A Is for Aliens. A Is for Alison.

Today I started two shows that I've already seen many times before (though I don't think that I've actually ever finished either show in its entirety.) This time around, I really noticed how great their first episodes are.

The first show I started rewatching is The X Files, have you heard of it? I'm sure you have. If you haven't seen it in a while I would highly recommend rewatching the first episode, I've seen it enough times to be somewhat sick of it, but even still, it's packed with banger after banger.

This episode has everything, we're introduced to the cigarette smoking man right off the bat, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder meet for the first time and are already well versed on one another—Mulder doesn't seem to really care that the suits sent in a babysitter for him, he's content on convincing Scully that the truth is out there.

She may be a skeptic, but the very first case they work together sure does test her beliefs. Kids being found dead in the Oregon forest with strange marks on their backs, others finding themselves in the forest with no memory of how they've gotten there, strange electrical interference, exhuming graves, distorted non-human corpses, losing time, the show basically throws Scully right into the deep end with countless signs pointing to alien abductions.

This case pulls them from one strange happening to the next, and just when you think they've gathered enough evidence and everything is coming together, they return to their motel where they find that their room has been set ablaze and the evidence has been destroyed in the fire.

The case wraps up, agent Scully writes her report detailing the odd occurrences and her analysis of whether or not Mulder is mentally well enough for the job, and she turns in one last piece of evidence to her supervising director... A small probe of unknown origin that she had extracted from the nasal cavity of one of the victims and stored away in her pocket.

The cigarette smoking man files the probe away as evidence in a secure area of the pentagon concluding the episode.

Oh and I almost forgot! After the case is over, Scully is of course contemplating everything that has just occurred and notices strange marks on her back. She rushes to Mulder's where she quickly unrobes for him to inspect her marks. He kneels to inspect her in her underwear under candlelight, because, of course he uses a candle instead of lights in his home... He remarks that they are just mosquito bites and they share a moment of romantic tension as Scully hugs Mulder in relief.

On the topic of unconventional romance, the other show I'm rewatching is Pretty Little Liars. The first episode of this show also goes so hard. Where to even start? I guess with the obvious, a missing member of the girl gang, Alison DiLaurentis. She's the baddest of the bad bitches, and to think that the actress was only like ??? 12 years old at the start of this show, bossing around all these 20 something Hollywood high-schoolers ?? Insane. lol.

Anyway, we find out Ali is missing and has been for an entire year, we meet all the girls, Aria, Emily, Spencer, Hanna. Fast forward a little bit and 16 year old Aria is alone at a bar of all places and orders a cheeseburger. She meets this much older than her guy (of course he is, they're at a bar and she's 16.) They start chatting it up, Ezra (that's his name) tells Aria that he's starting a teaching job, and of course Aria doesn't mention that she's a high school student... I'm sure you can see where this is going, they end up making out disgustingly in the bar bathroom and really fall hard for each other.

Lo and behold, school starts and sure enough, Ezra Fits is her English teacher. Yuck.

After school, we're introduced to Aria's father, Byron Montgomery, who's a teacher as well at the local college. (Daddy issues much?) They have a tense conversation paired with a flashback where Aria catches him having an affair, making out with a student (ew) of his, in his car in an alleyway. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess.

Emily is discovering her sexuality and starts falling for this new girl in the neighborhood, Maya, who is moving in the dead girl's house. (sorry!! missing, we haven't gotten there, but they actually DO get there in the very first episode.)

Maya is like totally come to terms with her own interests, but of course Emily is super closeted and self conscious about everything. This one doesn't have to be a problem, they're about the same age and everything's cool. But Emily is Emily, so she'll make it a problem somehow. They do have a little awkward kiss though a little later which is pretty cute and sweet.

We find out that Spencer is also into older guys, and she has a problem of hooking up with her older sister's boyfriends. This time, she happens to be getting a little too close with her sister's fiance, who is a little too eager to massage her shoulders while she's in nothing but a bikini. I can't remember if it's in the first episode or not, but yeah, they definitely make out like at most by episode 2.

Oh yeah, and Hanna gets caught shoplifting at the mall which for some reason leads to her (hot) mom hooking up for way too long with the detective working on the missing girl case, putting him way too close to it all.

All this while the girls are getting incriminating text messages from someone claiming to be "A." Alison perhaps?

A body is found buried in the garden outside what used to be Alison's house. That body is identified to be Alison DiLaurentis.

A funeral is held for Ali and the entire town shows up to mourn for her. Even Jenna Marshall who Ali and the girls blinded with a firework and pinned the blame on her step brother, Toby Cavanaugh, who Jenna is uncomfortably close with.

Some time during the funeral Aria bumps in to Mr. Fitz, and they make out in the chapel. I'm sure that Ali would be super happy about that if she were around. Hope nobody was watching them!

The funeral is over, detective Wilden pulls the girls aside to ask the girls to come to the police department for interrogation now that murder is suspected. Just after, all of the girls receive a text message and read it popcorn style,

"I'm still here bitches. And I know everything. -A."