Through a Glass, Darkly

"Each one hated the other because each one feared the other."

- Carla Grunwald

Through a Glass, Darkly is the fourteenth episode and the winter premiere of Season 5 of Pretty Little Liars. It will air on January 6th, 2015.

Summary
The episode kicks off with the liars leaving Mona’s funeral. The girls talk about how its strange having a funeral when there is no body, no murder weapon, and no one has been arrested. They are shocked when they see Alison arrive and talk to Mrs.Vanderwaal – she tries to tell Mrs.Vanderwaal that she is just paying her respects. But, Leona freaks out on her and slaps her and screams “Where is her body?” Hanna rushes to her side and comforts Leona and leads her away.

Hanna takes Leona home and after helping her clean up Hanna gets ready to leave. Leona apologizes for freaking out at the service, but she knows it was Alison that killed Mona. She cries that it is “like Mona is lost at sea.” She has accepted Mona's death. She just wants Mona’s body back. She tells Hanna it was a bizarre thing to have a funeral without a casket but Hanna consoles her by saying that she was just trying to find a way to say goodbye and that the funeral probably helped a lot of people move on. Leona then gives one of Mona’s stuffed toys to Hanna as a keepsake.

Spencer heads home, and her father is waiting for her in the kitchen. Peter explains that Bethany Young’s parents have petitioned the court to have her bail revoked.

At the police station – Toby finds Spencer’s arrest warrant. He learns from Tanner that what convinced the judge to revoke her bail was a signed statement from Mrs. DiLaurentis the night that Alison went missing revealing that she saw Spencer in their backyard with a blond girl dressed in Alison’s clothes. The statement had been hidden by Wilden for two years, but the Rosewood police just found it. Toby theorizes that Wilden must have told somebody about the statement, somebody who'd want it to go away, and they must have paid him to keep Mrs. DiLaurentis quiet. Tanner asks him how Wilden could have kept Jessica quiet. Toby tells her that Jessica had an affair with Bethany's father and Wilden must have used this to shut Jessica up. Since Bethany was a patient at Radley and Mrs. DiLaurentis was on the board that's where they must have met. Tanner says how everything always seems to lead back to Radley. When she is leaving, Toby asks her Holbrook is and she replies that he's out on temporary assignment.

Aria and Ezra are at the Brew which Ezra is remodeling. Ezra asks if she has heard from Oberlin yet to which she replies she hasn’t. Ezra then wonders how Mike is dealing with Mona’s death. Aria says that Mike doesn't want to talk to her about Mona. Ezra tells her that he could talk to Mike while asking him to help with the remodeling.

Emily and Paige are lying in bed discussing Paige’s move to California. Emily doesn’t want her to leave school early and miss graduation, she wants to try to convince her parents to let Paige stay. Paige whines that she has tried and it is pointless, they don’t want to hear it. Finally, Emily agrees to drive her to the airport.

At Hanna’s house, she and Caleb are chatting about Mona’s funeral. Caleb has Mona’s computer, but its encrypted – he is still working on getting into it. Hanna wants to find Mona’s body, she says they should go ask the psychic from Ravenswood, Mrs. Grunwald. Caleb warns Hanna that it is not a good idea, and even if they did find the body, how are they going to explain it to the police.

Aria is sitting on a park bench and opening a college letter. It’s from Oberlin- Aria has been rejected. Alison walks up to her and Aria tries to leave but Alison won’t let her. Aria sneers that she knows she is ‘A’ and she stole the game from Mona and killed her, and she killed Bethany Young because she was jealous of her. She says how crazy Alison must really be if she was jealous of a mental patient. Alison tries to explain to her that she isn’t a threat but Aria starts blowing her rape whistle. People start staring at them causing Alison to run away.

The next day, the liars rush over to Spencer’s house to comfort her when they learn that her bail is about to be revoked. They decide that they need to prove that Alison killed Mona, which will make the cops realize that Bethany and Mona’s murders are connected, “that one motivated the other”, and that Alison killed Bethany too. They decide that they should start by discrediting her alibi.

Meanwhile, Mike is helping Ezra remodel the Brew. Ezra tries to talk to him about Mona, but he snaps at him. Ezra asks him if he thinks Mona is really dead and Mike tells him that “no one loses that much blood and lives to tell about it.” Ezra tells Mike that he isn’t acting like a person who has lost someone. Mike snaps at him asking him how is he supposed to act. He tell her that he’s accepted that Mona is gone and that people leave and people die- it's the only sure thing there is in this world.

Hanna completely ignores Caleb’s warnings and called Mrs. Grunwald to the crypt where Mona’s empty casket was placed. She tells Mrs. Grunwald that she wants her to find Mona’s body and tells her that she thinks Alison killed Mona. She hands over Mona’s stuffed toy to her.

Spencer and Emily head to the DiLaurentis house claiming that they are looking for Emily’s mom’s muffin tray. Alison isn’t home, but Jason is. Spencer notices how Alison and Jason are never at the same place at the same time nowadays. Spencer tells him that the cops found traces of Mona's DNA in Ali's trunk but it's not enough to arrest her, especially since her father and brother are providing her an alibi. Spencer pleads Jason to tell the police the truth- that Alison wasn’t with him at the time of the murder. She tells him that Alison is setting her up, and she is his sister too.

Mrs.Grunwald tells Hanna how Mona has carried secrets into death and that is making hard for her to see clearly. She says, “Each one hated the other, because each one feared the other, because each one knew something about the other.” Mrs.Grunwald then tells Hanna that Mona is not at peace and is having a hard time passing as she was betrayed. She tells Hanna that Mona isn’t in Rosewood – she is “surrounded by earth, insects, and cold.”

After Spencer and Emily get home, Emily reveals that she stole Alison’s hairbrush and she wants to plant Alison’s hair in Mona’s house. If the cops were to do another sweep of Mona's house, even though Alison has an alibi, it won’t hold when her DNA is found at the crime scene.

At the DiLaurentis house, Alison comes home and finds Jason looking at some old family photos. Looking at a particular photo, Alison tells him how she remembers it to be a good day, but Jason disproves her by telling her that it was a horrible day. Alison claims that she must remember it differently to which Jason replies that she has always had a knack for that. He then tells Ali that Spencer and Emily are right – she went somewhere on Thanksgiving. He demands to know where she went but Alison begs Jason to believe that Emily, Spencer, Hanna, and Aria are all framing her and she swears that she didn’t kill Mona.

Aria pays Caleb a visit at his apartment where he is trying to decrypt Mona’s computer and get in to her files. Aria explains that she keeps getting rejected from all the colleges she has applied to, and she wants Caleb to hack in to the school’s website and find out if it is her fault or if 'A' is responsible. Caleb agrees to help her and insteadof hacking in himself, he decides to teach her how to do it.

Spencer and Emily head to Mona’s house to try and plant evidence – Alison’s hair – but instead they find a camera hidden in the vent. They rush home and tell Hanna that she needs to go talk to Mona’s mom and tell her that there are cameras hidden in her house and they could have captured Mona’s killer. After initially hesitating, Hanna agrees and goes over to Mona’s house. Mrs. Vanderwaal tells Hanna she is going to set up a fund to buy books for the children's library in Mona’s honor because Mona loved books. Hanna flashes back to the time they were friends. Mona tells Hanna to read the book she is holding to which Hanna replies that it’s more of a Spencer Hastings type book. Mona tells Hanna not to undermine her own smartness as it is another way for her to hide. Mona tells her that she don't have to hide from anyone anymore. Back in the present, Hanna tells Mrs.Vanderwaal that she thinks Mona may have set up cameras in her house before she died because she was scared.

Aria heads to the Brew to pick up Mike and she has Mona’s laptop with her. Mike isn’t there, but she turns around and comes face to face with someone in a mask and hoodie. They drape a plastic sheet over Aria and staple her to the wall and steal the laptop and run out.

Mrs.Grunwald runs in to Alison in the street – Mrs.Grunwald tells Alison that she is sorry for her loss. As Alison walks away Mrs.Grunwald grabs her hand, she tells her that she is in her thoughts and prayers.

At the police station, Tanner, Jason and Toby are watching the footage obtained from when Mona was murdered. Tanner tells Jason that there were three cameras hidden in the house but only this one had relevant footage. She also informs him that the batteries in the cameras ran out months ago, they were working on Thanksgiving. Mona’s attacker’s face cannot be seen, but the attacker’s blond hair is visible. Tanner questions Jason whether he can identify the attacker and he admits that the blond girl in the footage could be Alison and confesses that he lied earlier and that Alison wasn’t at home at the time that Mona was killed.

At Emily’s Aria tells Emily what happened with her at the Brew. Aria tells her that she hasn’t told Ezra about the attack and she is not going to. Emily enquires Aria if she is sure that whoever took the laptop was Alison and Aria says that she is sure her attacker was Alison.

At Alison’s house, police sirens go off- the police have come to arrest Alison. Alison asks Jason to try and stall them and runs out the back door. But Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily are waiting for her. They block her path and won’t let her out. Alison cries to them that ‘A’ set her up, and warns them that once she is in jail ‘A’ is going to come after her next. The police arrive and handcuff Alison and inform her she is under arrest for Mona’s murder before they take her away.

Mike arrives home and Aria tells him that Alison has been arrested for Mona’s murder – he doesn’t appear to care. Aria tells Mike all this time she thought that it was Mike who was afraid to talk to her but the truth us that she’s afraid to find out what Mike might know because Mona knew a lot of things about her and her friends. She explains that if Ali is behind bars then they don’t have to be afraid anymore. Mike tells her that he knew she hated Mona but now she is pretending like Mona was a saint because she is dead, like everyone else. He tells her that he is sick of being told how sweet, nice, and smart Mona was and that there will never be anyone else like her.

Emily rushes to the airport to say goodbye to Paige – she begs Paige to talk to her parents and tell them that she is safe now because Alison is in jail. Paige says that she doesn’t want to fight anymore, and she is tired of being afraid – she wants to save her energy to just live. Paige reveals to her that maybe going to California isn’t that bad of an idea.

Spencer heads home, and the Rosewood police are waiting for her in the living room. They reveal that they think Alison set her up and killed Bethany Young as well, so they are officially dropping the murder charges against her. Spencer cries tears of joy and rushes in to Toby’s arms.

Emily, Spencer, Hanna, and Aria all sit in Spencer’s backyard and Emily reveals that Paige is gone, and getting out of Rosewood was probably a good idea. Spencer says that they should all get out of Rosewood and have their own lives now that they can put ‘A’ and Alison behind them. Fireworks begin going off in the sky and they spell out the letter ‘A’. The girls, refusing to believe that is still out there think that Alison must have set it up before she was arrested. As sparks start falling on them and they rush inside.

The episode ends with Alison lying in her bed in prison, tossing and turning.

Title and Background

 * The title is a reference to Carla Grunwald's quote "I see, but as through a glass darkly." She says this when she is asked by Hanna to find Mona's body. As Mona carried a lot of secrets with her into death, Grunwald cannot see clearly, as to where Mona is.
 * The title may be a reference to "In a Glass Darkly," a collection of five short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu. The collection's title is a deliberate misquotation of 1 Corinthians 13:12. The last of the five stories is "Carmilla," a tale about a female vampire that served as inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
 * The title may also refer to the bible verse 1st Corinthians Chapter 13. "For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face" As though when someone was naive or didnt know something, they were blinded to the truth.
 * The title may also be reference to the Ingmar Bergman chamber film "Through a Glass Darkly" (1961). The events of the film are set on an island and take place within a 24-hour period. There are only four characters in the film, which may be a point of similarity with the four main characters in the show.

Main Cast

 * Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
 * Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
 * Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery
 * Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
 * Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal
 * Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Supporting Cast

 * Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz
 * Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
 * Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers
 * Lindsey Shaw as Paige McCullers
 * Cody Allen Christian as Mike Montgomery
 * Drew Van Acker as Jason DiLaurentis
 * Sydney Penny as Leona Vanderwaal
 * Roma Maffia as Linda Tanner
 * Meg Foster as Carla Grunwald
 * Nolan North as Peter Hastings

Trivia

 * Filming began July 25, 2014 and wrapped August 4, 2014.

Featured Music

 * "Share Your Air" by Kate Miller-Heidke ft. Passenger - (Emily and Paige talk about Paige moving away to California and what she'll miss while she's away).
 * "S.O.S" by Uriah - (Aria stops by Caleb's new apartment).
 * "This Sweet Love" by James Yuill - (Flashback: Mona tells Hanna she's smart and that she shouldn't hide it from people).
 * "The Final Say" by Young Summer - (At the airport, Emily and Paige say goodbye).
 * "The Best is Yet to Come" by Us and Our Daughters - (Spencer is informed that the charges against her were dropped; the girls talk about future now that Ali is jail then watch the firework display that ends with 'A' beginning written across the sky).