Disappointing end to long awaited finale for ‘Pretty Little Liars’

September 15, 2017 — by Ava Hooman

Columnist rants how the PLL series finale should have played out.

For seven years, I followed the insane, endless mystery of “Pretty Little Liars.” Unfortunately, I was left feeling unsatisfied when the final final episode aired on June 27.

The show follows four girls, Spencer, Aria, Hanna and Emily, and their tormentor “A.” After their friend Alison disappeared 10 years before, they started receiving threats that endangered them and their loved-ones. In the show’s finale, their last tormentor was revealed as none other than Spencer’s twin sister, who we had no idea even existed. The buildup to her reveal made me quite disappointed, and I felt I deserved more as a loyal fan after waiting for seven seasons.

Although I had a theory that Spencer had a twin, I expected her twin to be Bethany Young, a character that we knew about but never saw. Making Bethany her twin would make more sense with the plot rather than adding a new character, Avery Drake.

The finale also spent a large amount of time resolving any issues the couples of the show had. I was annoyed at this choice, because the couples have all been together practically since the show began. The producers haphazardly resolved every issue between couples in the last episode to ensure a happy ending.

The show had so much time in the last season to incorporate the final struggles of PLL relationships, yet chose to hold it off until the last episode. The final season was filled with the producers making more and more problems for the couples and not resolving any of them, and the finale made a very temporary solution.

It’s no secret that the plot has holes in it. However, I was expecting a sense of closure — which I didn’t get in the finale. Throughout the show, there were misleading clues that have never been explained. For example, when a nurse at a mental institution recognized Aria, fans were quick to say that Aria must have been a mental patient.

But alas, Aria was never revealed to be mentally ill. We were also misled when we saw many different characters torture the girls, yet none of them turned out to be “A.” It’s safe to say that I was more confused than satisfied at the end of the episode.

If I were to redo the finale, I would definitely make Bethany Young Spencer’s twin. Bethany would have a reason to hurt the girls, unlike Avery. Avery didn’t have any real motive and her reason for all of this was so different from the original “A” revealed in Season 2, Mona.

Instead of the other three stable couples, I would also focus more on the couple of Spencer and Toby, who deserve a concrete ending. For the last couple of seasons, they have been on and off but never really together, and it frustrated me when we didn’t get any sort of ending for them.

Finally, it would make sense to have Aria be a mentally ill patient. There were little clues throughout the show that would support this theory of mine and many other PLL fans — for example, when Aria trashed her dad’s office and Ezra’s apartment. This was something that I was really hoping the writers would reveal in the finale, but sadly they didn’t.

A show that has been viewed for so long and has so much devotion from fans should understand its responsibility to satisfy its viewers after seven years of mystery. It was not a pretty little finale.

 
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