PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: Thoughts on “Through a Glass, Darkly”

First of all, I’d like to say welcome back Pretty Little Liars! I missed them all during the holidays, although the Christmas episode certainly was a treat to hold us over till last night’s premiere.

“Through a Glass, Darkly” picks up three months after the fall finale, and the girls are once again donning the little black dresses. This time it’s for Mona’s funeral, though the coffin was only filled with momentos of Mona, since they don’t have a body yet. I found it a bit hypocritical of the girls, with the exception maybe of Hannah, to attend the funeral of a girl they didn’t like at all, and only found a use for her skills when they wanted to track ‘A’ or clear Spencer. More on that later though.

Photo credit: ABC Family/Eric McCandless

Alison puts in an appearance and mistakenly shares her condolences with Mona’s mother, who promptly slaps her face (hard, too!) and demands Ali reveal the location of Mona’s body. Ali is clearly shaken up by this attack as are the Liars, who are looking on.

In other news, the police are trying hard to pin Bethany Young’s death on Spencer and the letter she found at Radley, proving that Ali and Bethany knew each other and had met, did nothing for her defense. It doesn’t help that Ali’s brother, Jason, provides Ali with an alibi for the night of her murder. Spencer confronts him to try and get him to tell the truth about that night.

In desperately trying to nail Ali with Bethany’s death, clearing Spencer once and for all, the Liars go all out to find evidence against her. Caleb tries to break security codes on Mona’s laptop, Emily steals a hairbrush from Ali’s room with the idea of planting a piece of hair in Mona’s house.

Here’s where it get’s really good. When Spencer locates the perfect spot to plant Alison’s hair, she notices a camera inside an air vent. It’s pointed directly at the spot on the front door where a bloody hand print was found. Hannah plants the idea in Mrs. Vanderwahl’s mind that Mona was afraid of someone and had once thought of putting cameras all around the house. Of course the police are called in again and find the camera, which shows Mona’s struggle with a person with long, blonde hair.

Jason identifies the attacker as looking very much like his sister and the police arrest Alison for the murder of Bethany Young. This clears Spencer and all charges are dropped. Just before her arrest Alison is stopped in her flight by the Liars. She tells them that ‘A’ is framing her and that if she is put away she can’t protect the girls. The Liars remain a brick wall against Ali and her final words to them are “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Honestly, I don’t think that Ali is ‘A’ for obvious reasons – the fireworks at the end of the episode, for one. I do believe that Ali was framed. I don’t think she’s completely innocent in all of this story, but I don’t think she’s ‘A’.

Photo credit: ABC Family/Eric McCandless

There were some tender moments in the episode, one made me tear up and stands out as the best emotional moment. It was when Aria talks with her brother. Mike has been pretty cold and unemotional throughout the news about Mona’s death and her funeral. What he said to Aria hit a very definite truth that, although we love our girls, rang sadly true. He told Aria he had a hard time watching everyone at Mona’s funeral because no one knew her the way he did. And no one liked her. This is a sticking point with me too. No one liked Mona; the girls hated her, and rightly so when she was ‘A’. What Mike was saying was that he found it sickening to watch a town full of anti-Mona’s showing up at her funeral and crying tears over her. Sorry, but I’m with Mike on this one. He was totally right.

Hannah wants to seek out Mona’s body so she has the idea to tap Mrs. Grunwald, from Ravenswood. I think this was my favorite moment from last night’s premiere. First off, I love Meg Foster and seeing her return on PLL was a treat for me. I hope we get more of her. Second, I still miss “Ravenswood”!

Hannah hopes to tap into Grunwald’s “sight” to try and find Mona. Of course, Caleb is totally against anything having to do with Ravenswood or Grunwald, so Hannah’s on her own. She takes a stuffed dog given to her by Mrs. Vanderwaal as her point of contact with Mona. A mysterious breeze starts up inside the mausoleum and flower petals begin to fall from mounted bouquets attached to the  graves. Shades of “Ravenswood”. Caleb would have been out the door before the first petal fell.

MEG FOSTER as MRS. GRUNWALD
Photo: ABC FAMILY/Eric McCandless

Grunwald tells Hannah that Mona is in a dark place; it’s cold and there are insects, and she’s frightened. She mentions betrayal too. She says of Alison and Mona that each one knew something about the other, each one feared the other and each one hated the other. I think we should remember this as the rest of the season unfolds. It was a creepy scene and I loved it.

I know there are a lot of you who are pretty excited about Toby being one of Rosewood’s Finest, but I think this is going to spell trouble for Spencer and him in the long run. He is now a by-the-book law officer and Spencer’s history with the law in Rosewood is not great. She doesn’t trust them and now he’s part of that world. It’s going to be a test for them, that’s for sure.

This was a great return for “Pretty Little Liars” and I am giving the episode 4 out of 5 slaps heard around the world. (I didn’t care about Paige and Emily.)

Next week Spencer and Toby are at odds while Emily and Aria struggle with situations that are out of their control in “Fresh Meat,” an all-new episode of ABC Family’s hit original series“Pretty Little Liars,” premiering Tuesday, January 13th (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT).