Maryam Piracha, Shazia Ahmad" />
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The Devil's in the RemoteJune 29, 2012

Pretty Little Liars: Game on B*tches

Previously on Pretty Little Liars: heartbreak, death, lying, scheming, betrayal and a TWIST!

With Mona locked up in a mental asylum, the liars finally get to feel normal for a bit, think about their futures and its possibilities. Except for poor Em, who tries to drown her the loss of another girlfriend to death in power drills and hard liqour. There is no happy future for Emily, both the girls she’s loved have been brutally murdered by A. (A is a homophobe)

The girls should know better than to get blacked out drunk at a reunion, last time that happened Allison went missing and this time A uses Emily’s newely acquired blue collar skills to dig up her grave and steal the body. And just like that the liars are back in the fold of secrets which will bring about their downfall.

The girls cover up their tracks, get their stories straight and tell Emily not to worry. This is a secret they will keep forever (like the countless others they’ve managed to keep buried). But this isn’t the only secret they’ve been keeping. Hanna has been visiting Mona at the assylum, trying to come to terms with her betrayal, but all she gets is a unresponsive shell of a person who looks right through her.

Related | Let your hair down, Bunheads

How the Mighty have fallen.

Spencer isn’t happy keeping one secret, so she’s keeping two. One she is virtually recreating A’s hideout on her laptop back at the motel (how is she getting in? MP: She’s Spencer, the girl can do anything! Besides, a little cash goes a long way…) AND she’s visiting Garett at jail. Garret’s got a few secrets of his own and tries to leverage them to get Spencer to convince her mom to represent him. I wouldn’t hold my breath, Garett.

Aria may be suffering from PTSD and the sound of footsteps plus a peek of a hoodie outside her stall triggers an episode. If there was a show I’d recommend to girls (actually pretty much everyone) everywhere its PLL. Here are a bunch of girls, who are being bullied, blackmailed over and over again to turn on each other; and yet they are each other’s greatest protectors. There is no fighting over boys, no back stabbing, nothing but acceptance for having alternative life choices, positive role models for the gay community and a protective circle of friends. This show is ultimately about acceptance, tolerance and standing up to bullying; and those are the lessons people everywhere could do with more of.

Someday we will be saved ladies! I swear it.

Though Emily blows off the police interrogation to hang out with Toby (now living in an attic; MP: what do we think of Spoby btw? I for one think the two are adorable), the girls stick to their guns and come out of it unscathed (or so they’d like to believe). Emily’s guilt is beginning to drain her. The guilt of Maya’s passing piled on with the guilt of putting the girls in danger, she is unable to face her friends. But Em’s no coward and offers to go to the police and come clean though the girls will have none of it.

A blue convertible on the street triggers part of Emily’s memory and a follow up message makes the girls come clean to each other. The less they hide from each other, the stronger they are. Spencer takes them to the motel and shows them her project. The liars finally tell Emily the biggest secret they’ve been keeping from her. A’s lair was cleared by someone the night Mona was arrested. The same someone who has incriminating pictures of the liars standing over Allie’s grave with a shovel. Mona played with dolls and the girls have graduated to the major leagues now. It’s game on bitches.

  • Wren is the ONLY doctor in Rosewood. Being everywhere is exahusting. Lands you in the loony bin. Just ask Mona. (MP: hahahaha!)
  • Lucas is not coping well with Mona being gone is he?
  • Hanna really has grown hasn’t she? No more kleptomania to cope with stress. She now confronts her problems head on.
  • One of the many A’s has a crush on Emily right? Like Karofsky. Explains much of the “special’ treament poor Em is subjected to.

Shazia is part bionic, part crazy (parts not mutually exclusive), and would be happy conversing solely in TV quotes, forever hopeful she’ll be one-upped in her obscure TV references. She blogs here and microblogs here.

Maryam (TMS Editor-in-Chief) shares the columnist’s channel surfing tendencies but not her dedication to write anything longer than 140 characters. The Robin to Shazia’s Batman, M always appears in parenthesized italics.

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abc familyashley bensonlucy halepretty little liarsshay mitchellsummer tvtroian bellisario

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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