Pretty Little Liars Review: “Love ShAck, Baby” (Season 4, Episode 15)

Besides the constant nagging question of who’s out to get them, the Liars were all dealing with some pretty heavy material tonight. With Alison (Sasha Pieterse) being alive, Emily (Shay Mitchell) isn’t the only one having trouble figuring out if she’s real or not. The realization that something you thought was a figment of your imagination for so long actually being a tangible thing isn’t exactly an easy concept for anyone to grasp.

I’d venture to say that while Ali is a lot of things, she probably wasn’t lying about missing Emily the most (although after a couple years of running, everyone you care about would start to crowd around the top of that list). The two of them appear to have had the deepest connection out of the group, and even though all the girls clearly have private memories with Ali – which we heard more of tonight with passages from the diary – they don’t all stand up equally. It’s going to take some time before Emily adjusts to the fact that Ali’s alive and is actually alright with it, and not just because it’s a shocker, but because she was probably the last of the Liars to give up hope.

That’s something that Spencer (Troian Bellisario) should be able to appreciate, especially now that she can look forward to being the buffer between Toby (Keegan Allen) and the truth about his mother. Toby was so sure that ‘A’ had handed him the first clue to finding out that his mother had been murdered, but it turns out that it was really just an accident – or at least that’s the story that Radley has decided to close with.

As much as it must feel like an empty victory for Toby, it’s almost a relief that this wasn’t part of a bigger conspiracy. There’s still some odd details about the circumstances surrounding her death that leave me with questions, but so much of what has happened on this show has inexplicably been tied to Alison that it’s a nice change of pace. It is possible that bad things happen even when Alison isn’t at the center of them.

Alison being alive was a game changer, but the game isn’t over yet. Do you think ‘A’ will find her before the Liars figure out all the clues, or will they finally score a win? Did this episode leave you more or less convinced that Ezra is the bad guy? Let us know all your theories about Pretty Little Liars, and what’s coming next, in the comment section below!