Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Pretty Little Liars S06E01 "Game On, Charles" Review

The day is currently Apr. 14th. I started writing the opening to this review early because I wanted to capture my current thoughts on where Season 5 ended and where this Season begins. I have to say this will probably be one of the oddest season premiers this show has ever had. We're not starting with The Liars in a place we're familiar with anymore, we're starting with The Liars in the clutches of "A". "A" has officially won and has The Liars in his dollhouse. But The Liars aren't without hope, Det. Tanner is now fully aware of The Liars' innocence as well as Alison's, and she has joined forces with Toby & Caleb and has discovered part of "A's" monitoring equipment. Also, Spencer managed to stumble into "A" room and discover some film reels of a one Charles DiLaurentis. Of course, Spencer was the one who cracked the code and discovered "A's" true name as Charles. But they're still in the bunker, still in the dollhouse and still in "A's" clutches. How will this last for 1 more season after this? I. Marlene King revealed that this season will see a 4 year time skip, I guess bypassing all the college years. Will The Liars find out who "A" is and what EXACTLY their motives were or are? All that remains to be seen. We now take you to, Season 6.

Before we begin, is it just me or are the seasons coming out quicker and quicker? I mean Season 5 just wrapped up in March and now it's June and we're already prepared for the 1st half of Season 6, the beginning of the end. Not that I'm complaining, just pointing that out. And thus begins "The Summer Of Answers" as King and the actresses teased for this season. Of course, I find that phrase highly dubious considering that for 5 Seasons we've been jerked around in terms of who Big "A" is and all the false reveals are really making me keep my guard up, but considering this is the penultimate Season, either Season 7 is going to be shorter in terms of 15 episodes or this Season is gonna have one B*TCH of a cliffhanger. Anyways, let's dive into the episode proper.

This season picks up right where we left off and while it was a bit rushed (ie, the rescue) it did establish the issues that will be dealt with in this season and that is Charles DiLaurentis a.k.a "A". At this point, I'm 100% sure Charles is "A", now the real question is (as asked by Emily) who is Charles DiLaurentis? Spencer seems to know or think she does and this will ultimately lead to a Spencer Nancy Drewing the truth in her own way, but I hope The Liars aren't stupid and will involve the police in this investigation, after all, they have his real name. Granted, I don't think they are going to the police if this episode is any indication on the interactions between The Police and The Liars. Is Spencer going to leave Toby & The Rosewood PD in thinking that Andrew Campbell was acting alone? Maybe.

If he spies, he spies.

Focusing on those outside of the bunker, it's good to see Ezra, Caleb & Toby working with Allison. I never really cared for Allison, but she's managed to dodge "A" for awhile now and that wasn't by magic or cooking the books, that b*tch is a survivor, so it'll be interesting to see where their interactions go from here, specially Caleb & Allison considering they haven't had much screen time together and they're the only two characters who haven't known each other previously. More interesting is how will interactions with other characters work out? Specifically, Jenna & Noel Kahn, who knew Allison was still alive and was even helping her in some capacity. Also what will Mona be like this season, especially after being assumed to be dead and being left in a well for several days. The Liars went back for Mona but that doesn't mean they're friends now.

EZRA: If you don't start telling the truth, I swear I will turn this car around and we can all go home!

With that outta the way, what happened in those 3 weeks? I'm sure that will be addressed in later episodes but whatever it was, it wasn't good, in probably one of the BEST scenes in this series (setting aside the "A" in the movie theatre dream sequence) The Liars open their doors as screams of protests and agony are played overlaying their experience. Psychological torture is rough, don't get me wrong and sensory deprivation will drive anyone insane, but The Liars didn't appear to be physically harmed in any noticeable way, so it makes me wonder just happened in those rooms. Furthermore, what was up with Charles laying The Liars out in a Morgue like room? Was he planning on sending photos out confirming The Liars' deaths? No, because of course the parents would be notified to I.D. the bodies and that wouldn't work out for him.

This week on "Alien Autopsy"...I got issues...

Either way the timeskip of 3 weeks later is good idea because now we can revisit those events in flashbacks, which is something "Pretty Little Liars" did in the beginning and hasn't done for awhile. It also builds suspense and makes me very curious just how badly Charles treated them. My only wish is that they were in there longer, not long enough to be absurd but long enough for Hanna (and it would be Hanna) to work up some "Oldboy" muscles, for their hair to be ragged, skin to be sallow and for them to look like crap...like Mona & Sara. However, I did notice that The Liars are now sporting the looks they had when Allison went missing, Aria's short hair with the highlights, Spencer's sweater, I don't remember what Emily looked like but I remember Hanna being hefty, but it doesn't look like she's put on a couple pounds. All of this leads me to wonder just what exactly Charles a.k.a "A" wants and how Andrew fits in to all of this?

However, a few very safe assumptions can be made about Charles that could yield his identity. For starters Charles is independently wealthy. He's been preparing this for a LONG TIME, probably since before the series began and probably before Mona, which leads me to wonder why he's using The "A" moniker and who used it first Charles or Mona, and as I've already said, there isn't a good answer to that question either way.  But has Mona ever met Charles? After all, I don't remember anyone explaining just where Mona got the money to afford half the things she used in Seasons One & Two (her Mom doesn't exactly come off as being incredibly wealthy regardless of how trendy Mona is). Was Mona working for a much larger organization that was bank rolling her to takedown The Liars?

I understand he's "A" and all but do all "A's" dress the same? Is there a Kidnapping Teenage Girls Catalog they subscribes to?

And that's the biggest problem, isn't it? How this all fits together. Truth be told, it really, truly and honestly doesn't and I'm openly admitting that this doesn't make sense at all...especially after the Shana reveal, but knowing that full well, I am nevertheless here for the long haul. Here's what I'm hoping, that Charles DiLaurentis is a character that we KNOW, have seen before and WILL NOT need to be introduced too. The best mysteries are always the mysteries that reveal very well known characters to be the true enemy...unlike in most Batman comic books where if Bruce Wayne makes a new friends SURE ENOUGH they're revealed to be a new bad guy (I'll be reviewing "The Court Of Owls" story arc later on this blog). All in all, GREAT way to start the seasons, rushed a little in the rescue, they could've drawn that out for at least 1 more episode, but with only 11 episodes before the break, I can forgive them. Until next time, y'all!

2 comments:

  1. Totally agree with your review, it was a wonderful build up for the upcoming episodes.
    But that made watch some final episodes and a very odd thing came up, a telephone number. "A" (? Charles???) downloaded it in 3x24, and Spencer texts to it in the same episode, since she was working for the A-team. Everybody assumed she either texted Jenna, who checked her phone at the time Spencers texted, or Toby, who turned out alive at a diner meeting Spencerthat night. But the very odd thing is that number belonged to CeCe, and Alison gave it once to Mona in a ripped postcard. The thing which is more odd is that you can find a scene from 2x18 where Aria calls the same number and you can hear clearly CeCe answering it... but she didn't apperead until 3x06 or so. So, were they building up a story for CeCe, which is yet to be explained? And how does it links to Charles. Another thing, in 4x24, the note that Alison found for the infamous yellow top has clearly the hand-writing from A and is writen in the same manner. Since CeCe and Bethany wore the same outfit, does that point to CeCe again? Oh, this series makes me crazy... just hope they have some fine answers. Just google 215 469 3561 and go mad. Best.

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