Masquerade! Burning glaces turning heads
Masquerade! Stop and stare at the sea of smiles around you
Masquerade! Seething shadows burning lies
Masquerade! You can fool any friend you ever knew you
Masquerade! Leering satyrs, peering eyes
Masquerade! Run and hide but a face will still pursue you …
– from Andrew Lloyd Weber‘s The Phantom of the Opera
The Season 2 finale of Pretty Little Liars left me just about as breathless as the show is known to do. The one problem? All the good moments were saved for the last 20 minutes. (But isn’t that the way it is with most teen dramas?)
I spent the better part of the past week — make that month — ruminating over who A could be. In a way, no matter who A was, it would be both obvious and a surprise. We knew who the contenders were: Melissa, Jenna, Garrett, Lucas, and Mona. The fact that Mona is discovered to be A — or, at least, one of the As — was fairly satisfying to me, merely because her motive was a bit more subtle than, say, Jenna’s. Mona’s revenge, as well as her personality disorder (as diagnosed by the long-lost Dr. Sullivan), is a lot more self-reflective, as well as representative of the current state of adolescent and teenage social issues.
Bullying is a theme that flashes and glistens throughout each episode of PLL; and we now come to understand that beneath Mona’s glamorous, superficial exterior is a wounded persona. One element that I think took everyone by surprise was how smart and cunning Mona actually is. Her intelligence not only played a huge part in her scheming as A, but also served as her own Achilles’ heel: not only could she not get out of the Liars’ lives, she could not get outside of her own head.
But of course, all is not resolved in Rosewood. Mona’s reference to “The A Team,” not to mention evidence from past episodes, points to the fact that she is not the only omniscient one. (Especially during the end credits, when Mona says weakly, “I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to.” Is she talking to Jenna? Or someone else?) The writers do a good job of leaving us in the lurch once again.
Speaking of which, you know how I said that PLL saved all the action for the last few scenes? Well, even after all of the Mona action at Lookout Point, I could not have prepared myself for the last scene. Watching Emily run in terror toward the house, and discovering that the body that was found was most likely Maya’s — that was a shocking twist that we are all just going to have to wait until the summer premiere to explore.
Some other scenes worth mentioning in this finale:
OK, if I now have Weber songs in my head for the rest of the day, I’m blaming you.
*POST AUTHOR*
Ha ha! Oh, I’m sorry, Katie. It’s just that I can’t NOT think of “Masquerade” whenever there’s a ball of this type on a show. :)