Which Pretty Little Liar Will Emily Fields Fall In Love With In Season 6?

The season six premiere of Pretty Little Liars is just around the river bend, where Toby’s therapy files flow like water to the sea, and while I generally try to avoid spoilers because the fuckery of this show is always experienced best in real time, Entertainment Tonight released a little tidbit of news today that made me do a triple take. They talked to executive producer Oliver Goldstick about what’s in store for the Liars’ love lives in the coming season, and here is what he said about our beloved lesbian ladykiller, Miss Emily Fields:

While ‘A’s dollhouse is most definitely going to strain some relationships, it’s also going to bring others closer together — especially for Emily (Shay Mitchell).

“She might just realize that she’s now got a soul mate closer to her than she ever thought,” Goldstick coyly teased. “And the dollhouse will have been a big factor in a shift of what Emily wants in a partner. Who and what she wants.”

You will remember, of course, that the ladies in Charles’ dollhouse at the end last season were these five:

dollhouse

Apparently Emily is going to fall in love with one of them? This is wonderful news. Wonderful! Two Liars smooshing their mouths together and making humming sounds in their throats! I mean, make no mistake, my huckleberry friends, this is going to end in the sound of deafening carnage, before the sun extinguishes itself and earth floats out into the abyss, but right before the blast that causes our planet’s extinction, it is going to be a glory.

There is nothing in this life like the singular way lesbian fandom reacts when an established and beloved lesbian TV character falls in love with her previously un-lesbian friend. The closest thing to it is how a cat does when it gets involved with catnip the first time, all wide-eyed and terrified, and then rolling around in it and rubbing it all over its little cat body, purring and dilated pupils and a racing heart; and then, a sort of inexplicable anger, acting out, scratching and biting at everyone’s tender bits; and then, nothing is enough ever again. Not catnip. Not cat treats. Not a throne made of fleece or a real live tree in the living room. Take the catnip away, your cat murders you. Leave the catnip in play, your cat murders you. Obviously, lesbian ladies react this way because the experience of falling in love with your straight best teenage friend is a pretty universal queer experience and we’re all looking to have our hearts healed/awkward memories alleviated by the time machine of stories, but whooweee.

There is one possible satisfactory outcome for a story where a lesbian character falls in love with her straight best friend, and it is: Riding off into the sunset holding hands for an eternity of bliss.

That is not a thing that is going to happen for Emily and any of these Liars. Come on, you know it’s not. Girl, though. For the scorching hot minute it’s happening, it’s gonna be magnificent. Below, I have calculated the odds for which Liar will receive Emily’s heart and longing looks and the chance to touch her otherworldly hair.


Mona Vanderwaal

Odds 50: 1

PLL-LOVAH-MONA

You can call her a lot of things, but don’t call her heterosexual. She’s been in love with Hanna since she was about four years old. But is she Emily’s type? She’s intense like Paige, but even more so. Unruly like Maya, but times a million. She’s got a face like an angel, like Samara did. Oh, the empanadas should could cook with ingredients conjured from nothingness. Forgive me, but Mona’s ability to be everywhere and nowhere makes Alison’s ability to fly a plane seem like learning to ride a bike. Maybe she’s all of Emily’s love interests wrapped up in a tiny ball of fire an infinite possibility. Maybe that’s too much. Maybe it’s just enough.


Spencer Hastings

Odds 8:1

PLL-LOVAH-SPENCER

Sometimes when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Or sometimes when you’re surrounded by bananas, you think they’re the only fruit. Spencer is no stranger to sapphic leanings. She has done at least one lesbian waltz in the basement of an insane asylum while the ghost of her dead best friend whispered in her ear about how practicing kissing on girls is better than real kissing on boys. But could Emily love her in a more-than-friends way? Something tells me Spencer Hastings has a field hockey penalty named after her, too. (So, yes.)


Aria Montgomery

Odds 1,000,000 to 1

PLL-ARIA-SPENCER

Nah.


Hannah Marin

Odds 3: 1

PLL-LOVAH-HANNA

For starters, Emily and Hanna are already 60 percent in love. Remember that time Emily was like, “I will enter this pageant and dance for you, Hanna! I will dance for one million dollars for you, my love!” Remember how psycho Hanna got when Ali came back to town and started getting all of Emily’s attention? (“You’re the special one, Ali.”) Remember when Hanna kept unbuttoning buttons on Emily’s denim jacket? Remember PinkDrinks? PINKDRINKS. Has Hanna’s friendship with Emily been code for something gay all along?!


Alison Dilaurentis … ‘s Plastic Face

Odds: Even

PLL-ALISON-SPENCER

It has been the constant in Emily’s life. Rain or shine, day or night, weekday or weekend, school days or holidays. Alison DiLaurentis’s Plastic Face has been the one single thing Emily has been able to count on to show up over and over, again and again, forever and always, these many years. Will she finally realize who has been by her side (and under her bed and in her car trunk and stuffed in her locker and hidden in her refrigerator and buried in the yard and hanging from the trees) all this time? The mask is in the dollhouse. The mask is always there.


Now that I have written this all out, I am keenly aware that I will never survive Emily falling for Hanna or Spencer. It would make so much sense. It would hurt too good.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

73 Comments

  1. I really hope it’s Spencer… ALI… I don’t know if that is the one. She’s done a lot of damage but maybe. Anything could Happen. Hannah? That would make me smile, not gonna lie. Bye Caleb!
    Aria… Please no.

  2. Hannah because it’s already somewhat cannon. But also, Spencer and Aria sparia already is cannon too so yeah feels

  3. All I want in this life is for Hannily to be canon and if this happens, I will actually explode. Seeing Shay and Ashley make out would make turn into a pile of glitter. I’ll just be done.

    • I’m hoping for Hanna. Because Hanna getting involved with Emily will cause Mona to go thermonuclear and that will make for hilarious drama.

    • I hope for Hannily, too, because glitter, and because a thermonuclear jealous Mona, and because it would be so sweet and hot.
      Remember S5 Ep03 where Hanna is struggling to find herself and she experiments with the black ribbon hair extensions? Hanna (sitting in the passenger seat) says to Emily (in the driver’s seat), “What was it like to come out?” … “You always knew? … I never knew who I was …” I hope Emily can help her figure it out.

      • Yeesss. I really thought for a moment that she would was going to come out as bi in that scene. The vibe was just THERE.

    • I agree Hanna and Emily cute plus Hanna to me is the hottest one so who wouldn’t love her . Also she’s funny and reminds me of me . Im no gay but i would pick these two.

  4. Okay Aria might be the straightest of all the plls but imagine her experiment for a book in college called “My year of lesbianism”. It would be as offensive as you think. The back cover is her with emily with the caption “my best friend is gay!”. She might be giving a thumbs up.

    • Aria is absolutely both the straightest girl in the world and also someone who will one day make out with a girl while drunk in a bar and journal about it INTENSELY.

  5. 1) NOT. ALISON.
    2) Mona needs to declare her love for Hanna, even if it never comes to fruition.
    3) Only Spencer is wonderful enough to replace Paige.
    4) She needs to go back to Paige.
    5) Paige.
    6) Paily.

    • I hated Paige.

      The casting director said “hey, we need someone to do nothing but scowl for 4 seasons” and then they hired Paige.

      • I really don’t know what show you were watching but it wasn’t PLL and it wasn’t Lindsey Shaw.

        • Yeah, they hired Lindsey because she burned down the studio with the chemistry read with Shay. Her role was originally just a few episodes, but she’s made it several seasons now.

    • oh yes, being in love with someone who try to drowned you is a very good idea.

      I’m all for Hannily, but above all i ship Emily with “i don’t give a fuck.” Like, let her be celibate for more than 10 days ?

  6. Well I do crackship Spemily and Hannily makes by far the most sense (I mean even in real life Shay and Ashley are super close and seem kinda gay for each other) but if someone “close” to Emily is what we have to go on, then Alison probably is what they’re hinting at. And that just depresses me.

    Hey though, don’t forget the new lesbian coming to town they announced in casting thing a few months ago.

    • internet gossip states that ashley is a lady lova in real life but she’s not out. Either way I agree with you that ashley and shay are really close so it would make sense that the intimacy would bleed into tv, although i don’t know how i feel about it. If there was any lady lovin to go on other that emily it would be hanna and mona. I mean come on, mona has been walking around with a neon sign proclaiming her love for her

      • “internet gossip states that ashley is a lady lova in real life…” Wha??? Where have I been? Totally missed that.

        • I would love this to be true because HOT and also because Hanna’s always been Emily’s #1 ally and it would a throw a really interesting new light on those scenes in retrospect.

    • Alison is not in the Dollhouse. It can’t be Alison. It has to be Hanna, Spencer, Aria, or Mona.

  7. And while we’re on the subject lets not forget the hottest crackship this show has ever had, McHastings! OMG <3 <3 <3

  8. Depends on what the new thing Emily wants:
    Spencer: Pills.
    Hannah: Alcoholism.
    Aria: Skinning small animals.
    Mona: Having everything and nothing set on fire.

    Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had to conclude that Mr. Goldstick must have been on drugs when giving this interview since it didn’t even remotely match what happened onscreen. That said, I am more excited about the new season now – they seem to shake things up for the liars on a character level.

    I just hope they don’t add any (I forgot his name, but the guy Heather drew so she could set fire to it) and make Allison interact more with the liars than last season.

  9. also I do ship emison, just it would be interesting to see her interact romantically with some of the other ppl’s

  10. !!!!!

    Now that that’s out of the way, yes, anyone but Aria. Spencer would make sense and her relationship with Toby is pretty terrible. Also, maybe all of those fights Spencer and Emily have had were just unresolved sexual tension.

    And I would love to say Hannah. It’s just so perfect. But she’s the only one who is dating a guy I can actually stand. Not that that would stop me from freaking the fuck out and crying tears of joy if it actually happened.

    And Mona, well, that would be hot, but I don’t know that I have any ~*feelings*~ about it yet. And now that I think about it, if it was Aria maybe she could actually be interesting for a while.

  11. the comment gives me hope for emison but im totally not opposed to hannily or spemily. if it really is one of the liars from the dollhouse, id say its hanna for sure. i could see hanna as legit bi

  12. SPENCER bc all my dreams of queer!Spencer would come true. But for real, Hanna. I don’t even watch this anymore so idk why i’m so invested.

  13. I cackled through this whole thing. I’m excited for PLL to return solely for Hannah’s recaps.

    1. If it’s Charles I WILL combust
    2. If it’s Hannah I will also combust, but the motivation will be different

  14. Don’t forget, Ali is coming to the Dollhouse. Wether she was brought there, or whether she found her way there, we see her there in the promo. I think she’s still the most realistic person (though Emily falling for Hanna would be so cute, Hanna would love it haha) But the way the writer wrote that left it so open. There’s rumors Paige is coming back later on in 6A (fuck..) and soulmate is such a strong word.. it wouldn’t be another random Rosewood lesbian that managed to track down Emily again, would it? I’d think realistically it’s still a toss up between Ali and Paige.. but he said a shift in who and what she wants. He almost made it sound like she’s going back to boys (which wouldn’t happen, it’d ruin her whole storyline so I’m not worried about that). So if it’s a shift.. maybe it’s not Ali or Paige. I guess that brings us back to the liars. As much as I’d love for it to be Hanna, I would love 10000000x times more for it to be Ali, as it should be. But Ali has that whole thing with the cop coming up.. who knows. Marlene said they’d “be a process”. I’m dying to know who Emily discovers to be her “soulmate”.. no matter who it is (unless it’s Paige, I’m out).

  15. Mona is a solid option but out of the core group I put my $ on the the long shot that is Aria.Only because she’s the one without a bf at the moment.Not that that has ever stopped Spencer before,lol.I want it to be Spencer or Hannah because Spencer is my favourite and Hannah is a very close 2nd, but I don’t see either of them forgetting their S/O’s that they just recently made up with.

    • ***I refuse to even think about it being Allison.Anything between them would be toxic and nothing new.They said new soulmate,Allison is not new in any way.

  16. Hannily becoming canon would be so freaking epic! You just don’t know, I have mainly only shipped Emison and Hannily and both being canon would kill me. All the feelings!

    • No, I want that. I dreamt it like two days ago. They’d be so cute. I know it’s shallow… But I also actually like Aria.

  17. Your commentary on Aria was perfect: “Nah.” No. Just no. If that happens, I will do way more than throw my Chinese food and kick some garbage cans.
    Emily and Spencer would be SO HOT.
    I think Emily is too pure of heart for Mona. Besides, Mona will only ever love Hannah.
    Hannah would be into that. Remember how mad she got when Shauna Costumeshop didn’t hit on her?

  18. What about Sara Harvey? She’s still missing. Any chance Charles/A kidnapped her and has kept her in the Dollhouse all this time as another fake Alison?

    I just don’t see Emily randomly falling for 1 of her friends. Drunkenly hooking up with Hanna one night, absolutely. But that’s it.

  19. SPENCER SPENCER SPENCER

    But seriously, the writers of this show are the biggest trolls so I’ll take this news with a grain of salt.

  20. okay, I’m surprised that noone thinks it’s Mona. falling for your best friend…Emily is just over that now. and Mona’s got a lot of potential, fire, badassery.
    if it’s not a new character, then vanderjemily.

  21. CHANCES OF A LESBIAN LOVE TRIANGLE BETWEEN EMILY MONA AND HANNA….?? most likely absolutely zero to one. but a girl can dream.

  22. If it is Hanna, it will repair the fact that Brooke and Peyton, Blair and Serena, Rachel and Quinn, so many pretty teenage girls never were in love, and I will be 16 again.

    (But lets be real, Blair and Serena were SO in love, even my super straight sister thought so.)

  23. While I ship Paily and Spemily (and the crackship that is Spaily) I want it to be Mona. Just for the chance to get dark!Emily. Which I guess is what the show runners are saying about this season that it’s darker and edgier. But I won’t hold my breath. Also the height difference alone.

    But since the show runners are the biggest liars of them all, it’s probably soul mates in a way that doesn’t involve making out.

  24. I’d love it to be Mona! I don’t think Hannah would cheat on Caleb and Aria is just a no. A chance it could be Spencer but more than likely Alison will end up in there somehow and it will be her.

  25. Honestly, I’m not convinced that we can believe anything the showrunners say. But if I take him at face value, Goldstick’s wording indicates someone Emily is thinking of while in the dollhouse, not necessarily someone physically there. If he’d said “closer TO HOME,” I’d think Talia for sure, given she’s living in Emily’s house. Sara Harvey is a good guess, given she’s supposed to be just like Alison.

    I WANT it to be Hanna or Spencer, a lot. Spanna would be my dream pairing, but I’d happily settle. Caleb and Toby aren’t awful, but I feel like we’ve seen enough of them, period.

  26. Caleb is for real the only half decent boyfriend on the show but Hanna/Emily/Mona love triangle would be everything forever

  27. 1) Aria- no no no no
    2) Spencer- could be
    3) Mona- ehhhhhnn no.. to dark plus d height.
    4) Alison- too much pain and games
    5 Hanna- Hell yeah am so rooting for them……

  28. I’m Seroiusly nuts.Am i de only one worried about dis?i don’t want it to be any of dem but it seems der is a probability it would be hanna.but i can’t stand it. Hanna-caleb,i can stand dat. Aria-ezra, i sometimes tink der re not meant for each other n sometimes i don’t. Spencer, good heavens, she has dated tons of guys.i’m not in support of her being in a relationship wit emily. Mona, it’s definitely not happening.angel’s face, weird psycho.Spemily and hannily, not happening.come on dey are my best(spencer,hanna)

  29. I’m Seroiusly nuts.Am i de only one worried about dis?come on spencer n hanna re my best besides,spencer has dated tons of guys gud heavens!. Hanna-caleb,dey are so cool:;)Aria, no way. Mona hmm weird,angel’s face, psycho.Spemily and hannily:(.

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