If you haven’t seen the Pretty Little Liars Season 7A finale yet, believe me — you’re going to want to watch it before you read this, because the spoilers aren’t stopping. Not only was Noel Kahn decapitated by falling on a giant medieval axe, but also Spencer was shot in the chest, Mary Drake revealed she was Spencer’s mother, and the Liars were able to evade Jenna Marshall simply by holding their breath as she walked past. But the most shocking part of the Pretty Little Liars finale was Toby's potential death. He got into a car accident on his way up to Maine with Yvonne, his fiancée, and the last we saw them, they were both unconscious and bleeding in the front seat of his car. And though many fans suspected the Liars' own attacker was behind this, I. Marlene King has revealed that A.D. didn't attack Toby, so if he does die, it will be a totally unrelated tragedy.
My penchant for conspiracy theories has gotten worse as I’ve watched Pretty Little Liars, so I have to admit that I thought A.D. was taking out his or her anger on Toby and may have sabotaged the car. I mean, we’ve seen A drill into Hanna’s teeth to deliver a message, so I’m not really surprised by any of the hijinks of Pretty Little Liars villains anymore. What if A.D. killed Toby to get back at Spencer, who is obviously still in love with him? Maybe it has something to do with Mary Drake being Spencer’s mother and wanting to hurt Mary through Spencer… or something. The possibilities are endless. But before I fall deep into a spiral of Tumblr theories and Reddit dreams, Pretty Little Liars creator I. Marlene King is here to pull me back to the surface.
When asked in a post-finale conference call if the car crash was just that — a random car crash — she had a lot to say. "There was definitely nothing nefarious going on there," King told reporters. "The car crash really is sort of, I think, saying that no one ever really does leave Rosewood, especially not from this group, and it's really more of a metaphor than anything else."
So A.D. didn’t cut the brake lines of Toby’s truck? I'm certainly shocked to hear that, but that doesn't change the fact that if Toby does die, it will have huge consequences for the show. Those consequences just might not tie into figuring out the identity of A.D.
Unfortunately, King could not give any clues as to whether Toby and Yvonne will survive the car accident, but she did say it would be difficult to kill him off — and to let actor Keegan Allen know. "I don't want to talk about where it goes, but ... he's one of my favorites on this show," she said. "It would be hard for me to make that phone call to [Allen]."
Of course, I think it would be hardest for Spencer. The ripples of his death would be felt all over, from Jenna to Spencer. If Spencer wakes up from being shot to learn that her first love is dead and that the woman she thinks is her mother isn’t her mother, all in basically the same episode, I think she'll be gearing up for a breakdown when Season 7B returns this April. I’d also miss Toby on Pretty Little Liars, and I’m not sure if it's better or worse that he wasn’t attacked by A.D. Random deaths make everything feel chaotic — if it wasn’t Toby, would it have been Aria? Ezra? Emily? Whether he lives or dies, Toby’s accident shows us just how fragile life is, even when it’s only on television.
Images: Eric McCandless/Freeform; prettylittleliars/Tumblr
