When something terrible happens, you immediately want to find something or even someone to blame. In a way, it helps to provide a sort of outlet for your grief. So when it was revealed on Tuesday that Veronica Hastings has breast cancer on Pretty Little Liars , naturally, my first instinct was to point the finger at our new Big Bad. Because that's normally what this show is about, right? Something goes wrong and an unknown villain is at fault. But I. Marlene King has decided to shake up the formula a bit this season and provide us with a problem that was not created out of spite or malice, but rather an unpleasant fact of life. Cancer is an entirely different kind of evil — one that cannot be controlled by A or Uber A. And while it's unclear just how sick Spencer's mom is on PLL , her condition could, unfortunately, prove to have a severe impact on her Senate ambitions.
The good news is that, according to Veronica's medical records shown in the episode, her doctors are "cautiously optimistic" about her health, so she doesn't seem to be in any grave danger at this point in time. However, the fact that her political opposition is getting ready to leak the documents (because people are sometimes the absolute worst), proves that this could still do serious damage to her on a professional level as well as a personal one. The hosts of Bustle's Pretty Little Liars podcast, Taking This One To The Grave, also have some thoughts on Veronica's illness, Spencer's reaction to the news, and what this could mean for her future, which you can listen to below.
Obviously, the Hastings family has a nasty habit of keeping secrets, so it's surprising Veronica wanted to put herself in such a public position in the first place. But, like Spencer and Caleb said, if Veronica is able to get in front of the story and announce the news herself, they might be able to spin it to their advantage and prevent the campaign from going up in flames. They should know by now that in Rosewood, the truth is always the better option. Of course, this is likely an extremely difficult thing for Veronica to talk about, and having to discuss her health in a public forum would be even harder. This is a very complicated, emotional situation for her.
And regardless of what the media does with the information, this new storyline could also complicate things on the home front for the Hastings family, starting with the fact that Spencer wasn't even aware of these updated records and had no idea her mom was sick.
I get that Veronica probably didn't want Spencer to worry, especially since her prognosis is of a positive nature. But this family has already been through so much together, and it always hurts to find out someone you love has been keeping something this important from you. Hopefully, Spencer and her mom will be able to talk about it when they are both ready. In the meantime, let's just hope that Veronica is able to overcome her illness and kill it on the campaign trail. I mean, come on — if anyone can kick cancer's butt while winning an election, it would definitely be a Hastings woman.
For more on everything PLL, check out previous episodes of Taking This One To The Grave below/
Images: Eric McCandless/Freeform; prettylittleliars/Tumblr
