“Pretty Little Liars” dropped a major bombshell during episode 20, “Free Fall,” on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Since Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily took that road trip to Ravenswood, fans of the ABC Family series have been under the impression that Ezra was the infamous “A” torturing the four teens. Spencer seemed to blow the lid off the whole thing when she discovered that Ezra was Alison’s “Board Shorts,” but Tuesday night’s episode threw in a major twist when Ezra finally came clean about his connection to Alison.

[Click HERE for a full recap of episode 20 of “Pretty Little Liars.”]

“Free Fall” found Aria initially doubting Spencer’s claims that Ezra was “A” – but then getting suspicious about her beau. In order to ease her mind, Aria decided to head up to Ezra’s cabin in the woods to do a little investigating. After trying multiple alarm passwords (and probably alerting Ezra), Aria finally managed to get in and discovered Ezra’s secret trap door in the bedroom. “Pretty Little Liars” fans previously saw that the room held a mega computer, used to spy on the girls, but when Aria stepped into his lair, she found it empty.

Just as she was about to leave after her failed search attempt, something fishy caught Aria’s eye: a book titled “Carnivore’s Delight Guide To Grilling.” Opening up the book, Aria found that her beloved had carved out the pages and replaced them with a booklet of notes … notes about Alison.

Unfortunately her investigation was cut short when Ezra arrived at the cabin. Taking the pages, Aria escaped through a window … only to realize that she'd left her car keys at the cabin. Forced to take off into the woods, Aria eventually came face-to-face with Ezra when he sneakily joined her on the last chair lift ride back to town. Scared for her life and believing that her boyfriend has been trying to kill Alison, Ezra finally revealed the truth:

He’s not “A.”

Ezra claims that he met Alison when he was in college. She lied about her age and he believed her. When she went missing, he became obsessed with the truth and began writing a book about her.

“I would never hurt her,” Ezra tells a frightened and confused Aria.

Like a good journalist, Ezra applied for a job at Rosewood High School in order to get closer to Alison’s four friends. When he saw Aria at the bar that first day, he knew exactly who she was … and decided to take advantage of the situation to learn more about Alison.

“I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with you,” Ezra continued. “I have lied about a lot of things. But I have never lied to you, not once, about how I feel about you.”

Needless to say, it’s going to take a lot more than that for Aria to forgive her beau and get over this major betrayal. Holding the pages of his book in front of him, Aria warns him that she’s going to read every single word. But Ezra doesn’t want that. Struggling to get the pages back, Ezra accidentally causes Aria to drop them from the chair lift.

By the end of episode 20 the two went their separate ways with Aria going home to cry and a mysterious gloved figure – possibly the real “A” -- picking up Ezra’s pages.

Is Ezra telling the truth to Aria? Or did he come up with a cover story in order to continue hiding his identity as “A”? Executive producer Marlene King dished to E! Online that Ezra is not “A” but just a “pretty little liar.”

“So now it’s going to be about what his true intentions were,” King continued. “Was he doing this for greed? Did this turn into something else? Was he helping the girls ultimately? You know, time will tell, but I think betrayal is betrayal.”

According to executive producer Oliver Goldstick, he believes that Ezra dived into writing a book about Alison because he thought it would “break him into the business, into the publishing world.” But as Ezra explained to Aria, he stopped when things began to get serious between the two, and started writing again after their breakup.

But what about Ezra’s mega computer? Or the cameras set up outside his apartment? Or Alison’s journal being found (and altered) in Ezra’s school desk? Or even Ezra’s vendetta against Spencer?

There seem to be so many things linking Ezra to “A” that have yet to be explained. However, King confirmed to BuzzFeed that “in all of his surveilling, Ezra has found out some information that will help the girls truly unmask ‘A’ – so some good will come out of all this pain.”

RELATED STORIES