gAme over chArles

Wow! The wait is finally over and we now know that ChArles is Cece and find out her whole story. I think this was even better than the leaked ending on reddit where Wren is ChArles.

So the episode starts with the ending and flashes back to Ali locked in Radley and her dad and brother looking dead on the floor outside her room. The Liars are still at Prom waiting for the cops. they are lead out by a red cape that ends up being Mona. they go to the Cabrini group or whatever it is called and see utility workers loading duffel bags into the back of a van, we never find out what that was about. They sneak in and after a couple failed tries Sara gives them the date of September 7th and they are able to get into ChArles control center, it kind of looks like something out a "2001: A Space Odyssey". Sara does not go in the the Liars are locked in watching a live feed of Ali on a hologram screen. 

Cece explains to Ali, her dad and n=brother who are drugged but can still hear everything, and the Liars watching on the hologram her whole story. As a child he loved baby Ali because it was having a living doll to play with. They then showed the flashback where ChArles puts baby Ali in the tub and Mr. D saves her. He was already upset with his son wanting to wear girls clothes so that was the straw the broke the camel's back and ChArles was sent to Radley. Mrs. D would visit and bring him dresses and stuff. He was friends with Bethany till one night Toby's mom came up and Bethany flipped out pushed her off the roof and blamed ChArles for it. Everyone believed Bethany that it was ChArles and Mrs. D covered it up to protect her son, the the official record said it was a suicide.

They then had a funeral for ChArles and he became a she called ChArlot. She was doing well and was even allowed to attend University of Pennsylvania. She already knew everything they were teaching so she went to Rosewood and meet Jason there and said her name was Cece. They started dating, and spent that summer at the cape as Jason's girlfriend and got close with Ali that summer. 

Cece knew that Bethany was going to kill Mrs. D so she had to stop her. But she ended up knocking out Ali instead. Mrs D thinking Ali is dead buried her as we already knew and paid Wildon to claim that both he and Cece were out of town that night and bring her back to Radley for good. Mona at this point admits to the Liars that she killed Bethany thinking that it was Ali.

Once Mona was in Radley Cece would visit her while she, Mona, was drugged up and find out all about the Liars and found out that Ali was actually alive. Cece new the only way to lore Ali out in the open was to put the Liars lives in danger, this was when the cabin got burned down; her plan did not work, however we do find out that it was Sara who was redcoat that night, she was also the black widow at Wilden's funeral. Emily is super upset and rightfully so.

The Liars have had enough and breakout of the control room, Mona stays, and they head over to Radley and disable the bomb Cece and Sara had to blow up Radley. Emily also gets to punch Sara square in the jaw. They follow Cece to the roof and even after all the horrible things she had put them through they talk her down, now that they understand her reasons behind doing it.

They then all go to separate colleges and there is a flash forward Five years, Ali looks like she is teaching at Rosewood when the other liars run in and state that he is back! The end.

side notes

• I think the mothers are still locked in the basement from last week
• it's great that they lept forward 5 years now the 30 year old actors will be playing 23 year olds instead of 18
• was Ali writing her name on the board as Mrs Rossum?
• it was nice that they cleared Rhys of any wrong doing
• we still don't know who killed Mrs D
• do you think that Hanna's mom is married to rev ted yet?

well that is all I have to say about that

lAst dAnce

Just like last week, this weeks episode was just set up for next week, which is the mid season summer finale. This week is the senior prom, but unlike most high school seniors, who only have to worry about getting pregnant or an STD on prom night the Liars have much more to worry about.

The Episode starts out with the mothers telling the Liars that the school board had banned them from the prom but they will hang out in their prom dresses in the Hasting's barn. At first they are quite pissed, but quickly come around.

The moms get drunk in the house while the liars are in the barn. Spencer's mom spills the beans that her husband is Jason's father and reminds everyone that Ali's mom was buried in her backyard. They sneak into the DiLaurentis house, find the pick of ChArles as a kid, Rhyse from last week walks in on them, and they get locked in the basement.

The Liars Have their "prom" in the barn but follow Ali to the real prom where she is trying to meet ChArles. It is quite an elaborate prom, you can't even tell that earlier that day they had basketball practice there. Any way, the Liars loose Ali, she is taken by ChArles and his face is revealed to her, but we won't see who he is till next week.

Other important things that happened were Toby and Laurenzo being indefinitely suspended from the force. Aria winning the Photo contest and therefor going to LA for an internship. Clark being an undercover cop. Ezra going to thailand for habitat for humanity. Caleb getting a job in NYC. Lastly, Sara ditched her own prom to go to Emily.

side notes

• at least we found out who won the photo contest
• where are the dads?
• how did Toby not know that Clark was a fellow cop
• how did they not get kicked out of the prom once they stuck in?
• FYI the DiLaurentis drink the best scotch GlenCallan and even have the 30yr

well that is all i have to say about that

frAmed

This was just a set up episode. Nothing really happened, it was just preparing us for next week. All this episode did was remind us of prom coming up, make us suspect Clark, and was the return of Redcoat. However that is still nothing cause we knew prom was coming, they have been in high school for ever it had to come eventually; Clark is obviously not involved with ChArles, too much evidence pointing his way; and who care about Redcoat.

Was Emily even in this episode? How about Spencer? Neither had their own story lines they just help other Liars. Spencer help Hanna with returning the scholarship and finding out more about the charity it came from. And Emily helped Aria pick out a dress. She also talked about taking Sara to the Prom. Sara was not in this episode.

Ali had a bigger role. Her dad is spilling the beans to Tanner. She is getting Cozy with Lorenzo and even made him soup. When he drugs himself she takes his key card and sneaks into the police station to see what they know about ChArles since her dad won't tell her anything. Tanner catches her there and tells her the same thing that Hanna has been saying, the dude is dangerous and she should stay away. However Ali wants to get to know him better since he is her brother. I feel right know Ali likes ChArles better than her other brother Jason, who never tried to kill anyone, did not kidnap her friends and is not the number one suspect for the murder of her mother.

Hanna as we mentioned returns her scholarship, 1) because she believes it is from ChArles so she does not want it and 2) she wants more info on the mysterious company that gave it to her. She goes with Spencer and meets with a guy Rhys Mathis who looks like a DeLaurentis. He does not give much info and will not let them find anything out about his boss. 

The main story was Aria. Her Photos made it to the finales and were going to be displayed in a gallery where they would announce who won the prestigious internship. Her mother did not want her going but after a talk with Ezra, and Tanner supplying cops and assurance that nothing would happen she is allowed to go. While picking out what to wear Aria and Emily talk about prom, they are both really excited, even though the school board does not want to let them go.  This was just set up for next week especially since this is a totally different Aria from the one who after the art show would tells Ezra that she always feels cold ever since she woke up on that steel table. Anyway the art show is going great, everyone is there, Aria even asks Ezra to prom, he says no. Clark has no friends or family there. When they display the Photos, Aria's have been replaced with ChArles photos of the Liars from his Dollhouse. The show is shut down as it is now a crime scene. We never do find out who won the internship.

The other liars follow Rhys to the abandoned doll factory and then see Clark go in. That is too much for them and they leave and tell Aria about it. also Aria's mom has had enough and talks to Hanna's mom about what to do since the cops are not doing enough.

Side Notes

• where was Toby? still trippin? you think he'll get fired?
• is Hanna's mom still getting Married?
• Ezra doing habitat for humanity? no way he has the "brew" to run
• that whole room of dedicated to Charles that was at the police station had nothing we or anyone did not already know
• with prom coming up they will be out of high school in no time

well that is all i have to say about that

o brother where Art thou

So they finally named an episode after a coen brothers film. I may be reading too much into this but that film is a retelling of the Odyssey, a story about a man presumed dead trying to get back home. Just like ChArles.

Hanna's mom has great news, no she is not getting married, hanna got a scholarship! She can now go to college! To bad she has to research where the money is from, turns out it is linked to the DiLaurentis.

Emily bumps into Clair, Sara's old friend, remember her, me neither. Anyway she is trying to get back in touch with Sara . Emily sets up a play date for all three of them. Sara then decides to leave Emily's and stay with Clair. She says now they can go on real dates and kiss again.

Aria has a heart to heart with Mike (haven't seen him in a while) and finds out that Mona is not talking to him,. She assures him that she had nothing to do with that. Talking about Mona she set up meeting with Lesli but Lesli is a no show, but Mona is positive that if Lesli knew anything about ChArles she would of told her. Aria gets rid of all the dolls she has been photographing. Mike give them to Mona. in the end Aria gets into that art thing she applied for.

Toby is back from so police convention or something, they didn't even mention if it was in harrisburg or somewhere else. Spencer is happy he is back and decides to come clean about ChArles to him. after watching a couple youtube.com videos she convices the Liars that they should remove their tracking chips and they do. She also does not see the barista at the brew slip some pot candy in her bag. Toby takes them not realizing that they have pot in them.

The big story  is what I mentioned earlier that ChArles is coming home, for his birthday. Ali's dad is scared and takes ALi with him out of town. Jason on the other hand wants to see his long lost Brother. The Liars set a tracking device on Jason's car, Toby follows him to an arcade. When the Liars have not heard from Toby they go as well. ChArles does show up but since Toby is high as kite he gets away. Jason explains to Ali that he wants to see ChArles since all the memories he had he was convinced by his parents that they were made up. they then go to the attic where a home movie is playing. It shows them as kids at the arcade celebrating a birthday. They both remember it and being told it was some cousin or something but both realize it was ChArles.
well that is all i have to say about that

no stone unturned

So you probably heard that someone leaked all these spoilers on Reddit. As I see it they are all just rumors for now  and they all seem crazy and plausible since the writer have done some crazy twists in the past and will in the future. More importantly PLL was referenced in in the newest issue of MAD magazine, it is in my favorite column "Planet Tad". "Planet Tad" is a blog by the most hilarious kid Tad (there are also two books). His post about PLL was not that funny but I wanted to share it with you anyway

well here is the recap

Last episode convinced everyone that that Lesli was A/Charles, this episode undid all of that. After Hanna “borrows” Lesli’s car and Spencer and her find cages and make a copy of her key card found in the car. The Liars sans Emily look in Lesli’s lab for evidence. Mona shows up gets the animals back in the cage and explains that Lesli can’t be A/Charles and that Charles is still alive, the organ donation is made up. They also discover that they have been chipped, they should probably take the chips as  evidence to the police.

Aria is still pushing Clark away but ends up hanging out with him at the junkyard again, I guess it’s “their place”. She also is thinking of getting back together with Ezra till she sees him having a great time with Emily’s friend from the Costa Rica trip.

That girl is in Rosewood to get the band back together for a Thailand tour so to speak. She wants to get Emily and the rest of the Costa Rica crew to do the same stuff in Thailand this summer. First Emily says no then yes then no again. A lot of that switching had to do with Sara, Emily feels that she needs to stay with Sara and Sara can’t go to Thailand. They don’t mention it but I doubt she has a passport. Also Emily and Sara finally kiss.  Sara also go hit by a car, she’s ok, which she identified as Lesli’s car but by the end of the episode Lesli is no longer a suspect and we have no Idea who hit her, I guess A/Charles drives a similar car to Lesli.

Spencer is dealing with having to make a speech at graduation about the Liars experience in the “dollhouse”. She is still not sleeping but is no longer on drugs. Dean her drug coach gives her some brownies and a book, but when she misses a NA meeting he tells her that he can no longer see her because he just wants to kiss her or something like that that sounded romantic but made no sense. When she goes to the next meeting he is nowhere to be seen, kind of like Toby this episode. Also after talking to Sara it seems like she will do the speech at graduation. Also Melissa is still in London and petitioning to get Spencer to give the speech.

Hanna is still feeling smothered by Caleb. He wants to protect and help her and does try to give her space but she still feels smothered. After he has a talk with her mom everything is fixed. He walks in and just kisses her and they are now back to their old #Haleb.

Ali’s dad gets a birthday card left on his windshield and freaks out.  At the end of the episode he is digging up Charles’ grave because the card is from Charles and it states that he is coming back for his Birthday.

Side notes

·         Caleb is right no one should know how Kimye  is

·         Where was Ali and Lorenzo?

·         Is Hanna’s mom still engaged to be married?

·         We still have not seen Emily’s tattoo

·         What are they going to do about the chips in their necks?

Well that is all I have to say about that

she's no Angel

So I think we can all agree that the best part of the episode was when Hanna compared Lesli’s mood swings to the “captain hook ride at Hershey Park”. Now it’s just called the pirate ship ride but I’ll let it go since she did mention Hershey Park by name. If you do visit Hershey Park this summer stop by CPKM and tell them I sent you and you will get free refills on your soda! Now to business.

A lot of people returning this week. Well only three, Mona, Lesli and the drug coach guy. Mona is back from the spa and is worried about everything but top on the list is legal ramifications of faking her death. Hanna decides to help her out but Lesli is not as forgiving, we have not seen Lesli since the trial.

Emily is busy helping Sara get emancipated, even though she will be 18 in two months; they feel that is too long. They get Caleb to help since he emancipated himself and knows the ropes. We find out that he has a web design company and is doing well enough to hire Sara as a minimum wage employee. She puts in the paperwork and everything looks good so Sara and Emily get tattoos. Sara of a bird flying out of a cage to symbolize her new freedom and Emily getting an Asian character  she is told is the Japanese symbol for courage (I don’t read Japanese so I don’t know what it says or even if it is Japanese at all). Now you have to be 18 or have your parents’ permission to get a tattoo so I guess Sara’s pending emancipation was enough but how did Emily get her’s? Maybe since she is played by an actor who is almost 30 the tattoo artist thought she looked old and did not ID her.

Ali is spending all her time at home and church. That is going to change thanks to Lorenzo. The two of them are getting close and Ali’s dad is not happy about it, but he is never happy. Ali is also upset by the comments of the cops who are there to protect her, Lorenzo get that cop switched out and get a kiss from Ali. With two liars dating cops it’s only a matter of time before Emily is dating Tanner (she was a lesbian on nip/tuck).

Aria is hanging out with Clark, the photo guy from last week. They go to a junkyard, it looks more like the storage place for a funhouse, to take some pics for a contest. Clark is into Aria but she is not into him. Not because he’s black but because she has gone through a lot and we still don’t know what’s going on between her and Ezra. While there Clark gets a photo of someone in a black hoodie. It’s not that clear but Aria is convinced that it is A and that A is a girl.

Spencer has a nightmare of a scary girl doing and interpretive dance in a scary room, she thinks was in the dollhouse but it was at Radley. Thanks to the pot cookies she can sleep but it gives her nightmares. She goes to a “meeting” to get some munchies, ends up seeing her old drug coach (as mentioned earlier) and she quite cold turkey she is now drug free! You go girl! Once drug free she and Hanna break into Radley to find evidence that they were not able to get last week at place they were storing Radley’s records. They find the room from her nightmare and in there they find Charles’s file containing his organ transport convincing them he is dead. They also find Mona there, she was going to be their tour guide, but was on her own looking and found Lesli’s file. That was the big new, Lesli was not only a patient at Radley she was Bethany’s roommate and was there at the same time as Charles.

With the knowledge of Lesli’s time at Radley and Clark’s pic that A is a girl the Liars are convinced that Lesli is A. They hatch a plan to catch her in the act but we will have to wait two weeks (not sure why there is no episode airing next week) to see the plan fail; you know it won’t work, 1) Lesli can’t be A it to obvious and 2) the season has just started there are too many episodes left to find and catch A.

Side notes

·         It’s good to see Mona but I could do without Lesli and drug coach

·         What happened to Andrew?

·         So all of the records from Radley were moved except for the one’s they needed that somehow got left there

·         Radley should have digitalized there records years ago, then Caleb could just hack in whenever they needed info

·         We never see Emily’s finished tattoo, maybe she was given something different then what she asked for like a message from A, a permanent message

·         So Spencer will be valedictorian? That should upset both Mona and Andrew; and everyone else who actually attended classes

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

don't look now

This episode was a little better, not much. We find out more about Charles and what happened to Aria and Spencer in the dollhouse, but nothing really happens.

Ali’s dad finally spills the beans about Charles.  He is her brother, 15 months older than Jason. He, for political correctness, had issues and after an incident where he almost burned/drown baby Ali he was sent to Radley. He lived there the rest of his life till he committed suicide and his ashes scattered at the lake, or at least that’s what they are told, most of the liars believe he is still alive. They also sneak into a warehouse and get his Radley file which does not have much info but lead them to Ali’s aunt who is dead. It reminds Jason of when he went up to said aunt’s house and his mom kept making excuses for him to leave and he thinks he heard someone else there; could it have been Charles or was his mom just having an affair? They go check out the house and find an old headstone labeled Charles, this is enough to convince Ali and Jason that Charles is dead, but Hanna still believed he is alive.

Speaking of Hanna, she is feeling smothered by Caleb. He is around her 24/7 and even places a GPS tracker on her car. He just wants to protect her but she needs her space. Although he does not freak out as much as Aria’s dad. Hanna also is seeing Dr. Sullivan though we don’t see the sessions.

Now that Andrew is out Tanner wants to talk to the Liars. Aria’s dad tells her that they need some more time first. He is very worried about Aria and wants to be with her all the time and know where she is when he cannot. Aria just wants to move on and forget about the dollhouse. She finally goes to develop the pictures she has been taking for the last 3 episodes. She gets locked in the darkroom by A, there is note and all. While there she has flashbacks where Charles/A made her his doll and cut her hair and forced her to dye it herself. She is let out by a nice young man who is in the running for new boyfriend since we are not sure what’s going on wither and Ezra. In the end she finally opens up a little to her dad about the dollhouse.

Emily’s mom has her go to therapy with Dr. Sullivan which we do not see. She seems more concerned about Sara then herself. Sara runs away but comes back, her mom seems like the worst. Emily and Sara are bonding and Emily takes her swimming and she can finally forget about her troubles. It looks like there will be a romance between the two of them.

Spencer is having the most trouble readjusting. She keeps having flashbacks of her waking up covered in blood but not knowing where it is from or how it got there. This is preventing her from sleeping and her mom got rid of her prescribed drugs. She first tries to get the pills that Aria threw out but they are mixed in with too much trash. So plan B is to score some weed from the new baker at the Brew, which is successful, but results in Ezra telling her it won’t fix the underlying issues. I just don’t get why she does not have a doctor get her more pills. FYI they mention medicinal marijuana but as of now it does not exist in Pennsylvania, there is currently a bill in the works but I doubt it would help Spencer even if it does get passed because it is very restrictive.  Also does she not know anyone at school that could hook her up, she has to ask a stranger? Odd.

Side notes

·         The whole, brother with disabilities put into an institution because of almost burning/ drowning baby sibling and then not speaking of said brother is the plot of “Rainman” starring Dustin Hoffman and Thomas Cruise

·         Caleb mentions Hanna’s mom a couple times but we don’t see her, maybe she is busy with her wedding plans

·         What’s with Aria’s parents? Do they have joint custody of the house? Where do they live when the other is using the house and do they use the same bed or have separate ones?

·         Charles/A has trackers on all the liars

·         What’s Andrew up to?

·         Where is Mona?

·         How about Toby?

·         The cops have a whole underground bunker and still can’t find out who did it, how ridiculous

 

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

songs of experience

I would first like to thank my sister for filling in last week while I was in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Now I was still a little jet lagged and falling asleep while watching this episode so I may have missed some stuff, but not much seemed to happen. It was very similar to last week where they are all still readjusting to life outside the dollhouse.

Sara Harvey is still at Emily’s house and does not believe that Andrew is Charles/A, which we knew. She also has a horrible relationship with her mom and helps Emily get a new perspective on her own situation.

Hanna is still redoing her room and wants all the Liars to go to group therapy with their old therapist Dr. Sullivan. They all go there but they get a video call of A going to kill Sara if they do it so they all leave and see that Sara is fine.

Spencer is still pushing to see who Charles is. In the end we find out that Ali’s dad made Jason get rid of Charlie, his imaginary friend. Obviously, Charlie was not imaginary but when he was gone Jason’s dad convinced him that he was imaginary to cover whatever up. But there was still a photo in a jar of buttons.

Aria is still on this photo kick and will not write about her experience no matter how much Ezra pushes her. However the two of them work together and find out that Andrew is adopted, which they believe means that he could have been born Charles. Andrew is released from jail and the charges are dropped.

Lorenzo, Toby’s new partner is still after Ali. This time he wants her to coach girls’ soccer after seeing her do one kick in platform shoes. Ali does not think that parents want her coaching their kids and she is probably right.

Side notes

·         Did Hanna’s mom get married while they were in the dollhouse or is that latter this season?

·         I think that Emily and Sara may hookup

·         Are Aria and Ezra back together?

·         The Liars graduate in a few weeks, with honors, what happens after that?

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

Songs of innocence

This week Michael was in Jordan so I (his sister, Traci) took it upon myself to fill his shoes. Well let's just say that this episode was terrible (and not just because there was no mention of Harrisburg). I had really been impressed lately with PLL. The episodes during the kidnapping were exciting and fast paced. I guess those girls should have stayed in that house forever just to keep the show more interesting but oh well.

The girls are all back safe with their families and struggling with their readjustment to regular life. Noticeably missing is Mona. One might think after they all went through that together it wouldn't be so easy to forget her, but apparently it was. 

The girls agree not to tell the police about Charles and to just let them go after Andrew (who they believe is Charles/A) and figure it out on their own. This makes it obvious that Andrew isn't actually guilty (probably framed) and Charles is still out there because they need two more seasons of material. 

All of the girls are struggling in their own way. Hannah feels the need to change her room, Aria wants it to be over so badly that she's willing to lie to the police, Emily takes out her frustrations at the shooting range against the wishes of her mother, and Spencer steals pills after her mother won't allow her to get the anxiety meds from the hospital.

Also noticeable was the fact that the girls' mothers were the only parents present in this episode. You would think after their daughters had been kidnapped the fathers would want to see them too. Only Emily's dad had a real excuse and they used that as an opportunity to show Emily's longing for her father which seemed like foreshadowing when Emily might join the Army. 

Lastly, now Alli is back in town as a free woman so she obviously needs a man too. Welcome Lorenzo, Toby's new partner! They meet in an awkward interaction between Alli and Toby and then see each other again at Church because obviously no one can be single in this show for an entire episode. 

Anyway, I hope Mona is okay! 

gAme on, chArles

I will be keeping this short cause I am on my way to my sisters wedding. Also the next two weeks the post will probably be a little late, deal with it.
We are finally back and start  right where we left off, with the liars trapped in Charles' "dollhouse". After leaving them outside for days they break and are forced to start setting up for Ali's arrival. They also don't see Mona who is put at the bottom of a well, maybe an homage to "silence of the lambs" ("it put the lotion on the skin, or else it gets the hose again")
In the three weeks that the liars have been held in the "dollhouse" Ali has had her sentence overturned since they know that Mona is alive, therefore she could not of killed her. Also Andrew is missing so the cops think that he is the one who kidnaped the liars. So Ali, with the help of Caleb, Ezra, and even Toby hatch a plan to lose the cops and find A/Andrew themselves. It entails a classic, "the call is coming from inside the house!" and a "psycho"esque rocking chair scene.
As Charles gets Ali close to the "dollhouse" the liars have had enough and start to burn down the place. Ali and the boyfriends see the smoke and the liars escape. But so does Charles, but they also find out that there was someone else down there, Sarah, the girl that went missing the same day that Ali did.
well I have to go so that is it for now

welcome to the dollhouse

I’ll say it. “I liked this episode”. It was pretty good. It brought back the show to its roots where A controlled the Liars, it had a major twist (Mona is alive), and a big revel who A is. Now we just need to know who Charles is. Well, let’s get to the recap.

We start off with the Liars being taken to jail in the back of a transport vehicle. Hanna assures the rest that prison is the worst, and spencer reassures them that it will be ok because no matter what they have each other. Boom, they are in an accident and A kidnaps them.

They each wake up separately in what appears to be their own bedroom but everything is slightly off. They are locked in a prison/dollhouse/nightmare. The doors open and they are instructed over the PA system to go down the hall, there is someone else there, it looks like Ali but its, surprise, Mona. Mona has been there since her “murder” and A has forced her to become Ali. A has them play “mystery date” and invites them to senior prom but the Liars act up and A turns on an ear bleeding siren that does not stop until they each go back to their cell.

At night we find out that Mona does know that she is Mona and not Ali, she just needs to play along. Also the power goes out each night, but there is not enough time to escape before it goes back on.

A has the Liars put on the senior prom and assigns each of them to a committee.  Spencer tells A that they need better decorations and when A supplies said decorations, Spencer uses them to MacGyver a device that will blow the power so they can escape. She also figures out that A has a name, Charles.

At prom they get Charles to come out of the shadows and they set off the device, it works and they are able to escape at least from the prom. Spencer sees an old home movie at an apple orchard of Charles, Ali’s mom, another boy Charles age and baby girl. I’m going to guess that Charles is Ali’s brother; Ali is the baby in the video and the other boy is Jason. It could even be that Charles and Jason are twins meaning that Charles is Spencer’s half-brother. Anyway, they are able to get outside but there is an electric fence preventing them from going any further and woods for miles and miles so no one to help them.

While this is going on the boyfriends are trying to save them. Toby is even helping and talks to Spencer’s parents about it. Tanner is not helpful and thinks that they are planning something big. Caleb hacks into a bunch of stuff and after he is taken into custody and the Hastings (the only lawyers in town) represents him, he is able to locate the transport vehicle. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Hastings now know about A, have called Melissa about, have talked to Ali about it and are helping the boyfriends.

The transport vehicle is at an abandoned apple orchard, where the Hasting use to take the girls, and the same one from Charles’ movie. The cops fan out searching and Toby finds something, it’s A’s lair.  They are able to get video of the Liars being held but there is no one to be found. As mentioned earlier the Liars are in the middle of nowhere, trapped by A/Charles stuck until next season.

·        What was with the gasmask? Will it come up next season

·        Andrew was listening to the Hastings call, why, is he working for Charles/A

·        There were no bathrooms in the prison/dollhouse

·        Now that they know Mona is alive they will have to release Ali and give her a huge settlement

·        I hope all of next season takes place in the prison/dollhouse

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

i'm A good girl, i Am

The best part of the episode was the cold opening and it didn’t even mention Harrisburg. It had Perd Hapley from “Parks and Rec” and he interviewed Sara Shepard (the author of the PLL series) playing Sara Shepard a legal expert. They discussed Ali’s case and it was awesome, I loved it. Well let’s get to the recap.

We start off with the surprise witness, Leslie. Remember Leslie? Mona’s friend that no one knew about. Well she has a card from Mona implicating that Ali threatened to kill her and stated that all of Ali’s friends, especially Hanna, and Mona’s boyfriend Mike, practically stalked and attacked her. This did not look good for the Liars so they went looking for anything that could help them.

They believe that someone may have seen Ali at the playground thereby giving her an alibi. With a trip to the playground and a brief encounter in school, Spencer and Emily amazingly find the person that was at the playground with Ali. Her name is Kendra and she even agrees (after some help from Aria’s mom) to cooperate even though it would be self-incriminating since she was coming down from the drug speed at the time. Ali’s lawyer decides not to use her cause of the whole on drugs thing. So this was all just pointless.

While all this is going on Aria is freaking out about Mike testifying. Even though he is Ali’s best hope, Aria believes that A will come after Mike and the rest of them if he does and A sent them a tongue to that effect. She decides to send him with Ezra to Ezra’s cabin in the Poconos. When they get there Caleb is waiting to bring Mike back and Mike wants to go back but before they do he drives off. When they go after him they are shot at with arrows (remember that because we will talk about it later) and Mike is blinded, beat up and tied to a tether pole. When they report it to Tanner she doesn’t care and says they should have reported where it happened.

On the boyfriend front, Caleb is the best, visiting Hanna and trying to help her by getting Mike. Aria is still kind of in-between Ezra and Andrew, she’s not quite over Ezra and not totally into Andrew, plus they keep making Andrew shady, trying to trick us into thinking that he is A.   We finally get to see Toby when he bumps into Spencer; they have a talk where she admits what happened in London and by the end of the episode Toby is going to tell Tanner that if she has a problem with him dating Spencer then she will have to fire him. However before he can tell Tanner that there is all this new evidence and she is too busy to talk to him.

At the trial, Ali’s lawyer shows that Ali broke her arm when she was two and it never healed right so her arm is super weak making it impossible for her to kill Mona. It looks like she will get off until the prosecution shows that Ali won an archery contest in camp. She is found guilty and the other Liars are arrested as well for some reason (probably the new evidence that Tanner got). Ali also admits to her lawyer that she rigged the archery contest with her roommate. I told you we would get back to the arrows. It is no coincidence that Mike, Ezra and Caleb had arrows shot at them the same episode we find out about Ali winning an archery contest in camp. Could it be that A is a fellow camper that would have won the contest if Ali didn’t cheat and is bent on revenge?

I was and wasn’t surprised that they found Ali guilty. I wasn’t because this is PLL and A controls everything so there was no way she would get off. It was just there was no physical evidence; there was no body, no evidence that Ali was at the scene of the crime, it was Hanna’s blood found on Mona’s clothes. Everything else is circumstantial and they might have been able to get a manslaughter charge but first degree without any physical evidence is imposable, unless you are A.

·        They kept calling Mike “just a kid” since he is 16 but the liars are only 17/18 (even though they are played by actors in their late 20s and early 30s) so how much of a kid could Mike be?

·        I still don’t get why Ali and Hanna injured themselves

·        It looked like Ali figured out Mona’s notecard from last week but her lawyer took it away before we could find out what it said

·        I know I have been saying that this would be the final but there is one more episode

·        Was it juice or sauce?

·        One more episode this time for real

·        I’m glad Perd still has work

Well that is all I have to say about that

the melody lingers on

Yah, Mike’s in Harrisburg! And even the liars are happy about that. It was by far the best part of the episode. So let’s discuss the rest of the episode.

Ali’s trail has begun and it is the centerpiece of the episode. We have only seen the prosecution at work, first on opening statements and then examining Jason as a witness. In the opening remarks the prosecution states that Ali’s kidnaping story is just that a story and that Mona knew so Ali killed her. This freaks out the liars. In questioning Jason since he changed his view that Ali is no longer the murder the prosecution turns on him and exposes his affair with Ashley and portrays it that she had him change his mind to protect Hanna.

Still locked up in jail there is nothing Hanna can do. She does find out from Ali that the ads and the number in them are real, she thinks it was Mona because they stopped after she disappeared. Tim sticks with Ashley even after his congregants won’t stop calling him. And Caleb is the best boyfriend (even Spencer thinks so) for staying with Hanna even after she tells him to leave.

Spencer’s mom tells the liars to stay away from the trail. The others go and at first Spencer follows her mother’s orders. However by the second day spencer is there as well. They also get a call from the number from the ad/pizza receipt; it’s just a song Mona would play. They decide to search Mona’s room for evidence and after finding it ransacked and a note from A telling them there is nothing left, Spencer finds a cryptic note card behind a mirror. She only has one episode left to figure out what it means and save her friends. Spencer also has some conversations with Jason.

As mentioned earlier Aria goes to the trial and searches Mona’s room (Emily did the same). In addition she talked to Andrew. As opposed to previous episodes where he is a nice, caring guy, out to help her, this episode makes you think he may be A or the murderer. He starts off talking about how Mona was not the saint she was made out to be and latter explains that he did not mean “that she got what she deserved”. We also see him outside Mona’s house when the liars are leaving and there is an ice pick through the window. With all this evidence against him it could mean only one thing, he is defiantly not A.

Besides the events that I already mentioned Emily being involved with she also got a call from Ali and listened to the secrete machine and it played Mona’s song. Not much going on for Emily.

·        Only one episode left

·        Without a body it’s very difficult to prove murder

·        Hanna’s blood not Ali’s was found on Mona’s clothes, another reasonable doubt

·        I agree with Hanna if I did not see these events unfold first hand I would not believe it either

·        They still don’t know who killed Ali’s mom

·        I guess they all skip school for the trial

·        They should do an episode in Harrisburg

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

to pleA or not to pleA

Welcome back Melissa, it’s been awhile. This episode was split, two liars had a lot going on and the other two did not. So let’s get to the recap.

Ali is offered a plea deal, she would plead guilty and name her accomplice and only get 15 years, 10 with good behavior. At first she won’t do it, then she gets threatened and will, and then when she sees Hanna she changes her mind and won’t.

Mrs. Hastings knew about the deal and was worried that the accomplice Ali would name would be Spencer, which is why she had her stay in London. Spencer was having a great time; she bonded with Melissa and had a great date with Collin (Toby it doesn’t count as cheating if you’re in another country). She was thinking of even staying but all that changed when Hanna got arrested. Spencer needed to go back to help her and found out that the interview at St. Andrews was a lie to get her to stay. Now she’s pissed at Melissa again.

As we mentioned Hanna got arrested. We find out early on that she is the accomplice they want Ali to name. After some freaking out Caleb convinces her the only way to save her and the rest of the liars is to tell Tanner about A and use all the text messages as proof. However when they go to the police station A hacks into her phone and deletes all the texts, A does the same for the other liars as well. So there goes that plan. In the end she is not arrested for being an accomplice since Ali does not take the deal but rather because her blood was found on Monas clothes.

Emily and Aria went after the only lead they have, Varjak. With Ezra’s help they go after Mona’s Lawyer. It’s believed that he was not Mona’s lawyer at all but hired by someone else to say he was. They also follow him to secluded house in the woods. Only Emily gets past the gate, she sees the lawyer empty a safe and she finds a pizza receipt with Varjak’s name and phone number. While Emily is doing all the work and risking her life, Aria and Ezra finally have some time to talk. They both realize that their current situation is not working and both would be better off taking a break, they will stay close and probably get back together after Aria finishes college.

·        Only two episodes left!

·        We finally find out what’s in the barrel, kind of, bone fragments and acid. We still don’t know if it’s Mona

·        I hope Hanna gets out of jail in time for her mom’s wedding

·        What happened with Emily and the beauty pageant? Did she get the money?

·        Don’t they have other proof of A besides the texts?

 

 

So who do you think A is? I’m beginning to think that it’s Mona again. That she faked her death to frame the liars and be off the A-dar (like radar that detects A). Hey on this show anything is possible and in a fortnight (thanks Collin) we will find out.

Well that is all I have to say about that

bloody hell

On Monday PLL was mentioned on a respected show! PLL was an answer/question on Jeopardy! Technically it was about the book series not the show but this just shows what a cultural phenomenon PLL is.  For some reason none of the contestants got it right. Well let’s get to the recap.

We start with the Liars (sans Hanna) finally visiting Ali. After last week’s reveal they feel guilty and offer her an apology. Ali lets Aria know that if they can’t find A by the time of the trial she will need to get Mike in the mix since she see him as her only other option. Hanna does visit Ali later and it seems like Ali has learned her lesson from being in jail and that the two of them may have a chance of being friends again. Also visiting Ali is Spencer’s mom; she wanted to know what they talked about but ends up coaching Ali for when she plans on taking the stand. We also find out that Ali is working in laundry and it seems like she is the only prisoner in the whole place.

With Ali’s threat of turning in Mike, Aria is going full tilt to catch A. She tracks down Cyrus and with Hanna visits him in the hospital. He is in the burn ward and after putting all the protective gear except a face mask (he is highly susceptible to infection so they take all precautions with the exception of coughs and sneezes) they find out this was no accident. They also get a lead; Varjak. On the home front Aria sets off a booby-trapped bench press hurting her ankle but probably saving Mike’s life. Also after weeks of Andrew being there and Ezra not, Andrew and Aria share a kiss. FYI Andrew’s description of Deep Throat from “All the President’s Men”, making him seem like A is way off, the dude was just a shady whistleblower helping Woodward and Bernstein.

Pretty much all the stuff Hanna did we already went over. The visiting Ali in jail and Cyrus in the hospital. The only other thing is that her mom’s engagement to rev. Tim is back on. Finally, I have been asking about that for weeks. Let’s just hope they find A before the wedding cause if they don’t, A will ruin it.

Emily is still preparing for the “Glass Slipper” beauty pageant. I just realized this is nothing more than a cross promotion for the new “Cinderella” movie. That said, when she finds out how much a time commitment it is she talks to Talia about changing some shift that’s when she finds out that Talia is leaving, later she finds out that Talia and her husband split. While practicing her dancing with Talia, the head of the pageant informs them that they “strongly encourage” her to quit the pageant because of her friendship with Ali. Talia then “strongly encourages” the woman to buy Emily off, we will see if it worked.

Spencer if off across the pond to jolly old London for an Oxford interview. The interview is going swimmingly until blood starts leaking out of her purse. She totally freaks out since A put the blood there and threatens more for her return trip. After her flat mate calms her down a bit she still wants to go home right away, personally I would want to stay there; I feel that A could not do as much in London when the majority of her victims are in Rosewood. While her mom is reviewing Ali’s file she finds something that makes her want spencer to stay in London, she is only able to leave a message, hopefully Spencer gets the message before it’s too late.

·        We still don’t know what’s in the barrel

·        Ali’s file that Spencer’s mom has is labeled with an A when it should be a D, unless it’s a hint that Ali is A

·        Where’s Ezra? Harrisburg?

·        Where are the rest of the boyfriends? Caleb? Toby?

·        Can’t wait for the PLL OITNB crossover

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

pretty isn't the point

It feels good to be right. I was right about Mike and Jonny. Not that it’s that hard with this show. Well let’s get to the recap.

The Liars are super worried about Mike’s connection to A and go through his room. They find a Morse code necklace but not their vials of blood. After a few other awkward situations and having Andrew follow him, Aria confronts him. Turns out he had Mona’s blood not the liars’; It was used to stage her murder, a plan Mona worked with A on to get Ali in jail to gains A trust, to take A down (a bit confusing but it made sense when Mike explained it). It is believed that it backfired and Mona is dead now. Mike is quite sad and at the end of the episode A plants a wrench in his room.

Emily meets Eric, Talia’s husband. After a quick chat with him she realizes that Talia is playing both of them. She asks Hanna’s mom for advice (I always ask a divorced, cheats on her boyfriend, slept with a cop to get her kid out of jail woman for relationship advice) and breaks it off with Talia. She also helps Hanna dance for the talent part of the beauty pageant.

Hanna need to win the beauty pageant to pay for college, here is a link about beauty pageants helping paying for college https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDPCmmZifE8 . She even gets a coach, but instead of helping and coaching her she just tells Hanna she doesn’t have what it will take to win (but Emily does). Hanna wants to win the pageant even more when she finds out her evil stepsister Kate is in it. Turns out that was just an A trick Kate is out of town. End of story Hanna dropped out of the Pageant, but on the bright side with her dance moves she could probably strip her way through college; it’s not quite as demeaning as a beauty pageant but she will make a lot more money.

 While walking around with Jonny, Spencer sees in a gallery window the Graffiti or street art that the two of them painted last week. Upset that their work was cut up and is being sold without their permission and not getting a cut they decide to steal it. They break in thanks to Spencer’s lock picking skills and get all their paintings but while taking down the last one the alarm goes off, it’s amazing it did not go off earlier. They drive away and stop at a gas station, that when officer Toby shows up (being that there are only two cops in all of Rosewood we had a 50/50 chance it would be Toby or Tanner). He does his job and arrest Jonny, he lets Spencer go and tells her he is distancing himself from her cause Tanner is still suspicious of Spencer. She not buying it and is super upset with Toby. Her mom bails out Jonny but kicks him out of the barn (if she would have just kicked him out of the barn but not bailed him out at least he would have a warm place to sleep and three meals a day, now he’s totally homeless). However before he leaves Spencer and him share the kiss that we all new was coming from the first time we saw Jonny, but will this be the last time we see him? Doubt it.

·        Where was Ezra? Harrisburg again?

·        We still don’t know who or what is in the barrel

·        Did Rev. Tim ever get back to Hanna’s mom? Are they broken up or getting married?

·        There are only 4 episodes left!

 

Well that is all I have to say about that

out dAmned spot

Sorry for the lateness of this post I missed the show driving my mom to the airport, no biggie. This episode is just filler, a place holder, nothing important happens; I could have just skipped it. At least I got the title reference, thanks Lady Macbeth. Well let’s get to the recap.

We start out at a blood drive where three out of the four Liars give blood. They don’t let Emily because of her summer in Haiti, I’m probably reading too much into this but I connected it to the fact that they don’t let gay men donate blood. Anyway Mike is messing around in the back and after he meets with Silas A text them a pick of the vials of their blood. We then see A use some of Hanna’s blood on a piece of evidence. That is the backbone of this episode.

All the Liars are worried about Mike’s connection to A but Aria is still defending him. She is also cheating on her math test, Andrew catches her and basically black mails her into him tutoring her. With her hiatus from Ezra will Andrew be her new love interest? He is useful when they need a car to follow Mike after he withdrew $400 and also protects them from Silas. We haven’t seen Andrew since Spencer was hooked on drugs; will this be his return to the show?

While Spencer and Toby are working things out, Spencer is spending more time with Jonny. He tricks her into helping him paint some graffiti on the pretense that he was hired to do a mural.  She has a good time and they almost kiss but once she finds out the truth she is pissed. Personally I think she should have been smart enough to see through his ruse. Anyway they don’t get caught; they talk it out and make up. Spencer is also working on getting into more colleges and even contacts Melissa about helping her get in.

While the other liars are still trying to get into the schools of their choice, Hanna is finding out that she will have trouble paying for it now that she has been accepted to all her schools. The problem is her dad; even though he is out of her life he makes too much money for her to get financial aid. She goes to his office and he tells her that (evil stepsister) Kate got into Dartmouth and since he’s paying for that he can’t pay for Hanna’s college; what a jerk. Worst dad ever, but a pretty cool step dad. Hanna’s mom on the other hand has told Rev. Tim that she wants to marry him but also about Jason, she is waiting to hear back if he still wants to marry her. Hanna takes matter into her own hands and is entering a Beauty pageant for the scholarship money. We do not see Caleb at all this episode.

It seems like Emily is over Paige and having a great time with Talia. Until she finds out that Talia is married. But all is forgiven when it is explained that, they hooked up in 9^th grade, were married right after high school, he knows she’s into girls, and they are still best friends. We never meet him so we will have to take Talia’s word on all of that.

·        Hanna is the only one without a new love interest

·        Student loans are available

·        I bet Rosewood High cost close to $40k a year

·        I’ve said it before, if they’re in the barn Spencer will hook up with them

·        What happened to Mona’s friend from last week? Will we see her again?

·        We still don’t know what’s in the barrel

 

Well that is all I have to say about that