S05.E12: Taking This One to the Grave

[Samantha84]

I stopped watching this season. Had to get off the mouse wheel. Which I hate b/c I love TB -- great actress!

Anyhoo, did Toby really graduate the police academy in 5 episode like I've been reading? Seriously?! 5 episodes but the girls have been in high school for 107?! This is why the Rosewood PD sucks! 

[DigitalCount]

Wait a minute, is Aria actually going to be revealed as A?

 

I've been watching this show basically thinking that while AriA fits and is startlingly sound, it's too far outside the realm of general TV storytelling that it's not actually a viable theory. I mean, I viewed it as a fun diversion, a semi-serious thing, kind of like how I viewed Chlois (Smallville theory) for a while (although at one point I did truly believe that Chloe Sullivan was going to take the pen name Lois Lane).

 

But then Aria actually had a straight-up hallucination of Holbrook looking her in the eye and asking her when the cover-ups, the lies and the murders began, and I watched that and thought, is Aria actually freaking A here? I mean, part of the appeal of AriA, to me, is that it illustrates how bad these people are at writing, that they could have such a bad sense of structure and characterization that the main character is a leading candidate for the evil mastermind, right before the shifty-eyed dog and the butler. But if it's actually intended, then...what?

 

"A for Aria, A for Anonymous."

"Miss Aria, you're a killer, not Ezra's wife."

"You've made quite a mess of things."

 

Well, I said I was done with the analysis, so now I just have to stay off the computer late at night and I can hold myself to the promise.

 

(also, thanks a lot, PLL...making me go back down that road...frigging Smallvile.)

[kissedbyarose]

At this point, I am beyond convinced that the writers have NO idea what is going on in their own show. I mean, they are not even trying to at least tie plot points together or even make sense within the realm of their own timeline/show. 3 girls running around in that yellow top, 2 of them get whacked on the head and the same two buried alive? I won't even point out the other inconsistencies that everyone else has questioned in this thread (and several others).

 

Even though my original theory on who was going to bite it was wrong, I knew once Mona was all involved and getting extra screen time and her MOM appeared she was a goner. But the finale usually pulls a good punch then takes it all back or makes it completely uninteresting when the show comes back so I'm just...waiting to see what happens next.

 

This all sounds like I hate the show, I really don't. It wasted a lot of potential but I don't outright hate any of the individual characters (just their romantic pairings - that scene with the couples at the end *bleh*) and it still keeps me watching each week which I will still do but I just don't think I will watch the way I used to anymore. I'm just waiting to see how this ends...which makes me sad.

 

(I wish Hanna's list was more realistic. But in TV the only schools that exist are the local college up the block or top tier schools so I'm not even going to dwell on that or Toby's magical 5 day police officer course.)

[chelsie]

Aria being A makes as much sense as Dan Humphrey being gossip girl. That is truly some dedicated and commited acting. I'd be astounded if the writers went there. lol!

[ladyrott]

If Mrs. D was Bethany's  mother, how did she hide her pregnancy from everyone ? How did they explain that the baby never appeared ?   If Bethany went to live with her father, where was Mrs. Young in all of this ?

 

 

Oh Lord, I am getting confused again.  Is Mrs.D Bethany's mother?  For some reason I was thinking it was Mr.D who was her father?  Oh wait, is it Mr. Hastings who is her father?  OMG!  This show is making me lose my mind. 

[Bort]

Aria being A makes as much sense as Dan Humphrey being gossip girl. That is truly some dedicated and commited acting. I'd be astounded if the writers went there. lol!

Aria being A makes a lot more sense than the Gossip Girl thing. There was only one Gossip Girl, while there's been a multitude of imposter A's. Hardly anything bad ever happens to Aria and anything that did can be attributed to one of the imposters. I think it's a sound theory.

[mac123x]

Even though my original theory on who was going to bite it was wrong, I knew once Mona was all involved and getting extra screen time and her MOM appeared she was a goner. But the finale usually pulls a good punch then takes it all back or makes it completely uninteresting when the show comes back so I'm just...waiting to see what happens next.

 

 

I'm expecting that Mona's killer will be unrelated to the A plot.  Maybe Mike slipped off his meds, had a psychotic break, dressed as a girl and murdered her for reasons.  Alternatively, Mona build an android replicant out of spare parts (you know she could do it) which took her place after Radley, and she's been hiding out at the Creepy Woods Motel all this time.

 

At this point, I am beyond convinced that the writers have NO idea what is going on in their own show.

 

I think the best we can hope for at this point is a complete mind-screw ending, like the final scene will be of that snow-globe A assembled today.  The camera pulls back to show a catatonic Maya at a nursing home staring at it blankly.  In the background, Dr. Bob Hartley comments to Dr. Jack Shepard, "She stares at that thing all day, every day, without saying a word.  I wonder what is going through her mind?"

[krimimimi]

I originally also thought Mona was faking her death especially since she called Aria who was suppose to be the "compassionate" one and would be willing to quickly get everybody over to Mona's.The way Hanna screams I imagine there was mass amounts of blood all over her room, then there is a some blood and a sign of struggle down stairs. Maybe whoever surprised her was working with her and was helping her fake her death, (like maybe Lucas brought her the blood they set the scene and made it look like Alison was in her house). He leaves and she gets attacked for real by Evil A.

 

That would fit with what I took to be varying hair lengths on the person who goes up the stairs at Mona's vs. the person who enters her room. The person on the stairs has Ali length hair, and the person who enters her room seems to have shorter (but still long) hair, bluntly cut. That might just be a production issue, or maybe it's deliberate, and we are supposed to believe there were two (or more) people there.

 

Further to that, since we can't trust any of Ali's stories, We don't really know that her mother buried her or even that she was hit on the head by some assailant.  We do know that she was buried, because Gruwald corroborated that, but it's possible that Ali arranged that as part of her escape plan.  (Possible, not plausible, but this show is unfamiliar with the meaning of that word). 

Hear hear! I'm calling BS on Ali's burial story, too. IIRC, in his great American novel (bleurgh) Ezzzra basically said you could tell she was lying because her lips were moving, and we've seen enough of her lies on screen that I don't know why we should trust anything we can't confirm out the wazoo. Which leads to the Grunwald... Feh. I'm gonna say she was paid off or tricked somehow. She doesn't make a lot of sense as a character on this show (unlike Ravenswood, where she totally rocked. *sniff* RIPRavenswood), so her motives can be anything and everything convenient for the writers. Yes, that's a plenty weakish argument on my part, but the writers have let me down often enough that it (sadly) seems robust enough. (just IMO. ymmv, of course.) But if Ali is telling the truth here, then it means two similar young women, in identical clothes, were both bonked on the head and both buried alive, by two different people no less, all on the same night. It beggars belief. (Insert much rolling of the eyes here. Do.Not.Buy.At.All.)

 

 

If Mrs. D was Bethany's  mother, how did she hide her pregnancy from everyone ? How did they explain that the baby never appeared ?   If Bethany went to live with her father, where was Mrs. Young in all of this ?

Given the absentee parenting that seems the rule in Rosewood, I'd say nobody even noticed she was gone. Par for the course. /snark

 

Oh, and one more rant: Dear Officer!Toby, stop endangering the Amish and put your hands back on that wheel. Ten and two, buddy, ten and two! Damn phone addicts.

[Jack Shaftoe]

 

Aria being A makes a lot more sense than the Gossip Girl thing. There was only one Gossip Girl, while there's been a multitude of imposter A's. Hardly anything bad ever happens to Aria and anything that did can be attributed to one of the imposters. I think it's a sound theory.

 

Even in the crazy world that is PLL, I can't regard AriA as a sound theory. There is a complete and utter lack of motive and tons of playacting for the viewers benefit. For instance, I very much doubt A will care one bit about killing someone in self-defence, Aria was angsting about Shana even when there was nobody else around. Plus, I really can't buy the idea that any minion would be willing to obey Aria.

 

 

In the early seasons A was doing things that seemed at least possible. Now A is blowing up houses & the body count has gotten ridiculous. They've written A as some kind of super villain, I'm surprise Marvel hasn't written a comic book about the.

 

To be fair early seasons also achieved some truly miraculous feats but that A worked much better for me because the emotional blackmail and the mind games were much better tools for exploring the Liars' characters (and their families and significant others) than the crazy series of murders on the new A. At this point I just shrug and say " Another murder? Big deal" unless it is a character I dislike but due to going way over the top with the murders the emotional impact on the protagonists seems almost non-existent.

 

 

Maybe Mike slipped off his meds, had a psychotic break, dressed as a girl and murdered her for reasons.

 

Maybe Mona killed herself to frame Alison. And the body was hidden by a convenient body hiding service, a profitable Rosewood business despite its not so great rate of success in successfully hiding the bodies.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Jack Shaftoe

[Lolabelle]

I'm starting to call BS on Ali's version on what happened that night as well.  Maybe she took what happened to Bethany (being buried alive) and made it her own story because even though it's a huge lie it's still true for someone else than if she just made it up.  

 

I do think that Ali was scared of the originAl (MonA) but That Night she used Bethany to fake her death and escape, not realizing that MonA kind of did her job by getting rid of her that way.  She didn't really anticipate coming back to Rosewood so she's making it up as she goes (2 steps ahead of the girls of course).

 

About Mona's killer with the 2 hair lengths, that's an interesting observation.   It's hard when this show doesnt pay attention to details knowing the fans live off them.   If that's the case, I could see Ali entering the house (the one that took the hood off) but someone else killed her.  Ali doesn't do her own dirty work.    

 

I'm really curious to see where the show goes next.  Spencer getting off the hook will probably be the overarching mystery.  Ali won't be with the girls as much and they won't have many other people to turn to besides their bed buddies. 

[krimimimi]

I was just reading AfterEllen's Heather Hogan's recap of the ep (miss That Whacky Other Page's *sniff* recaps), and this jogged my memory to something that I felt stood out at the time:

 

The Liars have come to ask Mona for help. As soon as the words are out of Hanna's mouth, Mona snaps, "What did Ali do to you?" They tell her nothing - yet. So Mona and Spencer quote Winston Churchill together, verbatim, and stare at each other like a mirror for a second, just long enough that you can see Spencer register that fact that she could have been Mona and Mona could have been her, if Spencer didn’t always have the promise of a blanket fort to crawl into with Hanna and Emily and Aria.

 

(Emphasis mine.)

 

Between that scene, and Caleb's manning the laptop for hackerishness, I really felt like they were not even subtly showing us how Mona's strengths were covered by the group, and she might somehow be surplus to requirements. Spence has similar brains and general knowledge, and Caleb now has her MadApps to augument his similar hacker skillz to hers. No need for Mona. Of course after that final shot of her in the trunk, denial had pushed this firmly to the back of my mind.

 

I'll miss her and her flounces.

[scarletregina]

 

 

"A for Aria, A for Anonymous."

"Miss Aria, you're a killer, not Ezra's wife."

"You've made quite a mess of things."

 

 

What's interesting about the above is that Aria is actually a killer now. Maybe Hyper-reality Mona is also psychic.

[missbeckydee]

The DNA part I'm fine with, they supposedly IDd the body with dental records. (Why that was wrong is a different story that they haven't bothered to explain) But that's fairly standard procedure in an investigation, if the body is IDd with dental records, they aren't going to bother with a DNA test because it's expensive and time consuming.

This is my thing though: I feel like they've been tap-dancing around what Bethany looks like. Nobody has mentioned it at all and you'd think it was something that at least Spencer would've asked about. And she totally should have. But nope, nothing, conveniently unmentioned. Nobody has at least produced a school ID or something?

I thought they said that A replaced Ali's records with the (at that time unknown) dead girl's records? That's why Hanna made her bi-weekly appointment with the dentist, so she could sneak into the records room and see who had an appointment during that time period. Then she got drugged and had a tiny scroll put in between her teeth. The A tag was someone shredding the records and putting it in Tippy's cage. So we still don't know who it was, but we know why the records matched when it wasn't Ali in there.

[chelsie]

I read my comment back and it seemed kind of bitchy.. I didn't mean to :(

I just don't see Aria's motivation. I'd be very disappointed if A's identity is revealed to be Aria.

[krimimimi]

At this point, I don't think it matters who A turns out to be - the motive won't be remotely justified. And they've already blown it by playing their "'cause she's nuts" card, which didn't even satisfy me last time around, when things hadn't gotten nearly as extreme.

 

So Tippi the parrot has my vote, or maybe the corpse-finding dog.

[ottoDbusdriver]

So Tippi the parrot has my vote, or maybe the corpse-finding dog.

 

Pepe is probably dead and buried in the backyard, where he initially collapsed (of malnutrition and dehydration due to neglect by the DiLaurentis household) close to a hole he had dug in the backyard before Melissa came along, thought he was already dead, and rolled Pepe into the hole and then buried him (in order to protect Spencer of being accused of killing Pepe).  Because Melissa wandering through the DiLaurentis backyard seems to happen quite frequently.

[Mabinogia]

That corpse finding dog did show up out of nowhere, didn't he? I find that pretty suspicious. I don't think it was Tippi because it just seems too obvious. the bird who repeats what he hears being the one making all these humans repeat what he says...nah, the show isn't that clever. lol

 

And no, there is absolutely no way to justify what A has done, unless A is Ali the little blonde sociopath. At this point, she is the only one I could buy wasting all this time and money to screw with the girls. Maybe she's pissed that they moved on without her after she "died". Maybe they didn't mourn enough. And she is twisted enough to do to her mother what her mother did to her, burying her in the backyard after an attack (that Ali probably staged).

 

Though timeline wise (yeah, I know, but I love futility) I wonder if Melissa buried Ali shortly after Spencer/Ali confrontation and Brittany was buried by Ali who actually hit Brittany over the head then switching tops with her. She could have stuck around to watch Jessica bury the body and that's where she came up with the story. I know it's convoluted, but it just doesn't make sense, after Melissa's story, that Ali was in the grave first and that Spencer spent the whole night wondering around dragging a shovel. (my head hurts even trying to think about this shit. I would love to see the writers notes on this show. I'm imagining a lot of napkins with scribbles, half of which flew off the table when someone cracked the window and the writers just stuck all the napkins back in any order in the hopes it made sense. Either that or they've got one hell of a game of Mad Libs going on in the writers room.)

[DigitalCount]

Pepe is probably dead and buried in the backyard, where he initially collapsed (of malnutrition and dehydration due to neglect by the DiLaurentis household) close to a hole he had dug in the backyard before Melissa came along, thought he was already dead, and rolled Pepe into the hole and then buried him (in order to protect Spencer of being accused of killing Pepe).  Because Melissa wandering through the DiLaurentis backyard seems to happen quite frequently.

I like this idea of Melissa just randomly finding various people who are badly injured and accidentally finishing them off. We know she was on the Halloween train, right? And Garrett ended up dead...

 

(actually that reminds me, did we ever get confirmation of that? I'm pretty sure the only person we really saw as the clown-looking lady was Wilden)

Edited August 30, 2014 by DigitalCount

[jjjmoss]

Especially in the math portion of the SAT.  I feel pretty sure Hanna didn't take advanced math classes, so unless she's a lucky guesser, there were probably questions on there she had no idea how to even do.  It's definitely A.  Or Mona.

The math portion was quite easy, and according to Wikipedia it just added some Algebra II questions. I took Algebra II in 10th grade, and Hanna's now a senior, so I don't think she needs to be all that advanced...

I also learned on Wiki that they're going back to a 1600-point scale with the essay being optional (I suppose in case you're insecure about the 2 main portions). So parents can once again see how "smart" they are compared to their kids, huzzah.

Edited August 31, 2014 by jjjmoss

[mercfan3]

I was three math classes ahead of the SAT's when I took them (because I had always been in advanced classes) and actually felt a bit disadvantaged for that when I went to take the SAT's. I didn't actually remember all of it. 

 

Not only that, but Hanna could have done average on the math and done really well on the reading portion. 

 

I do think this will actually be somewhat of a thing for Spencer. Like when Emily could charm her way into getting what she wanted, and Spencer couldn't and got jealous over it. I don't know that it'll be a big conflict, but I bet we'll see some of Spencer's insecurities show up there. 

Edited August 31, 2014 by mercfan3

[crazyirishlady]

Aren't these people supossed to be in Pennsylvania?  It's Thanksgiving time...Pennsylvnia is cold.  Put some coats on....not eggnog and cookies on the front porch without at least a jacket!

[OwlMilk]

I think the best we can hope for at this point is a complete mind-screw ending, like the final scene will be of that snow-globe A assembled today.  The camera pulls back to show a catatonic Maya at a nursing home staring at it blankly.  In the background, Dr. Bob Hartley comments to Dr. Jack Shepard, "She stares at that thing all day, every day, without saying a word.  I wonder what is going through her mind?"

That would be perfect, mac123x. Be on the lookout for anything that would place PLL in the Tommy Westphall Universe, too!

[FineWashables]

Well Mona certainly looks dead but then I thought back to creepy Mask Maker guy.  (Whatever happened to him?)  I'm figuring he could make a dead-eye effect for her to use and she could have had one of those shots where you seem dead but aren't.  Hey, it worked for Romeo and Juliet and this show doesn't have nearly as much pride as that one did.

[jane1978]

Well Mona certainly looks dead but then I thought back to creepy Mask Maker guy.  (Whatever happened to him?)  I'm figuring he could make a dead-eye effect for her to use and she could have had one of those shots where you seem dead but aren't.  Hey, it worked for Romeo and Juliet and this show doesn't have nearly as much pride as that one did.

 

I have no doubt Mona is truly dead. But I think there was a longer time jump between the moment we saw PLL discover the murder scene and when "A" put her dead body into the trunk. I think it was real Alison who we saw enter Mona´s house, but she didn´t murder her, she convinced her/forced her to pretend her own dead and disappear because there is yet another twist about the murder night she knows and we don´t. That´s why there was no body and the crime scene was so bloody. It was fake and too blatant and clearly not A´s usual MO. And that´s how they explain why Alison smiled to herself when the police announced Mona had been murdered. Because her plan worked.

 

Unfortunatelly, what nobody knows yet is that someone actually found Mona in her secret hiding place and murdered her for real.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I have no doubt Mona is truly dead. But I think there was a longer time jump between the moment we saw PLL discover the murder scene and when "A" put her dead body into the trunk. I think it was real Alison who we saw enter Mona´s house, but she didn´t murder her, she convinced her/forced her to pretend her own dead and disappear because there is yet another twist about the murder night she knows and we don´t. That´s why there was no body and the crime scene was so bloody. It was fake and too blatant and clearly not A´s usual MO. And that´s how they explain why Alison smiled to herself when the police announced Mona had been murdered. Because her plan worked.

 

Unfortunatelly, what nobody knows yet is that someone actually found Mona in her secret hiding place and murdered her for real.

 

And the Rosewood Police Dept. being so completely inept they will just assume all that blood in the house is Mona's and not do anything like simple blood typing or DNA testing to actually prove it's Mona's blood.  Because there was a lot of blood just on the ground floor of Mona's house the body would have to have been completely exsanguinated -- the cops will look pretty embarrassed once they determine it's all grenadine and chocolate syrup. </snark>

Edited September 16, 2014 by ottoDbusdriver

[jane1978]

And the Rosewood Police Dept. being so completely inept they will just assume all that blood in the house is Mona's and not do anything like simple blood typing or DNA testing to actually prove it's Mona's blood.  Because there was a lot of blood just on the ground floor of Mona's house the body would have to have been completely exsanguinated -- the cops will look pretty embarrassed once they determine it's all grenadine and chocolate syrup. </snark>

 

That could be the reason why they purposefully didn´t have the smart woman cop on the case at the moment, only her young partner. And that partner also had undescript meeting with Alison some time before and he commented on Hanna being cute more than once and Alison and Hanna are practically twins. So he may well be part of whatever Alison´s new plan is.