Alison, Red Riding Hood, was about the beautiful lie. Vivian Darkbloom was a double agent. But I think the Black Swan is really the goal. It's the wholeness of seeing Jenna as she is, in her complexity, and it's the wholeness of looking past grief to see all the ways you were in denial about Alison's sickness, and it's about realizing that love and cruelty aren't exclusive opposites. That the people who love you can also hurt you, and still love you -- and that you're no different from them.

The Liars are Liars because they each have areas of weakness, but if they were just strong enough to look at those areas directly, they'd have all the power they wanted and more. We just want to appear lovely to ourselves and others, so we keep the harder sadder scarier shit locked away... Which is ironic, because that's exactly where it can continue doing the most damage.

The Black Swan is scary looking because you're not there yet. You keep her in shadow. But once you find her, you realize two things: That she is you, and that you are beautiful.

LAIR

Mona: "Want some gum? It's noticeably retro in its packaging."
Spencer: "No, I'm too busy looking at this hilarious diary of Alison's."
Mona: "Honey, do you really think your sister would ever hurt you?"
Spencer: "That was a random, terrifying thing to say. Oh, and speaking of terrifying, here's a noticeably retro gum wrapper keeping A's place in this diary. Hey, can I have a piece of gum now?"
Mona: "Sure, I'll just go out to the car and get more, even though I just told you I have some. It should take about as long as it takes a tiny little girl to put on a hoodie and become a shapeshifting ghost ninja."

(At the dance, the Liars all marvel at the fact that the Black Swan -- leggy, brunette, not pregnant -- is chilling with the A-Team of Jenna and Lucas, both of who are acting sketch as hell. And the whole time, Red Dress is just stalking them around the room -- which makes me wonder if the Swan really matters at all, or is just a plant by Jenna, to keep them focused away from Red Dress. Right?)

Spencer: "Oh, and here's that shopping bag of cashmere twinsets Mona offered me a while back. So fuck."
Mona: "Got the gum!"
Spencer, without turning: "So you're A, huh?"
Mona: "Congrats, Spence."