Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 64 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Busy, Wondrous Labor Day Of Alison DiLaurentis
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 24 | Aired on 03.18.2014
Like, so much of Ali is about how her corruption gives her power, but she's also been telling us since the beginning that most of that is bullshit propaganda. She's always shown the cracks -- CeCe Drake's entire existence is basically to show us that Ali had an Ali of her own, showing her how to be the Mean Cool Older Sister -- but these flashbacks are also about illustrating how out of her depth she always was. She shivers through every one of these confrontations, and sometimes barely keeps the face on long enough to turn away.
And so then the fact that the naïve -- the Liars, their parents, the whole school, really: She drove Paige around the bend based on this act -- all bought into her bullshit wholesale is one more illustration of the central themes of the show, which is that the lies we tell to protect people or bring them closer will always end up destroying them, or holding them apart from us. So far apart in fact that now, four years into a show about her, we barely even know her at all.
"Long story short, Ezra showed up at the Barn to yell at me about how being a jailbait liar was gonna get me killed, and I told him to back off and shut up, but he was like, Weirdly enough I actually consider you a worthwhile person and I don't want you to put yourself in danger and I was just, so tired of that shit. I mean, I'm sorry my existence invalidates your entire relationship, Aria, but I guess the real moral of that story is don't let adults fuck you, even if they tell you they're special and different and you're special and different, and that somehow makes it special and different, because actually it doesn't."
KISSIN' ROCK
Ali: "Thanks for meeting me at this rock and then strangling me for a while. That will make for a great video for to A project on a tombstone in a cemetery some time."
Ian: "I need to know if you are going to fuck up my life, okay?"
Ali: "Are you kidding me? You're the worst. And I don't want that Hastings chick coming after me, she's got the crazy eyes. And also is a bitch."
Ian: "Watch it! That's my future mother of my imaginary fake baby!"
Ali: "Wanna go to jail? Stop yelling at me."
Ian: "I didn't even fuck you!"
Ali: "No, I was talking about these NAT Club videos I downloaded. Sorry, I forgot to segue! Now what's happening is I'm blackmailing you."