Welcome to the weekly Pretty Little Liars Column!

The season premiere of Pretty Little Liars started off with a slap and ended with a bang (literally

The episode opens on Mona’s funeral *ugly crying* and all the Liars dressed in black. Things pick up quickly though when Ali shows up just as Mona’s empty casket is placed in the hearse. As Ali approaches Mona’s mom to give her condolences and assure her she had nothing to do with the murder, Mona’s mother slaps her across the face (which we all secretly loved) in true Vanderwaal fashion.

A lot of the episode is filled with sad encounters between Hanna and Mona’s mother, but that doesn’t stop it from being an edge-of-your-seat premiere, as always. As Spencer and Emily are working on proving Spencer’s innocence, Hanna is working to find Mona’s body with Mrs. Grunwald…cue menacing music. Aria is concentrated on her many college rejection letters- a product of –A’s work, no doubt- as well as Mike’s depression following Mona’s death.

Spencer and Emily find out from police-officer-Toby that there was a sealed statement from Mrs. DiLaurentis saying she saw Spencer in the backyard with a shovel the night Bethany Young was murdered. But where has this statement been the whole time you might ask? In the sealed files of Officer Darren Wilden…cue menacing music yet again. In an attempt to keep Spencer out of prison, Emily and Spencer make a trip to the DiLaurentis’ home to convince Jason to revoke the alibi he gave for Ali. With the ever useful “I’m your half-sister” card, Spencer lays a ton of guilt on Jason, prompting him to rethink giving Ali an alibi for Mona’s murder.

Meanwhile, Aria in her first alone scene with Caleb EVER, (yes, it’s historic) attempts to hack into the website of a college that rejected her to find out whether it’s her keeping her out of college or –A. While we’re discussing hacking, Caleb is trying to break into Mona’s computer to find out all the information she had on –A and Ali…unless they’re the same person, but who knows anymore? However, Caleb is not able to hack into the computer as tech-genius-Mona has it sealed with every code she could think of. When Aria goes to Ezra’s new shop, what used to be “The Brew”, -A (or Ali…or someone) attacks her and steals the laptop.

Throughout all of this, Hanna is working with Mrs. Grunwald- much to Caleb’s frustration- to locate Mona’s body. Hanna and Grunwald visit Mona’s grave and Hanna asks her if she can use her psychic powers to find Mona. *Sigh* I can believe this is an actual show…but I love it. Grunwald tells Hanna she can’t see clearly because of the secrets Mona “took to the grave”, haha see what I did there? Cue the theme song. All she can tell Hanna is that wherever Mona is, she isn’t peaceful. She’s cold, covered in dirt, and surrounded by insects. Wow, Mrs. Grunwald that was sure comforting. Just the pick-me-up the dead girl’s BFF needed.

Back to Spencer and Emily. In their quest to convince Jason to admit that Ali wasn’t with him at the time of Mona’s death, Emily slyly steals Ali’s hairbrush. When they get back to Spencer’s house, Emily suggests they plant the hair in Mona’s living room, to make sure Ali is accused of the crime she most likely committed and Spencer won’t be arrested. Spencer reluctantly agrees and the two of them head for the crime scene. When they arrive, Spencer looks around and decides to plant the hair near an air vent. As she nears the vent, Spencer finds a camera planted inside…cue menacing music AGAIN!

Spencer has Hanna hint to Mrs. Vanderwaal about the camera which Hanna recalls Mona saying she needed to feel safer. Mrs. Vanderwaal finds the camera and hands the tape to the police. The videos are revealed and Mona’s killer iiiiissss…conveniently not able to be seen in the video, except for the long blonde hair hanging from the hoodie. Jason is called in by Detective Tanner to view the tapes. Ever loyal to his half-sister (and feeling rather guilty) Jason views the tapes, sees the golden hair falling from the black hoodie as the shrouded figure drags Mona around her living room and confesses that he was not with Ali the whole day of Mona’s death- something he truly wasn’t aware of.

Later, Ali comes home and sees Jason’s face. She immediately knows what he’s done and the police lights begin to flash across their faces. She begs Jason to give her a head start and rushes out the back door with a duffle bag only to find the Liars waiting for…menacing music AGAIN. She begs them to let her go, yells that she’s being framed, and tries to push past them to no avail. Tanner shows up behind her and cuffs her.

Aria goes home to tell Mike the news so he’ll feel some sort of closure for Mona’s death. He isn’t consoled by the news. When Aria probes him further, he reveals that his issue is that he doesn’t like that everyone is saying they loved Mona when in reality they stuck cow brains in her locker and dubbed her “Loser-Mona”. Aria tells him she’d like to hear about the real Mona, his Mona someday, and leaves the room. As she walks away she hears Mike’s loud sobs from the living room and starts crying too. But it totally wasn’t sad at all, I mean I’m fine *more sobbing*.

Throughout the whole episode Emily is trying to deal with Paige having to move all the way to California at her parents’ request to make her safer (Ahhh nooo, just when they got back together!) The two don’t get to spend much time together before Paige leaves, but the romantic airport chase scene makes it worth it. Emily thinks she’s missed Paige’s plane only to turn around and find her there. And just when you think Paige is about to say she’s not moving, she says that her flight just got moved to a different gate and she only had a few minutes before she had to leave (womp, womp). But Emily tells her about Ali’s arrest and that she’ll be safe so there’s no reason for her to leave (yay!). To which Paige says that she’ll never be safe in Rosewood and needs to leave. Emily tearfully agrees and Paige takes off for California.

The episode ends (with a bang like I said, but I’ll get to that) with the Liars sitting in Spencer’s yard talking about how they’re now free (haha, sure) and they can actually go to college (haha, you’ve been seniors for 4 seasons now, you’re never going to graduate, just accept it.) As they’re talking, fireworks explode across the sky- there’s the bang- and three red fireworks cross paths to form an –A….last menacing music cue, I promise. The Liars say that Ali had it planned before she was arrested, but did she…did she really? Is she even –A? Am I –A? Who knows at this point?!

Cut to Ali, in prison. Very interesting that the last shot of the episode, the so called “-A shot” that gives us a look into what –A is up to, is spent on Ali’s first night in prison. What else do we need? A big sash for Ali to wear that says I’m –A? It seems like the writers are making it too obivious that she’s not –A by trying to make it obvious that she is –A. Honestly, whether she’s –A or not, I’m glad she’s off the streets.

Now sound off! What are your theories? Leave comments below because I need help developing my opinion on who –A is.

Article by:Victoria Shircliffe 

Image Credit: 

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