The 8 Best 'Pretty Little Liars' Episodes To Re-Watch Before The Finale Airs
Sh*t's probably gonna hit the fan on Tuesday when Pretty Little Liars ends its seven-year run with an epic 2-hour finale that (hopefully) will answer all of our burning questions about the show.
All 159 episodes of the drama-filled series have been packed with clues about A and Big A and Uber A and A.D., and fan theory after fan theory has dissected and speculated about them all. It's hard to keep up.
If you're getting pumped for the finale but want to make sure you don't miss a thing in an episode that is sure to be loaded with callbacks to earlier moments in the series, here's a list of the eight episodes (including five from the show creator herself) you absolutely must re-watch before tonight's epic ending.
Also, this is obviously gonna have spoilers.
Game On, Charles (Season 6, Episode 01)
Why you should re-watch: Plenty of fans regard this episode as one of the best of the series -- it's certainly one of the most intense. It puts the Liars through some serious trauma -- being kidnapped and held captive for three weeks -- and leads them closer to a mysterious character, Charles, who is confirmed to be the Big A who stole the game from Mona. The doll motif is huge in the later part of the series and with all of the protagonists literally trapped in a doll house for this episode, there's a lot to dissect.
Taking This One to the Grave (Season 5, Episode 12)
Why you should re-watch: This episode is when the tide begins to turn against Alison. Even though she was the natural A suspect in earlier seasons, she'd recently fallen off the radar as a potential member of the "A-Team." She still isn't a confirmed member, and can't be the sole orchestrator of all of A's chaos, but we still don't know who A.D. is and tonight's finale might change all that.
How the 'A' Stole Christmas (Season 5, Episode 13)
Why you should re-watch: Christmas gifts make great clues and this episode is full of them. Almost every Liar receives a mysterious gift -- from A and others -- that leads them in the direction of solving the many mysteries that have been haunting them for years. There's also time travel, ghosts, and a lot of time spent in Alison's head (which matters because basically every time she's onscreen it's a clue). This is also one of the five episodes show creator, I. Marlene King, recommended we watch before the finale.
unmAsked (Season 2, Episode 25)
Why you should re-watch: Besides being one of the most classic episodes of the series, as A is finally revealed to be Mona after two years of teasing, this episode marks the beginning of a long line of reveals about the identities and motives of those on the “A-team." It's also the first appearance of evil Red Coat and the beginning of the whole Red Coat thing -- one of the most enduring characters/motifs in the series.
It Happened 'That Night' (Season 3, Episode 1)
Why you should re-watch: This episode is chock full of clues. It's before we know Alison is still alive, but it provides hints she is alive when Mona hallucinates her reading Lolita, famously about a girl on the run.
Alison is also in a red robe in this hallucination -- remember, red coats/robes etc. are a big deal in the PLL-verse. This episode also features an anagram in the form of a poorly-lit hotel sign (PLL is notorious for loving anagrams) and a ton of dollhouse stuff, which, like we've seen, become a huge motif in later seasons and probably the finale. "That Night" also puts the liars back at the scene of a crime and forces them to destroy evidence and lie for each other, a classic PLL shenanigan.
Last Dance (Season 6, Episode 9)
Why you should re-watch: Speaking of classic shenanigans, there's really nothing more quintessentially PLL than putting girls in life-threatening situations at prom, which is exactly what happens to them in "Last Dance." This episode is also worth revisiting because it features all the main ladies' mothers reminiscing about their whole ordeal in Rosewood. Even if they aren't giving clues, their dialogue about all the crazy stuff that's happened in the past six seasons is pretty funny.
A is for Answers (Season 4, Episode 24)
Why you should re-watch: This episode basically serves you long-withheld answers about Alison's backstory hot on a platter. It's worth re-watching purely as a recap of a huge part of the plot, and the excitement at the end will leave you terrified in classic PLL fashion. This is another one that the series created recommended for a re-watch.
Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars (Season 6, Episode 20)
Why you should re-watch: PLL Series creator I. Marlene King, well-known for dropping hints like breadcrumbs and leading fans closer and closer to answers she has yet to provide, said that one scene in this episode is a must-watch before the finale. It's a scene of big reveals, but they all seem pretty obvious when you hear them, so it's worth another look to see if all those revelations may have distracted us from some major clues.
