A full Pretty Little Liars ending rewrite with better reveals, stronger character payoffs, and the finale fans deserved.
Pretty Little Liars’ pilot episode aired on June 8, 2010, and to say I was obsessed with discovering A’s identity would be an understatement. Every week, I would tune in to watch the liars face more torment and fail to solve the mystery that plagued their lives.
The Phenomenon of Pretty Little Liars
It’s no surprise that I was among the thousands – or millions of fans who were disappointed at the nonsensical Cece reveal. But imagine if the writers cared more about making an amazing story than a shocking reveal? What if the clues all panned out to some larger plan? What if the entire story actually cared about and respected the audience?
Pretty Little Liars gave us years of secrets, lies, and mysteries… only to end with one of the most frustrating finales in teen TV history. So today, I’m rewriting the ending the way the show always should have.
WHAT PLL PROMISED
Pretty Little Liars started off amazing. It had great appeal, with a foundation for a mystery that kept people hooked. What happened to Alison Dilaurentis? Everyone wanted to know. On top of that, who was A? The mysterious stalker who somehow knew things about them that only Alison did… It was clear that someone close to these girls was out to get them.
The writers stuck pretty closely to the source material of Sara Shepard’s book series for the first two seasons. The groundwork was laid, and the writing still made sense. The promise of a tangible mystery with clues woven throughout, layering in conflicts like betrayal, hadn’t yet been broken.
Mona’s reveal was actually handled pretty well at the end of season 2. She was a show regular who had an established relationship with each of the liars. Mona and Hannah had been best friends before Alison “stole” Hannah. Then, they reunited after Alison’s disappearance and got popular together. Mona was in rivalry with Spencer in whatever Mona felt like snatching from her at the moment. She had fewer interactions with Aria and Emily, but they both had very blatant opinions about her. This was shown to us during the Camp Mona episode when the girls practically threw their invitations in the garbage.
I break down Mona’s entire character arc and motives more in this blog post, so check it out when you’re done here.
Where The Promise was Broken
It’s incredible when you realize that the writers completely missed the reason fans loved the show to begin with. Sure, the intrigue of solving Alison’s murder was huge in the earlier seasons. But as the show went on, it became more about putting an end to the torment the girls were constantly facing at the hands of the A-team. We deserved a satisfying conclusion to years of cheering on Spencer, Aria, Emily, and Hannah as they discovered their stalker’s identity. Instead, we got the liars in a weird, high-tech room, watching Cece squirm for sympathy from Alison.
Season 5 was truly amazing. Alison in jail, the dollhouse, the scandal, the drama, the tension. Yet they dropped the ball with an incoherent, tacky villain reveal just to keep the story unpredictable.
What if the writers got it right?
The Ending We Deserved
The Dollhouse episodes were peak fiction. It is widely said among fans that these episodes should have been stretched out over the entirety of season 6. The canon timeline gave us only two episodes, including a mysterious “three weeks later,” immediately followed by their rescue.
In my timeline, the dollhouse would have spanned 10 episodes. This would be spent allowing the audience to sit with the girls in their agony, but also giving them the opportunity to learn more details about Charles and his motivations. Yes, I would be keeping Charles as A in my timeline, but Charles would not be Cece Drake.
Before we get to who would be A in my timeline, we’ll have to go back and make some changes in the earlier seasons so everything falls into place seamlessly. Let’s start with season 3.
Maya St. Germaine’s Death
I would have scrapped the storyline about Maya’s stalker. In the canon timeline, Emily is approached by a man named Nate, claiming to have been Maya’s cousin. He befriends her, and they bond over their shared loss of Maya. He tries to pursue a romance with Emily, but she turns him down. Upset, he pursues a relationship with Jenna instead, ultimately being rejected by her as well. It turned out he wasn’t Maya’s cousin but the stalker responsible for her death. This had nothing to do with the overarching narrative, and it made Mona’s clue, “Maya knew,” in episode 7 of season 3, a plothole.
The Nate St. Germaine character wasn’t necessarily a bad inclusion. I found it interesting to watch Emily interact with him and to see her squirm as he developed a relationship with Jenna. It wasn’t bad filler because we could have used this character to explore Emily and Jenna as people. Emily is known as the most boring of the liars, and the nuance that could have been explored here is a wasted opportunity. In my timeline, I would have left the “Maya Knew” anagram, which would have led the girls to find out about her staying at the Kahn cabin. Let’s put a pin in this; we’ll come back to it later.
Regarding Maya’s death, I would have left it as a mystery spanning several seasons, similar to Alison’s disappearance. Emily would never forget Maya or ever get over her death. This will be something she grapples with in every relationship, and I would make this the catalyst for her relationship with Paige to ultimately fail. Not because of Paige’s overbearing nature, but because Emily was still in love with a ghost and terrified of getting Paige killed as well.
Mary Drake
A common complaint about the series finale of Pretty Little Liars is that we had no clues pointing to Spencer’s evil twin. Alex was not a character in the show. Mary Drake wasn’t even a character until season 7.
Instead of spending so much time unraveling the mystery of Marion Cavanaugh, I would give that time to unveiling Mary Drake’s story. Toby could’ve joined the A team to learn more after being gifted Spencer’s original birth certificate, labeling her as twin A. This would mean he was actually sincere in wanting to protect Spencer. In the canon timeline, it’s clear he does not care about her well-being as much as the truth. Here, he’d be prioritizing her either way.
In his stupid teenage brain, he could’ve justified faking his death and getting her admitted into Radley, because at least this way she could learn more about this mysterious Mary Drake who gave birth to her, and the twin she never knew she had. After meeting Mary Drake, she would learn that her twin sister was adopted by a family that had moved out of the country. She didn’t even know her other daughter’s name and would clearly be haunted by it, so Spencer wouldn’t push further.
Ezra’s Redemption
In the Season 4 mid-season finale, episode 13 Grave New World, Alison Dilaurentis officially came back to Rosewood. The liars and the audience were in shambles. Twitter exploded with questions, theories, and widely varying opinions. Personally, I love the concept of Alison’s return, but I hated the execution, bogged down by the backdoor pilot of Ravenswood. Actually, I hated Ravenswood as a whole. Let’s scrap everything to do with it and rewrite that entire plotline.
The Ezra book plotline was pretty good, so we will keep that and make it the main catalyst for bringing Alison back. In the canon timeline, Ezra met Alison before she went missing, and they developed a relationship. Skipping over the fact that Alison did not look or behave like an adult of any kind, he fell into a deep infatuation with her. The night she went missing, he confronted her about her age, being 14, rather than the 18 she had claimed. The next morning, she was missing, and he began a true-crime novel, determined to figure out what had happened.
By the end of that summer, he met Aria at a bar and began using her for research. In the canon timeline, Alison poses as Red Coat and leads the girls to his lair, where they learn about his book. In my timeline, it would have been the real red coat, and we’ll unpack who that is soon. They would’ve done this with the intention of framing Ezra as A. He would still gift Aria his manuscript and swear to find out the truth in an attempt at redemption.
Alison’s Return
Making good on his promise, Ezra would find Alison living in plain sight in New York City, studying theatre at LaGuardia High School. She would have rebuilt her life, living with a rich boyfriend, and having a new posse of liars. Disgusted at all the destruction she caused, and determined to prove himself to Aria, Ezra would try to force Alison back to Rosewood. This would result in Alison shooting him and leaving him for dead, running away to start over once again.
What she wouldn’t be prepared for is that Red Coat and Black Hoodie followed Ezra’s trail. They’d kidnap Alison, and that would’ve been the mid-season finale, leaving Ezra alone and bleeding out as Alison was being taken away to an unknown location.
This would give the audience verification that Alison is alive, while still leaving the liars in the dark a little longer.
In the canon timeline, Alison was on trial and ultimately found guilty of Mona’s murder. In my timeline, I would have the girls on trial instead, and kidnapped after their sentencing. Once they wake up in the dollhouse, have them discover the real Alison Dilaurentis, not Mona with dyed hair.
The Dollhouse
Now that we’ve made the necessary changes to ensure this ending works, let’s unpack the fruits of our labor. As discussed, I would stretch the dollhouse into 10 episodes to flesh out the girls’ torment, the impact on their relationships with each other and Alison, their discovery of Mona in the hole, and the breadcrumbs that make Charles’ reveal feel earned.
There would be a major emphasis on the girls not trusting Alison. She would avoid talking about where she’d been, at first claiming she’d been in the dollhouse the entire time, but A would quickly expose her as a liar. The girls would double down, and Spencer would physically attack her, causing Emily to feel sympathy for Alison. Of course, Alison would take advantage of this and get Aria on her side as well.
At some point, Mona would be released from the hole, and there would be an even division amongst the girls. Spencer, Hannah, and Mona would sharply rival Aria, Alison, and Emily as they try to endure the daily tasks A forces them into. The first episode would be them enduring the Dilaurentis living room to a tea party setup. Day two would be an exam the girls are forced to take, quizzing them on the lies A had witnessed them tell each other over the years. This will be a huge blow and cause further division. Day three would be truth or dare, and the cycle would continue.
The Reveal
Unlike the canon timeline, I would have the black hoodie reveal in the dollhouse. I would keep the girls trying to escape. I would put that in episode 9 where the girls are forced to listen to comments of their friends and family bashing them. It will be clips A had recorded over the years, looped. Things like Aria’s parents saying they were disappointed after she threatened to report Byron over Ezra, Lucas calling Hannah a bitch for rejecting him, clips from Maya’s blog sharing her pain over Emily, and Spencer’s mom saying she was afraid of Spencer. Mona and Spencer would come up with the plan, followed by the others. It would ultimately fail, just like the canon timeline, leaving them in a thunderstorm. This would give them the time to find common ground.
In episode 10, I would’ve had Hannah being woken up in the middle of the night by a loud crash followed by a struggle. She would be too scared to leave her room, fearing she would be put in the hole like Mona. The next morning, each of the girls would wake to bridesmaids’ dresses in their room. Except Spencer’s dress would be one fit for a bride. Alison would have a sash reading “Maid of Honor,” and the girls will be forced to attend a wedding. This will replace the canon prom event, and it will be after the escape attempt rather than before.
Once Spencer walks down the aisle to meet a masked man, he will reveal himself to be Wren Kingston. I go into full detail on how Wren fits in perfectly as A in the post below, so check that out if you aren’t convinced on the evidence – there’s plenty.
The Motive
The girls will all gasp from shock, and he will go into his full villain monologue. It turns out, Bethany Young, the girl who escaped Radley to punish Jessica DiLaurentis, was Wren’s little sister. They had the same mother and different fathers. Wren’s father murdered their mother, resulting in his institutionalization. Bethany was shipped off to America, and Wren was bounced between group homes in England, where he eventually got into college on scholarship and met Melissa.
The death of their mother messed Bethany up so badly that she wound up at Radley. When Wren got a job at Radley, he discovered that Bethany had run away. He befriended Cece Drake, Bethany’s only friend from her time there, or so she claimed, and he began to help her. Wren adopted her as a pseudo-sister. One day, Mona Vaanderwal came in as a patient. Between his clinical sessions and Cece’s late-night bathrobe visits, the pair deduced that the liars killed his sister and used her death to fake Alison’s.
Whether it was true or not, it became their motive for taking over the game. But when Garrett and Wilden got killed, Cece got scared and wanted out. This was when he started blackmailing her cooperation and framed her for Wilden’s murder. Luckily, she came from a wealthy family that helped her escape his grasp and go to Paris.
Enraged and terrified by the truth, Mona would spring into action, killing Wren. The girls, especially Spencer, would be distraught, but Alison would quickly remind them that they’re now free. Similar to the canon timeline, I would have Caleb on the other end, never having given up. Ezra would be dead, though, so with Caleb would be Papa Fields and Mike Montgomery.
Aftermath
The girls managed to escape the Dollhouse and live a free life for several years until they were all brought back for a wedding. That of Hanna Marin and Caleb Rivers. On their first night back in town, there will be a murder. Melissa Hastings will be killed.
The story would pick up where the canon timeline left off, except to discover the killer of CeCe Drake: it’s Melissa Hastings. Eventually, it would be uncovered that Alison was the one who killed Melissa. Her motive was that Melissa discovered the truth about Alison being the one who killed Ian, Garrett, Wilden, and Maya. Alison killed the NAT club because they were onto discovering that she was alive and living in New York. She was hiding in Noel Kahn’s cabin after the masquerade ball when Maya discovered her. Alison had no choice, but she did enjoy snuffing the life from the girl who had Emily’s heart.
After this whole debacle, Emily will kill Alison. Rather than Lyndon James being the first life she took, it would be Alison, her first love. This will replace the Archer Dunhill storyline. Instead, the girls would be forced to clean up after Emily, and Aria would accidentally sabotage the plan out of loyalty to Jason. She would fumble through trying to fix it, and Jason would not discover the truth.
The Finale
The finale would wrap up a month later with Hannah’s wedding and no word from A since Alison’s death. During the reception, Hannah will make a comment, hoping they’re gone for good, and the camera will pan in on Spencer, who will break the fourth wall with a wink after saying, “I think we’re safe.”
Then, the audience will get a flashback to Hannah waking up in the dollhouse to the crash. We will see Alex Drake meeting Wren as a little girl in London. We’ll see him reconnecting with Alex when he moves back to London with Melissa. We’ll see Wren tell Alex about the game and fall in love with it. They’ll show Alex and Wren coming up with the concept for the dollhouse and kidnapping Alison.
Finally, they’ll show Alex killing the real Spencer in the dollhouse and taking her place. This would mean we’d been watching Alex since the wedding scene of the dollhouse with no idea that she’d been switched out. On rewatch, it would make so much more sense because you’d notice the subtle differences in the way Alex behaved and how she’d adjust when people called her out for being strange.
Ultimately, I think this timeline is a lot more full circle, paying respect to the characters and the audience. Check out the companion video to this post. I’d love to know your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment there to chat!