Pretty Little Liars: The one mistake Marlene King will live to regret about finale
Trying to come up with a season finale has its challenges. But at least you know you have another shot to fix your mistakes six months later. Writing and directing a Series finale is a whole other monster in itself. This is the issue Marlene King faced with Pretty Little Liars.
For 7 seasons she kept fans on the edge of their seats with some of the best mystery writing TV has ever seen. But then it was time to pen the finale and something went terribly wrong. It’s as if the show’s creator somehow forgot that she was the actual show creator and acted more like a person off the street with no real clue what transpired in the first 159 episodes.
For all the criticism that she’s facing for the finale, it’s one that is well deserving and will haunt her forever.
The Spencer twin theory that many fans, myself included figured out was a major mistake.
Here’s why.
King is very active on social media and for her not to see that fans were on the right track would be mind-blowing. When King noticed that we were on to the reveal, then was her time to change it up. Last minute rewrites are a way of life in Hollywood and this would have saved her from the heavy dose of outrage she’s getting now.
If you KNOW that fans have figured out the big reveal then why give it to them? For months the ‘TWIN’ theory was out the bag and for months it was denied. What King should have done was blow our minds and make us look like fools and turned the attention to Caleb, Ezra or someone else we didn’t see coming. Instead, she stuck to her guns and her creative genius is now in question.
Let’s say we didn’t figure out the Spencer twin. Then that whole scene when she awoke to what we all thought was a mirror would’ve been a genius move. But when our Spencer removed her hand and Alex Drake didn’t we weren’t shocked at the surprise– we were shocked that we were right all along and King had to know this.
Her biggest mistake was not having Spencer twin be A.D.– it was staying the course.
If that was the Season 6 finale then it would have passed. The same with the big reveal that Charlotte was actually ‘A’. It was heartbreaking that it wasn’t someone we grew to love but it turned out to be someone who was a stranger to us.
This is why the Pretty Little Liars base is so pissed right now. King made a mistake with Charlotte, had a chance to make it right with A.D. but she dropped the ball on the two biggest characters in the show.
What’s more depressing is the fact that she tried to hoodwink us with the “if you guys go to Season 1 Episode this, then I drop my first big clue”. Sorry King, there was no need for us to do that. We already had you figured out. It was your job to fool us and you failed.
This is something she will have to live with for the rest of her life. King had the chance to change TV history with Pretty Little Liars and she let her ego destroy that one shot.
Thanks for letting us down, yet again.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
