Liars season 2, Spencer and Toby are told not to see each other. Luckily, nothing makes a high school romance hotter than when it’s “forbidden,” so they continue to find little moments to be together.

Not wanting to face the scrutiny of his peers any longer, Toby decides to pursue a GED. With ample free time on his hands, and a keen desire to get away from his home situation, he starts taking on construction jobs.

Because life is high school, Toby gets fired from his first job because the owner doesn’t want him working on their property. After that, he gets a cool opportunity that’s a little further out of town, but he can’t afford a truck to get there. Spence, being a super girlfriend and a not-so-super sister, pawns Melissa’s engagement ring to get him the money. To be fair, she does plan to get the ring back “as soon as the banks open,” but A has other plans, and instead of the ring, she gets a horseshoe. Upon receiving the truck, Toby tells Spence that he loves her, and she says it back. D’awww.

When Spencer receives her doll from A with the instruction to “keep Toby safe,” the only way she can think to do that is to keep him away from her. She tells him that there’s so much she can’t tell him, so they have to break up. Wren, who’s now working at the Rosewood hospital in the role of “every doctor necessary to every plot,” sees Spence crying about the break up, comes to her house to console her, and kisses her. Creep.

Throughout the season, Toby keeps trying to prove to Spencer that he’s not walking away from the relationship, no matter what she says, and Spencer keeps telling him to back the heck off. That is, when she’s not slipping up and kissing him in his car. So, we probably can’t blame Toby for getting missed signals. When A sees one of these slip ups, they orchestrate some payback. Toby falls off some hefty scaffolding in Spencer’s yard and ends up in the hospital.

Seeing that her mistake put Toby in danger, Spencer tells Emily to tell Toby that she’s seeing someone else. Namely, Wren. Toby finally gets the hint and leaves the truck on Spencer’s yard, with a note saying he’s gone.

One night, when Spencer’s waiting for Melissa at a bar, Wren just happens to be there. Melissa ditches Spence and takes off with Garrett, so Spencer goes to Wren’s apartment and things get pretty hot and heavy. Wren eventually puts a stop to it because Spencer’s so drunk, and she spends the night on the couch. The next time they see each other is at the hospital when he’s taking glass out of Spencer’s hand, from the fire at Jason’s. He asks if she’d rather forget what happened between them but she says she wouldn’t take anything back.

When Toby eventually comes back, after Jenna’s surgery, he gives Spencer the cold shoulder. She tries to get him back but he tells her it’s too late. He’s all buddy-buddy with Jenna again, despite everything that happened between them.

After Mona confesses, Dr. Sullivan tells Spencer that Toby went to convince her to come back. He’s waiting outside the police station for her and tells her that pretending not to love her was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do!

Other notable relationships

Minor storylines

These topics take up a lot of screen time in Pretty Little Liars season 2, but aren’t overly important to the main plot of the show!

Mike Montgomery’s criminal phase

Emily and Spencer both have items stolen from their houses, and Aria’s knocked over by a hooded figure at Spencer’s house. They assume the culprit is Ian, but Jason DiLaurentis soon discovers that it’s actually Mike Montgomery, when he catches him trying to break into his house!

Jason doesn’t turn Mike in, but the police catch him anyway. Over many family screaming matches, it’s revealed that Mike was acting out because of the turmoil between his parents, and because he felt ignored. During one particularly tense argument, Mike pushes Ella over when she tries to take his computer.

Mike starts seeing a therapist but Byron wants to take him to a psychiatrist. He’s extra worried because his brother committed suicide, and doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Mike. By the end of the season, Mike seems to be coming back to his old self, and is friendlier with his family.

Emily’s family and swimming career

Emily’s dad is back from his deployment, but gets stationed in Texas. Pam doesn’t like the distance, and really doesn’t like the drama that Emily’s been caught up in, so she puts their house up for sale and plans for them to move south.

When a scout for Danby University shows interest in Emily’s swimming prowess, she takes the opportunity to make a case for staying in Rosewood. When the scout won’t give her any assurance, she forges a letter saying that they’ve offered her a scholarship, contingent on her remaining in Rosewood. She doesn’t end up sending it, but A does! Pam lets Emily stay, but she misses her husband too much to do the same, so Emily moves in with Hanna.

Em soon starts experiencing pain in her shoulders and begins applying pain cream pretty generously. When she collapses at school, with an ulcer, her blood tests (performed by Wren) show high levels of the performance enhancing drug, HGH. A reveals to her that they sabotaged her by putting the hormone in her pain cream. In the hospital, she plans to tell her dad about the forged letter, but he tells her not to worry about the scholarship, before she can do so.

When she heals and is ready to swim again, the coach isn’t sure if she should let her back on the team, since she was arrested and was given community service. Mona helps Emily get back on the team by blackmailing the principal with her insider knowledge.

Jenna’s eyesight

The Liars first hear about Jenna’s eye surgery when they overhear her talking to a nurse in the hospital. Throughout Pretty Little Liars season 2, she makes comments about the first things she wants to see when she gets her eyesight back. She comes back from the surgery with a bandage over her eye. She finally takes her bandage off in front of Toby, and starts crying as if it didn’t work. However, it’s later revealed that it actually did work, and she can see.

Hanna’s family

Hanna’s asked to be a bridesmaid at her father’s wedding to Isobel, and she reluctantly obliges. When she’s at her dress fitting with Mona, Kate shows up and invites them to go riding with her and her friends. Hanna “horse whisperer” Marin loses Kate’s horses and Kate basically vows to ruin her life.

Kate commences said life ruining at the rehearsal dinner. She and Hanna are set to give a toast together, but Kate gets Hanna drunk and Hanna ends up puking all over Isobel’s wedding dress. Things don’t get any better between Hanna and Isobel when A makes Hanna interrupt the wedding by telling Isobel about the affair her parents had, earlier in Pretty Little Liars season 2.

Despite the interruption, Hanna’s father still marries Isobel, and they decide to move to Rosewood! When Kate shows up at school, Spencer realizes that she’s seen her before. Kate was in Melissa’s cabin at horse camp, and the campers knew her as “Boil and Baggies” because she had a severe skin condition. Spencer blackmails her into treating Hanna well.

The entire student body receives a nude picture of Kate from Hanna’s phone, and Hanna gets in serious trouble. When the Liars do some sleuthing and realize that the picture was photoshopped, they deduce that Kate must’ve sent it herself. They expose her, and that’s the last of the Kate trouble!

The fire

When Hanna goes over to Jason’s to return a bag of Ali’s things, she notices that the inside of the house is on fire! Jenna runs at the door, trying to escape, and Hanna pulls her out. Jenna says that she got a text from Jason saying that he needed to talk to her, but Jason was out of town. In the hospital, Jenna asks Hanna why she saved her, and she later apologizes for holding a grudge, saying that she’s not the person they need to fear.

Lucas gambling

In one of the more frustrating Pretty Little Liars plot lines, Lucas is built up to be the big bad, but is actually just addicted to online gambling. As part of Emily’s community service, she helps out at a support hotline. During training, her instructor reads a transcript call from the night before. The dialogue makes it sound like A was the caller.

The same caller calls back the next day, and it’s clear that it’s Lucas, from his voice. The girls get scared, since Lucas is currently helping them plan Caleb’s surprise party at Spencer’s lake house. Hanna doesn’t want to believe it could be him, but when he takes her out on a row boat, at the party, and is acting sketchy, she freaks out and pushes him overboard.

Nobody sees him for a few days, but eventually he sneaks into Hanna’s house and confesses to stealing Caleb’s money and betting on basketball. *eye roll* Caleb forgives him but Hanna says that he’s not who she thought he was.

Miss something in the major storylines? Go back to page 1! Or, continue on for every message from A, every A scene, and what we know now.

Every message from A

Every A scene

What we know now

Warning: This section contains spoilers from later seasons of Pretty Little Liars.

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You’ve been warned!

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What’s your favorite memory from ‘Pretty Little Liars’ season 2?