Aria has always been the one to lift her finger to her mouth at the end of the title sequence, but Pretty Little Liars has changed their opening credits in the second half of season 6. Each week, a new girl gets the role of being the shusher. Almost like foreshadowing, the shusher seems to play a pivotal role in their respective episode. In this episode, that part goes to Spencer Hastings.
I’ll just say, this episode may be titled “The Gloves are On,” but pants are definitely coming off.
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Emily Wants a Summer of Answers
Ashley Marin has set up a spa day for Emily, Spencer and Hanna. The trio is lying head-to-head in bathrobes with cucumbers covering their eyes. The camera is shooting them overhead. The framing is eerily reminiscent of when they woke up in the dollhouse on the morgue table. They’re talking about Aria leaving the hotel with Ezra the night of Charlotte’s murder. Hanna tells them they don’t have anything to worry about because she got rid of the surveillance tape.
This is news to Spencer and Emily. They jump up from the tables and say they have to leave. Emily goes back for her keys. She notices someone in the adjacent room. She walks to the door and it’s everyone’s favorite Rosewood resident, Sara Harvey. Emily is immediately annoyed. How much of the conversation did Sara hear? Why is she following Emily? Sara isn’t offering up any information. I don’t feel bad for Emily; we waited five years before we were given answers.
The Missing Surveillance Footage
Lorenzo and his team are at The Radley looking over surveillance video from the night of Charlotte’s murder. He questions Ms. Marin about a 12-hour gap in the tape. She says she doesn’t know anything about that. Lorenzo lets her know that he has his IT Specialist on the case to see if the video was erased. Ashley asks Hanna if she and the girls tampered with the video. Of course, Hanna denies any involvement.
Hanna goes to Lucas’ apartment. At first, I thought she was going to ask him to hack into the police department’s system to do something about the missing surveillance footage, but instead she asks if he can be her alibi for the night of the murder. He agrees because he is still absolutely in love with Hanna. He doesn’t care if she’s being paid off to dance with him or not; he is going to stand by her side no matter what.
Hanna is later questioned by the police. She’s telling a pretty believable story about eating cheese sticks and staying up all night talking to Lucas the night Charlotte was thrown from the bell tower. Lorenzo asks if he can bring someone in with them. He brings in Lucas. Lucas does a good job of corroborating the story Hanna has told, but he gets tripped up in the details. He makes a mistake and says he left the room to get ice for his ice water. There’e a problem, though; there isn’t an ice machine on the third floor.
Rock the Vote But Don’t Rock the Boat
Melissa is back in town. She and Spencer are going to Hollis to recruit kids to register to vote. While there, Spencer is being interviewed by Damian, a reporter for the school paper. The questions seem pretty innocent at first, but it quickly becomes evident this kid has a hidden agenda. His questions shift to asking her why she and her friends are still in town. He wants to know if the police have asked them to stay because of the murder investigation. Spencer doesn’t have time for amateur hour and leaves.
It turns out Melissa is interviewed by Damian too. She catches a peek at his notes and sees the words “source, tape and cover-up.” She freaks out, thinking he knows about the tape she sent to Spencer confessing to burying Bethany. Spencer storms down to the newsroom to confront him. She finds out he’s been talking to Mona, who is working for the opposition. Mona tried to get a job working with Veronica Hastings but was turned down. Spencer had no idea. Could this be motive for Mona to kill Charlotte?
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The Truth About Emily
Pam opens up a letter from Pepperdine addressed to Emily. She tracks Emily down to confront her about it. She starts yelling at her louder than a cashier at a drugstore. Emily sees Sara sitting on a bench nearby and asks if they can just not talk about this right now.
Later, Emily and Hanna are at Aria’s house. Aria gets a FaceTime request from Liam. He says Jillian wants to see pages from Ezra’s book on her desk by tomorrow. Emily gets an alert on her phone and says she needs to leave to go meet with her mom.
Hanna is walking downstairs and sees Emily injecting herself in the bathroom. She tells Emily she saw her and asks what’s going on. Emily says that she isn’t sick; she’s poor. She dropped out of school and blew through her entire inheritance left by her dad. The only way she think she can make money is to donate her eggs. At least she isn’t dying of cancer.
Aria is a Ghostwriter
Ezra’s story is tragic and is one that needs to be told. For some reason, Aria thinks Ezra’s novel about Nicole is the greatest thing on Earth. Everyone else thinks it’s just really gross. None of the girls trust him, and he’s definitely lying about what happened “that night” — even Aria’s publisher, Jillian, thinks he’s a fraud. The liars go over to his apartment and start Steven Averying the shit out of him. He reaches his breaking point and hulks out, screaming at them to leave. Aria tells him he needs to finish his book — the world needs to know who he is. She doesn’t even know who he is. She tells him he’s “compassionate, sensitive and kind.” These are three words I would definitely not use to describe Ezra Fitz.
Ezra is in too deep of a depression to finish his book, so Aria starts writing it for him without him knowing! Liam calls to let her know that Jillian loved the pages.
Spaleb Wasn’t a Thing But Now It Is
Hanna questions Spencer over whether she has feelings for Caleb. Her silence is a loud yes! She asks if they hooked up in Madrid. Spencer adamantly denies it, saying she would never to do that to Hanna without talking to her first. Hanna encourages her to explore her feelings about Caleb to see if he feels the same way.
Spencer comes home to the barn to find Caleb waiting up for her. They’re talking over a few beers and things get very heated very fast. The most epic handholding session happens, while a killer rendition of “Ring of Fire” starts playing. Spaleb happens, right there on the couch! This scene is hot. I wasn’t sure if I was a fan of Spencer and Caleb together, but these two have some chemistry.
Meanwhile, Aria gets a text that says, “I know who did it, and I’m going to make you talk.” It’s signed by a red devil emoji. Nick Jonas is Uber ‘A’, you guys! Just kidding; that’s a different show.
Also, a new tidbit of information is revealed: Sara Harvey electrocuted herself after Emily punched her last season. That’s why she wears gloves and can’t sign her own name.
What did you guys think of the episode? Who’s the red devil? Sound off in the comments.
Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8pm on Freeform.
(Image courtesy of Freeform)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
