Ok fellow Obsessers: the big reveal we were waiting for!  [Spoiler Alert] Mona = A!! Did anyone else see that coming?? Well, sort of… During a conference call with Janel Parrish (Mona) the morning after the episode aired, Janel offered some insight.

Was it difficult to transition from the sweet and self-centered Mona to the demented “A”?
That was definitely the most challenging part and also the most fun part was transitioning from this bubbly character that I’ve played for two years to this dark, psychopath character that I’ve never in my life played before.  That’s what made it so appealing was that it was a challenge.  It was fun and I had to just kind of let go of this character that I’ve built for two years and create a new one and just go there.  That’s what was really, really fun.

With Mona in the psych ward, are we going to see less of her in Season 3?
Definitely not.  I’ve just been made a series regular for Season 3, so it’s very exciting.  You will see more Mona.  I do know that Season 3 the premiere will take place six months after Maya’s body was found, so it’s the second anniversary of Alison’s death.  Mona will have been in the Radley Sanatorium for the last six months.  She’ll get a mysterious visitor.  You’ll find out more about that and there will just be more answers and connecting the dots. I have not seen anything yet.  I’m super excited to see where it’s going, but yes, Season 3 is going to start to get crazy!

OK! Start to get crazy??? Well that tears it! We’ve got to start another tally on suspects again and narrowing down what we know. Thankfully we can take off at least two names from our new list. We’ve got a puppet in a padded room, a puppet in prison (did you forget about bad-bad Officer Garrett?) but the Puppet Master has yet to be revealed! There’s still way too much to speculate on at this point as to the identity of this mastermind. The problem with puppets is they think they know more than they actually do. With Mona/”A” being an attention-junkie; could anything she says be trusted as truth? Maybe that’s what the Puppet Master (PM) is counting on; that Mona will fall victim to her own “crying wolf” and no matter what she says she’ll be discredited as a psycho.

So it begins; the onslaught of new character introductions. This is the part I grit my teeth through with this show. The last two seasons they lobbed new characters at us so fast it was impossible to keep up. I started calling them by traits or hairstyles rather than their names. I’m hoping that they slow down on Season 3 and work with what they have for at least the first 3 episodes. I mean, how many mysterious strangers do the Liars have to meet while traipsing through their “small” town??? It was getting to the point where I started bellowing “STRANGER DANGER!” at the screen. I’m crossing fingers that they go easy on us this season.

But I can’t deny: I LOVE THIS SHOW! I don’t want to, but I do!!! I can’t wait to see the face-off between Hanna and Mona/”A” (Hanna throws a chair? YEAH!), and apparently Emily goes off the good-girl rails with some pity drinking. OH how I LOVE this show! I’ll be watching with my notepad, ready to jot down anything PM worthy, will you?