What a way to kick off Season 5 of our favorite ABC Family show! I had to watch the episode twice just to make sure I processed all of the information thrown at us.
We meet up with our little liars and their (not so) fearless leader, Alison, who are still in New York, struggling to crack the A code once and for all. Unfortunately, that’s a little difficult when your only lead is one Ezra Fitz, and he’s a bit busy having a bullet surgically removed.
The girls concoct a plan to lure A (who has added ambulance roof riding to his/her list of impressive feats) away from Ezra, in possibly the most unsettling playground ever. This show has a real knack for turning childhood toys into tiny terrors. “Wanna play?”
As usual, A is two steps ahead of them. A swarm of black hooded figures taunt the girls in some crazy A hokey pokey circle until a passing cop car breaks them up. Valiant effort, ladies, but you should know better than to try to outsmart A by now.
As a slightly better plan B, Alison, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer hide until they receive the magic name from Ezra. Of course, Ali “knows a place”, which turns out to be the Fitzgerald Theatre, owned by, you guessed it, Ezra’s family. A flashback scene explains this; it’s still so strange to see Ali and Ezra together.
In a rare quiet moment of rest, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily ruminate on what it’ll be like once this nightmare is over, what a normal life would be like. It’s sweet really, and I feel bad for them, but let’s be honest, with Alison back, their lives are going to be anything but ordinary.
Speaking of Ali, this girl just can’t help herself when it comes to secrets and drama, can she? Talk about addiction, perhaps she should make an appointment with Dr. Sullivan when she gets back to Rosewood. She makes a few mysterious phone calls, then when the others have succumbed to exhaustion, she sneaks out to meet up with……Cece??!! What?!
Apparently, Cece was yet another red herring in the A puzzle, one sent by Ali herself. She didn’t try to saw Emily in half: +1 point for Cece. She DID kill Wilden: -2 points, for being a murderer, but I’ll give one back for ridding us of that creepy crooked cop. Ali calls in Noel Kahn for financial resources and gives her ticket to freedom (her alter ego passport) to Cece to get the heck outta dodge. We later see Cece in Vivian Darkbloom garb jet setting to France. Lucky bi–.
Ali only confesses to Emily what she did for Cece, which is already tearing apart the girls with secrets. Like Hanna said, “ No more secrets, Ali. You were wrong before, they didn’t keep us together.”
Aria is absent for most of these shenanigans to stay at the hospital with Ezra. Shana joins her for a time, claiming Ali sent her there to check on Aria.
Aria is able to see Ezra twice, the first time with Shana, in which Ezra goes into shock? Cardiac arrest? I’m not a doctor, his heart rate spikes and he has trouble breathing. The second time, he whispers to Aria, presumably the identity of A. This spurs Aria to hightail her pixie butt to the others.
After some confusing ‘house’ calls between Aria, Alison and Holbrook, (Ali, why did YOU have to be the one to answer the phone?) (Holbrook knows!), the crew try to grab their things and book it, but are stopped in their tracks by a sudden power outage. Uh-oh. A alert. The stage is again flooded in lights to reveal a black hoodie holding a gun. We finally catch a glimpse of the face behind all the madness and it’s….
SHANA????!!!??!?!
I guess there was a reason for Ezra’s full fledged freak out in her presence. Shana talks some big game about Ali’s deceitful ways, doing all of this for Justice…otherwise known as Jenna, the girl she’s in love with. To give Jenna (and I’d suppose others treated badly by Ali) a normal, happy life. Just as Shana is about to pull the trigger on Alison, Aria saves the day by surprising Shana with a good whack on the head with a rifle. Shana takes a serious tumble off the stage, enough that either the blow to the head or the fall cracked her head open. Emily checks her pulse and delivers the news. A is officially dead. This horrible tribulation is finally over. Or is it?
Back in Rosewood, the town is abuzz with the news of Ali’s resurrection, and it’s affecting some more than others. Melissa Hastings has a secret and it’s bad enough for Papa Hastings to be seriously disturbed by it. After all the shady things Melissa has done, what could possibly be that awful?
You know what they say, slay the beast and it comes back with three heads. One foe may have been taken down, but another is uniting in anti-Alison hatred. Mona has assembled a new A team of sorts, bringing together everyone Alison tormented. A few familiar faces are sprinkled within the crowd, namely Lucas and Paige. Mona makes a rousing “Who here has ever felt personally victimized by Alison DiLaurentis?” speech to her new army of ragtag misfits. Paige is having none of this and tells Mona to get over it, to move on with life. After a metaphorical mic drop, she tries to leave only to run into….Melissa. This shocks/intrigues her enough to stay. While I haven’t always been Paige’s biggest fan, I do hope she decides to play double agent a la Toby and won’t be swayed by Mona’s twisted influence. #fingers crossed
Will Mona’s army be the new big bad?
Will Alison be up to her old manipulative ways?
What is Melissa’s terrible secret?
How will Aria deal with the guilt of killing someone?
And for my own sake, will Caleb return from his trip to Ravenswood?
Find out next week and discuss below!
*Pictures courtesy of tvrecappersanonymous.wordpress.com, amarindajones.blogspot.com ,elitedaily.com, emterrasdarainha.blogspot.com and gifsoup.com