Pretty Little Liars returned last night for its first ever Christmas special and there wasn’t much holiday cheer to go round for the liars.
If you haven’t seen the episode and don’t want any spoilers we suggest you stop reading now. If you have seen it and want to relive all of the action then keep reading.
PLL fans have been eagerly-awaiting the return of the show following the shocking mid-season finale which saw fan-favourite character Mona (Janel Parrish) killed off. Who killed her? We still have no idea but all signs point to a certain Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse).
The Christmas episode picked up the story 30 days after the murder of Mona and it started off with a surprise when Hanna (Ashley Benson) was approached on the street by a man with an envelope for her. He explained that he had been instructed to pass over the envelope 30 days after Mona’s death so that Hanna could handle her affairs. Opening the envelope, Hanna and the girls found detailed plans of Alison’s house with the suggestion that Spencer (Troian Bellisario) could be proven innocent by something in Ali’s house.
With that in mind Aria (Lucy Hale), Emily (Shay Mitchell), Spencer and Hanna put their plan into motion using Alison’s Christmas charity ball as the perfect distraction whilst they found out what their former friend was up to. The plan was for Hanna and Spencer to break into the DiLaurentis house during the charity ball with Toby (Keegan Allen) looking on from Spencer’s window (nice Rear Window references there!).
Once in the house Spencer and Hanna split up to cover more ground. Hanna found her way up to the attic and uncovered a box of letters. After reading through them she found one that confirmed Ali did indeed know the now deceased Bethany. Before she could linger on it too long she was attacked by a knife-wielding A who was interrupted by Spencer coming to her friend’s rescue. As she helped Hanna out of the house, A looked on behind a wall of masks. Creepy stuff!
Back at the ball Aria and Emily with the help of Paige (Lindsey Shaw), Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) and Ezra (Ian Harding) tried to keep Ali distracted to give Spencer and Hanna time to search through her house. Ali disappeared off into a maze at the ball and met up with CeCe (Vanessa Ray). Prior to going into the maze Aria spotted Alison getting intimate with a man dressed as Santa which she thought was Holbrook (Sean Faris). Emily had a chat with Jenna (Tammin Sursok) and Sydney (Chloe Bridges) who revealed that had joined Ali’s new group because they feared her and believed she had killed Mona.
When Ali and CeCe emerged from the maze, Ezra and Caleb distracted Holbrook whilst Aria and Emily chased after the girls with help from Paige and Lucas (Brendan Robinson). Unfortunately for the group the two girls were decoys allowing Ali and CeCe (who no one actually saw other than Ali) to escape.
The episode drew to a close on Christmas Day with the girls and their partners spending the holiday season together after a snowstorm prevented their families from getting home. Just as things were looking rosy and a Christmas tree was spotted in the garden, the group left the warmth of Spencer’s house to see that A had left them a Merry Christmas message in festive lights.
Elsewhere in the episode Alison was haunted by the ghosts of Mona and her late mother (Andrea Parker). Mona took Ali back to a childhood memory where she found two identical dresses hidden inside the family piano and was taught to lie by her mother. Meanwhile the ghost of Mrs DiLaurentis warned that ‘they would be coming for (Ali) soon’ after Ali saw herself in a coffin missing one leg!
There was also a spanner in the works for Emily and Paige when Paige revealed that her family want her to move to California with them after fearing that Rosewood isn’t a safe place anymore. Is this the end of Paily or will they find another way around it?
Pretty Little Liars returns to ABC Family on Tuesday 6th January 2015 for season 5B.
