Pretty Little Liars’ fifth season began with a betrayal, a death and an escape, all while Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily tried to keep Alison safe from A.
“EscApe from New York” began pretty much where the Season 4 finale left off, with Ezra being shot on the roof by ‘A’ or a member of the A Team. As Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) lies to the police and tells them that he found Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) shot on the roof (no mention of the girls), Aria (Lucy Hale), Alison (Sasha Pieterse), Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Hanna (Ashley Benson) try to figure out their next move. Ezra is taken away in an ambulance, with ‘A’ hot on his trail. Instead of taking the cash and plane ticket Noel had brought for Ali, the girls decided to stage a sting operation to ensure A didn’t try to finish Ezra off at the hospital. The girls use Ali as a decoy in an effort to lure A away from the hospital.
Aria stays at the hospital for Ezra and the others go hide out in Ali’s Fitzgerald Theater hideout. Ezra took her there once when he was in college and the two were dating – it was his safe space. Ali goes upstairs to make a few calls, which makes Spencer suspicious – she thought they were all in this together, but Ali is still keeping secrets.
Ali calls Shana (Aeriel Miranda), her old friend, to ask her to check in on Aria and make sure she’s okay at the hospital. Aria doesn’t trust Shana, with good reason, but allows her to stay after Shana promises that she’ll wake Aria up if anything changes with Ezra. Aria falls asleep and later wakes up to find Shana in Ezra’s hospital room. Aria approaches Ezra, who looks scared and begins to crash. Later, once Ezra has stabilized, Ezra whispers something in Aria’s ear, leading her to run off to the waiting room in search of Shana. But, it’s too late. Shana is gone.
Back at the Fitz family theater, CeCe (Vanessa Ray) snuck up on Ali after escaping from the Rosewood police. She tells Ali that she has done everything for her, and now she needs help: she needs to disappear after confessing she killed Detective Wilden. Indebted to CeCe, Ali gives her the fake passport, cash and plane ticket from Noel that she was going to use to flee the country. When Ali returns from her meeting with CeCe, Emily is awake and waiting for her. Ali tells her the truth about CeCe, but doesn’t want the others to know. Their conversation is interrupted when Spencer and Hanna wake up. They are unable to get a connection to talk to Aria. Ali tells them to have Aria call the landline, and is getting an update on Ezra’s condition when the line cuts out again. When the landline rings soon after, Ali doesn’t hesitate in picking it up, but it’s not Aria on the other line. It’s Detective Holbrook (Sean Faris), who has been investigating Ezra Fitz since receiving a call from the NYPD about the shooting. Holbrook recognizes Ali’s voice and sends police to the theater.
Spencer, Hanna, Emily and Ali rush back to the stage where they were sleeping to gather their belongings and are met by Shana. Shana, wearing the trademark black hoodie and black gloves, points a gun straight at Alison, her supposed close friend. Ali is shocked by the betrayal, but quickly realizes what happened: Shana is in love with Jenna and wants to avenge the prank that cost Jenna her sight. Spencer tries to cover Ali, but it looks like Shana is ready to shoot when Aria shows up to rescue her friends. She grabs a prop riffle from the stage and hits Shana over the head with it, causing Shana to fall into the orchestra pit, hit her head on equipment and die. Spencer is quick to assure Aria that she had to attack Shana in self-defense. And calls someone to help them, though who she called and what help they provided is unclear. In the end, police arrived at the theater to find Shana’s dead body, but no Liars in sight.
Over in Rosewood, Melissa (Torrey DeVitto) is anxious and wants to tell her mother whatever she told her dad in the finale, but Peter (Nolan North), clearly shaken by whatever secret Melissa has divulged, tells her that under no circumstances is Victoria (Lesley Fera) to know Melissa’s secret. Later, Melissa meets up with Mona (Janel Parrish), who has called a meeting of those bullied by Ali to form an alliance of sorts to fight against Ali’s return. Among those Mona wants on her team are Lucas (Brendan Robinson) and Paige (Lindsey Shaw). Paige, unimpressed by Mona’s power play, is all set to leave when Melissa storms in.
Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.
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