#pll7

A Pretty Little Liars Recap

We get a weird opening that’s not necessary, so we’ll just skip it. If you thought you were going to get a satisfactory answer, then you can turn back now. AD is someone we have never met; someone we didn’t even know existed. The worst twist and reveal possible, to the point that it’s taken about a week before I could even talk about it. It’s an extended finale, an hour and a half without commercials, yet nothing happened until the last 30 minutes.

A Pretty Little Liars Recap (7x13)

Hold Your Piece – aren’t we clever? Spencer is being woken up by the loud cries of a baby. It’s the game, being obnoxious. She keeps trying to muffle it and turn the phone down, but it doesn’t work, so she calls the others. As if they would be helpful. Hanna says they should just put the phone in Ali’s house since she’s conveniently out of town for the week, but Emily shuts it down and says that she doesn’t need to come home to a baby crying because reasons. I forgot the others don’t know about the pregnancy; I guess they needed to justify the show name. Finally, the phone reveals that it wants Hanna to play.

Hanna: Thanks to Mona, Hanna’s dress is getting recognition. It’s on the front page of a fashion magazine. Emily and Caleb are both there to share in her excitement; however, when Emily checks something out online about Hanna’s dress, she finds a fashion blog where Hanna is being accused of stealing the dress design.

Hanna and Caleb try to figure out who could have tipped off the blogger about Jenna having the dress earlier. Aria is over there too because she needs to do something other than plan her wedding. They reason out that Sydney may be a part of things since she used to help Jenna before. They’re really going to just bring out everyone, regardless of how much everyone hated the characters, huh? Aria gets distracted by a news broadcast showing a clip of an interview with Nicole; in the interview Nicole is talking about Ezra. Caleb and Hanna turn around to see her watching and they both give her the sympathy eyes, which Aria says to stop. She tells them that they found their way back to each other and she thinks she and Ezra will pull through too. They have to; we don’t have time to establish another love interest.

Hanna later gets a message from the game phone telling her to open the door. This is followed by loud banging on the door. Hanna is too afraid to open it and Caleb comes out like, “What the hell, who is that?” He opens the door and finds a mannequin wearing a Hanna mask. Does AD (or a minion of AD) have the ability of teleportation? How did they manage to get away from the door that quickly? He opened the door like three seconds after he walked into the room. Was the mannequin knocking?

With this delivery, Hanna now has to tell Caleb what’s been happening with the game. Naturally Caleb wants to help, so he says he’ll check out the game and see if there’s a way to take it apart or hack into it. But first Caleb asks what happens if they just don’t play it and at Hanna’s silence realizes that AD has the material about Rollins. You know, that crime they committed in order to hide that they didn’t commit a crime? He tells Hanna that the mannequin also talked when he opened the door. It gives them another message: “See the appendix for more info.”

If it had been Spencer (or maybe Aria), she would have immediately gone for the “appendix” on the doll. But it’s Hanna, so she searches all the books in her apartment first to see if there’s anything hidden in any appendices. Not a bad reasoning, but far too logical for what we’re dealing with. You need to be as implausible as possible. Ignoring that Hanna figured out to look in the doll because Caleb said he was trying to get into a spot on the game with tweezers and that made her think of “that one game with the guy and you had to take stuff out with tweezers” (yes, that’s how that exchange went, as if their entire demographic does not know what Operation is), Hanna finds a package hidden in the doll that says “Wear Me”.

When Hanna shows Caleb what was in the package, he comments that it’s super short; like people will see things that should absolutely be covered in an investor meeting... Just realized I never mentioned the meeting. The investors want to meet with Hanna to discuss the theft accusation. Luckily Lucas is a part of it and is looking out to her. Anyway, Hanna says the length is the least of her problems because the dress is one of those Japanese-inspired looks and the investors are, you guessed it, Japanese. She knows it’s offensive and she figures it’ll ruin her career before it barely started.

Spencer: Finally, Spencer seems to have a reduced role this episode. I’m so tired of her and I’m pretty sure Troian Bellisario is too. At the coffee shop, Toby runs into Spencer; Yvonne is awake and he’s hoping she can come by the hospital to visit. Detective Marco Furey is there and joins them. He tells Toby he’s happy to see him on his feet and that everyone is hoping for a good recovery for Yvonne. Toby thanks him and leaves to go back to the hospital. Furey apologizes to Spencer for the lack of progress on the case and asks if she got his message about a friend who’s good at tracking people down. Spencer says she got it, but she’s thinking she needs to focus more on people who aren’t missing. Thank you Spencer, progress. Furey asks her if she wants to hang out for the day.

They go to this…I don’t know what it is. Community youth center? They play ping pong and flirt a bit. She’s having a good time and doesn’t notice Aria or Emily calling her throughout the day. And really, those two need to do things for themselves anyway; they can handle what they’re doing without Spencer. Give her a break before she gets more annoying.

Spencer thanks Furey for bringing her and she says she needed a win. They talk, standing all close. But then he notices that Spencer’s shoulder is bleeding and goes to get some first aid material. This is the most consistent the show has been in quite some time – she’s still not 100% after getting shot. While Spencer is waiting, she sees a picture that the detective drew as a child. When he comes back to help her, she brings up the picture. He says he used to go there as a child because his mom was addicted to pain pills; the director of the center was like a second mother to him and after she passed away they never took the picture he drew of the two of them down. He tells her that the situations can be tough, but basically you love the people who love you. In other words, Spencer, stop taking up time with your identity crisis or whatever and gain some perspective. They kiss. Meanwhile…

Toby and Emily talk at the hospital; I always like when the writers remember that these two were good friends. Speaking of talking, Yvonne hasn’t, up until this moment where she calls for Toby. When he goes in to talk to Yvonne, he suggests that they forget about waiting and just get married. So they do. That wedding scene is cut between scenes of Spencer and the detective kissing.

Emily and Aria: Since everyone is ignoring these two, they just hang out with each other and actually do something productive. They track down Sydney and Emily goes to distract her while Aria uses some hacking gear that Caleb gave her that morning. He also taught her how to use it that morning too. Emily asks Sydney about Jenna and Sydney says she didn’t know what she was getting into when she was helping Jenna; apparently she was in town and Jenna suggested she help her with a prank. She says she thought it would be funny. This character is what, 22, now? Get over it, seriously, it’s been five years and they haven’t done anything to you. Anyway, she says she regrets ever helping Jenna and Emily is like, “Yeah, I bet you do regret it, considering Spencer got shot and Noel died.” Hey so wait – she’s an accessory to this crime, but considering the circumstances, she could probably get off with a slap on the wrist while Jenna is rightfully arrested. But of course, that’s assuming she’s telling the truth and well, the title of the show.

Sydney leaves and Emily goes back to her car to see if it worked with Aria. Aria hacked Sydney’s phone and she has access to her schedule; she’s going to the eye doctor. Of course she is. They follow her and listen in to her paying for eye surgery for Jenna. She says to just put the name down as A.D., anonymous donor. When she leaves, they see that she gets a text asking if “it’s done”.

Surprisingly, Emily and Aria decide not to screw around and actually confront Sydney. She seems surprised that they’re there and they tell her they followed her. The other girls may be playing, but Emily and Aria don’t have time for this shit.

Sydney insists that she’s just trying to tie up her loose ends and cut ties with Jenna. She suggests they do the same and leaves. During the encounter, Aria slipped a GPS tracker into Sydney’s stuff. But what happens if Sydney switches bags?

Caleb went back to Spencer’s to check out the game. Spencer comes home, surprised to see him there. Hanna couldn’t give her a warning? Caleb apologizes for being there and says that he expected to be finished way earlier. He says if it’s weird then he can go. Spencer says she doesn’t want it to be weird and she wants it to work; Caleb wants the same. She goes to the kitchen to get them drinks and tells him she spent all day hanging out with a guy. Caleb asks if it’s “the cop” and he says he picked up on some vibes. He wants to make sure that she’s being treated well and she says she is. She goes back to the kitchen asking if he’s eaten and suggesting takeout and inviting Hanna to join. However, as her back was turned, Caleb tried taking the buildings off the game board and when he pried it off, gas came out and caused him to have trouble breathing. Spencer turns around to see him and calls for help.

While that was happening, Hanna and Lucas go to The Radley with some of her clothes and her sketchbook. Lucas thinks showing the other investors her work (particularly some things that look similar) can help her case. Hanna is wearing a coat over the dress; that would be a good loophole – she wore the dress like AD wanted, but AD never said not to wear anything over it. Before they get on the elevator, Hanna thanks Lucas for all of his help and support, and says no matter what happens she values his friendship. Lucas is optimistic that it’ll go well. But then Hanna gets a text saying that Caleb is in the hospital. Lucas tells her to give him the sketchbook and go be with Caleb.

At the hospital, Caleb asks Hanna how the meeting went and she tells him she didn’t go. Caleb realizes that means that she missed her turn and asks what happens when they don’t play the way AD wants. Hanna says she has no idea, but she quickly figures it out when she leaves the room and gets a message saying she lost her puzzle piece.

Everyone else is in the waiting area and Spencer is sticking up for Hanna having to tell Caleb. Hanna comes over and shows them the message. Spencer says the game gives them these impossible situations and Hanna says some more than others. Hanna finds it unfair that all Spencer had to do was talk to a friend when her challenge was putting her career on the line; while true that that’s unfair, I’m not seeing how that’s Spencer’s fault.

Everyone parts ways, with Hanna going back to Caleb. Emily and Aria get a notification from the GPS showing that Sydney is on the move; Emily says she’ll keep watch on her for this first night and tells Aria to head home. Spencer decides she’ll go visit Toby and Yvonne.

Now while all of this was going on, the concurrent storyline had Toby and Yvonne talking about their honeymoon. It’s cute and heartfelt. Yvonne is pretty weak while she’s talking and Toby has this sad smile. When she’s done talking she loses consciousness and drops her flowers.

When Spencer heads towards Yvonne’s room, she sees Toby come into the hallway and she can tell something is wrong. He collapses in tears and she hugs him while he cries. I have a feeling Toby knew it was going to happen based on how he was looking at Yvonne, but man is it terrible that they didn’t even get 24 hours.

As Aria is walking into the loft, she’s leaving Ezra a voicemail about the coffee shop. She explains that Sabrina got an internship in Atlanta so she quit, but she left recommendations. However, Aria doesn’t even know how to conduct an interview for a baker and beyond that has no idea how to run a business. It did not occur to me that Ezra did just leave her saddled with that whole responsibility and no actual guidance. Soon Aria realizes that she’s not alone in the apartment and picks up a large kitchen knife and turns on the light to see who’s there. It’s Nicole! Ezra seriously, pick up a damn phone. Why does no one on this show warn others about exes being in their house?