Pretty Little Liars - Finale Recap: Teen Girls Everywhere Just Smashed Their T.V. Screens

Episode 12 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, the summer finale, “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t,” has been promoted as containing the most shocking reveal in the history of the show. Of course, we’d have to journey over to Ravenswood for that to happen. It did occur, for the record. Although, it was less of a massive shock and more a moment of pure validation for this recap writer! (If you’ve been following my recaps for the past two seasons, you know why!) Here is the Recap and Review of Episode 12 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, the summer finale, “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”!

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The biggest A yet wasted no time during Episode 12. The show kicked off with Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Aria (Lucy Hale), Emily (Shay Mitchell), and Hanna (Ashley Benson) receiving some killer gifts from A. Four Magic 8 balls revealed the repercussions of setting Ashley Marin (Laura Leighton) free from a lifetime sentence. Remember, Hanna’s new witness buddy went on record clearing Ashley of any blame, and before we knew it, Marin was out. There was a nice moment between Ashley and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) where the two discussed their mutual strength during a quite strenuous time and a shared love for Hanna. At this point, Emily was through waiting for “Cece” (a.k.a. anyone but Cece to any of us who’d been clued in to the fact that this show’s constant incriminating of her did all but that). If she was looking to threaten the Liars, Emily would bring an all new “bring it on” attitude to Episode 12. Of course, when a child-sized coffin stuffed with a Mona (Janel Parrish) doll arrived at Hanna’s front door, things took a turn for the worse.

Basically, A’s initial plan was to hold Mona’s life over the lives of the Liars. A few calls to Radley revealed that Mona had, indeed, left, although where she’d ended up was private information. Caleb, needless to say, was quick to point the finger at the original A, citing Mona’s poor track record of being trustworthy as probable cause to not care whether she lived or died. Convinced, he and Hanna staked out in front of Mona’s seemingly abandoned house, waiting for a shadow to stir in the pitch black of her bedroom. Whether A was truly threatening to kill Mona, whether Mona was behind this all, or whether absolutely nothing was actually transpiring, Caleb hates Mona. That, for one, is certain.

Meanwhile, much of Episode 12 surrounded Aria’s fresh rekindling with Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding). Last week’s episode's close saw Ezra confiding in his old flame. As it turned out, Jake (Ryan Guzman) was suddenly dull, boring, and stupid! Well, that’s certainly what Pretty Little Liars wanted us to think during the summer finale! His brain can’t compute poetry, apparently, and taking naps are for uncool meatheads. More on this later. (I started theorizing right away.) Thus far, this show had treated Jake incredibly well! He was a totally viable replacement for Ezra, not to mention age appropriate! At least, he’s most likely more age appropriate! In any case, Aria would suffer through the dullest of dates… at home... on her couch… ZzZ… before sneaking off afterwards to check out the open mic night of poetry at The Brew. Guess who else loves “intense” poetry? Fitz! Of course Fitz would be there to remind Aria of how great she had it before that pesky faux son of his showed up out of the blue and uninvited. The two got to chit-chatting about Aria’s creative side, eventually leading Montgomery to lean in for a quick smooch on the lips. See, I still feel like these two are way too obvious. I realize that the café was empty, save for Red Coat watching in the window (!), but every time Ezra asks “Ms. Montgomery” to stay after class, wouldn’t you figure that the entire group of her peers exiting the room would leave whispering about all of that naughty student/ teacher stuff? The only two who seem to be in the dark about this are the two components of Ezria!

Emily, in the meantime, had made it her business to stress the hell out about a missing Mona, prompting Paige (Lindsey Shaw) to seize the opportunity to extend an invite to crash at her place this episode. Phew, Paige and Emily look to be back on track, everybody. (Spoby would get there too, Liars! Don't fret!) One of my favorite moments during this Season 4 summer finale had to be Paige’s “cut the crap, Jackie” moment during their impromptu visit to Mona’s French club. Mona had skipped her big welcome back party! No croissants for the original A. Adieu.

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While all of this suspense was slowly swelling up, Toby (Keegan Allen) managed to find a quiet spot to sit and have a good ol' cry. #PoorToby, of course. The tears don’t count unless there’s a hashtag! More importantly, following a good sob session after reading some handmade greeting cards from his mother, Toby spotted the mysterious Shana (Aeriel Miranda) gathering some memorabilia in the window of The Brew. I say “mysterious” because she manifested out of thin air and is suddenly a willing and active participant in these A games. A dropped paper revealed some startling information about the increasingly evil Dr. Wren; he’d been staying with Melissa.

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Spencer, in addition, had her own close encounter with Shana, whose car was strangely parked outside of Wren’s now empty house. In an effort to get to the bottom of this dilemma, Toby would later trail Shana all the way to… Mona’s side. The two spoke on a porch about, well, who knows? I’m guessing that Shana is simply a pawn, a messenger sent from baddie to baddie because, I mean, does anyone care if this messenger gets shot? We did get one of our most dramatic moments of Season 4 from Shana, though. Remember the super long and intense turn-and-reveal to Spencer in the doorway of the hospital hallway? “...CeCe Drake.” You milk your camera time, Shana!

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Was anybody else a little concerned that these Liars left all of A’s massive and creeptastic gifts sitting around Spencer’s living room? Do any of these girls have active in-home parents at this point? In any case, one last present proved to be a worthwhile clue as opposed to another taunt. Spencer the Magnificent recognized the box's resemblance to that of a magic trick, and a quick twist of the handle revealed a saw with a message inscribed. “Watch me make a girl disappear!” A was performing a magic act, and these four Liars were unknowing participants the entire time. Was Mona about to vanish forever? I mean, probably not. She’s too much fun and a character that serves as a skeleton key. She can do whatever Pretty Little Liars needs, whenever they ask her to. Boy, did A get lucky or what? Had Aria not thought to check the promoted material on the side bar of Google, she’d never have caught the tiny ad for a magic show that day. Seriously, A? Ándele! To Ravenswood!

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The show’s producers promised us that the final twenty minutes would be mind-blowing. Well, let’s change that to mime­-blowing! Much more fun! Aria was strong-armed into performing in Charlemagne’s magic act. Aah, the classic “now you see me, now you don’t”! Aria was there. Poof! Aria was gone. Presto! Aria was back in smelly Ravenswood probably hoping she could return to whatever invisible realm she’d be transported to. See? A was just looking to have some good clean family fun! No, not really. In actuality, Emily had been swiped while the other two Liars focused on Aria’s disappearing routine. How do you think Emily felt to find that not one audience member thought to shout out in favor of not watching a girl get drugged and dragged off to a warehouse? From the inside of a wooden box, Emily begged and screamed for Aria’s help over the phone. Hmm, you’d also think that the sound of a screeching buzz saw would strike a little fear in their hearts, yet they all seemed more confused than anything. Eventually, Spencer thought to track Emily’s call using a snazzy phone app, yet it wouldn’t matter. Emily Fields was sawed in half. I kid, I kid. Instead, Red Coat would lead them straight to the warehouse where Emily’s coffin slowly rolled towards a massive electrical saw! Spencer barely had time to cut the steel chain entrapping Emily before… Oh, wait! Never fear! Red Coat to the rescue! The saw was powered down just in the nick of time, yet the Liars would soon find themselves in another predicament.

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Two Red Coats, PLL fans. Dos! I’d have to say, aside from the big reveal, my favorite moment during the Season 4 summer finale had to be Aria using her taekwondo skills to literally kick the crap out of a Red Coat-clad CeCe Drake from the rafters of the saw mill. Aria, of course, didn’t intend for CeCe to leap to a dangling rope, only to see the weak rope snap. Aria clasped CeCe’s hand for as long as she could before CeCe Drake fell to her doom below. That Red Coat was cheap, huh? Obviously a knockoff… Spencer arrived back in the warehouse just in time to witness CeCe’s own disappearing act.

That bitch has nine lives.

Spencer had followed the other Red Coat in a chase down the street. This Red Coat, on the other hand, was looking to be followed. Leading Spencer straight to the lair of the ultimate A, the four Liars witnessed first hand the impressively catalogued timeline of the first three plus seasons of this show. A had planned and documented everything, and as Hanna was quick to point out, A wore men’s suits. Who is this A? Doug Funnie? He had about six of the same suits hanging in his wardrobe. Also important to point out was that the girls had gone from referencing this Red Coat figure as an anomaly to simply “Alison” over the course of a walk up a flight of stairs. More importantly, the Liars managed to discover that A had planned on rendezvousing with Alison that evening at a local Ravenswood party. Oh, a Ravenswood party… sounds like a real blast… In addition, everything form A’s bank account information, complete with a payments made to CeCe Drake most likely to cover her cost as a phony Red Coat, to A’s massive, albeit password protected, spy system were revealed.

Unfortunately, the girls had one last speed bump to overcome before meeting with a seemingly alive Ali before this super A could sideswipe her. The Grunwald (Meg Foster) had returned; however, all was not as it seemed. Alison had trusted this woman with her life, and as a soothsayer (A bit of a side-eye from this recap writer, PLL!), Grunwald had been attempting to keep Ali from harm. The evening that Alison was buried alive, it was she who pulled her from the grave having had a terrible feeling, an" insight," of gloom and doom wash over her. Allegedly, she attempted to drive a distraught  and shocked Alison to the hospital. After rushing inside for help, Grunwald returned to find the girl missing. She would never see her in person again, but according to Grunwald, Ali is alive…

Refusing to heed the woman’s warning that their own lives were in danger, the Liars, in the end, decided to crash the town party after stumbling upon a costume shop. Of course, we’ll have to wait until the Season 4 Halloween special to trail them.

And now, ladies and Liars, I give you the biggest reveal in Pretty Little Liars history. Returning to his lair, the looming “he” that Grunwald referred to turned to reveal himself. Ezra Fitz is the ultimate A! Please, allow me to have one moment of I TOLD YOU SO FOR TWO WHOLE SEASONS before starting to theorize.

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Okay, I’m good. First, I do not think this is a Toby-type situation. Ezra is smart enough to do this. Ali liked older men, clearly, although I could never imagine Ezra in board shorts. We also know nothing about his relationship with Alison so there wouldn’t be any truly gaping plot holes. What are we thinking? Mona could have been working under Fitz. She could still be working under Fitz. Also, more importantly than even this reveal, I think it’s important to talk about the Aria theories now. We’ve spoken about it a lot this week in the comments section of this site. Hardcore Pretty Little Liars fans are always buzzing about the Aria theories. Two things to note about tonight’s episode specifically: 1) Didn’t Aria seem utterly panicked following their talk with Grunwald? Meaning, could being hot on both trails, Ali and Fitz, have her in a tizzy? 2) Did you notice following Hanna’s assertion that Ali could surely trust the four of them that Grunwald hinted at their being a betrayer among them? She is a psychic, allegedly. Would Aria be helping Fitz? Would Fitz be helping Aria? Could Fitz have gotten Alison, rather than Maggie, pregnant? One thing that is certain. Halloween will be chaos. Luckily, Caleb is on his way to Ravenswood, and Hanna swiped Fitz’s journal!

Episode 12 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, the summer finale, closed with whom I’m assuming was Ezra donning a throwback wartime ventilation mask and freaking me the hell out.

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What did you think of Episode 12 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, the summer finale, “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”? What are your theories on Ezra (and Aria)? Did the show’s sudden turning on Jake send up a red flag about Ezra for you like it did for me? What is Mona’s role in all of this? Is Alison alive?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Episode 12 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, the summer finale, “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”!