Ugh, rewatching now and it’s so obvious how much they rely on recycled tropes for their ‘twists.’ Like, Spencer’s caffeine addiction isn’t just a quirk—it’s a giant blinking sign saying ‘this character will have a breakdown and hallucinate crucial evidence.’ The show constantly uses stimulants, sleep deprivation, or stress to make the girls unreliable narrators right before a reveal. Remember when Aria’s photography kept capturing blurred figures in the background that she’d dismiss as a glitch? Classic misdirection. They train you to ignore the literal evidence in the frame because the character does.
Also, any time a new tech gadget or app gets a weirdly detailed close-up shot, you know it’s about to be hacked or used for surveillance. The ‘A’ messages often used fonts or phrasing that mirrored a character’s internal conflict that same episode, which felt less like clever clueing and more like the writers reminding themselves of the theme.