One thing that is always bug me about this show...

I thought of this too watching the episode. Right after she walking away from them they started whispering. She should have heard that

Yeah, it was totally ridiculous and unbelievable that she wouldn't hear them.

There's not really proof that that happens to everyone who goes blind.

also as a musician, she should have a really developed sense of hearing, just naturally.

while it is true that your other senses heighten, it doesn't actually make you a daredevil.

Jenna has had very little experience with a gun, and most of it was when she had eye sight, at least as far as we can tell, cuz its kind of hard to do sound based target practice without someone to shoot, yeh? not like they have shooting ranges set up for the blind

you have to remember that the concept of aim to a blind person is pretty non existent. if you ever look at a real blind in real life they tend to act more like jenna did in early seasons, which is, looking in random directions, maybe turning her EAR towards you, etc. but one thing in particular is that a lot of them sort of 'wiggle' im place. not all of them, but quite a few move around in a way that we'd consider odd. they don't have a reason to hone their direction the way people who see do. we find somethign to focus on with our eyes, and we need to look right at it, and moving owuld hinder that. when you're blind it doesn't really matter.

even if you can hear someone breathing, its hard to figure out how to aim at that. it gives you a general direction, but to think that Jenna would be able to hear exactly where they are and aim correctly its bad.

even without heightened hearing, once she fires that gun, shes *beep* her sense of soudn will be weakened from the noise itself, plus during that noise she would lose what little track of the liars she had, as they'd all be scrambling, and probably attacking her.

she wanted to shoot alison. she was waiting for that perfect moment.

heightened sense of hearing also doesn't mean a more 'honed' sense of hearing.

when the girls talk in the same room as jenna its usually in a room full of people, for instance, a coffee shop or the radley. to think that Jenna could not only hear them, but be able to expertly tune out everyone else is a little over the top.

the show has a lot of flaws and things to pick at but i wouldn't really call this one of them. i mean its annoying that the girls would even risk it sure, but in the grand scheme of plot holes im not too concerned about this one.


*when life gives you lemons*
Sara: are you a sour lemon?

To be honest, in the recent episode in which Sara Harvey had been killed and Jenna was crying in the lobby while the girls were snarkily talking about "her performance", I actually think it was strongly implied that Jenna DID hear them talking. Look at the way she is moving while they are speaking, it seems as if she may well hear what they are saying and they are not conscious of it. Their voices are low but I honestly think she does hear them and I think that might well have been the last straw with her, pushing her into the confrontation she had with them at the finale. The idea that they make light of the fact that someone she was becoming friendly with has died (not the first time this has happened),implying that she REALLY doesn't care about them, may have pushed up this shooting attempt. It seems absolutely certain though that she honestly believed they were involved in Charlottes death , she actually said so !Regardless, there are several times that Jenna has overheard the girls talking, even as far back as season one.

As to the question of why she didn't just hear them all and shoot them in the finale, well, as someone else said, she isn't Daredevil. The idea that blind people suddenly have super hearing isn't actually true. They have the same hearing ability they had before losing their sight.What IS true is that blind people pay more attention to what they DO hear. Sight is the primary sense of most people, but if you remove it, hearing and smell become far more important. If you've ever sat in a darkened room late at night and suddenly noticed how loud a ticking clock sounds, that should help you understand the idea. The clock is no louder than it usually is, but because you are usually distracted by the sights and ambient noise around you during the day, you simple don't pay attention to the clock, but blind people do.
It IS also a fact that some blind people DO learn how to shoot, it is done by going to instructors who teach them to fire at targets using audio cues, essentially they shoot at what they hear, so Jenna using a gun is far from impossible. She often seems aware of the girls being in the vicinity in the finale and in fact is about to shoot a moaning Spencer before Mary Drake knocks her out, but earlier she really doesn't have too many clear moments to shoot at a distinct sound/target.

I have heard this episode mocked because people insist that Jenna couldn't find her way around in the big school, but people making this claim are missing a vital point. Jenna went to this school when she was first blinded, when she was learning to navigate without sight, and she has memorized the layout. Watch carefully when you first see Jenna walk around the corner downstairs with the gun. Notice the way she is walking, toe to heel, that is a technique blind people use. She is counting her steps, navigating by memory, how many steps is it to this or that, etc. You see her do this a number of times in the show, a great example is in the season 1 episode when the girls confront Jenna in the music room in season 1 and she confesses that Ali blackmailed her. The girls see her in the hall walking towards the music room. Look at her mouth, she is COUNTING under her breath as she walks. So yes, she COULD find her way around in the school. Blind people deal with issues like that every day, they aren't as totally helpless as many people think.

Fun trivia note: when Tammin Sursok's eyes are covered by her glasses on the show, her eyes are SHUT. She does this to avoid accidentally responding to something happening off screen that she shouldn't be able to see. Sursok has said this and Ashley Benson, Troian Bellisario and Keegan Allen have all confirmed it, often times on set Sursok really can't see !She get around by using her cane and counting her footsteps.

Judging from my experience of blind/visually impaired people (I have one friend who was born blind and another one that is visually impaired) their hearing is mostly amplified in terms of speech recognition, p.e. they have a computer that reads all the text on it and it reads it at approximately 10 times the regular spoken speed. To me it just sounds like garbled jargon. Actually in my experience visually impaired people rarely use braille anymore because the books can be very heavy and clunky (I saw a Harry Potter book in braille once, it was like 8-10 books in total). Having digital equipment that has text-to-voice is much more handy and useful. But apart from that very neat feat and the ability to recognize people by the tone of their voice rather than their looks (they will often know who was in the room even though they didn't speak to them personally, Jenna being able to do that is rather realistic, like when she recognizes Hanna at the Radley), the other stuff is just plain unrealistic. Very few blind and visually impaired people have the eco-location ability (being able to locate objects, walls, etc. judging by how sound falls off them) and are more reliant on being able to touch stuff, using a cane, a dog or holding someone's arm and adjusting themselves by sensing how the other person is moving (p.e. you don't need to say "There's a stair here", they will usually sense how your gait changes and adjust their own movements). But any of my commentary here is only based on personal experience, I am in no way a professional in this subject.
I wonder if the crew consulted a blind or visually impaired person when writing Jenna. My guess is no. But I must Tammin Sursok on her portrayal of Jenna though. Most actors are reliant on using their eyes to convey emotion but she does a very good job of expressing herself through mouth movements and her body instead.