Pretty Little Liars- The Lady Killer

"Even the best laid plans go awry."

I've literally been avoiding writing my review of "The Lady Killer" because I just have absolutely no idea where to start. This is mainly because I have no idea what happened. The summer finale of Pretty Little Liars did exactly what it always does; it left fans in suspense with a killer cliffhanger but instead of answering our questions and tying the story line together it left more open plot lines. This means that there is no way any of us could predict what the hell is going to happen next season because really, whatever the writers want they can make it happen. Yeah, yeah Caleb has a gun and he gets shot. I'm sure he lives folks! That doesn't seem to be the biggest shocker of the episode to me! 

Lets talk about Toby. In the very last scene of the finale we see Toby walking away from Mona. He is one of the hooded figures we like to refer to as the A team. This automatically made everyone trace all his moves and motives from season 1 and I concluded that he would never hurt Spencer like that, especially after he just had sex with her. Sure, she's sleeping with the enemy, but is he the enemy? Who is he "betraying"??? Could it be that he is just on the A team to protect Spencer and the girls and help them find out who and what the A team is up to? If you recall, a couple of episodes back, he told Spencer he was skipping town and that if she wouldn't tell him the truth he would find out for himself. Could this be his way of doing that?? Yes, Toby has some motives to have hated Alison and wanted her dead, but this leads me to my next point. Also, consider "the pretty eyes" that A has always been referred to. 

What does the A-team want from the liars? Seems that the glue holding the A-team together is the mutual hate of Alison because she tormented them all and made their lives hell. So, why is this "A" game still happening. The reason why I cannot piece the puzzles together and figure out the next move is because I don't know what the whole vengeance and revenge has to do with anything anymore? At one point, it seemed that Ali's killer was also Maya's killer. We now from the finale that this isn't the case.

Nate, who wasn't actually Maya's cousin, but rather a crazy psycho stalker from True North, was the one that killed Maya. Or is he??? The writers set the episode up to let us believe that. The way he acted, the story he explained to Emily about how much he loved her, the video that he had. But the words "I killed Maya" never came out of his mouth right? And if theres something to know about PLL its that you must pay attention to small details. His actions, his threats and his violence towards Emily (and kidnapping of Paige) make it quite easy for us to figure that he also used that violence to kill Maya. Yet, we don't really know that. Nate wanted to harm Paige and let Emily know how it feels to have the person you love get taken away. Its same for us to "assume" that he killed Maya because he loved her so much and he wouldn't let her be with Emily. This lets us believe that the murder of Ali and the murder of Maya are not connected in any way. Thats what they want us to believe at least. All we do know is that Paige has found an alibi, and she looks innocent as hell now. Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. The death of Nate also means that Garrett is out of jail and off trial. I mean he was only in there because he was suspected of killing Maya right.  Also, that phone call stating "Emily I owe you one," who did it come from? Did it come from Mona who was so thrilled that they didn't even have to frame Paige with Maya's phone to free Garrett, was it from Garrett who was just freed, or was it from Jenna, who clearly wanted Nate dead. He was always very hostile towards Jenna and very persistent on taking her out. Why? Because she saw him with Maya and she knew that he was her killer. He wanted to get rid of Jenna just like he got rid of Maya.

Which leads us to the next step in the mystery. Garrett is free. Why does Garrett still look so damn creepy?? That smile. We all saw it. It isn't innocent. Just cause he didn't kill Maya doesn't mean he didn't kill Ali. And why in the world does Mona want Garrett free? Could it possibly be because he is also part of the A team?? Honestly, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if Mrs. Hastings was as well. She is always a pinch too close to protecting Garrett. It is also safe to say that Ren cannot be trusted. The only way that Mona can get out of the institute so easily is with help from the inside. It has never really been explained why Ren is always volunteering at the hospital. Clearly, there has to be another person that is part of the A team that we still are not aware of. After they revealed Toby's face, it seems really irrelevant to have the very last scene showing a hooded figure calling in for Halloween Bash tickets in that same grungy scary voice still covered up. If we know its Toby, why keep it such a mystery? Because its yet another piece of the puzzle. Could it be Ren? Garrett? Paige? And where was Jenna and Noel. Lets not forget Jenna dated Garrett. Melissa was also very close to Garrett.

Secrets. Secrets is what keeps the world turning. The liars all have individual secrets of their own. Apparently, so do their loved ones. Ezra seems to be the only one that isn't involved with the A team in some way. Seems to be is the key word here. Although when Maggie just conveniently happened to be in town and decided to visit Ezra, she indicated that her and "Amy" weren't the only ones with secrets in this room. What could that mean about Ezra? Does Maggie know something about Ezra that could potentially be a threat to Aria? Sure, Aria knows about the kid. Maggie now knows that Aria was snooping and pretending to be Amy but there has to be way more to this storyline than the baby-mama drama. 

Which bring me to the next point in secrets. What secrets do these girls actually have? We see how easy it is for anyone to be a traitor on this show. Emily is always in the middle of all the action. Whenever shit is going down, you can trust that its all going to revolve around Emily and her love stories. Could it be that she is working with the A team. Who shot Caleb in the light house? If you think about it clearly, once he put the gun down, it was much to far for Nate to shoot it. Even if Nate wasn't completely dead, the amount of force it would take for him to get up, grab the gun, aim and shoot, would not overpower Caleb's quick moves. And if Nate had shot the gun, it would shoot Emily, who was covering Caleb. He also had more incentive to shoot Emily than to shoot Caleb right? So could it be that Caleb shot himself to cover Emily's ass. Once the cops get involved he can just explain that there was a hassle with weapons and he shot out of self defense, or did Emily shoot Caleb? Seems far stretched, but you actually never know. Also, Caleb was way to keen on holding on to Maya's bag and how did he know which lakehouse cabin Emily was staying at??? He arrived there before the girls? Did they arrive to the same one? When they barged in no one was inside of the house that Paige was just tied up at. So where the hell did they go? How is Caleb even one step ahead of the liars? Fishy stuff I tell you.

Now, right after Spencer's intimate moment with Toby which we all ooo'ed and ahh'ed, he was leaving town again and he said "I know who you are, you don't have to be sorry." Has it ever occurred to anyone that Spencer is always very quick to point fingers at everyone. Each new suspect, she thinks is A. Is she so set on finding A because she has something to hide. Could it possibly be that Spencer killed Alison? Or is Spencer part of the A-team. Think back to the last season finale. Mona asked Spencer to join the A-team stating that "your either with us or your against us." Which clearly means your either with the A-team or dead. You see what I mean by there is really no connection between Mona and Toby and no connection as to why they want the liars dead. We have so many potential candidates, so many mysterious people yet we cannot really figure out whats going on. The possibilities are rather endless. 

This brings me to my final question. This question has been burning in my mind since the very first episode. Is Alison alive? Think back to last seasons finale. Mona reported to a girl in the red coat and stated "I did everything you asked me too." While, Toby and Mona are part of the A-team, there is definitely a higher power running everything. There's only three blondes in Rosewood. Ali, Cici, and Hannah which I could see being in that red coat. Hannah was friends with Mona. They both were made fun of. CiCi did come out of nowhere and start running the town. There was also a scene where Jenna met someone in the park and mentioned she was glad to see them in town again, which leaves me wondering who was she talking to? I'm very wishy washy when it comes to Jenna's character because she has given me reasons to think she's on the A-team and than taken those reasons away. Also, CiCi cannot deny that she is way too familiar with the Kahn cabin, which is where Maya was staying right. Plus, she was the perfect set up to making us all point the "you're A" finger at Paige, which is just what Mona wanted to execute her free Garrett plan. 

Although the analyzing is fun, the episodes are way more enjoyable if you just get sucked into them and don't overthink. Our guilty pleasure is on hiatus until the airing of the Halloween episode October 23. Until than though, the writers and producers are leaving us fans with a very special present. The lies are definitely not about to stop. ABC family presents "Pretty Dirty Secrets", webisodes that follow some of the characters in Rosewood until the big Halloween Bash and air every Tuesday. Maybe, just maybe, we can piece the puzzle based on those webbies. Check out this weeks, "A ReservAtion".