PLL’s Bailee Madison Is Still Rooting for Imogen, Johnny’s Slow-Burn Romance

Bailee Madison isn’t giving up when it comes to Imogen and Johnny’s potential future on Pretty Little Liars.

During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Madison, 24, weighed in on how the season 2 finale forced Imogen and Johnny (Antonio Cipriano) to hit pause on their romance, what that shocking death means for the show and where the story goes from here.

Warning: This story contains spoilers about the Pretty Little Liars: Summer School season 2 finale.

“Imogen and Johnny had a really natural and instant connection that didn’t feel really that forced. It just felt really gentle — but then also kind of mature in a sense,” Madison explained to Us. “But two young people [were] grappling on to big emotions for the first time with a lot going on. So, I look at them as long-term slow burn.”

TV Couples We Need to See in 2024: ‘The Bear,’ ‘Sweet Magnolias’ and More

Despite their split, Madison is holding out hope for the fictional couple to get back together, adding, “It’s been a treat getting to watch the internet fall for them and with them. I would love to see that continue on.”

Imogen found love with Johnny on season 2 of Pretty Little Liars after a difficult year. The looming threat that was Bloody Rose ultimately caused Imogen to doubt Johnny’s intentions. After Johnny tried to reason with Imogen, she knocked him out and locked him up in a walk-in freezer. The pair decided to take some time to cool off (pun intended!), but their final scene was full of longing looks and hints at a possible reconciliation.

“Imogen met Johnny when he was a player, so I think it’d be really fun that Imogen has her moment of fun and freedom maybe getting back at him,” Madison joked. “But in the end, I was kind of like, ‘Well, I’ve already held up three knives. Can’t you just forgive her for putting you in the freezer?’ But I guess that’s asking too much of him. I think he’s given her enough this season. It’s justified that he needs a breather.”

Madison also discussed the weight of Imogen and Johnny’s connection, considering he is her first boyfriend as she worked through her trauma from Chip (Carson Rowland). (The now-deceased character struck up a romance with Imogen in the first season until she realized he was responsible for the sexual assault that resulted in her pregnancy.)

“[Antonio and I] did our chemistry read before I really knew anything that the season entailed. It’s so difficult to sense something [virtually], but it automatically felt really easy. I felt like I was in really safe hands with him,” Madison recalled. “Because I would kind of throw something his way that maybe wasn’t on the page and he very quickly would absorb it and work it into his version of throwing that back to me. As actors, that’s really all you can hope for is an actor alongside you that’s there to kind of listen and grow and support.”

Us Weekly’s Favorite New TV Couples: From ‘Maxton Hall’ to ‘Bridgerton’

Madison praised the men on the show for willingly taking a step back to highlight the female leads.

“I feel like all of the men on this show [and] all of the love interests, they kind of have this really daunting task of supporting the characters and not having an ego with it that the characters just genuinely do want to support the girls,” she noted. “And you have to be willing to put yourself into that world as well. And [Antonio] 100 percent was.”

The actress continued: “He was such a wonderful partner and it was so fun to watch him step into his own on the show. But there was just a level of care and gentleness that naturally came from those moments. Imogen’s most emotional scenes were alongside Johnny and to have the freedom to be that exposed during the filming of that — you have to have some sort of a trusting relationship. I felt like I could trust him and hopefully in return he could also trust me.”

In addition to Imogen’s bond with Johnny, her friendship with Tabby (Chandler Kinney) once again took center stage. Madison told Us she was thrilled by how important Imogen and Tabby’s interactions continue to be for the show.

“Chandler and I — like all the girls do — we really make an effort to check in on each other all the time. We spend 17 hours a day on set together and then we go back to our apartments and we’ll call each other and [read lines together]. We really spend 20 hours a day and then we sleep for four and we go back and we see each other,” she explained. “We’re very attached at the hip and I love her with all of my heart.”

The season 2 finale not only shook up everyone’s personal lives. During the last moments of the episode, Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) was brutally killed by Archie. She made some shady comments about the Liars shortly before the murder — which made the narrative decision much easier to accept.

A Guide to Every Mention of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ in ‘Summer School’ Reboot

“You look back at her history and I feel like she did have it coming and that’s the problem. So it didn’t feel out of left field. Once we kind of got the backstory of her relationship with Archie, that felt right for me,” Madison explained. “This show wants to kind of allow the audience to never feel safe. So I feel like at the end — that just had to happen.”

Madison also has plenty of theories about who the new villains could be after those scenes with a group of people wearing masks that resemble each Liar.

“We’ve toyed with the idea of a physical threat. We’ve toyed with the idea of someone who is physical but also is a bit psychological. But all of these girls are clearly at their breaking points. What happens when they’re literally fighting against something that looks like them in such a human and delicate form?” she pointed out to Us. “I’m a bit biased. I did The Strangers: Prey at Night, so I’m a huge fan of some knife-wielding, psycho humans. It just feels really fitting and it would call for a lot of iconic scenes. Entering the third [season], what does it look like to ground it even more and to kind of live in the darkness even more?”

Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is currently streaming on Max.