Episode 'Pretty Little Liars' Season 1, Episode 21 - 'Monsters In the End' Recap

Hmmm.  Despite the carnival conceit and all the lurky shenanigans that were afoot, this penultimate episode felt like a placeholder to me.

Rosewood, like all fictional CW towns, is about to have it’s contractually obligated Founders Festival.  They are kicking off the celebration by putting up the most ludicrously creepy statues ever right in front of the picture window of the Applerose Grille where all our Little Liars are sitting and scheming.

Apparently, Rosewood was founded by a roving band of colonial zombie mimes.  Seriously.

The next morning as Spencer consumes her body weight in French roast, her mom strong arms her into working the church booth at the Founder’s Festival and ignoring Toby’s calls in order to bolster her public image in advance of her potential murder trial.  Because, as her mother says: “Most verdicts are decided in living rooms.  And town fairs!”

Hard-hearted Hanna spends the episode in full-on Armageddon mode, ignoring Caleb, his Leto-esque charms and many, many apologies.

Aria peeps Mr. Fitz’s Facebook page, cleverly called “Website” by our dear writers.  Seeing a picture of him with a girl his own age, to whom he was once possibly affianced, causes her to freak out, scheme with Hanna, and also dress like a Juniper Creek sisterwife as outfitted by Forever 21.

Emily tries to help Paige out of the closet some more and meets a hot, out, queer lady in the process.  By the end of the episode she’s mooning over handmade festival jewelry and ignoring Paige’s texts.

Spencer plans a secret meet up with Toby at the Founder’s Festival carnival, at the Funhouse no less.  She is lured inside by a fake text, finds threatening graffiti left by good old A and then is promptly trapped in a revolving door.

Meanwhile, Emily finds the mysterious key that Jenna was bribing Caleb to locate.  This leads the Little Liars, minus Spencer who’s still stuck in the Funhouse, to a storage space and a jump drive that reveals someone has been stalking the girls since before Allison’s murder.

Spencer is finally freed by Ian, who looks like he’s going to straight up kill her for a tense minute.  Having had her fill of Rosewood’s carnival justice, she kisses Toby in front of the whole damn town.

See you next week for the season finale!