Here’s Who Actually Could Have Killed Nolan Hotchkiss on ‘The Perfectionists’
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists season one, episode two, “Sex, Lies and Alibis.”
The Perfectionists really wasted no time killing off one of its main characters, huh. But I mean, this is Marlene King we’re talking about here, so can we really be surprised? By the end of the very first episode, Nolan Hotchkiss was dead and the entire town of Beacon Heights was collectively shook by the gruesome event. Nolan (played by Chris Mason) was arguably the most powerful student at BHU, and he had a lot of different people under his control-which seems to be the exact reason he was murdered.
Ava (Sofia Carson), Caitlin (Sydney Park), and Dylan (Eli Brown) were just three of his (begrudgingly) loyal puppets, but since the police ruled his death a murder, everyone is a suspect. And TBH, a lot of people were acting very suspicious following the killing. Here’s who is on the list after last night’s episode.
Caitlin
Caitlin is at the top of the suspect list for one (very freaky) reason: She literally predicted exactly how Nolan would die. Last episode found her, Dylan, and Ava chillin’ in the woods, waxing poetic about all the ways they’d like to murder Nolan. Totally normal! Caitlin suggests pushing him off the roof of Thorn Hall because, in her words, “It gives him a second or two to think about dying before he’s impaled on those spikes at the bottom.” She’s...clearly thought about this. And what happens later that night? Someone pushes Nolan off the roof of Thorn Hall and, yes, he gets impaled by those gnarly spikes.
Caitlin denies killing him, but she’s not really sad to see him gone, either. While talking to her hot British boyfriend, Jeremy (Graeme Thomas King), she admits she’s relieved that Nolan is dead. She also makes a point to remind Dylan and Ava that the reason they left the forest was because they heard the ambulance sirens. That would be a good excuse...if it were true. The actual reason they left was because they heard a branch crack, which not only means that Caitlin is lying but also that someone was probably in the forest with them.
Jeremy
Personally, I’m getting bad, bad vibes from Caitlin’s BF. After Wren really fucked shit up in the original Pretty Little Liars, I’ve come to distrust all attractive British men. Jeremy seems sweet to Caitlin, but he was more than happy to admit he’s glad Nolan is dead. I don’t really have any further evidence, except for the fact that his face just looks hella sus.
Mason
Nolan’s old childhood friend (and Caitlin’s ex-boyfriend) seemed pretty innocent-until Dylan made a comment about him at the funeral. It was made clear that Mason (Noah Gray-Cabey) and Nolan weren’t close anymore at the time of his death, so Dylan found it rather odd that Mason looked so emotional at the funeral. He asks Ava and Caitlin, “Is it just me, or does Mason look a little too sad?”
I mean, if one single tear is “too sad,” then yeah, I guess?
Dylan
Because Dylan was a victim of Nolan’s blackmailing, he’s automatically a suspect. TBH, if some rich kid were forcing me to write his college essays, I’d want to kill him too. And lest we forget, it was Dylan who was first to suggest offing Nolan (in a “joking” way). He also wrote an entire paper on how murder is justified “if it’s the only way to end someone’s hostile grip on you.” Innnnnteresting.
Ava
Ava doesn’t seem a likely suspect. Nolan was her boyfriend and she was clearly the most visibly upset by his death. Dylan and Caitlin kept telling her she was lucky Nolan didn’t have anything to blackmail her with, either.
But...Ava never actually said that herself. Something tells me he did have something on her, and whatever it was might have been bad enough to kill him for it. Also, there’s the whole “jealous girlfriend gets revenge on her cheating boyfriend” trope.
Mona
Mona (Janel Parrish) straight-up said she’s the reason Nolan is dead, so there’s that. According to her ~calculations~, she knew Nolan was dangerous enough to “push another student to the point of snapping.” By not telling his mother, Claire Hotchkiss, the truth about her son, Mona thinks she created a killer.
She denies being said killer, of course, and when Alison asks her if she pushed Nolan off the roof, she remarks, “Jesus, Alison! What kind of person do you think I am?”
Um, you’re Mona Vanderwaal, the girl who tormented multiple people for years on end and got locked up in a mental institution. So, like, not exactly the best track record, girl.
Alison
Of all the people on this list, Alison (Sasha Pieterse) is the least likely suspect. She was dealing with that creepy message on her wall at the time of Nolan’s death. However, she did receive a text from Nolan asking her to meet him on the Thorn Hall roof. And from the first episode, it seemed Nolan thought he was talking to Alison when someone showed up to meet him on that roof.
Alison didn’t see the text message until the next morning because of a cell-service blackout, but either way, it looks really bad in the eyes of the police.
So, who actually killed Nolan? We’ll have to keep watching to find out, but judging by last night’s episode, it could be anyone.
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