how the A stole christmas

This year instead of a Halloween special we had a Christmas special. It was in honor of my sister’s birthday which is on Friday (don’t forget to wish her a happy birthday). PLL fits better with Halloween than Christmas but how many Halloweens can they celebrate before they graduate from high school? Plus they were able to give us the Christmas message that your friends (and their boyfriends/ girlfriend) are your family!

Apparently A has off for Christmas or at least that’s what she told the liars, so nothing big was revealed. A did spend a lot of time decorating the barn for Christmas though. But the big news is that CeCe is back in Rosewood, she should be on the lam especially after Ali worked so hard to get her out of the country but “the first Christmas after you lose someone is the hardest”.

Talking about Ali, she throws an Ice Ball (a dance, not a ball of ice). Not sure why a girl who had been missing and shortly after she returned, her mother was murdered, would be the one to do this but as detective Holbrooke explained it’s for charity so we won’t ask any questions. Ali is also making new friends, those twins and Jena and Sydney. (Is Jena no longer blind?) She is also visited by the ghosts of her mother and Mona, will this be a recurring thing or is it just for Christmas?

The liars use the Ball as a distraction to search Ali’s house for clues. They received maps of the hiding places from Mona. While Hanna and Spencer ransack the house Emily, Aria, Paige, Ezra, Caleb and Santa Lucas keep an eye on Ali but loose her. Side note, Spencer should not have been in Ali’s house, she is out on bail, and the last thing she needs is a B&E. I thought Spencer was the smart one, also why did she break the picture frame to get the broken glass as a weapon; do they not have any knives in the house? But I digress. They do find two things first a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” themed passport and second a letter inviting Bethany to Labor Day, which they believe will exonerate Spencer from Bethany’s murder.   

While this is going on Toby is re-enacting “Rear Window” (that’s why he uses the camera to see instead of binoculars; for those who have not seen the film) man these guys love Hitchcock. FYI the coffee shop on the show is also named Rear Window. Just like in “RW” the killer enters the house and just like in “RW” he uses the flash to save lives. Anyway A knocks Hanna out, I guess A forgot about the huge knife or wanted to keep her alive since she is a main character. They steal the letter and have a big Christmas dinner, liars and boyfriends/girlfriend while Ali is haunted by Mona who shows her that she will be bifurcated.  OH and there is a snow storm.

Just some thoughts:

Personally I think they should stick to Halloween it fits better and I find it funny as each year passes they still have not graduated.                                                                                                                      

Emily was super into Christmas last episode but did not seem any more interested in it than anyone else.

 

Hannah knows sign langue but not what a gesture is.

I liked the Hanukkah-Mobil in the opening shot. Who knew there’s a Chabad of Rosewood.

Why did it not have an A closing, I think this is the only episode not to have one.

 

Well that is all I have to say about that.

taking this one to the grave

Tray is home so we got to watch the mid-season finale together. I was wrong it was not Eddie Lamb who gets killed, although Tray says he’s already dead, I doubt it, he’ll show up later on. At least after this I will have a break for a while.

For some reason this takes place during Thanksgiving, which makes the Halloween episode in a two months out of place. Also Emily was already celebrating Christmas. She also gets back with Paige and distracts Ali while the other Liars infiltrate Radley.

Aria had a small roll this week, she bakes pumpkin pie with Ezra and spills some paint. Same with Hanna, the big news for her is that even though she does not know they are called S.A.T.s she did really well on them so if she can survive A she will go to a good college (although I don’t think her grades are that good, and she did not participate in any extracurricular activities, maybe A messed with her SATs as some twisted prank.)

Her friend Mona was not as lucky, after redeeming herself by helping the liars Mona is the one who ends up dead. Killed by a blonde A, most likely Ali but it could be CeeCee or even Noel in a wig. A takes her body but there is so much blood left in the house that the police declare her dead.

Talking about Police, Officer Toby is back. It seemed like he just left for Police Academy (in Harrisburg) a couple weeks ago, but that was in the summer and now its Thanksgiving, anyway we now know why the cops in Rosewood are not the best; it takes longer to become a barber than it does to become a cop there. It was odd that Tanner was not in this episode and that Holbrook was in it so much (remember when he and Hanna would read the same books?)

Spencer is arrested for the murder of Bethany. The polygraph that Ali took was the nail in the coffin for Spencer. FYI in real life they only ask yes/no questions for a polygraph. Shortly before Spencer is arrested the liars get info that Ali knew Bethany because Ali’s mom was having an affair with Bethany’s dad (they could even be half-siblings like Spencer and Jason). Luckily for Spencer her parents are the best/only lawyers in town so she should have the charges dropped soon.

Mona also finds proof that Ali is A but is killed before she can give that info to the Liars, it doesn’t really matter they already know she is A. what a great mid-season finale!

Well that is all I have to say about that.

no one here can love or understand me

I’m back! I would like to publicly thank Tray (my sister) for taking over and writing the recaps for the past three weeks while I was out of the country. I think she did a great job and should continue doing it. If you enjoyed her recaps leave comments and encourage her to keep the recaps coming.

I bet this episode would make a lot more sense if I watched “Ravenswood” since half of it was about why Caleb is acting so different and continues to drink. It seems like “Ravenswood” had a lot of ghosts and supernatural stuff like fireflies and this episode tied up everything so we will not have any more talk about “Ravenswood”.  They even got a plug in for the new “Ouija” movie (based off the board game, what it worked for “battleship” but what’s next “connect four”?)

Besides Caleb big things happened. The liars were about to out Ali that she was not kidnapped, until they got the message that “we’re all in this together” from A or Ali or Ali is A, they were not sure. It was weird that it was not a text but rather on some old TVs in a store front, what if they missed or ignored it? Texts are easier to send and we know they will read them, but TVs in a store front are more interesting for the viewers like you. They should have checked who owns that store. End result is the same, they don’t tell.

Ali is not present in this episode at all. Apparently her dad took her somewhere while Cyrus is on the loose. Seems like a good idea. Emily has Ezra research who Cyrus is and what is his connection to Ali. He finds out some aliases of Cyrus and that he was arrested for petty crimes but never convicted and no connection to Ali, yet; so basically nothing. Talking about Emily, she wants to get back together with Paige but knows it will be hard, what she does not know it Paige has a new friend, so it will be even harder for Emily.

Aria is upset cause Mike is back with Mona. Her dad tells her that he does not like it either but if they say something it will just bring them closer and they will never get rid of Mona, so just keep an eye on the situation. Mona goes with them to the movie (it was “Strangers on a Train” it’s about two people who meet on a train ride, each of them has someone they want to murder so they swap victims so there is no motive linking them to the murder, it was reinterpreted as a comedy “throw mama from the train”, it’s another Hitchcock film, the writers love Hitchcock) anyway Aria says something to Mona and she cries and we feel bad for Mona, also what’s the deal with Mona and Ice cream cones first she has one on her shirt and then she has them as earrings?

The big reveal this week is Melissa’s secrete. We have been waiting all season for this. She leaves it in a video and if we are to believe her, the night Ali went missing she saw Spencer beat who she thought was Ali but was really Bethany and then buried   her thinking she was protecting her little sister (she claims that she thought they were dead before she buried her but the autopsy showed otherwise) Melissa is now back in London.

Tanner hassles the liars and Arias dad throughout the episode. She’s on to them and since someone gets murdered next week it could be her (we know it won’t be any of the main characters). I think it will be Eddie Lamb he knows way too much and we haven’t seen him since he left Radley. Well, we will find out next week.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

a dark ali

This will be my last week writing this blog as Michael has returned from Unicon17. He didn't come in last place in the marathon so I'd say that is an accomplishment.

As one of our readers pointed out to me, the most important part of this episode was at the end where there is a view of the Farm Show Complex (being used for the PA State Dog Show). And since that was at the end, the rest of the episode is fairly irrelevant but if you care to know more keep on reading.

The liars start out trying to convince Ali that this Cyrus character is a ploy by A but Ali seems to think she knows better (probably because she does). Most of the liars are against her but Emily sticks by her side, especially after she tells her the story of how Cyrus stole her bag and cut her.

Hannah has stopped being an alcoholic and started being a health freak. She seems to be a woman of extremes. She tries her hardest to ignore anything having to do with Ali but fails after her choir tryouts where she runs into Mona. Mona is trying to show off her decent voice when suddenly she faints. Hannah runs to her rescue reminding viewers of the friendship they once had and when Mona comes to, she asks Hannah for her bag. Obviously Hannah takes a peek inside and sees the mug shot of mysterious Cyrus. So even though Hannah was trying to keep her mind off Ali, she follows Mona to find her spying outside the police station with some professional hacking material. Mona reveals that Ali gives her anxiety and that's why she fainted which is somewhat of a bonding moment for the long lost friends.

Spencer is busy leading the charge against Ali trying to convince the liars to turn against her. She takes the evidence she got from Noel Kahn (who was absent in this episode) to her secret hiding space only to discover all of her other secret stuff was gone. As she is frantically looking for it (as if A had taken it out of the secret hiding place but forgot to take it with him/her when he/she left), MelissA walks in. As Emily is rooting for Ali, she points out to Spencer that maybe she should be looking more in the direction of her own sister, prompting Spencer to search through her things. Obviously MelissA catches her because she always seems to show up right when you don't want her to. She tells her that they should be honest with each other but then won't tell her the big secret she is hiding and offers for Spencer to run away with her. At the tale end we catch MelissA confessing on video but obviously cut off before we hear the confession.

Emily spends the whole episode on Ali's side until Ali defies the Liar's wishes and fingers Cyrus. After that all the Liars are in agreement that they need to disconnect themselves from Ali.

Aria is trying to put her mom's heart back together while she tries to figure out her own heart. She clearly loves Ezra but after what happened to her mother, Aria will not accept any mistakes. She begs Ezra not to talk to Ali because it will put him in danger and then he runs into Ali and is too tempted not to. Aria sees the interaction and feels as though she can no longer trust him. Her mom quickly puts herself back together with a shopping trip and the now happier Ella reminds Aria that Zach was an asshole but that doesn't mean everyone is.

Hopefully next week we find out MelissA's secret and see more scenes of Harrisburg. And luckily you will have Mikey back because I'm kind of tired to actually having to pay attention the show when I watch.

March of crimes

Mikey is still unicycling in Montreal so you are stuck with me (Traci) again. At the begining of this episode it appeared as though the Liars were falling apart, but by the end it seems they are back together and pitted against Alli who is becoming increasingly sketchy.

Hannah's drinking continues and gets so bad that her mom finds out. But really who drinks out of a flask? Especially in high school? Hannah is loathing Alli staying with her and avoiding at all costs. She even claims that "even the doorknob smells like Alli." Luckily Spencer points out the bad scripting herself by asking, "Who smells a doorknob?"


Ezra is gone for a second week in a row and now Ella's man is also out of the picture. Even though Aria freaked out at Hannah last week for telling her about Jake she gets pretty skeptical. When she starts questioning Ella about it we find out it's not the first time he's been a creeper. Caleb also finds out and sucker punches Jake only to find out that A got involved in this situation (obviously). The party is ruined and the wedding is off. Ella is crushed and luckily her ex-husband (who we haven't seen in ages) is right there to break her fall.


Spencer heads to the eye doctor to take care of that eye injury and gets her pupils dilated. Do they still do that anymore? My doctor doesn't. While her vision is temporarily impaired she thinks she sees 2 A's (but really one of them is Sydney). She freaks out and makes Emily come, even though she is in the middle of breaking into Noel Kahn's car (which we will get back to). After Spencer gets a note from A in the doctors office, Emily arrives to point out that one of the Jennas is actually Sydney. They are both shocked and appalled that they are friends. While we already knew this, I am still confused as to why Sydney wears blind people sunglasses and only wears them when she is with Jenna. Sydney tries to explain it to Emily but Emily isn't having it.


Emily has her interview with the Coach so she can officially take on the job of Assistant Coach and so that she can notice the super secret binders with locker number assignments (why is that so confidential??) She goes into Noel's locker and gets his car keys. In his car he finds pictures of Alli when she was on the run and the tape recording of Alli that Emily had heard Noel listening to.


Spencer tries to hide the photos and tape in her family's creepy cabin and run's into Noel creepily hiding under some sheets. How did he find her? They fight over the photos and Noel claims he needs them as protection because Alli throws away people once she's done with them. While we are still meant to be skeptical of Noel, that definitely seems to make sense.


As Alli and Mrs. Marin return from the party that never happened, they get a call from the police. Apparently they found the guy that broke into the house and ostensibly captured Alli. Once they get to the station we see a guy committing to Alli's story who we've never met before. Who sent him there? And why would someone commit to years in prison? Maybe he's A? Or maybe Alli sent him to back her story? Who knows really?

Scream for Me

As Michael mentioned he is on hiatus while participating in Unicon17. Please see his other blog http://17unicon.blogspot.co.il/ to see what a unicycle conference is all about (if that interests you). In the mean time, I (Traci, sister of Michael), will be writing in his place.

Obviously the best part of this episode was once again a mention of Harrisburg. This time it came up when Toby decided to go to the Police Academy which apparently only happens in the state capitol. Who knew? For some reason Spencer was upset about his decision but did not really explain why (shouldn't she be excited for her man in uniform?) and then warmed up to the idea after she got attacked by a horse. 

The episode starts off in choir class. Who knew they were in choir class. Alli is being questioned and Hannah has trouble focusing on her singing. Aria continues volunteering/snooping at Radley where she learns that Eddy Lamb is no longer employed there (probably dead). Doesn't matter though because she gets all the information she needs from Big Rhonda all for the small price of a root beer. Apparently Bethany and Mrs. Dilaurentis had a close relationship and went horseback riding together and even adopted a horse. This definitely leaves the twin theory from the books open. Especially after we learn that Mrs. D wanted Bethany to call her Aunt Jessie. Spencer and Emily head to the stables to pick up some information and find Melissa's riding helmet (put there by A/there because Melissa is A/or there because Melissa rides there). While they are snooping around in an all too obvious ominous thunderstorm A locks them in the stable to be attacked by the horse who is spooked by the storm (or maybe by A, or maybe is A). 

But onto some real drama- Ella's younger man is into even younger women! Zack hits on Hannah when she is wasted and makes an even clearer attempt when she's sober. Hannah tries telling Aria, but already angry at her for her previous drunken slip-up, Aria doesn't trust her and tells her she's an alcoholic mess (which seems pretty accurate). Emily tries to fix Hannah's blabber mouth by telling Sydney that they were never in NY and Hannah is so silly when she's drunk. Sydney plays dumb and then brings up later when she is giving Emily her assistant coach (!) uniform almost seemingly on purpose to let her know they know the truth. But the liars have not caught on yet to what team Sydney is really playing for. Later on while making some sort of wedding decorations, Aria's expressions seem to indicate her lack of trust in Zack. Something tells me destroying Ella's marriage will somehow end up curing the rift between Aria and Hannah. 

Meanwhile, Alison pushes her way in to sleeping at Hannah's and Hannah decides to avoid her and drink her sorrows away with Caleb. Caleb offers for them to run away together and Hannah gives really dumb excuses for why she can't go - no to Japan because she doesn't like sushi and no to Myanmar because she can't pronounce it. Oddly Caleb gives up on the idea and doesn't mention any normal vacation spots. Alison develops a plan to get Mrs. Marin to believe her by getting Noel Kahn to break into their house. But the detective does not trust her at all - not about her disappearance, not about Shawna, and not about this break in. It's not hard to see why. Alison says she did it to get someone credible to believe her story so she chooses someone who slept with a police officer to get her daughter's shoplifting charges dropped. 

Maybe now that Zack turned out to be a creeper he will somehow get involved in the A stuff. Maybe not. You really never know. 

Remember to check out Michael's unicon blog - http://17unicon.blogspot.co.il/

Hope you enjoyed my guest post!

silence of E. Lamb

First some housekeeping: the next couple weeks I’ll be on vacation so I’m not sure if I will be able to get these posts out on time or even be able to watch PLL. But rest assured they will be posted eventually.

Spencer helps Ezra move all his stuff to a shed since Aria had to volunteer, plus out of the liars Spencer or Emily would my choice to help me move, Aria seems too small to carry heavy things. I think that Ezra stuff will be stolen, that lock will not keep A out. Spencer borrows a camera to spy on Melissa but puts it outside the barn, instead of inside, where you could see what she’s up to not just her comings and goings. (She could have borrowed more than one and set up a real surveillance)  Spencer gets no dirt on Melissa but does catch Ali sneaking around in different cloths. We do see that Melissa has a rat, could she be the one that left one in Paige’s locker? She also won’t share her secrete with Spencer.

Emily’s mom invites everyone over for dinner (what’s a pop-in?), only Ali and Hanna come. It was all just her mom’s plan to see if there was anything between Emily and Ali, romantically. Hanna gets drunk and Emily kicks her out before she ruins the dinner but what kind of parent takes out a bottle of vodka for a dinner with teenagers. Hanna then spills the beans to Sidney and A uses that the put a wedge between Hanna and the other liars.

Aria starts at Radley and is successful in getting some info after “borrowing” a book from Ronda (a mash-up of TasteE and crazy-eyes from OITNB). They find out that Bethany was the patient that was on the roof when Toby’s mom “fell” off and knew that Mrs. D covered it up. Aria also mentions my might-be-Cousin Marc Chagall and scares off Eddie lamb from talking with Ezra.

What is Ali up to, sneaking around, telling Hanna to break up with Caleb and a heart-felt lie to Emily’s mom. Also she must have the best concealer because I could not see any bruises and she stopped wearing the scarf.

One last thing is Eddie Lamb the only person working at Radley? At one point Wren was working there. Anyway if I remember correctly when Toby was working for A he used an Eddie Lamb ID to get in and out of Radley. So Mr. Lamb has connections to everyone, Mrs. Cavanaugh and DiLaurentis, Wren, Toby, Mona, Bethany, Spencer, A, and Ronda. He is the key to everything, so he will probably end up dead.

Well that is all I have to say about that.     

run Ali run

So since none of you commented about “Ravenswood” I checked it out for myself and it has been canceled. Therefore we will be seeing a lot more of Caleb in Rosewood. I blame myself since I never watched one episode. But in this day and age how do you have a supernatural show without at least one vampire.

A is back and on the attack. A almost killed Ali and sent her a video of her mom being buried. A seems to be leaving the other liars alone (for the time being) and focusing on Ali, just like Mona, but Mona wants Ali to leave and A won’t let her leave.

If it were not for Emily Ali might have been killed by A. she also got Paige to name names, no one we didn’t know about and the liars should have suspected. Paige if you rat on people you’ll get a dead rat in your locker, IT’S THE Rosewood way. Emily then has an awkward sleepover with Ali but does not get any sleep, but not in the good double entendre way.

Hanna was actually trying to help Ali leave town for her own selfish reasons so she could be queen bee again. She also has to focus on her love triangle with Caleb and Travis. Caleb needs to either shave or grow more facial hair cause right know Arafat has better facial hair then him.

Spencer after realizing that her dad did not kill Ali’s mom tries to get her parents back together. She gets her and her mom back into the house but her dad is going to leave. I keep wondering why no one is mentioning that Spencer’s dad and Ali’s mom had an affair that resulted in Jason.

Aria is still worried about the killing Shawna thing and it is being investigated. They suspect it has something to do with Ezra since he was shot the night before, Shawna had gun residue on her and she was killed in his mother’s theater. The Liars still won’t cooperate since they, for some reason, need to keep the lie that they were in Philly that night. The show makes the detective seem like a bad guy with her menacing looks but in reality if they were to come clean she could probably help them with A.

We still know nothing of this Bethany Young, but neither do the cops. Besides the fact that she was a patient at Radley we found out that not only did she know Mrs. D but even drew a not so flattering picture of her. I feel like Radley would need to be more cooperative with the authorities but since they are not Aria is getting an after school job with them. Remember when she worked for the photographer, whatever happened with that job?

Side note: it seems like no one in Rosewood cares if a house is destroyed. The Cavanaugh’s house, gas leak, case closed. And they never found the culprit who drove into Emily’s living room. Moral of the story, don’t buy a house in Rosewood, rent.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

miss me x 100

We made it! 100^Th episode, not only does this mean that we have spent more than four days watching PLL but they are also able to go into syndication now. It was nice that they did a real episode instead of a clip show that most shows do for their 100^Th.

The big news is that everyone is back! Well Caleb and Jenna at least (and Toby but we saw him a couple weeks ago. Is “Ravenswood” still a show? (Please let me know in the comment section, I don’t feel like researching it, thanks) what was on his face?  A milk mustache? I am all for facial hair, if you can grow it. But I digress, will Caleb stay in Rosewood? I think the answer has more to do with “Ravenswood” than anything else. I do like him better then Travis though.

Jenna is broken but is well enough to plot with Mona and Sidney. I told you to watch out for Sidney. Their plan works though, not only do they get the whole school against Ali they even get the liars to turn on her. Man, she has it bad; “kidnapped”/ on the run for two years, and right when she returns her mother is murdered, and then to top it off, she is now the most hated person in high school. Someone somewhere should cut her some slack.

Aria is finally getting over killing Shawna thanks to Ezra pointing out the she shot him and was going to kill the liars. Aria should consider herself a hero and not worry about people finding out. Plus Ezria is back together!

Since ABC is owned by Disney we had some cross promotion with a “Frozen” sing-along that Emily attended (and even made an Adele Dazeem joke) but not before she got Ali and Paige to cry in front of each other. She then hooks up with Ali!

Lucas has a party for his “girlfriend” to meet his friends. We never do meet her so why couldn’t he have just had a party, why even mention the girlfriend? Anyway Hanna gets hammered on what looks like antifreeze (the “Frozen” sing-along was going on during this party, coincidence?) her mom will deal with her in the morning but I doubt that will happen since she drinks a beer with Caleb the next day.

Spencer’s parents are getting divorced and she is sticking with her mom. For those keeping track that only leaves Emily with married parents, but her dad is always in Texas or Iraq plus has a bad heart so it may not last much longer.

The ending was a shocker. As the liars and their loved ones gathered around the TV to find out the identity of the girl in Ali’s grave (Bethany Young, a girl who escaped Radley the night Ali disappeared, were they not searching for this girl before?) Toby and Jenna’s house explode and Jenna may be inside. This is exactly how she ended up blind in the first place. Last thing we see is that A is back which is great because A is the main character even though we never see   her/him/they/it.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

thrown from the ride

What happened to Ali’s dog? That woman dropped it off two episodes ago, it found her mom’s body and we have not seen it since. My guess is that the police are still questioning it. However with Ali stuck in her house it would have been nice to have the dog around. Did they even name it?

I think Emily said it best “A is gone, Ali’s back why aren’t we happy”. The problem is Ali and her lies. I know the show is called “Pretty Little Liars” not “Hot Young Truth Tellers” but even TV Guide jeered (the harshest criticism in the TV world) the show for Ali lying about being kidnapped. The lies aren’t even good, the doctor knows that the scar is not from a rock and that it is older than she is saying, and why have the others memorize her lies? Then there has always been the suspicion that Ali was/is A and two events in this episode hint at that. First when she sends a group text and the liars jump when all their phones go off at the same time just like old times with A. Second when Ali send a text and first signs it -A before changing it to -Alison (who signs a text anyway?) old habits are hard to break.

Hanna is rockin’ her new style and is back to shoplifting. In the books Hanna’s things were eating disorders and shoplifting but not at the same time. If she gets caught stealing do you think her mom will sleep her way out of the charges again?

Emily is helping Sidney (I learned her name since I think she will be around more) with her swimming and starting to hang with Paige again. Paige has not joined Mona’s army and warns Emily that it might not be safe for Ali to return. Mona also lets Lucas know that Ali was not kidnapped and he is no longer being home schooled (so that’s where he’s been).

Aria is still dealing with Shawna’s murder and watching her funeral again and again is not helping. Playing board games with Ezra on the other hand does the trick. They almost have a sleep over! Once again I would like to thank them for the Harrisburg shootout (Aria’s dad is in Harrisburg for Mike’s lacrosse match). It’s just a matter of time before Aria and Ezra are back together.

Spencer is trying to find out what her family is hiding from her. She thinks that her dad may have killed Ali’s mom and there seems to be motive and means. I doubt he did it though; he seems more like a guy who would hire a hit man than kill someone himself. Plus I think he is smart enough not to leave the pills where Spencer would find them. Her mom is sent to the “spa” if we are to believe her father. And somehow she has time to garden with Andrew.

Next week is the 100^Th episode, wow a hundred hours of PLLs I have watched (over four complete days). Ali is making her return to Rosewood High and I hear that Caleb will be back from Ravenswood, did that show get picked up another season?

Well that is all I have to say about that.

 

surfing the aftershocks

I just want to publicly wish Ashley Benson (Hannah) the best of luck getting through this horrible situation. As you have already heard last week she had to take out a restraining order on James Gorton Jr (pictured here http://lgm.cl/tvtropes/staticimages/ralph7_1378.jpg ) a former security guard on the Warner Bros. lot who believed God had told him to start a relationship with her. I hope the best for all actresses and actors on PLL and let’s save the drama for the show.

Now to the recap: I felt nothing really happened this episode; they went back to school and got on with their lives for the most part. There was a funeral that we never saw, Ali’s mom’s; did it even happen? They find out that Jason is not the killer thanks the drunk homeless guy (I guess that will be the last we see of him, too bad I liked that character; also he seems like the last person who should be involved with a detox place, just my opinion).

Ohh, they did add a new character, I missed her name but she is on the swim team even though it seems she knows very little about swimming. She is also way into Emily, almost too much. Since Emily is completely over Paige will this be her new love interest? Probably, how many other lesbians are in Rosewood? Although the timing of her transferring to Rosewood seems suspect, she could be the new A or a friend of Shawna. I’m keeping an eye on you nameless swimmer.

Ezra is back in town recovering. I think he and Aria will get back together. I also think that with him hobbling around in his apartment they will do “rear window” homage, I mean the coffee shop is already named after that film so we already know that at least one writer is a fan of that Hitchcock classic.

Will the Hastings move?  Doubtful but spencer’s dad is thinking about it. He was also pretty creepy offering Ali a ride (and for all the talk about added police presence we did not see one cop the entire show). That was the last we saw of Ali (unless that was her silhouette we saw at the end with Mona) so we have no idea if she took the ride or not and if Mr. Hastings did anything to her. He also won’t share Melissa’s secrete (or a pretzel) with spencer, he’s just “protecting” her, from salt and “you can’t lie about something you don’t know”.

Hannah goes through a realization that she does not know who she really is. Mona molded her into a replacement for Ali, so she does what anyone wanting to reclaim their identity does, gets a brand new hair style! That was probably the most exciting part of the show. As I said, very uneventful, but then again we are just starting the season.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

whirly girly

Sorry for the lateness of this post but I warned you last week it would be late. With PLL being picked up for two more seasons the actresses will be in their 30s by the time the show is over! My favorite part of last nights episode was that at the beginning when the  liars get off  the bus, it says Harrisburg  on the bus, I guess that's the next stop. (I'm from Harrisburg and love when they mention it on the show).

You would think that Ali's return would be a happy thing for everyone but it is far from it. Instead of telling the cops the truth like they agreed, she tells them that she was kidnapped and held for the last two years but never saw her capture. It seem like the they believe her but the other liars are upset that they now have to lie for her, its just like old times.

I found it strange that the cops were not searching for Ali's mom and I think this is the first time we meet her dad. Well the reason she wasn't there to greet her daughter was because she was taking a dirt nap. Before she was murdered she ordered a dog, and now she will never get to enjoy it.

Aria is taking the whole killing Shawna thing pretty bad, Emily tells her it will be OK just like when Em killed Nate. With 2 of the liars having killed someone, I think A should be more scared of them. And A is back (its MonA, again) but will Ali change MonA's mind? I doubt it.

Toby is back, I didn't really get where he was; in London looking for Melissa but finding Wren, or something like that. Of course he has his obligatory topless scene.

Jason is up to something and  the liars would have found out what, if they weren't scared away by the drunk homeless man. I like that character I hope they make him a regular.

well that is all I have to say about that.

escape from new york

I can’t believe that the new season of PLL is already here. I also just saw that it’s picked up for another 2 seasons. Some quick housekeeping first; next week’s post will be late (Wednesday night or more likely not till Thursday) deal with it.

Ezra survived, CeeCee fled the country, Mona created an army, Melissa has a secret, and Shawna was A till Aria killed her.

We start off where we left off, in NYC (the cleanest I have ever seen NYC). Ezra is in the meat wagon being rushed to the hospital but A is like Spiderman riding on top of the ambulance. The liars get some cops to guard him and set a trap for A using Ali as bait. The trap backfires when the liars sans Aria (she stayed w/ Ezra) are surrounded in some playground by a dozen As. It looks bad till the cops show up and tell them to “knock it off” and the As run away.

While the liars spend the night hiding (from A or the authorities or both) in Ezra’s Broadway theater back home there is a lot going on. Melissa is back and she has a secret (they want us to think that she killed the girl that was in Ali’s grave but we’re too smart to fall for that). CeeCee has escaped custody and gets Ali’s ticket and passport to flee the country; I doubt this will be the last we see of her, I still can’t believe she killed a cop. And Mona preparing for Ali’s return is forming an army consisting of all those who Ali made fun of, but will Paige join? Melissa did.

When Ezra recovers he is able to tell Aria that Shawna is A. We always knew something was up with her, and we did not believe that Ali had sent her to wait with Aria at the hospital. Luckily for the liars Shawna take her time explaining that she did it for Jenna, cause it give Aria enough time to save the day. Aria must have picked up that move from Jake, it worked well because Shawna is dead.

This season should be interesting. Will someone else take over as A? Probably, since it would not be PLL without A. I also thought it was funny when the liars were discussing what hobbies they would do now that they have extra time, they have always stayed active even with A hounding them, Spencer did student government, honor society, academic bowl and field hockey; Emily had swimming; Aria wrote poetry and stories; and Hanna had shoplifting. Plus they all had boyfriends/girlfriend to boot. Also I’m pretty sure you would not get in any legal trouble just for someone using a passport with your picture on it, i.e. someone uses your stolen passport, but the making distribution and sale of a forged passport is highly illegal.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

A is for answers

We have completed another season so congratulation! The episode seemed more like a reunion then a finale, the Liars finally get a long conversation with Ali plus we get to see a hand full of characters we haven’t seen in a while (Noel Kohn, Ali, Melissa, Ian, CeCe, did I get them all?)

We were told that we would get answers but as I wrote last week since there is another season there will not be any real answers. We still don’t know 1) who A is 2) who hit Ali with the rock and 3) who is in Ali’s grave? We do get some interesting info but nothing that will help us figure out the important questions which will keep Ali with the Liars in Rosewood.

What we did learn: Ali drugged the liars so she could figure who A is. She was not able to find A but she did rule out a bunch of people (Jenna, Ian, the Liars). Spencer did not hit Ali with the shovel. Ali’s mom saw who hit Ali with the rock and then for unknown reasons buried her daughter alive. Plus, not that it really matters it was Ali who pushed Ian from the bell tower.

There is also a weird thing with the cops interrogating the Hastings while they were searching for the Liars. Melissa has horrible timing (welcome back, let’s go to the police station) and I can’t believe that Toby went all the way to London just to have her come back. (Where is Toby, he was not even in the flash back where Ali talked to him, I guess his abs are getting to flabby for the show). Also I thought that the Hastings being the only lawyers in Rosewood would be pulling more strings and stonewalling the cops more.

After making Ezra the bad guy all season they finally redeem him. He figures out who A is, and dies in the process of saving the Liars from A, too bad he did not tell anyone else the identity of A before dying. Why didn’t they shoot A? And how was A and Ezra able to find them in New York while the cops were still looking in Philly?

In conclusion even though it was called “A is for Answers” there were barely any answers and it added even more questions. Also after making us hate Ezra all season it was sad to see him go. While I could not possible figure out why Mrs. DiLaurentis or any mother would bury their own daughter like that, the same exact thing happens to her, kArmA is a bitch.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

unbridled

I would like to thank my sister for posting this blog on her Facebook page; we did see a large increase of readership. I would also like to say “what were you thinking?!” now our parents know about it and if it’s one thing I learned from PLLs it’s that you have to keep parents out of the loop, especially when it comes to all matters of A.

This episode was meh, it felt like a space filler. Some things did happen, Jason was back, we had some flashbacks and Emily broke up with Paige but none of it seemed important. The promos for it made us think that Spencer was getting married, but she didn’t so maybe my expectations were too high. More likely though this is the calm before the storm, next week they claim that “everything will be revealed” and it will be the most shocking episode yet. We can only hope but I doubt that everything will be revealed since they already have been renewed for a fifth season.  

After rejecting Hannah’s “it doesn’t have to be a date, we could just eat at the same time sitting across from each other” Travis shows his true feelings by knocking over the Dilaurentis’ mailbox. Besides that I think Hannah’s mom had more of a role this week then Hannah. Ashley had the whole doing the bridal show and finding the new bag of close in Ali’s room; I thought she managed some properties but as she said the Dilaurentis have helped them at a time when no one else did so she helped out. Plus it was for charity so it’s a good cause.

Aria kind of got in trouble for the raiding of the mini bar last week but just blamed her friend and the issue was dropped. Her mom came back from Vienna and she was excited to see her but then flipped out on her, but they made up at the end of the show when it was revealed that Mrs. Montgomery won’t be Mrs. Montgomery for much longer (she’s engaged (to be married))! I’m not really sure why Aria couldn’t just tell her mom that Ezra was using her to write a book about Ali but she didn’t.

It took a couple of weeks but Emily finally cracked the code and was able to contact Ali. So all the Liars are headed to meet her in Philly but not before Emily breaks up with Paige. Out of all the break ups on this show this was the easiest for me, I doubt that Emily will be crying or breaking plates. I think it’s because I never felt that they were a true couple. For one thing Paige has barely been around, but more importantly Emily was still in love with Ali and Maya. It sometimes felt like she was only with Paige because they were the only two lesbians in Rosewood. Well good riddance, I never forgave Paige for holding Emily’s head under water in season one.

Spencer had the bulk of the episode. She starts warming up to Dean before he gets fired (not sure why she was not happy that he’s gone and she is free to do what she wants), Dean does get to tell her that Jason was not at rehab. She confirms that the Dilaurentis were scared of her and even suspected her of being A through not one but two flashbacks and she gets her wedding dress caught in a bear trap just to find that her corset is made of the phalanges of whoever is in Ali’s grave. Side note: is she still with Tobey? Or did he break up with her? If he did then as of right now none of the Liars have boyfriends (Travis doesn’t count, yet).

Next week is the season finally and we can pray that it will be good and give us some answers. It will at least answer the question of who walked in on the Liars at the end of this episode, maybe Ceecee but that seem too obvious. We may also find out who’s in Ali’s grave. And just maybe we’ll get the identity of A but more likely we will just rule out Mrs. Dilaurentis as A. I can’t wait till it’s over, just one more week!

Well that’s all I have to say about that.

cover for me

Before I get started on the recap I want to go over a mildly humorous story about this blog. I named the blog “PLL next day” because I would be recapping last night’s episode and thought it would be a decent name for the blog. I did not give it much thought till I googled “PPL next day” to see if my blog would be one of the search results. Boy, I was way off, the only search results that came up were things about the morning after pill, there wasn’t even a thing about PLL. So if you came to this site looking for info on the morning after pill, sorry, you won’t find it here, just recaps of PLLs.

Now to the recap!

Spencer got out of rehab into home rehab. I didn’t even know she was gone. I guess she was just there to detox, it only took her 3 day. I would think that the rehab place would want to keep her for at least 30 days but I guess they let her go since she had a counselor staying with her and her parents probably paid a lot of money.  She looks like she’s getting better and she is finally remembering what happened the night Ali went missing, too bad its that she hit Ali with a shovel. I can believe that neither Spencer nor her mom noticed Mrs. DeLaurentis   lurking around her room. The big question is what did the letter from Toby say? Based off of the promo for next week where Spencer is getting married, was the letter a proposal? Would anyone ever accept a letter proposal? We will just have to wait.

Aria had a great time at Syracuse and she lucked out not only did she meet a great guy with a guitar  but they had great weather, for anyone that’s ever been to Syracuse they know that besides a couple weeks of sunshine in the summer  the rest of the time its freezing a dreary. Enough about the weather, Aria was able to get over Ezra and visit her dad without ever seeing him. Plus it seems like her dad did not care that they emptied the entire mini bar. She had a heart to heart with mike about Mona breaking up with him and she got to read Ezra’s book that he will not  be publishing. She is by far the winner of last night’s episode, everything went her way and she is also a fast reader.  She needed an episode like this after the horrible one she had last week.

The cops think Hannah was the one who gave them Paige’s note about Ali being alive. This distracts her from getting with Travis. Will he stick around long enough to start a relationship with her? She needs someone; Caleb has been signed to another season of “Ravenswood”. Detective Hannah is at it again, she figures out that it was Paige who sent the note thanks to her handwriting analysis, what will Emily do about her girlfriend?  Hopefully more than this week where she just confronted Ezra and Mona, nothing happened to her, and we still don’t know who drove a car into her house or how her dad’s heart is doing.

The big reveal is that Ezra believes that Ali’s mom is A and now the girls think so as well.  Based off of last night’s episode alone it makes sense but based off the entire 4 seasons it doesn’t work. She was not in Rosewood for most of the time,  A was living in her basement and drilling holes in the floor, why would she do that to her own house and as detective Hannah said “she’s old, does she even know how to text?” so in a couple weeks we will find out she has a reasonable explanation for her strange behavior, like she is writing a book or more likely trying to find who killed her daughter or if she knows Ali is alive she is probably just looking for her.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

she's come undone

My sister sent me this quiz http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/which-pretty-little-liar-are-you I'm an Ezra and she's an Aria so read into that how ever you want, but I think both were accurate so with a sample size of 2 the quiz is 100% accurate.
Now on to the recap

It’s like what they say “hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn” (also a new stage play by Tyler Perry). Man, Aria went to town on Ezra’s place! Hanna should have taken her to that plate throwing place her mom took her to after Caleb left for “Ravenswood”; Aria would have had a field day there. At least Hanna talked her out of reporting Ezra to the principal (if you know of a teacher having sexual congress with a student PLEASE report it to the proper authorities immediately) but in this case it would ruin the show and in real life they are both over 25 so it’s ok.

I was surprised by many things, when did Ezra have time to write a book with a full time teaching job and full time stalking 4 girls job? And how did he get a book deal so easily? How did Aria never see any of the box loads of files he had in his apartment before? Why did he not get his locks changed? And why is Toby’s apartment bigger and nicer then Ezra’s (even before it was trashed), I guess it’s a social commentary about how little we pay teachers.

My prediction though is that Ezra was meeting with his publisher to stop the book from being published and will explain to Aria that although when he first met her it was for the book; once he got to know her he truly fell in love and that is why he is destroying the book and they will get back together. That’s why the writers did not have her tell the principal cause if he is in jail they can’t get back together.

Spencer, if Toby does not know what a cronut is and when you tell him he thinks it’s disgusting you should dump him. Although not eating cronuts could explain his ripped abs. Any way I was amazed she was able to talk to her parents out of sending her to rehab. Everyone knows that an addict will say anything to keep using. Plus we all know none of the Liars are going to college, they will stay in high school till the show is over. But if they were not sending her to rehab they should have done a “Trainspotting” detox where she is locked in her room and babies crawl on the ceiling. Well since, thanks to A’s one move this week, she is still using so it’s not too late.  Plus we found out that she hit Ali with a shovel while she was hopped up on pills.

Emily you made sending something to a PO Box so difficult. You just mail it; you could have done it at school. Also don’t send cash through the mail, it will get lost or stolen. I would think that Ali would be using Bitcoin by now. What’s with Paige, I did like that they acknowledged that it’s been a long time since the two had been together but you’d think they would want to make out or something instead of fighting.

Hanna, you saved everything this week, you kept not one but two people out of jail (Travis’ dad and Ezra) and have been a great friend! The only real question is who will be you next love interest, Travis or the detective Holbrook? You’ve kissed both. If it was up to me it would be Holbrook, you read the same books (does Hanna still read?), he has a good job that you can use to help you find Ali and protect you from A. Also is it just me or is the only time a guy wears a suit is when he’s going to court. They say next week will be shocking and will have a lot of Ali so I hope it is good.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

Free Fall

So is Ezra A or as he told Aria just writing a book or a little of both? We probably won’t find out the answer till the season finale but he sure has a lot of surveillance hardware for a true crime novel. Plus they make sure that he is extra creepy and we know he’s working with Mona and she was A. That said I still don’t think he is A.

Side note: if you were like me you were wondering what B26 (the pass code to the cabin) means, it was the song on the jukebox when Ezra and Aria met and he later titled a poem he wrote about her B26. It’s ok if you did not remember that, I didn’t. But what kind of security system was that, it looked like he taped an iPad to his wall. Anyway I wouldn’t read too much into the B26, the code probably required both letters and numbers and the others Aria tried just had letters.

Spencer, drugs are bad, if it weren’t for drugs they would believe you that “Ezra is freakin’ A”. But if it were not for drugs you would not have figured it out. So they’re good?! Either way she is kicking the habit cold turkey and that was before her mom knew about it, invited Toby over to sit in a dark room till Spencer got there and then leave once she arrived, but he did give her a “nice’ gift (scrabble square necklace, what a nerd). Spencer here are some tips, things in black & white did not really happen and screaming “I’m not crazy” always makes you look even crazier. Somehow you did come up with a plan and convinced Emily and Hanna to go along with it, Kudos.

It was nice to see Emily and Hanna team up, and it looks like Hanna is totally over Caleb and has gotten on with her life, good for her. She also got over her fear of snakes. They never explained Spencer’s plan so I’m not sure what went wrong but they did not catch Ezra, A or the person pretending to be Spencer pretending to be Ali (probably Mona, which is why she missed the movie date with Mike; why couldn’t he pause it). Even though the plan did not work Aria did find out that Ezra is not who he said he was and was using them to write his book (I hope he had a copy or saved it on a computer) she will get over this but it will take a couple weeks, they may even get back together. Look at Hanna getting over Caleb, or Spencer when she found out Toby was A. The real problem is that Ali out there without any money and no Shanna to help her, will she survive, will she contact the Liars for help, we will just have to wait till next week to find out.

The one thing that I found odd with this episode besides the fact that the zoo sign was facing into the zoo letting people who were leaving the zoo know that it was a zoo they were leaving, was the ski lift. Since when was the cabin that close to a ski slope, why was the lift in operation when there was no snow, who was working it, why did they not need a lift ticket and how did Ezra get in while the bar was being lowered? But if a go picking apart every little detail I would be here all day, plus the two of them stuck there with nowhere to go made that scene, it was a little scary but also intimate. And we never find out how they get off the lift and how Aria gets her keys back, I guess it will be a deleted scene on the DVD.

Well that is all I have to say about that.

shadow play

What a unique episode! Last night thanks to drugs Spencer took us into a "Film Noir style" world of PPL. I could tell that everyone involved in making the episode (actors, writers, costume designers...) had a lot of fun with it.  The question is did the fans like it. My guess would be no. From experience many people are put off by Black and White films, in a HD, 3D environment many people won't give a classic B&W film a chance. Maybe fans liked this one and it will open them up to viewing some classic Film Noir (the Big Sleep, Maltese Falcon or my fav Sunset Blvd) but I doubt it.

The episode lacked any purpose other than to play film noir dress up. It doesn't further the story, add any clues or revel any secretes. You could watch this whole season without this episode and not miss a thing. I also didn’t like that they went back to the 1940's they could have kept the costumes and B&W but still do it present day, it’s a drug induced vision, it doesn’t have to make sense. Since they did decide to do it in the 40's there were scenes that seemed forced just to show that they were in the past, like the whole Aria explaining the camera to Paige, everyone in the 40's knew that it would take a week to develop film; the only point to put that in was to let people today know there was a time where pictures were not instant. Also 15 cents for a cup of coffee was expensive back then.

One thing I did like was seeing Paige and Toby, we have not seen either one for a while. However I was a little confused by their roles. Paige and Emily are out and have been for a long time so why does time travel change that? It was nice to see what I think is the first ever film noir lesbian scene but the rest just came off as another “look what it was like in the past” you could not be open about your sexuality. And what was Toby a cop, P.I. or just a Bogart want to be, either way the writers were not clever enough to write a scene where he takes his shirt off.

My suggestion would be that they should have picked a specific film or couple of films to homage. I think “the Third Man” would be a good one to do, with Ali as the Orson Welles character (you can look it up to see why). For the most part I think this episode was a fail, it had the Film Noir look but was lacking the feel. I hope they enjoyed making it and more importantly will get more people interested in Classic films (although I doubt the will happen) but I think this is the last B&W episode we will see. I would like to know what drugs Spencer is on because I think it would be fun to have my own Film Noir hallucination! Can’t wait till next week where it looks like we will finally find out that Ezra is not A.

Well that is all I have to say about that.  

about me

My name is Michael and I am a 29 year old male, not the normal demographic for PLLs. So why am I writing a PLL blog? Well it all started almost a decade ago when I need a quick gift for my sister. She was in high school at the time and I had no idea what to get her. I was at Target and was looking through the books and and saw the first PLLs book and it was in my price range and thought she would like it. She did not plus she made me read it as well.

After that it became a joke between us. We would buy the next book in the series for the other's b-day. We kept doing this for a couple of years until the forth book since the story was getting weak and you find out Mona is A so we thought it would be a good place to stop. Also I don't think either of us would be able to read another PLL book. So we thought our relationship with PLLs was over but really it had just begin.

They had turned it into a TV show! Now I don't know about you but if I read a book and they turn it into a movie, TV show , or play I'm probably going to watch it, no matter how bad it might be. So even though I was not a fan of the books I decided to start watching the show and my sister did the same. We had to see what they kept and what was changed, like Emily's appearance.

My sister was away at college at the time so I would email her my thoughts on the most recent episode so we could discus and dissect each show. I thought it would only last a couple seasons but boy was I wrong, it was a huge hit and will keep going till the Liar's fifth senior year. In the time its been on the air my sister has graduated college and has moved to Israel, so I still continue to write to her each week about PLLs.

Last week I was talking to her and she mentioned that a friend of hers also watches the show, so she has been forwarding my e-mails to this friend. So I thought maybe others would like to read my incite into PLLs as well and therefor I should write a PLLs blog. Being that I am not part of the target demographic gives me a different perspective of the show. For instance there are many references to Hitchcock films that I recognize but I doubt a middle schooler would pick up on.

So that my story,

enjoy