Pretty Little Liars- 4.16 "Close Encounters"- Review

Last night brought the (brief) return of Ali D. and with it, came a crack in the foundation of the liars' friendship.
Oh yeah, and Aria out-stupided herself...See? I had to make up a new word to even match the levels of WTF-ness that were going on with her character. Girl is blind, yall.

Spencer/Toby

This storyline seems to be getting juicer and less predictable by the week, much like Toby's hair.

Mr. Hastings showed up at Toby's apartment to a surprised Spencer answering the door. He was there to meet with Toby about the Radley case and told Spencer that Jason was arrested for a drunk fight. He's fallen off the wagon and is back in rehab, which is supposedly what all the secrecy between he and Mrs. D was about.

He also brought paperwork for Toby and his father to sign that will give them a monetary settlement, in exchange for them not pursuing or speaking about any further info pertaining to the death of his mother and Radley...TOTALLY not sketchy. Toby feels he has closure in knowing his mom's death wasn't a suicide and is ready to sign, and does unfortunately, before Spencer learns that Jessica D. is on the Radley Board of Trustees.


Ali/ Emily

Alison reached out to Emily through Shauna* last night and we found out their surprising connection.
Shauna lives in Georgia, next door to Ali's grandma, and the pair have been friends since they were 3. She's known Alison was alive since Mona was sent to Radley and has been helping her this whole time. After she convinces Em that she's telling the truth by recounting the Em/Alison barn scene to her, Emily agrees to meet Ali alone in an abandoned warehouse. The only conditions from Ali, are that Em doesn't tell anyone and travels alone.

CUT SCENE to Emily telling Spencer everything that just happened.

Spencer thinks Em going alone is a bad idea and that Shauna's just playing them. Emily knows better and makes Spence promise to stay away and let her handle it and while Spencer says ok, we aren't convinced at all...come on, we all know that girl isn't capable of minding her own business when there's a mystery afoot!

At the warehouse, Ali makes her grand re-appearance and tells Emily that she doesn't know who's after her and she's the only one of the girls that she knows can be trusted. We then hear some loud ass clanking and Ali runs.

Raise your hands if in that moment, you wanted to punch Spencer in the face as much as Emily obviously did? She scared Ali away before anyone got any real damn answers! I love Spencer but way to go Nancy Drew in clogs.


Aria/Ezra/Jake

Aria's made a decision. She lets Ezra know that she wants to break things off with Jake and be full-time Ezria.
Jake is just coming back to town from a competition, so Aria decides to welcome him back with what was one of the lamest break-ups I've ever witnessed. Guys...she gave him the "We can still be friends" line...I physically cringed.

The same day, Jake sees Ezra going all Hulk on some blonde woman's car and tells Aria about the incident, as well as the fact that he always thought Ezra was who she was afraid of. FINALLY! SOMEONE GETS IT!
But alas, the victory is short-lived because Aria is one of those annoying girls who has to tell her boyfriend literally everything...she tells Ezra Jake saw him and he explains that the blonde woman in the car was Maggie's lawyer. Ezra is still fighting for visitation rights with Malcolm, even though he's not biologically his son. He didn't want Aria to know because that whole situation broke them up in the first place, but Aria's really matured in a season and wants him to know she's on board with everything that he comes with...How long until she's sorry she said that?

Later that day, Jake practices his martial arts at the studio and ends up stabbed because Ezra someone put knives in his kickboxing bag because Aria someone else has a big mouth.
When you have common sense in Rosewood, you either end up severely physically injured, just dead or with a spin-off that makes no sense happening in the same universe. Pick your poison.


Odds and Ends:

- I didn't forget Hannah...she just had kind of a dull week...she made out with Travis, played pool and broke plates at a plate-breaking business.
-Something big is up with the Hastings/DiLaurentis/Radley/Toby storyline. If it wasn't clear before, the revelation that Mrs. D is on the Radley Board of Trustees DEFINITELY spells cover-up...which makes me wonder if the "fragile patient" was Alison.
-How awkward do you think that cook in the Hastings' kitchen felt during the scene with Spencer and her dad?
- What do YOU think Ali's really doing by reaching out to Emily? Genuinely asking for help or trying to break the girls apart?
- Ezra is A. This I believe. What I don't understand is how a guy that's supposedly fighting to be in the life a kid that's not his, is also the same grown man that's obsessed with an under-aged teen girl...Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, anyone?
- In this week's A scene, black hoodie stole a picture of Shauna and Ali as kids from Shauna's locker and proceeded to burn Shauna's half...sigh...if Shauna dies, this OFFICIALLY means no black person that moves to Rosewood is safe ever.

Let's have a pretty little chat below!

*Should be Shana instead of Shauna but let's face it, Shauna is a lot more phonetically sound and less tempting to pronounce wrong.

About the Author - Jasmine Alyce

Jasmine Alyce is a co-host on 3 Girls and a Podcast, alongside Fanbolt.com's Emma Loggins and Electric Sons Band Manager Christina Guererro. The show airs Thursday nights at 11pm EST.
She is also the Co-Editor/Co-Founder of entertainment website Big Girls Don't Gossip,with fellow Co-Editor/Co-Founder Alanna Bass.

Jasmine graduated from Georgia State University in 2009 with her BA in Broadcast Journalism considers herself an entertainment news/ pop culture connoisseur.