PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: Tricked or Treated?

Last night’s Pretty Little Liars served up tricks from Alison and treats for viewers. “The First Secret” was a complete flashback episode showing us Alison and the girls getting ready for the Halloween party at school. The mood for this episode is set from the very first scene where Emily is babysitting a little boy, and Alison is there telling a scary story about twin girls who do everything together, but when they fight over the same doll, one twin stabs the other with a kitchen knife. The parents walk in on the scene with the little girl smiling and appearing unaware of what she had done. Creepy, no? The effect on the little boy was exactly what Alison was going for. He was completely terrified. One would not be surprised at this point to find out that Alison was telling her own, personal story.

We’ve been shown Alison’s twisted hold over the girls many times throughout the seasons, but never more than in this episode. Without going into scene-by-scene breakdown, basically Alison sets up the girls for a major trick with the help of Noel Kahn. He is supposed to kidnap her and take her to an old, abandoned house that has a spooky history of its own. Alison sends text messages to the girls telling them all to meet her there. When they do, she is terrified of someone who is after her. She tells them all to wait in the room and lock the door, letting no one in but herself. Through a crack in the door, the girls witness Alison getting attacked with someone in a creepy mask, but they are helpless because the door has been jammed and they can’t get out.

They watch as Alison kicks the masked attacker and runs. the girls climb out the window and go back into the house. Sorry, but at this point, I would have kept running or called for help. But these four go back inside and find Alison calmly sitting in a rocking chair in one of the rooms, holding a very big knife. She’s actually laughing at the girls! This just reaffirms my belief that Alison DeLaurentis was a psychopath. Apparently, Alison was testing the girls to see if she could really trust them with any of her secrets.

Some things to note from “The First Secret”:

• Alison received a creepy, voodoo-like doll with a note that said “It’s my turn to torture you”. This could have been from anyone, as we had seen Alison’s mean treatment of Mona, Jason and Lucas.
• Alison received the first “A” text message that said “I’m watching you”.
• We kept seeing this same masked person following Alison throughout the episode. Also, there were many wearing the same costume at the party, and oddly enough, they were all watching Alison.
• Alison hid the voodoo doll in her heating vent in a box containing odds and ends, including another creepy doll who’s head was broken off. This is where Alison stashes the note that came with the voodoo doll. Why? And isn’t that the same box that Jason gave to Aria?
• Jenna challenged Alison’s “rule” by standing up to her at the party, which she attended wearing the costume Alison told her not to wear.
• Alison promises to help Spencer win the class president election and does so by stealing some of the ballots. She gives them to Spencer at the party and Spencer promptly burns them but someone is watching all this go down.
• Jenna made friends with Mona at the party. What happened then? Why aren’t they besties now?
• In this episode, we are again shown the scene where Aria and Alison catch Byron smooching in his car with one of his students. Aria doesn’t want to attend the Halloween party but Alison pretty much threatens her into going.
• Another text message to Alison from A says “Dying to know who I am? You’ll find out.”
• We see Alison and Ian filming each other, but at this point Ian is dating Melissa. Was this the beginning of their affair? Why did Alison pick Ian? Was it because she didn’t like Melissa, because that was very clear in their interactions.