Last we left off the liars, everything was almost picture perfect. Sure Aria and Hanna’s families are in major shake ups due to a new pregnant step mom and new step-family respectively. And Spencer has permenantly tarnished her golden girl status by revealing her cheating scandal to the Golden Orchid board. And Emily is alone after cheating on Maya. But at least A is dead and Ali’s killer is behind bars. They can rest easy.

Not in Rosewood they can.

Let’s start with Spencer whose family drama always interests me the most. While Unbelievable left off with Spencer potentially starting a nicer relationship with her sister, that does not extend to her parents who have frost her out since turning down the Golden Orchid. Know who else is freezing her out? Nana Hastings! In the will reading she leaves her inheritence to her natural-born grandchildren, and Spencer’s completely out of the will.

Spencer’s adopted and her world is turned upside down with the new family order as well as a surprising rival turned new crush.

Hanna just wishes certain members of her family would go away, most specifically two-faced Kate. But her Dad wants them to bond and is still missing Mona, Hanna caves to the idea of forming a new super clique with Kate and former queen bee wannabees, Naomi and Riley. But Mona has left her mark on Hanna, and she is wary of her these “friendships” and decides to strike first before the other shoe drops. All’s fair in popularity and war or Popularity is war, either way, Hanna’s BF doesn’t love her tactical scheming and breaks up with her. That was super disappointing since I liked Lucas and is always frustrating to see someone have a personal epiphany then slip back to their shallow ways.

Aria’s family problems seem resolved until a new guy comes intothe picture. Yep, now that Aria and Ella are getting back on the mother-daughter bonding, Aria helps her get ready for her blind date, a handsome artist that Aria playfully flirted with the night before. What is with Aria attracting all these creepy older men? Seriously!?! At least she has learned her lesson from Ezra and is not taken with Xavier’s attempts to bond with her over divorced parents. The man is dating her mom for Pete’s sake! But Xavier turns out to be a bigger creep than Ezra, believing that Aria is leading him on and threatening to tell Ella that Aria is flirting with him instead of the other way around. Of course, A gets a lot of mileage from this.

Emily’s love life is a lot more simple but still surprising as she falls for the sweet, Catholic, music loving Issac. Yep, Emily’s got a boyfriend and they click really well together though Emily worries what he and others will think about her strict girls-only past. Though it was super refreshing when Emily did the mature thing and told Issac point blank about her girlfriends in the past, not giving into A’s blackmail. They’re sweet together and I hope it works out, but we know things are never that easy in Rosewood.

That includes Ian’s trial which he skips out on the first day. Doubts are beginning to creep into the Liars’ minds that Ian is not truly the guilty one nor is he A. Other suspects are beginning to emerge from the woodwork. While is Officer Wilden doing such a shoddy job? What did Jenna mean that Ali had sibling problems? How does the Time Capsule Flag which brought them together all those years ago in sixth grade have to do with anything?

This is an intriguing and at times darker new arc for the Liars that hold higher stakes as the trial and investigation gets underway. For those who are impatient, they may not enjoy how there are no answers here. But for those who like a long game, there’s plenty of secrets and lies to parse through to figure out the killer before it’s too late.