It Still Stings: Spencer Hastings Deserved Better from Pretty Little Liars
Photo Courtesy of Freeform
Editor’s Note: TV moves on, but we haven’t. In our feature series It Still Stings, we relive emotional TV moments that we just can’t get over. You know the ones, where months, years, or even decades later, it still provokes a reaction? We’re here for you. We rant because we love. Or, once loved. And obviously, when discussing finales in particular, there will be spoilers:
As unarguably the smartest member of Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars quartet, Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) consistently faced the worst consequences from the villainous “A”’s vicious attacks—rivaled only by Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), who was also put through the wringer quite a few times throughout the series’ seven-season run. Spencer solved the most complex clues, becoming the only member of the group to truly push them toward learning the identities of their stalkers. But it was all worth it in the end because she got her happily ever after, right? Wrong. Until the very end, Pretty Little Liars tortured and abused Spencer, making her the most traumatized and battered Liar, with very little to show for it by the time the credits roll on the series’ two-part finale.
First and foremost, Pretty Little Liars’ most heinous crime towards Spencer was her ending. The series’ final twists were particularly brutal given the timing. With just 10 episodes left before the gates to Rosewood close forever, Spencer learns that her birth mother is Mary Drake (Andrea Parker), the late Jessica DiLaurentis’ twin sister and murderer, and that her parents had been lying to her for her entire life. This left basically no time to delve into this revelation and how that inevitably and irrevocably changed her relationships with Veronica (Lesley Fera), Peter (Nolan North), and others.
Then, of course, salt is poured into the wound during the latter half of the two-part series finale that brings Spencer’s identical twin out of the shadows. Alex (distracting accent in tow) kidnaps Spencer, as she has her sights set on “becoming” Spencer and completely taking over her life. Alex somehow feels justified in blaming her twin for getting the “better” life, even though the only thing Spencer did was be delivered from the womb first. All in all, this half-baked twist wasn’t truly worthy of the series finale’s grand reveal, leaving Spencer with just another giant family secret wrecking her life with no time to unpack it.
We also can’t forget about the fact that Alex is Spencer’s second sister to be unmasked as her tormentor, as the reveal that Mary is Spencer’s birth mother also unearthed that final A Charlotte—a.k.a. Cece Drake (Vanessa Ray)—was actually her biological sister, not Alison’s. How does one recover from that? Unfortunately, this doesn’t get any time to be explored because it’s all shoved in as time is ticking to a close, which is ultimately a shame. It would have been invaluable to the effectiveness of the series to see Spencer cope with these major shake-ups and, for possibly the first time throughout seven seasons, receive comfort from those in her life after learning such world-shattering information. Instead, it’s dropped in at the end of the show. Or, what isn’t revealed in the series’ final moments is brushed past and ignored, and her friends and family are either too busy or just don’t care. (We still haven’t forgiven Aria for having no reaction whatsoever to Spencer being kidnapped in the series finale, only concerned with Ezra.)