Pretty Little Liars (season 5)

The day has finally arrived for Alison's first day back at Rosewood High, however, neither the girls nor Alison are ready for it. Determined to put on a brave face, Alison returns to also help heal the damage she did years ago. While Spencer's family thought that Mrs. Hastings was at a spa, really she was having a private investigator finding out that Mr. Hastings and Melissa weren't at a dinner as they said. Mrs. Hastings is leaving town alone after a failed attempt to bring Spencer. Aria still suffers from the accident in New York and meets the returning Jenna, who is still grieving for her beloved's death. Mona prepares her "army of losers", in which Sydney and Jenna are revealed to be a part of, for the upcoming war against Ali, which escalated with a meeting between the two that ends in favor of Mona. Meanwhile, Caleb returns to Rosewood and leaves Hanna confused for the reason of his homecoming. Emily and Alison share a kiss and Aria and Ezra have sex. In the end, while the police are giving an interview about the dead girl in Ali's grave, who is revealed to be Bethany Young, 'A' makes their triumphant return to Rosewood by planting a bomb in Toby's house and making the entire house explode.

With "A" back with a vengeance, it leads the Liars to the conclusion that Shana was not the real "A". With the town of Rosewood trying to get back to normal, the Liars — especially Ali — are far from okay after the latest "accident". Alison starts to reconsider her decision about coming home and the possibility of leaving for good, but Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer are determined to keep her safe and to figure out who and what is behind this latest incident. Meanwhile, Caleb also starts second-guessing his return, and Ezra dives into his research about Bethany Young — the girl in Ali's grave — to help find answers that will help the Liars. The issues between Spencer's parents finally end when one of them is forced to leave home for good, leaving Spencer in an uncomfortable situation. A connection between Bethany and Mrs. DiLaurentis links to Radley so the Liars begin their next plan as Aria volunteers to work there in order to get further information. 'A' sends Alison a text message, saying "I buried your mom the same way I watched her bury you". Towards the climax of the episode, 'A' attacks Alison in her house and chokes her, almost killing her. They fight until Emily comes and saves Alison. After 'A's attempt to strangle Alison, she gets a text message, "See how easy it is for me to kill you? If you leave Rosewood, I will. -A".

Aria begins her volunteer work at Radley and quickly gets down to business finding answers about a patient of interest to the Liars, but she quickly hits a snag when she comes across an aggressive patient – Big Rhonda, who may be the key to what the Liars are looking for. Emily tries to find a distraught Paige after the latest "prank" on her with a rat. Also searching for answers, Spencer takes a note from Ezra's play book by borrowing some of his spy equipment to keep a closer eye on the home front, mainly on Melissa. Meanwhile, Hanna is caught at odds when Ali and Caleb butt heads, and Emily seeks help from her friends when her mom invites Ali over for dinner. Hanna is the only one that is able to join Emily and Ali when Aria gets stuck in Radley and Spencer continues her mission by following Melissa's moves. Hanna, however, begins drinking and Emily is forced to kick her out. Aria, Spencer, and Emily are all caught off guard when 'A' sends them a message but not Hanna, involving Ali and her recent actions.

Alison receives a message from 'A' at school: "Glad to hear you singing. Last time you were all choked up." -'A' The rest of the Liars sing in a choir as Alison is interrogated at school by Detective Tanner. Emily and Spencer take a trip to the stables where they uncover some evidence that Bethany and Jessica DiLaurentis are connected. Bethany used to call her 'Aunt Jessie' as Jessica used to send expensive gifts to Bethany. While at the stables, 'A' locks Spencer and Emily inside the barn while an agitated horse becomes erratic. The horse ends up attacking Spencer and injuring her eye. Meanwhile, Hanna is distraught after Zack made a sexual advance on her. Zack gives Hanna his number but she throws it out. Hanna goes to Aria and tells her that Zack made moves on her, but Aria doesn't believe Hanna and kicks her out of the house, saying she was drunk. Ashley Marin and Ali discuss dinner plans for the two of them because Hanna was again planning to be absent. She walks downstairs while making dinner reservations on the telephone when she sees the window open. She spins around to see that the front door is ajar as well. There was a man in the house with a knife. Ali and Ashley were frightened, and he bolted once Hanna's mom rang 911. Detective Tanner shows up at the Marin house and questions Alison and Ashley. While Tanner is giving Ali the third degree, Ashley interrupts and tells her to stop treating Alison like a criminal instead of a victim. Alison reveals that Noel Kahn was the intruder who broke into the Marin house so that everyone would stop questioning Alison's story.

Spencer goes to the eye doctor and sees Sydney holding Jenna's hand. Spencer calls Emily and says that they look like twins because both were wearing glasses and same clothes. Emily is confused by Spencer's statement while Spencer is adamant that she is not hallucinating. At the doctor's office, Spencer sees something peculiar on the eye chart. The board with alphabets hung in the check up room had a message from 'A' The letters "C A N U C M E Y E T -A" were highlighted. Meanwhile, Emily comes to Spencer's help and demands to know the truth about Sydney and Jenna. Caleb punches Zach after Zach tries to make Hanna look like the guilty party. Despite Zach's allegations, Caleb believes Hanna did not initiate the hookup. Emily cuts ties with Sydney after Sydney tells her that she knew Jenna for several years. Sydney tries to explain her actions but Emily abandons her friendship with her. Alison and Jenna have an altercation at school. Meanwhile, Aria apologizes to Hanna after Aria tells her that Zach has been unfaithful to Ella even when they were in Europe. Ella cancels her engagement party after Aria tells her that Zach put the moves on Hanna. Spencer attacks Noel with a fire poker after he tries to hurt Spencer at Spencer's lake house. Spencer blackmails Noel with incriminating photos. Alison is called to the police station to answer questions about her "kidnapper".

Alison is apprehensive to identify Cyrus as her kidnapper. Detective Tanner brings Alison to an abandoned house so she can retrieve her memories. Tanner tells Alison if she cannot remember physical evidence, she will allow Cyrus to walk out of jail as a free man. Meanwhile, Emily tells Alison that she is done with her, after Alison continues to show indiscretion towards the four girls and the rest of the Liars also turn their backs on Alison. Caleb and Hanna rekindle their romance and Hanna tries to get Caleb to stop drinking. Spencer kept the recording Alison gave all the girls in a compartment inside her armchair but Spencer starts to panic when she finds it missing. Spencer attempts to decipher Melissa's secret and during a heated confrontation, Melissa offers to get Spencer to leave with her because they are both not safe. Later, Melissa is seen on a video recorder revealing her secret in case something bad happens to her. Furthermore, Alison has a flashback of Cyrus attacking her in the basement and using a knife to cut her thigh, which explains Ali's scar. Towards the end of the episode, Alison is seen dressed as Vivian Darkbloom while talking to an on-the-run Cyrus. It is revealed that Alison is the one who paid Cyrus to pretend to have kidnapped her. Alison threatens Cyrus that she is capable of finding him again and making his life hell.

The girls gets a text on Thanksgiving Day from 'A' blaming them for an incident. 36 hours before, Spencer, Hanna, Emily and Aria ask Mona for help pertaining to the information that Alison confessed at the police station. Their new theory is that Alison is 'A'. With the help of Lucas, Mona hacks into the Rosewood P.D. servers and downloads a video of Ali taking a lie detector test. The girls discover that Alison did not reveal much, but pointed the suspicion towards Spencer about Bethany Young's murder. Holbrook's theory is that Spencer was so desperate that to make Alison keep her amphetamine abuse a secret, she had to kill Bethany Young. Spencer and Mona implement a plan to get answers as they go undercover at Radley Sanitarium while Hanna and Caleb act as spies monitoring every surveillance to help the girls. Spencer and Mona uncover tapes of Bethany Young and learn that Jessica Dilaurentis and Bethany's father had an affair and that Alison knew about it. As they leave Radley, Toby gets into a car accident, but only breaks his leg. Next morning Spencer is arrested for Bethany Young's murder and is taken into custody. Mona looks through the Radley files and discovers that Alison knew about the affair and lured Bethany to Rosewood. Mona calls Aria and tells her the information, and that Alison must be 'A'. However, before the girls arrive to Mona's house, "A", with blonde hair cascading out from their hoodie, attacks Mona. When the girls arrive, they notice signs of a struggle, with blood on the walls. Officer Holbrook tells the press that they have ruled it a homicide, but they haven't found Mona's body. The girls and Mona's mom are devastated by the news.

As Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Aria do Christmas shopping, they receive a snow globe from 'A', saying "A takes a holiday, you should too." They then receive a letter and a map showing the inside of Ali's house, given to them by Mona. It flashes to Ali being visited by The Ghost of Christmas Past (Mona). The Liars then arrive at the Dilaurentis' ice ball, where Ali makes a grand entrance, along with four unknown girls in masks. It is later revealed the four masked girls are Cindy, Mindy, Jenna, and Sydney, who have only joined Ali in hopes of finding proof that Ali is 'A' and that she murdered Mona. As Hanna and Spencer leave the ice ball to find evidence, Aria spots Ali kissing a man in a Santa suit, who she believes is Officer Holbrook. Ali also receives a secret visit from CeCe. As Hanna and Spencer look around Ali's house, Hanna finds another of Ali's fake passports for if she needs to leave town quickly along with a letter that Bethany wrote to Ali, proving Ali lured Bethany to Rosewood the weekend she was killed. Spencer also finds out that Ali was communicating with someone through the newspaper's personal ads. Toby, who has been keeping lookout for Spencer and Hanna from a window, gets a call from Caleb who says Ali left the party early. 'A' then shows up at Ali's house with a knife, looking for the girls. Hanna is then knocked out by 'A'. Meanwhile, Ali is visited by the last two ghosts- the ghost of the present, and the ghost of the future, but Ali soon wakes up from the nightmare. As the Liars celebrate Christmas, Ali is seen looking at them, alone, through a window.

Three months later, the police are nowhere close to arresting Alison. Spencer and Emily attempt to frame her by placing her hair at the crime scene, but in the process discover cameras that filmed the murder. After being shown the tape, Jason recants himself as Alison's alibi. Alison is then arrested. Meanwhile, Aria enlists Ezra's help to get Mike to open up about his feelings surrounding Mona's death. When all her college applications are rejected, she enlists Caleb's help to hack into the colleges' databases to see if the reason she was rejected was because of her or A. Emily struggles with the fact that Paige is leaving Rosewood, and attempts to get Paige to stay after Alison is arrested, but Paige leaves anyway. The police connect the death of Bethany Young with Mona's and the district attorney drops the charges against Spencer. Hanna helps Mona's mother out in any way she can, while they both grieve over Mona.

Spencer tells the girls about the bloody knife she and Caleb destroyed. Talia continues to get on Emily's nerves with the changes around their workplace, and suggests they should wear a uniform. Aria gets a text from Holbrook to meet him, but instead runs into Jason. They get coffee and talk about Alison. Jonny comes over to give Spencer the deposit money for the barn. Later he takes leftovers from Spencer's trash can in order to make paint. She goes to give him an egg, when she receives an alert message that Mona's computer has been activated, and it is in a storage unit. Meanwhile, Aria is sent by Holbrook to pick up flowers and carry them to Hanna's mum. Pastor Ted asks Hanna if she's okay with him proposing to Ashley. Hanna then confronts her about Jason, but Ashley refuses to talk about it. Spencer and Caleb finally sneak into the storage facility and find everything wrapped up in plastic bags, and Spencer assumes those are evidence planned to frame them for Mona's murder. They also find a barrel in which they suspect Mona's body is in. Aria brings flowers for Hanna's mum with a "thank you" note from Jason. Hanna admits her she visited Ali in jail. Pastor Ted proposes to Ashley, but she tells him she has to think about it. While Toby and Spencer play Scrabble, he finds out that what she and Caleb have been doing, and is not happy about it. Caleb tells Hanna that he found out the name of the person who rented the storage unit is Hanna Marin.

Caleb corrupts the data files so that Hanna's name is no longer associated with the storage unit containing the barrel. Toby tells Tanner he's suspicious that someone tampered with the results of Alison's polygraph. When he suggests it may be Holbrook, Tanner scolds him. After coming clean to Ezra about the fabricated story to get into Talmadge, Aria is surprised when Ezra is not upset but questions their relationship for fear of Aria growing to resent him later if she misses out on life experiences during college. Later, Talia confesses to Emily that her strange behavior is just nerves about her interest in Emily not Ezra. While continuing to bristle over Ted's marriage proposal, Ashley quits working for Jason DiLaurentis and tells him she's in a serious relationship with a pastor. Jason kisses her again but Ashley pushes him off immediately and tells him it cannot happen again. When Spencer tracks Mona's laptop moving away from the storage unit, she enlists the help of Aria and Emily to retrieve it. The girls come to discover it was a trap by "A" as Aria and Spencer find themselves locked in a freezer until Emily rescues them. Despite their friends' warning, Hanna insists that she and Caleb go back to the storage unit to clear any physical evidence that "A" could use to continue building a case against her;— only to find that the unit has been cleared out except for the barrel. Tanner and Toby investigate the storage unit and uncover drops of blood next to the barrel. Tanner warns Toby that if the blood matches Mona's DNA, his friends will be brought in for questioning.

Veronica consults with Ali's defense team to find out who may be called to testify in Ali's trial. The Liars meet a girl named Leslie, claiming to know Mona. Spencer snoops through Veronica's briefcase and is unpleasantly surprised when she sees who's been visiting Ali on the prison's visitor log: Mike. Holbrook returns to Rosewood and is suspended from work, accused of tampering with Ali's lie detector test. Mike freaks out when he bumps into Hanna and Leslie at the Brew and realizes the book Leslie is holding belonged to Mona. Emily confides in Caleb about her confused emotions for Talia. Hanna returns the book Leslie took from Mona's room and, as she's putting it back, discovers a tape hidden in the binding. Hanna swipes the tape and leaves. Aria becomes suspicious of Mike when he leaves the house late at night. Hanna and Caleb listen to the tape. It turns out to be a recording of one of Bethany Young's therapy sessions at Radley. Aria follows Mike to a pier in the woods where he leaves a bag of gummy bears. Mike catches her, reluctant to explain himself. Veronica gets a call about a leak from the prosecutor's office: Ali's blood is a match for the blood spots found near the barrel. Hanna is signalled to pull over by Holbrook. Hanna tells him off after he confesses that he wasn't away to help Ali but working with the internal affairs unit on another assignment. Emily confesses her feelings to Talia utilizing the machine designed to "catch whispers" that Spencer helped Jonny build at The Brew.

At the school blood drive run by Ashley, an incident with Mike worries Aria into believing that he is helping Alison, but refuses to listen to Spencer's allegations that he could be A. Emily is shocked to discover that Talia is married. Ezra and Aria face difficult decisions when Aria gets into a college in the South and doesn't tell him, making him question the reliability of their relationship. Hanna discovers that a financial agreement between her parents means that she won't be able to pay for college after Ashley quits her job, but when her father reveals he is already paying for his step-daughter Kate's college and can't afford to pay for Hanna's as well,.Ashley tells Pastor Ted that his marriage proposal is one she wants to accept, but at the same time, decides to reveal to him her fling with Jason, the reason she quit her job at the DiLaurentis Real Estate Agency. Johnny enlists Spencer's help to create a mural at Hollis College and at the same time lets loose Spencer's inner artist. Spencer retrieves the paper the next morning only to discover that the mural was unplanned by the staff at Hollis and has been marked as vandalism. After cheating on her math test by copying Andrew Campbell's answers down to ensure her marks will be enough to get into college, Andrew offers to tutor Aria. Meanwhile, Aria, Spencer, and Emily follow Mike to a diner where they discover him giving a package containing their blood from the blood drive to Cyrus, Alison's "kidnapper." Too scared to stay the night at home with Mike down the hall, Aria sleeps over at Spencer's, but as Spencer ventures downstairs to grab an extra blanket, Mike is seen watching her through the door.

Determined to go to college and earn the tuition money her father won't give her, Hanna enters a beauty pageant to win the $20,000 prize and she recruits Emily as her dance coach. Spencer has since forgiven Johnny for tricking her into painting the mural at Hollis, but when they discover that their "vandalism" has been put on display in a gallery without their permission, she assists him with some illegal work in order to get back their rightful artwork. Emily and Talia struggle to keep their relationship afloat, but Emily is hurt when she discovers that Talia has told her husband Eric that she's just 'experimenting' and Emily is a 'one time thing.' Aria worries about Mike and begins to believe he might have a connection to Mona's death. When she discovers that he's hiding things in a tree behind Mona's house, she is shocked to he's hiding Mona's blood. Mike tells her that Mona attempted to fake her death to have Alison arrested and was working with 'A' to do so, though he now believes Mona to be actually dead.

Aria, Emily, and Spencer finally visit Alison and promise her that they will find a way to get her out of jail. Alison tells Aria that she has to tell her lawyers about Mike as his testimony is the only thing that can save her. Veronica is furious with Spencer for visiting Alison and informs her that Wren got her an interview with Oxford. A guard comes and escorts Alison to the waiting room where she finds Veronica, who wants to know why the girls have been visiting her. Ali tells her they realized that she is telling the truth and that she wants to finally tell the truth. Spencer arrives in London at Melissa's apartment and is greeted by Colin, Melissa and Wren's roommate. Talia tells Emily that she and Eric are now separated, so Emily invites her to stay at her house. The next day, Aria and Hanna arrive at the hospital to meet Cyrus and are surprised to learn that Cyrus is in the burn unit. Meanwhile in London, Spencer is at her college interview and her bag starts to leak. Spencer digs through her bag and finds a broken blood vial. In the hospital, Cyrus mumbles that what happened to him was not an accident, he writes "Varjack" on a piece of paper. Ashley reveals that Ted forgave her and now she and Ted are engaged. Aria looks for Mike, and realizes 'A' tried to kill her brother, leaving her distraught. Andrew tries to comfort her and the two end up kissing. Meanwhile, Veronica realizes something on Alison's case file and tells Spencer to cancel her flight back home.

Alison's trial begins and the prosecutor exposes her kidnapping story as a lie to the court, making the Liars fear what else will be revealed. When Jason is called to testify, his affair with Ashley is revealed and the prosecutor theorizes that Ashley convinced Jason to change his identification of Alison in the video of Mona being attacked in exchange for "personal inducements" to help Hanna. Spencer discovers that Varjak's phone number is the same as the one in the personal ads in Alison's house. When Hanna asks Alison about this she reveals that the messages started after her mother's body was found and she believed it was Mona because they stopped when she was murdered. Aria gets a call from the phone number and a French song is played over the phone, which Hanna tells them was one of Mona's favourite songs. Spencer, Emily and Aria go to Mona's house and discover her room has been searched by 'A', but find a cryptic clue hidden in a mirror. Jason visits Alison in jail and she tells him to get out of Rosewood before he is dragged down with her. At a forensic lab, an analyst examines an ice pick that was found in Mona's house, with the company logo "Boo Boo's Ice Cream" printed on it.

Aria tries to keep Mike away from the jury, so she turns to Ezra for help. Ezra takes Mike to his cabin but Caleb is there waiting for them and tries to take Mike back to Rosewood to testify in court. However 'A' manages to trick them, and attacks all of them in the woods. Spencer and Emily find someone who can help Alison, but Alison's lawyer refuses to put her on the stand. Lesli is called as a surprise witness, and testifies in court against Alison. She produces a letter that Mona wrote before she was killed saying that Alison was threatening her, but Lesli did not take the letter seriously. Toby and Spencer reconnect, when Toby states that if Tanner doesn't like the fact he's with Spencer, then she can kick him off the force. In the final verdict the judge declares Alison guilty, and Emily, Spencer, and Aria are also arrested.