[SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!]

Fans of Pretty Little Liars, the TV show, know Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) as Spencer’s long-term boyfriend. While he was a member of The A-Team, everything he did was to protect Spencer, and now that Toby is becoming a cop, he will be protecting many more people than just Spencer.

Those who have not read the books might be puzzled by why the ABC Family series decided to change a few things regarding Toby. Originally, on the show, Toby was blackmailed by his step-sister Jenna into having sex with him, a fact that Ali used to her advantage when she needed to get some leverage after the prank intended for Toby accidentally blinded Jenna instead. After heading off to reform school, he returns a year later and starts up a relationship with Spencer. After Toby is revealed to be is part of The A-Team, he disappears, and a dead body is found, believed for a short while to be his.

This is quite different from how things played out in the books. In the books, instead of Toby being blackmailed by Jenna, Toby assaults Jenna, which is witnessed by Ali, who does end up blinding Jenna, but only by accident while attempting to defend Jenna against Toby. Toby does go to boarding school in the books, but when he returns, he starts a relationship with Emily, not Spencer. After Emily confides in Toby about her sexuality, things quickly devolve into Emily believing once and for all that Toby killed Ali, and Toby thinking that Emily knows about his assault on Jenna. Not being able to cope with Emily knowing his horrible secret (which she actually doesn’t), Toby runs away to the woods and kills himself by intentionally overdosing on pills.

The ABC Family series probably made these changes because they wanted Toby to remain as Spencer’s boyfriend, and it would be hard to like him if he had started out the series as a sex offender. If he had died the same way on the show, Spencer would have probably gone through a serious depression, and the writers would have likely written a new love interest character for her.

 

	Toby Cavanaugh (Book)	Toby Cavanaugh (Show)
The Whole Toby-Jenna Thing:	Toby manipulates Jenna	Jenna manipulates Toby
Relationship with Emily	More than friendly	Friends only
Extracurricular	Swimming	Carpentry
Mental state	Unstable	Previously questionable, currently stable
Memorable Quote	To Emily, about Ali: “I know you were friends and you loved her and whatever, but personally, I’m glad that bitch is dead.”	To Spencer: “Pretending not to love you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

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