Hey! I absolutely forgot that I had this on me – Zoë mailed me this review ages ago. Enjoy!
Synopsis:
After Ian Thomas’s (Ryan Merriman) death and the body having been removed, “A” succeeds in making the girls look like liars. Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale), Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario), Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson) and Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) have a serious problem on their hands. Their parents all decide that maybe it is best the girls see a psychologist, Dr Anne Sullivan (Annabeth Gish). Peter Hastings chases Spencer’s boyfriend, Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) away. The girls do not want to talk. Aria and Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding), her English teacher and love, talk about his ex, Jackie Molina (Paloma Guzmán). “A” has taken something from Ezra, and soon the girls decide that they are over the whole thing of not being able to talk anyone. Lucas Gottesman (Brendan Robinson)goes to collect Caleb Rivers (Tyler Blackburn) and bring him home to make things right with Hanna, completely throwing away his opportunity to become her guy as Mona Vanderwall (Janel Parrish) promised. Hanna wants nothing to do with him. However, Hanna is beyond angry with Mona when she finds out Caleb did, in actual fact, deliver a letter for her. Mona and Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) are now dating. Emily is desperate not to move to Texas after her mother informs her that her father’s contract has been lengthened that side and he wants them to move. Melissa Hastings (Torrey DeVitto) is having a really hard time dealing with her husband’s disappearance, and refuses to believe the girls when they say that he is dead. When the girls decide to tell Dr Sullivan about some of the things about “A”, they find out that “A” really is everywhere, and leave in a hurry. Dr Sullivan then suggests to the parents that the girls stay away from each other, and their parents relent. Spencer finds a text on Melissa’s phone, and it appears that Melissa is communicating with Ian, though that should not be possible. After a test question, it appears that Ian is very much alive and well. “A” gets into Emily’s house and deletes all the videos that they had off of her laptop.
Unhappy about being separated, the girls find alternative ways to see each other. Jason DiLaurentis (Drew Van Acker) has moved back into his old house. Samara Cook (Claire Holt) and Emily start to sort of see each other, though Emily is too afraid to start something if she has an impending move to Texas hanging over her head. A scout from Danby University approaches Emily, and she tells her mother. If she can get it in writing that they are willing to give her a scholarship, they can stay. The scout cannot promise that, just a “maybe letter”. Thomas Marin (Roark Critchlow) returns to town to help Hanna out, though she has still not forgiven him for getting a new family. Ezra’s last day at school is tough, and he dedicates a passionate goodbye to Aria in class. She realizes that she is being an idiot, and runs out to meet with him in the parking lot, not caring who sees. Toby has started a new job, but keeps on getting let go because of his connection to Alison DiLaurentis’s (Sasha Pieterse) murder, though he was not involved. Ian asks Spencer a lot of questions surrounding Ian’s death. The girls are freaked out about all the evidence that they had on the videos is gone. Melissa is desperately searching for her wedding ring that she cannot seem to find anywhere, and is acting very suspiciously. She is also lying about leaving the house, so Spencer deduces that Ian cannot be very far away. Aria takes pottery classes at Hollis College to be closer to Ezra, who now works there. She is shocked to find Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) is there, too. Emily writes her own promise letter to mail to her mother about the Danby scholarship, but eventually decides that she can’t. “A” sends it anyway. Toby starts working for Jason to get enough money to buy a truck and tools to take a job in Yardley so that he can get away from his family and nasty step sister, Jenna. Spencer is sure that Ian is being housed by Jason. The girls follow Melissa, and see that she is getting medication from her ex-fiancé, Wren Kingston (Julian Morris).
Hanna gets involved with setting Lucas up with Danielle (Amanda Leighton) and gets roped into a double date with them, Caleb needs to go. She is not happy but willing to help Lucas out. Danielle thinks that Hanna still wants to be with Lucas, and Hanna goes to extreme measures to make sure Danielle changes her mind by getting very cushy with Caleb. The girls have individual therapy sessions, though none of them are willing to talk yet. Hanna goes to Dr Sullivan and “talks” to Alison, letting her know that she cannot run her life anymore. However, someone breaks into Dr Sullivan’s office and writes “Nosey Bitches Die” on her wall. Aria learns that her brother Mike (Cody Allen Christian) has been lying about his whereabouts after school, but he manipulates her into not telling their parents as he will spill about how much she is still seeing the girls. Spencer finds her sister’s ring and pawns it to get Toby the truck that he wanted, and goes back the following week to get the ring, only to find out that “A” has already picked it up. Spencer approaches Wren to speak to him about the medication, but he refuses to help track down Ian. Eventually she gets him to relent, and they will follow him when he eventually goes with Melissa to Ian. The girls all go and they end up at a remote cabin in the woods. Melissa walks in to find her husband dead, apparently looking like a suicide with a suicide letter confessing to Alison’s murder. “A” puts Ian’s cell phone in Spencer’s bag. Emily figures out that Ian’s suicide letter wasn’t real, but comprised of “A” texts. Mike is caught trying to break into Jason’s house, but he does not call the cops, just drops him with Aria. Against her better judgment, Aria does not tell her parents. Aria is upset, because she knows that he was the one that violently pushed her in Spencer’s house. Melissa starts to open up with Spencer now that it is confirmed that her husband is dead while Spencer is trying to tell Melissa that she sold her ring for Toby when Ian’s phone goes off in her bag. Melissa is convinced Spencer had been playing with her the entire time. Hanna learns more about Caleb’s doings and lack of money, and meets his foster mom, Janet (Janet Borrus), and threatens her with taking her to court if she does not start paying Caleb his money. Emily runs into Logan Reed (Tilky Montgomery Jones), who was the courier that brought the $10 000-00 the night that Ian was murdered. He never met Ian but he was hired by a woman. Spencer insists that her parents give Melissa a funeral for Ian; otherwise she will never come right. At the funeral Ezra skips out on Aria. She talks to Jason after the funeral who confides in her that he can finally rest now that he knows he did not kill Alison. He didn’t know because he was blacked out the night that everything went down, and is just relieved to know it was not him, and shows her a note that he got that says “I know what you did”. The girls end up at Alison’s grave and the rest of the video that implicated Ian in Alison’s death plays out, revealing that Alison left there unharmed.
Spencer finds out that he dad is fighting with Jessica DiLaurentis (Andrea Parker), though she has no idea why, though it is evident he is not thrilled to have Jason back on the street. The girls meet with Jessica for lunch, and she gives them Alison’s custom dresses to wear for the Rosewood Charity Fashion Show. They get ready for the show, and Mona informs Spencer that she has taken over all of Spencer’s duties. Spencer gives Noel Kahn a disc to play for Alison’s memorial, and the fashion show goes down. Just before it, Hanna had a massive fight with her father about using her to get close to her mother Ashley (Laura Leighton) – if he is still in love with her, don’t use your daughter as an excuse. Caleb attends the fashion show, though Hanna is still giving him the cold shoulder. As the girls wear out the custom high fashion dresses, the tribute melts into Alison looking like the devil, with “the bitch is dead” emblazoned on the screen. Noel claims innocence on the disgusting spectacle. Caleb walks Hanna home. Jason takes Aria home after the fashion show. Aria and Ezra are put on the spot when her parents invite him to a dinner faculty party type of thing. They are thinking about using it to show her parents how they are together as adults, but Aria is shocked to see Jason comes by, too. Ezra gets a little jealous of Jason, and wonders whether he should be worried. In the middle of the evening an officer pitches up, informing Byron Montgomery (Chad Lowe) and Ella (Holly Marie Combs) that Mike has been arrested from breaking into a house. They rush off. Pam Fields (Nia Peeples) agrees that Emily can move in with Hanna and her mother so that she can finish the school year off while she goes off to join Wayne (Eric Steinberg) in Texas. Caleb thanks Hanna for what she did for him, and just like that they are seeing each other again, though Hanna does not like Caleb doing the business he is doing. Toby finds an old hockey stick with the Hastings name on it in the backyard, which Peter Hastings takes and burns it. Spencer goes back to Garrett Reynolds (Yani Gellman) again with more questions about Alison’s murder, however, Aria realizes that he is seeing Jenna and tells Spencer to get away. Ashley and Ella are wondering if there isn’t someone threatening their girls somehow. Emily’s father arrives to see Emily for a swim meet, and Emily ends up in the hospital with an ulcer. She wants to tell her father about how she lied about Danby, but her father tells her that they don’t care whether or not she gets a scholarship from Danby, he and Pam will find a way to send her to college. Wren informs Emily that they found human growth hormones in her system, and she begs him not to tell anyone. “A” reveals that the HGH got into her system through the lotion – “A” has been injecting her cream. Spencer continually needs to tell Wren that she is off the market, though he does not seem too concerned about it at all. Aria and Spencer break into the morgue to get Alison’s case file, but learn that there is a page missing from it containing all the physical evidence of that night. Hanna’s parents get very close to each other, but the family’s little holiday comes crashing around when Tom’s fiancée, Isabel Randall (Heather Mazur) sends their wedding invite. Ashley tells him to go back to his family. Hanna notices what looks like a cop following Caleb, and is frightened that Caleb may run away again to get away from whatever is coming.
Spencer is convinced that Jason is involved with Alison’s murder more and more, whereas Jason and Aria seem to be getting a little closer. Aria is having erotic dreams featuring both Ezra and Jason. Spencer finds out that he is protective over a shed in his yard, and she and Emily break into it later to find it filled with pictures of Aria sleeping. Emily and Samara break up after Emily is forced by “A” to give one of Samara’s friends her number. Aria is trying to figure out what is up with her brother seeing as he will not communicate with anyone. Jason kisses Aria, and she tells him that she is unavailable. Jason thinks that she is afraid of him. Caleb tells Hanna the man that has been following him is not a police officer but a private detective that was hired by his mother to track him down. He doesn’t know whether to call her or not, though Hanna convinces him to do so, making her realize she needs to call her dad, too. Caleb comes to tell Hanna that he is going to California to see his mother, but that he will be back soon. Spencer and Emily return to Jason’s shed to get evidence about what he was doing, but find that the shed has been emptied. Aria is upset when she hears the news about the photographs in Jason’s shed, and they are equally as upset when they hear that she kissed him. Aria confronts Jason about the pictures, and he in turn tells her that Ali took the pictures, and that he found the reel and developed the pictures and was going to have them framed for her as a gift. Spencer sees Jason and Aria together, and runs to Ezra to get him to sort it out. Ella sees Spencer in Ezra’s car, and wonders whether there was weight to the rumours that he was seeing a student. Jason takes Aria to his house to give her the box of things he found in Alison’s room, Ezra comes up and they fix their issues with each other and Jason sees them kissing, knowing now that Aria wasn’t so much scared of him as truly unavailable. Ella tells Aria that she thinks Spencer is seeing Ezra, and Aria disagrees vehemently. Ella decides to send Mike to a therapist. Hanna meets up with Kate (Natalie Hall), her future step sister, but things end badly between them when Hanna says some regrettable things and Kate informs her that she is going to make her do what she says. Spencer is throwing out Ian’s things and finds a yearbook that says Ian was in the NAT Club. She finds out that Garrett and Jason were, too. The name means “we see all” when you find the entire Latin phrase. Spencer tells Jenna that she knows about her and Garrett, which throws Jenna off kilter a little bit. “A” freaks Emily out at a spa, and she is truly almost at breaking point. Garrett and Jenna pay Jason a visit.
The girls finally turn to Dr Sullivan and reveal a lot about “A”. The girls are slightly relieved. Hanna’s grandmother is in town for the rehearsal dinner and is very vocal that she is unhappy that Tom is getting married. Kate tricks Hanna into getting wasted who then gets sick on Isabel’s wedding gown. Tom is beyond furious, but her grandmother is aware of what happened, and is very angry. Ella and Byron are having disagreements on how to deal with Mike’s predicament. Mike opens up to Aria, and together they all start the healing process. Spencer’s father finally reveals that he altered a will for the DiLaurentis’ after the grandmother away after having cut Jason out of the will. They didn’t want him to look like the guilty party, so he did it – they also seem to have something on him that he does not want to get out there. Emily meets up with her old flame, Maya St Germain (Bianca Lawson) and they start a friendship again. Dr Sullivan starts going through her files and comes across who she knows to be “A”. She calls the girls to get them to meet her so she can reveal the identity. However, she is not there when they arrive and “A” informs them that they have Dr Sullivan. Things become complicated when “A” delivers a box to Spencer’s house – everyone has their task to set out to do. It will save Dr Sullivan. Aria has to split on Jackie trying to publish a plagiarized paper to get her out of her and Ezra’s life, Hanna has to stop the wedding, and Spencer needs to keep Toby safe. Wren shows up to see Spencer and he kisses her. They agree that it is terrible timing. They each get a doll with instructions. Aria threatens Jackie, but opens a bigger can of worms than she realizes when Jackie turns up and threatens to report Ezra if Aria doesn’t leave him. Spencer goes through the excruciating task of breaking up with Toby. Hanna tells Isabel that Tom spent a night with her mother recently, and the wedding comes to a screeching halt. The girls convene at the barn where Emily was directed by her GPS, where she is trapped and almost dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. The other girls arrive and find a shovel with coordinates on it that will lead them to Dr Sullivan, who has been buried alive. They rush to save her, and are horrified to find out that they were set up; the cops arrest them and charge them for being in possession of the murder weapon that killed Alison – the shovel. Ezra goes to see Aria, but is sent away by Ella, thinking that he is there for Spencer. Detective Darren Wilden (Bryce Johnson) is reinstated, and Jenna and Garrett gloat about the situation they have put the girls in, what with the missing evidence as well as the note they gave Jason the night Alison was murdered. Jason leaves town. “A” meets with Dr Sullivan at a diner, who seems disgusted by having been forced to have a role in what went down. Emily learns that she is not allowed to re-join the swim team.
The Halloween before Alison disappears; it is shown where the lies and secrets truly began. Jenna moves to Rosewood, and Toby is unhappy about is. Someone starts to send Alison threatening messages, and she is afraid. Aria and Alison find Byron making out with Meredith (Amanda Schull), and Aria cannot tell her mother. Alison starts to threaten the girls with their secrets to keep them together. Alison is so nasty to Lucas and Mona at school one day, and he tells Mona that she will get what is coming to her. The girls go to a party of Noel Kahn and Alison is angered to see that Jenna is not bending to her will, and their animosity becomes set in stone there. Alison works out an elaborate scheme to scare the girls. However, after all is said and done she is terrified to learn that whoever threw her around and pretended to stab her was not Noel, but someone else. There are a lot of people wearing that costume at the party, making it seem that the girls’ hypothesis that “A” is a group more than one person seems more realistic. Alison received a text from “A”, showing us that everything started happening long before she was killed. Toby tries to get close to Spencer again, though she rejects him. He cannot understand what is going on. Spencer and Emily have a very public fight, and a rift seems to form between the girls and Emily. Caleb is back in town, and sounds like he will be staying with Lucas again until the end of the year. Ezra finds out that he was dumped by Aria due to Jackie, and is furious. They decide to reveal their relationship to her parents, who predictably freak out. Mike hits Ezra, who leaves in a hurry. Mike confides in Aria that he only did it so that their father wouldn’t. Aria’s parents don’t want to hear anything that she has to say. The girls work tirelessly to fool “A” into believing there was some kind of damning evidence in the box of Alison’s that Jason gave to Aria. Their act is convincing everyone that things have changed. “A” finally sets up a meet with Emily, and the girls are all getting ready to meet up and stop “A”. Instead they all get side-tracked, what with Hanna bearing the fallout of Tom informing her that he and his family will be moving to Rosewood. Emily shows whoever “A” is that they have nothing against “A”, who subsequently violently attacks Emily. Spencer arrives at the same time Aria does, though “A” makes an escape. They chase “A” and Hanna hits them with her car. “A” gets away but they are in possession of “A’s” cellphone. “A” is truly upset about the latest development.
The girls want to give the discovered cellphone to Caleb, but Hanna point blank refuses to get him involved. However, soon he ends up with the device, and while recovering data, the owner of the phone breaks it, and they lose almost everything. Caleb continues to try and get more data off of the phone, and it upsets Hanna. Spencer and Hanna argue over Caleb’s involvement, and finally Spencer gives Hanna her parents’ lake house, where Hanna plans to throw Caleb’s birthday party, and ropes Lucas into helping her out. Emily starts the rest of her community service at a crisis hotline, and reads a transcript from the night before which definitely sounds like “A’s” lackey and what went down. She steals the transcript. Back at the crisis centre, Emily and Spencer listen in on the mystery caller calling in again, and they are sure that it is Lucas. A picture that Caleb recovered from the phone showed dolls on a cabinet, and Spencer is horrified to figure that the attic at her parents’ lake house was where the photo was taken. Lucas calls at the crisis hotline again, and Emily tells him to not do anything rash, and when she sees him at the party she says it again, letting him in on the fact that they know what he did. Hanna is still refusing to buy into the whole Lucas working with “A” thing,and goes out onto the lake in a boat, where she and Lucas have an argument. He scares her, and she hits him with the oar. After a struggle, only Hanna arrives on shore. Hanna is sure that Lucas is alive, though he cannot be found. Spencer finds proof in the attic that “A” used it as a lair at some point. Ezra cuts Aria off. Bryan, Ella and Aria run into Ezra in town, and are leaving to another restaurant when they run into Holden Strauss (Shane Coffey) and his parents, and Byron hurriedly sets the kids up with one another. Mona is upset for having lost Noel Kahn. Aria and Holden make plans to go out to a play that Ezra and Aria were supposed to see, and though it is short lived when they run into each other, Holden is not an idiot, and sees that Aria is in love with Ezra, and understands now why she was so severely grounded. Instead of saying anything to anyone, they come to a business arrangement to meet for dates and each go their own way to do their own thing. Caleb and Hanna argue because he wants to help Lucas while she does not. Spencer uses a receipt found in her parents’ attic to go to Philadelphia, where she finds the rehab centre for the blind where Jenna used to go. She also ascertains that Garrett signed her out on the night that Alison died, but not back in again. Emily is worried that Maya is being stalked by “A”, but Maya tells her that it is only a guy she hooked up with while at “sober camp”. Lucas breaks into Hanna’s house to talk to her, and she is terrified. She calls Caleb, who rushes into her room, cornering Lucas. He reveals that he used around $4 000-00 of Caleb’s money in a bet, and has been driving around the surrounding towns to sell off his collectible comics to repay the debt. Hanna is so happy to hear that he is not in league with “A”.
Hanna wishes she could let Caleb into the whole “A” thing, but can’t. He starts to recover a video off of the phone showing Ian, Garrett and Jenna in Alison’s room, and then it screws out. Caleb sees Garrett in town, and starts to worry. He takes the video to Hanna, though she throws the flash into the blender. Spencer is still hurting over Toby and he is not making things better while he is consistently trying to see her. The girls discover papers in the head of a doll in the box Jason gave to Aria, and figure out that Alison was being stalked by “A” before her death. Toby falls from scaffolding that was tampered with by “A”, and is lucky that it is only his arm that is broken. Spencer rushes to see him in the hospital, and is hurt. “A” threatens more about Toby, and Spencer eventually has Emily tell Toby that she used to be seeing someone, and that someone is back. Toby deduces that it must be Wren, who is his doctor, and threatens to hit him after Wren tells Toby that he did kiss Spencer. Aria leaves Ezra a message to meet her on a night when she goes out with Holden. He meets with her, though he is late. They start to put their relationship back together. Caleb is confused, and secretly meets with the other girls and shows them the video, and undertakes to help them out as long as nobody lets Hanna in on it, though he wants some answers. They tell him the bare minimum. The video shows a bit more, a door flinging open, but it cuts. Spencer homes in on a fake ID of Alison’s, though it shows her with dark hair. Because the girls are hiding the truth from Hanna, she thinks that they are locking her out. Aria has not told anyone that she and Ezra are seeing each other again. “A” knows that Caleb is working on the phone, and threatens Hanna with exposing her mother and the stolen money, though it confuses her. Hanna is upset because Kate has started at Rosewood High, though she seems to be very nice to Hanna. Spencer finally remembers where she has seen Kate from, and threatens Kate with a nasty picture of her many years ago. She tells her to keep up the nice act with Hanna. Telling Hanna not to worry about Kate, she shows her the compromising picture, and Hanna accidentally sees the picture of Alison with the dark hair. It comes out that the girls lied to her, and she freaks. Leaving and going home, she has a fight with Caleb, and then entrusts him with the truth of her mother and the money. Hanna later gets over her anger and tells Spencer that she had seen Alison with dark hair before, and that she called herself Vivian Darkbloom. Going through Lolita, they find a ticket stub in there, and call. Miraculously, whatever was left in that locker is still there. They find a red overcoat with a number in it, which they call. Pam comes to visit Emily, and they do a dinner and Emily brings Maya. However, at dinner it appears that Maya is continually throwing the past in Pam’s face, and this causes the couple to fight. Ezra gets offered a job that would mean he would move far away, and discovers that Byron was instrumental in setting up the opportunity. Hanna has issues at school when all the contacts in her phonebook receive a picture of Kate naked, and Kate is incredibly upset. The girls instantly suspect “A” of having sent the picture out. “A” steals a gun out of Peter Hastings’ office.
Ashley signs up for Truth Up Day at Rosewood in an attempt to soften the blow of the naked picture that Hanna apparently sent out. Throughout the course of the evening, Emily makes it clear that she feels the school is bullying her about not letting her back onto the swim team. Mona helps her out by getting into Vice Principal Tamborelli’s(John Marshall Jones) office and exposing him for taking bribes to allow other students to remain on their respective teams. Caleb is looking into where the photo of Kate was sent from, and Hanna and the girls work out that Kate actually has a birthmark which is not seen in the picture. Hanna corners Kate in the bathroom and pushes her to admit that it was photoshopped and sent out by herself. Aria and Emily record the admission, and Hanna gets the blame shifted fast. Aria notices bad bruising on Holden while out one night that they spent together when they both had plans cancelled but refused to cancel on one another. She is sure he is dealing drugs or something when some pills fall out of his bag. Emily gets back onto the swim team. Noel Kahn is now dating Mona, and he almost attacks Aria on the rooftops. Jason is back in Rosewood, and intent on speaking to Mr Hastings. Spencer discovers that he is her half-brother. The mystery number in VivanDarkbloom’s coat calls back, and arranges a meet with the girls for answers. “A” is seen creeping through the sleeping students and takes Caleb’s laptop out of his bag. Caleb is still intently working on the “A” files, and Garret turns up at the school with a warrant for Caleb’s laptop. Caleb’s computer is locked, so they cannot get into it, but there are issues. Hanna is sure that someone put the files onto Caleb’s laptop to set him up, and she has a nasty suspicion that that someone was “A”. Aria follows Holden and cancels her date with Ezra, which is just as well. “A” hinted to Byron that Aria was lying to him, and told him exactly where she was meeting Ezra. Ezra stops just outside the restaurant and sees Byron in there, while Aria is actually watching Holden do some martial arts. He is not permitted to do so by his parents because he has a heart condition. Jason tells Spencer that he found letters from Peter to his mother, and $15 000-00. Spencer is worried that the fifteen grand may have been from her father seeing as Alison may have been blackmailing him. The mystery caller from the coat is a man that worked at a cellular company that was requested to trace the number the texts were coming from, but he wants the $2 000-00 that Alison owes him before they get any information. Vivian Darkbloom had told Jonah (Alex Weed) that her “friend” Alison was getting threatening texts. Wilden informs Garrett that there is new information pertaining to the missing autopsy page, and has a picture of the girls outside the morgue. They try to pass it off as a dare, not knowing there were confidential files in the morgue. Maya tells Emily that her parents found an old joint, and are threatening to send her away. Emily finds Maya lighting up a joint, and the two have a big argument. Maya is going to run away to San Francisco, and wants Emily to come along, who refuses. Spencer confronts her father about the possibility that Alison was blackmailing him, and he denies it vehemently. Caleb is at the police station to log into his computer for the cops, and Hanna and Spencer manage to get onto it and delete the files that were put there just in time. Spencer speaks to Jason and manages to talk him into lending her the $2 000-00 that Jonah wants so that they can find out who was looking for Alison.
Spencer has still not told the girls that Jason is her brother. Aria and Spencer meet Jonah and are angered to find just an address on the paper, nothing more. Garrett is watching them, so they don’t go to the address. Mona shares with Hanna that she is getting texts from “A”, who wants Mona to do things. “A” sent Mona a picture of Ashley with Wilden, and Mona is convinced that it was photoshopped. Ella starts to question Aria about who “A” could be, seeing as she also received a letter from “A” about Meredith. Emily finds out that Paige came out to her parents, though Emily is tangled up in trying to locate Maya. The girls visit the address that Jonah provided, and find a closed law firm. Hanna takes a letter. Caleb is digging into the video more, and the girls find out that Melissa was there that night in Alison’s room, too, and they very quickly jump on board with Melissa being a part of everything that is going down. Mona is asked to expose Hanna’s shoplifting expedition and how her mother covered it up, and she refuses to do so. Ashley finds the police report and questions it. Spencer wants to talk to Melissa, who ditches her at a bar where Wren happens to be. Spencer is aggravated, and drinks too much, ending up at Wren’s apartment and makes out with him, though he decides that he does not want that from her when she is wasted. Ezra tells Aria that he is going to take the job; otherwise Aria’s father will think the worst. Aria breaks down, and screams ather mother. Ella goes to Ezra’s apartment to try and understand who her daughter is involved with. Melissa tries to admit something to Spencer, but doesn’t get to finish it. Ashley asks Hanna why she has a letter from the law firm that handled her divorce, and tells her that Melissa worked there. The police are officially starting to question Maya’s whereabouts, and officially decide that she is missing. Rosewood High hosts a Father-Daughter Dance, and the girls are not up for it. Spencer confronts Melissa about leaving with Garrett, and Melissa tells Spencer plenty of things, too. Melissa reveals that she sent Alison threatening messages to leave Ian alone, and this does nothing but further the girls’ conviction that Melissa is “A”. Ashley is intent on finding out what is going on with Hanna, and in desperation goes to Wilden for help. When Ashley asks Hanna for her phone, she promptly throws it in the sink. Emily misses calls from Maya, but is safe with the knowledge Maya is alright. The girls get together and decide they need to lie about the police report, and decide Aria is the best liar, seeing as the friends are still upset to hear that she had been seeing Ezra the entire time without telling them. At the dance Aria gets iffy with her father, while Emily regrets having dragged her father all over town looking for Maya instead of spending time with him. He informs her that he is being deployed again and that her mother is moving back. Spencer tells her dad off, and they leave. Aria tells Hanna’s mom that she is “A”. Ashley is not fooled. Spencer goes through her father’s cheque book and sees the stub for $15 000-00. She confronts him, and he admits that it was a private investigator’s fees – paid to keep Melissa out of harm’s way. Peter goes through his desk and notices that his gun is missing, which “A” stole.
The girls are intent on finding out what Alison had discovered before her death. Aria meets up with Duncan Albert (Lachlan Buchanan), who says that he used to fly Alison around, and they figure out she was in Rosewood hours before she met up with them. Toby is back in Rosewood, though he is furious with Spencer, who tries to talk to him. He is not interested, but is helping Jenna again, who undergoes her eye surgery, though the outcome is as of yet unknown. Jason gives the girls a bag of Alison’s things. Spencer finds out that the newspaper in the bag shows an on-going conversation between Alison and “A” during the summer that Alison was killed. Jenna is caught in a fire at Jason’s house, though Hanna saves her from in. Jenna thanks the girls for saving her, and from there they try to sort of make things right. Emily decides that she has to tell Maya’s parents that she has had contact with Maya recently, and Maya is angered by that. Ashley is angry to hear that Hanna has been using a loan phone from Mona. Ezra and Byron come to blows when Ezra refuses to take the job, and Byron flips out. Jenna seems upset that her eye surgery failed, and gets depressed. The girls go to Brookhaven to see where Alison was going to meet “A”, where they come across a doll store. There is a little boy named Seth (Maxwell Huckabee) there that tells them creepy fake stories, and the owner, Martha (Dawn Didawick), claims that she has never sold voodoo dolls like Alison received. Spencer reveals to the girls that Jason is her brother. Spencer confronts Melissa about the video, and when she says she is turning it in, Melissa hits back with threats about videos of her own. Aria learns her parents are contemplating sending her to boarding school, and she threatens to expose Byron’s past. Her parents are deeply wounded. Mona is told to break Hanna and Caleb up, and the girls decide to set up Melissa to see Caleb with Mona to prove that she is “A”. Caleb is very grumpy, but goes along with it. Caleb and Mona make out in her car, and Melissa walks out of a building. Shortly after Hanna gets a text, and the girls want to go to the cops. They stop at the doll shop on the way, and they are attacked in the store. They also find that Martha has a whole box of the dolls that Alison got, and does in actual fact sell them. Melissa and Garrett are chatting in the Hastings’ kitchen and he is being assured that Spencer did not turn in the video. Garrett is arrested anyway for Alison’s murder – he was set up by Jenna. She gave Toby page five of the autopsy report and requested that he hand it in, pretending she has no idea what it is. Instead we find out that she can, in actual fact, see, but is evidently faking for some reason.
The annual masquerade ball comes around, and the girls are sick and tired of “A’s” game. They start some research when Mona mentions she once ran into Alison spying on someone, but that she did not see who. They deduce that Alison must have been spying on “A”. They do some more research and go to the Lost Woods Resort, something that they found that Alison used to go. They were staying in the wrong room. Toby and Spencer have a mini argument again, and when she leaves Toby receives a call from the elusive Dr Sullivan. Spencer takes Mona and they go back, she realizes that they must have been in the wrong room. The rest of the girls stay at the ball, with Paige attempting to make amends after kissing Emily while she was pining after Maya, and Ezra turning up to be with Aria. Caleb is back in action, and the girls see someone with a Black Swan costume turn up at the ball. Jenna and Lucas go to speak to her, and they are all convinced she is “A”. Meanwhile, Spencer gets to the Lost Woods Resort, and they find “A’s” lair. There are pictures of the girls everywhere, masks, maps, hundreds of pictures of Alison and some dolls that represent the girls. Spencer is going through the things, including Alison’s diary, when she starts making connections all over the room that Mona is “A”. Mona attacks Spencer, who wakes in her car while Mona is racing off. Spencer speed dials the other girls, and Hanna notices her phone was set to record everything. Spencer drops hints to Mona about where they are going, and the girls rush to catch up. Spencer tries to escape, and Mona tries to kill her. Hanna almost runs Mona down, but stops just in time. Mona falls off of a cliff, and it is assumed that she is dead. Dr Sullivan arrives alongside the ambulances, and reveals that “A” had something on her son, and that she, too, was threatened. Mona is alive, and taken into custody, where Dr Sullivan says she is ridiculously smart and needs some attention at a psychiatric clinic, and that one day she could be alright again. Mona, however, seems completely in control of the act she is putting on. The girls all leave the police station relieved, but panic breaks out when they approach Emily’s home, which is swarming with police. Her mother rushes to comfort her, saying that a body was found, and that it is Maya. The girls try to comfort her while Emily completely breaks.
Best Episode:Over My Dead Body / CTRL:A
Worst Episode:Save the Date
Rating:7.5/10. Not bad, again. This season had so much going on for it, and it was executed rather well. Hanna and Caleb are absolutely adorable together, and what Lucas did for them was amazing. Emily is truly still a pain in my right toe, she is relentless, I tell you. What a victim! All this dancing around Jason being “A” was also simply ridiculous, and Jenna and Garrett being together proved to be a little insane. Toby and Spencer’s breakup was terrible, I thought them to be brilliant together. “A” really went through a lot to have the girls set up for Alison’s murder, but that, too, blew over fairly quickly. I expected a little bit more oomph to it. Then there is the issue of the girls seeing a psychologist. I can understand the concept, I just thought that it was ludicrous how it was implemented, and how they didn’t report Dr Sullivan’s disappearance. That was just a simply ridiculous set of reasoning, which I could not get on board with. Dr Sullivan is a grown woman. Don’t expect me to get on board with her being threatened by some kid, because let’s face it, I cannot see “A” being a full-fledged adult. There was so much drama going on here, and Jason being related to Spencer was actually a welcome plot twist. I must say that Aria and Ezra dealt with telling the truth in a silly way, and if that were my daughter I would also have flipped my top. He really is a hell of a lot older than her, and even if he is in his twenties, he should not be kicking it with such a young girl. Also, what they perceive to be a real and valid relationship is slightly flawed to me seeing as she doesn’t really have any real life experience whereas he has studied at college, gotten jobs, been engaged, bought a car, lived a life type of thing. Jenna Marshall being able to see again also didn’t shock me, I knew that she would fake blindness to her advantage; she just strikes me as the type of girl. I think that Aria and Holden could really have made an adorable couple if she were not so obsessed with Ezra. Veronica Hastings again was a favourite of mine, that woman is brilliant. Emily worked on my nerves some more, she still doesn’t sell the gay thing to me; she is still awkward, though not so bad as last season. Maya’s disappearance was not really implemented and integrated into the show as well as you would expect, seeing as it was not really a major storyline to me, and then in the end it becomes so important. It was not something that was stressed very much throughout the series. Let me just mention – Aria had some terrible outfits in this season (specifically the neon yellow clogs and the black-one-leg-leopard-the-other-leg leggings… I must admit that I sort of saw the ending coming up, and expected Mona to be involved, somewhere. I also knew for a fact that no matter what happened, it would not be the end. A fun show all in all if you aren’t going to take it too seriously or get too involved with it.
Life of this city girl 