The Best Part of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Season 2 Is This New Ship

Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for ‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School has been off to a solid start, with a scary new villain, dangerous tests for our titular liars, and plenty of summer jobs to keep things fresh. But one of the most notable things to come from Season 2 of the reboot is the new love interests the show has introduced. Not everyone was given a new love interest this season, though. Mouse (Malia Pyles) and Ash (Jordan Gonzalez) are still going strong, as are Faran (Zaria) and Henry (Ben Cook), though they have their problems. Noa (Maia Reficco) and Shawn (Alex Aiono) are also one of the main couples, and while they haven’t split, Season 2 has just thrown a major curveball their way in the form of Jen (Ava Capri), Noa’s friend from her time in juvie, who also happens to be her ex-lover.

Jen and Noa Have a History

When we first meet Jen, we learn that she’s attending summer school at Millwood High because she failed her keystone exam. The look she shares with Noa on the first day hints that they have some sort of history we’ll inevitably learn about. That history began in juvie, where she and Noa were cellmates. We also learn that their relationship goes quite a bit deeper than just knowing each other while in juvenile detention; they were also lovers there. And as the episodes have gone on, it’s becoming more and more clear that those feelings haven’t exactly gone away. This became all the more evident in Episode 4, titled “When a Stranger Calls Back.” Early in the episode, Jen and Noa visit Jen’s dad’s house, where they dress in expensive clothing and drink expensive drinks while taking advantage of the hot tub. After learning about Jen’s relationship with her father, and how he doesn’t seem to care for her, Noa encourages her to steal one of his Rolex’s as a souvenir of sorts.

But with any fancy house often comes fancy surveillance cameras, and they catch Jen stealing the watch, which leads her father to call the cops on her. The incident lands her in jail again, and Noa seeks out Shawn’s help in paying Jen’s bail to get her out. He helps her, of course, and Noa bails her out, but that isn’t where Noa’s involvement ends. Later, as she’s talking with Jen about the incident and apologizing for encouraging it, Jen tells her that she feels like she’s all alone. Noa tells her she’s not, and seals the promise with a kiss! This move opens up a major issue: Noa is still dating Shawn, and as if that wasn’t enough, Noa used his money to bail Jen out of jail. But as wrong as the girls’ actions may be, their relationship could become one of the show’s best plot points.

‘Pretty Little Liars’ Has Always Had Strong LGBTQ+ Representation

While the cheating aspect of Noa and Jen’s relationship is definitely not okay, the show’s decision to explore their relationship is a much-needed addition to the series. In general, Noa is one of the most interesting and dynamic of the liars, and it’s about time the show dove a little deeper into her time in juvie. After all, that’s not a minor thing, it’s a huge deal. More than that, though, the show has been lacking LGBTQ+ representation, despite it being a major part of the original series. Considering the original series aired more than a decade ago, it was ahead of its time in terms of representation, so it was surprising that the reboot series didn’t have that sort of representation right off the bat.

In the original Pretty Little Liars, most of the LGBTQ+ representation came from Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell). From the very first episode, the show portrayed Emily as struggling with her sexuality, something she eventually embraced upon meeting Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), who she began dating openly, and who encouraged her to come out. Emily’s journey throughout the series is one of the original show’s best plot points, as she discovers who she is and what she wants out of life, as well as learning to be herself despite what people think. It’s an arc that is still admired by fans to this day and one that, minus a few flaws, still holds up well despite the time the show was made. So it only feels right that Summer School is finally introducing an LGBTQ+ relationship. In fact, it’s overdue.

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‘Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’ airs Thursdays on Max

Noa and Jen Are ‘Summer School’s Most Important Romance

Noa and Jen’s relationship is easily Pretty Little Liars: Summer School’s most important. It’s our first look at an LGBTQ+-focused relationship on the show, and there can never be enough representation on that front. There are some issues surrounding their relationship, mainly because Noa is still dating Shawn while sparking up a romance with Jen. But it’s still early in the season and in their relationship, which leaves plenty of time for the show to rectify that aspect and give Noa and Jen the proper exploration they deserve. Since it’s still early, it makes it hard to say what their relationship will be by the end of the season, but so long as the show doesn’t totally sabotage them, there’s so much potential for greatness in Noa and Jen.

This is still a Pretty Little Liars spin-off though, and it’s written by the creator of Riverdale, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, so there are likely many plot twists to come, and it’s sure to be a bumpy ride. But even if Noa and Jen aren’t endgame, their relationship is already one of Season 2’s most intriguing and exciting plot points. It’ll be interesting to see how their budding romance plays out among the constant threats from A, and now Bloody Rose Waters, not to mention Noa’s boyfriend, Shawn. One thing is for sure though, Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is only getting started, and it has many more tricks up its sleeve that are sure to shake things up.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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