Pretty Little Liars – Do Not Disturb

By: Alex Steele

In this week’s episode the Liars are doing their best attempt at private eye work (#Sparia), juggling the torment that hormones can rage on your mental state (Emily) and wrangling the monster boss known as Claudia (Hanna).

Picking up right where we left off last week, Aria arrives home – phone buzzing with inquisitive texts from the other Liars – to find daddy dearest lurking in the dark. Yeah, not creepy or suspicious at all Byron (Chad Lowe). He comes clean about what he’s been hiding, admitting that he has been seeing someone. And in walks Ella (Holly Marie Combs) of all people! Lucy Hale plays Aria’s look of concern/confusion/WTF perfectly. They’ve been secretly rekindling their romance and are now officially back together, ring on the finger and all. Am I the only one that questions whether this is legit? That maybe, just maybe Byron and Ella are using each other as an alibi? Six years later and I’m deep into theories and conspiracies just like the Liars.

As we change pace a little, we watch Hanna (Ashley Benson) and her fiancée Jordan (David Coussins) busily ready themselves to leave Rosewood. The flirty banter between these two is helped by Jordan’s oh so charming accent (a cross between Australian and British). While this is happening; however, Hanna receives a text. She stalls, making up any excuse not to leave with Jordan. This dude is so understanding that I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. As they make out, Emily (Shay Mitchell) [not so] graciously interrupts with a casual cough-cough. Smooth Emily, smooth.

Cut to another one of Rosewood’s new power couples, #Spaleb. With morning coffee in hand, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) begins theorising and discussing next moves with Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) as they casually sit in bed together. Take note of the bedroom eyes Spencer is flashing Caleb’s way. Is the new stalker really Sara Harvey (Dre Davis)? Caleb thinks the girls should go to the police with the information they have but Spencer doesn’t even need to take a breath before disagreeing. As their conversation moves to the kitchen for breakfast, Spencer reveals a nice little negligee – we all know what they were up to last night. After discussing that she has lunch scheduled with Gil, Caleb can’t keep his hands off her. Do we blame him? Combine her bedroom eyes from earlier with their chemistry and we’ve got fire.

We move back to Hanna’s (Lucas’) loft, where her and Emily are discussing the missing hard drive and everything Sara Harvey. Emily is nervous about the procedure to donate her eggs which has not been helped by the return of Ali (Sasha Pieterse). Shay Mitchell doing hopped up hormonal was brilliant – Emily looked like she was ready to bust out of her skin. Aria is still trying to get a hold of Ezra (Ian Harding) when Ella enters her room. Ella knows something is up with Aria, stating that she knows her surprised face. Aria states that she was just a little taken aback, and that being in Rosewood again brings up way too many feelings. Aria questions her mom, subtly, to find out whether her and Byron were together the night Charlotte died. They were. Does that mean Byron is off the hook?

With the missing hard drive, and the new “Emoji Evil” on their tails, Hanna confronts her mom. Where is it? We know Ashley (Laura Leighton) has it, but Hanna doesn’t. They share quite an impassioned discussion about what is right and what is wrong, and when all is said and done Ashley seems quietly confident that she averted the situation. Don’t be fooled, Hanna Marin always has another trick up her sleeve. As Ashley leaves for work, Hanna and Aria search the house from top to bottom with no luck in finding the hard drive. Destroyed? I’m not buying it.

Emily is camping out in the loft before her procedure when there is a knock on the door. Doctor Rollins, who campaigned on behalf of Charlotte, has come to talk to Emily. She isn’t answering any of Alison’s calls and is quite adamant about not wanting to see her. Doctor Rollins (Huw Collins) insists that Ali wants to apologise and that he hopes that Emily can give her a chance. On his way out, he spies the fertility documents in her bag. Secrets out. We are back with Spencer, she’s on the phone to Gil – a lunch was never scheduled for them, he has no idea why she would think that. Another hack by A? Is this a set up? Just then none other than Yvonne (Kara Royster) walks up and apologises for being late to meet, Spencer is completely disillusioned. What is going on? She calls Caleb with an SOS; don’t worry hacker extraordinaire is on the case! Lunch goes swimmingly, and Spencer and Yvonne seem like new BFF’s (Poor Toby). As Yvonne pays the bill and leaves, she forgets her phone. Spencer, seeing an opportunity for re-con nabs it.

Sara Harvey is now lurking around the halls of the high school, following Ali. What is her game plan? Does she have any idea what’s going on? After she reaches out to Ali, saying they have common ground when it comes to Charlotte, the evil smile says it all. She’s scheming. We just don’t know why, or how. In the meantime, Caleb and Hanna have reunited in an attempt to solve this missing hard drive business. The underlying feelings between these two make my heart ache, all the more so when Caleb so genuinely states “you can always come to me.” As Spencer crashes this walk down memory lane, Hanna is now the third wheel. Spencer wants Caleb to do some digging into Yvonne’s phone just to make sure she isn’t behind any of this “A” level stuff.

As Hanna leaves the crime-fighting duo to hack and scheme, she drops off the “fake” hard drive to set up “A.” Meanwhile, Ali and Emily have reunited. Ali can’t take no for an answer and we all know how powerless Emily is to Ali (Long live Emison). In the height of the conversation and with the crazy hormone rage going on, Emily let’s slip about her procedure. Ali offers to accompany her, and lucky enough she does as Emily hallucinates an attack at the hands of Sara Harvey as she is coming out of sedation. She becomes agitated and rightfully scared. Sadly, post procedure, a nurse who has come to check on Emily lets her know that the couple originally after her eggs have backed out because they just found out they were pregnant. Emily must now decide to do away with her eggs, keep them on ice for future use (which would cost big bucks) or donate them to another needy couple.

#TeamSparia reunite to break into Sara Harvey’s apartment at Radley as Aria still believes the murder weapon is in her possession. This girl is a woman on a mission. One of the best lines of the episode occurs during this scene with Spencer encouraging Aria, “You can do it little big one!” Following up one great line with a stand out monologue, Ashley Benson delivers such an empowered mic drop speech to Hanna’s boss that I was cheering. She’s sassy, she’s confident and completely at home in herself. I said it last week and I’ll say it again, the evolution of Hanna that has occurred during the five years is phenomenal and Ashley Benson is bringing the heat. As the episode closes, we are with ‘Evil Emoji’ as he/she plugs in the hard drive (fake) to their computer. We all cheer in success as a video of Caleb pops up (check mate “A”) and with that the laptop fries. Did the Liars and Co. just one up A? Stay tuned for next week.

Key plot points to add:

• Mona (Janel Parrish) returns for a little banter with Spencer about “how we don’t do those things anymore.” Ok Mona, we believe you (not).
• Emily’s eggs are now in jeopardy – “Evil Emoji” is threating to destroy them
• Aria missing at the bottom of well/closet
• Hanna is driving off into the sunset with Jordan
• Sara is staying in the same room that Charlotte lived when she was in Radley
• Did Sara’s hands get amputated?