‘Pretty Little Liars’ Season 7 Spoilers: A Mysterious Murder Takes Place As Mary Drake’s Backstory Is Revealed [PREMIERE RECAP]

The stakes are high in the Season 7 premiere of “Pretty Little Liars.” The Rosewood gang has 24 hours to turn over Charlotte’s real killer or Hanna ends up dead.

Episode 1 of the Freeform series begins with Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Aria (Lucy Hale) digging a hole and crying. “Poor Hanna,” Aria says between shoveling dirt. Someone is dead — viewers just don’t know if it’s Hanna (Ashley Benson) that they’re digging a grave for.

The show flashes back to hours earlier when the group is about to go to the police to report Hanna’s abduction. Their plan is thrown off when Mary Drake (Andrea Parker) enters the building first. It turns out that she’s the new owner of the Lost Woods Resort and wants to report a break-in at her motel. Now they can’t go to the police for help.

“A lie for a lie. An eye for an eye. The bell tolls for Hanna,” a new message from A.D. reads.

As the church bell tolls, the group runs over to the building to find Hanna hanging from the beams inside. They pull her down and find that she’s not breathing. But Hanna’s not dead. The body is fake with a mask of Hanna’s face over a doll head. They have 24 hours to turn over Charlotte’s (Vanessa Ray) real body or Hanna gets killed.

With Spencer’s parents out of town after the big election win, the gang turns the Hastings house into command central to find Charlotte’s real killer and get back Hanna. They don’t have any leads, but Mona (Janel Parrish) thinks that if they work together they’ll be able to put the pieces together. They have to work fast, though. A.D. has Hanna in a tank top and her underwear in a run-down barn. Their stalker sends them a photo of their frightened-looking friend.

A majority of the group thinks that Alison (Sasha Pieterse) is guilty of killing Charlotte. It doesn’t matter why she did it, they just need to prove that she’s guilty. They split up in order to get the proof. Aria and Ezra (Ian Harding) break into Alison’s house to look for a red jacket. On the night that Charlotte was murdered, the duo remembers seeing someone who looked like Alison or Charlotte walking into the church. They originally thought it was Charlotte, but realize it had to be Alison because Charlotte wasn’t wearing a red jacket that night. They don’t find the jacket, but they do see something suspicious. A surprise return from Elliot (Huw Collins) forces them to hide in the closet. They watch through the slots as Elliot stuffs a backpack with black clothing from a locked ottoman. What’s even more chilling is that he takes his bag of surgical tools with him on the way out.

Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) and Mona also split up to follow Mary Drake since they figure that she has to lead them to Hanna. That leaves Spencer and Toby (Keegan Allen) to investigate what Mary Drake has at the Lost Woods Resort. The duo is surprised to find a wide assortment of books in French and German. One of them has an intriguing title — “The Art of Cyber War.” They also find Mary Drake’s passport. She has been all over Europe and Latin America. Around the same time that Charlotte died, Mary Drake flew from Heathrow to Philadelphia.

As the others investigate, Emily decides to visit Ali at the mental institute to see if she can get any answers out of her. Unfortunately, Alison is not exactly up for it. Elliot reveals that Alison had a psychotic break since being admitted. Something is eating at her mentally, causing her condition to rapidly decline. Emily watches as nurses restrain her friend while Elliot shoots her up with a drug.

A short while later, while Elliot is out of the building, a nurse gives Emily the OK to talk to Alison. Her friend is unconscious when she walks in, but Alison opens her eyes when Emily asks if she killed Charlotte.

“Oh God, help me,” she whispers. “Please, God. Forgive me.”

Emily decides to keep this piece of information to herself. The others don’t make out any better. But Spencer does get a visit from Mary Drake. Jessica’s twin shows up looking for Spencer’s parents. Curious as to what business she would have with them, Spencer decides to invite Mary Drake inside. Mary Drake reveals she was never close with her twin. She claims Jessica turned her friends and family against her and forced her to move away. When Spencer asks why, Mary Drake says it’s because she was born first and Jessica was jealous.

That’s not the only drama going on in Rosewood. With the clock counting down, Aria’s also dealing with some personal issues. Ezra asks her to stay over, and Aria doesn’t know what to do. While she wants to stay, she’s confused about their relationship. Ezra’s willing to talk about where they stand, but Aria needs time to think on it. She leaves the house and ends up at a bar on the way home to help Caleb track down a man with a British or Australian accent. The man is talking to Mary Drake about something, and Caleb has a hunch that it involves Hanna. However, Aria doesn’t find the guy. After hearing a sentimental song on the jukebox, Aria decides to return to Ezra’s.

As Aria seeks comfort from Ezra, Hanna seeks the comfort of Spencer in a dream. She imagines that her friend is in the barn with her. But is it actually real? “Pretty Little Liars” fans know that A.D. has a supply of masks.

Hanna tells her she wishes she knew who killed Charlotte so that she could tell A.D. and get out of there. Spencer tells her to keep hanging on, because if A.D. can get in and out of the room, then so can Hanna.

Time is almost running out and the only thing that the group discovered is that Mary Drake was admitted to Radley Sanitarium because a child died under her watch when she was a young babysitter. Emily decides to sneak into Alison’s house to search for proof. She thinks back to her first kiss with Alison when they were just teenagers before finding a box marked for Goodwill. In the box is the red jacket — the evidence she needs to prove that Alison was at the bell tower the night Charlotte died.

Emily takes the red jacket to the others. They begin to debate what to do when Caleb takes the jacket and runs off. He’s willing to throw Alison under the bus if it means getting Hanna back. He leaves the jacket at the Lost Woods Resort and sends A.D. a text just as the time runs out.

Hanna’s captor comes for her in the barn, but Hanna is gone. She’s running in the woods after escaping through a vent when she finds a road. A car stops, but it’s not the savior that she was hoping for — it’s Mary Drake.

The “Pretty Little Liars” Season 7 premiere ends with Elliot paying Alison a visit in the mental institution. He takes out a needle and promises to take care of her ... before adding that he’s going to make sure she lives a long life rotting away as a crazy person. Elliot drops his American accent, revealing that he is British.

“I know you killed Charlotte, “ he says before stabbing her in the arm.