It was truly a tragic night for Pretty Little Liars fans, as season 4 ended with quite the bang and an almost literal cliffhanger. But don't mourn to loudly, because in true PLL season finale fashion we viewers were treated to a few tiny clues, a couple big reveals, and a massive mess of unanswered questions! Over the years, we've certainly learned that it is possible for a television show to succeed on one mystery the entire time, but tonight we learned much more from our favorite Inept Little Detectives. Check it out, but be warned, there are major spoilers ahead!
1. After four seasons of the same mystery, Ali is finally able to talk about what happened to her the night she disappeared. But only to the extent that she knows how, because the second thing we quickly learn is...
2. Ali is not exactly Nancy Drew. Ali's first guess for A was Jenna, but after immediately threatening her, Ali got a charming message from everyone’s favorite illusive, bitchy texter and was back to square one. Ali does get weird sleuthing brownie points for drugging her friends in an attempt to be sure they weren’t A, but that’s a very sketchy tactic to use on your best buds (and one they brush off with odd acceptance). At one point, Ali claims, “I did everything I could to keep you safe.” Ali, sweetie, maybe it's time stop trying to protect people. But way to go keeping Rosewood's cemetary in business!
3. Some poor random girl has definitely been murdered and no one seems to really care. The entire mystery here revolves around A and who was after Ali, but everyone seems a little nonchalant about the actual dead girl that was buried in her place. Where is this girl’s family? Why aren’t they trying to solve her murder too? Let’s extend that branch out a little and explore what’s going on over there, maybe? I mean, this disturbingly elaborate arrangement of finger bones belong to someone.
4. Residents of Rosewood really need to invest in some sort of security system. It seems like A has managed not only to sneak into everyone in the neighborhood’s houses, but also elaborately vandalize their property. This is a person who literally broke and entered into Spencer’s home, poured dirt all over her bed, and snuck out without managing to get caught. A drove a car into Emily’s house. An entire car. Really, at this point A deserves to win if no one has caught them by now.
5. Spencer didn’t actually kill anyone! After Ali talked her down from murdering her with a shovel as a result of a drugged-out trip, she apparently went back to sleep. That’s great news since the only thing anyone’s been saying the last few weeks is that Spencer’s probably killed at least one person. Jokes on you, everyone in Rosewood! There may be an endless list of things that are wrong with Spencer, but cold-blooded killing is not one of them.
6. Ali is capable of human emotion. It turns out Ali’s mom didn’t almost kill her, but she did bury the body ASAP thinking Ali was dead (or perhaps hoping so, cause whose first instinct is to buried their bludgeoned daughter’s maybe-dead body rather than say, call any sort of authority?). Ali weeps as she recounts trying to scream at her mother that she was alive as dirt was being shoveled on her face. The girls now know Ali’s mom has been trying to protect someone from the moment Ali was attacked, but they never suggest it might be her son Jason, which seems like a pretty logical conclusion to jump to at this point.
7. Helping Ali after the attack really opened the door for Mona to step up her wardrobe game. She’s like Glinda and Dorothy’s lost Ozian child turned glamorous (but still psychotic) Wicked Witch thanks to Ali guiding her towards a Yellow Brick Makeover. Ali may have left a trail of destruction in her path, but Mona’s post-Ali’s-fake-murder remodel is definitely on point.
8. Massive reveals are best offered inaudibly whispered. Spencer’s sister Melissa tells their father she knows Spencer didn’t kill the mystery girl in Ali’s grave, then leans in to quietly completely not tell any of the viewers who it really was. Great, Spencer’s stupid sister. Now we have to wait till Season 5, and then if we’re lucky we’ll find out some sort of hint by the mid-season finale.
9. Ali’s resurrection also brought the rebirth of common sense. When A arrives guns a’blazin’ in all his/her masked-up, hoodied glory to their girls’ secret hideaway, Ali shouts, “Call 911.” Dear lord, girls, you’ve had four seasons to call 911. Four. Entire. Seasons. And this is the one moment you’re finally like, ‘911 sounds like a great idea!’??! Four entire seasons of trying and failing miserably at solving this crime on your own and this is the moment?
10. Ezra’s not A. Ezra is also (probably) dead, after getting shot trying to defend the girls from A. Goodbye Ezra. We knew thee well, and then we knew thee creepy, and just as we knew thee less creepy, we knew thee dead. Joining the (maybe) body count for the season finale is also Ali’s mom, who is last seen being buried by A. But we know the track record this family has with getting buried. No one stays dead for long.
