Pretty Little Liars - Finale Recap: Posse of Pervs
Pretty Little Liars aired its Season 4 Finale tonight! Who was shot? Who was buried? How many cookies did Hanna eat? Ali tells all!
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty)?! It was none other than resident high school jerk Noel Kahn who swooped in to carry the Liars from Ali’s faux dank layer to a deluxe apartment in the sky somewhere far, far away like New York. After confiscating their phones, for real, Noel brought in Alison, who’d struck some kind of a deal with the apparently good boy Noel, who came complete with his own secrets. They’re chummy! Once Noel had left to book Alison and himself passage out of town to keep on the move as early as that night, Ali decided it was time to… tell all. Basically, five Liars are better than one at putting together the jigsaw puzzle of Ali’s non-murder, though mostly Episode 24 served to clear names and make Alison’s mom (Andrea Parker) look seriously twisted. Alison took her besties to her empty place of employment, a café she oversees while the owner is away.
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
Having been stalked by A since that terrible Halloween ordeal, Alison took it upon herself to begin weeding out suspects left and right. Most importantly, she managed to covertly copy the N.A.T. Club files from Ian’s computer while he did battle with that she-beast Melissa over his strange relationship with Ali. Basically, Melissa and Ian were on a break, and Alison was desperate for attention. Did anything sexual go down? Apparently not, though Alison was about to be caught on camera willingly doing something. The N.A.T. Club files were the perfect blackmail tool to hold over any potential A suspect. For example, she used footage of Jenna roping Toby (Keegan Allen) into a semi-forced romantic situation to scare Jenna into submission. Unfortunately, another A text popped up just as she finished verbally annihilating the freshly blinded Jenna, clearing her. Alison also figured she could clear Toby, who appeared to her the evening she went missing while the other Liars slept in the barn. Apparently, he loved juvy because it kept him away from Jenna. Thus, Ali figured Toby was Team Ali, not Team A. I, however, am still not so sure, mostly because who else could be A?
For what it’s worth, Alison’s mother was adamant about her staying inside the night she went missing. She was also adamant about loathing Spencer Hastings' entire family. Honestly, she seemed pretty terrified as she babbled back and forth with someone over the phone. This, of course, gave Ali enough time to swipe prescription sleep meds from her mother’s purse, another means of clearing names off of her list of suspects. How could A threaten her life if A was drugged and passed out right before her eyes?
At this point in the finale, we got some more answers as to what went down intermixed with familiar footage. Some of the holes in the night were filled in by Alison. For example, we knew she had an encounter with Ian that night, but we didn’t know too much about how she used the found footage against Ian and Melissa, whom Ian truly seemed to love. For what it’s worth, it didn’t really seem like we had any true culprit yet. We revisited the scene where Ali dealt with Aria’s father (Chad Lowe), another person she didn’t suspect at all, though I guess it’s worth noting that they felt the need to include Byron anyway. They decided the encounter with Garrett and Jenna was useless enough to leave out, so I guess Byron isn’t totally in the clear yet.
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In the present, Alison seemed like a changed person. I guess several years on the run will do that to a teenage girl, even one as dastardly and devious as Alison DiLaurentis. She attempted to apologize for the situation between Aria and Ezra, even filling Aria in on the fact that Ezra was still searching for her post-book fiasco. He feels that if he finds Alison and protects her by cracking the case, he can win Aria back. In the flashback, we learned that Alison first enchanted the college boy, Ezra, by pretending to be CeCe’s roommate at a local bar, which honestly looked a whole lot like a deli. Still, most of the Season 4 Finale painted Ezra with a classier brush than the edit he’d been given as the sadistic literary freak all season long. For example, he did meet up with Alison briefly the night she went missing in order to officially break things off with her following the discovery that she was merely a teenage high school girl. Alison, however, still looked forward to having a book written about her someday. Spell her name right, Ezra! A-L-L-I-S-S-U-N D-E-E-L-O-R-E-N-T-A-S-S!
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
In the present at the Rosewood police station, the entire Hastings family was brought in under the impression that the team was in search of Spencer and her friends. In truth, someone had handed Holbrook a snapshot of Alison the night she first revealed herself to the Liars. Perhaps it was CeCe Drake, who was also in for questioning regarding the murder of Wilden. Did CeCe even kill Wilden? Nobody really cares, it seems. CeCe knows Alison is alive, however, and she claimed to have proof. Guess who else rolled back into Rosewood this week following a “chance” encounter with Toby on the streets of London… Melissa Hastings! Apparently, she heard of Spencer’s relapse and flew back in just in time to, once again, be interrogated. At this point in Episode 24, it began to become pretty clear that Mr. Hastings (Nolan North) was under the impression that Spencer had hurt Alison or “that other girl.” It even seems he had some sort of a deal with Mrs. DiLaurentis to keep things hushed. Melissa, however, whispered a secret that apparently cleared her sister’s name, though it also seemed it was a totally shocking reveal. Could Melissa be secretly working with Toby or Wren from England? Does she know who tried to murder Alison?
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Ali certainly dragged Spencer along all evening while she retold her story. Would it have really been so terrible of Ali to take the load off of her friend’s back? She wouldn’t even hug Spencer hello, as though she liked that Spencer was still stressed about possibly trying to kill her. In the flashback, though, the truth came out. Spencer’s amphetamines negated the drug Ali had slipped into their drinks; however, it also gave her a bit of an adverse drunken reaction, hence the stupid shovel situation. That was pretty much it, though. The truth came out about Spencer’s issues with “speeding,” but Ali promised to keep her secret so long as she went back to sleep for the evening. In the present, Spencer was so relieved that she burst into tears. Back in time, however, Alison was not so lucky. Just after the big reveal of Spencer’s drug problem, Mrs. D witnessed someone clocking her daughter in the back of the head with a massive rock. As if that wasn’t awful enough, it was her own mother who buried Alison alive, most likely accidentally. Alison could barely stir as the dirt was piled on, and she heard her mother frantically arguing with someone who obviously did something substantially horrible. Can this be anyone but Jason, at this point? For whom would Ali’s mother cover? Another theory could be that this all has something to do with Toby’s mother’s death, and he’s somehow connected to this murder. Again, we still don’t know about “that other girl” in Ali’s grave.
After Alison managed to escape the grave thanks to some help form the Grunwald, it was none other than super nerd Mona who plucked her off the streets looking like a literal zombie. This is where things got both fantastically interesting and super creepy. Okay, so it was Mona who advised Alison to play dead. She came up with the entire plan for Ali to leave Rosewood. To thank her for her kindness, "Vivian Darkbloom" gave Mona all the quick advice she needed to ditch the geeky duds and lame-o barrettes in favor of a whole new life as Hanna's future BFF. Of course, while Alison slept prior, we witnessed Mona sneaking to the motel room next door in order to check up on her lair. The start of Mona's reign as A was already set into motion. As it turned out, she was simply obsessed with Alison DiLaurentis. Mona is so much crazier than we thought, you guys. I don't even think this was about violently stalking at this point in time. I think she just loved Alison.
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
The Rosewood police tracked Spencer’s car to their initial location, but at this point the Liars were long gone. It was none other than A who began to assault them at Ali’s place of employment, gun in hand! This epic shootout chase session led the Liars and Ali to the roof, and I have to say, I love that Pretty Little Liars had them act like legitimate teenage girls throughout the chaos, like when Emily suggested that they attempt to jump form rooftop to rooftop only to have her friends sass her out of that idea. Luckily for the Liars, Ezra appeared in the nick of time and revealed to the cloaked shooter, A, that he officially knows his/ her identity. After some misfired bullets, A decided to make the jump that Emily previously suggested, eventually just barely scooching his (most likely "his," anyway) way up before escaping yet again. The best part of the entire fight sequence was that it was Hanna who thought to scoop up the gun to threaten A before he took the leap. Spring Breakers! Spring Breeeaaak… fooooreeeever. On the other side of the Liars’ rooftop, Aria noticed Ezra’s hazy state as he commented on the beautiful skyline. He’d been shot in the gut, and it appears the Season 4 Finale could be the last we see of Ezra Fitz. (Do you really think they’re firing Ian Harding after all that? Get real.)
To close the recap and review, it seems someone thinks Mrs. D deserved some wicked payback. She was dragged through the grass… and buried alive. Was there a time jump here? Could A have been in two places at once?
What did you think of Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Episode 24, "A is for Answers"? Did the Season 4 Finale give us some real answers? Is Ali all good? Who do you think tried to kill her? #IsEzraAlive?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Episode 24, "A is for Answers," the Season 4 Finale!