From the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars, fans knew that this would be a true adventure. Learning that Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer missed their best friend Ali and that there was a mystery behind her death or disappearance pulled people in right away, and many episodes were super thrilling to watch.
There are some interesting Pretty Little Liars fan theories, and everything was leading up to the final episode. Fans knew that this would be pretty wild and that hopefully many answers would be revealed in this episode.
With the cast of the Pretty Little Liars reboot announced, it's the perfect time to look back on the series finale and think about the problems that some fans have with it. Let's take a look at what people are saying.
The Alex Drake Ending
PLL's creators say the show is different from Gossip Girl, and it was always exciting to watch thanks to the mystery of A. But do fans like the conclusion to this terrifying tale?
Many Pretty Little Liars fans have had trouble accepting the series finale because of the explanation of Spencer's twin Alex Drake being behind it all. They just didn't think that this made sense and since no one knew about Alex before this episode, it didn't sit well with viewers.
One fan started a Reddit thread and wrote that they didn't like "Alex being AD because it's lazy writing." They continued, "They took the easy route out by making someone we didn't even know existed the mastermind. Marlene literally pulled a random fan theory off the internet and decided to use it."
Another fan replied, "I completely agree. I hated how AD wasn’t connected at all to the original A and I was really hoping for an EzrA ending because there were enough “clues” from the beginning it would have been interesting to do a rewatch and see his interactions in a different light."
In a Reddit thread about the PLL finale, another fan shared their disappointment: "But I'm mostly sad by the twin we never knew she had just suddenly being the mastermind. Seriously? It's like they said 'well, we don't know how to explain it or whatever, so let's invent a twin no one has ever heard of and call it a night.' It's a bit lazy to me, like the writers didn't realize it was time for the final episode and they rushed it."
Another PLL fan shared "I would have been fine with Alex if it had a better backstory and wasn’t so sloppy," which seems to be the general feeling amongst viewers.
This fan expressed their frustration that fans didn't get to see Alex as part of the story during the entire show, writing, "I think the writers really dropped the ball on the Alex Drake reveal. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it 1000% more than the Cece reveal. But they could’ve made it so much more interesting if they incorporated Alex into the story from the beginning, I’m not sure why they only involved her in post-time jump events."
Of course, not every fan is going to love a series finale, but it definitely seems like many PLL fans have some problems with this finale. It makes sense that some felt that this twist came out of left field and that there wasn't enough explanation, or that they wanted to get to know Spencer's twin better and wish she had been in other episodes. While the explanation is that Alex Drake did impersonate Spencer on many occassions, it's hard for many fans to love that answer, since they didn't know that they were watching Alex at the time.
Creator I. Marlene King wanted Wren to be A.D. but changed her mind. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the creator explained, "Originally my mind was going to Wren as A.D., but we had to be realistic and there have been times when we really needed a character who wasn't a series regular and we couldn't get them on the show. The show is so deeply rooted in mythology and I've always said you have to know the ending before you know the beginning or else it won't make sense, so that dictated that we needed to make A.D. someone who was a series regular."
Other Issues
Fans had a few other problems with the Pretty Little Liars finale, including the fact that Ezra and Aria got married. One fan shared that they didn't like this as they have an age difference and began dating when he was her older teacher. The fan wrote, "Ezra married his former student that he stalked. Like not one single person had an issue with this?!"
Many people brought up the storyline involving Emily, Ali, and Ali getting pregnant because A put Emily's eggs inside of her. This felt really strange and didn't seem like the best way to go about getting these two to start dating.
While fans didn't all enjoy the Pretty Little Liars series finale, it will still be fun to watch the reboot and see how that story wraps up.