Peter Hastings

"How do they know? I must have missed something. I did everything I could to protect her."

- Peter to Melissa about Spencer

Peter Hastings is the husband of Veronica Hastings and father of Melissa and Spencer. He also had an affair with Jessica DiLaurentis which resulted in the birth of Jason DiLaurentis. He is a successful attorney like his wife, Veronica.

Series
The Jenna Thing
 * -|Season 1=

Peter and Spencer are in a restaurant for dinner. He is overbearing when Spencer discusses her desire to enroll in a college class outside her high school work. While Peter is somewhat encouraging, he criticizes her decision to take a class for fun and hopes that her choice of a class will be more goal oriented, even if it is a boring choice.

When Melissa and Wren arrive, Melissa suggests that they play a game that the Hastings usually play. Melissa wants Wren to go first but he says he doesn't know how to play. Peter tells him he'll catch on. When the waitress arrives Peter and Melissa order the same drink.

Reality Bites Me

When Spencer comes home he greets her saying that he bought her buttercreams, her favorite. Spencer thinks he's spoken to Wren but he reveals that he didn't. He then enlists Spencer in playing a doubles match with a prospective client and his daughter at the club. He is cheerful towards Spencer, offering her chocolates to show that he is proud of her latest scholastic achievement winning the essay contest. It seems that all is forgiven with the Wren scandal, just as he had predicted, now that Peter has something of his daughter's to brag about.

He convinces his daughter to throw a match to help him land a client, which makes her angry. Spencer feels it is dishonest and so, in a moment of truth, admits to her father that she stole the essay for the writing contest that she is poised to win.

Salt Meets Wound

Spencer and her dad make small talk in their kitchen; Peter lets her know that the cops are ready to put Toby away, as the blood found on Toby's sweater matches Alison's blood. They also mention Ian's stuff, and Peter comments that Ian seems to be everywhere...

A Person of Interest

Peter and Veronica question Spencer about her recent behavior and her belief that Ian is dangerous. They seem to side with Melissa and Ian for the most part though, casting Spencer as psychotic, although Veronica is more patronizing and doubtful than is Peter.

Peter makes a more significant appearance in this season.
 * -|Season 2=

It's Alive

Peter is the one who presses therapy on the girls. He turns Toby Cavanaugh away when he comes knocking for Spencer, not wanting him to ruin his daughter's already tarnished reputation. Later, Ashley and Ella criticize Peter in conversation for not having had his daughter's best interest at heart, but rather for wanting to keep up appearances and buy his way out of a problem in the form of a therapist.

When Officer Reynolds comes to the house, he privately pushes him to do all that is possible to find Ian, showing that he completely distrusts Spencer's version of things that Ian is dead, rather than a missing person.

Never Letting Go

Spencer finds him arguing with Jessica DiLaurentis on several occasions. When he is confronted about it, he makes up lies or just mysteriously tells her to stay away from Jason DiLaurentis.

Surface Tension

He hires Toby to do work in the yard while Mrs. Hastings and Melissa are away. When Toby finds the broken field hockey stick, he acts very suspiciously by taking away the possible murder weapon, as well as telling Toby not to tell Spencer and to forget that the whole thing ever happened. He later burns it, despite his daughter's protests, an act that Mrs. Hastings defends when Spencer questions her about it. He implies that he thinks Spencer planted the blood-covered trophy, although it is not clear if he means that or is simply being patronizing.

I Must Confess

Spencer and Toby catches him walking out of the DiLaurentis house, and Spencer immediately pounces on the fact. When Peter gets snappy with his daughter, Toby steps up to her defense only to get yelled at in return and threatened to be fired. Spencer tries to protect Toby and later runs off in tears after a rather snappy response by her father. To her father's chagrin, Spencer climbs into Toby's car, only to have Peter bang on the door while Toby tries to drive away.

When Spencer returns at night, she finds her father sitting at the couch. They exchange some words in a much more calm fashion, and Peter confesses that the DiLaurentis family forced him to change the will of Alison's grandmother in the south back to an early version that included two grandchildren. The will originally left everything to Alison, excluding Jason. Because of the disappearance and the presumed death of Ali, Jessica DiLaurentis had ordered him to change the grandmother's will to include Jason, so that it wouldn't seem like Jason was a murder suspect. When Spencer asks why doesn't he tell the police, Peter states that if he does, he will lose his job as an attorney. Spencer asks her father why he even did it in the first place, and Peter gets all dark. Apparently, the DiLaurentis family knows something that Peter desperately wants to forget, and they had hung the fact over his head, forcing him to change the will. When Spencer asks what is it, Peter gets all gruff and leaves the room, telling his daughter he answered enough questions for one night. Spencer is left bewildered and confused.

Over My Dead Body

Spencer’s parents fuss at the police station, and Mr. Hastings informs someone over his cell phone that the girls are in custody, though they haven’t been booked. Just then, Jason appears, and Peter immediately approaches him to beg him to leave. But Jason is firm in his belief that his sister would have wanted him here, to which Mr. Hastings says he did things to protect Jason. Jason underlines that he didn’t kill Ali, so there was never a need to protect him. Jason tells Peter that he bought the house because Ali was great at keeping secrets and punishing people with the truth. Then Jason asks whether Mrs. Hastings knows, mysteriously implying something that Peter comprehends immediately. Peter says no and insists that Veronica not find out whatever secret they are keeping that night with everything else that is going on...

A Hot Piece of A

We learn that Peter is in Philadelphia with Veronica to help Melissa while she has some medical tests done.

The Naked Truth

Spencer learns from Jason the reason why her father changed Grandma Dee's will; Jason is Peter's son.
 * -|Season 3=

The Remains of the "A"

Peter tells Spencer that the prosecution's evidence against Garret cannot be retested, so Veronica is trying to get the evidence to be ruled as inadmissible. He later finds Jason and tells him to leave Spencer alone. He wishes that Spencer can put all this behind her: the trial, Jason's sister etc. and focus on her future. Jason tells him he happens to have more than one sister and walks away.

What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted

Peter is mentioned, by Melissa, to be in London.

Love ShAck, Baby
 * -|Season 4=

Close Encounters

Book Comparisons

 * In the books, He's the father of Alison and her twin Courtney. In the show, he's Jason's biological father.
 * In the books, Veronica leaves Peter after finding out about his affair with Jessica. In the show, they talked it out and stayed together.
 * In the books, his affair with Jessica was much more serious and lengthy while in the tv show it was a one night stand that resulted in Jason.