PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: 2 Shocking Reveals from “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”

Warning: This recap will contain major spoilers. If you have not yet watched the summer season finale of Pretty Little Liars, do not read any further.

“Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” stayed true to this show’s finale cliffhangers with its shocking reveal of who A actually and really is. If anyone saw this one coming, please comment below because I’m still reeling from it all. They played us all, folks. We all fell for him, cried for him, cheered for him. That’s right, A is a ‘him’.

In fact, A is EzrA! OMG! Seriously, that’s all I can say. O. M. G.

Who saw this coming? No one, that’s who. I’m not even surprised at the reveal that Ali is really still alive because we had strong clues to that for a long time – all season, in fact.

Throughout the episode the girls had been receiving ‘gifts’ from A: a coffin with a doll looking like Mona in it, a box with four 8 balls, each showing parts of a message from A, and a magic box with a saw inside, which lead the girls to Ravenswood and a magic show being put on there.

The girls showed some pluck in this episode. They made the decision to take a stand against A and hunt her down. Of course, they all thought that A was Cece. While at the magic show, ‘Charlemagne’ picks on Aria to help with his disappearing box trick. He makes her disappear and then reappear, but while the girls are focused on Aria, Emily disappears.

Thank goodness Em had her cell phone with her. The girls find her in a box in a mill ready to be sawed in half on a conveyor belt that is headed toward a giant saw. (Queue danger music from Dudley Do Right.) They also find, not one but two Red Coats. Aria chases after one and Spencer goes after the other while Hannah helps Em out of her almost coffin.

Aria corners her Red Coat, who turns out to be Cece, and they fight. Aria puts her martial arts training to work here. Cece grabs a rope hanging next to the catwalk and as she’s hanging on, it unravels and breaks. Aria catches her just in time but can’t hold onto her. Cece falls to the ground. The girls think she is dead and decide to call for the police but when they look back at Cece’s body, she is gone. Of course she’s not dead – yet.

Spencer tells the girls that she followed her Red Coat and she needs to take the girls there because it’s important. They go into an apartment that has photos and timelines of Ali and the girls, Cece, Wren, Mona, the burning cottage – every move made by the girls and the people that A has hired over the past seasons. They also find A’s financial records showing a company that is quite profitable. That’s where A is getting all the money to fund his plans. They find a sophisticated computer system that is hacked into the police and security systems in the girl’s houses. This is how A had eyes everywhere. They find a closet filled with mens suits and this is how we find out that A is a man. They also find a notice for a costume party being held that night. Ali’s name is written on it with a question mark. So A will be looking for Ali at this party. All this time someone is watching the girls.

Outside of the apartment the girls run into Mrs. Grunwald. She tells the girls they have to leave Ravenswood, like now. When the girls press her, she finally tells them how she knows Ali. Mrs. Grunwald is a seer and Ali had contacted her a long time ago because she was being followed. She was afraid and wanted to know who it was. On the night Ali went missing, Mrs. Grunwald had a bad feeling so she went to Rosewood in search of Ali. She saw Ali’s hand reaching through the ground toward life and helped her out of her grave. She drove Ali to a hospital but as she went inside for help, Ali left and Mrs. Grunwald hasn’t seen her since that night.

Mrs. Grunwald tells the girls that they should have felt their friend’s presence all along. When the girls ask why Ali won’t contact them, Grunwald tells them that she’s looking for someone she can trust, and she doesn’t think she can really trust the girls. (Now we know why.) Grunwald tells the girls that A is using them to find Ali. They will lead him right to her. She tells the girls to leave because Ali doesn’t want to be found. She’s still afraid. Grunwald turns to leave, but in parting she tells the girls, “He’s here.”

Spencer, Emily and Hannah are ready to leave so that Ali will be safe, but Aria wants to go to this party and try to find Ali and help her. They are standing right outside a costume shop and Aria tells the girls, “We’re crashing a party.” This sets up the 2-hour Halloween episode which will be the lead-in for Ravenswood.

In the last scene before the expected A scene, we see a man walk into A’s lair. As he slowly turns around we see it’s Ezra dressed in one of the suits from the closet and wearing a baseball cap. OMG! Ezra!!!

The A scene which finishes off the episode is A in costume as a 1940’s gas mask. Presumably getting ready for the costume party.

A few other things that happened:

• the charges against Ashley are dropped thanks to Travis’s confession and I.D. His description to the police artist yields apicture of Cece and the police start looking for her;
• after a dud date with Jake, Aria finds Ezra at the coffee shop and they strike up a conversation. She kisses him as Cece watches from outside;
• Caleb is called to Ravenswood by Hannah who is trying to hack into A’s computer. Kind of a limp send off for Caleb, I thought;
• Shawna is living at Wren’s house;
• Toby follows Shawna to Mona’s house. She hands Mona a piece of paper and Mona says, “Are you sure she’s OK with this?”, to which Shawna replies, “She doesn’t have a choice.”

Well played, ABC Family. Well played.