4.22 Cover For Me But then he strode into the Ravenswood lair with his cap and jacket, slammed that wardrobe door shut and reinvigorated my love for and faith in the show. After the double betrayals of Mona and Toby, both revealed to be exactly what the writers said they weren’t, I had optimism that, surely, they couldn’t do it again. But after the interviews following last week’s episode and various scenes in Cover For Me, I no longer hold on to the hope that Ezra could ever be confirmed as the dastardly villain he’s been written as. Who cares about the money in his sock drawer or the knives in Jake’s punching bag – he’s merely a struggling writer, and spying on teenage girls for two years is okay as long as his love for Aria was real all along. Except it’s not, and a show fundamentally about the despicableness of cyber bullying and invasion of privacy should really know that. Is there still hope this isn’t a major exercise in misguided backpedalling and Ezra could still be unveiled as A? If we enjoy the show in a vacuum and ignore the almost-always-deceptive comments of Marlene King and the rest of the writers, then yes. But I don’t think that’s possible at this point and, this being only the first in a two season renewal for the show, we should have known it wouldn’t be what it seemed. God forbid the series reboot itself into something fresh and interesting when there’s ominous texts to be sent and red herrings to be investigated. The long and short of it is, if Ezra isn’t the person who “stole the game” from Mona at the beginning of season three, then the show no longer makes sense. Heck, it doesn’t even make much sense if Ezra wasn’t the one pulling the strings from the very beginning and, speaking as a hardcore (can you not tell from my current state of rage?!) fan of long-running mystery shows, I’m scared that Pretty Little Liars has just wasted the most compelling, thematically relevant, genuinely shocking and brilliantly executed card they had in their deck. The suspicion shifting to Mrs DiLaurentis proves just how disappointing any other reveal would be at this point, and that’s a hurdle I don’t think the show can overcome. Can you sense the disappointment? With two weeks left until the big #AisforAnswers episode, am I being premature or can we assume that the EzrA theory is dead and buried? I really hope not but, if that’s the case, then they better have a corker of a plan B. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
