TV Review: Pretty Little Liars Season Finale 5×12, “Taking This One to the Grave”

They weren’t kidding when they said this finale would be fatal. My poor little heart is still trying to recover. I’m not even sure how I’m going to be able to gather all my thoughts together, because my head is exploding with questions and theories. This is currently how I feel:

The episode starts right from the end as Emily, Aria, Hannah, Ezra, Paige and Caleb are standing outside of a house where someone has been brutally murdered. The promos for the finale didn’t lie when they said that someone was going to die. I love that they kept their word and didn’t come up with some random plot twist (at least not yet).

It’s getting close to Thanksgiving break and the PLLs are Alison-less. They’re on their own and you can bet they’re afraid. Alison has convinced all of Mona’s army to get on her side, and so Mona is on her own, too. She’s now being labeled as “Crazy Mona” thanks to Alison. However, Mona makes a good point when she tells Lucas that Alison has gone “full-on socio”. Mona and the girls are starting to believe that Alison is actually “A”! She’s been playing a game by assembling the PLLs. I’ve read theories about the fact that Alison could be a sociopath who has come up with this whole thing. But really, who knows at this point?!

 

I have to take a brief moment to say how beautiful Spencer and Toby are together. Toby graduated from the police academy and the gift that Spencer gave him was the cutest! I’m definitely a Spoby supporter!

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We actually found out some interesting things about the PLLs in this episode.

Aria’s granny has chin hair that she plucks. LOL. Just kidding! Maybe! Her family has invited Ezra for Thanksgiving so that’s quite a big deal!

Hannah is smarter than we all thought! (I never doubted her, FYI). But it turns out she scored high on the SAT that her counselor gave even thought she cheated (she didn’t). So, she might go to a pretty prestigious college! The look on Caleb’s face was priceless!

 

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We also learned a very important fact about Emily in this episode. The girl loves Christmas! Home girl had decorations set up before Thanksgiving!

Now, let’s get back to the intense drama and suspense.

One thing is for sure—Alison is planning something big. Right now I’m too confused as to her true intentions. But, she’s decided to put herself through the lie detector test at the Rosewood Police department. Of course Mona was able to get all of the records. The questions that the police asked Alison were far more interesting than whatever Allison said to them. They seem to believe that Spencer killed Bethany Young in order to gain favor with Alison. The police obviously have found a connection between Bethany and Alison. So, Mona and Spencer decide to go back to Radley to find out what links Bethany and Alison together.

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They have no trouble breaking in, but Detective Holbrook makes an unexpected visit to Radley to question Aria about her volunteer work, and Spencer. Meanwhile, Emily has the hard task of stalling Alison at her house. It’s a difficult task for Emily because she’s the “loyal” one and also a terrible liar! Also, Alison is the absolute master of lies and deceit. She calculates every move and every word perfectly. It’s quite an art to see, and Sasha Pieterse’s performance never fails. It’s crazy to think that she’s the youngest on the show at only 18!

Anyway, Emily slips up when she gets up to get Alison tea and leaves her phone on the table. Alison figures out that Emily was in charge of distracting Alison, but it’s not like she came unprepared either. Alison had two members of her new army parked outside waiting for her. The confrontation that Alison and Emily had was great! Emily actually speaks the “bad thoughts” that everyone has been thinking and straight up asks Alison if she’s “A”! Obviously, Alison wasn’t about to answer that! Paige happened to be arriving to Emily’s at the same time that Alison was leaving. After following Alison and her minions she finds they’ve all met at this huge open farm where Alison is definitely setting up camp for her army.

Meanwhile, back at Radley Spencer and Mona have found all of Bethany Young’s recorded sessions with her doctors. It turns out that Mrs. Dilaurentis was having an affair with Bethany’s dad! Yeah, that happened! This means that Alison and Bethany definitely knew each other.

I have a crazy theory that just popped into my head! What if Bethany is Cece’s twin?! That’s how Alison and Cece knew each other—because of their parents’ affair. Or, Bethany was actually Alison’s sister because of that affair that Mrs. Dilaurentis was having—maybe that’s why they looked alike? I’m sorry guys, that’s all I’ve got for now. With PLL I doubt I’ll ever really figure it out—Marlene King is a genius!

*Random Thought: If Marlene King and Jeff Davis (Teen Wolf’s Producer) got together and made a show that would be insane!

Oh, and Toby had a random accident right before his police graduation ceremony, but only ended up with a broken leg. I don’t know how that’s going to work into the plot at all.

The next day at The Brew, Detective Holbrook arrests Spencer for the murder of Bethany Young. The helpless look on Toby’s face was heartbreaking! Poor guy couldn’t even stand up from his wheelchair to try to do anything about it!

Hannah immediately informs Mona who was working on figuring out more on the connection between Alison and Bethany. Her mother has left to their relatives’ house and Mona is all alone at home.

Mona gets to inform Aria about how she thinks Alison set up Bethany and lured her to Rosewood. Alison knew about their parents’ affair, was jealous, and wanted Bethany dead.

Right then, we see that either “A” or Alison has broken into Mona’s house. But is it really “A”? Because we’ve never seen “A” wear those types of shoes, and they made a point of showing them. Also, we’ve never seen “A” take off their hoodie and show us their blond hair. I don’t know, it’s just too obvious to me that they’re trying to make it look like Alison is now “A”. As the mystery person is going up the stairs to Mona’s room we get to see the back of their head and all of their blond hair. Maybe this is far-fetched, but that didn’t look like the shape of Alison’s head—it looks more like Cece’s. I doubt Cece just got on a plane as Vivian Darkbloom and disappeared forever.

The point is that just as Mona can prove that Alison is “A”, she gets brutally and disturbingly murdered. Once again we get to see more of the mystery person’s blond hair.

But yeah, guys, Mona Vanderwaal was officially murdered. The police haven’t found the body, but the scene of the crime assures that the wounds have been fatal. Outside of Mona’s house we see Ali lurking around looking a bit too pleased about Mona’s death.

Maybe it wasn’t “A” who killed Mona. Maybe it was just Alison who killed Mona because she’s a sociopath. But at the end of the episode we get to see what seems to be “A” have possession of Mona’s body. That final scene was so creepy with Mona in the trunk! This was by far the death on the show that has delivered the most intensity for me. I don’t know what it was about it but it really got to me!

I’m confused about “A”… but it’s definitely a girl? My brain is about to combust.

So these are some things I’d also like to point out:

Ezra seemed awfully indifferent about Spencer’s arrest when he tells Aria to calm down since Spencer’s parents are sure to take care of it. I don’t know, but it just gave me a hunch that there was something weird about that. Can we really trust Ezra again?

AH! I really hope so!

Why did “A”/ Mona’s killer keep Mona’s body? For what?

Can Alison really be “A”? When she was talking to Detective Holbrook at her house we got the perspective that “A” was watching them from outside her window.

And why has Detective Tanner been missing? Is there a reason that Detective Holbrook has decided to just proceed without her? Weird.

Poor Spencer is arrested! Is she going to use the video that Melissa left for her as evidence she didn’t kill Bethany? Would it even help her out?!

I also have to say that Janel Parrish did an absolutely amazing job on PLL as Mona. I’m actually quite sad that she’s gone! Mona was such a versatile character to play that it shows off the great acting skills that Janel Parrish has. There were so many layers to her that I’m just really upset we won’t be able to find out more about her and what really went on in her mind. I wish we had gotten more background information on Mona. I mean, we only met her mother for the first time in this episode and the poor girl dies. The good news is:

 

 

R.I.P Mona! Rosewood won’t be the same without you!

I think this is one of my favorite season finales. I really can’t wait for new episodes to return!

So, guys, tell us…

Do you think Alison is really “A”?

What was your reaction to Mona’s death?!

Tell us all your thoughts and theories below!

 

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