Tonight was the #fAtalfinale and let’s just say, the holiday season in Rosewood is not cheery at all.

The episode opens with a crime scene outside of a house we’ve never seen. There’s police tape everywhere and Aria, Emily and Hanna are distraught and in tears. Spencer is nowhere to be seen and once again, the girls are asked for a statement regarding someones death. Hanna appears to be the most distraught, so I imagine you’ve narrowed it down to a few Rosewood residents. The girls get a text that twists the knife: “It’s all your fault. -A”

We are then taken 36 hours previous to the crime scene. Alison is at the police station telling her so-called side of the story through the use of a lie detector. Alison Lauren DiLaurentis doesn’t seem to have anything to hide. But let’s be honest…she’s mastered the art of lying.

The girls are worried and know Alison is going to turn her back on them after all they’ve done. So what do they do? They find the 2nd best liar in town and ask Mona for help. Mona, however, is not too fond of the idea. She realizes that she owes the girls a lot for things that happened in the past, but Alison is already pissed at Mona. She knows that helping them will probably not end well for her. Mona’s mom knows too.

After the girls leave Mona’s humble abode, she calls a code “A” and that means it’s time for Team Mona to assemble. Team Mona now only consists of Mona and Lucas. Alison manipulated her way in and recruited the others, convincing them that “crazy Mona” is back.

Mona reassembles a new team and decides to provide some information to the four that asked her for help the previous day. She reveals that Ali took a lie detector test and passed with flying colors. “If you believe a lie, it becomes the truth,” Mona says knowingly. The former “A” has the same bad thought Hanna had last week – Alison is “A” and she’s playing a game. Now that the girls don’t want to play anymore, Alison is hellbent on ending the game.

On the relationship front (yes, they still have relationships), Paily has reunited, Ezria is baking some pie for Thanksgiving at the Montgomery’s, and Spoby celebrates Toby’s graduation from the police academy!

Mona promised the girls that she would find out what Ali said during her polygraph test and she doesn’t fail to provide. She teams up with Lucas and the police station is completely oblivious to the fact that a teenage boy I standing over a computer and Mona sitting on a toilet hacking into the system.

With all the hooplah surrounding Alison’s lies, Emily attempts being normal and that means decorating the house for Christmas. It’s such a cute scene with Hanna, Caleb and Paige helping the girl that loves Christmas.

Mona shows the video of Alison’s polygraph test. They ask Alison one too many questions about Spencer and the night at the barn. The final statement Alison makes is as follows: “I didn’t have anything to do with Bethany Young’s murder.”

And with that statement, she is no longer a suspect in Bethany Young’s murder. However, Spencer looking really bad considering her pill popping problem and her “desperation” to keep Alison from telling anyone. An affidavit was sent to the DA to possibly issue an arrest warrant on Spencer and Alison’s got everyone right where she wants them.

Team Mona 2.0 gets together to find Bethany Young’s files from Radley Sanitarium. Mona and Spencer rock nurses outfits sneaking in like they weren’t once patients there. Hanna and Caleb stake it out outside, while Aria creates a diversion inside and Emily entertains Ali at home. I love all the parts they play, but Detective Hollbrook comes to stir up the party. He runs into Aria and asks about her volunteering at Radley and Spencer’s involvement in the decision. Hollbrook needs to go away.

Alison and Emily’s confrontation had me at the edge of my seat. For Emily to straight up ask Alison if she’s “A” was such a bold move. Ali had the closest relationship with Emily, and a part of me doesn’t believe that it was all fake. If Ali was pissed before at the girls turning there back on her, she even more pissed at this little stunt Emily pulled. Luckily for Alison, she has other game pieces to play with.

While Spencer and Mona look through the Radley files, they have a small conversation about colleges and you know what? I’m so proud of these girls for having great grades while investigating the murders of several people in their town. After the two finish one-upping each other, they come across a recording of Bethany talking about Mrs. DiLaurentis and all her lies, even comparing her to Alison, which means that Alison knew Bethany!

While Spencer is on the Radley mission, Toby, who’s heading to his ceremony at the police academy, calls wondering where she is. He’s antsy and nervous and fumbles around with his phone and right before commercial break we are left with the noise of a car crash. Is Toby the one who dies this episode?! I would be heartbroken, but they wouldn’t do that to us. I mean, that wouldn’t be the #fatalfinale moment would it?

Nope, it isn’t. The girls spend Thanksgiving morning at the Brew and Toby is sitting there with his leg in a cast. It’s supposed to be a nice day spent with family and friends, but Paige drops the bomb that Ali is building an army and Hollbrook barges in arresting Spencer. It’s not looking like the girls are going to have a good Thanksgiving at all.

Mona spends her morning in her room doing some more investigating with the audio tapes they took from Radley when she hears the news about Spencer. She takes a break to see her mother off to their relative’s house. Mona promises that she’ll leave in an hour to join the rest of her family, but a certain blonde girl has some other plans stalking from the bushes. This is not sitting well with me at all.

Mona calls Aria telling her she has proof that Alison is “A”. The music gets intense and we all know something is about to go down. While Mona stares at herself in the mirror confidently thinking she’s finally going to take down Alison, the blonde intruder interrupts the celebration.

The girls, sans Spencer, enter Mona’s finding everything a mess and blood all over the walls. At this point I knew Mona met her #FatalFinale, but a part of me wanted it to be the intruder. We’re taken back to the scene that opened the episode and Detective Hollbrook reveals a body wasn’t found, but judging by all the blood, Mona Vanderwaal was murdered. I’m tearing up just thinking about it. While the girls take comfort in their loves, Alison looks on like she’s proud of herself and I’m sick.

Later that night, “A” steals baby Jesus from Emily’s front yard and places Mona’s doll in his place. “A” opens a trunk and reveals Mona’s body. The whole fandom was thinking that Mona would blink those eyes of hers, but sadly she did not.

We’re then left with “A” prepping for Christmas and I’ve got the chills.

People come and go in Rosewood, but Mona’s death hurt the most. When Alison came back, I was rooting for her. I actually thought she was going to change, but she didn’t. I think a part of me would’ve been okay if it was Ali that died and Mona that prevailed. Mona was helping the girls and I thought she genuinely wanted to make things right and live the normal life being happy with Mike and going to college. She was smart and resourceful and although she used it for a few bad reasons in the beginning, in the end she was using her skills to stop all the lying. For her to go like that, is just heartbreaking to me.

I’m just done with Alison. I mean, it’s implied that the intruder was Alison, but we don’t really have 100% confirmation that it was actually her that murdered Mona. But I’m just done with that liAr. Thoughts?

With that being said..I wonder what kind of gifts “A” has for the girls on Christmas.

#RIPMona

XOXO,
A.