We Finally Know Who The Bad Bishop Actually Is On 'The Perfectionists'

This post contains spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. She may roam the grounds of Beacon Heights University as a Type A recruitment and admissions staffer, but on The Perfectionists, Mona is still the gleeful nerd she was in her early days of Pretty Little Liars. When she isn't helping Alison delve into the Hotchkiss murder mystery, Mona has been playing online chess against the same opponent, and after her virtual rival stood her up IRL, she finally knows who challenged her chess strategy. Who is Bad Bishop on The Perfectionists? The chess aficionado was someone we knew all along.

Since the new school year began at BHU, Mona (Janel Parrish) has taken breaks from the whirlwind action by playing online games of chess. She frequently played with the same opponent, named Bad Bishop, and even planned to meet him or her in a very You've Got Mail-esque way. But the anonymous player never showed up to their meeting at the BHU student union, and Mona kept quiet about it when Dana Booker (Klea Scott) questioned why she was sitting with a white knight chess piece.

When questioned about the no-show, Bad Bishop claimed something else came up. Given Taylor Hotchkiss' (Hayley Erin) reappearance and Caitlin's (Sydney Park) hit-and-run incident, Mona's relationship with her opponent understandably took a pause. But in May 1's "Dead Week," Mona's search for who left her unsettling cupcakes was briefly sidetracked when she realized who she's been in contact with.

The discovery was set in motion when Mason (Noah Gray-Cabey) attended an advising appointment with Mona. He confessed that he didn't feel like he belonged at BHU in the aftermath of Nolan's (Chris Mason) death. Mona attributed his freak-out to the stress of Dead Week (the chaotic lead-up to school finals) and asked what he did to relax. Mason confessed to playing piano and having taught himself by ear, saying, "Music is the art of math."

Per Mona's guidance, Mason headed off to his own jam session in one of the school's music practice rooms. Going from one existential crisis to another, Mona was encouraging Alison (Sasha Pieterse) to move past her Rosewood identity when she received a new chess notification. In a text, Bad Bishop quipped, "Chess is the art of math," clearly pointing toward Mason as Mona's competitor. The night of his planned meeting with Mona also happened to be when he met Caitlin in the cabin.

In the past, the show has definitely alluded to Mona harboring a romantic spark for Bad Bishop. But just as the show seems to have forgotten that Claire (Kelly Rutherford) was first presented as a key villain, these romantic inklings also seemed non-existent when Mona found Mason after putting the clues together. They laughed over the coincidence, but the completion of Mona's Beacon Guard analysis prevented them from discussing it further.

So now that the Bad Bishop mystery is solved, is Mason's little secret going to be important in the future? His reaction to Mona read as a tad calculating, and while he admitted to only being Nolan's "insurance policy," he hasn't exactly joined forces with the Perfectionists against Dana yet. What's preventing him from helping Caitlin and her friends figure out the truth?

Plus, did we just imagine Mona's little crush on Bad Bishop? A relationship between her and Mason would be fairly inappropriate, but the Pretty Little Liars universe has tackled much worse before. Are we due for an Ezria-esque storyline soon? And is Mason aware of Mona working with the others to solve Nolan's murder? This Bad Bishop reveal may've created even more questions the show has to answer.

Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists continues on Wednesday, May 8, at 8 p.m. ET on Freeform.