We've made it, kids. After seven years of loyal friendship, inappropriate relationships, overly stupid decisions and not calling the cops ever, Pretty Little Liars has finally ended. A crazy, highly questionable, entertaining ending, but an ending. If, for whatever terrible decision making abilities you have, you are still watching this show and do not want to be spoiled, do not keep reading. If you are one of the very strong people who lasted the last seven years and have finally been set free, join me in mesmerizing how insane Til DeAth Do Us Part truly was.
Let me make this clear: as frustrating as it would have been not knowing who A.D. was, when episode 19 ended I had the very clear feeling of that being it. The story would have been nicely wrapped there, although with so many unanswered questions. But you were never expecting answers from Pretty Little Liars, were you? Where have you been the past seven years? Have you not listened to Spencer when she taught us hope breads eternal misery? Naïve of you.
With that in mind, all I truly expected from the finale was finding out who A.D. was and wrapping the girl's futures with a cute bow. From reading dedicated Instagram accounts, blog posts and watching a couple too many YouTube videos on theories, I was extremely ready for the Spencer has an evil twin storyline. Marlene did not fail me in this sense.
I have to admit watching Troian act as Alex was almost as fun as watching Mona be the badass bitch in command. But as much as I expected her existence, I did not expect her to be like that. And thank goodness, she was. Her crazy was believable, just as much as her need to be Spencer and be part of the bond these girls share. Hell, I want to be part of the bond these girls share! What didn't feel so great was the timeline presented by her story, the fact that she wasn't playing the game much sooner and how Jenna and Toby were the ones to figure this out.
Let's take a moment to talk about this, Toby slept with this girl and still it took Spencer answering what was her favorite poem for him to identify her? All whilst JENNA could recognize Alex in a five second conversation by, I don't know, smell?? Oh yeah, there was also Ezra who knew Spencer was not Spencer by an exchange of strange looks and of course, the horse, THE HORSE KNEW, TOBY, THE HORSE! Well okay sure. Sounds like a soul mate indeed. I'm not even mentioning her friends of 10+ years not being able to identify her either. And this show's main focus is friendship!!!!!!!!
But this hour and a half episode offered us much more than just the A.D. reveal and a showcasing of how this group of idiots somehow grew brains during the one year jump, since they finally were able to figure out a mystery in less than 10 minutes. We saw not one, but two incredibly hideous wedding dresses, not at all surprising for Aria. We almost got to see Ezra die (which I wouldn't really complain about to be quite honest) on his wedding day. We got a wine-moms reunion and a tease to tell us we are never going to find out how the hell they got out of that basement. We got to see Wren again, unfortunately, right before he was eternalized by crazy Alex and found out he is the real father of the Emison twins (a let down, if you ask me, as I truly wished it would have been Peter Hastings - again). We got to see all of these high school couples unrealistically end up together and talk way too much about babies. We got to remember how badass yet very creepy Jenna has always been. We were even able to see Spencer [and Ali, but mostly Spencer, right? Ali hasn't done anything at all since she came back from the dead, let's be real] transform the Lost Woods Resort into a beautiful place with I have no clue which money, considering this girl got fired from her last job about a year ago... It was entertaining and cute and I must admit I even got teary eyed at their goodbye scene (maybe due to the happiness of finally being set free).
In truth it was not the A.D. resolution that bothered me. I watched Gossip Girl, I know how this goes, no reveal would have truly made sense or been satisfying. If I were to criticize just one thing about the finale, really, it would be how the most wonderful element of this show took a back seat in order for the writers to focus on the A.D. storyline and the romance of it all. The strong and loyal friendship these girls shared was always the center of everything and it was quite frustrating to see the reveal and answers not being done by the group as a whole and this friendship not being the focus of this goodbye.
As much as it was lovely seeing them finally be happy and living a fear-free life (which is surprising considering the amount of trauma they have all been through), it would have been more interesting to see these girls go through the discovery side by side. More than that, I wanted to see these girls exchange moments and love and future plans and have chats about their careers. I wanted much more than just one goodby scene. I wanted the first scene. The snow globe scene. Multiple of those.
But at least we got to see Mona prove to us all how she's the most intelligent human being in this crazy town, the only one looking at the big picture and finally winning this game like the real Queen she is, always saving the Liars, despite being treated like crap by all of them, time and time again, when in truth she deserved to have been made an official Liar ages ago. All hail, Queen Mona! May Janel Parrish now invade all our screens showcasing the talent she so very clearly possesses.
It was a lot of fun accompanying the crazy and inappropriate choices this show made over the past seven years, but an end has finally come. I loved hating it and hated loving it.
"For some reason, this feels like this is the end of something."
Shhhh....
