Out of all of the Pretty Little Liars, Emily is definitely the most caring and loyal. She was the first to believe in Toby when everyone else thought he was weird, and she was the last to give up hope on Ali in season five. Not to mention, she hasn’t done nearly as many terrible things as her friends have done, but don’t worry, she has had her moments.
Between creating a fake Danby letter and kissing Nate, Emily has for sure made her fair share of mistakes so we’ve tracked down the 10 worst things that she ever did.
Doesn’t Trust Toby
Emily and Toby became fast friends at the beginning of season one, however, Emily eventually became suspicious of Toby and thought that he might have had something to do with Alison’s disappearance. In an effort to convince Emily of his innocence - he hid in the back of her car so they could be alone to share his side of the story.
Toby told Emily to meet him at the church later that night to talk more, but she still didn’t trust him and the police showed up at the meeting spot instead. Scaring Emily in her own car definitely wasn’t the best way to prove his innocence, but he never would have been wrongly arrested if it weren’t for her lack of trust in him.
Creates A Fake Danby Letter
This was a pretty selfish move on Em’s part. When her back was against the wall thinking that her family was moving, she made a fake letter from a prospective college saying that she was promised a scholarship if she continued to swim at Rosewood High.
Thankfully Emily came to her senses and decided to not give her mom the letter, but unfortunately, “A” did it for her. Her mom read the letter and was over the moon that Emily was receiving a committed offer from a future college so thanks to the lie, Emily didn’t have to move after all.
Gives Her Number To Zoey
Remember when Emily was hanging out with Samara and her friends and then “A” got involved? “A” forced Emily to give Zoey, Samara’s friend, her phone number. This ultimately made Emily look pretty bad considering she was dating Samara so it was an obviously cruel thing to do.
While Emily only did this because of “A”, she could have gone about it in a much better way that wouldn’t have upset Samara. “A” demanded that Emily give Zoey her number, but she didn’t say it had to be in a romantic way. Emily clearly had options, but she still handled the situation poorly.
Hurts Toby For Spencer
In season two, Spencer thought that she needed to completely cut ties with Toby in order to keep him safe. She asked Emily to tell Toby that it’s over and Emily reluctantly agreed to do so. While it’s clear that this wasn’t an easy thing for Emily to do, it was still extremely hurtful of her to break up with Toby for Spencer. At the very least, Toby deserved to hear the breakup from Spencer herself.
On top of all of this, it’s very possible that the girls could have simply come up with a plan to let Toby in on why Spencer had to break up with him, but of course, that didn’t happen and Toby was just left heartbroken.
Doesn’t Stop The Kiss With Nate
Nate might be a little hard to remember at times, but he did have that pretty memorable scene where he tried to kill Emily and Paige. Before Emily knew that Nate was actually Lyndon James, she started spending quite a bit of time with him, even though she was dating Paige.
One night when Paige was on her way to meet Emily she saw the two of them kissing and understandably fled the scene. While Nate (Lyndon) was the one who instigated the kiss, Emily didn’t immediately pull away and this really hurt Paige.
Tries To Secretly Meet Alison
Before the Liars found Ali in New York, Emily began getting tips that Ali was in fact alive. Emily was desperate to see her and was willing to do whatever it took, including going it alone and leaving her friends out of the loop.
This definitely wasn’t the smartest move considering how danger involved whenever the Liars did anything with “A” on their own. Not to mention, Emily knew that finding Alison meant a lot to her friends too, so trying to leave them out of it was pretty hurtful.
Tells Paige That Alison Is Alive
Paige isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite character. It was pretty hard to trust her after the whole “she tried to drown Emily” thing. For some reason, Emily trusted Paige for quite a while and even shared with her that Alison was alive. This was a pretty bad move on Emily’s part because Paige couldn’t be trusted and at the time, Alison’s whereabouts desperately needed to be kept secret.
Even though fans were screaming at their TV for Emily to stay quiet, Paige didn’t give her much of a choice since she threatened to go to the police.
Repeatedly Defends Ali
Alison is absolutely one of the worst characters in the show. Almost all the bad things that happened to Liars happened as a result of Alison’s actions. In fact, had Alison been a nice person, Mona probably would have never started the A-Team, to begin with.
Knowing this, it’s pretty to crazy to not only continue being friends with Alison, but also repeatedly defend her on several occasions. Emily did this so many times throughout the series, and it was only when Emily was convinced that Alison was actually a murderer that she momentarily stopped supporting her.
Electric Shocks Her Friends
This one isn’t exactly Emily’s fault, but it’s definitely one of the worst things she’s ever done. When Emily and the rest of the Liars were locked in the dollhouse, “A” forced Emily to choose which friends she wanted to electric shock. This whole situation was horrifying, there’s no way to know what the best thing was to do, however, Emily could have simply refused.
It’s unknown what would have happened to Emily if she had refused but at least then her friends wouldn’t have been physically harmed by her own doing.
Attempts To Frame Alison
It’s about time that Emily came to her senses and stopped being on Team Alison for a little while, however, this was not the best way to do it. When Emily and her friends were convinced that Alison killed Mona, they were desperate to get her locked up. They devised a plan to leave some hair from Alison’s hairbrush at Mona’s house to prove that Ali was at the crime scene.
This was wrong on so many levels, but mostly because Alison was innocent. Alison has done a lot of bad things, but she definitely didn’t deserve to go to prison for a murder she didn’t commit.
