Pretty Little Liars: Summer School EPs Explain Imogen’s Change of Heart, Why You Won’t See #Ezria in Season 2

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is now in session, but there’s one teacher you shouldn’t expect to see roaming the halls — Ezra Fitz.

The Max reboot’s first season ended with Imogen (Bailee Madison) revealing that her baby was being adopted by a lovely couple from nearby Rosewood, specifically Aria (Lucy Hale) and Ezra (Ian Harding) from the original Pretty Little Liars. It was an exciting Easter egg for longtime fans of the franchise, one that promised a permanent connection between the two shows.

Unfortunately, that lasting connection wasn’t meant to be. In the second season premiere, now streaming on Max, it’s revealed that Estelle has actually been adopted by a local gay couple. Imogen, as it turns out, had a change of heart and decided that she wanted to keep her daughter close. And as Imogen explains in the premiere, she “got a weird vibe from that Ezra dude.”

So, what’s the real story behind this between-season switcheroo? The simple answer is that co-showrunners Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring decided that they’d rather keep Imogen’s baby in the picture, as opposed to sending her off screen and forgetting she exists.

“Everything for us is always story-driven,” Bring tells TVLine, adding that “Imogen has had many traumas over the past season, and we shouldn’t forget that she had a baby and she’s been struggling with her mental health. We thought about Imogen struggling with postpartum anxiety and what that must be like to have the effects of struggling with postpartum while not actually having your baby with you — feeling that tug, wanting to keep the baby close and feeling that sort of stress.”

She continues: “We thought the thing that made the most sense, story-wise, would be that Imogen changed her mind and wants the baby nearby so she can keep tabs on her. It created such great, fruitful story for her as well. And Dr. Sullivan aptly says, ‘You wanted to keep the baby in Millwood, which is much closer to you.’ That gave us the most story drive and a set piece we could revisit throughout the season.”

To be fair, anyone who watched the original Pretty Little Liars knows that Ezra is fully capable of giving off “weird vibes,” and Aguirre-Sacasa admits that “there was a little bit of that.” Mostly, though, he echoes Bring in saying that the decision came down to what’s best for the show.

“When you started digging in deeper about her psychology and the fear that ‘A’ would get the baby, it totally made story sense,” he says.

TVLine previously caught up with Hale, while she was promoting her then-new movie Puppy Love, and she was in full support of the reboot building a connection to the original series: “I love it,” she told us. “I’m happy to know that Aria and Ezra are still kicking it. That’s great. Team Aria and Ezra all the way.”

Were you surprised to hear that #Ezria didn’t end up adopting Estelle? Grade the premiere of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School in our poll below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts.