Pretty Little Liars
Season 5.14
“Through A Glass, Darkly"
It’s been three months since Mona Vanderwaal was viciously attacked in her home on Thanksgiving Day. The Winter Premiere picks up right after Mona’s memorial service and starts with a boom, or shall I say “the slap heard round the world”, as Alison appears to offer her condolences to Mona’s mother. If Ali wasn’t already crazy, Mrs. V slapped a few screws loose for sure before Hanna leads her away.
Hanna has become close to Mrs. V and receives two important gifts that belonged to Mona. Bungee, the stuffed dog, and the book Terminations by Henry James. I can’t wait to see what clues are held within each one! Finally, someone else (besides us) confirms that Hannah is playing dumb. Thanks to Mona in flashback, we know that Mona thought Hanna was “smarter than Spencer Hastings”.
Hands down the best scenes for me, were those with Mrs Grundwald. She meets Hanna at Mona’s crypt to use her gift of insight to shed light on who Mona’s attacker was, and delivers lines almost as creepy as her eyes: “Each one hated the other because each one feared the other…each one knew something about the other.” Who is the other one Mrs. G? (My likely suspects Mike, Paige, CeCe, the girl at the zoo with the distorted face, or the girl who was with Mona behind the frosted glass at the hair salon.)
Spencer learns why she was arrested for Bethany’s murder. Jessica DiLaurentis gave a statement to Detective Wilden that she saw Spencer in her backyard with a blond girl dressed in Ali’s clothes on the night Alison went missing. Wilden hid the statement in his files to no doubt continue his passion for extorting money for keeping secrets. Good thing they found it, because Bethany’s parents went to a judge to have Spencer’s bail revoked in order to send her back to jail. This eventually sends Spencer and Emily to Jason DiLaurentis to persuade him to tell the truth that his father would not tell about Ali’s whereabouts on Thanksgiving Day.
Ezra has purchased The Brew and seems to be converting it into a coffee and book nook. It’s here that Ezra invites Mike to come assist him with his bookshelves so that he can ask him how he is dealing with Mona’s death. Mike is not in a sharing mood, which prompts Ezra to share the most insightful statement of the evening…”You aren’t acting like you lost someone”. Hmmm…Mike what secrets did you and Mona really have?
Meanwhile, Aria visits Caleb to get help with hacking into Oberlin College’s website to find out why her application was rejected. She spies Mona’s computer and learns that Caleb’s attempts to break Mona’s codes have failed. So why, why, why Caleb, would you give Mona’s computer to a technical amateur like Aria!?!?! Of course, it was to give the masked black-hooded-one a chance to “find” Mike’s phone, call Aria to meet him/her at the The Brew, in order to plastic wrap Aria against the wall and steal said computer!!!
Aria later tells Emily that it was Ali who attacked her and swiped the computer, to which Emily asks, “Are you sure it was Ali?” Aria’s answer, “ Who else could it have been”, let’s us know for sure that Aria is not sure.
Speaking of Emily, let’s all do the happy dance, because Paige left for San Francisco!!! Or did she??? With no tears or I love you(s) at the airport, and Paige acting more sketchy than heartbroken, I wonder if she really got on that plane. When I watched Jason DiLaurentis watch the hidden camera footage of Mona’s attacker, I immediately thought of Paige, not Ali!
However, Jason confesses that Ali was not with the family during the time that Mona was killed and that it could be his sister in the video. This confession sends Ali to jail for her orange jumpsuit fitting! The girls can move on with their lives now because A is finally behind bars!!!! Absolutely not, because A puts on a fireworks display to end the episode!!! Hanna was right again. You can’t send fireworks from jail!
In typical PLL style we are left with more questions than answers.
UnAnswered questions of the week:
- How did traces of Mona’s DNA get in Ali’s car? (and when did Ali get a car?
- What kind of temporary assignment is Gabriel Holbrook on? (here-to-fore to be called Detective “ShadyBrook” because he is definitely shady, and more than likely Beach Hottie! [credit to Antuan Beard for the nickname])
- Who are Bethany Young’s parents?
- When will we see a photo of Bethany Young?
Hopefully, we will get answers to these and other questions next week. Until then...keep your friends close and your secrets closer!