Entertainment

Mona's Luck Is Out On 'Pretty Little Liars'

by Rosie Narasaki

In case you missed it, Pretty Little Liars recently released a new promo for the fast-approaching Season 6 premiere (June 2, baby!), and there's no getting around the fact that the Season 6 promo very prominently features Mona — more, in fact, than any of the four main girls... or Ali. It's Mona's voice that eerily sings the words to "Hush Little Baby," and we get multiple shots of Ali-Mona in what appears to be a jail cell (part of the Dollhouse, most likely), as well as a look inside her closet, where the words "He's going to kill me -M" are scratched into the wall. Yep, she definitely established quite the presence in the promo — and the possibility that Charles will kill Mona for real this time. All signs point to the young Ms. Vanderwaal not making it out of this season alive — for real this time.

Of course, it may not be death she's headed for — just, you know, a lot of mistreatment and torture: As Mona actress Janel Parrish said to E! Online, "We are going to be punished for our actions for trying to escape from Charles and once we do escape, there are going to be some serious repercussions and scares, emotional as well as physical...they're all going to be messed up in different ways." Bu how exactly will Mona get "messed up"? Let's break this down, with a ridiculously close look at each glimpse of Mona in the trailer:

The Cell

The first look we get at Mona is quite jarring: She's disheveled, distressed, and... well, imprisoned. The look's got to signify some kind of time jump somewhere after the Season 6 premiere, as it's been established that the first episode will pick up immediately from where the finale left off and last we saw Mona, she had pageant girl hair and was wearing a prom dress. She seems to have been locked up for ages in this shot, so we're in for the long haul. It's also not entirely certain that this shot is taken within the dollhouse — A may have more than one location for his prisoners.

Also notable? Her outfit: It looks like she's back to wearing Ali's iconic yellow tank top, after her stint in the prom dress... guess this means Charles isn't letting Mona give up the Ali ruse yet, eh?

A's Prom

The next glimpse of Mona is seemingly less disturbing — until you see the hooded figure creeping up on the girls in the background. Theories are proven wrong on a minute-by-minute basis in Rosewood, but it's probably a pretty safe bet to say that it's Charles DiLaurentis/A, right? He is wearing a black hoodie, after all.

The Cell, Close-up

Yep, things definitely don't look good for Mona.

Mona's Closet

It's not verified, but as Tumblr user welcometowonderlandhoney puts it, this is "*probably* Mona's closet," and you know what's strange? She has several replicas of Ali's ruffled tank in there, which is disconcerting — but not quite as disconcerting as the message scrawled behind all of those yellow tank tops:

OK, no need to parse out the meaning of this decidedly un-cryptic message. Though I have to wonder: It's not another anagram is it?

The Cell, Again

This image comes along with some dialogue — as she slams the opening closed, we can hear Emily saying, "Mona, is that you?" That, combined with the fact that we don't get to see her actual face (and the fact that her shoes look a little different) makes things more than a little sketchy. Is there a second fake Ali in the bunker?

The Nursery Rhyme

There's also the little fact that the lyrics to the nursery rhyme Mona so creepily sings are changed — and since nothing's an oversight on PLL, everything means something. The memorable "Mama's going to buy you a diamond ring" was swapped out in favor of "Mama's going to buy you a looking glass," a line that usually comes later on in the song. Now, I don't want to get too carried away here, but lots of fans have pointed to the "looking glass" mention as a twin clue — and what with all of the doppelgängers running around Rosewood (not to mention all the Charles/Jason twin theories swirling around), that definitely makes sense.

So, what does it all mean? How long will Mona stay locked up? Where is her cell? And perhaps most importantly of all, is she — as her scrawled message implies — toast? After killing her off in the Season 5 midseason finale, it would definitely come as a shock. Janel Parrish coyly confirmed her return to the show over Instagram, but that doesn't completely rule out death — after all, she's come back as a ghost before, and we all know how much PLL loves its flashbacks.

Images: Eric McCandless/ABC Family; Pretty Little Liars/Youtube (6); Giphy