Pretty Little Liars Recap: “Farewell My Lovely”
With just the series finale left, there are still many questions surrounding the fate of the Liars. While all theories are promised to be confirmed (or debunked) by the end, at least two things were revealed in this episode: Charlotte’s killer and who’s going to jail for Archer’s murder. Let the game commence!
After seeing Mona with the game via infrared vision, the boys inform the Liars, minus Aria, what they saw. Now that Ezra is back in the loop, he shames the girls for treating Aria the way they did once they found out she was A.D.’s lackey.
Speaking of which, Aria is on the side of a road with Archer’s dead body in her trunk. Super fun. To make matters worse, a cop pulls up behind her. He tries to help her with her “troubles” but she keeps batting him away. Once he leaves her, Aria decides to go straight to the cops to deliver the one thing they’ve been missing in this case: the body.
Thankfully for Aria, Ezra intercepts her as she is making a beeline for the station’s front door. “I’m not letting you make more sacrifices,” he tells her while reminding her that she has an airtight alibi. Ezra then says, “There’s nothing linking you to what happened with Dunhill!” Then Aria drops the bomb that his body is in her car. Well, not for long because when they get back to Ezra’s apartment, A.D. steals the body back.
On the other side of town at The Lost Woods Motel, Spencer meets with Mary Drake one last time. Mary tells Spencer that she has left the motel to her and Alison. It is so the girls can mortgage it to pay their future legal fees. Nice gesture, but honestly, this motel needs to be torn down.
Instead of enjoying their newlywed bliss, Hanna and Caleb do what they do best and decide to stalk Mona. They follow her to Two Crows Diner where Mona was told to go by a mysterious note. Spencer meets them there and they collectively notice how nervous Mona seems. Caleb decides to take charge and storms into the diner and confronts her.
In the booth, he tells Mona he’s going to turn her and the game into the police (because at this point they all think she’s A.D.). Mona informs him that the game keeps getting stolen from her. It’s happened twice. At that moment, the waitress gives Mona a note. She immediately jumps out of the booth and heads to the bathroom.
Hanna and Spencer come inside and follow Caleb to the bathroom where Mona no longer is. They find the note on the ground that reads “LEAVE NOW.” Caleb finds a secret passage in the wall. He and Spencer follow the mysterious passageway while Hanna takes the car to meet them back in town.
In the tunnel, Caleb informs Spencer that Mona is definitely not A.D. mainly for the fact that “A.D. doesn’t get messages. They send messages.” He also finally reveals that he and Hanna are married. Of course Spencer is happy for them but telling your ex you’re married in a tunnel isn’t the ideal place to do it.
In town waiting for Spencer and Caleb to resurface, Hanna sees flower petals floating from the bell tower of the church. Note that this is the same place Charlotte was murdered. At the top of the tower, Hanna finds Mona wearing her old glasses and pigtails like she was a freshman in high school again. When Hanna asks what she’s doing, Mona replies, “Waiting for you, Charlotte.” Cue the flashback.
It’s back to the night Charlotte is killed. Charlotte is standing at the tower’s window and Mona walks towards her with flowers. Charlotte asks Mona why she wanted to visit her in the hospital and she replies to keep an eye on her. This was because Mona knew Charlotte was lying to everyone, even Ali, about being better.
Mona said, “You’re going to start hurting people again.” Charlotte replied, “Who’s gonna stop me? You? Do you still see her when you look in the mirror? The loser, the pigtails, the frumpy sweater? I still see her. None of you are sure when you look in the mirror. None of you are really certain who you are. I did that. I took that away from you, the same way everything was stolen from me. And now I’m back, and everything that happened before? That’s gonna feel like a picnic.” Enraged, Mona pushed Charlotte toward the window while holding a screwdriver to her back. Charlotte taunted her, saying she didn’t have the guts, but Mona persists saying, “Jump or I’ll push you.”
In real time, Mona almost pushes Hanna out the window but Caleb and Spencer rescue her. After considering going to the cops, Hanna says they can’t while Mona is having her psychotic break. On the positive side, at the car they find the final two puzzle pieces to the game.
When everyone is back together they put the final pieces in place. “CLAIM THE GRAND PRIZE” flashes across the game’s phone with a photo of Elliott Rollins (Archer’s alias) staff ID. The phone says, “THE EYES HAVE IT” and when Spencer holds the phone over the puzzle’s eyes, a little person crawls out on the screen. It’s a very creepy, yet cool augmented reality app and the cartoon tiptoes to a “mystery location” that turns out to be Ali’s Aunt Carol’s house.
At Aunt Carol’s they realize Archer’s stolen dead body is buried in Charles’ fake grave. Before they start to dig Aria becomes the voice of reason. “Do we really want to do this? Do we?… Don’t you see? If we want to stop the crazy, we have to stop acting crazy.” For once they all agree to walk away and when they do a giant bulldozer and a dozen cops come crashing through the woods. The girls come face-to-face with Detective Tanner once again.
While they’re waiting at the police station, Spencer says they should all finally tell the truth. That’s the plan until Tanner comes in to tell them they’ve identified the body in the grave as Archer’s. However, she has one more thing to do before talking with them.
In the next room the two-way-mirror reveals Mary sitting at a table. Tanner walks in and Mary confesses to killing Archer. She also confesses to killing her sister Jessica and tells Tanner that Archer used Jessica’s murder as blackmail so she would continue to do his dirty work.
The girls are dumbfounded by what they’ve just witnessed. Tanner tells them they can leave and unless there’s something they wanted to say. Aria states that up until 10 minutes prior she thought they had done something. Tanner explains the DA is a “simple man” who likes open and shut cases. Mary gave her just that. She tells them to go home and says, “You’re not criminals, not really. Try and remember that.”
Back with Mona, they inform her Dr. Sullivan, her old psychiatrist, will be there to get her soon. Hanna apologizes for showing Mona the game and pulling her back in, but Mona says she liked to be needed. “Just like you needed me to take care of Charlotte. I’m sorry I messed that up. Nothing ever happens the way it’s supposed to with me.”
Cue another flashback.
Mona and Charlotte are still in the tower as Mona holds the screwdriver to Charlotte’s back. Apparently, Mona didn’t throw Charlotte to her death. Instead, she threw her on the floor to show her “what dying tastes like.” Charlotte said she knew Mona didn’t have the guts and the two go at it. In their fight, Mona pushed Charlotte against the wall where she hit her head on an exposed piece of metal.
In the present, Mona explains the police never found a murder weapon because they were never looking at what was right in front of them. In the grand scheme of it all, Mona really did save the Liars from Charlotte — again.
And, on cue, the game flashes “CONGRATULATIONS” and then goes black. The Liars exchange puzzled looks because by revealing Charlotte’s killer they beat the game, but you never know with A.D.
A.D. and the truth to every other lie will be revealed in the two-hour series finale and honestly, I don’t know if I’m mentally prepared. How about you?
Who is A.D.? Starting to think it’s Spencer’s sister Melissa because she always hated Ali and the DiLaurentises or it’s Jason because he wanted to know what really happened to Charlotte. I wouldn’t even put it past Alison.
Best Line: “I have a master’s degree in American literature. There’s nothing I can’t handle.” – Ezra
