Pretty Little Liars

[frelling_tralk]

CeCe being A really didn't feel earned to me, it wasn't anywhere near as emotionally devastating as I'd been hoping for (I was rooting for a really shocking reveal like Toby, someone that the girls knew and trusted). CeCe was a pretty random choice for A as she barely had a connection with the main four, only with Allison really. But then the whole twist of her really being Allison's sister was tied together pretty well in the end I guess. I'm not sure that it really was planned since season 3, it seems more like something that they started laying hints for in season 5 with Allison's return leading to all of the flashbacks with her and Mrs D and the hints of there being another little blonde girl? It seems so obvious in retrospect that Charles was transgender when you think back to moments like the Xmas episode and the two dresses that Allison was warned not to tell her father about, so that was well planned I guess. I think that everything was more or less tied together, but there were some major plotholes too, like Charles/CeCe witnessing Bethany killing Toby's mother as a young girl, even though Toby's mother didn't die until Toby was a teenager? The timelines on this show have always been a mess though lol. (And are they ever going to let the poor Mom's out! :P I don't know why they bothered showing them trapped in the previously's when they did nothing with it in the episode itself)

I wasn't really sold on trying to make CeCe sympathetic. Fair enough that she had reason to hate her father, but her motives were basically 'oh Mona said that Allison's friends were happy that she was gone', and that was enough for her to spend months tormenting them? I buy that Allison would have been touched by CeCe's story, especially as they were already close and acted like sisters, but the other girls appealing for CeCe not to jump because they know her story was pretty lame. They barely knew CeCe, and who would really want to save someone who had kept you locked up in a dollhouse and subjected you to months of trauma? It seemed like the writers wanted to start pushing 'A has a soul' and giving CeCe a tragic backstory, just because they were panicking about the reveal of A being a pretty minor character in the show and having no emotional payoff? A's actions against the girls always felt so personal, i.e recreating the night that Ali went missing and giving Aria back her old haircut with the pink streaks, so it didn't work for me to have CeCe have such impersonal motives and just talking about getting addicted to the game. It only really made sense for her to be obsessed with Allison and her family, not Allison's friends, and having her claim that she hated them because they didn't mourn Allison enough felt like such an afterthought

Sara being red coat AND black widow was incredibly underwhelming, wtf the character was only introduced this season??? They should have just had be CeCe black widow as well as being A, it ruins the impact of those scenes for me completely now to know who was really underneath that veil. I don't get what Sara's motives were at all, they never really explained that. I did cheer when Emily punched her though lol. But yeah, everything was so rushed that they should have just made the finale two hours long

And to change topics for a moment to talk about the flashforward, it's interesting making Allison a teacher, but lately I'm feeling like the writers aren't sure what to do with Allison since she's reformed? Her flashbacks were always so much fun when she was playing the ~mean girl~, and then season 5 also kept things interesting as everything about her was so ambiguous with the girls unsure of whether they could trust her or not, and she was clearly fighting against her worst instincts when it came to dealing with Mona and slapping her back. But since the show has made it clear that she has genuinely reformed and changed for the better, something about her seems really subdued compared to how she used to be, the writers even seem to present her as much older than her real age when it comes to her personal style. I guess her appearing older than her years makes sense with everything that she's been through, but I wish that they would give her some of her old spark back...

Comments

[ciaimpala.livejournal.com]

I was really underwhelmed and disappointed with the Cece as A reveal. I wanted it to be someone much more surprising and much more connected to the girls. I thought the Charles/Charlotte/Cece twist was interesting, and I agree that looking back there were some well-laid clues. It just wasn't what I was hoping for after all those years of speculation. And I liked the Sara reveal only because I had never liked her character and had suspected her as being evil, but I was hoping for more of a twist there as well.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this mid-season finale felt incredibly rushed and underwhelming.

I felt that the reveal would've been more interesting if it was someone that the girls knew and trusted, since I thought it was said that it was someone that was introduced during the first season, the first episode even. But apparently that was false advertising. I kept wanting someone like Wren to be "A" with Melissa being Red Coat/Black Widow, or someone else close to the girls that they either thought they trusted and wouldn't have suspected as being involved somehow. Someone unexpected.

(I still maintain the theory that Lucas is Uber "A", while Jenna and some others like Melissa have always been kind of in the shadows of his schemes)

While I liked how we saw the events from her perspective and how it all unfolded, and I rather enjoyed the performance of the actress a lot in those flashbacks and her explanations, a lot of things felt incredibly retconned for this to work. Some of it made sense, but other things didn't, and so many things were left unanswered. While I would love there to be a transgender storyline, which had been theorized for a bit that Charles may have transitioned at some point, it kind of felt incomplete of an explanation of everything that happened over the course of the seasons. Like, as you said, it didn't feel earned enough to just explain away that the reason why all of this happened was because of it since it felt like such a sudden thing to spring on us in such a short amount of time, and never mind that it leads to some rather unfortunate negativity with the representation of transgender issues being connected with a sociopath who wanted to play with people like they were dolls for the sake of revenge and being addicted to tormenting people.

(It doesn't help that Marlene King seems to be blaming the negative reviews of the episode with transphobia. Which, while I have seen some people make transphobic remarks in light of the reveal, that's not why most fans are complaining about the finale.)

The pacing and editing of the episode as well seem so off, especially towards the end where it seemed like they just threw in random clips. Like suddenly they're on the roof then the girls are leaving town and then it's a preview for five years later? Like? None of it seemed like a proper payoff after everything that they've been through, there was very little conclusion on many things. It was like they were in a hurry to close the whole "A" case to start the new chapter, which if that were the case then they shouldn't have lagged on for episodes and instead focused on the bigger plot points. I mean, why was Sarah even involved if she was only going to be revealed as someone who was working with Cece? Why did the show insist on pushing this faux relationship when it was literally going nowhere to fake us out? Just, it was so random and it felt really uneven, and overall it was a disappointing, lackluster of a mid-season finale. I kind of feel cheated, in a way.

They should have executed this better. Granted, considering all the fan theories that have been floating around for years, many of which were too brilliant for this show, any final reveal would've felt lackluster.

[braverys.livejournal.com]

I wasn't expecting it to be Cece either, but I think they explained their reasonings well enough. I mean, this is PLL, we shouldn't get our hopes up too high you know? That being said, the time jump should be interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what demons the girls face next.

[stolenglimpse.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to click on this post because of the spoilers but since I friended a PLL account on Facebook, I was completely spoiled of the A reveal with an image of Cece looking basically banged all up to hell.

My reactions to this, yes, reactions, were "F*, I've been spoiled for an ep I haven't seen" (still got 3 or 4 eps to catch up to) and after it was "Cece is A? Why her? Doesn't make sense."

I got spoiled more by reading your post but it's ok. I don't much care for red coat and Sara or anything. I know what to expect now for those missing eps but reading all this and it's really just a mess. It does feel like they rushed into choosing Cece and trying to buid a story to link her to everything. And Sara, well... whatever. How would she joine Cece in tormenting the girls. Why? Also, everything happened pretty fast. Ali disppeared and Sara as well. The same night?

I still need to catch up but the show kinda dropped down a bit because of this. I'll still enjoy it, just... meh on the big reveal. I don't know if it's because we've been expecting too much and this just feels like a major let down or what but... meh.

And for Marlene to pinpoint the whole transgender thing is what got the fans be so negative... NOPE. It just hasn't been done properly... too rushed...

Anyway, I'm speaking without having been fully caught up so I'll shut up now haha!

[favoritexrecord.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I believe Cece as A/Charles was really planned since season 3, either. It does seem like it was decided sometime in the last two seasons and then they backtracked to make it work.

Sarah as Red Coat/Black Widow was the most disappointing reveal on this show ever. Basically anyone else would have been better, including Bethany.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

Honestly, while I was disappointed by the CeCe reveal, I gave up on them ever making it anyone important when they backtracked on Toby and Ezra. At most, I thought maybe it would be someone like Jenna who at least had a reason to hate the girls. But I knew it wouldn't be any of the main characters because the writers have already proven they don't have the guts to go there.

I think it worked, to a certain degree. I liked the backstory for CeCe, despite the giant Marion-sized plot-hole. And I'm interested in seeing how the Ali-CeCe relationship develops from here. Though yes, I completely agree that it made no sense for the other girls to feel so much for someone they barely know. It's one thing for them to realize that 'A' has a soul, but another for them to actually want to save her.

But the Sara reveal was much more disappointing. As you said, we JUST met her. She has no relevance to the plot or any character but Emily thanks to that shoe-horned romance. And I'm fully convinced she was not intended to be evil/working with 'A' in the beginning. I think they had a different person in mind and either the actor wasn't available or they were afraid of the backlash so they played it safe with Sara.

And that's really my big issue here. Both CeCe and Sara were such safe, boring choices. So yeah...I'm glad I'm more invested in the characters and their relationships than I am in the mystery because that whole thing was disappointing.

ITA with you that they don't know what to do with reformed Alison. I loved what they did with her in season 5, but she's seemed like an entirely new character this season. So we'll see if they do any better with her in 6b.

[bm-shipper.livejournal.com]

And are they ever going to let the poor Mom's out! :P I don't know why they bothered showing them trapped in the previously's when they did nothing with it in the episode itself

They will find their bodies 5 years later or so since no one else seemed to bother about that anymore *lol* :D

I don't get what Sara's motives were at all, they never really explained that.

We don't even know how Sara and CeCe met at all, so that's a huge "gap" or plot hole in the story... why did she even help CeCe? What did CeCe do that Sara owed her or something like that? I much rather would RedCoat have been someone like Jenna or Melissa or whatever, not some Random chick we haven't seen ever before...