Previously: Spencer has an A hoodie so either it’s cold at Radley or she’s joined the A-Team. Rough.
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A dAngerous gAme
Lorraine: Emily, Aria and Hanna are downstairs at the Hastings House, waiting for Spencer. There is an impressive spread of finger foods that I want to reach through the TV and grab. Aria wonders if they talk about Toby. Emily is afraid of saying anything that could send Spencer back to Radley. Hanna says maybe there is still hope that Toby isn’t dead, but I don’t follow her logic as to why. Just go with it.
Spencer shows up and says hope breeds eternal misery. She looks spectacular though. Much better than her Pretty White Virginal Pajamas. (S: It’s also the first time in about a dozen episodes that she’s not sporting some of Faith’s coma makeup.) Spencer snarks about the tea and crumpets to celebrate her release from a mental hospital. That still isn’t as bad as when the Wakefield twins threw a It’s Really Cool You Aren’t Kidnapped Anymore Party.
After Emily asks, Spencer says she’s okay. Her friends assure her that she doesn’t have to fake it with them. Spencer brings up that one time Emily killed Not Anyone’s Cousin Nate in the lighthouse. It was either him or Emily and Emily chose herself. Spencer says she wasn’t that strong and I don’t think these are two comparable situations, but we’ll go with that too. Emily asked what changed.
Sweeney: At being parents, sure. But way to go with finding inventive new reasons to party, guys!
Lor: A little softer, Spencer tells her friends she could use the support and they agree to be there for her. They’d do anything for her. Turned away from them, Spencer gives the camera creepy face and says, “I’m counting on that.”
A’s Mobile Lair. An A we cannot see is searching for a contact and transferring it to his/her mobile device. Mona walks in, grabs a cup of coffee and looks at the ODIC!R!S invitation. She tells Mystery A that they like his/her plan and that he/she will get his/her reward on Friday. “Those bitches are finally going to get what they deserve.”
SHHHHHH.
After the credits, the Liars are at school, talking around a “babysitter wanted” poster. Ezra and Maggie are the contacts. Spencer asks if Malcolm said anything about what his kidnapper looked like. Conveniently, no, and also Aria is not going to bother the little kid with things like, “valid questions” because of reasons. Hanna says all they have to do is show the picture of Mona to Malcolm and if he identifies her then the cops (LOL) will take “our lulu head back to the nut farm.” Everyone gives Hanna Big Eyes because, you know, Spencer is standing right there. Spencer says it was bold to risk being seen that way. Desperate, even. Like whoever it was wants to get caught. (Ahem, ahem.) Aria’s all, “whatevs! Malcolm is off limits.”
As soon as Aria walks away, Hanna grabs the poster. Because forget what Aria says, they just have to ask the kid a question!
Inside the school, they run into Shana who was having swim practice at Rosewood because of reasons. Shana looks Spencer up and down and introduces herself. She says she’ll look for Spencer at the swim meet and then pushes past Hanna to walk out.
Sweeney: Everyone is bad news. Everyone ever is bad news, so much so that after nearly three seasons, the show was running out of people to Toby Edit, so they’ve decided to start pulling from the Liars themselves. (If there’s more to this development, then I must have also been napping. This is totally possible.)
Lor: Aria runs into Ezra in the hallway and she tries to casually read her book so it looks like nothing suspicious is happening. She’s reading her book while walking down the hallway and taking to Ezra. Nothing suspicious at all! Aria asks how his interview went and he says he doesn’t think it’s going to work out for him. Aria says she’s sorry and quickly walks away.
Toby’s Abandoned House. Not Blind Jenna is inside. She tells someone on the phone that she’s worried the police have evidence. I know she’s been missing for a few episodes but girl. The police? The Rosewood PD? HAVE EVIDENCE? Never. Mystery A watches Jenna from the porch and texts the number he/she downloaded earlier. It’s Jenna’s number and he/she sends instructions on where to meet that night. When Jenna looks outside, Mystery A is gone.
Montgomery Manse. Byron finds Aria doing homework and asks her if Ezra applied for a position at Rosewood High. Aria explains that he applied to sub in the district. Byron says that he and Piper Mom appreciate his money struggles but Ezra cannot teach at Rosewood while Aria is a student there. (S: OR AT ALL BECAUSE IT IS A BUILDING FULL OF MINORS AND HE’S A SEX OFFENDER.) Aria tells him to slow down because he didn’t get the job. Oh, but he did, Byron says. He was offered the position that very morning and asked for the day to think about if he’ll accept.
Rosewood’s One Coffee Shop. Ezra is interviewing Hanna for the babysitting job.
Jenna is walking around the woods in high heels. She sits at at a picnic table and says she misses the person she’s there to meet, Shana. Jenna tells her that “they” will all be together on Friday and Shana knows what she needs to do. Shana asks after Jenna’s eyes and the doctors have told her that she’ll have good days and bad days, but eventually, they’ll all be bad. Shana and Jenna hold hands and Shana tells her she’ll be there for her on her darkest days.
Again, this show is introducing people purely for the sake of having more villains.
Aria is sitting on a bench. Ezra greets her and she stares at him like a petulant child. He sits down, so she asks why he didn’t tell her about the job. He doesn’t think he’s going to take it and didn’t want to share the burden of that decision with her. The burden of his seven year old child, yes. Subbing jobs? TOO HARD. (S: THINK OF ALL THE VCRS I’LL HAVE TO OPERATE, ARIA. DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A VCR IS?) (L: Her 32-year-old soul is all, “PFFT. Of course I do.”) Ezra says that he knows what’ll happen to them if he teaches at Rosewood. (He also knew this when HE APPLIED TO THE JOB but I digress.) Aria starts to cry as she says that nothing about them feels right anymore. Their relationship shouldn’t be this hard. Things haven’t been the same since he found out about Malcolm. Ezra says that her happiness is most important to him. Aria loves him just the same as ever. He should take the job and that’ll be the end of that. Aria walks away from him, crying.
Diner. One A is at a table waiting. Another A walks in and the hostess tells “pretty eyes” to seat himself. It’s Toby! NO ONE IS SURPRISED BY THIS REVELATION. After a Not!Break Toby sits down opposite the hoodied person. He announces that Hanna got the job and Spencer! replies, “I know.” Toby is surprised to see Spencer. Mona told her that Toby was alive but she couldn’t believe it.
Toby swears that he has been pretending to work with Mona to keep Spencer safe. He asks her to follow him.
Pedo-partment. Malcolm is watching cartoons, but Hanna tells him that’s going to rot his brain. He turns it off quickly and agrees to play a, “guess who” game with Hanna. She shows him a picture of Aria, which he identifies correctly. Hanna shows him pictures of Mona, CeCe, Melissa, Jenna and Toby. He doesn’t recognize any of them. Hanna leaves her phone with Malcolm and dials Emily from the land line. (S: Because of reasons. Who the fuck doesn’t at least have unlimited nights and weekends?) Emily can’t talk for very long because she sees Melissa knocking on Jenna’s door.
Emily creeps up to the house and spies. Jenna, Shana and Melissa are inside. Jenna tells Melissa she doesn’t understand. They have the tapes. Melissa does understand but “those bitches” are going to be at the lodge at nine. Emily sees Melissa hand Shana an invitation to the ODIC!R!S.
Secret Motel. Toby notes that Spencer still doesn’t trust him. She gets why he started working for Mona, because she made the same decision. She just can’t believe he saw the way she was hurting and didn’t do anything. Toby hangs his head and when he looks up again, he’s crying. Apparently, that’s enough for Spencer who hugs and kisses him.
Hanna is chatting away and we hear her phone chime a few times. Malcolm says he sees Alison. He means a picture of Alison and Spencer that just popped up on the phone. Hanna’s confused until Malcolm clarifies that he means the brunette. Hanna is shocked.
Marin Manor. Hanna tells them that Spencer is the kidnapper and Emily tells them about Jenna, Shana and Melissa.
Secret Motel. Lana Del Rey plays as Spencer and Toby have sexy times. We get a pretty extended montage from kissing to sleeping.
Rosewood High for Ex-Pedo-lationships. Ezra finds Aria standing by the stairs, brooding. During school hours. Do they have special hall passes for brooding at Rosewood High? I think so. He took the job subbing and Aria remembers that he told her once that there wasn’t a happy ending for them. Ezra says this doesn’t have to be forever since she’s graduating in seven months. (WHAT. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? Time is passing? I guess I have to stop calling them 16 year olds…) (S: I HAD THE SAME CONFUSED REACTION. WHAT IS TIME?) Aria says she can’t hold onto that. They need to both move on. She kisses his cheek and walks away, but he pulls her back for a full on kiss. At school. She leaves him again. I really hope we’re done with this break-up. (S: LOL.)
Swim meet. Spencer sees Red Coat walking into the school and follows after her. She loses her for a second because the opposing team is the Red Devils and they are all wearing red. Spencer finds her again and follows her into a bathroom. It’s Hanna. Emily and Aria come out of the stalls and their logic is that Spencer followed Hanna/Red Coat meaning she doesn’t know who Red Coat is meaning she is still one of them.
The Liars demand the truth from Spencer so they can help her. She tells them about Mona visiting her at Radley, Toby still being alive and all that. The whole ODIC!R!S is a set-up, though. Red Coat just wants them to be all together. Hanna asks when she was going to tell them all this. Spencer says Mona watches her every move, but she was the one who sent the picture of her and Alison to Hanna’s phone. They are pretty jazzed about being one step ahead of the A team.
Rosewood High for Awkward Substitutions. The Liars all see Ezra before Aria does. And then she just gapes at him like she didn’t understand that him teaching there meant that he would be teaching there.
Marin Manor. It wouldn’t be a finale without the girls all dressed up and looking stunning. Some A team member is video recording them.
Party location. I guess now I have to clarify that the Hastings weren’t actually throwing this party so they aren’t that crappy. The Wakefields reign supreme in their inappropriate party throwing. (S: Womp. At least the Hastings still have their terrible parenting to fall back on!) Spencer tells Mona that girls are running late. Toby saw them getting ready, though, and has the video she asked for.
Meanwhile, the Liars have taken off their pretty clothes and changed into spying gear.
Inside, Mona calls Red Coat and tells her it’s safe for her to land. Because apparently she’s flying in for the special occasion. Mona says other vague things about this being what Red Coat always wanted and such.
The other Liars sneak in upstairs. Mona says it’s time for Spencer to take a walk, making it clear that Spencer is being double crossed. Toby yells at her to get up and manhandles her outside. It’s all an act.
Hanna, Aria and Emily corner and confront Mona.
Sweeney: I didn’t get the sense that the torching was actually part of Mona’s plan. I mean, I never have any idea what plans are on this show, but that’s totally beside the point.
Lor: Perhaps not the torching per se, but she was walking around all episode saying the Liars were going to get what they deserved. What did she THINK was going to happen?
Spencer sees Red Coat leaving the plane. She thinks it’s Alison. It’s really foggy in this woods right now because even the woods know how suspenseful this all is right now.
The person Toby is following turns around slowly but before he can see who it is, he’s whacked over the head. The lighter is planted by his body.
Red Coat drags the bodies of the Liars out of the burning house. Hanna wakes up and sees that it’s Alison standing over her. She blinks a few times and when she looks again, Alison is gone. Mona comes running and asks if any of the other girls saw Alison. Hanna admits she did. Spencer arrives and says she did as well. “Ali is Red Coat.”
Sweeney: GUYS, I THINK THIS CONSTITUTES AN ACTUAL PLOT DEVELOPMENT. It took us three seasons, but HERE WE ARE!
Lor: Is it weird that I didn’t even see this as plot development? Like, I assumed they were all going crazy and seeing things. Huh.
Toby wakes up and picks up the lighter to get his fingerprints on it, I guess.
The Liars + Mona drive away from the burning lodge. Mona tells them that this all started at Radley. Red Coat approached her and gave her a way in and out of the place. Having a partner was “fun” for a little while, but then Red Coat stole the Liars away from her. Please remember that she means in an, “I want to torture you all by myself” kind of way. Mona never saw Red Coat because she looked just like Ali. It was a mask.
As they drive along, they see that Wilden’s police car is parked downtown. Someone pulled it out of the lake. Miraculously, the video of Ashely running Wilden over is still playing on the laptop. The rest of the video shows Jenna and Shana rescuing Wilden. Spencer notices something about the trunk. As they look at it, all of their phones go off, including Mona’s. “You’re mine now. Kisses -A”
Spencer opens the trunk and they all gasp. Because it wouldn’t be a finale without some synchronized gasping.
A-nonymous. Someone reaches out of the ground and another person grabs their arm and pulls them up.
I’m more confused about everything that happened than anything else. For a finale, it didn’t really feel like a big reveal, like when that guy died in the bell tower or Mona was A. Alison is Red Coat? But maybe it was a mask? And Shana and Jenna and Melissa tried to burn them alive? Maybe.
Whatever, I am happy we made it out of season three! FINALLY.
Next time on Pretty Little Liars: I guess we find out what’s in the trunk in S04 E01 – A is for A-L-I-V-E.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
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