Is Bloody Rose Losing Her Edge In Pretty Little Liars: Summer School Episode 5?

After two of our Liars have been attacked by Bloody Rose, the girls are ready to take matters into their own hands in Pretty Little Liars: Summer School episode 5. The first step? Confronting Dr Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) after finding out she used to be Rose Waters’ therapist.

After doing some digging, they learn they were connected with her for group therapy thanks to a recommendation from Deputy Maroon after Sullivan volunteered her services. What if she’s using everything they say against them as Bloody Rose? Tabby (Chandler Kinney) and Imogen (Bailee Madison) end up sneaking into Sullivan’s office and going through her files for clues. There we find a huge Easter egg in the form of Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily’s files. Yup, the OG Pretty Little Liars’ characters! Imogen has also found her own file and there are full transcriptions from all their sessions and a digital recorder. It’s illegal to record therapy sessions without consent. When the girls confront her, Sullivan claims that she’s working on a book. She believes their stories as survivors could help other women. At this point, it’s looking like Sullivan could be another red herring, although we can never rule anyone out completely. While she might not be Bloody Rose — and neither is the real Rose Waters — she is trying to profit off their trauma. 

This season is also suspiciously void of really big lies for a show about Liars. Season one focused on a secret the moms had that impacted their daughters, but this season the moms aren’t very present. Sure, Tabby and Imogen are being called Liars by Chip’s mom and, sure, Faran (Zaria) lied about not being allowed to dance, but those are kinda blips on the radar. The only person truly lying right now is Noa (Maia Reficco) as she keeps cheating on Shawn with Jen (Ava Capri). I don’t like that they are diving into this played out stereotype of a bisexual character being a cheater or being unable to make real decisions. It appears neither does Bloody Rose as she makes Noa her next target. Noa goes to the trails at dusk and is instructed to walk a path of thorny roses with no shoes on. I kept thinking, girl, she didn’t say no socks too! She ends up cutting her feet walking this path and getting attacked by a dog. It all felt like a weird request. I wish it had been more of a situation where Noa was forced into a situation that she couldn’t get out of. Jen ends up being the one to find Noa in her car and save her, which begs the question: how did she know where she was and show up at the perfect time? I already don’t trust Jen, but that was suspicious!

Meanwhile, Faran is convinced by Henry to go check out the church group that he’s spilling too much of their relationship drama in. She visits the youth group session, which initially starts out positively. That is until Greg reveals he’s not in the inner circle of the church that is having secret meetings… but Henry and Kelly (Mallory Bechtel) are. Faran sneaks and sees the members of the secret part of the church praising a god that honestly seems very similar to what we see at the very beginning of this episode in the Spooky Spagetti video of people praising Bloody Rose. While it looks weird and random, I think they could’ve gone further with it. It’s safe to say Faran and Henry are officially over — and now Faran needs to talk to the girls because it seems like the whole town is in this culty church besides them.

Speaking of Spooky Spaghetti, there could be an eerie parallel between the praising of Bloody Rose on the website and the secret praising in the church. We even see Mouse’s (Malia Pyles) grandma watching the reckoning of Rose Waters online and everyone cuts their head — even her! It almost feels like a mass online hypnosis or brainwashing. 

Imogen has a more family-centric storyline this episode after confronting Dr Sullivan. Her dad shows up at the Millwood Creamery wanting to reconnect. While it seems sweet at first, he then he drops the bomb on her that he’s engaged to a woman named Rebecca and to introduce them at dinner. Things take a turn when Imogen realizes the engagement ring he gave Rebecca was the same one he gave her mom, although it was an heirloom from his side of the family. Imogen loses it and even threatens to cut the ring off her finger and tells her dad to never come looking for her again. She came across as nuts to me, but Johnny (Antonio Cipriano) was much more understanding. This seemed like a scene set up to make us question Imogen and her stability as a narrator. Johnny reveals his dad sucks too and even asks Imogen about her mother. We don’t know Johnny’s last name though so it’s got me wondering… could this be a hint or another red herring?

Wrapping things up with the Liars, Tabby and Christian (Noah Alexander Gerry) have to think outside the box when the AC shuts down at the Orpheum’s annual Friday the 13th marathon. They end up taking over the abandoned Camp Millwood to host their screening. Wes makes his return and is even more of a jerk than usual, questioning Tabby being offered an opportunity to submit another film at PIFT. He claims she only got asked because of a lack of diversity and says it’s much harder for a straight white guy right now. Could be a suspect since most of our Liars are women of color, or maybe Bloody Rose’s next victim for such a tragic take?

Noa said what we’re all thinking — what did they do to deserve this? I need to know more about why Bloody Rose is after them at this point. Without that background, it’s making some of the trials feel a little lackluster because we still don’t know why Bloody Roses’ real goal is here besides seeing who’s the ultimate final girl. Walk on thorny roses? Do better! This was one of my least favorite episodes because of that. I feel like they could go much further with Bloody Roses’s challenges and that cult praising scene. 

When it comes to theories, I’ve been thinking a little more about the final girl poster and rumors that this season is supposed to be focused on Tabby as the ultimate final girl. She’s also the one Liar who would care about those things. Do you think she could be hiding the ultimate lie as Bloody Rose? It’s a bit of a reach and honestly, with her horror expertise, I think she’d have more original challenges. I feel like there could also be more around Imogen’s mom since she really kick started the entire series and we keep seeing references to her or flashbacks to her. Could she be Bloody Rose? Could she have a secret twin who is Bloody Rose? There’s also the fact that fans have noticed that Bloody Rose and Kelly are wearing the same necklace. Could this mean it’s her? Or that the necklace is connected to that cult church? Or even more so that it could actually be Karen or Mrs Beasley? Oh my god, what if Mrs Beasley has brainwashed Kelly so that Karen is in her body with her and when she’s Kelly she’s normal and when she’s Karen she’s helping her get revenge as Bloody Rose? Okay, maybe that theory is going off the rails…

Keep up with Pretty Little Liars: Summer School as new episodes drop every Thursday on Max. In the meantime, leave a comment with your theories so far!