Pretty Little Liars -- A Very Boring Christmas Special

If you were expecting an exciting episode filled with a lot of hints and teases then this wasn't the episode for you. That's not to say it wasn't a nice little episode. It just wasn't what one would expect from a Pretty Little Liars Halloween episode, which usually gives you plenty to gnaw on as you wait for the new season to start up in January. But this wasn't a Halloween episode, it was a Christmas episode. And the only thing slightly disturbing was Stalker Ezra partying along with the teens he spied on and stalked while also filling in a psuedo parental figure since all the parents had been exiled from this episode and Rosewood. Seriously, didn't the dude feel a little weird parading around in his underwear with all the other teenagers to have a teen make-out session? Yikes!

The parents leaving town was pretty unbelievable, especially considering Mona had just been brutally murdered a month earlier and her body was still missing. Yet all the parents left their daughters alone. I think the parents got the boot because if they were there Ezra would hardly be a welcome guest at the holiday celebrations. Instead he was the pseudo-parent and host of the festivities. Of course, when is the last time a parent stripped to their skivvies and suggested having a sex orgy?

There was also a not very successful attempt to do a Christmas Carol/Rear Window take-off. Mona or Jessica or both were the ghosts haunting Ebenezer Ali but unlike A Christmas Carol Ali wasn't being offered a last chance of redemption before it was too late. Meanwhile Toby was supposed to be a bad version of Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. And the title for the episode seemed to be a take-off on The Grinch That Stole Christmas, but the only thing A stole was Mona's body, which had nothing to do with Christmas. In short, there was just too much going on in this episode and yet not enough.

While the scene with A putting the picture of the liars in a snow globe was continued when Santa gifted the girls with a present from A, the Mona doll being put in place of the Baby Jesus statue in Emily's Christmas display was never mentioned. Guess Emily never noticed it. Also they suddenly changed Wayne coming home for the holidays, as well. As mentioned before, no way would Wayne and Pam cotton to Aria's stalker/teacher/lover breaking holiday bread with them. And as free as Ashley can be, I think she'd have a problem with it, as well. And don't even go there with the Hastings.

There was also some out of character stuff like Hanna doing charity for the holidays. Since when? The last time Hanna did anything charitable she was forced to by Ashley. While doing her thing she ran afoul a pint-sized Ali and her group of liars. Hanna convinced the pint-sized liars to blow pint-sized Ali off. Another out of character, not to mention disappointing turn, was Jenna caving and becoming a member of Ali's new mean girl squad.

Meanwhile Ali was visited by her dead mother and Mona. As a child Ali discovered her mother had bought twin outfits for Ali and someone else and told Ali she couldn't tell her father cause if he found out he'd leave them. Most viewers seemed to think the other outfit was for Bethany since they've got their needles stuck on Bethany being Ali's twin. Me, I think there was a twin who died and Jessica was still buying outfits for her like she was still alive.The question is did Ali kill her like the twin killed her sister in the Halloween story Ali told. According to Ghost Mona when Jessica got Ali to pretend she never saw two outfits that was the birth of the Ali monster.

Ali's vision of Christmas Future was herself dead in a coffin and Ghost Mona saying Ali had her legs cut off. Is that foreshadowing by season end Ali will be as dead as Mona? I can only hope so. The character totally throws the balance of the show off. She'll never fit in as one of the liars as she needs to be in control and to manipulate and lie. The character is better when she's dead and the girls are trying to figure who whacked the miscreant.

Mona was also on the liars mind as she left them a Christmas present. A map of all of Ali's secret hiding places in her house. So Spencer and Hanna decided to snoop around the DiLaurentis house while Ali was at the party. Toby was in his wheelchair sporting a similar camera that Jimmy Stewart's character sported in Rear Window so he could watch them through the zoom lens. That's a seriously expensive and professional camera, so just where did he get it? Don't ask. Seriously, wouldn't a pair of binoculars have been better?

Anyway, A [presumably] showed up and Spencer hid, while Hanna playing Grace Kelly was snooping around upstairs as Jimmy Toby started flashing his camera to warn Hanna that A was coming, only she didn't see the flashes and got knocked out by A. In the movie when Raymond Burr caught Grace Kelly snooping in his place Jimmy called the cops which was a lot more effective than flashing a camera from the house next door and expecting someone next door to see it. The whole scene played incredibly stupid. Why not open a window and throw something against the house next door. Who know? You might freak A out so much he/she would have ran for the nearest exit.

However, this A seems to be slipping as they didn't check Hanna's cleavage for some evidence she stuffed down between her boobs and as a result the liars now have paper proof that there was a connection between Bethany and Ali. It seems Ali was friends with her. I'd bet it was Ali that turned Bethany against Jessica and made up a bunch of lies about her. It seems the dumb as a doornail Bethany thought Ali was her friend and Jessica was evil and just using her.

Cece dropped by the party to give Ali a Christmas present and Aria saw Ali kissing Santa Claus. Since Holbrook was dressed as Santa and he'd racheted up the creepometer to new heights of creepdom, it was suspected he was the one swapping spit with Ali. Me, he's a Walmart version of Wilden and I wish they'd have kept the original and not killed him off. Wilden did creepy and gave you the creeps while Holbrook just seems like a pathetic sleazy loser jerk.

Meanwhile, Ali had her nose pressed up against the window as she watched the liars and their lovers having a merry little Christmas without her. Right after that A decided to ruin the liars Christmas by decorating a tree outside and leaving the message, Merry Christmas, Bitches. Which was kind of a let down as when snow starting coming down the chimney I thought A was about to throw Mona's dead body down the chimney. Now that would be the way to ruin someone's Christmas. But probably not a good idea to have the cops over when you got your teacher leading an orgy of the underage.

Another way to ruin someone's Christmas was learning their lover was going to be leaving you soon. Paige broke the news to Emily that her parents don't think Rosewood is safe. Really? And it only took them how many murders to come to that conclusion? As a result they want Paige to leave Rosewood and come live with them. At what point did Paige's parents supposedly move away from Rosewood and leave their teenaged daughter to live on her own, anyway? Don't ask.

And that was the liars Christmas special. I think a lot of the gore and all the exposition the liars Halloween special has was left out because they thought it would be inappropriate for a Christmas special. Which is why I say stick to the Halloween specials and never do another Christmas special, again.