There may not have been a Halloween episode in the traditional sense on Pretty Little Liars this year, but fans are going to be getting a Christmas episode, “How the ‘A’ Stole Christmas,” this winter. Keegan Allen spoke to reporters and teased what to expect from it and moving forward for his character, Toby.
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6 Teases About the Christmas Episode
Fans of all the relationships on the show are going to “be very happy with kind of that Christmas element, that holiday element.”
The Christmas episode pays homage to classic cinema, including Rear Window, with Toby in a wheelchair and “a moment in which [he] is using a camera for something.”
“It tells a story that’s so different from anything that anybody would expect, but it also explains a lot in the process, and it’s a story being told that everybody can understand at any point in the storyline,” Allen shared. So even if you haven’t watched the show from the beginning, you should enjoy it.
While everything is “so nice and warm and comfortable” around the holidays, they do “add a little element of discomfort to it. It’s a little more unexpected.”
Mona was killed off, but she is going to be in the Christmas episode. “It’s going to be pretty amazing.”
“There’s really never any way to tell” who ‘A’s’ real target is, Allen admitted. “When somebody looks like they’re being targeted, it could be like a chess move, which is, to me, brilliant.” With that bait-and-switch, “it turns out it has nothing to do with that person, and it’s somebody else. I don’t want to ruin any surprises, but I can tell you that everything is a chess move and everything may not be always what it seems.”
The Ultimate ‘A’ Reveal
When it comes to ‘A,’ “they’re dealing with something that’s very dangerous,” Allen stressed.
He does know who ‘A’ is, and calls it “mind-blowing.” “I think it’s genius. I think it’s 100% just incredible. …The way that it comes to form, the whole storyline of this, it explains everything in such a classy way and also in a way that – it’s like history in the making. Everyone that loves the show for what it is will not only appreciate what Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick and Joseph Dougherty have come up with from the very beginning essentially but what they plan to do and how they plan to execute is just phenomenal.”
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Officer Toby’s Struggles
Toby is going through “a lot of turmoil,” he previewed, and that’s making him question himself and the choices he has made. Becoming a police officer is “a life choice that he made to protect Spencer and get answers and [as] somebody who felt completely, as he said, powerless, to be in control a little bit more,” he explained. “I think it all comes back and haunts him in this existential way of him [asking] ‘Did I make the right decisions in life? Did I make the right choices with this?'” You’ll see that struggle in the Christmas episode and going forward. “He still loves Spencer and [he’s] also trying to honor the force, so we get to see that struggle.”
Toby becoming a cop is a “strategy-changer” for ‘A.’ “A is an extremely intelligent thing. I don’t know if it’s affected anything. I think that if anything, it’s just another pawn chess move,” he said.
A Very Surprising Season Finale
“This one really does [go out with a bang],” Allen teased of the next season finale, once again using the word “mind-blowing.” “I can’t say anything except we all read it together in a room and every single one of us — you have to understand, we’ve been creating this world for so long now, it’s hard to surprise us with anything — this surprises us all. It’s something that it’s just incredible. It’s so tremendous, so I can promise it will go down in history as crazy.”
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The Pretty Little Liars Christmas episode airs December 9 at 8pm on ABC Family.
(Image courtesy of ABC Family)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
