‘Pretty Little Liars’ Season 5 Premiere: Aria Kills Shana — Is She Really ‘A’? – Hollywood Life

‘Pretty Little Liars’ Premiere Recap: Aria Kills ‘A’ — Who Is It?

'Pretty Little Liars' is back, and better than ever! Ezra is alive, Alison is back, Aria kills someone and 'A' is revealed! Yes, it's really true! Pretty Little Liars returned for Season 5, and went out with a bang. Literally. The episode ends with a gunshot, but who fired off? Keep reading to find out -- it's all part of the "A" game.

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Mr. Fitz Lives — But For How Long?

The episode starts with Ezra (Ian Harding) being rushed to the hospital. We already know that he makes it through, but it’s still heartbreaking seeing Mr. Fitz on a stretcher!

Aria (Lucy Hale) is beside herself with concern over Ezra, but the girls — including Alison (Sasha Pieterse)! — band together to further their chase for “A.” They realize that Ezra knows who “A” is, “A” is still out to get Ali and Ezra can possibly prevent that from happening…unless “A” gets to him first.

Alison and Aria run off to NYC find Ezra in the hospital, and Ali asks Aria about her relationship with Ezra. We’re predicting a love triangle between these three, but that’s hardly the biggest problem going on here — all of the girls’ mugs have been plastered over the news in a five-split missing person’s case. Oh, and Mona (Janel Parrish) is watching: “This changes everything.” Duh duh duhhh!

And guess who Mona’s teaming up with now? Lucas (Brendan Robinson)! Um, what?!

Playtime With ‘A’

The girls sit in the hospital, up to no good (we’ve missed their scheming for the past few months), and suddenly, “A” walks by. We didn’t see that one coming!

Ali wanders off from the hospital (all part of the plan), but the plan goes awry when she runs into “A” on the street! Ali runs for her life — she just got it back! — through a playground, and then, she runs into “A” who asks her, “Wanna play?” in just about the creepiest voice we’ve ever heard.

“A” tells Ali that this is now all over, but then the liars come out of nowhere and tell “A” that he’s clearly mistaken — they wouldn’t leave Ali by herself. Again, all part of the plan.

Bet they didn’t see this one coming: a zillion of masked “A’s” come out to play, ambushing the girls, before the police break it up. Speaking of police, Detective Holbrook (Sean Faris) is onto Ali.

The girls are at least a bit relived though because they got “A” away from Ezra. Foreshadowing alert: we bet “A” isn’t far away from Ezra.

Ezra & Ali’s Past Comes Out

Alison takes the girls to a special place, the Fitzgerald Theater, which ends up being where Ezra Fitz used to take her.

Zoom into a flashback, and Ezra was totally hitting on Ali. “Mr. Fitzgerald?” she coyly asks him in the scene, set in his family’s namesake theater. Flirt alert!

Speaking of Ali’s past coming to haunt her, back at the hospital, Shana (Aeriél Miranda) shows up to comfort Aria — because Ali sent her to help.

Back at the theater, Ali is fast asleep (and looks eerily dead when Hanna tries to wake her up), and the girls chit-chat about her, and feel like she’s shutting them out. But in a nice moment of girl talk (it won’t last long — this is PLL), Spencer admits that she wouldn’t want to go back to the person she used to be. We’ll translate that into “I don’t do drugs anymore.”

Ugh. Knew we shouldn’t have spoke up so soon — all of the girls fell asleep, but Ali’s nap (we knew she looked to creepy to be dreaming peacefully) is harshly interrupted by a black-gloved hand covering her mouth!

CeCe Is Back — And Ali’s Sidekick?

Turns out, the gloved hand wasn’t “A” (well, at least we think) — it was CeCe Drake (Vanessa Ray)!

Guess who else is back? Noel (Brant Daughtery)! The three have clearly been working together, and it seems that CeCe has been assisting Ali in faking out “A” — they do look an awful lot alike. CeCe points out, not only do they look like twins, but they also think like twins. Great minds think alike!

Hmm…we bet “Alison” running around for the past four seasons was actually CeCe.

Alison returns to the theater and Emily (Shay Mitchell) questions her of her whereabouts. She says she thought they were all in this together, and Ali pulls her aside with her to prove that she is. (Foreshadowing alert: Alison and Emily romance?)

Mona Is Out For The Girls

It looks like Lucas isn’t the only one teaming up with Mona — she’s created an anti-Ali cult! And Paige (Lindsey Shaw) is in attendance! And so is Spencer’s sister Melissa (Torrey DeVitto)!

In other news, Detective Holbrook is also out for Ali. The phone at the Fitzgerald theater rings and it’s the cop — he wants to find Ali and the girls, and has been researching Mr. Fitzgerald (aka Ezra) all day long. The girls realize that Ali is in danger, but it’s too late. She gave away her passport and plane ticket, and can’t leave (we find out later, to CeCe, who ditches town for France).

In true Pretty Little Liars fashion, the phone rings again and it’s not Det. Holbrook calling back — it’s Aria! And the girls miss her call! Ugh.

Good news for Aria (well, not for long), Ezra is alive, and barely able to breathe, he whispers something to her in his hospital bed.

‘A’ Is Revealed!

Shana sure gets around town fast! Just when we thought she was at the hospital — so that’s Ezra whispered to Aria — she shows up at the theater and guns down the girls! Ali is shocked, screaming, asking Shana why she would turn against her. She’s there for justice. But for who? Jenna (Tammin Sursok)! Apparently Shana fell in love with Jenna, and is after Ali for revenge.

Rewind: Shana admits that she locked the girls in the lodge. Last season! It’s all coming together…is Shana really “A”?! Umm, not for long.

Aria travels quick, too. She shows up out of nowhere, grabs a huge gun, and knocks Shana right over the head with it, just as she’s about to knock the liars’ brigade out. And just like that, Shana is dead.

“It really is over. It’s over,” Aria says, shocked that she just killed someone.

Just throwing it out there: we’re going to say it’s not over.

HollywoodLifers, do you think that Shana was really “A” or is the mystery monster still out there? Let us know what you thought about tonight’s premiere, liars!

— Elizabeth Wagmeister

More ‘Pretty Little Liars’ News:

  1. ‘PLL’ Season 5 Spoilers: Will Emily & Paige Rekindle Their Romance?
  2. Lucy Hale Reveals Secret Crush On Her Hot ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Costar 
  3. ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Season 5 Spoilers: Alison Is Back — Can She Be Trusted?