Pretty Little Liars – These Boots Were Made for Stalking

By: Michelle Lopez

After threatening to stab the gameboard and receiving their latest reason to fall in line with AD’s demands the liars are divided. Alison (Sasha Pieterse) is convinced that Jenna’s (Tammin Sursok) AD but Hanna (Ashley Benson) doesn’t buy it. Yes, Jenna is a blind girl with supernatural abilities of manipulation, but her latest minion was beheaded and there’s no way she put together Rosewood Jumanji on her own. Emily (Shay Mitchell) doesn’t want to discuss AD at all. She’s pissed that AD is trying to take away their agency like Mona (Janel Parrish) and Charlotte did a few years back. Her rage is so strong that she’s willing to tell the cops about all the laws they’ve broken if AD rats them out for killing Rollins. Spencer (Troian Bellisario) points out they’ve committed more than one crime since their return to Rosewood, but Emily’s fine with the repercussions of breaking a few silly laws (vehicular manslaughter, hiding a body, destruction of evidence, breaking and entering, kidnapping, torture, burglary) in favor of not being under AD’s thumb. Emily storms out in a cloud of fury while Hanna throws shade at Spencer for playing AD’s game. Aria (Lucy Hale) jumps to Spencer’s defense since Spencer’s in the middle of a massive identity crisis.

Misplaced Rage and Mean Girl Wannabes

In the Rosewood High locker room, Emily and Paige (Lindsey Shaw) are reviewing Emily’s line up for the upcoming swim meet. Paige apologizes for her behavior last episode with regards to Alison and Emily. Emily turns Paige’s little apology into an encounter nowhere near appropriate for work. She goes on a tangent about the complicated history between the three of them. During her tangent, Emily places her hand on Paige’s in a manner completely unsuitable for the workplace which Paige recognizes and pulls away from. Unknown to either of them Rosewood’s newest mean girl, Addison Derringer (Ava Allan), is listening in from the next aisle. Emily notices Addison and asks why she wasn’t at practice the previous afternoon and Addison explains she went home early because she was sick, which Emily doesn’t believe.

As Alison dismisses her class, Emily rushes in which is her second unprofessional move of the day. She confronts Addison about there being no record of her going home sick which she explains away with a headache. Emily’s life isn’t in the best play so she’s not about to take attitude from a student and benches Addison. Addison glares at Emily and with a tone befitting a true mean girl and asks Emily if she’s sure she wants to bench her then struts out. Alison uses Addison’s performance as fuel to her pity party. She’s scared she’ll have a kid just like Addison or even worse like herself. Emily continues her streak of unprofessionalism by comforting Ali with a face caress and hug as she offers to bring Ali dinner that evening. As they hug the camera pans over to Addison lurking outside the classroom watching and smirking as a plan comes together.

Addison puts on her best innocent face and tells Paige the “real” reason she was benched. She gives an amazing performance telling a story about Emily being inappropriate with her and her teammates and goes as far as to call Emily a predator. Paige wants to tell Addison she’s thinking of the wrong Rosewood teacher but refrains in favor of telling Addison she’ll handle it.

Paige tells Emily what’s going on, which was not the best decision. Emily flies off the handle, wanting to go to Hackett right away because there’s no way he’d believe Addison’s story over hers. She is ready to throw her off the team, but Paige steps in to defuse Emily. She tells Em to take the rest of the day off while Paige works on shutting Addison down.

Emily rushes over to Alison’s house demanding the spare key to Spencer’s barn because she needs to know if AD is behind Addison’s scheme. She’s afraid AD is going to force her to tell Hackett about the unorthodox way she obtained her degree. Alison warns Emily against falling into the trap but goes with when Emily doesn’t hear a word she says. When they get into Spencer’s barn they realize that some pieces have been moved around the game board. Emily gets a text from AD with security footage from the alley behind the brew which shows Addison getting high with her boyfriend instead of being at practice.

Emily storms into the locker room to blackmail Addison. She tells Addison to retract her accusations or Emily will tell people that she skipped practice to get high. Emily’s a tad irrational and completely goes off on Addison. She projects all her personal mean girl trauma onto Addison in a rant that would have her unemployed in a heartbeat. Luckily Paige interrupts Emily’s tirade and lets them know she found an email Addison sent to a friend gloating about getting rid of Emily and forwarded that along to the principle. Sorry wannabe Alison until you get your pilot’s license and start wearing masks of your own face there’s no chance you can match the mean girl glory of OG Ali.

Paige offers Emily a ride home and while she’s grabbing her things Emily notices an envelope in her mailbox. Inside the envelope is another puzzle piece for AD’s game. Emily giving into her anger and paranoia was exactly what AD wanted. Well played AD.

Identity Crisis: Part II

At Hastings Manor, Veronica (Lesley Fera) and Spencer plan to spend the afternoon grabbing a mother daughter lunch and viewing Veronica’s new office. Spencer wants to know how long Peter intends on hiding before coming home to face her because she’s not dealing with the situation over the phone. Spencer is salty because after learning she was born in Radley and having been admitted to Radley she feels like her whole life revolves around that demented mental hospital.

Marco (Nicholas Gonzalez) stops by the barn after missing Spencer’s text. Spencer wants to know if the police are still looking for Mary. Marco is confused because Archer and Jenna seem like they’d be at the top of Spencer’s concerns so Spencer shows him the letter from Mary to her and realization dawns on him.

At the station, Marco updates Spencer of potential leads of Mary’s whereabouts. They’re disrupted when a haunting tapping sound echoes through the halls. They both turn to see Jenna entering the room. Jenna tells them that Noel killed Sara and was planning on killing her too. He was hunting for money Charlotte left behind and when Jenna couldn’t help he brought her to the blind school turned murder mansion. She brought the gun that night as protection and said all those horrible things to the Liars because she was trying to trick Noel. Marco sends Jenna to a conference room and Spencer tells him to lock Jenna up. Marco’s hands are tied because Jenna’s gun didn’t shoot Spencer and there’s no way to disprove her story.

At Holden’s (Shane Coffey) wedding emporium, Spencer updates Aria on Jenna’s dramatic return. Aria’s confused about why Spencer was there to begin with. She admits that he’s helping her find Mary because she thinks talking to Mary might help her figure out the parts of her life that never made sense and maybe she could come to forgive her.

Veronica has been looking at the office blueprints and has some ideas about where Spencer’s desk could go but Spencer’s decided she’s not working for her mom anymore. Veronica’s phone goes off and she tells Spencer it was a realtor. They’re going to sell Hastings Manor and flee Rosewood once and for all. Spencer acts like she doesn’t care because it’s just a house but Veronica cares. She gives a heartfelt speech about their home. It lands with Spencer but she’s too stubborn to put down her hurt and embrace the moment with Veronica.

VanderMarin Inc.

Mona (Janel Parrish) stops by the loft to show Hanna the dress Katherine decided on. Hanna freaks out when she realizes it’s a dress from her closet not the designs she set aside for Mona to show. Mona’s confused about why that matters, but Hanna won’t say anything other than she can’t wear that specific dress. Mona tells her to pull it together and get back to her.

A while later, Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) finds Hanna frantically working on the dress. He tells her to chill but Hanna has no chill. She designed the dress while working for Claudia and took a ton of pointers from her which makes the dress not so much Hanna’s design. Caleb doesn’t care because Claudia was horrible, but Hanna’s worried. She decides to try calling Claudia to discuss her using the dress, but Claudia’s new assistant just hangs up on her.

At the Radley, Mona and Hanna gush over accessories until Jenna shows up wearing a white version of Hanna’s dress. Mona stomps over and demands to know where Jenna got the dress. Jenna plays dumb and says it was a gift before leaving for an Uber with her posse.

Hanna and Caleb follow Jenna to the building that Hanna’s cobbler works out of. Hanna’s pissed because Jenna already stole her dress and is looking to steal her shoes too. Caleb decides it’d be safer if he went to talk to Jenna vs. Hanna attacking a blind girl again. Jenna claims to be there for a rehearsal on the top floor of the building acting like she has no clue there is a cobbler shop. While they’re talking Hanna sneaks into the shop calling out for the cobbler. He’s obviously not there, but Hanna keeps wandering around calling out for him. Eventually, she wanders into a cage which AD promptly locks her in. AD turns on all sorts of gizmos and gadgets to freak Hanna out and send her into some PTSD flashbacks. When Hanna’s good and freaked out AD texts her to let her know she’s next then Caleb comes in and rescues her.

Patience

As Aria leaves Fitz’s place a reporter named Jared (Chris Gardner) asks if she knows how he can get ahold of Ezra. He’s looking to write a story about Ezra’s reunion with his long-lost fiancé. Aria’s annoyed so she tells him that she’s Ezra’s fiancé and storms off.

Aria heads to Holden’s wedding emporium to plan the menu, but Holden is swamped cooking for another wedding. To take her mind off all the Ezria drama, she offers to help him. She admits she’s pissed that Ezra hasn’t told Nicole about them being engaged, but Holden steps in as the voice of reason and points out that life’s complicated and people do things in their own time.

Later, Aria sees an article about Ezra and Nicole which sends her off the deep end. She rushes out of the kitchen and heads to New York. Aria convinces a nurse to let her in to see Nicole even though visiting hours are done, but before she can go in Holden runs up telling her to stop. She does and they go grab pizza where Aria unloads more of her insecurities on Holden. She is considering giving the ring back, but Holden points out that Ezra hasn’t called off their engagement, he just needs time to process everything before the wedding.

X Marks the Spot

Back at the Hastings barn, the Liars meet up to debrief. Emily places her piece of the puzzle onto the board as Alison explains that AD got Emily to blackmail an 11th grader. Hanna doesn’t think that’s bad compared to her getting locked in a cage in a shoe repair shop which is debatable. Despite being in the middle of an identity crisis, Spencer notices that the two puzzle pieces are the beginnings of a map of Rosewood and the surrounding area. Why is AD giving them a map and what other shenanigans are the Liars going to have to do to finish the puzzle?