Hi everyone! I’ll be filling in and reviewing this and tomorrow night’s episode for Gavin while he’s away. First, sorry this review is so late. I’ll be honest, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to say. Honestly, this episode really didn't do much for me. It wasn’t particularly exciting and we hardly got any new information. The whole episode felt like a filler to me, which is not a good sign for only the second episode into the season. That being said, there were a lot of developments in the relationships of the show, which was nice. I just wish there had been more of an even mix of excitement, clues, and relationships.
This episode picked up right where we left off with Hanna getting a ride home from Mary Drake after escaping her kidnapper. On a side note, it kind of bothers me how nobody seems bothered by this random twin. I know the Liars don’t 100% trust her or her motives but they seem to have just accepted who she is pretty quickly. I just know that there’s something off with her and I wish they would give us clues and information faster, instead of dragging it out for forever. Anyways, Hanna gets a ride back home from Mary and now she’s back with everyone else. I thought they would have drawn this kidnapping out for a lot longer considering how long they like to drag everything else out for, but I’m also happy that Hanna is back with everyone. I think one of the few things this show still has going for it is the relationship between all the Liars. They still have a great chemistry after all this time and it would have been a shame if they threw that away in what could be their final season.
The primary focus for Hanna in this episode was getting her life back to normal and dealing with what she just went through. As if the drama of a kidnapping wasn’t enough, the writers also decided to put her through a breakup and a whole bunch of awkwardness between her, Caleb, and Spencer. Throughout the episode, we found out more information on Hanna and Jordan’s relationship and how they met, but honestly there’s something about it that feels a little bit off to me. It felt like he planned to meet her at that bar and I hope that this will be explored more in future episodes because otherwise this scene was kind of irrelevant to me (other than providing a catalyst for Hanna’s emotional breakdown outside of the bar’s new construction site). Hanna’s whole experience back in Rosewood has finally caused her to reach her breaking point and as a result, she breaks off her engagement with Jordan. I’m not that upset about this though because, like I just said, I don’t trust him and also they just never seemed right for each other. Even in a sexier, flirty scene where she meets him at his office to make up for not being around that much, they have zero chemistry. Their whole breakup was very unemotional and I felt nothing watching it. Speaking of zero chemistry, throughout the episode it seems like Spencer and Caleb’s relationship is in trouble as well. It becomes painfully clear, to Spencer even, that Caleb (at least) still has serious feelings for Hanna. Personally, I’m pretty thrilled about this because I love Hanna and Caleb. Caleb and Spencer have made no sense to me from the beginning and it seems like things are definitely starting to fall apart - which hopefully will open the door for Haleb to make a comeback!
Although I’m happy about a possible official reunion between Caleb and Hanna, I do feel bad for Spencer. I’m not the biggest Spencer fan but she doesn't deserve to be with someone who loves her second best. Despite some developments in this awkward love triangle, Spencer managed to have one of the more interesting scenes of the episode. Mary Drake confessed a pretty dark piece of her past to Spencer about how she ended up in Radley when she was younger. It seems that as a teenager, Ali’s mom, Jessica, was babysitting and she (accidentally?) killed the baby in frustration over it’s constant crying. She then called Mary for help and left her to finish watching over the baby. When the parents came home they found their child dead and Jessica pinned it on Mary, saying that the baby was alive when she left. Everyone believed Jessica and Mary got locked up. I’m not sure if I fully believe her, but it seems sincere. If it is true, I feel really bad for Mary and I feel even more justified in never liking Jessica. Hopefully soon we’ll learn even more about Mary’s past, why she has decided to come back to Rosewood, and what she’s planning.
While all of this was happening, Aria was dealing with her own relationship drama. Now that she and Ezra are kind of back together she had to dump Liam. However, things get kind of awkward when he tells her that he’s back to working on the book - so now it looks like him, Aria, and Ezra are going to be seeing a lot more of each other! In the most predictable scene of the episode, Liam sees Aria and Ezra holding hands and figures out Aria’s true motive for the breakup and Ezria’s history together. This scene is followed by an incredibly awkward writing meeting between Liam and Ezra, where Liam confronts Ezra about the age difference between the couple in the book and how it pretty much mirrors Ezria’s relationship. I’m not sure what will come from this but now that everyone knows everything and they’re all working together there are sure to be plenty more awkward scenes to come.
Emily takes it upon herself in this episode to figure out what's going on with Ali after she gets a scary call from her in the hospital, pleading for help. When Emily goes to visit her with Mary, they get thrown out by Elliott and Emily sees him and Mary having a heated conversation. We already knew that Ali was in a dangerous situation, so I guess the only new development is that now Emily and the rest of the Liars know that Elliott is shady and involved with Mary Drake in some way. I would have liked a bit more focus on this part of the episode because it actually could give us more clues and new information but hopefully this was just a slower episode because the next one is just too info-packed and crazy…at least I can hope!
I feel like all I talked about in this review was relationships but really that’s basically all that happened. Other than a bit of backstory from Mary and some creepy stuff with Elliott and Ali, it was all relationship shuffling and getting all the pieces in order. I understand that they need to set certain things up for the rest of the season but it was just a bit much to have it all crammed into one episode. The next episode does look very exciting though so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!
Be sure to watch tomorrow night’s new episode of Pretty Little Liars on Freeform at 8pm but until then, what did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
About the Author - Kate Sidwell
Kate is a 24 year old, USA based, Psychology/Public Health Researcher - but that’s just her day job! In her spare time she is an avid TV watcher (some may even say addict!!). Some of her favorite shows are Jane the Virgin, Bates Motel, The Flash, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Rookie Blue, Silicon Valley, Beauty and the Beast, Sleepy Hollow, The 100, The Mindy Project, Pretty Little Liars, Once Upon a Time, The Royals, Orphan Black…so pretty much too many to count and a huge variety! She’ll give pretty much any show a chance! She also devotes a lot of time to her tumblr (
eat-sleep-breathe-tv.tumblr.com) where you can find her reviewing and commenting on most of these shows and just generally fangirling! She’s excited to be writing for SpoilerTV on Complications, Baby Daddy, Proof, Switched at Birth, Secrets and Lies, and Minority Report!
