Finally, after four long seasons of PLL we start to get some answers. We’re going to do a step-by-step breakdown of what happened the night Ali disappeared. We’re also going to touch on a theory about Jason and ask “why New York?” Let’s get into it! We spent a lot of the episode in flashback retracing and piecing together the steps of the night Ali went missing. This is after the open where they meet up with her in Noel’s office. Ali proceeds to tell the liars what happened back on that fateful night in 2009.
Ali had been hooking up with Ian to get access to his NAT club video files and used the files to blackmail Jenna and get her to leave. Only after Jenna left did Ali find out that Jenna hadn’t been harassing her. We follow her narrative through the sleepover when she tried to leave the house, only to have Mrs. D catch her and ask her not to leave. Ali sneaks out anyway and takes a bottle of her mom’s sedatives to drug her friends and get to the bottom of things. Ali ended up blackmailing Ian and then Bryon in quick succession.
Ali walks the girls through her early interactions with Ezra, including the fight she had when he found out she wasn’t legal, and their first meeting. Ali proceeds to tell the girls about what went down with Spencer. In present day, Spencer freaked thinking she was about to be revealed as a murderous witch, but Ali put those fears to bed. Ali goes through the flashback where Spencer threatened her with a shovel. Ali, being Ali, ended up getting Spencer to back off and head to bed. Spencer is visibly relieved in present day to find out she’s not a killer. After Ali sees Spencer walk away, she’s feeling pretty good about her detective skills and starts to head home, only to get attacked by an assailant. Her own mother buried her in a shallow grave and actually saw the attack go down….we’re thinking it’s Jason, although the episode was careful not to confirm that theory. Obviously his mom couldn’t come clean about that.
Ali ended up getting pulled out of the grave by Grunwald and after that wandered the town, forlorn and distraught. Mona pulls up and takes Ali to the hotel and encourages her to go on the run. Ali falls asleep that night exhausted, and wakes up the next morning refreshed and hits the road, but not before telling Mona some tips on how to be popular. Ali touched upon the fact that she came back periodically and was watching over the rest of the Liars. We’re shocked they all hugged Ali after what she put them through but that’s part of her charm, we suppose.
This brings us back fully into the present, where we still have a couple of questions and a big fight and potential death to cover. Why did all this take place in New York? It seemed unclear to us but either way it provided an intense backdrop for the girls to try and fight of a masked assailant. You read that right, a masked assailant attack led to the girls fleeing to the roof. Ezra shows up to save the day…only to get shot! The show left it a cliffhanger as to whether or not he actually died. Do you think he’s dead? We’re going to have to wait until June to find out. Tweet us thoughts about the #PLLfinale @YAmzine!