Till Death Do Us Part (Pretty Little Liars)
"Till Death Do Us Part" | |
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The Liars saying a brief goodbye to each other during the episode's final moments. From left to right: Alison, Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer. | |
Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 20 |
Directed by | I. Marlene King |
Story by | I. Marlene King & Kyle Bown |
Teleplay by | I. Marlene King & Maya Goldsmith |
Produced by | Hynndie Wali |
Cinematography by | Larry Reibman |
Editing by | Jill D'Agnenica |
Production code | 2M7220 |
Original air date | June 27, 2017 |
Running time | 89 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"Till Death Do Us Part" is the
In the episode,
The episode opened to lukewarm reviews from critics.
Plot
This episode's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (July 2017) |
At night,
In 2018, one year after the events of "Farewell, My Lovely", Ezra and Aria are discussing their book and its soon-to-be film adaptation in the
In the jail, Spencer visits Mary and asks her for help. Later, in Aria's rehearsal dinner, Hanna takes Mona with her, and the Liars — and Hanna's mother — condemn it. Hanna manages to convince her friends to give Mona a chance. Ezra and
Spencer shows up at Toby's room at the Radley and they have sex. Right after, she is at the Barn and is knocked down by Mona. She then wakes up on the floor of a modern strange room which resembles the one from "Game Over, Charles". She looks at herself in a supposed mirror and puts her hand on her head. However, her "reflection" lifts down her hand and scares her, revealing that it is not a mirror. Mary Drake then appears and injects a sedative into Spencer, while she looks on in shock at the woman who looks exactly like her. Spencer soon awakens and comes face to face with her long lost identical twin sister named Alex Drake who is also revealed to be their tormentor known as "A.D." and the third daughter of Mary Drake who was sold by their mother in order to fund her release from Radley. She lived in London on the streets where she came across Wren Kingston whom she dated and learned about her twin sister and her family. She soon met her half sister Charlotte and the two instantly connected as well as befriending Archer Dunhill who had met Charlotte on the plane after she left Rosewood to get away from being arrested for killing Wilden. Once Charlotte left, Alex soon came to Rosewood and learned about her half sister's fateful death which triggered her to become A.D. and also she was jealous of the life that Spencer lived. She also posed as Spencer multiple times when she kissed Toby in "The Darkest Knight" and had sex with him in "Choose or Lose" and appeared to Hanna when she was being held by Alex in her dream sequence for confessing to killing Charlotte. Alex also shot Spencer in the blind school and got Wren to shoot her in the shoulder so she would be like her twin sister and soon re-formed the A Team, now consisting of Jenna, Sydney, Aria, Wren and eventually Mona and Mary and reveals some of their motives. Jenna offered to help Alex without knowing who she was in exchange for Alex to pay for her eyesight and Sydney was stealing from her bank and Alex blackmailed her into acting as A.D. because she fit the hoodie. She also reveals that she killed Wren because he wouldn't view her as Spencer and she subsequently turned his ashes into a diamond necklace.
Alex goes to the Liars posing as her sister where Ezra is missing. Aria begins to worry that she will be ditched at the altar because of her infertility. Alex holds Emily and Alison's babies and secretly reveals to no one listening that Wren Kingston is their biological father and she impregnated Alison when she was at Welby. Ezra is also locked up with Spencer after he discovered about Alex's existence. The Liars soon find out about Alex Drake and discover that Mona is "A" again with Alex and she broke Mary out of prison because Wren visited her in Welby and was intent on killing her but she offered her help. Mona then tells them the location of the lair which is underneath Toby's house that he built. Ezra and Spencer escape but find that they are still being held underground just as Alex, wielding an axe, appears and knocks out Ezra and attempts to kill Spencer. The Liars, as well as Toby, arrive in time to come face to face with the identical twins. Toby struggles to decide which one of them to arrest until he asks Alex what her favourite poem is but Spencer instead gives the answer thus confirming the identity of the two and Alex is arrested by a cop along with Mary. Aria finally marries Ezra soon afterwards.
The Liars are seen in the town square exchanging goodbyes, as Aria prepares to leave for her honeymoon with Ezra and Hanna reveals that she is pregnant. In France, Mona is seen running a doll shop and it is revealed that the "cop" who arrested Mary and Alex is her boyfriend and Mona now has them held captive in her personal dollhouse, thus revealing that Mona has won the "A" game that she created. Back in Rosewood, a new group of Liars are at a sleepover and one of them is Hadley St. Germain, Maya St. Germain's niece. They notice that their leader, Addison Derringer, is missing. The episode ends with a girl named Willa revealing to Hadley, "I think I heard her scream".
Development
The story was drafted by series creator
On August 29, 2016, King and the principal cast of the series announced that Pretty Little Liars was ending after the seventh season. King also announced that it would start airing the second half of the season later than usual, in April 2017 and that the series finale would be a two-hour episode event.[6] On October 26, 2016, it was reported that a tell-all special would be aired after the series finale, during which the main cast members and King would talk about the show with behind-the-scenes exclusives.[7][8]
Casting
"Till Death Do Us Part" saw the return of several past recurring characters, including Holly Marie Combs and Chad Lowe as Ella and Byron Montgomery, Mary Page Keller as Dianne Fitzgerald,[9] Torrey DeVitto as Melissa Hastings,[10] Julian Morris as Wren Kingston, Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh, Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings, Vanessa Ray as Charlotte Drake, Brendan Robinson as Lucas Gottesman, Huw Collins as Archer Dunhill, Jim Titus as Barry Maple, Ava Allan as Addison Derringer, Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall, and Nia Peeples as Pam Fields.
The episode also features Sydney Sweeney as Willa, Celesse Rivera as Hadley St. Germain, Raquel McPeek as Claire, and Dalton Cyr as Luke. Showrunner I. Marlene King, her wife Shari Rosenthal, and their sons Atticus and Emerson have cameo roles in the episode.[11][12]
Reception
Critical response
Jessica Goldstein of Vulture gave the episode a 3 out of 5 stars rating, writing a mixed review for it.[13] Gavin Hetherington highlighted some lines of the episode, praising Mona's triumph over "A.D.", commenting: "Mona hasn't really changed in her obsession with playing with dolls (and people), and it was just beautiful justice here. No more loser Mona. She won this one."[14]
Carolina Preece of
Some television critics were welcoming towards the introduction of Spencer's identical twin sister. Gavin Hetherington of SpoilerTV enjoyed Alex's reveal as "A.D." and her connection to Spencer, stating it was "actually well done."[16] Yana Grebenyuk of TVFanatic echoes the same sentiments of praise, writing that "Alex delivered above and beyond what a Spencer twin could have actually turned out to be. She was truly everything A.D. should have been, including ruthless and ready to kill anyone in her way."[17]
Conversely, Isabella Biedenharn of Entertainment Weekly was unhappy towards some of Alex's characteristics, asking herself: "did she really need to have a Cockney accent?! Couldn’t she just be regular British, if she had to be British at all?"[18] While writing for Vulture, Goldstein gave the character introduction an unfavorable review, saying: "For me, it came way too late in the game to pack any punch, except for the punch she used to knock Spencer out. The idea that Alex wants to single white female Spencer because she’s jealous that Spencer won the parent lottery — which is really saying something about that lousy orphanage, considering Mr. Hastings’s whole deal — is not exactly all that original or exciting of a concept."[19]
Ratings
"Till Death Do Us Part" was viewed by 1.41 million viewers upon its first broadcast, acquiring a 0.7
The "A-List Wrap Party" special was watched by 0.62 million viewers.[20]
References
- ^ I. Marlene King (October 5, 2016). "We got through it. Now we go make it. Pic via @snoopythemom #pllseriesfinale #pllfamilyforever". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (August 29, 2016). "It's Official: 'Pretty Little Liars' to End With Season 7". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ Cochran-Neilan, Lisa (October 6, 2016). "It also started today!#pll #seriesfinale @imarleneking @larryreibman next three week will bring us home!!". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ "Instagram post by Pretty Little Liars". October 27, 2016. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
- ^ "That's a wrap at Lost Woods Resort! #PLL 7x20 #PLLFinale". Twitter. October 21, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
- ^ Goldberg, Lesley (August 29, 2016). "It's Official: 'Pretty Little Liars' to End With Season 7". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
- ^ Gelman, Vlada (October 26, 2016). "TVLine Items: Pretty Little Liars Tell All, Saving Hope's Final Season and More". TVLine. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
- ^ Smith, Clarissa (October 26, 2016). "PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: Freeform to Air Tell-All Special After Series Finale". Retrieved October 26, 2016.
- ^ Keller, Mary Page (6 October 2016). "It was indeed a tear-filled table read. So proud to be a part of the finale of this amazing series #EzrasMom @PLLTVSeries". Twitter. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- ^ Highfill, Samantha (October 20, 2016). "'Pretty Little Liars': Torrey DeVitto Says Goodbye to Melissa Hastings". EW.com. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
- ^ @imarleneking (October 14, 2016). "Filming my first and only PLL cameo today" (Tweet). Retrieved June 22, 2017 – via Twitter.
- ^ King, I. Marlene (October 27, 2016). "It's a family affair. Atti's last PLL cameo and Shari's first and last. Love is love. #pllforever #pllseriesfinale #PLLFamily #familyiseverything". Instagram. Facebook, Inc. Archived from the original on 2021-12-24. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
- ^ Goldstein, Jessica (June 28, 2017). "Pretty Little Liars Series-Finale Recap: Two Can Keep a Secret". Vulture. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ Hetherington, Gavin (June 28, 2017). "Pretty Little Liars - Till DeAth Do Us PArt (Series Finale) - Review: "Goodbye, Liars"". SpoilerTV. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ Preece, Carolina (June 29, 2017). "Pretty Little Liars season 7 episode 20 review: 'Til Death Do Us Part". Den of Geek. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
- ^ Hetherington, Gavin (28 June 2017). "Pretty Little Liars - Till DeAth Do Us PArt (Series Finale) - Review: "Goodbye, Liars"". SpoilerTV. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- ^ Grebenyuk, Yana (28 June 2017). "Pretty Little Liars Season 7 Episode 20 Review: Til deAth Do Us pArt". TV Fanatic. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- EW.com. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- ^ Goldstein, Jessica (28 June 2017). "Pretty Little Liars Finale Recap: Till Death Do Us Part". Vulture. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
- ^ a b Welch, Alex (June 28, 2017). "Tuesday cable ratings: 'Pretty Little Liars' series finale scores high". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017.