PRETTY LITTLE LIARS REVIEW: Is [Spoiler] Really ‘A’?

If you haven’t watched last night’s season premiere of Pretty Little Liars, you may want to skip reading this until you’ve had a chance to do so. A lot happened in that one hour and it was all important stuff.

My head is still swirling with all that happened in “Escape From New York”. I watched both airings of the show and I am still no closer to understanding what just happened and why. I’m hoping some of you clever PLL fans will add your own thoughts to my musings here and we can sort some of it out, anyway.

Basically, here’s a list of the highlights:

• Ezra is rushed to the hospital in an ambulance that is also carrying ‘A’ on its roof. This is spotted by Alison.
• The girls hatch a plan that would allow Aria to keep tabs on Ezra and Alison to escape, since ‘A’ is still clearly targeting both.
• Using the excuse that Alison sent her, Shana shows up at the hospital to wait with Aria for Ezra to come out of surgery.
• With Aria and Shana both at Ezra’s bedside, he wakes up and goes into code blue at the sight of Shana.
• Ali lures ‘A’ out of the hospital and into a park where ‘A’ confronts her, face to…well, masked face. Ali sprays pepper spray in ‘A’s face and Hannah, Spencer and Emily come out and surround ‘A’. They are then surrounded by many masked people until the police arrive and everyone scatters.
• Ali takes Emily, Hannah and Spencer to a theater nearby to hide out until they hear from Aria about Ezra. The theater is owned by Ezra’s family and Ali had used it many times before to hide.
• Cece grabs Ali as the girls were sleeping and tells her that she needed Ali’s help to get away. Ali had a plane ticket and passport which she gave to Cece, along with some cash, and Cece leaves for France. Ali later tells Emily that Cece was the one who helped Ali rescue Emily from the saw in the mill, and that Cece had been helping her all along.
• Mona is gathering an army to take down Alison, now that she’s known to be alive. Included in her posse are Luke and Paige. The group is made up of all of Ali’s ‘victims’. Melissa is the leader of this mini organization.
• Melissa is about to tell her mother the big secret that she whispered to her father in the season 4 finale. She also almost tells Holbrook when he comes to the Hasting’s house to tell them that Alison is definitely alive and is likely with the girls. What is this secret that Melissa and her father share?
• Speaking of whispers, Ezra wakes up to find Aria by his bedside, no Shana in sight. He whispers something to Aria and she runs out into the hallway looking for someone.
• At the theater, Aria had been communicating with the girls on the land line there but when Holbrook discovers that Ezra is a Fitzgerald and that they own the theater, he calls the phone number and Ali picks up, thinking it’s Aria.
• As the girls quickly gather their things to leave the theater, the lights go out and the spotlights come on them. And Shana walks on the stage pointing a gun at Alison. She apparently is ‘A’.
• Aria arrives at the theater in time to disarm Shana, but as she pushes at her, Shana falls off the stage and dies. The girls think it’s all over and prepare to finally go home.

So, was Shana really ‘A’ all this time? She says she did it all because of Jenna and what happened to her. But Ali told Shana that Jenna was just playing her, which Shana doesn’t believe. What I don’t get is why did we watch Shana leave Rosewood after tossing her cell phone out the window and seeing a threatening message written across the ‘Welcome” sign? If she’s ‘A’ why were we shown that?

Personally, I don’t think Shana was the only ‘A’. I am going back to the idea that Melissa is the original ‘A’. I’d love to find out what that secret between her and Mr. Hastings is.

Also, I found it suspiciously suggestive that Cece looks so much like Alison. Is that a nod to the books? Perhaps someone who has read the books can enlighten me? And did Cece play Ali? Did she use her to get out of the country? I’m suspicious of her and something tells me we haven’t seen the last of her.

So, can you all help me untangle the web? What are your thoughts on last night’s episode?