Pretty Little Liars - Episode 3.05 Recap: "The coming-out-of-the-dark party"

Source: ABC Family

The episode begins with Emily, Aria and Spencer talking as they leave one of their houses. I’m not sure whose house because I still only know bedrooms and kitchens on this show. The gist of the conversation is that Hanna is still sad over Caleb, Spencer’s neck hurts for some reason and she’s stressing over Wilden. Emily also lets it slip that they buried some things with Allison. Did we know about this already?

Suddenly, a police car and ambulance arrive at Garrett’s house, and the girls see his unconscious mother wheeled out on a gurney. Aria spots a hooded figure watching the scene from the yard, but he or she scampers off before Emily and Spencer get a look. They immediately jump to the conclusion that –A is behind Mrs. Reynolds’ illness.

The next morning, we see Aria and Fitz outside the coffee house, where she insults him by buying him not only breakfast but lunch also. He insists that she doesn’t have to worry about his financial situation and climbs in his car as Aria spots Lucas in distress.

At school, Paige seems to be avoiding Emily, but she tracks her down and invites her to the Katy Perry movie. Such shameless advertising, “Ms. Firework’s” name is mentioned about 82,737,363 more times in this episode. The former girlfriends then see Jenna walking down the hall without the aid of a cane or a seeing-eye boy toy.

Source: ABC Family

Later, Emily and Spencer decide that Lucas had something to do with the photos from ‘that night’ after getting a text from Aria telling them that he was practically beating down the door to a photography studio on the main drag of town. Before Emily leaves to take a test, Spencer tells Emily that she was snooping on her mother and found out that Garrett is being temporarily released from jail to visit his sick mother. Jenna approaches them to with invitations to her birthday party and Spencer calls her out on her new-found sight, but Jenna shrugs it off and struts away, blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” on the boombox in her head.

After school at the coffee shop, Emily’s also forced into working against her will when her manager tells her about Jenna’s party. Emily takes a pot of decaf to Jenna and Laurel Tupman, her hired photographer for the event. Emily overhears that Lucas was dismissed as her assistant for stealing supplies, and that Laurel is holding Lucas’ equipment hostage until he pays her for what he took. Then Nate busts in, guns ablaze over Garrett’s furlough. Emily shows compassion on Garrett for his dire situation, which doesn’t make him any happier.

In Emily’s bedroom, she finds it completely appropriate to change in front of Paige, as long as she’s trying on her uniform for Jenna’s party, a white button down shirt with a black tie. Enough with the lesbian clichés already. Paige announces that she’ll be attending the party also, and finds the flask from ‘that night.’ She gives Paige the flask and reveals that she’s quit drinking. Maybe instead of trying to scare kids sober by re-enacting car crashes, schools should just make them dig graves.

When Jenna and Laurel wrap up their meeting at the coffee shop, Jenna sees that Nate is still hanging out and goes over to flirt with him. I originally thought Nate was kind of sketchy, but can he really be that bad when he’s clearly oblivious to Jenna’s evil?

Source: ABC Family

At the church rummage sale, which oddly takes place at night, Hanna is grossed out and mad at her mom for making her volunteer. Did we expect anything less from the most spoiled Liar? Ashley takes a break from her pity party to flirt with the volunteer coordinator at the craft cart. Later that night, Ezria makes plans to go to an expensive dinner after Jenna’s party and Ezra gifts Aria a vintage camera. She gives him a big smooch, but clearly she’s wondering if he’s been selling dope when she’s not looking.

Elsewhere, Spencer spies on Garrett at the hospital, while relaying his every move over the phone to Emily at Jenna’s party. Spencer grows suspicious of the note Garrett writes to his mother, and continues to tail him until she runs into Wilden. He sees right through her lame excuses and scolds her for snooping, then climbs into an elevator with Garrett and stares Spencer down as the door closes.

Later that night, Jenna is the belle of the ball and Emily her indentured servant. Paige enters and chats her up, but Emily is distracted by Nate, making Paige so obviously jealous. Later, she watches Emily talk to Nate about his new crush on Jenna, and spikes her own drink with the contents of the flask. When Aria and Ezra show up at the party, Aria slips away to talk to Laurel. Aria offers to fill the assistant position, then sneaks into the kitchen, finds Laurel’s equipment and pours iced tea all over it. Ezra should take notes, he could learn something about job security from this girl.

Source: ABC Family

Later, Jenna interrupts a conversation with Nate to scream at Paige for slobbering over all the cupcakes. When Emily intervenes, Paige excuses herself to the dance floor, face first. Both Emily and Nate rush over to her and find that her head is bleeding, but the tall, athletic, Native-American-looking beauty doesn’t rip her shirt off to stop the gush. Sorry, Bella, but she already knows you think she’s “kind of beautiful.”

At the hospital, Emily and Nate wait for Paige. I really don’t understand why Nate is there if he likes Jenna so much. Hanna enters with a surprise she found at the rummage sale, Emily’s jacket from ‘that night.’ Emily confirms that it’s hers but doesn’t remember where she lost it, and wonders if Jenna had help lugging her into the car. When she leaves, Emily spots Wilden and gets worried, even though Hanna just told her that he was there. Too much pool water in your ears, big foot?

Back at the party, Ezra chases the elusive Aria for the second time and finds her in the kitchen. At this point, he’s totally pissed and accuses her of stalling on their dinner because of money. He then tells her it was to celebrate his new job. Laurel walks in to find her memory cards destroyed, and Aria volunteers to run to her studio for more. There, she finds Lucas’ bag and doesn’t notice the slasher movie shadow whizzing past in the background. She steals his negatives and scurries out, only to come face-to-face with the ex-assistant outside. Obviously, he’s grown a pair since we saw him last because he threatens Aria to give him the keys, and she looks pretty scared until Ezra comes to her rescue.

Source: ABC Family

Spencer comes to the hospital after getting a text from Emily that Wilden had left and before they finish their conversation, Garrett comes out of the elevator. Nate gets all up in his grill, creating the perfect distraction for Spencer to slip into the elevator. Spencer creeps into Mrs. Reynolds’ room and finds her hooked up to machines. She sees the flowers and opens the card, only to discover a note for his mother. She stares at her and miraculously finds a note tucked under her hospital bracelet, which reads “April Rose has the proof.”

As Aria looks through Lucas’ negatives, she talks on the phone with Emily, who researches Milizopam , the drug Paige’s doctor found in her system. She learns that it can cause memory loss when mixed with alcohol and gains that the pills weren’t meant for Paige at the party, but for her in the graveyard. Then by coincidence, Aria finds three of the pills in one of Lucas’ film cartridges.

Per usual, the star of the last scene of the night is –A and he or she digs through Maya’s purse. –A finds a vial of pills that look nothing like Milizopam, so the significance isn’t clear, but it’ll probably be important in the future.

What did you Liars at home think of the episode?

Thanks for watching, Liars! I'm the weird new kid that transferred to this school in the middle of the season, so if you'd like to read my previous reviews and recaps of PLL and other shows, feel free to visit me at WatchItRae.com. You can also check me out on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, where I post links of my reviews when they go live. Stay tuned for a recap of next week's episode, "The Remains of A."

-Rae Bradshaw