Pretty Little Liars: the case of the missing Alison DiLaurentis

For mystery narratives, it long-ago entered the deconstruction stage, fromGone GirltoTwin Peaksand tons of procedural dramas in-between.

With her,Pretty Little Liarsmade a statement of intent.

Theres a reason the inhabitant of the coffin in the shows credits is never shown in full.

Its nails and lips and hair superficial fragments of a girl who had become more myth than human being.

That wouldnt have mattered if, like inVeronica Marsbefore it, she had just stayed dead.

She instantly became meek, and sensible, and boring.

She taddled on her friends, supervised girls soccer clubs and married the worlds most boring doctor.

Since the five-year time jump, the show has placed Alison very firmly in the victim role.

She became a prop, her personality bending to where the writers needed her to be.

But this year feels like an apology.

Theres a sense now that the show has remembered who Alison was, and what she represented.

At the end of all this, Alisons story might make some kind of sense, and Im glad.