#charles dilaurentis

Who is Bethany Young? I find it shady that we have never seen this girl’s face or any kind of flashback’s of her. The only time we heard her voice, it sounded exactly like the Sara Harvey we know now in Season 6.

Marlene and the producers have sworn that Alison will not have a twin in the show, which is stupid because the entire book series is about Alison and her sister Courtney. Uber A is Alison Dilaurentis. The only reason the four girls became friends in the first place was because Courtney stole Alison’s life and had to ditch her old popular friends and make new ones, which were the four liars and that’s why A tormented them.

The show has made tons of references of twins throughout the seasons, but since Alison won’t have a twin, that means someone else will.

I think it is going to be Bethany and Sara. I think the story about the twins in 2x13 is about them. My theory:

Sara Harvey = Real Alison Dilaurentis  & Bethany Young = Courtney Dilaurentis.

In the books, Alison was always jealous of Courtney because people liked her more than Alison. So she tricked her parents into believing that Courtney was crazy and a threat to Alison and they sent Courtney away to Radley and neglected her. The real Alison Dilaurentis was a bitch to everyone and hated by everyone. She sounds a lot like the old Sara Harvey before she went “missing”. The Bethany Young voice in the recording sounds kind and confused, reminds me a lot like Courtney and the “Alison” the girls knew. The Sara Harvey that shows up in Season 6 is very different than described by her friends to Hanna. Sure, she may have went through a lot, but their is still something very shady about her. Here is what I think happened…

I think that Bethany stole Sara’s life and tricked her into switching places, putting the real Sara Harvey in Radley where Bethany had been living all her life. I think the night Alison went missing, the real Sara found a way out of Radley, to seek out revenge on her sister and the real Bethany came out to Rosewood that night to face Sara. I think Charles knew the real Bethany and possibly grew up with her Radley and even had a close relationship/bond with her. Perhaps, Bethany told him all the stories about how Sara tormented her and tricked her parents into neglecting her and thinking she was crazy and when they switched places, he formed a fake friendship with Sara. I believe both Sara and Bethany were wearing the same outfit and the real Bethany was hit by the shovel by either one of the four girl’s that mistook her for Alison or maybe the real Sara and this greatly upset Charles because he cared for Bethany. Bethany is then pushed into the grave and buried alive by Melissa. This is when Charles takes Sara for his dollhouse, but when things don’t go as planned and the girls are rescued, Sara is released. However, I do not think she is the fragile girl she has been playing out to be. I think her being in that dollhouse for two years might has made her more crazy than she is leading on.

In 4x24, Alison told everyone her story on what happened the night she went “missing”. We see her running around town being a brat in her infamous yellow top, get hit with a rock in front of her mom, get buried alive by her mom, etc.

We are certain that two other girls were wearing the exact same outfit that night for unknown reasons. Cece Drake was confirmed as one of the females and Bethany Young was confirmed as the other when she was buried alive by Melissa. We know that Cece liked to impersonate Alison in the past. Key note: We never actually see Bethany’s face in the show and I think this is for a reason the producers aren’t saying. Sara Harvey is a girl who went missing the same night as Alison and was later seen in the dollhouse wearing that same infamous outfit, but we aren’t 100% how plays into that night quite yet. 

In the 1x01, you see the girls having alcohol. On the most important night in PLL history, the four liars are now intoxicated with an unknown amount of alcohol.

Secondly, Alison reveals that she gave the girls her mom’s sleeping medication so she could sneak out. She is seen stealing her mother’s prescription that is labeled, “sedative sleep aid” which could be anything from Ambien (Zolpidem) to Restoril (Temazepam), but it literally could be anything and doesn’t really matter because a sedative will have similar side effects.

A small lesson in pharmacology, I’m going to use Ambien as my example since it’s a very commonly prescribed sleeping medication and like I said, the side effects are similar throughout most sedatives.

Zolpidem may cause series side effects, including:

You may get up out of bed while not being fully awake and do an activity that you do not know you are doing. The next morning, you may not remember that you did anything during the night. That is in bold on the medication guide. Reported activities include: driving a car (“sleep driving”), sleep walking, making and eating food, talking on the phone, having sex. Symptoms include more outgoing or aggressive behavior than normal,confusion,agitation,hallucinations, suicidal thoughts or actions, memory loss, anxiety. You have a higher chance of doing these activities if you drink alcohol or take other medicines with zolpidem.

Now the reason I posted the above about all the medication information is because I think it plays an important part.

Let’s move on to Spencer. Spencer was also on medication. She was on an amphetamine (stimulant) of some sort, whether it be Adderall, Ritalin, etc.

We know that because it’s a stimulant and mixed with a sedative, the drug interaction cancel each other out, allowing her to be awake that night.

But because she also had the sedative and alcohol in her body, it can cause memory loss and other major side effects like listed above. So far, she is the only one confirmed that was fully awake that night out of the four girls. Not only is it confirmed by Alison, which isn’t really a reliable witness based on Alison’s track record for honesty, but we see it ourselves in 1x01, Melissa sees her with the shovel and arguing with Alison, and their is a photograph of Spencer chasing Alison. 

Spencer also has flashbacks/memories of chasing after Alison with a shovel and hitting her in the head.

Emily also has a similar flashback/memory. However, it deemed not real and only a hallucination created by trauma because Alison is not dead after all and Alison wasn’t hit with a shovel, but a rock.

Was it only a hallucination or real memories? We aren’t sure. Or perhaps it was a partial hallucination and she did hit someone, but it wasn’t Alison, just someone she mistook for Alison; after all, their were a total of 3… possibly 4 girls running around the same area with the exact same outfit and they all had similar appearances.

And it was confirmed that Bethany Young’s murder weapon was a shovel, but she died from suffocation. Alison also reassured that it wasn’t Spencer who hit her or Alison because Spencer was sound asleep in the barn, but is she telling the truth? Alison claiming that Spencer was sound asleep doesn’t make sense and add up with Melissa’s story or what we see in 1x01 when Aria wakes up and it’s dark outside, asking where is Ali and Spencer and Spencer walks into the barn all dazed and confused after wandering around outside saying she looked for Alison everywhere and she thinks she heard her scream. Spencer did not appear like she slept at all that night. Which means that either Spencer went back to sleep for a few short minutes and woke up again or never went back to sleep to begin with and Alison lied. After all, Alison is the only one alive who can testify on what happened that night and seems to breathe lies. The minute she had the opportunity to tell the truth to the police alongside the four liars, she spun a huge story about being kidnapped and forced the liars to play along.

In episode, 1x11 a lot is revealed.

First, this is where we are first shown a clue that Alison is alive and she tells us so plainly even though we do not even realize it.

“I was so scared that you were going to die… that’s why I came back. I didn’t care how dangerous it was, I had to see you.” -Alison

Hanna asks Alison about what happened to her after she left the barn and that they all want to know.

“You already do. The four of you combined. You remember more about that night than you think you do.” -Alison

Why would she imply that if they didn’t do anything that night except be intoxicated as well as drugged, causing them to simply sleep through the entire night like she claims in her Season 4 revelation? Apparently the four of them combined should have memories of that night on what happened. Perhaps, Alison didn’t know what would happen when she put those sleeping pills in their drinks. Maybe she didn’t know it would give them amnesia and maybe even worse, cause things like aggression or sleep walking? It was after all decision to she made at the last minute to sneak out of the house because her mom was forbidding her to leave all the sudden without reason. I just know their is more to the story involving the four girls and that night. Something that would allow this Uber A or Charles to hate the four girls so much and torment them all those years. Because if you calculate Alison’s timeline of that night along with Melissa’s story of her accidentally killing Bethany to protect Spencer, it doesn’t make sense and all add up. Someone is leaving something out. “A” doesn’t just torment you, kidnap you, and try to kill you multiple times because you’re simply high school friends with someone… that’s amateur and we all know it. Their is a real reason behind all of this.

Aria was the first to wake up that night and the least tortured out of the four liars. She also had a lot of clues to split personalities by using mirrors, keeping huge secrets, etc throughout the seasons. I think she is more involved in some way. I think if she is not on the A team, than all of those clues imply that Aria is guilty of something. 

In the books, Aria pushed an Alison look-alike off the roof of a building and killed her so I would not be surprised if Marlene decided to take that story and change it up a bit like she did with Mona being the first A.

The Pretty Little Liars 6A finale was more of a disappointment than I am to my parents.

We are back in the Dollhouse the lighted pathway is flashing and the creepy girl over the speaker says “Please proceed to Ali’s room and prepare for arrival.” The doors unlock and one by one the clearly traumatised Liars file out of their rooms slowly. 

First Aria then Spencer followed by Emily, no sign of Hanna yet. Clearly it’s been a rough few weeks, they are all on the verge of tears and to top it off A has forced them in to their pilot-episode-attire. Yup that’s right Spencer’s rocking the nerd-chic, Emily’s donning what looks like a blue velvet ‘Rosewood Sharks tracksuit’ and Aria’s hair has been chopped off and the pink streaks are back. I can’t help but wonder if A did the hack job himself or whether he made Aria cut it. Either way Charles is clearly wanting the Liars to regress to their younger selves. This pretty much confirms he was there the night Ali got hit right?

“I would ask if you’re ok, but -” Emily starts before Aria quickly cuts in “Let’s not talk about what we just went through. At least not until we get out of here.” Spencer adds “I don’t know if I could even find the words” and my heart broke into a million pieces. If Spencer’s broken then we know it’s bad! At this point I was thinking there’s definitely been some rape going on here but Bryan M Holdman one of the show’s main writers has confirmed they weren’t. Phew!

Hanna appears (not in a fat suit I might add) and there’s this weird exchange of ashamed looks before Emily breaks the tension saying “We’re all together again. Ok? It’s going to be ok.” There’s a beautiful ButtahBenzo moment where Emily pulls Hanna in close (am I the only person who would ship Hanily?) which is swiftly interrupted by A ushering them along to Ali’s room. Not wanting to get in trouble again off they go.

They get to Ali’s dollhouse replica room and there’s 3 boxes on the bed containing all her belongings from home. Amongst the stuff they find a newspaper detailing Ali’s release from prison and Emily, eiffel tower in hand, deduces they must be getting ready for the arrival of the real Ali.  Uh oh doesn’t that make Monalison disposable?

Hanna who has physically distanced herself from the Liars (definitely some subtext going on in the blocking of this scene) asks “Did A force you guys to sign the welcome card for Ali?” Spencer and Aria exchange a twitchy ‘let’s not talk about this’ look and then carry on reading the paper. Spencer informs the others Ali refused police protection. Emily says “So Ali’s a sitting duck?” - throwback to 4x25 when Hanna and Spencer have the argument over ducks and geese.

Hanna, acting very skittish, reacts strangely to this conversation. She looks over to A’s surveillance camera and the light flashes 3 times almost like she’s being told what to do. She looks apprehensive but walks over to the Liars and says “If A brings Ali here does that mean he won’t need Mona anymore?”

Theory: So at this point I think we can safely assume Hanna has been psychologically damaged the most by the last few weeks. I think A’s aim was to turn the Liars against each other but looks like Hanna feels the most singled out. Or has A coerced her to join the A team? Kind of looks like she’s following orders right?

So we cut to a scene of A checking up on Mona who is trapped at the bottom of a giant empty well - shit just got dark. This scene looks like it’s been lifted from Silence of the Lambs, like the PLL crew fancied filming on another set for the day and just moseyed over and filmed it on the actual Silence of the Lambs set.  Anyway I digress. 

Mona pleads with Charles to let her out “If you let me out I promise I’ll be a good Ali. The best you’ll ever find, just give me a chance and you’ll see.” Aww poor Mona (who we can all agree looks terrible in that blonde wig) - it’s going to be hard to top the performance of the real Ali isn’t it?

Theory: I wonder if this is what happened with the other blonde prisoner. Was she Ali until Mona came along and then chucked aside like a doll? Or is she there to play the part of Bethany Young? Or is she in fact Bethany Young? 

Charles turns to leave and Mona screams (horrifyingly realistic performance by Janel here) “No, no, don’t leave me here. Please don’t leave me here.” Charles being the asshole that he is ignores her and walks away satisfied that he doesn’t have a corpse on his hands just yet.

Back to Ali’s bedroom where the girls are in full swing unpacking to make it feel more - dare I say - homely *shudders*. Hanna finds a photo album from the day at the lake where Ali famously said; “That’s immortality my darlings” and we first heard about the kissing rock. The girls reminisce on what douchebags they were for letting Ali call Lucas ‘hermie’ and for blinding Jenna. Emily states “We are not the same people we were back then… including Ali” (I smell Emison). 

Sidenote: The kissing rock is a reoccurring image in this episode. I can’t help but feel like there’s a few things that happened there that we don’t know about yet. A has clearly seen or been with Ali to the kissing rock at some point right? I automatically associate it with the N.A.T club because of the scene with Ian the night Ali got hit - perhaps that’s the link?

Spencer finds a wooden toy car (it might be a boat I couldn’t tell) with the initials C.D carved into it. Convenient ey? The cogs in Spencer’s brain are turning but Aria interrupts and calls her over to inspect the wardrobe. Detective Hastings doesn’t have time for this shit because she’s now searching the box presumably for more C.D. stuff but when she suggests Hanna helps, Aria snaps “Hanna is busy.” Again a bit of a hostile vibe towards Hanna between the liars. Sparia (friendship goals) find a message on the back of the wardrobe. It says “HE’S GOING TO KILL ME - M.” Oh dear Mona you’re probably right!

Back to Rosewood’s finest (more like useless) PD HQ and the first thing we learn is that our beloved Radley Sanitarium has been closed due to an “unexpected sale.” Tanner is totally on to Toby and gives him a grilling about Ali’s disappearing act (that girl goes missing every other episode I swear) when Detective Maple spots a blonde guy in a cap walking behind the news reporter assuming it’s Andrew (it definitely is, I’d recognise that buff bod any day). They spend way too much time lingering on the shot of Maple analysing ‘Andrew’s’ car’s registration number. We get it Barry, you’re a pro now!

Theory: Remember that episode where a guy in a cap meets with Melissa behind Spencer’s house - are you thinking what I’m thinking? The way I see it you’ve got potentially 2 groups in play here. You’ve got Big A (Charles) who has a tragic back story and is undoubtedly going to be linked to Bethany, Marion and the Dilaurentis family. Then you’ve got Melissa Hasting’s posse which included Mona, Lucas, Cindy/Mindy and potentially Andrew? Also completely off topic but remember when the Liar’s found the Charles Dilaurentis anagram in Mona’s room? Well Mona obviously doesn’t know who Charles is so she clearly didn’t leave them but shady Andrew was hanging around outside so he blatantly did. Or what if he’s an anti-hero who knows about Charles and was trying to clue the girls in without giving his game away? 

Cut back to Ali looking scared in the forest part 2 - low and behold she’s at the kissing rock. There’s a cute close up of the ‘EF + AD’ love heart which makes my inner Emison-fan swoon. In the distance Ali hears that song Marlene won’t stop banging on about on Twitter ‘Patsy Cline - Walkin’ After Midnight’. She investigates and finds a car with a pre-determined route in the satnav to take her to the dollhouse (how very Mona of you Charles #tbt 2x12). 

There’s an irrelevant scene with Caleb and Ezra showing they are still firmly on Ali’s tail. All I could think was dear God Ezra will you just please shave already? You look like a peadophile… oh wait.

Back to the Dollhouse and the girls have all received a box with their belongings. It’s quite sweet that he’s trying to make them feel at home in a completely psychopathic and creepy way. I can’t help but wonder at this point whether the other blonde prisoner knows that she’s got a shitty dark dungeon cell while the Liars mope about their exact replica bedrooms. Lifes a bitch ey?

And here it is the moment we’ve all been waiting for… the return of Aria’s handpuppet Pigtunia! We all know this thing is gonna be a key player in the night Ali went missing. 

The girls get emotional talking about the stress their families must be going through since they don’t know the girls are alive and Aria gets sassy with A: “I will kill you for what you’re doing to our families.” I would love it if Aria does end up taking down Charles. She’s small… but she’s big.

Hanna reads that her Mum has been taken to hospital because of the trauma of their kidnapping in the yet-to-be-authenticated newspaper. Spencer gets agitated and pulls out - wait for it - an etch-a-sketch. She brags about winning an etch-a-sketch contest when she was in the 3rd grade. The sad thing is no PLL viewer is surprised by this fact at all. Anyway she writes out “Charles is a Dilaurentis” and the girls look shocked. So the girls make a plan to break out again when the generator conveniently turns off at midnight. Yes because that worked out so well for them last time. 

Sidenote: I forget that the girls don’t know as much as we know. When I watched this scene my reaction was “well duh Spence we’ve known this for months because the Twittersphere worked out those anagrams minutes after they aired” but of course at this point all they know is Spencer’s whacked up brain figured out some alphabet blocks that spelled Charles.

PART 4 COMING UP…

So as I was saying before my hand cramped up, it’s 3 weeks later and conveniently we cut back to a media gathering that’s going to fill in those plot holes we have missed. The girls have been missing almost a month, the police know Mona is alive so Ali’s murder conviction has been overturned and Andrew ‘shady-mc-hottie-pants’ Campbell is the top suspect for the kidnapping but is on the run.

Ezra and Caleb are at the press conference looking pretty twitchy as Ali comes out to deliver a well-rehearsed plea to Andrew to not hurt the girls. She emphasises “My friends have always been my rock. Without them I am lost in the woods, totally alone.”

Sidenote: I wonder if any of the actual PLL crew are in this scene just doing their job. Like the sound guys who usually have to get out of shot but still crane their boom mics to pic up the sound are like “yup, just doing ma job guys nothing to see here.” Either that or there’s some awesome picture out there where you’ve got this weird box within a box type situation where we see a set of professional camera and sound crew filming and doing audio of a bunch of actors pretending to do those jobs in this scene. Just imagine the professional crew offering tips to their actor counterparts on their break like “you wanna hold the mic like this and angle it towards her like this. Yeah that’s way more realistic.” My production mind went on a bit of ramble there sorry, back to the ep.

Also it looks like Caleb has spotted the definitely somehow connected but annoyingly irrelevant twins Cindy and Mindy. This kind of ties back to my whole ‘Mona’s still shady af’ theory because the last we saw of these two they were being double agents for Mona. We were meant to believe Ali had won them over but then we saw them smiling as Ali went down for murder so that sorted that mystery out. Are they complicit in the bigger picture I wonder?

Back inside it’s revealed that Ali is playing bait so Tanner and the cop clang can lure Andrew to them. Agreeing to use a teenager as bait for a potential murderer/serial kidnapper… classy Rosewood PD antics. Tanner reassure’s Mr D that Ali will be protected by police 24/7 and that they know Andrew has been obsessed with the girls since Ali went missing. To end the scene, Toby and Ali exchange a ‘we’re up to something’ look (Toby’s got that bad boy I-was-A-once look about him in this shot).

Sidenote: We’ll find out about Andrew’s obsession with the girls later in the episode but at this point I’m kind of disheartened. I don’t think Andrew is Charles but if it turns out Andrew has been messing with the girls for years that feels like a storyline plucked out of thin air in Season 5. If it was going to be any of the background male characters surely it should have been Noel because he’s had the most involvement with the storylines, Ali and her enemies (he’s dated most of them). Or Lucas? Andrew’s character just has no real substance to him at this point.

So back in the dollhouse we see the mystery blonde prisoner who we are all thinking at this point has got to be either Sarah Harvey or a not-dead Bethany Young, am I right? Anyway she’s providing some creepy meals-on-wheels service for the liars. Spencer gets down and looks under the door (fairly certain there was room for her to look up and see it’s not Mona but anyway) they all start screaming “Mona help us!” “Mona is that you?” “Mona!” and blonde girl starts freaking out so she totters out of there with her trolley without feeding the other girls. Rude!

Cut back to Ali’s house where it’s evening now. They all freak out over the back door opening. The cops get their guns out and wait for the person to turn the corner. But it’s just Jason looking mighty fine. 

Do they think A is a fucking amateur? Yes he’s been torturing these girls for years, set up a fake murder that their dumbasses believed enough to send all 5 girls to prison for but he’s just going to let himself in through the back door and steal Ali away is he? 

Theory: I’m more of a CeCe is A kinda girl so I’m not sole on the whole Charles-is-Jason’s-twin theory just yet but I do appreciate it’d be genius if Charles has been pretending to be Jason this whole time. His own Dad thinks he’s a useless junkie but he’s actually this criminal mastermind with unlimited resources and has had everyone fooled for years. That’d show them! But for real I think the Jason twin theory is too obvious after 5x25… or are they betting on us discrediting this theory because it’s too obvious? God damn you PLL writers you’re in my head!

So just when everyones getting relaxed again Ali’s phone rings and it’s a blocked number. Let’s just take a second here. I think we can safely say that everyone under the age of 35 knows that this screen on an iPhone means you’re dialling out to someone. Is Ali banking on Tanner being so old that she doesn’t realise or are PLL seriously relying on their mainly teenage fan-base not knowing how a friggin iPhone works? Also update your iOS software Ali jesus - if you can have Emily and Hanna dance to Bang Bang by Jessie J and reference Disney’s Frozen we can safely assume the writers don’t give a fuck about keeping the mise-en-scene accurate for 2012. Update that skanky tech already!

In true A fashion we don’t hear a voice just a cryptic old song and Ali keeps him on the phone whilst Detective Barry Maple (in his flashy new “I got promoted” suit) traces the call to - wait for it - INSIDE THE HOUSE I REPEAT THE CALLER IS INSIDE THE HOUSE! A has some serious balls am I right?

So what do you do when you’ve got a potential psycho loose in the house? Hide the vulnerable target in a very accessible closet alone of course. I mean bravo Tanner, by these standards I think I could be a police officer. I loved the fact there was gift wrapping paper in there. I half expected to see Ali wrapped up as a present in the back of A’s car as he drove her off to the Dollhouse singing “Happy Birthday to Me.” Spoiler alert: that doesn’t happen!

Meanwhile upstairs Toby seems to have learnt everything he needs to know about holding his gun from the Police Academy films. He’s trying to act like a total bad ass in front of Tanner but when they find a a black hooded figure rocking in a chair in Ali’s room he looks like he’s legit going to shit himself. But it’s not A, it’s not even a person. It turns out it’s just a mannequin with a pig mask on - standard.

Sidenote: There’s lot’s of reoccurring themes and imagery in this show I might have to dedicate a whole other post to. On the subject of pigs though, Aria’s hand puppet Pigtunia makes a cameo later in this episode and remember that pig in Wilden’s car in the Season 3 finale? Hmm no coincidences in Rosewood Marlene tells us!

So Ali has made a run for it. This is the first of many times we see her running through the forest tonight. Tanner thinks Ali figured out Andrew wanted to meet her at the Campbell farm because the song playing over the phone earlier was ‘Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree’ (Toby says his mum use to play it to him). That’s right, the head of the police force is admitting a teenager outsmarted them. God I love this show, the adults are always so clueless!

Ezra and Caleb are waiting in a car nervously. You know they are nervous because they are both biting their finger nails. Genuinely, I’m not kidding. Ian Harding and Tyler Blackburn were like “how can we really convey our anxiety in this scene man? I want it to be really raw and authentic.” And they came up with synchronised nail-biting. 

Moving swiftly on, Ali gets in the car and we learn they’ve set the police up to go on a wild goose chase to the Campbell Farm thanks to a stellar act put on by Officer Toby might I say. So the dream team (comprised of an ex-couple and an ex-ghost hunter) have a plan: Ezra says “Are you sure Andrew would have got the message about the rock and being lost in the woods?” to which Ali replies “Believe me he’ll be at the kissing rock. He wouldn’t miss a chance to get his hands on me.” 

Theory: Ok so firstly Ali and the boys also seem convinced Andrew is A at this point but what’s more interesting is Ali seems sure he’ll meet her at the kissing rock. Was Andrew another one of Ali’s man-candy’s from back in the day? There must be some reason Ali thinks he’d get the message about meeting her there? Could he be the mysterious beach hottie? Did she see him at the kissing rock that night after Ian left? If so that means Aria has had 2 of Ali’s leftover boyfriends who are obsessed with her and end up stalking her and the liars… awkward!

The boys give Ali to a pair of boots (classy gents). These boots were made for walking… and specially fitted with a gps tracking device in the heel so they can follow where A takes her Caleb explains - #Codetastic.

PART 3 COMING UP…

WOW what an episode… I mean excuse me while I check myself into Radley. OH WAIT RADLEY IS FRIGGIN CLOSED! So not only has I. Marlene King driven me insane with (in my opinion) the best Pretty Little Liars episode of all time but now there isn’t even a mental hospital for me to check myself in to. Good job Mar! 

Ok I’m going to jump right into this PLLarmy because it’s been a long few months of PLL-less existence. So Season 6… here we go:

Previously on Pretty Little Liars…(aka the best 5 words in the english language at this point)

So after recapping the important bits from 5x25 (Girls get kidnapped, Ali is chain gang af, Andrew is bad, Caleb has a hackathon, Charles is A and apparently has a ‘soul’ etc) we just jump straight into the GASP OUT LOUD moments. We see the scene of the girls escaping the Dollhouse from last episode but this time from the perspective of another prisoner. Another Ali look alike with dirty blonde hair in the infamous yellow top (seriously, did Mandi Line just stock up on those things in Season 1?).  She’s drawing a sun on the wall (doesn’t look like she’s seen the real thing for a few years poor girl) when she hears the Liars running towards the exit. She goes over to inspect but instead of trying to escape with them she just slinks back into her dark room and sits on her bed. Behind her we see she’s been keeping a tally of the days she’s been locked up there… SORRY DIDN’T REALISE I WAS WATCHING A SAW MOVIE?!

We cut back to the scene of the liars busting out the door and running towards a tall fence surrounding the grounds. Before becoming human kebabs Spencer alerts them to the high voltage sign and Charles chooses to rub salt in the wound by being a patronising asshole and playing the song “Don’t Fence Me In” over the speakers. 

Quick sidenote: Charles clearly doesn’t want to kill these girls, he’s had ample opportunity over the last 5 seasons so I would have hedged my bets he’d shut the electricity off and started climbing that fence to freedom.

They all realise there’s no way out but Aria is quick to add “I’m not going back down there” and right on Q the doors electronically slam shut leaving the girls stranded. Talk about a rock and a hard place… well a locked door and an electric fence to be more specific! Hanna then addresses the camera with possibly the best line of the night (and there are some cracking ones)…

“You may be a dude but you’re still a bitch” - I mean this had me in stitches. Sassy Hanna FTW!

Charles having a bit of a tantrum about this shuts off the music and the lights leaving the Liars (and Princess Peach… I mean Mona) in the dark. They ignore this power play and jump right in to discussing what Spencer knows about Charles since she was, ya know, like 3 inches away from him AND DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO TAKE OFF HIS MASK (i’m not over it)! Mona asks Spencer if she recognised anything about him, his smell even? Sassy Emily replies “She’s not Jenna” THESE GIRLS ARE ON FORM TONIGHT! Spencer says there was something familiar about him like the feeling you get when you meet a penpal, a cousin or someone you knew when you were really little. 

Theory: what if he’s all 3? He’s been cyber stalking and texting the girls for years, he is basically a modern day penpal (a demented torturous one nonetheless), he’s obviously someone she knew when she was little because they made a point of telling us the Hastings use to go to the Campbell Apple Farm. As for the cousin thing, well I’m still not sure how I think Charles fits into the Dilaurentis family but either way he will be some sort of distant or implied relation to the Hastings I’m sure.

So the girls move swiftly on from who their potential torturer is to where they could possibly be geographically and how long they’ve been missing for. Hanna sarcastically remarks they could be in the Amazon (which I hope to God all you younger fans know is the world’s largest tropical rainforest in South America not the company that ships you DVD boxsets overnight… you do remember DVDs right?). Spencer whips out a bit of astronomy to point out they must still be in the Northern Hemisphere. “I was saying that facetiously” brainiac Hanna replies (just to remind us that she’s not dumb anymore… we got it Marlene, we got it). “Wow that’s an 11 letter word Hanna” Mona says in disbelief but really she’s thinking “Did Hanna suddenly figure out she was smart when I supposedly died? I’ve been saying that shit for years, I’m taking the credit!”. I imagine just off-camera Spencer is writing that word down to whip out at the next game of scrabble she has with Toby.

I’m just going to leave this here… no judging. I had to look up the spelling!

So we have a little montage of the girls being locked out in this prison-esque courtyard for what looks like 1 night and 1 day against all the elements - rain, storms, sweltering heat.

And then we cut back to harsh cold night again and the girls discuss how long they can survive without food (about 3 weeks) and water (some people can only go a few days Spencer informs us). They play who’s the thirstiest by describing what lengths they’d go to to get some form of drink - Aria says she’d drink her own pee. Hanna would suck on a pee ice cube but Emily wins because she’d lick sweat off a jock strap…

Something quite important happens next when the girls are all on the verge of crumbling. Aria says “I don’t know how much longer I can handle this” and Mona gives us a glimpse into just how badly she’s been tortured these past few months when she says “You can handle this Aria… we all can.” What she’s really saying is “You think this is bad? You just wait.”

The next morning the girls wake up to find the door is open for them to re-enter the dollhouse (so for those of you keeping track of time they’ve been without food and water for 1 day and 2 whole nights). They hesitate (as they should) and debate what to do but conclude that the punishment is over and that they should stick together. 

Sidenote: I think the concept of them sticking together will be really important in future episodes this season because as you’ll see later on I think Charles changes methods of torture to try and turn them against each other - to divide and conquer. But for now they are very much together and strong.

They are walking down the lighted pathway when the lights go off and we get our first glimpse of Charles this episode and of course he’s throwing a smoke bomb to gas the shit out them. That’s so Charles. But don’t worry he remembered Monalison’s present from 5x25, the gas mask, so he can steal her away.

Theory: Now I know this is going to sound ridiculous but there’s something about Mona’s reaction that just doesn’t sit right with me. It seems - dare I say it - planned. She looks like she’s waiting for Charles to put the mask on her and she doesn’t really struggle at all when Charles grabs her. When the smoke clears are we to assume she’s too shocked and weak to even try and fight him off? Hmm I just don’t trust her after this scene.

And the title sequence rolls… At this point “Got a secret can you keep it?” is the soundtrack to my life. Also when it gets to “Cause 2 can keep a secret if 1 of them is dead” at this point I find it hard to stop myself from shouting BUT NOONE IS ACTUALLY DEAD. Anyway moving swiftly on…

We come back to possibly the creepiest scene in PLL history. All 4 liars are lying naked and unconscious on morgue tables… FRIGGIN MORGUE TABLES! 

Confused and more than just a little disturbed they all sit up. Spencer says “I feel like my brain is being pulling out through my eye sockets” meanwhile Emily is relieved to find A hasn’t harvested their organs. “Emily, we’d be dead” Hanna remarks, Em comes back with “You only need 1 kidney” . The one liners just keep on coming! 

They take it in turns to check themselves out, make sure both tits are still perky and in place. Then in classic PLL fashion, Detective Spencer (the smart one just incase you didn’t catch that sarcasm) comes to the conclusion that A wanted them to look dead to send a message to their families… to stop looking for them. Because of course someone looking really dead proves they are dead… *cough* except for *cough*Mona*cough*Ian*cough*probably Garrett & Mrs D at this point too. 

In all seriousness though this scene strikes me as very self-referential and a bit of a *wink* to the audience from Marlene. It’s poking fun at the fact that no one is ever actually dead even when they seem it on this show. I kind of love Marlene for throwing that subtle jibe in there but it also makes me wonder who else we’ll see return from the grave.

Back to the action where Mona dressed as a candy striper (is that the right term? I’m english so although I’m familiar with the outfit from various shows the name is lost on me) offers the girls aspirin and juice. At this point I’d be like “HELLS NO AM I ACCEPTING DRUGS FROM CHARLES WHO JUST LAID ME UP ON A MORGUE TABLE LOOKING DEAD AF.” Mona makes it clear she’s back in character as Ali but admits she’s as scared as they are. We learn they’ve only been unconscious for a few hours and Mona has been in her room the whole time. The female voice (which we can now assume belongs to the other blonde prisoner we saw in the first scene) comes over the speaker system “please return to your rooms and find your surprises.” Mona turns and stares directly into A’s camera and says “No” and then after A’s message is repeated she refuses again.

The 3 chimes blare out over the speakers and Mona says rather redundantly “3 chimes means we have to go to our rooms… or else” - well no shit sherlock! I just imagine Charles is sitting behind his creepy desk like “I just said that TWICE you dumb bitch… are you deaf to everything but coded jingles now? Jeez, I’m torturing morons.”

So the girls chase after Monalison clutching their morgue death-sheets. They quiz her on what “or else” means. At this point surely they’d just stop asking and assume it’s some bad shit but Marlene clearly wants us to know what A has in store for Mona so she reveals “It steals you in the night and puts you in the hole.” Dum dum dum… what’s the hole? Oh you’ll soon find out my little liars.

Theory: That’s right I’m back to this #sorrynotsorry but this scene adds to my ‘Mona is being shady’ evidence because she comes strutting in to the morgue as Ali. She seems to have very much learned her lesson from being stuck outside for 2 days (and the months of torture before) and knows that she shouldn’t piss Charles off. Then within a minute she’s disobeying him which is fair enough, you go girl, but she clearly knew that would lead to some sort of punishment so why then does she act so surprised and fold when he threatens her? Also it seems like she’s very aware that she’s probably going to be taken to ‘the hole.’ Is that her way of telling the liars where to find her? Could she be in on the game and is therefore just trying to look more like a victim to the Liars? It would be really dark and twisted if that was the case. Just imagine if Mona never stopped being A, she just joined forces with the other big bad in Rosewood. Considering what’s about to unfold it’s highly unlikely but just a thought…

Irrelevant sidenote: Had a little déjà vu here of Troian & Shay donning bed sheets in the brilliant short film “Immediately Afterlife” (see photo below) . Interestingly it was written and directed by Kyle Hasday and Matt Stewart who use to be production assistants on PLL. Shout out to the awesome Bros Watch PLL Too podcast with Troian this week for that bit of trivia. This is actually quite sentimental to me because I saw this short film a few years ago on Kickstarter before I even knew PLL existed (thank God for Netflix). So this scene was not only déjà vu but also freakishly nostalgic.

Back to the episode. Deciding it’s best not to anger Charles any more they all file off to their bedrooms. They turn and give each other this one last longing look before going in.

Aria hesitates and is the last to enter but all doors soon slam shut before a chorus of pleas and screaming comes from the rooms. As best as I can tell Spencer shouts “No, no, no” Emily shouts “Don’t do this” Hanna just screams and then Aria shouts “No please don’t do this” (good try Aria but manners won’t do you any favours in the dollhouse). They all descend into blood-curdling screaming - the kind more regularly found in a horror movie not a teen show on ABC Family. 

Theory: What do you guys think is happening when they scream? There’s got to be someone in each of their rooms right? Because why the sudden outcry unless there was actually a physical threat? I imagine there’s an A minion donning a mask and black hoodie in their rooms pouncing on them, forcing them into their pilot-retro clothing and chaining/wiring them to some electro-shock desks for the weird psychological torture to transpire (I’ll elaborate more on this when we come to the promo for next week’s episode 6x02). 

Three Weeks Later…I have heard the writers say countless times that we live in a hyperreality in Rosewood and so the timeline, although helpful for big plot points, is ultimately irrelevant BUT just thought I’d point out the fun fact we spent 2 WHOLE SEASONS (from 3B to end of 5A) in November 2011 but in less than 1 minute we basically skipped a month. (Shout out to http://rosewood-clues.tumblr.com/post/95925885693/pretty-little-liars-timeline for the timeline)

PART 2 COMING UP…

One of the major problems/plot holes of this show is that Alison and CeCe were friends.

CeCe was Alison’s mentor. She taught her how to be a mean manipulative bitch!!!!

WHY WOULD CECE CONDONE AND ENCOURAGE THIS BEHAVIOR TO ALISON IF SHE REALLY IS CHARLES AND DEALT WITH GENDER ISSUES AND FRIENDS LIKE LUCAS WHO WERE BULLIED?

It. Doesn’t. Make. Sense.
Something doesn’t add up.

Who is this person?
CeCe Drake?
Charlotte Drake?
Charlotte DiLaurentis?
Charles DiLaurentis?
Bethany Young?

The writers damn well better explain this because it’s a mess.

I literally can’t fall asleep right now because all these inconsistencies keep popping into my head and it’s driving me crazy. As much as I will be so sad not to theorize anymore, I need this show to be over and have some closure.