A Rat For A Rat On 'PLL'

Are we ever going to be let in on the Hastings Family Secret? Because I really don't think I can take this anymore. After going missing for the past few episodes, Melissa Hastings returned on Monday night in Pretty Little Liars ' "The Silence of E. Lamb" with some words of wisdom and a bag of dead rats. And here's the thing — Melissa Hastings as "A" might be just another PLL red herring.

I know what you're thinking, how could this possibly be happening again? Well, it is. First, here's an update on the Hastings family living situation — Mr. Hastings is posted up at Melissa's apartment, Mrs. Hastings has become a hunger-striking hermit who refuses to leave her room, and Melissa is back to living in the barn. And Spencer's got video cameras monitoring all of the movements outside of her house. If that's not a highly functioning family unit, I don't know what is.

We learned two things about Melissa on Monday night — the first, that she's not squeamish about touching dead rats and second, that she might genuinely feel bad about her secret. Early on in Monday night's episode, we learned that someone put a rat in Paige's locker because they found out that she gave Emily the names of those involved in the "We H8 Ali" Club. So here's what we can take from Melissa's behavior on Monday night's PLL — she probably provided the rat in Paige's locker and she probably didn't kill Bethany Young.

If Melissa were a cold-hearted killer, which I assume "A" to be at this point, she wouldn't be tearing up at Spencer calling her out for ruining their family dynamic. And she sure as hell wouldn't be talking about "doing it for love." Bludgeoning a girl to death with a shovel or a brick isn't an accident, it takes a special kind of sociopath to go there and I don't think Melissa is one of them. Even if she did hate Ali.

So, again, PLL is leading us in the completely wrong direction with Melissa. Now what?

Images: ABC Family