Pretty Little Liars: "Out, Damned Spot" Review
Pretty Little Liars
Season 5.19
“Out, Damned Spot”
Previously on Pretty Little Liars.....
The Liars give blood!!! (OMG). Andrew tutors Aria and protects the girls. M&M meets Hank Mahoney (aka “Cyrus the Virus”). Hanna goes in search of financial aid for college and this leads the entire PLL Fandom to asks the question: Who is Hanna’s Daddy!!??!!
Ashley Marin is in charge of the blood drive, and she recruits the PLLs to donate. Hanna (O negative), didn’t you learn in season 2....never ever let someone have your blood! While waiting the girls see Mike crash into the blood cart and apparently steal a vial of blood. Aria is still in denial that her little brother is involved in some big secrets in Rosewood.
In fact, Aria is so upset that she can’t complete her math test. So she copies from Andrew Campbell’s test as he conveniently holds his paper up for her to see. Now Andrew is the class Valedictorian, so I know he knows better. This all seems like a set up to me. Andrew later confronts Aria about cheating and suggests that he can be her tutor.
Emily and Talia.... such repeated characterization of Miss Fields. Yes, she always goes for the closeted or unavailable (Paige)!!! This week she learns Talia’s full name. Talia Sandoval Mendoza. Talia is married to Eric, her best friend that she married after high school, who knows that she is attracted to women. Emily please wake up!!! Your life is complicated enough!!!
Ashley says yes to Ted’s marriage proposal and then tells him about Jason. Ted tells her he needs to think! I really have my eye on these two. It would not surprise me if either of them have a very big part to play in this season’s finale. Stay tuned.
Spencer helps Jonny paint a mural at Hollis during the middle of the night. The next day the mural is front page news with the Headline: Vandalism at Hollis College. Spencer, you are suppose to be the “smart one”. Stay away from Jonny. He is up to no good. Who paints murals in the middle of the night anyway?
Aria discovers that Mike has been getting phone messages from Hank Mahoney at the Chester Women’s Correctional Facility. *cough, Ali, cough* When she confronts Mike he tells her, “next time don’t answer my phone.” He slams the door in her face and then goes to the mini fridge in his room and pulls a vial of blood from a Power Mass energy drink container. The next day Emily sees Mike withdraw money from an ATM and retrieves the forgotten receipt. He only withdraws $400.00, but the balance of $18,000.00 puts Emily on high alert. She interrupts Aria’s tutoring session with Andrew to show Aria the receipt. As they are talking they see Mike take off in the family car. How convenient that Andrew is there and agrees to drive them to follow Mike since neither Aria nor Emily can drive a stick shift. They follow Mike to Jonah’s diner.
Aria thanks Andrew and tells him he can still make batting practice. Mike goes inside the diner and meets with Hank Mahoney, aka Cyrus Petrillo, aka Ali’s fake kidnapper. Mike gives Cyrus/Hank a small yellow envelope. (The Blood??? I think not...) Meanwhile Spencer arrives at Jonah’s to spy and provide transportation to follow Cyrus. But Cyrus confronts the girls in the parking lot on his motorcycle. Luckily good old Andrew stuck around and is there to scare Cyrus away with his baseball bat! Question: whose team is Andrew playing for? A Team or B Team?
Poor Hanna misses out on the excitement because she had to visit her “father” to ask for financial assistance to pay for college. Tom tells Hanna that her stepsister, Kate, is attending Dartmouth in the fall and he is paying for it, but he can’t afford to pay for two private school tuitions. Apparently he and Ashley had an agreement for $10,000.00 per year for Hanna included in their divorce decree. I believe that Ashley’s secrets will start to be revealed soon....and one of them is that Tom is not Hanna’s biological father!!! He even has her sit across the desk from him as if he is talking with a business associate!
The episode ends with Mike stalking the girls at Spencer’s house. Mike you are creepy, scary, and probably about to get into serious trouble in the upcoming episodes. Did Mike give money, Hanna’s blood, or false blood to Cyrus?
Until next time Liars! Keep your friends close and your secrets closer!!!
P.S. In addition to my reviews here on Picture Lock, I am starting a new PLL Theories Page. Follow me at cdjack11cdjack11.tumblr.com for “A Liar’s Secrets”.
Pretty Little Liars: "Oh, What Hard Luck..." Review
Pretty Little Liars
Season 5.18
“Oh, What Hard Luck Stories They All Hand Me"
Previously on Pretty Little Liars.....
Detective ShadyBrook is back and finally ready to admit that Ali got her hooks in him. We also meet Mona’s friend, Lesli, who leads Hanna to Mona Flashbacks and big clues hiding in the spine of Poe. We also learn about Mike’s mysterious activities that may link him to Mona and Alison. However, it is Hanna the Rebel, who gives the performance of the week!
Hanna and Caleb are called into the police station to be questioned about the storage unit. While they are there they see ShadyBrook get fired. He is irate as he storms to his desk to box up some of his belongings and yells, “This department has screwed up the investigation from the start, and now you’re trying to blame it on me? You have no idea what’s really going on here, do you? Not a clue” Wow, I guess I can call him former Detective Holbrook now, because that is the first true statement I’ve heard from him in a while!
Aria is in disbelief when Spencer let’s her know that Mike has been visiting Ali in jail. Oh Aria, you are living up to your name of “Suzy Clueless” this week. First, you don’t know that Ezra is in Harrisburg for the weekend and now you can’t seem to grasp or admit that your brother is not little Mike anymore. Think Aria! Think!
Lesli is the girl that Mona spoke to the night before she was “murdered”. (I am still holding out that Mona faked her own death) She comes to town to visit Mrs. Vanderwaal and goes to find Hanna at the Brew. Now this newcomer is one suspicious character! She tries to lift Mona’s copy of The Unabridged Works of Edgar Allan Poe. As Hanna talks with Lesli in Mona’s bedroom she has a flashback of the night Mona told her about her wish to have a stopwatch that could stop time and allow her to spy on people and control them.
Later at the New Brew, Mike notices Lesli walk in with Hanna. He makes a beeline to Lesli, who is still carrying Mona’s book. (how weird) He commands Lesli to give him the book. Hanna promises Mike that she will make sure the book is returned to Mona’s room. But this interaction clues Hanna in on the importance of the book. When she returns it, Hanna has another Mona flashback that causes her to check the book and find that Mona had hidden one of Bethany’s Radley tape recordings in the spine.
Hanna leaves Mona’s with the Bethany tape and is pulled over by none other than from detective ShadyBrook, who still has not turned in his police car. Hanna pulls out her crow bar before she exits the car. (Good for you Hanna! I always keep a baseball bat in the car with me for such a time as this.) In the most gripping scene of the night, Holbrook admits that Ali used him and that he lost his career because of her. Yet he tells Hanna that he had been with internal affairs investigators for the last two weeks. He told her two other important facts: 1. Tanner knows everything. 2. There must be another fall guy who almost killed Caleb, Spencer, and Aria. Hmmm….
When he grabs Hanna, she whacks him and says what we all have been thinking, “you’re the grownup police officer” why are you messing around with a girl? *applause* Bethany’s tape does inform the girls that Bethany was very angry with someone (Ali?) and she is going to set a plan in motion.
Meanwhile, Aria follows Mike to a remote location and sees him leave a small plastic bag of candy. Is this candy for Bethany, A, or Mona? Did Mike secretly help Mona fake her death or is he following A’s instructions in order to get clues about what happened to Mona? During Mike and Aria’s argument, he tells his sister that he is not taking orders from anyone anymore and warns her to be careful going through the woods.
This really reminded me of Mona singing Teddy Bear Picnic in Season 3 as she is painting a puppet head before going to the Halloween Train. One of the lines of the song is “Every Teddy Bear who’s been good is sure of a treat today” and it goes along with Mike leaving the candy. The part that talks about hide and seek…gives me hope that Mona may be alive!!! Let’s hope so.
Until next time Liars…keep your friends close and your secrets closer!!!
"Bin of Sin" Review
Pretty Little Liars
Season 5.17
“Bin of Sin"
This week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars put a great deal of added stress on many relationships. If it was A’s plan to divide and conquer, he/she/shim was successful with Ezria, Spoby, and Hannah/Spence. However, ain’t no mountain high enough, valley low enough, or jail cell wide enough to keep Caleb from Hanna! Awww Haleb!!!
Aria finally tells Ezra about her letter to Jackie that described how she squandered her high school experience with an older guy. After reading the letter Ezra tells her it was a brilliant move because it got her into Talmadge. Later he recants and tells her she should consider leaving him and moving on to enjoy her college experience. This is the best advice I’ve heard all season. Leave him Aria! He’s probably hiding something else from you and sees this as a way to separate from you before you find out the truth! (This relationship just bugs me...I have no tolerance for older men dating high school girls!!!) Maybe Aria is starting to see the light through her yearbook.
Meanwhile, Talia finally lets Emily know she is interested in her. Nothing that we didn’t already know Talia!
But wait, the episode is called the Bin of Sin! So when Caleb, Spence, Emily, and Aria tell Hanna to leave the barrel alone, Hanna takes matters into her own hands. She researches, purchases all the needed equipment, and recruits Caleb to help her break into the storage unit and remove all the evidence of Mona’s murder. Surprise!!! A has already removed everything except the barrel. As Haleb walks out to get the dolly to transport the barrel they run into Tanner and Toby who are coming to check out unit 1017 too. Busted!!! (good thing you returned everything to your blue bag Hanna!)
So what’s inside the barrel?!?! When Tanner and Toby open it, the smell is too much for Toby, and Tanner sends him out to call the HazMat team. That’s when she finds the droplets of blood beside the barrel. Hmmm....what did that note Alison found inside her orange jumpsuit say? Oh yes, “your friends will be joining you soon”. Well it looks like Hanna could be first in line. Remember how easy it was for A to get Hanna’s O negative blood on the Ouji board?
Meanwhile, Spencer, Aria, and Emily follow Mona’s Lo-Jacked computer. It leads them to an old ice cream factory that is full of little clues. The ice cream clown logo is very reminiscent of the clown A had in his/her/shim’s lair. The dead rat that Emily finds with the freeze dried nuts reminded me of the dead rat that was found in Paige’s locker. But the biggest find was the computer that was in the freezer playing a video of Hanna telling Caleb all about her plan to break into the storage unit. So the computer was A’s way of spying on Hanna through her own computer. Of course as soon as Sparia grabbed the computer to leave, the Black Hooded One locks them in the freezer and turns on the liquid nitrogen. This was by far the scariest and most gut wrenching scene of the night. Thank God for Emily’s quick thinking and physical strength that got them out just in time!!! But of course they leave the computer in the freezer. Liars have you learned nothing in 5 seasons!!!???
Now let’s wrap this episode up with the rest of the relationship tension. When Hanna and Caleb hear about their video on Mona’s/A’s computer Hanna tells Caleb he should stay away from her because A is trying to take her down. But Caleb assures her that will never happen....even if they both go to jail. HALEB = Solid as a rock!!!
Hanna confronts Spencer about the day’s events and asks her when Toby’s job became more important than his friends. In an argument that resembles a Spencer/Alison clash of words, Spencer yells “you can’t blame this on Toby!” But Spencer and Toby may be the relationship destined to crack under A’s pressure. Toby calls Spencer and lies to her about his whereabouts and refuses to tell her what they found in the barrel. Cue the final A scene please... Guess whose fingerprints Black Hoodie finds when he/she/shim returns to the factory? Now there is evidence that can be used against all four liars!
This episode did not answer many questions, but it sure did leave us with a lot of clues to investigate. As always, until next time Liars keep your friends close and your secrets closer!