Uh oh: The 'Pretty Little Liars' series finale will have a 'huge twist'
Pretty Little Liars is notorious for creating a dozen more questions for every one it answers, so it’s no surprise that the Freeform show set up a big mystery even before it kicked off its panel at the fan-friendly PaleyFest on Saturday.
Before the cast (Ashley Benson, Tyler Blackburn, Shay Mitchell, Andrea Parker, Janel Parrish, Sasha Pieterse and Ian Harding) and producers (I. Marlene King and Joseph Dougherty) took the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, audience members were treated to the first minute from episode 11 of PLL’s seventh and final season.
This mere morsel of footage from the midseason premiere offered some reassurance as to how Keegan Allen’s Toby fared after last year’s bloody car crash (SPOILER ALERT: the Liars find him severely bandaged and maybe unconscious as he is wheeled through a hospital), but the clip didn’t confirm the whereabouts of his fiancée, Yvonne (Kara Royster).
In other words, we’re still wondering whether Toby will be available (after maybe some mourning and a lot of physical therapy) to reconnect with former paramour Spencer (played by Troian Bellisario, who, along with fellow star Lucy Hale, was absent from the festival). Luckily, King gave us a glimmer of hope.
“All the [relationship] endgames will be the endgames, but nobody’s going to get there super easily,” King revealed in regards to fans’ favorite ships. “There’s going to be some bends in the road to get to the happily ever after.”
The starcrossed romance between Spencer and Toby – or Spoby in PLL vernacular – wasn’t the only one that drew reflection from the panelists.
"Spaleb was fun to dabble with… [but] Haleb is where it's at,” Blackburn said of his character, Caleb, and his dalliance with Bellisario’s Spencer – which was nothing compared to the time spent with his one true love, Benson’s Hanna.
Mitchell’s character, Emily, has been out and proud since Season 1 and has also seen her fair share of love interests. The actress admitted that, “to play a character that has an impact on a lot of people's lives in a meaningful way has been huge." King noted that Emily’s relationship with Pieterse’s Alison (the pair known to the social media crowd as Emison) will also get some attention in the remaining episodes.
“Alison hasn’t dealt with her sexuality,” King said. “These 10 episodes are about Alison figuring out her sexuality and Emily plays a part in it.” (Also worth noting: Alison is pregnant, but the father has yet to be revealed).
King stressed that these final episodes will be a “love letter to fans.” After all, she said, these are people who have stuck with the show even though “we had a dead girl who wasn’t even dead for seven seasons.”
Several characters have been -- or have been thought to be -- the mysterious villain "A" throughout the series, including Harding’s Ezra and Parrish’s Mona.
“Yeah, that was fun,” Parrish reflects on being the first big bad. “It was also the scariest moment ever because I knew what it meant to give A a face.”
PLL has now presented what King calls an “uber A,” known simply as A.D. She promised that the final reveal of our mystery stalker’s identity will not disappoint.
“The finale is a two-hour finale,” she said. “It feels like a movie and it was written as if it was a movie. I hope you guys are satisfied with this huge twist.”
It’s still unclear who will make it to the series finale in one piece, but Parrish may have let something slip when she said the final table read was particularly emotional because there were so many returning faces.
As fans reminded the cast and producers during the panel’s Q&A session, there have been rumors of another Pretty Little Liars spinoff series after Blackburn’s short-lived Ravenswood. When asked if there was any hope for an Emison series, Mitchell asked the audience if they’d watch (networks and studios take note: cheering ensued). But as for anything concrete?
“We’re open to pitches,” King said.
Pretty Little Liars returns April 18 at 8 p.m. on Freeform.
