Who in the world is Cyrus Petrillo? That was the question on the minds of “Pretty Little Liars” fans during episode 10, “A Dark Ali.”

The Season 5 episode kicked off with Alison and her father at the police station with Lt. Tanner. They identified Alison’s “kidnapper” as a man named Cyrus Petrillo. However Alison wasn’t willing to confirm that he was the man that took her. When they asked her if she could ID him, Alison simply told the police, “I don’t know.”

Needless to say, the introduction of Cyrus made the other girls nervous – especially since his confession had “A” written all over it. Even though he can recite Alison’s story word-for-word, the girls know that Cyrus isn’t a way out of all their troubles. But Ali doesn’t see it that way. For her, Cyrus is a path straight to their real tormentor. Unfortunately there are too many things that can go wrong with Alison identifying him as her kidnapper, and that’s a risk that Aria, Spencer, Emily and Hanna are not willing to take.

Because Alison is a loose cannon, the girls ask Emily to convince her not to do anything stupid. But things aren’t looking good, especially with Alison’s recording missing from Spencer’s house. After the teen discovered that the recorder was gone, she immediately received a phone call that played back the message. When she hung up in a rush, “A” followed up with a text: “Check Mate.”

As Spencer began freaking out, Hanna decided to take a completely different approach – ignore all the drama. Instead of getting consumed in the world of Alison, Hanna decided to get her act together. She threw out all the junk food at Caleb’s and forced him to get outside and engage in some exercise with her.

Meanwhile Spencer decided to get a backup plan in place after taking a look at the surveillance cameras in her backyard. The cameras revealed that Melissa had met a man and handed him something, seemingly stating, “Do it. Trust me. Do it.” Spencer couldn’t confirm if Melissa handed the man the recording, but she knew one thing for certain – she wasn’t going to let Alison throw them all under the bus. Gathering the materials she stole from Noel Kahn, Spencer pitched an idea to Aria that they go to the police and finally tell the truth. However Aria fought the idea of beating “A” to the punch, telling Spencer that admitting the truth would not play out well – especially since the truth was coming from a bunch of liars.

As Spencer continued to mold her plan, Hanna was auditioning for the school chorus. And because Rosewood is such a small school, Hanna ran into Mona at the auditions. Tension was high between the two ex-friends, but that all got cast aside when Mona collapsed in the classroom. She woke up a couple minutes later and immediately began freaking out about her purse. When Hanna went to grab it for her, she discovered Cyrus’ mug shot inside.

With a confusing new connection to Cyrus, the girls didn’t know what to do next. But Alison made it even more confusing when she revealed to Emily that Cyrus wasn’t a stranger … he was the person that gave her the nasty scar on her upper thigh. Ali continued that she was telling the truth about living in an abandoned basement. She had stayed there with Cyrus, but he didn’t want her – he just wanted her stuff and money.

Emily believed Alison, especially when the troubled teen began shedding some serious tears. The only problem? No one else trusts Alison anymore. Melissa is so scared about what’s happening in town that she’s looking to flee the country. Meanwhile Mona’s having panic attacks and doing recon on Cyrus and who hired him to confess. With a device set up to tap into Lt. Tanner’s phone, Mona and Hanna listen for any news that could lead them to “A.” But unfortunately they don’t get any good news.

Lt. Tanner brought Alison to the basement she stayed at in the hopes that she could provide the police with evidence to charge Cyrus. Alison had “flashbacks” to her time on the run, showing “Pretty Little Liars” fans a scary tale of how Cyrus sliced her thigh with a pocketknife before running off with her bag. Alison identified the location, and that was all Lt. Tanner needed to hold Cyrus. She placed the call to the police station for them to hold him – completely shocking Mona and Hanna.

Hanna sent out an emergency text to her friends, warning them about Alison’s betrayal. Emily managed to meet Alison at her house and reamed her out for throwing them all under the bus. With a disgusted look on her face, Emily told her old friend that she “wasted” so much time on her. Alison pleaded with Emily that she was going to make things right, however Emily didn’t’ care.

“I am done, Ali,” she told her. “I am so done with you.”

Aria, Spencer and Hanna waited for Emily at Hanna’s house. When she arrived she told the girls that they needed to cut the ties with Alison ... immediately.

And it looks like the girls are doing the right thing. The final moments of episode 10 showed Cyrus meeting up with a dark haired Alison.

“I should have left you for dead when I found you,” she told Cyrus. “No one would have missed you, not for a second.”

Cyrus countered that he could have told the police the truth about how they met and the “fun” they had together. But Alison seemed to know him better than that. Handing him a plane ticket, she warned him that that this was his one chance to start over.

“A Dark Ali” concluded with Melissa making a recording for Spencer about the secret she had been hiding from her, and “A” folding his/her clothing … including a candy striper uniform.

RELATED STORIES