kelly duncan is a puppet…
Tonight’s episode shows A getting a little more brazen, Aria making terrible choices, Emily being too pushy and Spencer bringing her A-game, pun intended. We begin with the girls finally getting to visit Spencer in Radley. Sadly, they aren’t met with very welcoming arms. While it probably seems like Spencer has seriously lost her mind, the truth is she’s doing some serious investigating and is finding out what kind of things are really happening at Radley. After Hanna yells like a mad woman trying to convince Spencer that she doesn’t need to be in the hospital. The girls try telling her that the body she saw wasn’t Toby, but a John Doe. She refuses to believe it, arguing ensues and she goes to her room with no good-byes.
Out in the real world, A is getting pretty ballsy. While it’s clear Ezra’s baby mama doesn’t care much for Aria after she let Malcolm fall off the bed and cut his chin, Ezra asks Aria to pick him up from karate anyway so that he doesn’t have to miss a follow-up job interview. When Aria gets to the karate place, Malcolm is already gone and is told that Aria Montgomery has already picked him up. Whaaat?! Here’s the kicker, Aria just says ok and walks away. Who on earth would do such a thing? I mean, A is kidnapping now? Clearly, saying nothing is one of the worst decisions Aria’s made yet. I wouldn’t be so willing to take the blame for that one. Anyway, she checks out his cubby and finds a flier for a creepy carnival with a crazy marionette show, and she heads straight there, because the flier was clearly a clue from A. After frantically searching, she finds Malcolm eating an ice cream cone staring at the lifeless puppets waiting for the next performance to begin. That’s when he tells her that Aria’s friend Alison picked him up. Rightfully, Aria’s jaw drops and they leave. Later, while at dinner with Ezra, Aria is freaking out thinking that Malcolm is going to tell Maggie what really happened and that’ll be the end of their relationship. But, no, he says he had a great time and falls asleep. That’s when Aria decides to end things with Ezra! I know that she does it because she doesn’t want anything to happen to Malcolm, but it’s still a terrible call because Ezra is pretty much perfect. I suppose it’s ok though, because somehow, even though she says the words, when they part ways for the night they do not seem broken up.
Now, previously, I had been proud that Emily was stepping up and taking charge a little bit when no one else seems to want to make any decisions regarding the whole A situation, but tonight I found her to be slightly annoying. She decides the only way to get Spencer out of Radley is to prove to her that she never saw Toby’s body. They have to do this by breaking into the morgue and taking a picture of the John Doe. Apparently, Emily has forgotten that Aria and Hanna have their own things going on. You know, Hanna sinking Wilden’s car, and Aria’s boyfriends kid being kidnapped while she’s supposed to be keeping an eye on him. So when the girls get to the morgue and Hanna isn’t completely focused on checking out dead bodies she gives her a snippy, unwarranted attitude. Regardless, Hanna and Emily get in and begin checking toe-tags while Aria is the look out. When they get to the John Doe, they are shocked to find that the body isn’t Toby’s, but he is also wearing a super creepy mask that has been made to look like Ali. At the same time Aria spots the infamous girl in the red coat, but again doesn’t see her face.
While I’m still not thrilled with the storyline involving Caleb and his dad I’ll let you know what happened. As you may recall, Hanna’s mom got her boyfriend the pastor to give Caleb’s dad, Jamie, a job. He had been doing construction on the bell tower and things seemed to be going really well. That is of course, until he brought the bronze bell, valued at $8,000 to get fixed up, and when it came back it was no longer made of bronze. He was then accused of stealing it.
After the accusation was made, Hanna tells Caleb about the money that she thought he had stolen from the donation box during their first trip to the church. Caleb is devastated and he more or less ends the relationship he had started to build with him. Cue, A. Hanna gets a text from A letting her know that A was responsible for the whole bell fiasco. Now, Hanna’s in a lose-lose situation. Tell Caleb the truth and piss off A or say nothing and Caleb misses out on knowing his father. Again.
Back at Radley, things are getting craaazy. Spencer is getting more and more information from Eddie by the minute. He is getting ready to play a board-game with her when Wren interrupts and pretty much kicks Eddie out of the room. The exchange was awkward and uncomfortable and does not go unnoticed by Spencer. Wren plays it off like it was no big deal and casually mentions that the game Spencer is holding was once Mona’s obsession. This gets her attention and she begins to look at it a little more closely. She discovers that it’s a map. As she follows it, she finds that it leads to a window that is left open, clearly a big no-no in the nut house. A little later in the day, Spencer is once again talking to Eddie, who divulges that he doesn’t trust Wren and his reasons for being at Radley. I have to admit, I’m starting to feel the same way as the season continues.
That night, Spencer continues to follow her map when she sees Ali, who points her in the direction of the end spot for Mona’s map. Spencer finds a rocking horse with a hollow head that Mona had kept souvenirs in. This is when Wren shows up. I can’t lie; I’m not so sure we can trust him anymore. Sure, he’s adorable and his accent is charming, but he’s getting a little creepy. After a short chit chat, Spencer goes back to her room and discovers a black hoody shoved in her pillow case along with a pair of tickets to the carnival that Aria was at. It looks like she’ll be joining the A-team. The big question is, is she serious, or does she want to investigate from the inside? With next week’s season finale, we’re sure to find out.
