Warning: Spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: Summer School

Summary

• Imogen did not give up her baby to Aria and Ezra due to postpartum anxiety and lingering trauma.
• In the Summer School premiere, Imogen claims she backed away from the adoption process because she "got a weird vibe from that Ezra dude."
• According to the co-showrunner Lindsay Calhoon Bring, however, Imogen's real reasons for not letting go of her baby involved wanting to keep her close and playing out her anxieties.

The showrunner of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School explains why Aria and Ezra did not adopt Imogen's baby in the season 2 premiere. Max's spinoff of Pretty Little Liars recently returned with its second installment. Although the teen horror drama sets up a new villain in Bloody Rose, the show also has to explain away the lingering threads from the season 1 finale. That includes the hint of a crossover, with original Pretty Little Liars characters Ezra (Ian Harding) and Aria (Lucy Hale) becoming adoptive parents.

In the premiere of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School, Imogen tells her therapist Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) that she backed away from the adoption process because she “got a weird vibe from that Ezra dude.” Co-showrunner Lindsay Calhoon Bring, who created the show with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, tells Entertainment Weekly that, although it's possible that Imogen's sentiments about Ezra were sincere given his problematic history, it's also true that Imogen does not feel ready to let go of her baby. Read the quote below:

When we started season 2, we were talking about where we found Imogen at the beginning of the season and how she's processing her trauma. She's had a lot of loss. She's giving this baby up for adoption. And one of the things that she's grappling with at the beginning of our season, and throughout, is postpartum anxiety. We thought that was really interesting for her to play the idea that your body and your mind would still feel the effects of this baby that you no longer have with you, the way that we could manifest Imogen's anxiety is by her, almost in a sense, stalking her own baby, stalking the parents of her baby.

Dr. Sullivan says it best in episode 1. Imogen of course says, 'I got a weird vibe from that Ezra dude.' That may or may not be true, but Dr. Sullivan gets to the heart of it and says, 'And also, the parents of your baby live in Millwood and you want to keep your baby close, you want to keep an eye on her. You're sort of obsessively stalking this child.' It really felt right to us that we would be able to play story, have the baby close, have Imogen be able to be stopping by unwanted and kind of let her play out her anxieties that way.

Imogen Would Be Right To Feel Weird About Ezra

But Dr. Sullivan Is Probably Still Right

Even though the Ezra and Aria pairing is significant within the Pretty Little Liars universe, it has been seen by many viewers and critics as a mark against the original series. Not only is Ezra Aria's teacher, but Aria is only a teenager when the show begins. The relationship has been the subject of controversy and shifting views, even within Pretty Little Liars itself. During the Original Sin finale, Imogen says Ezra and Aria are a nice couple and she seems excited to meet them. That obviously changed at some point off-screen.

Dr. Sullivan is also correct, however, to point out that Imogen is not fully prepared to give her baby away. Even when she does come across a couple she likes, she still visits the newborn Esettle and has to gently but firmly be reminded of the adoption terms. In this case, it's possible that two things are true at once: Imogen wouldn't have been happy with the adoption, regardless of who the parents were, and the writers were also referencing Ezra's divisive place within the fandom.

Hale has said in the past that she would be open to joining the Pretty Little Liars spinoff cast. If that does eventually happen, given the benefit of hindsight, it might make for a good storyline if Aria opened up to Imogen about how she sees her relationship with Ezra. But at this time, no major crossovers have been confirmed.

Source: EW

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School streams Thursdays on Max.