Remember the days when Byron Montgomery was only creepy because of adultery? Ever since Garrett confessed to seeing Bryon and Ali together the night of her death, Aria’s dear old dad has seemed downright evil.
It probably doesn’t help that everyone in Rosewood seems to have taken the same professional skulking lessons. Byron is suddenly listening in around every corner and popping up in unexpected places to say something nefarious.
At first Aria didn’t want to entertain the notion, but now even she is starting to wonder whether or not her father had something to do with Alison’s untimely death.
So, should Bryon top the list of suspects for Alison’s murder? Here are some reasons in favor of his guilt and protesting his innocence:
He’s Guilty
“Byron has always been many shades of wrong,” executive producer Oliver Goldstick said in an interview with the Huffington Post. And this is certainly true. We first met Byron when he convinced Aria to keep the secret of his affair with Meredith a secret from her mother for a whole year. Just like everyone else on this show, Byron is certainly an adept liar.
On the Halloween train, shortly before his death, Garrett confided in Spencer that he saw Byron and Alison arguing the night of her death. What could they possibly be arguing about? Well, blackmail for starters.
In keeping with Alison’s packed social calendar of terrorizing others, she was blackmailing Byron for big bucks in order to keep his affair with Meredith a secret. We know Byron was willing to go to great lengths to keep Ella from finding out about his marital indiscretions.
In pages of Alison’s diary the girls found, Byron even got violent with Alison when she threatened to call Ella. He grabbed her arm forcefully, much like he did in this week’s episode “Mona Mania” when Meredith confronts him about snooping in Aria’s room.
Those diary pages certainly make Bryon look guilty, and his face certainly isn’t helping. He’s been spying on Aria outside her door and seems to pop up everywhere around the Montgomery house now. If Aria is talking to someone about her dad’s creepiness, there’s a pretty good bet Byron is somewhere in a door jam listening in.
After Aria ripped out the offending pages of Alison’s diary from the stash of Harold the creepiest of all janitors, she stored it in her boot. Because if you’re Aria you know the safest place to store pages that implicate your father in a murder is in a place he can easily access at all times. Couldn’t one of the other liars taken those pages?
As they look for the pages, Byron pops up in her door like a James Bond villain to talk about how she’s an idiot for always hiding things in her boot. Then he practically disappears in a cloud of smoke with some evil laughter. Hat tip to those who don’t want to be suspected of murder: don’t ever act like this.
(By the way, why didn’t they just swipe the whole diary instead of a few pages? Alison probably had tons of juicy info in there. That diary could just be retitled “How to Blackmail Friends and Alienate People”.)
Later, Meredith tells Aria she saw Byron rifling looking everywhere for the pages. Even Meredith is starting to suspect Byron might have killed Alison.
But what about the timeline? Wasn’t Byron with Ella that whole night? Well, maybe not. Turns out he got Ella drunk and then went to see Meredith. When Meredith had last seen him, he was about to meet up with Alison.
And then there is, of course, the little matter of the timing of the Montgomery family’s trip overseas. They left right after Alison disappeared.
He’s Innocent
Ok, it doesn’t look that good for Byron. Certainly the fact that he’s acting like a serial killer his brother Rob Lowe would play in a Lifetime movie isn’t helping. But here’s the strongest case for his innocence: it’s just too easy.
Whenever suspects become a little too suspicious, I start to wonder if they aren’t a little too good to be true. Is Byron just too obvious as a murder suspect? Sure, he’s a creepy guy…but would he really murder one of his daughter’s teenage friends?
Being so obvious a suspect in the world of Pretty Little Liars means there’s a fairly good possibility he’s just a red herring. But if so, just what is it Byron’s trying to hide?
What do you think Pretty Little Liars fans? Did Byron kill Alison? Or is he innocent? And if he is innocent, who killed Alison? Share all your theories and speculation in the comments!
You don’t need A to keep up with all the lies. Just add Pretty Little Liars to your very own watch-list so you can keep up with all the suspects in Rosewood. Download the BuddyTV Guide for free for your phone.
(Image courtesy of ABC Family)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
