You probably remember the A reveal from Pretty Little Liars season 2, but do you remember everything that got us there? If not, our ultimate guide will get you back up to speed.
The #PLLEndGame is drawing ever nearer, and we’re getting ready for the end of Pretty Little Liars by taking a look back at the past seasons. We started with season 1, and now we’re moving on to the show’s sophomore season! We want to go back through every message the Liars received from A, the beginning of our favorite ships, every crazy theory, and even every seemingly meaningless moment, so we’re fully ready for the final 10 episodes.
We’ll be posting one of these “ultimate guides” once a week, until season 7B premieres on Tuesday, April 18, so keep your eyes on Hypable in the coming weeks. If you’ve never watched Pretty Little Liars before, we won’t spoil anything beyond the season that we’re talking about, so feel free to watch/read along with us! Let’s dive into all of the texts, videos, flashbacks, reveals, and creepy dolls that made up Pretty Little Liars season 2!
Major storylines
Pretty Little Liars season 2 begins right where season 1 left off. The Liars are just being taken away from the church, where Spencer witnessed Ian’s supposed murder. The mystery of Jason DiLaurentis, discoveries from Alison’s past, and the continued fear of Ali’s lurking killer were some, but not even close to all of the big ticket items in Pretty Little Liars season 2!
Who is A?
A continues to mess with the Liars in Pretty Little Liars season 2, taking a special interest in Emily. From fake college scout letters, to fake suicide notes, A was all over the place. When the Liars’ parents deduce that something is seriously going on with them, they advise/force them to see a therapist.
Although the girls are hesitant, at first, they actually start to look forward to their visits with Dr. Sullivan. However, when they start opening up to her, Dr. Sullivan, herself, gets targeted by A, and “NOSEY BITCHES DIE,” is written on the wall of her ransacked office.
A stages a public attack against the Liars at the fashion show. While the girls are walking in Ali’s old dresses, and an Ali tribute is playing in the background, the music and slideshow suddenly change to one where Alison is demonized. Noel was running the slideshow.
After Emily receives a text instructing her to tell Ella about Ezria and runs away, the girls decide to confide in Dr. Sullivan. They tell her everything about A, and she actually puts the pieces together, since A is one of her other patients! She calls the girls and tells them to meet in her office, but when they get there, she’s gone. A texts them saying, “the doctor is out.”
A lets the Liars know that Dr. Sullivan is still alive, but being held captive, and they use that to get the Liars to comply with their demands. The Liars are given dolls with tasks, and as they complete them, A gives them information.
A leads Emily to a garage, and locks her in there with a running car. She’s pulled out by Alison(!) and is safe when the other Liars find her. The Liars find a shovel next to the garage with coordinates taped to it. They bring the shovel (read: murder weapon) to what they think is where Dr. Sullivan is buried, and the police show up to arrest them.
Somehow, getting caught with a known murder weapon only gets the girls community service, thanks to Veronica Hastings. During their service, they stage a fight, with Emily saying that she wants to make a deal with A, and Spencer disagreeing. Emily says that they have something A wants. She says there’s something in a box of Alison’s things, which Jason gave to Aria, which exposes A. A, being all knowing, contacts Em about making a deal, and they pick the greenhouse as the drop point.
The plan doesn’t go super smoothly, since A tries to strangle Emily and the other girls don’t show up in time to unmask them, but they do get A’s phone out of the deal! They give it to Caleb and he starts uncovering things. The first thing he uncovers is a picture of dolls, which was taken at Spencer’s lake house. They deduce that A was using the lake house as a hideout.
Spencer finds a receipt for “Smitty’s” with a bag of phones in the lake house. She and Aria go to check it out, and it’s right next to Jenna’s school for the blind. She speaks to one of Jenna’s peers about how determined Jenna was, and she steals the sign-in book. She sees that Garrett signed Jenna out the night that Ali disappeared. When Spence returns to Rosewood, she realizes that Mona was on the same train as her.
Next, Caleb starts uncovering videos of the N.A.T. club. Spencer and Toby found out that Jason, Ian and Garrett all formed this club while they were packing up Ian’s yearbooks. N.A.T. stands for Nos Animadverto Totus, which means “We See All.” One of the videos showed a close up of the box that Jason gave Aria. They see an ID that depicts Ali with dark hair, with the name, “Vivian Darkbloom.”
Upon looking at the box more closely, they realize that Ali had hidden notes inside one of the dolls. The notes were threatening, and they were from A! We also see Ali receiving texts from a flashback episode that Ali was receiving texts from A at Noel Kahn’s Halloween party. During the episode it was clear that she was mean to Mona, she and Jenna were shaping up to be rivals, and somebody tried to hurt her when they took Noel’s place in a prank.
A quick Google search of “Vivian Darkbloom” leads them to Lolita, which leads them to Ali’s copy of Lolita, which contains a coat check ticket. The coat check ticket leads them to…a red coat!! The red coat has a phone number in the pocket, which they call. They speak to someone named Jonah, whom they meet. He specializes in tracking calls and texts, and he met with Ali when she was trying to figure out who A was. Apparently, he gave Ali an address, and she never paid him. He offers to let the Liars pay for the same info, and since they have Spencer “the money” Hastings, they oblige.
The address is inhabited by an old man, so they’re pretty disappointed. Then, through Ashley, they figure out that the building used to be a law firm, which Melissa Hastings interned at. They set a trap for Melissa using Caleb and Mona (they make out right in front of her) to see if she’s A. Hanna receives a text right after, so they consider that confirmation. Even though Mona was part of the plan, and had been receiving texts from A, herself, Hanna lies to her about getting the text.
Jonah later calls Aria and tells her that Ali had been receiving texts from more than one number. He gives her another address, which leads them to the Doll Hospital. The owner’s creepy, psychic son tells the Liars that Vivian had come in asking about who purchased a voodoo doll and that he told her to stop looking, because a man and a woman were trying to hurt her. However, it was later revealed that A paid the owner off.
Jason gives the Liars another box of Ali’s things that Maya had apparently dropped off. At first, they don’t think anything’s in there, but they keep looking. One night, Spencer wakes up and sees Alison rummaging through it. Ali says that she’s sorry for not telling her about Jason, and takes some of her painkillers. Spence thought it was a dream, but when she wakes up, the door and the pill bottle are both open.
After Spencer’s conversation with Ali, they find highlighted newspaper, in Ali’s bag, and discover that Alison corresponded with A through classified ads. They also find a pen and a postcard from the Lost Woods Resort. They go there and see that she checked in the morning before she went missing.
At the masquerade ball, Mona tells Spencer that she saw Ali in Brookhaven a week before she went missing, and that she was watching someone. Brilliant Spencer figures out that one of the rooms at the Lost Woods Resort hadn’t been checked into in months, because it’s been rented! She and Mona go there, they find A’s lair, and Mona reveals herself as A!
Mona knocks Spencer out, kidnaps her, and offers her a spot on the “A Team,” while threatening to kill her if she doesn’t join. Spencer sneakily calls Aria and slips in their location and the Liars race to get there. Mona reveals that she was jealous of the Liars and their friendship with Hanna, so she started messing with them. When Mona sees Hanna pull up, she freaks out and tries to push Spencer off a cliff, but she, herself, falls off.
Dr. Sullivan returns, saying Mona had threatened her son, and tells the girls that Mona had been living in a state of hyper reality, and with the right treatment, she could get better. Inside Mona’s head, she’s thinking that her capture has lured the girls into a false sense of security. We later see her telling someone in a red coat that she’d done everything they’d asked.
Who killed Alison?
It doesn’t take long for the “Ian killed Alison” notion to crumble, in Pretty Little Liars season 2. Frankly, Rosewood never believed the Liars’ story, but even the Liars start to second guess themselves, pretty quickly.
Let’s start back at the scene of the crime. The Liars are being not-so-silently judged by the entire town, outside of the church, when good ole Officer Garrett takes them away. He tells them to not tell anyone about Ian’s videos, because the blackmail that they attempted is a “serious crime.” Garrett’s just looking out for number one, but in reality, that kind of thing on their record wouldn’t be awesome, since Rosewood already thinks they committed another crime: killing Alison. To avoid further suspicion, the parents tell the girls not to hang out.
Jason moves back into the old DiLaurentis house, after Maya’s family leaves, and Jenna and Garrett really aren’t into it. They spend countless hours spying on him, and remarking that people can’t find out about “the Jason thing.”
The official theory of the Rosewood PD (and if you can’t trust them, who can you trust?) is that Ian fled town. Melissa doesn’t believe it, saying that Ian would never believe her. Spencer soon discovers that Melissa has a really great reason for not believing that he’s dead, or gone, since she’s been receiving texts from him.
The Liars follow Melissa one night, and discover that she’s meeting Wren and picking up pills. Luckily, Wren still has a thing for Spence, so she gets him to help the Liars figure out where Melissa’s supposed to meet Ian. The location is at an old barn. When the Liars get there, they hear Melissa scream, so they run into the barn. Ian’s dead body is there, with his hands still clutching a gun and a suicide note, in which he confessed to killing Alison.
A texts Emily and says “does that suicide note look familiar?” From that the Liars figure out that the note is made up of old A texts, and that it’s not an actual confession from Ian. This leads them to believe that A actually was involved in Ali’s murder.
At her local post office, Emily finds the delivery guy from the night they tried to blackmail Ian. He pretends he doesn’t know her, but she figures it out. He said he never met Ian. He responded to an internet posting and talked to a woman on the phone about the job. After Garrett finds out that Emily knows this, he pays Logan to keep quiet and calls Jenna, saying, “it’s taken care of.”
When Ian’s confession becomes public, Jason is relieved. He tells Aria that he has no memory of the night that Ali disappeared, as he was under the influence for that entire summer. The morning after she disappeared, he found a note in his pocket that said, “I know what you did.” He’d thought there was a chance that he killed her.
Unfortunately for Jason and his misplaced relief, the girls start getting seriously suspicious that Ian was innocent. A really drives the point home when they lead them to Ali’s grave. There, the full “I know you wanna kiss me” video is projected and the Liars see that Ali got up and walked away from Ian at the end of the video.
When Toby was working on the Hastings property, he found a buried hockey stick with the name “Hastings” on it, right on the property line between theirs and the DiLaurentis’ yards. Peter Hastings freaks out when he sees that Toby found it and he asks him not to tell Spencer. Of course, Toby had already told Spencer, and she recalled that she’d given the stick to Alison the summer before she disappeared, and they deduce that it was the murder weapon. Spencer later finds her father burning the hockey stick.
The Liars finally realize that they can’t trust Garrett when Aria finds the vase that she’d witnessed Jenna making in their pottery class in Mike’s stash of stolen goods. He tells her that he got the vase from Garrett’s house, and they figure out that Jenna and Garrett are in a relationship. Garrett realizes that they know when Spencer starts backtracking on questions she’d asked him, in the past.
Determined to figure out, once and for all, what the murder weapon was, the Liars sneak into the morgue and steal Alison’s autopsy report. It was ruled that she was hit from behind with a curved blunt edge – bingo – hockey stick. They also see that she had dirt in her lungs, which means she was buried alive! All that info is in the report, but one thing that isn’t there is page 5, which we later find out is the analysis of trace evidence found on the body.
The night that the girls get arrested, when A frames them with the shovel, which is the actual murder weapon, Jenna shows up at the police station to see Garrett. He gives her page 5 of the autopsy report. They say that there’s nothing left to link them to that night, and that Ali “deserved to die like that.” After the arrest, during the one month time jump between episodes, Garrett and Jenna’s relationship becomes public. They then break up soon after Toby and Spencer hear them fight about how they made a mistake by “pulling in somebody else.”
Just because they’re broken up, doesn’t mean Jenna and Garrett are off the hook. The videos that Caleb uncovered from the night that Ali disappeared showed that Ian, Garrett and Jenna were all together, in Ali’s room. Garrett and Jenna were telling Ian that he’d gone too far with the videos. Later, they find out that Melissa was in the room that night, too.
With the proof of Melissa on the video and the intel that Jonah gave them, the Liars, other than Spencer, are ready to go to the police. Spencer obviously isn’t keen to turn on her family, and she wants to hear Melissa out. On top of the video and texts, Melissa had also lied to Spencer about meeting Garrett one night, so she had a lot of explaining to do.
She tells Spencer that she needed to talk to Garrett because she didn’t believe that Ian killed Ali. However, she confesses to Spencer that she thinks she told him too much about their family. She told him that Peter and Veronica had been fighting the day that Ali went missing, and when the news broke, they suddenly stopped and Peter “almost seemed relieved.” Melissa also says that she confessed to Peter about sending angry texts to Ali that day, regarding Ian. After that, Peter was worried that Melissa might’ve killed Alison.
While at the Doll Hospital, someone mistakes Aria for Vivian. She meets with them, and discovers he knows Ali’s real name, and has no idea that she disappeared. Apparently, he saw her the day before she went missing, when she asked him to fly her from North Carolina to Philadelphia. He’s a pilot, obviously. From this, the Liars figure out that Ali was in town for hours before they‘d thought she was.
After Jenna’s surgery, when Toby is pretending to be close to her again, Jenna gives Toby a page that Garrett gave her and pretends she doesn’t know what it is. It’s page 5 of the autopsy report. She asks him to take it to the police. Later, after kissing Melissa, Garrett is arrested for Ali’s murder. Jenna later meets someone in the park, with her glasses off and full vision. She says, “they’re all gonna be at the party. You know what you need to do.” The Liars later see Jenna with Lucas and the “black swan” at the masquerade ball.
Jason and Spencer, S-I-B-L-I-N-G (S)
Spencer hears her dad on the phone, yelling about Jason returning to Rosewood. She figures out that it was Jessica DiLaurentis, and sees them fighting again at the fashion show. Peter tells Spencer to stay away from Jason. A while later, when Spencer and Toby are making out in his truck, they see shadows in the upstairs window of Jason’s house. Peter storms out and yells at Toby for no apparent reason.
At the beginning of Pretty Little Liars season 2, Jason keeps asking Spencer to get Peter to call him. When Spencer confronts her dad, Peter explains it by telling Spencer that a week before Alison went missing, his grandmother had cut Jason out of her will. He changed the date on the will so it wouldn’t look like Jason had motive to kill Alison.
When she recalls a conversation that she’d had with Alison about how Melissa and Jason would be a “match that the God’s would frown on,” Spencer figures out that Jason is her brother. She talks to him about it, and he tells her that he found a box of Ali’s with letters from his mom to Spencer’s dad, and money.
They start to believe that Peter blackmailed Alison to keep quiet, but he says that he never gave a cent to that family. When Spencer finds a bank statement showing $15,000 leaving her dad’s account around that time, he tells her he hired a private investigator to solve Ali’s murder, because he was worried Melissa was involved.
For a refresher on the friendships and relationships in Pretty Little Liars season 2, go to page 2. To catch up on every message from A, every A scene, and more, go to page 3!
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