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