Alison (Sasha Pieterse) being back in Rosewood was supposed to be a good thing, but judging by the cold reception she received at school on last week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars, and the events on “Run, Ali, Run,” her return is anything but. It’s also changed the vibe of the show completely. Ali being alive has taken Pretty Little Liars to a new level, but not necessarily in a productive way. This episode wasn’t the first one this season where it seemed like the writers took an entire episode to make one thing barely happen, withholding the must-watch television show that fans tuned in expecting.
With Shana (Aeriél Miranda) dead, the Liars assumed that was the end of their torment. Unfortunately, the are finding out the hard way that bringing Ali back home has only made it worse. Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) points out that, “A doesn’t shoot and miss,” and he’s probably right. The explosion at the Cavanaugh house may have been attributed to a natural gas leak – no big surprise there. A always covers her tracks, and it probably doesn’t hurt that Jenna (Tammin Sursok) may have something to do with her own house going up in flames.
Think about it. Just as viewers find out that Jenna and Sydney (Chloe Bridges), the new girl, are meeting with Mona (Janel Parrish) in secret to discuss the Ali issue, there’s a mysterious explosion at Jenna’s house while all of the Liars and their sympathizers are gathered only a few houses away watching the evening news. Nothing on Pretty Little Liars has ever been a coincidence, and it’s doubtful that the writers are going to start mucking that up in the fifth season of the show’s run.
The one thing that may have surprised viewers tonight was watching Ali’s reaction to the situation. More so than we’ve seen in the past, Ali was obviously shaken up by the lengths that A was willing to go through to make a point. Although her agenda is still on the vague side, it didn’t take long before Ali was ready to leave Rosewood in the rearview mirror all over again and make a run for it. The thing about Ali is that she talks a good game, but she seems to come up short on the follow-through. She has no problem making life tough for others, but when it comes to anyone bullying her or knocking her down from her self-appointed pedestal, she freaks out, for lack of a better adjective.