Pretty Little Liars finally went full on noir in Tuesday's episode. The visuals were certainly stunning, we got some scenes between people who we normally wouldn't we finally got a peek into the mind of Spencer Hastings, but the plot overall is still pretty much in the same place.
Before the black and white transition, Spencer, Hanna and Emily went looking for clues proving Ezra is A before they let Aria in on the theory. The three searched through Ezra's desk at school and find Ali's diary, previously stolen from them. I'm still fascinated by the fact that NONE of Spence's friends have called her out why she's back rocking her Radley-chic look, but I digress...The girls see Mona sneak into Ezra's classroom right after they leave and slither out with a stack of files.
Back home, Spencer submerges herself in studying and sleuthing, taking more pills to help her stay awake. It's due to her drugged out state that we delve into her psyche, and BAM! NOIR! I should have known even Spencer's druggy hallucinations would be classy. A Hastings through and through, that one. Everyone had their very specific roles to play, Toby taking on the role of the classic private eye, Ezra and Mona plotting together as the villains, Emily and Paige were secret lovers for the sake of the time and Aria was..you guessed it...clueless...but in black and white.
Toby found out about Spencer's growing pill dependency, signaling that she finally recognizes there is a problem there. Among calling her out for that issue, he also served as the part of her subconscious urging her to put the pieces to the Ali mystery together. Spence enlisted the help of Hanna, who was on a man-hating, phone-operating ball this episode, to help her find Ali and through their Wonder Twin powers combined, the girls tracked Ali to a club, where she was working as a performer.
The former Queen Bee wasn't happy to see her hive and with good reason...the girls were getting shot at literally seconds after they found her. Ali may be a big ball of trouble, but she definitely recognizes how accident-prone and not think-y the liars can be, and I applaud her for that. Two snaps and a hair flip girl, you're a crazy bitch, but you know your friends. The girls end up trapped between an Ezra and a hard place, and while Ali, Spencer, Hanna and Emily all call out to Aria not to let Ezra know where they are, Aria signals him over like they're on a damn landing strip. Luckily, Toby knocks him out in the nick of time and helps the girls make a break for it (minus Ali, who has gtfo'd again by now). All the while, no one has told Aria that she's sleeping with the enemy, and we all know she didn't/won't figure it out for herself.
At the end of it all, it seems that Spence's drug trip wasn't a completely beautiful waste of time. Toby's recurring message about looking at the pages of the diary finally struck a cord with her. She noticed that the diary the girls stole back was slightly altered, and since -A didn't know Spencer took pics of the original pages, our girls finally have their edge back.
Odds and Ends:
- What are Ezra and Mona up to? When she initially approached him about joining forces, he verbally punched her in the vagina, but since that initial convo something changed... what?
- How much cooler would this episode have been if the noir scenes actually happened, but as opposed to them being a dream, we simply viewed them through Spencer's drug addled haze?
- I had another scream at the tv moment guys...I'm sorry but if you're cornered with4 of your friends by your boyfriend, and ALL 4 FRIENDS are quietly pleading with you to NOT alert him to your location...WHY WOULD YOU DO IT ANYWAY ARIA? HUH? WHY!? You're even DREAM stupid, girl!
-Speaking of Aria, who's excited about seeing THIS FACE next week?
Let's have a pretty little chat below!
