Hello, Pretty Little Liars fans! PLL is back and with that the reviews and recaps begin. This season, me and Katie, another writer here on NoWhiteNoise, will write them. Back to PLL, even though I liked the episode, I feel like it could have been better. I really liked the season two finale and I guess I expected season three to start that way. I’m sorry the recap/review is so long! Please tell me if you’d like it shorter, I’ll at least try to make it that way.

"Mona played with dolls, I play with body parts. Game on, bitches. - A"

The episode started with a little party where the girls told each other what they did during the summer. It was fun to see them as normal people because I just knew it wouldn’t last for long. Aria took a photography class, Spencer went to Hollis, Emily built houses and Hanna took cooking classes with Caleb. She also expanded her vocabulary, obviously. Emily drank a little bit more than I was used to seeing her drinking and I could see the effects of losing Maya on her. To Maya.

One thing I don’t get is how someone pulled a prank on them as A and they didn’t even care (ok, it was ridiculous)  but when they hear a noise that can easily be the wind, they almost jump.

Anyway, the beginning of this episode was totally a parallel to the pilot. First with the little party, then the girls fall asleep and when they wake up Spencer and Emily are gone. Of course Spencer was the one to say Emily isn’t anywhere. So they call her. Turned out she was at the cemetery, drunk, looking at Alison’s grave, which was empty.

I thought that was something like Emily, being drunk, dug out the grave and didn’t find the body there and then they would think Alison isn’t dead and stuff and I was super excited but the body was just stolen. Yeah, that’s good too.

The girls went there and they all agreed it wasn’t Emily who did that. What happened was that Emily got a call from a blocked number, went to the cemetery, then got a call from Spencer’s phone while she was asleep. Meaning someone was in the house while they were sleeping which got me excited again!

Then Aria and Hanna bury the shovel Emily was holding – after cleaning the digitals for once – and Spencer and Emily go back to Spencer’s house. There, the two girls talk about who may have done it, but end up without ideas. Hanna and Aria get to her house, seeing Lucas get into his car in the middle of the night before getting there, only to leave again to Spencer’s grandmother’s lake house to make it look like they weren’t there when it happened.

I appreciated so much the smart thing they did with the shovel, why did they have to screw it up again? In my opinion they should have gone to the police, like Aria said when Spencer’s mom called to tell them the news. But they prefer to lie, lie and lie again. Don’t they know that’s just gonna bring them more trouble? I feel sorry for Em, though. I can understand why she felt so guilty, I’d feel guilty too. She’s always the one who keeps suffering the most, I wish they’d just give her a break.

Later that day (?), Aria is in Ezra’s house and they start talking about what happened but the subject quickly goes to what this weekend is. The anniversary of Ali’s death and also the Ezria anniversary. I love how Ezra wants to be romantic and they end up hooking up just like in the first “date”.

Then we cut to Hanna and Ashley shopping and I remembered why Hanna is my favorite: she’s fun. The other girls, while also fun, are more dramatic. Hanna is both fun and dramatic in the right measure. Ashley is also my favorite mom, as I said in the mother’s day post, and I love how concerned she is about the girls when she talks to Veronica about it.

Meanwhile, Spencer and Hanna are choosing clothes and Spencer gets a call from an unknown number which she doesn’t take saying that it was Toby. And then they talk about Toby which warms my heart because Spoby is my Pretty Little Liars OTP. <3

Another reason for me to love Hanna: she confronts people.

Then Hanna leaves to see Dr. Sullivan and you guys, she doesn’t steal the necklace. I was shocked. Just as shocked as I was when I saw that she was visiting Mona. She doesn’t move, by the way. She just breaths.

I also love how Emily’s mom was awful to her and didn’t accept her as who she was in the beginning of the series but now she is totally ok with it and super supportive. Second favorite mom (now). It’s really sweet how she tries to comfort Emily. Once again I feel sorry for her.

Again, Mona doesn’t move. Did she even blink? It’s creepy how she’s just there staring at nothing while Hanna talks. And I hope Hanna gets her answers, I’d also die to know what I did to make my best friend hate me. I wouldn’t want to run into someone I knew in the way out, though, exactly what happened to Hanna. She and Wren talk, she asks him not to tell anyone she was there and then they left, leaving us with the view of Mona’s eye from behind the door. She moved. And it was creepier than when she was just breathing.

Then we move to hot and cute Spoby scene at her house (she gets another call with unknown number by the way) and cute Haleb scene at school. It’s registration weekend and Aria tells Spencer how adorable her dad is, especially when she says Ezra’s name. Hanna arrives and they see Lucas pass by, they even talk to him, but he doesn’t answer and then they start to talk about how he’s gone dark. They also wonder about who is the Black Swan and where is Emily. Oh, she’s outside, watching you almost crying. Poor girl.

And then there’s a scene with Aria in the bathroom that’s supposed to be creepy (and it was) but I found it so funny because it’s like, she in the bathroom so NO ONE else can enter it. Because there aren’t any other girls that use hoodies. She has a freaking panic attack and nothing even happened. I’m sorry, but I laughed at this scene. Hard. The girls get there, comfort her, hug and stuff but I’m still laughing so I didn’t pay much attention to that.

Later at home, Spencer is looking at the Black Swan costume pictures but pretends to be studying when her mom asks her if she doesn’t want to go out. The minute Veronica steps out of the room she grabs her laptop and gets out.

Meanwhile, Aria and Ella are gathering her stuff because she and Byron are getting a divorce or at least separating. Sad, but I saw it coming. Not that sad because I don’t like Byron, but anyway…

Toby and Emily meet in a restaurant and they catch up. I miss their friendship and I feel like in the end of season two they interacted a little more. Now they interacted again! I hope it keeps that way. Toby said that Spencer was studying but she’s actually getting into A’s creepy room that’s now empty on that motel in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, studying. A few scenes later she finally answers the call with the unknown number.

Caleb and Hanna are being cute again on her house when Wren calls. Wren, why would you interrupt Haleb cuteness?

Back to Toby and Emily, we find out that Emily basically got drunk during all the summer and Toby is super cute about it, comforting her, saying that she didn’t let the girls down and all of that. I need more of their friendship.

The police has a problem with the girls because they were at the lake house and they still called them to speak with them. On the way out, Ella wasn’t nice with Ezra. Not that she was great with him before, but it was different. I wonder if there’s more on that storyline.

Then Hanna goes to check on Mona after that call from Wren and when I thought she was making progress, she was seeing Alison in an empty chair. But she moved again and she even smiled so it’s progress anyway.

We finally find out who was the unknown number: Garret. He says he’s not guilty and that he may know who the killer is. Spencer doesn’t believe him but I do. I don’t think Garret did it. He only gets her attention when he says he knows who took the body, but he had to go.

The few last minutes went quickly to me because they were awesome. Emily remembered something about the night when she saw a car and then she got a text saying “I bet you remember me”. The girls were worried about her but then she showed up crying. After explaining that she didn’t tell anything to the police, she told them about what she remembered and that she blocked the memories. That is totally book Spencer, one of the reasons why I liked it. I love when they get closer to the books.

Then Hanna confesses that she’s visiting Mona and Spencer confesses that she’s visiting A’s creepy room to try to recreate it before it was cleaned up. There, the girls confess to Emily that they didn’t clean it up, it was already empty when they went there to do so. And after all the confessions, one of the girls’ car’s alarm goes off and when they go see what’s happening, it’s full of pictures of them right in front of Alison’s grave. Of course they get a text: “Mona played with dolls, I play with body parts. Game on, bitches. – A”

And that’s it. The episode was good, just not what I expected. Let me know what you thought about it and about the recap so I can make it better in anyway I can. Until next time!