Pretty Little Liars recap Season 5 finale: Welcome to the dollhouse -

Just how revealing was the “Pretty Little Liars” #BigAReveal?

Well, if you were expecting A to come out of the shadows unmasked and reveal his/her master plan, you probably left disappointed. But if there’s anything we’ve learned from A over the years, it’s that you never reveal your whole plan. You merely send creepy texts (123, to be exact) that hint at your end game.

Still, this episode was A’s grandest gesture. A literally asked us to prom! And like any high school prom night, it didn’t quite go as planned. What did we learn? Let us do as Ezra would do and consult our notes.

At the end of last week’s episode, Ali was found guilty of Mona’s murder. Before the ink on the verdict was dry, Tanner ordered Spencer, Aria and Emily to be arrested as accessories to the crime.

[“Pretty Little Liars" recap Season 5, Episode 24: “I’m a good girl, I am"]

That brings us to the start of the finale. We see Aria, Spencer, Emily and Hanna in the back of a van, presumably on their way to the correctional facility. I do not understand how Hanna, who was already in jail, ended up in the van with them. But her presence serves a purpose. She can prep her friends on what to expect behind bars.

“The second they slam that door, you feel ashamed,” Hanna says. “They treat you like a criminal and it’s hard to remember that you’re not one.”

The girls agree to remember their friendship. “They can take everything from us but they can’t take us from each other,” Spencer says. The van then comes to an abrupt stop. The doors open and there’s A dressed in all black and wearing a mask. Bummer. A blows a ton of smoke into the van as the Liars scream.

Over at the Hastings residence, Toby talks to Spencer’s worried parents. Long time, no see Mr. Hastings! Toby tells his girlfriend’s parents that the officers charged with guarding the bus were “neutralized.” The guards remember nothing, but the girls are missing. Tanner and her underlings at the Rosewood Police Department are taking this to mean that the girls escaped.

The Hastings believe that the girls were abducted. Their theory is that Alison has something to do with it. “There’s only been one person at the center of everything the girls have ever dealt with,” Mr. Hastings says. He’s right! But about the wrong person. Toby tells Spencer’s parents that Tanner wants to keep everything quiet. That means Tanner hasn’t told the other girls’ parents. Parents of teenagers would surely want to see (or at least talk to) their arrested children, but we’ll have to ignore the absurdity of this particular plot line.

This is where things get really interesting. We find out where the girls ended up — sort of. We see them each waking up in what looks like their bedrooms — down to Aria’s artsy sloped ceiling. Hanna even calls for her mother. But it becomes the epitome of a cruel joke as the girls closely inspect their surroundings. Windows are surrounded by concrete, doors are locked from the outside and the picture frames include dummy photos. The creepiest part? There is a camera in every room.

A message, recorded in multiple languages comes over a loudspeaker, instructing the girls to follow the lighted pathway. The doors fly open and everyone congregates in the hall. Leave it to Spencer to figure out what’s going on. “This is A’s dollhouse and we’re the dolls.”

The lighted pathway leads to a living room. It’s Ali’s living room! A replica of it anyway. A wavy-haired blonde sits at the piano. She plays it pretty well. Is it Cece? Ali? She takes off the mask and reveals that she’s … Mona.

Silly me. I actually thought Mona was dead. But she’s very much alive and playing A’s game, which is exactly what she was doing before she was “killed.” For a minute there, it looked like Mona may have needed another stay at Radley. She kept referring to herself as Alison DiLaurentis and hurling classic Ali insults at the girls. She invites the girls to “tea time” and makes sure Hanna sees the tray of baked goods. “It’s not like you’re gonna gain it all back by eating one cookie.”

[“Pretty Little Liars" recap Season 5 summer finale: “Taking this one to the grave"]

Share this articleShare

Away from the cameras, Mona tells the girls about every possible exit. She hasn’t been able to escape because A has a trove of tactics at his/her disposal. Ignoring A’s instruction could mean having to listen to incredibly loud sirens or going without meals. Mona knows she is Mona and not Ali. She asks about her mom. And comments on the group’s orange jumpsuits. “Yep, she’s Mona,” Emily concludes.

Outside of A’s creepy doll compound, Toby, Caleb and Ezra try to figure out what happened to the girls. Caleb hacks into the police department’s command center and figures out where the van was when it got lost. He tries to take control of the traffic cameras in that area, but A is one step ahead of him, planting cartoons where his or her own appearances on the footage would be.

The Hastings visit Ali in jail and call her out on being a terrible friend to their daughter. Mr. Hastings hasn’t always been the best dad, but he makes it pretty clear that he’ll do anything to protect his youngest daughter. “Alison, I promise you that guard outside will not be able to save you if you lie to us tonight.”

Ali learns that Spencer and the girls are missing. She tells them that A is responsible. Unlike us, Spencer’s parents haven’t heard the letter A since Mona was carted off to Radley three seasons ago. Ali explains that Mona’s absence allowed someone else to start terrorizing her and her friends. “It was the same game with a different puppet master,” she says.

Spencer’s mom and dad combine efforts with Caleb, Toby and Ezra. Ezra gives them access to his A files, but warns that their secrets are in there as well. No more secrets, Veronica says. The boys have managed to put together a convincing sketch of what happened the night the van disappeared, but to Tanner it’s proof that Caleb is somehow involved in the whole ordeal. Good thing Mr. and Mrs. Hastings are both lawyers. Aided by their legal prowess, Caleb convinces Tanner that he doesn’t know where Hanna and the girls are, but he’s trying desperately to find out.

As their friends and family try to find them, the girls figure out pieces of A’s plan. One thing is for sure: A has a lot of disposable income. Like, trust fund level finances. Via written instructions, A directs the girls to plan a prom. It’s a prom they have already been to — a “Phantom of the Opera” themed event with Mona, er, Ali the designated prom queen. A shows their loyalty to Mona with an odd gift — a gas mask.

Taking a page from Mona, Spencer throws herself fully into the role that A has written for her. She bosses the other girls around and stages a fight with Emily right in front of A’s camera. At this point, Spencer has figured out what some eagle-eyed PLL fans figured out two weeks ago: they need to be looking for someone named Charles.

Spencer comes up with an elaborate plan for their A-sponsored prom. They’ll build a staircase for the prom queen to walk down, adorned with candelabras to fit the theme. Aria will put her photography skills to use by taking a photo. It’s actually a device that will allow them to cut off the electricity to the building. I don’t understand the plan enough to debunk it, so let’s just go with it. Once the decor is set, A sends the girls back to their rooms where they find perfectly tailored dresses that mirror their personal style.

The girls show up to their sad, fake prom, looking flawless in a way that makes absolutely no sense. Where are the showers? Where did their makeup come from? Who provided the flat irons and curling irons? If we focus on these details, A wins.

Aria is right — A really did think of everything, including masked mannequins that stand in for their Rosewood High classmates. This gives new meaning to The Plastics. A’s musical catalog is limited — prom kicks off with that song from “The Hills” (“Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield). It doesn’t get past the Liars that one of their stationary counterparts is moving. As Mona approaches the royal staircase, they call for Charles to accept his prom king crown. As he walks toward them, Aria hits the button on her fake camera and the lights and throwback music cut out.

The girls move quickly toward what they think is the exit. Spencer winds up in a room with a record player and a projector showing what looks like old home movies. She sees Mrs. DiLaurentis holding a baby, surrounded by two little boys, who she instructs to kiss their little sister. Spencer realizes what she’s seeing as Charles stands right behind her. Mona seems to scare him off when she enters the room. “This is not at all what I thought it would be,” Mona says, basically winking at the audience. “A has a soul.”

It’s all theory at this point, but it looks like Charles may be Jason’s twin. I should note that a twin plot holds special significance for readers of the PLL books (I’ve never read them). But if Charles is Jason’s twin, that also makes him Spencer’s brother. There are so many ways for this to play out!

Thanks to some Tanner-approved hacking, Caleb plots the coordinates of the missing police van. It leads Rosewood PD to a place that Mr. Hastings remembers — the Campbell farm. Would that be Campbell, as in Andrew Campbell? We see Andrew exactly once in this episode — hacking into the Hastings voicemail to listen to a message Melissa leaves for her parents. Could Andrew be Charles? Charles appears to have dark hair, but we know A isn’t opposed to wigs or dye.

The police department search doesn’t seem to turn up any leads, but Toby eventually finds a ground-level entrance that leads to what’s clearly A’s lair. Tanner views surveillance of the “dollhouse,” but no one knows where it is.

No one, including the Liars, who manage to escape only to find that the dollhouse is surrounded by an electrified fence. Charles is A, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to understand his motive anytime soon.

Lingering questions: Who is Charles? Where is Jason? Where are the other parents? What is Andrew’s role in all of this? Seriously, who helped the Liars get ready for “prom”?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLumw9JomKuso2Kur7CMnqWtnaKprqq6zJ6lrWenpXxzfJBuZmlrX2eCcLzRnqutsV2htrXAy55kpaGRp8BuvsScmKllo5qutLvNZmxmnpmjrq2xjLCcpZuforJuwM5mq6GdXZm8rbjHqKysnV8%3D