A is for Answers

A is for Answers is the twenty-fourth episode of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars and the 95th episode of the show overall. The episode marks the fourth season finale and aired on March 18, 2014.

Summary
The girls have been brought to an apartment by Noel. He leaves and Alison walks in. The girls ask her why she trusts Noel and Ali tells them that he has secrets too. They tell her they think her mother is A and she doesn't look shocked. She tells the girls she's ready to tell them everything and if they can't figure things out that night she's going to disappear again and   this time for it will be good.

Holbrook interviews CeCe. Holbrook asks her about Wilden’s murder but she does not give any straight answer. She tells him she knows who killed the girl the police thought was Alison. She says it's the same person who is actively trying to hurt Alison, whom she can prove is alive.

Alison flashes back to being with Ian the morning of the day she supposedly died, when Melissa arrives and confronts him. While Melissa and Ian argue, Alison copies Ian’s hard drive when she finds a video of Jenna and Toby’s sexual relationship.. She uses the video to intimidate Jenna,   gets a text from A saying she was going to kill her which meant Jenna wasn't A and she cut Jenna off of her A suspect list.

Veronica is seen talking with Ashley and Ella whose girls are also missing. Holbrook is having Spencer's home searched. He tells Veronica they have probable cause the girls know the whereabouts of a missing person and shows her a picture of them talking to Alison wearing period clothes. Veronica is shocked to see that Ali is alive. Melissa walks in and surprises her mom.

Alison tells the girls when she returned home she got yet another threat from A written with lipstick on her mirror. That night Alison and Jessica got in a fight because she didn't want her daughter going to the Hastings barn and party with the girls. She warns Ali about the Hastings family. Alison takes her mother's sleeping pills. She meets the girls at the barn and slips some of the pills into their drink, hoping to cross them off if another A threat arrived. She met with Toby that night and said she knew he wasn't A, either. Ezra pulls up and Alison gets in the car. He won't let her leave.

At the station Holbrook asks Veronica about Spencer's recent activities. She doesn't like it and wants to contact her husband. An officer tells Holbrook they have a warrant for the GPS signal on the girls' phones. Melissa is being interviewed in another room and according to her Toby went to London and told her that Spencer was missing her. So she came back to Rosewood. Peter is also being interviewed and doesn't know Veronica is there as well.

Alison tells the girls about meeting Ezra at a pub while hanging out with CeCe. Alison tricks him into thinking she's a literature buff. Alison apologizes to Aria for "everything." The night Alison drugged the girls Ezra was mad because he'd just discovered she was actually in high school. He says he won't see her anymore. Alison then met Ian and threatened him with his videos that if she gets another text she's sending him to jail. He warns her that some of the videos could bring "everybody down, including your family."

In present day Alison tells Aria that Ezra is trying to save her, thinking that it could get her back.

‘That’ night Alison returned to the girls and found an angry Spencer waiting for her.

Holbrook asks Peter about hiring a private investigator that summer and shows him the file with Spencer's name all over it. Holbrook references Spencer's "erratic" behavior and Peter stops talking. In the hall Holbrook is told the girls are in Philly. Peter sees Melissa and finds out Veronica is also there. Peter begins to panic and Melissa seems to think her father believes Spencer killed that girl.

That night in the barn Spencer and Alison argue. Spencer grabs the shovel and eventually falls over. Alison sees Spencer speed pills and follows after her. Spencer cries and begs her not to tell anybody. Alison promises not to tell anybody. Later on that night she sees Byron and threatens him with the tapes. Alison didn't receive any more texts that night, but returns home to find her mother staring out the window. Alison gets hit in the head with a rock while her mother looks on. This seems to prove Spencer couldn't have hurt the other girl and Jessica saw who did. Jessica is seen shoveling dirt over Alison, who she maybe thought was dead.

In present day Alison tells the girls she tried to tell her mother she was alive but she couldn't speak. Alison heard her mother say "what have you done?" which means Jessica was trying to protect somebody. That night Alison left the hospital alone and Mona found her walking along the road. The go to a motel under a fake name, Vivian Darkbloom, and Mona thinks that perhaps Alison should let A think she's dead by disappearing. Mona puts her to sleep and goes next door to her "A headquarters." The next morning Alison thanks Mona for saving her life. She tells Mona things to do to make her popular and leaves. Alison tells the girls in present day that Mona "played me like a fool."

In the police station Melissa tells Peter that "Spencer didn't kill that girl." She whispers something in his ear and he is shocked.

The girls tell Alison not to leave, even though they still don't know the identity of A. We see Alison was the hooded person who saved Spencer from Ian. She was also at the lodge trying to make sure they were safe. The girls see a strange light outside. Just then a hooded figure begins shooting at them and chasing them. They flee to a roof and find themselves trapped. Ezra shows up and gets in a fight with the hooded figure. Hanna grabs the gun that fell from the hooded person’s hands when he was fighting with Ezra and asks him to take off his mask. The hooded person ends up jumping to the next rooftop. They think that it cannot be Jessica. The girls turn back and see that Ezra was shot in the exchange.

In the last shot, we see Jessica's unconscious body being dragged and then placed in a grave. She is being buried alive………

RevelAtions
Alison went to visit Jenna and taunt her about the video and warn her not to threaten her. While leaving, Ali got a text that said "Bitch can't see, but I do. Tonight's the night I kill you. -A" Ali was able to cross Jenna off her A list.
 * Alison's mother forbid her to go to the barn. When Mrs. DiLaurentis wasn't looking, Ali stole her sleeping pills and left.
 * As soon as she could, Ali drugged the girls so as to eliminate them from being A. She then left the barn to go meet Toby, then Ian and confront him to tell him that he's going to jail.
 * Alison then got into Ezra's car to talk to him about her lying to him.
 * Ali went back to the barn to find a crazed Spencer, waiting for her. After the fight in the kitchen, Alison walks out and when Spencer follows with the shovel, Spencer trips and the amphetamine pills fall out of her pocket. Alison pieces two and two together, but Alison swears not to tell. She walks Spencer back to the barn and watches Spencer  fall asleep. Beleiving she is victorious over A, Alison walks home. Her mother sees her through the window and looks angry. But all of a sudden, someone throws a sharp stone at Alison's head. Ali's mom sees who it is and immediately proceeds to bury the barely conscious Alison. Alison hears hear say "Why?Why?" But as we all know, Mrs. Grunwald pulls her out and takes her to the hospital and Alison runs away, afraid.
 * Soon Mona sees Alison and takes her to the Lost Woods Resort, pretending to be a friend and helping her to get a wig and car, and telling her to sleep. In the next room, there is Mona's lair and she is brushing the Alison doll's hair. "Such a pretty, pretty girl"

Title and Background

 * Alison tells the girls what happened the night she disappeared and provides answers to questions that have been asked since Season 1.

Main Cast

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

Guest Cast

 * Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz
 * Sean Faris as Gabriel Holbrook
 * Andrea Parker as Jessica DiLaurentis
 * Vanessa Ray as Cece Drake
 * Torrey DeVitto as Melissa Hastings
 * Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings
 * Nolan North as Peter Hastings
 * Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn
 * Ryan Merriman as Ian Thomas (flashback)
 * Jim Titus as Barry Maple
 * Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall (flashback)
 * Yani Gellman as Garrett Reynolds (flashback)
 * Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery (flashback)
 * David Haley as Cop
 * Patrice Danyelle Driver as College Friend

Trivia

 * The table-read was on October 21, 2013.
 * Filming began on October 22, 2013.
 * The cast pulled two all nighters (October 23, 24 & 25) in a row on the backlot.
 * The PLLs wrapped on November 1, 2013, but there are still some juicy scenes to be shot.
 * Sasha and Andrea's last day on set was on November 2, 2013.
 * On January 26, 2014, the real script was leaked but taken down by Warner Bros a couple of days later.
 * This is the first season finale to not feature Toby and Jenna. Melissa and Mona are the only non-liars to appear in all season finales to date. Although, Jenna does appear in a flashback scene.