Events were unceremoniously calm on this episode of Pretty Little Liars. It was almost to the point where you could take everything in without having to wonder if you caught all the details, and it certainly worked.
Pretty Little Liars has consistently been a show that threw a lot of information at you and relied on the succeeding episode for a brief reminder, all while slowly unraveling what it all meant, but never fully coming to the ultimate truth. Obviously that ultimate truth is the overarching storyline – what really happened to Alison (Sasha Pieterse), and who is ‘A?’
The frustration of too much information at once has turned some viewers off from the popular teen drama. That kind of formula makes sense for a series like The Following that relies just as heavily on anticipation as is does on plot, packing as much narrative into its first 14 straight episodes as possible before giving viewers a much needed break from the high-adrenaline storyline.
Pretty Little Liars follows a similar strategy except it breaks its seasons up into 3 parts which doesn’t always work to the show’s benefit. Starting the season of in the summer is a brilliant way to take advantage of the target demographic, but taking a hiatus of several long months, broken up by a Halloween episode, drags the season out far longer than it needs to be. And, with a full season to tell the story, why segment it up like that? However, the unorthodox schedule hasn’t hurt ratings, and the PLL fan base continues to grow.
On this episode, Pretty Little Liars fans had a bit of a different experience then what they might be used to. What was happening on the show all seemed to make sense. Of course, there were still questions left unanswered, like who tried to kill Mona (Janel Parrish)? Was it the same person that let the bird out? And, why is Hannah’s mom hiding her muddy $400 a pair-ish Manolo’s in a laundry bag? But, those details all seem like the type of things that will definitely get explained down the road. There was cadence to this episode that made it stand out though, and hopefully this is just a taste of the rest of the season.
Season four is starting off strong and setting itself up for some pretty exciting events. Most shocking of all would have to be this new vendetta that ‘A’ has against Mona. It makes sense in a way. Mona was supposed to be gathering all the Liars for some sort of big reveal on the season three finale and they duped her, and killed it – which almost got them all killed. Mona failed ‘A.’
‘A’ has already persuaded Toby (Keegan Allen) to come back to the darker side by revealing a cover up at Radley involving his mother’s suicide. It’s doubtful he was the one who tried to kill Mona, or run her, Aria (Lucy Hale), and Emily (Shay Mitchell) over, but there’s no telling what else she’ll ask him to do next. ‘A’ has opened a can of worms that Toby now wants to get to the bottom of. Having him steal the RV a.k.a. ‘Mona’s lair’ may have only been the first step. Why destroying everything incriminating wasn’t on the absolute top of the Liars’ agenda, we may never know.
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