Pretty Little Liars Review: Farewell, My Lovely (Season 7 Episode 19)

There is only one more episode of Pretty Little Liars left before we say goodbye to Rosewood for good, and we still don’t know who A.D. is!

Pretty Little Liars Season 7 Episode 19 “Farewell, My Lovely”  sees Liar’s Lament come to a close as someone is arrested for murder, but the result brings about more secrets, leaving a slightly bitter taste in our mouths.

One thing is for certain: Mona is not A.D.! Mona’s arc comes to a close this week after she regresses back to pigtail wearing “Loser Mona” and attempts to kill Hanna.

My feelings about Mona’s arc are two-fold. First, I am really happy she’s not the mastermind behind the game. Second, having her story end like this feels really bittersweet.

Mona’s evolution was fun to watch over the last seven years as she went from a “loser,” to queen bee, and then a social pariah who decided to stop masking who she really was. (And yes a part of that is the personality disorder Dr. Sullivan diagnosed her with at the end of Season 2!)

By the time we see her in season 7B, I genuinely thought she was trying to be a better a person, and maybe she was.

One thing that really strikes me about Mona’s narrative is how she seems to be another pawn in A.D.’s game. There may not have been a little Mona on the board when Hanna showed her Liar’s lament, but the game she was playing was definitely messing with Mona’s psyche, especially when she says:

MONA: We swim around in this fishbowl like we’re in control. We’re not.

So when the Liars tell her that they’re going to hand her off to Dr. Sullivan, it feels somewhat compassionate. Yes, Mona has done terrible things, but I don’t think jail is going to help her.

She needs to be cared for by mental health professionals, who understand her, because at the end of the day, what happened to Charlotte was an accident.

Mona may have started the meeting in the steeple with the intention of talking to Charlotte, and then escalated into threatening her, but in the end, there wasn’t an intent that led to Charlotte’s death.

I think leaving her in this situation is the best ending we could have asked for with this character. If she wasn’t involved somehow, we would have wondered what she was up to for the last season and a half.

What I do not like this episode is the twist where Mary Drake takes the fall for the Liars.

Mary turns herself in to save Spencer, and her actions do coincide with her “I owe you a whole other life,” speech from earlier on this episode, but I can’t help but feel like Mary deserve so much more!  While her altruism has the best intentions, I am angry that this is the solution they found to save the Liars from going to prison, especially when Emily said herself last episode “well, we did kill a guy!”

Mary hasn’t done anything other than be at the wrong place at the wrong time, her entire life.

She ended up in Radley because she was covering for Jessica when a baby died and that has colored how everyone perceives her. Spencer’s dad has spent the entire season hanging giant warning signs around the name “Mary Drake”  because “she’s dangerous,” but the only person who seems to actually be talking to Mary is Spencer.

In the end, it doesn’t surprise me that Mary turns herself in to save Spencer, but a part of me is hoping that the Liars will find a way to perform a hat trick and at least get indictment for Jessica’s murder dropped.

But of all of my feelings about Mary’s confession, I think what really bothers me is that Liars are getting away with murder. Pretty Little Liars has been built upon secrets since episode one, and one of my hopes for the finale is that all those secrets will be aired out for everyone to see.

As far as I’m concerned, Mary’s confession just gives us another secret and is going to leave the Liars with guilt over their shoulders. I never wanted to see the Lairs go to jail, but somehow I always thought that the show would end with the truth being aired and all the pieces falling into place for a “happily ever after.”

It’s a very good thing there is still one episode left. Not only is A.D. still out there, but this episode is far from satisfying. I hope they’re able to tie everything A.D.-related into a nice neat bow for the last hour.

What did you think of this episode of Pretty Little Liars? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Stray Thoughts: 

• Okay, so that top of the episode with Rollins’ body in Aria’s car was rigged, just not how I thought.
• Is anyone else laughing hysterically when Ezra says: “I have a masters degree in American literature, there’s nothing I can’t handle?” I can think of a few degrees that would be more helpful, and at the bottom of that ranking is British literature, because then you at least have Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to utilize.
• That brief scene where Caleb apologizes to Spencer is so sweet. I never really liked Caleb and Spencer together after the time jump, but I am glad that he at least acknowledge their relationship, and it’s poetic that Spencer is the first Liar to know about their wedding.
• Suddenly the Two Crows dinner seems to be a very appropriate name!

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Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform.

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