Who Is Holden On Pretty Little Liars?
There were many moments in Tuesday’s night’s episode of Pretty Little Liars that made me open my mouth and cry, “why I. Marlene King, why?” but I want to focus on one moment in particular.
The moment some random guy named Holden appeared out of the blue and started talking to Aria.
For some reason, Aria wasn’t like, “oh hey, nice to meet you stranger.” Instead, she was like, “oh yeah, hi old friend, what are you doing back in my life?”
Now, if you’re anything like me, you didn’t remember who the fuck Holden was or how he fit into the PLL universe. So here’s what you need to know before next week’s episode rolls around.
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Holden Strauss first appeared in season 2 of Pretty Little Liars as Aria’s dad’s friend’s son.
Apparently Holden and Aria had been friends for forever. He just moved back into town after spending a year in Portugal because his dad was writing a dissertation about some river, or something equally as boring.
Right off the bat he boldly asks Aria out on a date even though he kind of looks like a troll compared to her.
She accepts his offer. When she shows up, he quickly figures out she’s got the hots for her English teacher. Instead of being butthurt about it he’s like, “that’s chill, I got secrets too, let’s keep this going on ‘dates’ thing going.”
Confused, Aria’s like, “k whatever bro.” When she tells her friends about it, they’re all convinced he’s gay.
But the joke’s on them because he’s not.
His secret has nothing to do with his sexuality, but with the fact that he’s super into this Korean martial arts scene which his father is not so happy about because Holden has some condition where his heart could burst at literally any time no matter what he’s doing.
Even though he routinely gets the shit kicked out of him and has to take hella drugs to cope with the pain, Aria agrees to be a supportive friend and go watch him fight in a tournament, which he ends up winning.
And that’s pretty much the end of the OG Holden Strauss storyline.
Just as randomly as he first appears in season 2, then he disappears.
Well, except for a brief and mysterious cameo in season 3.
Emily runs into Holden at a church thing and sees he has the same stamp on his hand that she remembers seeing on the night she was drugged.
He tells her it’s from a club he goes to where he sometimes sees Maya and the infamous Noel Kahn.
And then he’s gone.
For real.
Until this episode.
Now he’s back, hanging around his sister’s wedding planning business, even though he supposedly has his own job, where he just so happened to run into his old friend Aria.
Something’s up.
There are no coincidences on Pretty Little Liars and old characters don’t come back just to chitchat.
Holden either knows something about A.D. or he is A.D.
After all, he used to party with Noel and Noel kidnapped and tortured Hanna, among other crimes.
Aria should watch out.
Also, Holden is probably gonna try and make a move on her, so Aria should really watch out.
Her bae is really out of the picture right now and she’s feeling hella vulnerable, so this just seems like a recipe for cheating.
Anyway, that’s who Holden is.
Random, but hey, Pretty Little Liars loves to throw its fans curve balls.
