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Pretty Little Liar: Theresa (Emily O’Brien) concocts a tall tale for Andrew (Colton Little).
The walls are closing in on the duplicitous Theresa regarding her role in baby Victoria’s kidnapping when Andrew calls her out.
“This is something Theresa didn’t even want to do and got coerced into,” begins her portrayer, Emily O’Brien. “She’s incredibly paranoid about anybody finding out. It ends up becoming insurmountable. She digs herself deeper and deeper with this character, Konstantin. He keeps threatening her. It’s like when your ship is sinking and you keep trying to plug the holes. You plug one and escape an issue, but then another one pops up. That’s a constant juggle.”
When Theresa receives a call from her brother, Andrew, saying he wants to meet her, she’s initially pleasantly surprised. “Theresa just thinks he wants to see her because of the holidays,” notes O’Brien. “Then he drops this bomb on her that he’s seen what she did.”
Andrew reveals that he has viewed the surveillance footage that Steve originally sent to Shane of Victoria and her kidnapper in the Salem park. Upon analyzing it, he identified the culprit as his own sister, Theresa — and he’s furious. “He says, ‘What are you doing? I thought you said that you changed your ways. How are you causing trouble again?’ ” recounts O’Brien.
Theresa insists she can explain and does so by her usual means: lying. She concocts a story that she took the baby because she was trying to play matchmaker between Maggie and Konstantin, so that Konstantin could “rescue” Victoria, and a grateful Maggie would view him as a hero. “Quick lying on your feet, right?” says O’Brien with a laugh. “Theresa is a charmer. She’s very believable, and she’s very good at getting her way. She lays it on thick that her objective was to get Maggie and Konstantin together, and it went awry. She wants Andrew to understand her side of things, that she was just trying to do good.”
Ultimately, says O’Brien, Theresa “convinces Andres that she’s telling the truth. Then she begs him not to say anything and, because they’re family, miraculously, he agrees.”
Andrew promises to cover for Theresa, but warns her to stay out of trouble. But will she take the advice to heart? “She tries to,” offers O’Brien. “But because she’s in so deep, the spiral continues. She has to keep plugging those holes, because if the truth comes out about what’s she’s done, she’s going to be in serious trouble.”
Having dodged the Andrew bullet, Theresa meets with Alex, who can see she is upset. He suggests Christmas Eve dinner at the bistro, and she agrees. However, the night turns sour when Theresa gets a call from Konstantin. Although she insists that she cannot help him with Maggie anymore, Konsantin won’t take no for an answer.
“Theresa is trapped by Konstantin. She cannot get away from him, because he will expose her truth,” sums up O’Brien, referring to the pair tampering with Victor’s will to make it look like Alex, not Xander, was Victor’s son. “She’s basically a slave to Konstantin and has to do what he says.”
