Chinspinner

How about any of these? Everything relating to all of the plots in the show?

The nearest I could get to a satisfying conclusion, would be the following: - AD is uncovered and is whoever (Melissa/ Jason/ Lucas/ Wren - someone irrelevant and peripheral). Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, the remaining marriages happen, we fast forward a year or so and all of the couples are homemaking and happy. Either: - Aria uncovers something in Ezra's belongings that identifies him as the real AD; or, my preference. Ali uncovers something in Emily's belongings that identifies her as the real AD and still in cahoots with Paige. Obviously the same could happen with Spencer/ Toby or Hanna/ Caleb, but they would not be as pleasing.

But the problem with a peripheral character like Melissa, is that she has no character or characterisation, all she is or has ever been is a red herring. Every discordant and random action she has taken, every line she has said, every expression she has pulled has been for the purposes of red herring. There is no character called Melissa in the show; just as there is no character called Lucas; they both say and do whatever suits the scene and their sole purpose as red herrings, rather than what a consistent and well-developed character would say or do. Obviously all of the characters act out-of-character when it suits the writers (because they are inept), but none of them to the extent of the red-herrings. Although the manner in which the likes of Toby or Ezra suddenly started talking in riddles and giving the evil eye when it was their turn in the red herring role was laughable. If it were one of the red herrings, it would irritate me because they are non-entities, just a blank slate upon which the writers can impose A-sounding lines, and A-ish glances, and A-like actions.

That would be awful. He has barely been in the show for half a decade.

Yeah, it needs to be a central character. Things that will annoy me: - If it just turns out to be some orbital/ peripheral red herring character, like Lucas. Any twin story-line. I was told to stop writing about twins at the same time I was told never to open a piece with a dream sequence; PLL uses both copiously. Twins are a deus ex machina and a contrivance. There are too many plotholes for anything to make sense at this stage; but if they go for something utterly ludicrous; kinda throwing the remote control at the TV ridiculous. I agree that it needs to be one (or more) people who are very central to the show. My preferences would be Emily or Hanna's mother (just for the amusement factor).

When I read this blog, all I thought is that Emily could equally have been behind many of these "clues". I have (as posted here before) always felt that Emily could be the big reveal; she is just too nice, too dumb and too innocent. Her break up with Paige and reunion with Ali does not ring true- maybe it isn't. This theory is only tempered by the fact that after the CeCe transgender debacle, the writer's would have a hard job making another minority character A; but then again, the writers on this show maybe entirely blind to the resulting furore.

Please let that trope happen.

My thoughts exactly. The first season had potential (Veronica Mars rip-off or not), but then the escalation began (we need bigger and stupider than last season) and just got out of control. But the moment it dropped off the cliff was the moment Ali was revealed as alive. Since then it has become pure car-crash TV, rather than a slight silly but infinitely enjoyable show.

At this stage I could honestly imagine a character peeling off a latex mask to reveal another face beneath. But then I could also imagine that the whole thing is a reality TV show, and the liars are the unwitting subjects, and the final reveal is them getting paraded in front of a whooping audience and all the actors that played the roles of everyone around them.

I waste too much time on this show. As usual I was going to list my many complaints, but that would take more effort than the writers put into the episode.

They have that gravelly movie trailer voice from the 80s and 90's. That sums this show up. They also include an advert in a 90 second trailer, a fucking advert for their freeform youtube channel! Seriously? In a trailer? An advert? An advert within an advert? Having wasted so many hours on this shit, I am starting to get annoyed at the incompetence of the writers (rather than finding it amusing), because the feeling is increasingly moving away from incompetence to an utter disdain for their audience.

I think Mona will die. She is too blatant a red herring for her not to die protecting them.

I find it odd that people still expect any kind of consistency or coherence from this show or any of the characters.

The Emily/ Ali thing does not ring true, it feels rushed and shoe-horned into the show, there is simply insufficient set-up or back story to make it a realistic coupling, even with the horribly handled non-consensual pregnancy crap. Emily/ Paige was a much better fit, and the hurried removal of Paige from the show has me assuming they are putting her back on Team AD. They have also set up a Spencer/ Toby reunion by literally removing the only competent cop in Rosewood while he was off screen. This is such a horribly lazy and contrived piece of writing and is symptomatic of the many faults this show has. The cop is gone, all plots relating to him are instantly dropped, his character and its impact on the show is forgotten; I cannot state enough how bad this writing is. I wonder if Aria realises that shredding does not destroy documents. It might just take the police an extra hour or two to put the pieces back together. I vaguely remember that cop who returned, but I have no idea where she was placed in the overall plot, so the reveal was a little underwhelming. Mona states the obvious about Aria. The manner in which Mona sets out the clues just makes the rest of the Liars appear like they have single figure IQs, again. I mean, these five girls are so insufferably moronic, they are beyond stupid at this stage, and again it is a symptom of bad writing that relies upon plot induced stupidity. I actually stopped the episode here, I might come back to it later, but it feels like a monumental waste of my time.

Pointless guessing, they'll just retcon the hands later.

I decided to re-watch this episode and make notes of the scenes, to see why I am finding it so difficult to sit through (yes, I was that bored). Obviously, what follows is a blow-by-blow account of the show you have watched, so might be a long read, if so, skip to the end. 1. It opens with Aria and Ezra at a dance class and more abusive relationship angst. Then evil Aria calls and announces a huge retcon (as @Jack Shaftoe identified), which suggests Aria was going to report Ezra for grooming. This never happened. 2. Policeman Whoever, arrives at Hanna’s. This exchange furthers the plot, in that Hanna establishes a link between Caleb and the security system that went down when receipts were destroyed. Of course, it only furthers the plot in the most meandering and distant way, since the receipt is nothing more than a very time-limited McGuffin that has very little relevance to the central plot. 3. Mona and the Liars stand around the game. They are all ineffectual and inept, and making distressed and furtive glances in response to the mildest of rebukes from Mona, and that’s about it. This scene is a waste of time and achieves nothing. 4. Hanna’s mother returns with no explanation as to where she’s been, maybe working on other shows? This is just a bit of scene-setting for a later scene and serves no other purpose. 5. Aria plants the phone. She arrived to deliver some take-out, and then left, and no-one suspects her; why not? It would not be the first time the Liars have worked against each other at A’s behest. The recorded phone-call reveals nothing of any import or relevance, plot-wise, just more noise and angst. The only sensible suggestion in the entire show is made by Spencer’s mum, when she intends to call the Police, but of course she is prevented from doing so by the same ephemeral and insubstantial threat that prevents all sensible decisions in this show. This scene is a repetition of old plot points and achieves nothing. 6. Mona has discovered the name of the doctor who illegally implanted eggs in Ali, and reveals this to Emily. Of course, they call the Police… no, they pretend to be a couple and make an appointment to visit him. Why? This approach achieves nothing, and was a waste of time. 7. Hanna and Caleb repeat previous plot-points for no reason. Ezra arrives with more tedious angst. 8. A park ranger reveals to Hanna that some spades were taken. The only purpose of this scene is to use Mona once again as a red-herring, by revealing the spades in her apartment. It is mind-numbingly dumb. 9. More Aria and Ezra angst, in which Ezra bemoans being a sexual predator and groomer of children in the most comedically under-played manner. 10. Policeman what’s-his-name follows Spencer, to once again repeat plot points that have already been covered. The hilarious jump-scare with the twin happens, and that Batman voice, I laughed again when I saw it. Cue flash-backs and a rehash of old plot points. At this point, almost two-thirds of the way through the episode, I got bored. Looking back at the scenes, only one of them furthered the plot, and even then, in a perpendicular and remote fashion. It furthered an off-shoot of an off-shoot of the plot, which was more aligned with a McGuffin-led foray around the garden, rather than a straight path towards the resolution of the show. In only one of these scenes, did anyone act proactively, and then in entirely the wrong direction. The rest of the near half-hour that I sat through was just a rehash of old-plot points and repetition; just people talking about things they have already talked about over and over. This show really seems to lack direction and purpose, which is amazing at this late stage. Sorry for the over-long post.

I think they have "people" issues. I can barely think of a single sympathetic character.

I am so glad I read this. I had a memory of reading American Gods years ago, but the TV show (in terms of tone mainly) was miles away from my memory, but no, it was Anansi Boys that I read.

I pay this show so little attention at the moment that I missed/ instantly forgot about most of this. Or maybe the actual plot just gets lost in all the red-herrings, dropped plots and nonsense swirling around it.

If (and this is an unlikely "if") the Rosewood PD find their evidence, arrest and try the Liars, and AD wins, sitting through the godawful last few episodes might be worthwhile. Also, that second promo genuinely looks like a parody of this show.

Given how much filler and tedium we've had so far, they really should have taken each of the outstanding mysteries and woven a plot around them that required detective work on behalf of the liars. This would have allowed the Liar's to be proactive and, as a result, compelling to watch, and it would have been an interesting about turn whereby the Liars became the hunters, and AD the hunted. This would have given the entire show an arc whereby the Liars grew stronger and more capable as a result of their hardship. But that would have been too much work for the incompetent and lazy writers, so they just wrote a load of random and irrelevant crap. The Liars, are ineffectual and reactive, and as a result, dull. Then they'll use a mixture of retcon and deus ex machina to reveal all the answers in the end, whether they make sense or not.

It does feel like the writers read some of the criticism before penning this episode.

It might explain the insistence on pursuing a storyline that everyone hates.

I think Peter followed the same trajectory as the show. For the first few seasons he was a loveable moron; for the last ten years he's been insufferable, vapid and unamusing.

Regardless of the plot du jour, or how ridiculous and unintentionally comical this show gets, I always find a slightly uncomfortable shadow hanging over it, and this is why. Serious issues are dealt with as silly little curiosities, or McGuffins to drag the show to the next plot-point, and they are never given the weight or significance they deserve. In fact, the writers seem entirely tone-deaf and deal with these issues in an entirely inappropriate manner; the defence of statutory rape (or at least abuse of a position of power) in a show aimed at a mainly female teen demographic (at the time) is something that left me gob-smacked in Season 1; I literally could not believe what I was watching... then we went onto the transsexual reveal, the non-consensual impregnation, and (as you stated) "rape by fraud" plot lines. And they all seem to be treated as quirky little twists to "ooh and aah" at. It gives the entire show an icky veneer.