HomeTVPretty Little Liars season 5 Taking This One To The Grave recap

Pretty Little Liars season 5 Taking This One To The Grave recap

Pretty Little Liarsā€™ served up one hell of a shock during its midseason finale setting up for a very interesting second half of season 5.

If you haven’t seen the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars and donā€™t want any spoilers we suggest you stop reading now. If you have seen it and want to relive all the action then keep reading.

For the past few weeks a major death has been teased for the Pretty Little Liars midseason finale and last nightā€™s episode certainly didnā€™t disappoint. Before we get to that death though weā€™ll take a look at the events that led up to it.

The episode opened with Hanna (Ashley Benson), Emily (Shay Mitchell), Aria (Lucy Hale) and Ezra (Ian Harding) staring at a house in shock in the midst of police and passers-by as news of a murder began to circulate. The episode then jumped back in time to explain what happened prior.

As predicted last week Alison (Sasha Pieterse) went to the police and took a lie detector test promptly throwing Spencer (Troian Bellisario) under a bus in the process and telling them about her drug addiction. As Ali spun her web, the other girls turned to Mona (Janel Parrish) for help as they all started to suspect that maybe Ali was in fact A.

Pretty Little Liars season 5 episode 12
Credit: ABC Family

It was also quickly established that Monaā€™s army had changed allegiance with only Lucas (Brendan Robinson) sticking by her side. Turns out that Aliā€™s still able to convince people to flock around her despite everything sheā€™s done. Mona and Lucas hatched a plan to get into the police station and get the video of Ali taking the lie detector test, which Mona then shared with the other girls. The group also discovered that Aliā€™s lie detector test got her off the hook with the police and that the prime suspect in the murder of Bethany Young was now Spencer.

Battling against time Spencer and Mona decided to break in to Radley with the help of Aria, Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) and Hanna. A near-miss with Detective Holbrook (Sean Faris) saw Spencer and Mona locate the files about Bethany and steal them. Before they did, they uncovered a tape that confirmed Jessica DiLaurentis (Andrea Parker) had been having an affair with Bethanyā€™s father.

Whilst most of the group were infiltrating Radley, Emily was given the unenviable task of occupying Ali. Under the ruse that she wanted to repair their friendship Emily did everything she could to keep Ali in her house but Ali is no oneā€™s fool and soon sussed it all out after snooping at Emilyā€™s phone. As Ali left the house, Paige (Lindsey Shaw) was just arriving and she saw Ali get in the car with two members of Monaā€™s former army. Rather than share that news with everyone immediately, Paige followed them in her car.

As they made a quick exit from Radley, Spencer spoke to Toby (Keegan Allen) on the phone as he was on his way to his police academy ceremony. Already late to meet him, Spencer assured him she would be there but an unexpected car crash put a stop to that (and Toby with his leg in plaster for a month!).

The next day at The Brew, Paige burst in on the group to tell them everything sheā€™d seen including Ali building her own army using a farm house as her base but was interrupted by Detective Holbrook who arrested Spencer for the murder of Bethany Young!

Pretty Little Liars season 5 episode 12
Credit: ABC Family

Mona was back at her house sifting through Bethanyā€™s files and discovered that Ali had lured Bethany to Rosewood after finding out about her motherā€™s affair. Mona called Aria to tell her that information and after getting off the phone came face-to-face with A who looked a lot like Alison but surely it isnā€™t as that would be too simple right?

The next thing you know the girls arrive at Monaā€™s house to hear more about what she discovered only to find blood everywhere and the house in a complete mess. As the girls dealt with the shock of their discovery, Holbrook confirmed to the press that he believed a murder had taken place but that no body was found. Monaā€™s poor mother looked on hysterical and Ali looked pretty pleased as she watched the girls grieving.

Elsewhere in the episode Paige and Emily appeared to be on the road to getting back together and shared a kiss in the school halls. Another couple rekindling an old flame was Aria and Ezra who were preparing to spend Thanksgiving at the Montgomery house. Have Ariaā€™s parents really forgiven Ezra that easily?

We also learned that when sheā€™s not been harassed by A, pulled into emotional relationship drama and battling with her feelings for Ali, Emily is a huge fan of Christmas. She roped all of her friends in to decorate her house and we have to say that huge nativity scene outside of the house is pretty over-the-top Em!

Is Mona really dead? Well a shot of her lifeless and bloody body in the boot of Aā€™s car suggests that she is. As Aā€™s final move the little Jesus in Emilyā€™s nativity scene outside of her house was replaced with a Mona doll.

Are you surprised that it was Mona who bit the dust?

Pretty Little Liars will be back for a Christmas special in December before returning for the second half of season 5 in January 2015.

Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of PiƱata Media. With over 19 years of journalism experience, Pip has interviewed some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world. He is also a qualified digital marketing expert with over 20 years of experience.

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