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I'm as fed up as everyone else with none of the reveals sticking, but in terms of Mona's death, I think it was clearly the plan all along for her to not really be dead. Her fainting spell was a clue planted long before she was "murdered". I'm angry that her supposedly dead body was never explained to the audience in this episode, but PLL does this all of the time. It focuses on one thing, and leaves everything else in the background. Sometimes it picks up those other threads, sometimes they're dropped forever. I'm not defending that method, but I do think we'll hear more about this when the girls are freed and Ali is released. Twin theory has been around since the beginning, so we've been speculating for years now that Ali or someone else would have a twin. (And the show has dropped some hints, too, of course.) For that reason, I can't quite feel indignant that it's not a character we've never me before. It doesn't feel like it's coming out of left field to me. But it's not as shocking as I was hoping the A reveal would be. Jason having a twin instead of Ali is just not surprising enough to warrant this kind of build up - on top of that, it has far less in terms of interesting possibilities. An identical Ali running around town, no one knowing when it was Ali or when it was the twin, a motivation we could actually make sense of - that's better to me. Of course that's supposing that 1) the other child we saw in the video was Jason and Ali's brother, 2) not just a brother but Jason's twin, 3) his name is Charles, and 4) Charles is big A. That's a lot of suppositions. Given this show's track record, I'd be surprised if any of those things were true, certainly not all 4. Given the anagrams on the card, I think we can say at least one thing for sure - there is someone whose (real?) name is Charles Dilaurentis. And it's not Ali, Ali's mother, Ali's father, or Jason. (Because that would be pointless.) To me that's still interesting/exciting, even if Charles isn't A. I have to agree that Andrew can't be Big A - he's just too busy.

The way Mike was talking about Mona remembered every detail of the movies she watched - it made me wonder if her plan (supposing she had one) had been inspired by the movie and all the details were there. I've never seen Them!, but it doesn't sound like it's got anything about faking one's death or framing one's enemy in it. The writers are making the girls sound like idiots the way they've got them jumping to conclusions for the sake of "twists" the audience can see coming a mile away. How they now say "Ali" instead of "A" like it's proven fact or how all this time they've assumed Holbrook has been behind this and behind that and have been using his name like he's the culprit when all they ever had to go on was an absence and a kiss with Ali that might not even have been him. However, he did say, "You've been barking up the wrong henchman." Which is a confession, right? So he has been doing things for either Ali or someone he thinks is Ali. Has he been blackmailed into it? I'm so over Mike's attitude. I don't know for how many more episodes I can deal with it.

LOL. This literally the only thing that would make sense (unless all of the girls have totally broken from reality). I love it. Just think how good the show could be if they had planned something like this from the beginning. Far-fetched of course, but as long as it was well-executed it would at least make sense. I loved the A in the fireworks. If I was supposed to think it was scary then it was a complete fail, but I've been enjoying the humorous side of A's shenanigans from the start - the fortune cookies, the cereal, the list goes on. What I hate is when A shows up and creeps around and locks them in a room for no apparent reason. So you think it's not Mike because it seems too obvious? I would agree, except that every time I thought the show was going to trick us because the clues were too obvious, it still went for the obvious thing. The most memorable thing for me being Mona is A in the season 2 finale. The show dropped some really heavy hints in the penultimate episode if I recall but it still got played straight. In my opinion these clues about Mike are fairly subtle. (So possibly that's a good reason to assume it's not him, lol.)

I'm starting to think Mona Gone-Girled Ali's ass (in the words of Eliza Dooley) for sure. I was looking at these gifs from the videotape of Mona being murdered and realized it went down oh-so-conveniently right in front of the camera. Too much so for it to have been a coincidence. And I think Mike was definitely the accomplice. There were two mentions of the fatal amount of blood loss - Holbrook in the previouslys (and that same line was in the Christmas ep previouslys as well, I believe), and then Mike (who, as part of the plot, would be thinking about that aspect). They could have reminded the audience that Mona is presumed dead without drawing so much attention to the blood. Then there's the rest of Mike's dialogue. Mike hasn't been behaving like he's in mourning. Is that because he's hiding/repressing his feelings or is in denial, like Ezra suspects, or is it because he thinks that Mona's not dead? He says, "She's gone. That's it. Please leave. People die." He says "gone" and "leave" first. At the time I thought he was thinking about Ella as well, but what if what he's upset about is Mona leaving for good? Maybe that's what he finally cries about. Mona's not coming back. She's not dead, but she's gone. (Or maybe, since he hasn't heard from her, he's beginning to suspect she might actually be dead.) And the things he says to Aria: "You think if people said how great she was to her face, none of this would've ever happened". What if he means that if Mona had never been bullied and had this enmity with Ali then she never would have had to do this and leave? Now, I don't know whether she's really dead. I mean, I don't see the point of such an elaborate fake body that only the audience ever saw. I don't think there's a Mona twin. If there's a twin on this show (and I am now honestly hoping for triplets) then it's got to be a Dilaurentis. So she must be dead. (I looked over Grimwald's dialogue and it certainly sounds like she's been buried - "dark", "surrounded by Earth", "insects", "cold"). So what happened? Was there a third accomplice who turned on her and killed her? An Ali twin? Grunwald mentioned a betrayal. A possible alternative is that Mona was teamed up with someone who was supposed to pretend to kill her, but did it for real right then and there. They knew about the cameras and wanted both Ali and Mona out of the way.

I agree with this. At least, I don't think it was Alison who invited Bethany to Rosewood and gave her the yellow shirt. They've been writing letters back and forth, right? Anyone could have forged a letter inviting Bethany to come and explaining the gift of clothes. I would love for Ali to have been that calculating, that she prepared Bethany to be the perfect fake body, but I just don't think the writers will have Alison do something that bad. Plus, it all seems pretty obvious right now, which is the greatest argument against it. But who would want to fake Ali's murder? (Aside from Ali.) I was hoping for more of a cliffhanger - a message from A hardly counts as exciting. When they went outside to check out what was going on I was really hoping for another body or something at least a little terrible. After all that sickly sweetness prior to it I just really wanted something gruesome. Oh well. I cannot believe the way they are jerking us around with this twin business. The two dresses seems like a real clue, but since one of them could be for Bethany or some other "fake" twin (the way that Cece was a fake twin for the older Ali), it could also be nothing. Mr. Dilaurentis knows something, that was why Jessica wanted to keep the secret of the second dress from him. Is it that he knows he's got another daughter out there? Would he really want to cut off a child that young, no matter what was wrong with her? It's possible Jessica had another child between Jason and Alison. Jason might not remember if he was very young and Jessica gave it away almost immediately.

I was hoping for some sort of explanation about why Clara had her adventures with the Doctor all mapped out on post-its in her room from the beginning of 8x11. That scene and her phone call with Danny was so strange. Santa seemed to imply pretty heavily that we'd see Clara again, I thought. She must be pregnant, I can't see Moffat not delivering on that hint. But Clara won't be traveling with the Doctor with an infant. I've been consistently annoyed with Clara each episode this season but I like her dynamic with Twelve so I'm not ready for a new companion yet. I can't believe they killed Danny. Massive kudos from me for that - I'm both impressed and relieved, because Danny/Clara was horrible - but that doesn't make up for the hot mess that was the cybermen threat. Cyber pollen? Everyone who has died? Really?

Yeah, I'm a little confused about Stefan. One thing we saw in the season 2 finale is that he doesn't give up on trying to save Damon and that he'll pay any price. It's only been a few months - it seems a bit early to decide that it's hopeless, especially since nothing like this has ever happened before. They haven't even actually tried anything yet. His bi-weekly phone convos with Alaric seem to indicate that he is still following up some leads - and I took his phone conversation with Elena to be that he didn't want to give her any false hope, even though it was what she wanted. He would wait until he had something for sure to share that with her. But his semi-permanent situation - a girlfriend of 2 months, a job - and his avoidance of Caroline's phone call seem to indicate otherwise. Either he's playing Ivy, or he's in his own form of denial/fantasy world. I agree. Stefan is obviously avoiding Caroline quite specifically, most likely because of the affect she'll have on him. He's finding it easier not to grieve Damon by living some fake new life and if he talks to Caroline he's going to go running to her.

So far Bruce's scene are my favorite part of this show (if I had to choose). I love his relationship with Jim, and I love his relationship with Alfred. Alfred loves him so much but doesn't know what he's doing. If you wanted to be critical you could probably say that the "I'm testing myself" bit was a little heavy-handed - a little too obviously a part of who he is going to become, especially since it's only the second episode - but I really liked it. I love looking at him and knowing he'll be Batman one day. He wants to help but he's also so entitled. He's grieving in a guarded, independent way, just like you would expect. I just love all of it.

I loved this opening sentence from the screenrant recap. It's funny because it's true. Well, I for one hope it does come back. Not because I think it's good, but because I love laughing at it. I love laughing at it so much. I very much consider it a comedy. "Two weeks ago" is my favorite joke. I could understand bad dialogue, bad acting, ridiculous plots, a certain number of inconsistencies - but it's really like they're not even trying with Under the Dome. It's not bad - it's a joke. It's so far beyond bad that it can only be comedy. I've stopped caring about the plot. I'm here for "it's science!", Pauline's paintings, Captain Joe Obvious, the epic love stories, etc. But I will make two complaints as if I am a person who does care about the plot: 1) there was absolutely zero cohesion to the season, and 2) there were absolutely no answers. Are they serious? You've got to give your watchers something! I'll miss Rebecca. She had some of the funniest lines. But I'm looking forward to Big Jim apologizing and winning everyone over again, because you just know it'll happen.

I watched that scene with subs on, and I remember thinking that no one would be able to hear what she was saying. Here's what she said: "In 2005, the Israeli Mossad was experimenting with a plasma ray that could target all human matter and leave almost no residue. Where are your experts and panels on that?" I figure the fact that it was barely audible means it's not important at all. I think the take-away was that there are a lot of conspiracies out there. That's what I would expect to see more of - people protesting the governments because they think the governments know what happened and are keeping it secret, and more than anything I would expect to see a bunch of UFO nuts (so to speak). Since the event defies known science, it was either aliens with advanced technology or it was supernatural/religious in nature. I loved the announcement over the intercom for the panel about the Brandenburg Carousel. It reminded me of the excitement I felt watching the pilot, thinking we would learn more about anomalies like that. How wrong I was. I was so relieved they didn't "spin" at the party. I agree that this episode and the third one that focused on Revered Jamison were strong. The strongest, probably. All the same, I'd prefer that none of the episodes were only about one character. I've never liked it when shows have done that, Lost especially. I'd be happy to never see any of the GR characters again but I did miss the others. I wish they would take the great details from this episode - the impostor Nora with her conspiracy theories, the partyers who were tired of their masks of sympathy, Nora and the paper towel roll - and incorporate that kind of quality into the storylines of the rest of the characters. I really do love Kevin but some of his stuff is getting repetitive. Bagels and shirts disappearing, angsting about Laurie, being late for town council meetings, Jill being sullen, etc. I feel like I'm in such an odd place with this show because I agree with all of the criticisms I've seen on here but I still really love it and look forward to it so much.