Emily Fields

Emily Fields is one of the main characters in the Pretty Little Liars series. She is portrayed by Shay Mitchell.

Biography
Emily Fields is a very talented swimmer, being the star of Rosewood's swim team. Unfortunately, she has had a rough past being in love with her ex-best friend Ali before she died, their relationship being on and off. At times Ali would say things to put Emily at risk of being outed. Initially when Emily came out, her parents, especially her mother, struggled to handle the news, but now they seem to be accepting of her sexuality.

Season 1
Competitive swimmer Emily befriends Maya St. Germain, her new neighbor who resides in Alison's former home. Maya introduces Emily to marijuana, and the girls grow closer. A message from "A" reveals Emily to be curious about her sexuality, and hints that she had kissed Alison in the past, or had been in a relationship with Alison. Emily's mother invites Maya to stay for a while, and she and Emily share a room and a bed. Emily's boyfriend, Ben Coogan, becomes possessive and almost forces her to have sex with him, but she is saved by Toby.



Emily breaks up with her boyfriend and kisses Maya in a photo booth at a party; however, someone steals the photograph and makes copies. Emily goes with Toby to Homecoming, much to the shock of her friends, who believe Toby is dangerous. Even though Emily trusts him enough to tell him about her feelings for Maya, she begins to believe he is dangerous too, and runs away from him. She trips on her dress and is knocked out trying to flee. Toby drives her to the hospital, then disappears. Emily starts seriously dating Maya, telling her friends, but keeping it a secret from her parents. Emily's secret about loving Alison as more than a friend is unkindly revealed in "The Perfect Storm" by Detective Wilden. Toby tells Emily he didn't kill Alison, and asks her to meet him.

Emily, Spencer, and Aria visit Hanna at the hospital. Hanna announces that Noel is "A." Emily tells Toby she wasn't the one who turned him in. She goes to Hanna's surprise "Welcome Back!" party. Emily confesses to her parents that she's a lesbian and chooses Maya. Her dad isn't happy about it, but accepts it and understands that she's still his daughter. Her mother is completely heartbroken and devastated and calls it "disgusting." Emily invites Maya over to meet her parents, and Maya has a great time. Her parents both try to be nice and friendly, but Emily's mother notices Emily and Maya playing footsie and goes into the kitchen and starts crying. After Maya leaves, her mother says she's not okay with her being a lesbian.

In "Know Your Frenemies," Emily's mom finds pot in Maya's things and tells her parents. They send Maya to rehabilitation. In "Careful What U Wish 4," the girls are at a dance-a-thon, and Emily calls Maya to talk to her, but is disappointed when it sounds like Maya is no longer into her. She then digs out the canteen of liquor in Hanna's jacket pockets and drinks it. She becomes intoxicated, and goes up to Ian and accuses him of killing Alison, though she puts it vaguely by saying "I know what you did."

In "If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again," Emily has to put up with a new rival on the swim team: Paige McCullers, who is desperately trying to become team captain and makes a comment about her sexuality. When Spencer learns about Paige's comment, she informs the coach, which upsets Emily, who wanted to share that information with Coach Fulton herself.

In "Je Suis une Amie," Emily and Paige compete for anchor, after Paige's comment the coach chooses Emily as anchor. Paige comes by Emily's house and apologizes for what she has done explaining that she hates herself and is surprised that Emily doesn't hate her as well.

In "The New Normal," Paige's father comes up to the school accusing Emily of getting preferential treatment due to her sexuality but is rebuffed by Ezra Fitz. Emily's mom hears about this and puts Mr. McCullers in his place. When Emily goes to her car Paige gets in to explain that her father's behavior was not because of her and expresses jealousy at how "easy" Emily's life is. After Emily explains just how difficult it is to be her, Paige kisses her, asks her not to tell, and runs off.

In "A Person of Interest," Emily runs into Paige in the locker room and they discuss what happened. Paige asks Emily to act like it did not happen, which upsets Emily. Later Emily gets a note from Paige to meet her at 707, W. Chester Pike that night. They talk, and then Paige persuades Emily to come up on stage and sing karaoke with her and then they kiss out in the parking lot. The next day Paige texts Emily to have a picnic. They discuss that there is a concert coming, but Paige says that she cannot be seen with Emily there. So Emily says that they should just be friends, because Paige wants to keep it a secret, and Emily isn't ready to go back into the closet.

In "Someone to Watch Over Me," Emily sees Paige with Sean and gets jealous. When Sean asks her if she knows if Paige is single, she half lies that she doesn't know her very well - that they only swim on the same team. She later confronts Paige, who says that her date with Sean is just a group thing. Later Emily gets a text from Paige, who comes over to tell Emily about her failed date and says that the whole date felt like it was phony. She then admits that if she says that she is gay, the whole world will change, and Emily agrees. Emily tells Paige she likes girls like her who encourage her to get up on stage and sing, something she would not do on her own, and in general, bring out that outgoing side in her personality. Paige then leans in for a kiss.

In "Monsters in the End," Paige gets tickets to a concert for her and Emily, but also for a guy as insurance. Emily persuades Paige to meet a member of the pride group from Sheridan Prep, but Paige does not show up. Emily and a member of the group talk about Paige and her situation. The next day at the festival, she meets Samara Cook from the pride group at one of the booths, and Paige sees her and gets jealous of Emily's and Samara's flirting. Later Paige asks Emily what she told Samara, after telling her about the situation she was in with her parents. Emily finally tells Paige that she can't be her little secret anymore.

Later, Emily remembers a snow globe that Alison gave her the day she died. Alison had asked her to keep the globe a secret, suggesting that Alison trusted Emily the most of all of her friends. Upon inspection she finds a key to a storage facility hidden inside of the globe. The room-sized storage facility contains a lunch box holding a thumb drive, storing videos of all of the girls who spent time on that street, including a video of Jenna pressuring Toby into sex. They assume that Ian was the person making these videos and that he killed Alison because she found out about it.

In "For Whom the Bell Tolls," Pam tells her daughter that the family is moving to Texas, where Wayne is currently stationed.

Season 2
In "My Name Is Trouble," Emily takes action. In the hope of convincing her mom to stay in Rosewood, Emily considers faking a letter from a college swim scout, saying she could have a full scholarship to Danby University if she stays in Rosewood. She decides the act is wrong and rips up the letter. However "A" makes an unaltered, undamaged copy and sends it to Emily's mother. Emily is able to stay in Rosewood but feels guilty.

In the "The Devil You Know," Emily finds the pattern in Ian's letter; it was completely made of text messages that "A" sent to all four girls. So her and the girls come to find that Ian did not commit suicide like they previously thought in "Blind Dates."

Later Emily goes to Rosewoods local post office, Speed Demon Express, where she stumbles upon Logan Reed. She remembers him from when her and Liars were in the forest in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." She questions him about the night and he admits to her that he was hired online for a delivery position. He never interacted with his employer, except on the phone, and the voice of the employer was that of a woman, not a man. At the church for Ian's funeral ceremony, Emily informs Garrett Reynolds of what she has found out from Logan, and this results in Officer Garrett's violating Emily's trust by paying Logan off to keep quiet about the bribe, stopping Emily's investigation in its tracks. Garrett then calls someone to let her know "it has been taken care of."

In "Never Letting Go," Emily is sympathetic to her mother who is very upset and missing Wayne. This leads Emily to suggest that her mom spend a significantly longer period of time in Texas, while Emily finishes her semester in Rosewood; her mother says she'll think about it. She is later seen discussing it with her friends, Ashley and Ella. Emily's relationship also gets a little bumpy with Samara when she brings her friend Quinn to the fashion show. Emily is upset because she believes the two are flirting with each other and are "touchy, feely." When Emily questions Samara about it she attempts to convince Emily her and Quinn are only long term friends. However, Samara adds that she isn't necessarily against dating other people, as Emily has made it clear that she wants to take her relationship with Samara slow, and they have really only gone on two dates. Emily cannot argue with her about that. Later, it is confirmed that she will be living in Hanna`s house, while her mom and dad are together in Texas.

In "Save The Date", Emily is sent to the hospital after she collapses in the school hallway, we learn that she had a hole in her stomach (an ulcer). It's also learned that the chemical "A" put in Emily's muscle cream in "Surface Tension" was actually Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which is a steroid. Wren confronts her about it, and she denies ever using it and begs him to allow her to retake the test and not tell her parents. Later, Emily is somewhat relieved when her father reassures Emily that she does not need to put herself under so much pressure in order to procure a scholarship; if need be, her parents can pay for school.

In "Picture This," "A" blackmails Emily with her HGH lab report. "A" attempts to sabotage Emily's relationship with Samara by making Emily flirt with Samara's friend, Zoey. Zoey accepted Emily's number without telling Samara. Quinn tells Samara, which makes her upset with Emily. Emily tries to convince Samara that the gesture was only a friendly one. Samara believes it was only to spite her for what she said in "Never Letting Go." She angrily tells Emily that until she gives her a real explanation, she no longer wants to see her.

In I Must Confess, her ex-girlfriend Maya St. Germain comes back to Rosewood,and both have a date in a restaurant. However,in Over My Dead Body, Maya says that she only wants to be friends, by now, and casually dating. Later in this episode, Emily goes to a abandoned barn, and she gets trapped, as it was a plan of A to get her alone. Later, the four Liars, gets testified at the police station when they were caught with the murder weapon.

In "The First Secret", the PLL Halloween special episode, Ben, her ex-boyfriend (however, her boyfriend in this episode) tells everyone that Emily had sex with him. Emily admits that it was true to her friends. After school, Emily sees Toby and goes to talk with him. Toby tells her that his dad got married again and so his stepmother and his stepsister are moving in. When Emily asks about Toby's stepsister, he tells her that she gets everything she wants. At the party, Alison notices that Emily staring at Jenna while is dancing with Ben, and Alison whispers in Emily's ear: "Your secret is safe with me". When Emily, Aria, Hanna and Spencer go to save Alison in the abandoned house of the mysterious zombie guy, however, they discover that it was only a prank of Noel and Alison. The Liars and Alison get very scared when they discover that the zombie boy who attacked them was not Noel. Soon, they realize that there are more people dressed as the mysterious zombie boy watching them.

Physical Appearance
Emily is very pretty. She is tall, and thin, with tanned skin and long, wavy dark brown hair. Emily has brown, almond shaped eyes and full lips. She dresses more casually than the other girls, usually wearing skinny jeans and a simple top, and sometimes, a scarf or jacket.

Relationships
Ben Coogan:
 * Started: Before "The First Secret"
 * End: "Can You Hear Me Now?"
 * Reason: He tried to rape her in the girls' locker room. And Emily is a lesbian.

Maya St. Germain: First Relationship Second Relationship
 * Started: "Please, Do Talk About Me When I'm Gone"
 * Ended: "Careful What U Wish 4"
 * Reason: Maya was sent to juvenile camp, and when Emily called Maya, Maya seemed uninterested in her. They presumably broke up even though it was never "official."
 * Started: "I Must Confess"

Paige McCullers: First Relationship Second Relationship
 * Started: "A Person of Interest"
 * Ended: "A Person of Interest"
 * Reason: Paige wants to keep their relationship a secret, which Emily refuses to do. Emily wants to remain friends, though.
 * Started: "Someone to Watch Over Me"
 * Ended: "Monsters in the End"
 * Reason: Paige says she is ready to take steps toward coming out, but her actions seem to suggest otherwise. Emily is not interested in keeping their relationship a secret. Also, Paige was rude to Samara.

Samara Cook:
 * Started: "The Goodbye Look"
 * Ended: "Picture This"
 * Reason: Emily gave her number to Zoey behind Samara's back. Samara thought she was hitting on her.

Trivia

 * Emily has received the most "A" messages, to date.
 * The name Emily means admiring.This could be a pun, as she falls in love very easily.
 * Shay Mitchell, the actress playing Emily, originally auditioned for the role of Spencer Hastings.
 * Emily is the most sensitive out of the four girls.
 * This is Shay Mitchell's first starring role in a TV series.
 * Emily tends to show a great deal of compassion and empathy for people who are outcasts or act suspiciously.
 * In the series, Emily and Spencer appear to be very close friends,and she seem became close with Hanna in the second season since the two live together.
 * "A" calls her the weakest link out of the four girls.
 * She has been "A"s main target of Season 2 so far.
 * It looks like she will come face to face with "A" by the end of the season
 * It has been mentioned that although Emily had been called the weakest link by "A" before, Emily will "grow a backbone".
 * Emily is the second person to be seen drunk after Wren
 * Emily is the jock of the liars
 * In recent interview for AfterEllen.com Shay Mitchell confirmed that there will be some very steamy scenes between Maya and Emily in next episodes of season 2

Book-TV Series Character Comparisons

 * Emily's fashion sense in the series is more fashionable as compared to her outfits in the book. Not-withstanding, she still dresses more casually and comfortably than the other three Liars.
 * In the books, Emily has strawberry blonde hair, but in the series she has dark brown hair. She is also implied to be Caucasian in the books. Shay Mitchell, however, is Filipino on her mother's side and Irish/Scottish on her father's side.
 * In the books, Emily has three older siblings, a brother and two sisters, while in the series, she is an only child.
 * In the series, Emily is a lesbian, whereas in the books, she is bisexual.