In case you need the refresher leading in to tonight's fatal finale,last week's Pretty Little Liars episode finally gave us a huge missing piece of the mystery from the night Ali died in the form of a video confession from Melissa.
The Liars were prepared to go to the police station and turn Ali in, when suddenly the tv's in a shop behind them changed to a picture of Alison in her candy striper uniform, from when she visited them while she was "dead" and a message saying "We're all in this together." -A was basically letting the girls know that he/she had proof that could put a hole in their story of not knowing Ali was alive the whole time she was presumed dead. Spencer was beyond pissed that they could no longer go to the cops and almost threw a brick threw the window, until -A made them realize she had them on candid camera as well.
Emily reached out to Ezra to do some research on Ali because although he spied on she and her friends for a good couple years, he's the closest thing to a detective that they've got. She fills him on on Cyrus and hands him the photo they have of Ali speaking to someone and he says he'll do what he can. At least he's putting his creepiness to good use now.
Meanwhile at the Montgomery house, Aria is once again surprised to find Mona in her house, even though that's Mike's girlfriend and people usually have their girlfriends over but whatever. Aria tries to talk to their dad about Mike's relationship with Mona, but they both eventually agree that if they express their feelings to Mike he'll just cling to Mona harder which is true because teenagers.
The next day at school, Hanna speaks to Spencer about Caleb's drinking and tries to get her hot sober coaches info to pass along. Spencer thinks it would be a better idea to have Toby speak to Caleb since they have a "bromance" going on and Hanna agrees (about Toby speaking to Caleb and the bromance).
Now that Emily's dumped Alison, the first chance she and Paige run into each other at school, Em pulls a typical ex move and asks her to talk. Now I'm not the hugest Paige fan, but I'm even less of a fan of people being treated like sloppy seconds, so when Paige blew Em off and told her she was busy, I felt a tear of pride form in the corner of my eye. Make her work for it Paige!
Back at the Hastings house, Spencer and Hanna find a note from Melissa saying that their dad took her to the airport. She's gone again, but not before leaving Spence with some answers this time. More on that momentarily...After Hanna left, Toby made his way over and he and Spencer talk about Caleb and how he looks "haunted" and yes that was the actual verbage they went with because Ravenswood.
Elsewhere in Rosewood, Detective Get Shit Done finds Aria, Emily and Hanna hanging out and immediately uses it as a chance to try and ruffle their feathers. She asks them who they think killed Bethany Young and the girls all look at her like:
Tanner seems to think the girls had something to do with Bethany's death now and is trying to connect the dots which, good luck with that...someone should remind her of where she is.
Back at Spencer's,a video arrives in the mail, which turns out to be from Melissa. Spencer watches it alone in her room and we're all filled in on a big chunk of information from the night Ali "died." It turns out, Melissa heard the entire exchange between Spencer and Ali, so she followed her sister and between seeing Spencer the shovel and seeing the body, she thought Spencer killed Ali. Her next move was what's got her so antsy, however. Melissa, in trying to protect her little sister, pushed the body into the open grave without looking at whose face it was. Melissa buried Bethany Young alive, killing her, but only because she was trying to look out for Spencer.
The Spoby/Haleb double date from hell was off to a relatively nice start until Cadet Toby barreled into the issue with Caleb instead of working his way into it. I don't know what the hell kind of police tactics the academy is teaching that boy but that was just awful...no wonder the cops in town are so inept. Anyway, Caleb doesn't respond to the confrontation well and storms out.
Emily is working at The Brew and runs into a femme Paige and you can just see her undressing her with her eyes the entire scene. Paige is on her way to a date, clearly, and again I say:
Aria, Mr. Montgomery, Mike and Mona are at the movies (apparently Ms. Montgomery had to cancel at the last minute) and Aria is not here for it. Between Mona imposing on her family night and Emily's ex bringing some new chick to the theater, Aria is over the family outing and lashes out at Mona by whispering something crazy in her ear that makes her run out of the theater in tears.
Aria goes to check on Mona and finds her in the bathroom crying her eyes out. It seems like she told Mona something along the lines of her not belonging there with them, and she begins to vent about how she should have died at the end of season one when she went off the cliff (which, considering that's what would have happened had they stuck to the books, coupled with tonight's death...it's an interesting statement. Foreshadowing, perhaps?) and Aria begins to see that Mona was just as much of a victim as she was crazy... which is a TON. Mona also warns Aria that now that Ali doesn't trust the Liars, they're fair game for her just like the rest of Rosewood. Yikes.
Ezra found out that the picture of Ali and Cyrus was taken 16 months ago and Em begins to wonder if Ali is A.
Back at the Montgomery house, Detective Get Shit Done shows up to speak with Mr. Montgomery. He takes the chance to address her less than savory questioning tactics and she tells him that she knows something is up with the girls because the case keeps getting more and more complicated. Aria listens in and overhears her also reveal that one of the girls is ready to come forward to the cops.
Aria tells the girls what she overheard and they determine Ali is the one who's decided to snitch. Em suggests they use the picture of she and Cyrus together as blackmail and Spencer shows the girls Melissa's tape. At least they've all learned to put everything on the table with one another. That's the only thing that's really going to help them through this. While they talk, Em has a slip of the tongue and refers to Ali as -A and we can't help but think:
Oh and Caleb told Hanna about Ravenswood, but it was kind of a weird scene so let's just leave it at that.
See you back here tomorrow for the #fAtalfinale recap and to mourn the loss of the newest Rosewood member to suffer an unsolved murder. Who do you think will bite the dust tonight? (My bet's on Mona).
