[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: Summer School.]

The Big Picture

‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’ shows Mouse’s growth and strong relationship with Ash, after surviving the trauma of Season 1.
The show flips well-known horror tropes, with creepy scenes in Season 2 set in the woods, and unique tests for each final girl.
Creepy animatronic animals singing “Three Blind Mice” are horrifying, adding an eerie element to Mouse’s birthday party.

From co-creators Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring, the Max series Pretty Little Liars: Summer School sees the Millwood High teenagers trying to balance summer jobs, summer loves, and summer school when they realize another killer has their sights set directly on them. Imogen (Bailee Madison), Tabby (Chandler Kinney), Faran (Zaria), Noa (Maia Reficco) and Mouse (Malia Pyles) survived the terror of A only to now find themselves being tested by the even more murderous Bloody Rose. As they work to unravel this new mystery, they have to stay alive long enough to find answers while still just trying to be teenagers.

In Season 2, while the final girls of Millwood try to survive attacks from Bloody Rose, Minnie “Mouse” Honrada becomes obsessed with Spooky Spaghetti, a website where true crime fans post and read theories about Archie Waters and his family. When online theories bleed out into the real world and even affect Mouse’s grandmother, the threat gets raised to a whole other level.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Pyles and Jordan Gonzales, who plays Mouse’s supportive boyfriend Ash, talked about Mouse’s growth from Season 1 to Season 2, the solid relationship between Mouse and Ash, the fun of flipping horror tropes on their head, Mouse’s bond with her grandmother, what they think of Bloody Rose, the scariest scenes, and those melting animatronic animals.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin An intense mystery drama that introduces a new generation of characters facing the haunting legacy of their predecessors in Millwood. A group of teenage girls find themselves targeted by “A,” an enigmatic antagonist who knows their darkest secrets and forces them to confront the hidden sins of their parents. As they struggle to uncover the truth and protect each other, the series delves into the complexities of their friendships, the impact of past actions, and the pervasive influence of secrets.Release Date July 28, 2022 Cast Bailee Madison , Chandler Kinney , Mallory Bechtel , Zaria , Maia Reficco , Malia Pyles Seasons 2 Network HBO Max

In ‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School,’ the Relationship Between Mouse and Ash is a Breath of Fresh Air
Image via Max

Collider: How different are things in Season 2 for your characters? How are their lives and their relationship after what happened in Season 1?

MALIA PYLES: There’s been a world of a difference, just in that six-month period where you find us, from Season 1 to Season 2. There’s been physical growth for Mouse. She’s wearing cute clothes and makeup, which I think is from being empowered by the young women around her, but also the love that she’s nurturing with Ash. That wasn’t something that she even thought about for herself or prioritized, with how she saw herself in the world before she met him. I think he’s a huge reason for her blossoming into Season 2. Of course, we’re coming off a huge trauma and a huge wound that continues to be reopened in different ways, so there’s a lot of operating from paranoia and trying to find the pieces that have been scrambled while remaining true to ourselves.

JORDAN GONZALEZ: It’s nice to be the breath of fresh air in the relationship in a rough show because there’s so much trauma going on. I feel like because their relationship is on such solid ground right now, it is a release for the audience. It’s like, “Chase, chase, chase. Kill, kill, kill. Okay, we’re back, happy love couple. Kill, kill, kill. Chase, chase, chase.” It was nice to get the scripts and read it and be like, “Okay, we’re on solid ground. This is gonna be fun to play.” And then, you get to watch the girls go through some crazy stuff, unfortunately.

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Jordan, with the scene in episode two when Mouse’s grandmother screams, and Mouse and Ash come running into the room, she tells them that she saw a woman outside and Ash is like, “I’ll go check it out,” shouldn’t he know better? Has he not seen enough horror movies that he shouldn’t be offering to go outside alone in the dark?

GONZALEZ: One hundred percent. The thing that I love about this show is that they flip every horror trope on its head, so the guy has to go through it. If you ever watch any old horror classics, it’s always a girl that’s like, “I’m gonna go look,” and then she’s dead. Luckily, on this show, the boys get to be a little bit aloof. I think there’s something in Ash’s DNA that just wants to protect Mouse, so without even realizing that there is danger out there, his immediate reaction is, “Let me go see what’s up, so I can protect you,” even if there is something out there and he may die.

PYLES: There’s also that moment where Mouse turns to him and is just like, “Get out of here.” It’s a really fun dynamic to play. Jordan does a great job of being a knight in shining armor.

Related ‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’ Review: The Stage Is Set for a Delightfully Bloody Horror Sequel ‘Pretty Little Liars’ expands both its characters and its setting in the second season.

How hard is it for Mouse to not only be dealing with this whole Bloody Rose thing, but also the very real issue of her grandmother not being entirely well?

PYLES: It’s tough. The same journey Mouse went on with it, I did as well. It’s really hard to decipher what is reality and what isn’t, and that’s the crux of Mouse’s dilemma. She falls deeper and deeper into Spooky Spaghetti, and deeper and deeper into her grandmother, and at a certain point, she can’t distinguish what’s real and what’s not, so she has to go full-force and believe the worst-case scenario. Both scenarios are not great, but the idea of a bandaged, bloody ghost-like figure possibly murdering her entire household is something she quickly decides she has to take action on. Loretta [Ables Sayre], who plays Lola, is incredible. It’s really hard not to feel for her and really hard not to create that bond with her, right off the bat, because she’s so generous, so giving, and just a ball of fun. She’s so funny.

What Makes Bloody Rose Such a Terrifying ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Villain?
Image via Max

The mask in the first season gave me nightmares, but I think this one is even worse. What do you guys think when you saw what the character would look like? Did you find one scarier than the other?

PYLES: They’re scary in their own ways. They’re both paying homage to different villains in horror past. But there is something, especially because the girls have so many mommy issues, very threatening about this mother-like figure. I just think with the thorns and all the blood, there’s no escaping just how menacing she is. Granted, the original A with the skin mask is hard to compare. I’m glad that we get to play with both because they offer so many different horror elements.

GONZALEZ: Yeah, it’s hard to beat a skin mask made out of children’s faces, but I do think that they were able to do that this season. I remember going into the hair and makeup trailer, and they were building the mask. Luckily for me, my chair was right in front of it, so they would just keep building it right behind me and I would look at it in the mirror. Every day, it would have more hair, more blood, one eyeball, and all these different things. I was like, “Man, that’s terrifying.” With a female-centric show from the female gaze, the villain has to, at some point, be a woman. That’s just terrifying. It’s really cool.

PYLES: Also, just to give everyone their roses, the person that has to be in that mask literally has to drink everything out of a straw, they only have one eye open, and they’re doing this very elaborate choreography. Hats off to everyone involved with creating and inhabiting that scary role because it is terrifying and it takes a lot of muscle. I don’t think it made it in, but our incredible director Maggie Kiley, who did episodes one and two, at one point made Bloody Rose walk backwards, and then reversed it and played it forwards, just so her gait was really rickety and disgusting and unhuman.

Related ‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’s Villain Has a Lot in Store for Season 2 Bloody Rose has more than just murder on her mind for the Liars.

Which scene did each of you think was the creepiest or scariest to you this season? Everyone has their own threshold for what they think is creepy or scary, so what hit that for you in Season 2?

GONZALEZ: The sets that they made were just disturbing. So much of it takes place in the middle of the woods, and we do have to film that in the middle of the night. Granted, there are a bunch of crew members around, but oftentimes, you’re just walking around in the woods killing some time and it’s very spooky. There’s smoke everywhere and there may be a dilapidated cabin there that is very creepy. And then, the very end of the show is disturbing.

PYLES: It’s hard because everyone felt like, not that we had to top Season 1, but that we had to at least add to it, so they went all out. We each have a test, and mine was in episode three. It was delightful to shoot, but each final girl’s test was terrifying in its own unique ways. We don’t get to be on set for when other cast members film their scenes. Just getting to watch it play out on screen, I am gripping my chair and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, poor Zaria. Poor Maia [Reficco]. Poor everybody.” It’s really terrifying to watch. Hats off to everybody. Our set designers killed it and our writers killed it.

The Lore of Chuck E. Cheese Inspired the Animal Animatronics in ‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’

The creepy animatronic animals at the Rose E. Ricotta restaurant that were singing “Three Blind Mice” was horrific for me.

GONZALEZ: I don’t know how I could have forgotten about that.

PYLES: That melting face. I grew up going to Chuck E. Cheese and there’s so much weird lore. Of course, we have Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is one of my favorite internet things, ever. I was definitely super into following along with the lore of all that, so to be a part of something somewhat similar or inspired by is really cool. I think it’s so terrifying and it’s gone untapped for way too long. There’s no reason that kids should be around animatronics.

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is available to stream on Max. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Max