'PLL' Season 5B Recap Takes You Back To Charles

If there's anything you don't want to be when Pretty Little Liars Season 6 premieres on June 2, it's trapped in the dollhouse with no recollection of Season 5B. OK, fine, if you had it your way, you probably wouldn't want to be trapped in the dollhouse at all, but you're going to tune into Tuesday night's episode, "Game on, Charles," either way. As far as PLL seasons go, Season 5B was one of the most intense sets of episodes I Marlene King has ever given fans — so, naturally, Pretty Little Liars Season 5B demands a recap before we dive back into that crazy bunker and start asking ourselves (again) how the heck Charles has so much money.

Janel Parrish has already teased that the Pretty Little Liars Season 6 premiere will "break Twitter," so it'd be a HUGE mistake to not be over-prepared for this episode. And what more fitting way would there be to prepare than to remind ourselves of the questions that plagued us all throughout Season 5B? I mean, this is the start of the #SummerOfAnswers, after all. So, here's your ultimate recap to Pretty Little Liars Season 5B and a friendly reminder that you should still be asking, "WHO TF IS CHARLES DILAURENTIS?"

When will Emily catch a break?

Seriously, Emily has the worst luck when it comes to romance and Season 5B was probably the worst of the worst for her. Not only did Paige leave the picture — abruptly and painfully — and her brief flirtation with Ali becoming totally dunzo, Emily ended up getting involved with an older, married woman. Romantically, Season 5B crushed Emily's heart. (Sad face.)

That was the best college essay Aria could come up with?

Aria and Ezra are broken up, people — even though he's totally still into her. At the start of 5B, Aria got rejected from pretty much every college she applied to until she wrote an essay trashing her relationship with Ezra because she knew it'd land on Jackie's desk. Sure, she apologized and Ezra pretended that he wasn't so terribly offended, but that didn't stop him from using the "you'll end up resenting me for holding you back from experiencing life" card and calling it quits on Ezria.

Will there ever be a guy that doesn't want to kiss Spencer?

The Hastings' tenant and rebellious artist Johnny and Wren's creepy British roommate added themselves to the long list of men that have had crushes on Spencer. But, don't worry, PLL fans, because Officer Toby came in hot with a romantic gesture and professed his undying and uncompromisable love for Spencer in 5B. Spoby will live on, even if Spencer attracts semi-sketchy guys like moths to a flame.

What fresh hell is this barrel situation?

Yes, I'm still thinking about that barrel in the storage unit because, if there really is a body in there, A has really gone to some other level.

R U good, Andrew?

Andrew popped up when Aria suddenly needed a tutor and, no, he's not tutoring her in the art of surveillance. In the 5B finale, after successfully creeping us all out for awhile, it was revealed that Andrew had tapped the Hastings' phone line. So, is he just using Aria like Ezra did? That girl just can't catch a break either.

Can we talk about Mike?

After a very long absence on the show, Mike returned to PLL 5B as if he'd been a main character this entire time. And, apparently, Mike knows everything — well, at the very least he knew that Mona was planning on faking her own death and he's been meeting with Cyrus, who also returned in Season 5B.

Is this show just a biohazard waiting to happen?

Season 5B could've easily been called "Vials, Vials Everywhere & Only Blood To Drink" because there were literally vials of blood EVERYWHERE. The girls started the season at a blood drive, Mona had vials of blood in a mini-fridge in her room before she "died," Mike was hiding vials of blood in a tree, A had vials of blood, and a vial of blood exploded in Spencer's purse at her Oxford interview. I'm sorry, but isn't that a biohazard?

Why do these 'ships even bother with Haleb around?

Haleb was front-and-center in Season 5B, mostly giving us all truly unrealistic #relationshipgoals, but also going head-to-head against the police, Charles, and everyone else that got in their way. Haleb is the couple to watch.

Can Ali also be convicted for making everyone search for her for four seasons?

Towards the end of 5B, the court found Ali guilty of Mona's murder (even though we now know that Mona is actually alive) and the Liars were also sentenced to jail time for being accessories to Ali's crime. Unlike the Liars, however, we left off in Season 5B with Ali being in jail.

So...is Varjak another villain?

Cyrus' return was quite the surprise and, unfortunately, short-lived. But he didn't skip town again before he introduced someone new into the A-game fold — Varjack. Who is Varjack? Initially, because this pseudonym is obviously a nod to Breakfast at Tiffany's, I thought that Varjack is Ezra on PLL. However, the more important question here might not be who Varjack is, but whether or not this character is ANOTHER villain or someone that's trying to help the Liars.

What about Mona's dead body?

MONA IS ALIVE, people. In the Season 5B finale, the Liars and Mona reunited in Charles' dollhouse, even though we all saw Mona's "dead body" in the trunk of that car way back in 5A.

If Charles DiLaurentis is A — WHO TF IS CHARLES?

The Season 5B finale introduced Charles DiLaurentis as Big A along with the possibility that Charles is Jason's twin, the DiLaurentis' cousin, Andrew, Andrew's brother, or some other crazy character we can't even begin to conceive of. Basically, Charles is Big A and he's got the Liars trapped in his dollhouse bunker in the middle of nowhere and that leads us straight into the Season 6 premiere.

Images: Eric McCandless, screengrab/ABC Family; prettylittleliars/Tumblr (11)