It’s Time To Line Up The Bloody Rose Suspects In Pretty Little Liars: Summer School Episode 7
Only one more week until the bandages come off, but are the Liars on the right track when it comes to who is Bloody Rose?
After Imogen’s (Bailee Madison) attack, the Liars are convinced someone had a Davie mask on, trying to push Imogen to the brink of a psychotic break by thinking her mother is Bloody Rose. While the girls have a running list of who could be Bloody Rose, there were a few people that stood out in Pretty Little Liars: Summer School episode 7.
The first being Dr Sullivan (Annabeth Gish). After Redemption House, it does make sense to look back at her as a suspect. She is a therapist who knows all of their traumas and secrets and Bloody Rose orchestrated a pretty intense psychological attack. This episode finds Imogen calling Dr Sullivan out, which leads to her explaining her connection to Rose Waters on a deeper level. She met Rose when she was treating her at the Radley Sanitarium after Angela’s death. Rose asked Sullivan to help her son… but she ultimately didn’t. She thinks this led to Archie targeting her and killing her son Sebastian. She failed to protect her son and now she’s failing the girls. I was surprised they didn’t use this as an opportunity to connect back to the A from Rosewood and her experience with the OG Pretty Little Liars. That seemed like a missed opportunity.
The next big suspect has been Kelly’s mom Mrs Beasley. Not only does she already hate the Liars, but everyone who has been killed by Bloody Rose has “contacted” her to cover for them. She’s the one who told saying that Sandy went out of town and that Pastor Malachi left because they can’t heal the town’s sins. This could easily just be her covering her own tracks, although not very well. But if she is Bloody Rose, why would she kill the Pastor? She seemed to care for him and was in a relationship with him. I also gotta say she doesn’t seem like the most tech savvy person to keep up texting Sandy’s mom to make her think she was in Millwood still either. Faran (Zaria) tells Kelly (Mallory Bechtel) about Bloody Rose and her suspicions about her mother and Kelly starts to see her point as the episode goes on. She even has a whole garden of red roses that she could be using for Bloody Rose’s calling card. The red roses are an interesting symbol because a classic red rose can be a symbol of love, which makes sense when she’s putting them on Karen’s grave, but it can also be a symbol of sacrifice, which could tie into the cult or Bloody Rose’s plan.
Speaking of sacrifice, that topic comes up as Mouse (Malia Pyles) digs deeper into Spooky Spaghetti. A man comes into her family’s thrift shop to donate a game console because the son was cutting his head for Bloody Rose, just like Mouse’s grandma. Mouse realizes there is a blood atonement — some type of ceremony, riot, or sacrifice — being planned for the date of Archie Water’s execution. This seems like a really important date to watch out for. When she tries to put a stop to this by posting as Angela Waters on Spooky Spaghetti, it just gets her doxed and she becomes more of a target. There was even a scary online threat about Mouse’s grandma being a sacrifice. She decides to turn to the school’s computer teacher to see if he can help her get the site shut down by crashing the server.
Another person who has been on my radar is Christian (Noah Alexander Gerry). We already know he has both A and Bloody Rose masks in his basement. How did we all just allow Tabby (Chandler Kinney) to gloss over that as if it’s not a big deal? He’s a seasoned creature mask maker and even tells Tabby how easy it would be for anyone to make a mask that looks like a person. It’s a no brainer he could do it easily then. There’s even a huge focus of the masks on the final girls poster, especially around Tabby. I also found it to be a red flag that Tabby still had nightmares at Christian’s house, while Imogen had never felt safer while staying with Johnny (Antonio Cipriano). While I appreciate Christian’s passion for diverse storytelling, it does make me wonder suspicious of his motivations towards Tabby. What if he was friends with Chip and is seeking revenge while also targeting Tabby and her friends to make a Black final girl-cenric movie? The only other person who know how to make masks, although not as well, is Wes. But this episode we see him take what Tabby said to him to heart. He apologies and leaves Millwood to actually put effort into trying to make it in the film industry.
Speaking of movies, we also learn that Hollywood is planning to make a movie based off of the Millwood Massacre that the girls experienced. There’s a location scout doing recon and rumors of Ari Aster directing with stars Emma Roberts and Sydney Sweeney. Tabby and Christian are frustrated by the white washing of it all and plan to make their own unapologetically Black Millwood Massacre movie over the summer. There have been rumors going around about a Pretty Little Liars: Scene Stealers title being trademarked for a potential season 3. If that’s true, this could tie into Tabby’s movie making plans. If we also want to be wild with our theories, what if Tabby orchestrated this whole thing ala Scream 2022 to put women of color at the center of horror and make a name for herself as a young director?
Meanwhile, Faran has to deal with a bullying and wrongful termination complaint after firing String Bean for almost letting a girl die at the pool. I thought this whole storyline seemed random and out of left field. Why is Coach Rhodes telling Faran to get a lawyer? He’s the adult. This should be on him. I was glad to see Faran’s mom supporting her and reminding her how strong she is. She doesn’t need to be at pool or prove herself to these people. That’s all small potatoes when she has a literally killer after her and her friends that she needs to be strong for.
And Noa (Maia Reficco) officially dumps Shawn (Alex Aiono) to be with Jen (Ava Capri), which seems like a mistake to me. I didn’t like how they tried to demonize an upset Shawn when he’s the one who’s been lied to all season by have Noa wreck his car with a baseball bat. I think they’ve been ruining Noa’s story this season with the cheating and lies. I want to see more for her than this.
This episode ends on a cliffhanger with each of our Liars in precarious positions with people we don’t quite trust. Imogen has gone to the Millwood cemetery with Dr Sullivan so she can prove herself. But Imogen is thrown by seeing roses at Karen’s grave, only to find Sullivan go missing, and her car filled with rose petals. Mouse gets home to find the real Rose Waters sitting with her grandmother. Kelly drugs her mom, locks her in their praying closet, and calls Faran to meet her at the pool to talk about her possibly being right about her mom being Bloody Rose. But then she’s attacked by Bloody Rose at the pool and we’re unsure if its too late for Faran to save Kelly.
Since Kelly had locked her mom in the closet, this attack means that either Mrs Beasley is not Bloody Rose or there is more than one person working together. Meanwhile, Christian is seeming more and more suspicious to me. Who is Bloody Rose? Is she connected to the cult or church? Who is running the Spooky Spaghetti site? Who can we really trust? We have one more episode to answer all of our burning questions and I just hope the reveal is worth it.
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!
