Pretty Little Liars Series Finale: A.D. Is Revealed and Everything Is Wonderfully Bonkers

Freeform's long-running drama series said goodbye after seven seasons on Tuesday, June 27

By Lauren Piester Jun 28, 2017 2:00 AMTags
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Surprise! The internet was right! 

Many fans predicted Pretty Little Liars' final A.D. twist, but that didn't make it any less fun to find out that Spencer has an identical twin sister who has been taunting and torturing both the liars and us for the past couple of years. Her name is Alex Drake (A.D.!) and she's British, and it's all completely insane in the best way. 

Basically, at various points throughout the season, Spencer was actually Alex, and Alex is intent on taking over Spencer's magical life for good, stealing all her friends and her mom and her Toby. But we'll get to that. First, we have to catch up with all the liars. 

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We begin with a dream. The liars are all sitting around a table on the WB backlot in Rosewood, marveling at how successful Mona (now a bag designer) has become. Meanwhile, Lucas is tap dancing around them, and Jenna rides by on a horse, and they all can't believe they never found out who AD was. And we cut to Mona holding a snow globe, which falls on the floor. 

"I knew it was you," she says to the figure greeting her in her room at Radley. "Are you here to kill me?" 

Then, we cut to one year later to find out how all the couples are doing.

 

 

Aria and Ezra are about to get married, and they're taking meetings about turning their book into a movie. They're happy and in love, but Aria hasn't told Ezra that she found out she can't have kids, and she's known for weeks. When she finally does tell him after their rehearsal dinner, he's hurt that she didn't tell him earlier. 

So she's not all that shocked when she's all ready for the wedding the next day, but she gets a text from him saying he's not coming.

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Emily and Alison are together, raising their twins (?!), Lily and Grace, and both still working at the school. They, along with new life skills teacher Jenna, are worried about what's going on with the annoying child Addison, who seems to be bullying some of the other girls. Alison has also been sneaking around with Emily's mom, but when Emily confronts her about it, she finds out that Ali was just procuring Emily's grandmother's ring in preparation for a proposal, which turned out very sweet. 

("I may not be able to see, but I can smell a bitch a mile away," Jenna snapped at Addison, and it was beautiful and might have been the moment that most made us realize we'll miss this crazy show.)

Caleb and Hanna had been doing great—Hanna's designs are taking off, Caleb sold his software company, and they bought the loft—until Mona moved in so Hanna could take care of her. A roommate, plus Hanna's determination to get pregnant, was putting strain on their marriage. 

Eventually, they worked things out and decided to tell Mona they needed space. 

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Spencer and Toby hadn't seen each other in a year, since Toby went off to build wells in Africa. They ran into each other again when he came upon Spence and Melissa tending to their horses and joking about moving back home. 

While they spent one night together playing Scrabble, they eventually ended up in bed together. 

Then Mona (who seemed to be on the A team again) showed up after Spencer took a shower, knocked Spencer out with a little "Deja vu, bitch," and took her to a fun little prison on behalf of A.D. 

Spencer later woke up staring at herself in a mirror that turned out to actually be glass, and she was staring at her identical twin, and was then joined by Mary Drake, who knocked her out again. 

When Spencer woke up, she found her British identical twin waiting for her and the explanations began: 

When Alex and Spencer were born, the Hastings only knew about one baby. The other one, Alex, was adopted by a wealthy English couple right after she was born, but then she had so many issues that the couple dumped her in an orphanage, which she escaped from when she was 10. 

Eventually, she ended up as a bartender somewhere in Europe when Wren came in. At first he thought she was Spencer, but then they got to know each other and fell in love. He told her all about her twin sister's life and family, and Alex got jealous and obsessed. 

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Then, Wren introduced her to Charlotte, and Alex, Wren, Charlotte, and Archer all hung out in Europe for a while. Charlotte then went home at one point, and when she never returned, Alex wanted closure. 

Basically, the fan theory was correct. Alex started taking over Spencer's life, so she was the one who showed up to comfort Hanna when she had been kidnapped, and who sat and looked at the photo album, and who had sex with Toby in the cabin. Alex even made Wren shoot her, so shed'd have the same gunshot wound that Spencer had. She also had Alison impregnated with Emily's eggs and Wren's sperm.

Eventually, Wren got really freaked out by Alex's crazy, so she killed him and turned his ashes into a diamond necklace.

 

In present day, Alex had not only kidnapped Spencer, but she also took Ezra captive, meaning he wasn't there for his own wedding. It took the gang way too long to figure out that he was actually missing and hadn't just left, but they figured it out right around the same time that Jenna called Toby to tell him she didn't think Spencer was Spencer, so Toby showed up with a book that Spencer had given him, but it clearly wasn't Spencer's book.

Anyway, everyone was confused, but they quickly figured out that twins clearly run in the Drake family, so Spencer must have a twin. Then Mona showed up to reveal that she was on their side, and she had the coordinates for where Alex was, and the coordinates led right to the house that Toby built. 

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They all showed up just in time to save Spencer and Ezra from Alex and her ax, and then Toby figured out which Spencer was real by asking her about her favorite poem. From there, it was a piece of cake.

Aria and Ezra got married (despite cell phone interruption by showrunner I. Marlene King herself, who was posing as the photographer). Hanna revealed she was pregnant, and Aria and Ezra planned to meet with an adoption agency as soon as they got back from their honeymoon. (Why are all these 24 year olds so desperate to have kids??) It was a happy ending for all, sort of.

 

We next saw Mona, working in a little shop in France. After closing time, she walked down a long hallway to where she had a little dollhouse set up, right in front of a big dollhouse containing Mary and Alex, who were forced to have tea for the rest of time, apparently. 

And finally, we go back to the annoying child Addison and her annoying friends, who are having a slumber party. Surprise surprise, they wake up to find that Addison has gone missing, and Willa might have heard her scream. 

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And finally finally, we'd be remiss if we didn't pay tribute to the Wine Moms, who reunited at Aria and Ezra's rehearsal dinner to reminisce about that time they were drunkenly trapped in the basement. Wine mom spinoff, please. We love you, wine moms. 

Stay tuned for more coverage of tonight's finale, but in the meantime, vote in the poll below to tell us what you thought!

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Pretty Little Liars aired on Freeform.