On The Perfectionists season 1, episode 7, Alison, Mona, and the Perfectionists are determined to focus on their normal lives during Beacon Heights University’s “Dead Week,” but stepping out of the drama isn’t as easy as anticipated.

The Perfectionists 1×07 is the perfect example of how the series would handle having a higher episode count and longer to draw out the mystery, just like Pretty Little Liars. Focusing on their normal lives in almost an entirely filler episode, save for a few reveals, was a risky move with only 10 episodes this season, but it paid off.

This was the first episode of The Perfectionists season 1 that I would say wasn’t better than the last, as each episode has been ramping up as we’ve gotten closer to the season finale, but it was still really good.

Alison and Mona

It was nice to get a break from the constant stress of what’s going to happen next and to see what the characters are actually doing with their lives in Beacon Heights when they’re not trying to solve a murder or discover who’s trying to frame them.

Of the work the writers must do to build this new universe, normalizing Mona and Alison’s live in Beacon Heights is, by far, the most important. The writers haven’t really had to think about that because the characters, and the fans, were thrust into the murder investigation enveloping Beacon Heights, leaving little room for exploration.

Mona and Alison settling into their perfect BHU lives is important, necessary, and paints the picture for why they have chosen to stick around, even in the midst of all of this Rosewood-esque shit going down.

I’m fascinated by Mona’s position as an advisor and how she conned her way into teaching young students what path to follow. With Mona’s past experiences, you’d think that BHU would be a little more… particular, about how they choose their faculty. And not all of Mona’s history would have been sealed in Rosewood; she was an adult when she was put into Welby for killing Charlotte (though it’s unclear if the police even discovered that tidbit or not).

Also, the discovery of Bad Bishop’s identity was so lackluster. It was so obvious that Mason was Mona’s chess partner, which is just weird considering she’s much older than him. Why does Pretty Little Liars always need an inappropriate student/teacher relationship? Sure, Mason is an adult, but Mona is still a faculty member at his college, which can’t look good on her.

(Obviously Mona would take any criticism over this relationship because she’s a faculty member dating a student, who happens to also be a younger man, and that’s the double standard in our society.)

Bad Bishop’s identity should have been a twist, like it being Jeremy or something, because it was so predictable. I’m disappointed.

Alison being a TA isn’t as surprising as Mona’s role, but we’re missing quality content about how these students interact with her and how she’s managing to teach when she’s off searching for clues and answers and reverting partially into her old self. Imagine 14-year-old Alison DiLaurentis as a teacher and then laugh because she would be fired within a day.

If Alison was willing to wreck the little bit of her marriage that she was holding on to in order to move to Beacon Heights, we need to see what exactly she’s getting out of it. Being a suspect in another murder investigation must have made Alison question her decision to leave Rosewood, but where was that story? Having too few episodes can really impact the quality of the story, yet Freeform continues to order 10-episode seasons.

The little slivers of information about Rosewood that leak through are interesting, yet it’s unsettling to see Mona and Alison’s past used as a bit of comedy relief.

Mona’s line about being stuck in the dollhouse was the setup for Ava’s punchline about searching for them online, but that was a seriously traumatic event that altered Mona forever. She was trapped in an underground bunker for almost eight months, forced to pretend to be another person and severely punished when she didn’t cooperate.

As funny as these things might be to other characters who don’t think they’re being serious, it kind of belittles what Mona and Alison actually went through and had to work past to become the people they are in the present. Instead of being the butt of a joke, their past should be used to commend them for being such strong, independent, and intelligent characters.

Dead Week

The Perfectionists are, understandably, struggling to get by in school with everything going on in their lives on The Perfectionists season 1, episode 7.

Caitlin’s struggles are the most understandable because, I mean, she was hit by a car and had to recover, which put her track and field career at risk and put her behind in her classes while she healed. Though, like a certain other senator’s daughter we know, Caitlin has no trouble working everything back in to her schedule. She even finds time for her fake first date with Jeremy, which is a relief!

(I’m praying that we get to see Caitlin working for Veronica Hastings at some point, to see the most interesting mom make her triumphant return to the Pretty Little Liars universe.)

I still think Jeremy is the killer, but it will be a long time until that’s proven right or wrong, so I want to enjoy Caitlin’s relationship with him in the meantime. They have the potential to be a very cute, very strong couple, but they have been given nearly half of the focus that Dylan and Andrew have, which is another issue on its own.

Dylan’s relationship with Andrew is almost unbearable. The two actors share absolutely zero chemistry, and Andrew is just, frankly, a terrible character. The one good thing he’s done was walking away from Dylan after discovering he was cheated on, yet he’s already over that and forgiving Dylan, which is just pathetic.

Even when Andrew isn’t in an episode, like The Perfectionists season 1, episode 6, he’s still Dylan’s main focus, which isn’t how to build a strong character in a new series. We know more about those characters as a couple than we do individually, so it’s hard to root for either one of them. Plus, given that fact, all of their scenes together just seem pointless.

I’d love to see Dylan blossom into an interesting and critical character, but at this point, he could be the first major death of the series (Nolan doesn’t count because we all saw it coming) and I wouldn’t really care for more than a minute.

Meanwhile, Ava and Zach’s relationship is obviously going to turn romantic, but does it have to? Zach is such a flat character and his distaste and distrust for Ava, while crystal clear, is not necessary to make Ava’s story interesting.

So much could be done with Ava’s tense history with Dana Booker and the mystery around her father’s crimes and his disappearance, yet the writers are shifting the focus to some guy Ava just met. Ava is so much more than the men in her life, but she’s been reduced to her father’s daughter, Nolan’s girlfriend, and now Zach’s love interest… Will she get to shine on her own?

Final Thoughts

As I said before, The Perfectionists season 1, episode 7 wasn’t the strongest episode of The Perfectionists that we’ve seen. It was a decent episode that showed the writers could still keep the filler content interesting, just like with Pretty Little Liars, but didn’t really offer more than that.

With such a short season, it just didn’t really fit. If more episodes had been ordered, some stories could have dragged on longer, which could have made The Perfectionists 1×07 seem more relevant and not like the odd one out, but that’s just not how it worked out this time.

That said, this episode did set up the events leading to the sure-to-be epic season finale, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Freeform!