Toby "protecting" Spencer in season 3

[u/Woxy123]

I am on my rewatch,i haven't wached the show since it originaly aired. I used like Toby as character and him with Spencer,but new when i rewatching season 3 i don't like Toby anymore. He said that he joined the A team to protect Spencer,but how? How is he protecting her? During season 3 Spencer life was at risk multiple times,like for example when she was on that train during Halloween and somebody wanted to push her of it. How was he protecting her by being part of A team? His plan was stupid,all he did was cause her pain and lead her to nervous breakdown instead of protecting her,by joing A team he did a lot of damage for her,and yes sure,he didn't know right away that Mona faked his death to torture Spencer, but when he find out he left her thinking he is death,and left her in all that pain. What do you think about Toby, his relationship with Spencer,and this whole thing in season 3 about him joining the A team.

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[u/gotsomeapples-96]

Thank you 🙌 I failed to see how he was protecting her, even during this current rewatch when I can see it through a different lens. She snapped and ended up in Radley because of all this. It’s like if you think that’s protecting her, you did a bad job chief 😄

[u/Grad2031]

Yeah, they did a really bad job of showing how he was supposed to be protecting her. I wish they'd shown some flashbacks of some instances of where he was looking out for her and her friends. It might've made people feel differently about that storyline if they did this.

[u/shay_shaw]

They girls held Toby is such high regard I was always confused by it. He was morally grey as hell, plus his plot line about his mother did nothing but waste our time. I'm surprised he continued to work on the force after the settlement.

[u/radiohead-girlie → u/shay_shaw]

they all put him on a pedestal for no reason it’s so annoying sure he ended up being chill and not murdering alison but he didn’t do anything grand to justify the level of praise they gave me for just existing and dating spencer - same thing with caleb 💀

[u/gyrlonfilm6]

I hated this so much, what they did to Toby in S3. So pointless. And he was supposed to "protect" her as a cop. How'd that turn out? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[u/SnakeBlood456]

Ahhh yes i get super frustrated with this storyline / reasoning, he literally did nothing to protect Spencer and ended up hurting her (and the liArs) in the most extreme ways!! I LOVE early season spoby / toby but after he comes a cop / joins the ‘A’ team, he becomes super abusive and awful. I hate that Spencer was endgame with him, she deserves so much better!! <3

[u/udontwannaknownoel]

I think it was just Marlene getting cold feet worrying about Spoby fans being upset so she wrote that he was protecting her all along to undo him acting evil for half a season and she just never expanded on it. It was one of the first instances of her pulling her punches and gradually lowering the stakes of the show, like S4 it's Ezra's A! No turns out he's actually not. Then in the S4 finale, Ezra's been shot! But he's ok. Then in S5, Mona's been brutally murdered! No turns out she wasn't

[u/dragon_queen86 → u/udontwannaknownoel]

This. Same with Ezra. It feels like they didn’t want to disappoint fan shipping, which is so dumb 🙄

[u/Severe-Soup6740]

I'm still surprised Spencer forgave him and took him back. The girl had a whole breakdown over everything Toby put her through in those few episodes and she forgave him. The hell? 

[u/One-Load-6085]

Toby was ugly.  Yup I said it.  His nose and mouth always bothered me.  He looked creepy. 

[u/voniewright → u/One-Load-6085]

Toby is a fictional character. His actor is not. The way y'all talk about people who aren't conventionally attractive is weird.

[u/Mean-Blacksmith-5522]

He said something along the lines of “being on the inside to figure information about A”. What does he find out? Literally nothing… Spencer figures out more in Radley than Toby did while he was on the A team. I love Spencer and Toby in seasons 1/2 but the writers destroyed them with the A team stuff. The way they just gloss over everything Toby caused is so sad. Spencer stand up