Alison’s turn at the game forces her to make a drastic decision to abort her child but is haunted when "A.D." reminds her of when she was in the psychiatric hospital and was wheeled into an operating room. Alison is traumatized to remember that Emily's donated eggs were implanted inside her uterus, realizing Emily is her child's mother. Spencer has a long overdue conversation with her father about his past sins and recent whereabouts. Emily continues to navigate working at Rosewood High with both Alison and Paige, learning the truth about Alison's pregnancy. Meanwhile, Paige contemplates leaving Rosewood, but decides against it, resulting in her and Emily renewing their relationship. Aria continues to question the fate of her relationship with Ezra after Nicole's arrival and bristles under "A.D.’s" taunts. While searching for Mary, wanting answers from her, Hanna and Spencer run into Pastor Ted, who eventually reveals himself as Charlotte's biological father. He also reveals that Lucas was Charlotte's old childhood friend. Meanwhile, Aria discovers that Sydney is on the A-Team, working for "A.D." and she offers Aria the chance to join the team, and become one of "A.D.'s" minions.
Production
"Power Play" was directed by Roger Kumble and written by Lijah J. Barasz, her last writing on the series. The title was revealed by showrunner I. Marlene King via Twitter on August 3, 2016. Table-read for the episode occurred on August 3, 2016, while filming took place between August 5 and August 15, 2016.
Reception
Ratings
"Power Play" premiered to an audience of 0.91 million Americans, acquiring a 0.5 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Reviews
"Power Play" was met with glorification from fans and with mixed opinions from television criticism. Writing for SpoilerTV, Gavin Hetherington acclaimed the episode, saying, "The many developments in this episode alone has catapulted the show into its final stretch - Aria potentially joining A.D., Jessica's killer finally revealed, the baby belonging to Emily, Spencer getting closer to the truth about Mary Drake, potential shade with Lucas - how can these not make you even more excited about the final 6 episodes. I'll say it again, this is the episode I was waiting for. It's made me excited all over again just to see what will happen next, and it's about time. No more beating around the bush, no more hoping for something to happen - it's going to happen! We are getting answers and some fresh drama when I thought the pulse was slowly starting to die." Paul Dailly from TV Fanatic said the episode "was the jolt of life the series needed," commenting that " was great. It was a shocking episode that gave us some much-needed reveals." In addition to praising costume and episode references, Rebecca Kurson from the Observer commented: "The show has just two more episodes to add back some fantastic styles with the increasingly knotted plot." Lauren Busser from Tell-Tale TV website gave the episode a 3.5 out of 5 stars rating. Eliza Thompson from Cosmopolitan wrote, "Plot-wise, Pretty Little Liars is one of the crazier shows on TV, but even by PLL standards, Tuesday's episode "Power Play" was bananas. I gasped so many times that I'm offended my neighbors didn't check to see if I was suffocating, and that was before I started yelling "WHAT?!" at the screen. If you were worried that I. Marlene King and company were going to drop the ball and leave some mysteries unsolved, you should be able to rest a little easier, because "Power Play" set the record straight on a number of important topics." Fans of the series received the plot of the episode and its development very well, praising the several revelations depicted in it.
