Pretty Little Liars 3×08 ‘Stolen Kisses’ recap

Just a quick question for anyone out there: How closely does this show follow the book series? I’m only curious because the more I watch, the more I begin to consider reading the original story. As we all know, nine times out of ten, the book is better than the film (or in this case, the TV series). Or at least… those of us who still read books know this to be true. So if anybody has read the book series, leave a quick comment and let me know how they compare to the show. Thanks.

What I really liked about last week’s episode ‘Stolen Kisses’ was that each of the four girls got equal screen-time. Well, maybe not quite equal, but it was pretty close. In order to hit the highlights, I’m just going to break it down and explain what happened to each of the four girls individually. I’ll start with Aria, because she’s my favorite.

Aria

Poor Aria. She drops in to see Ezra one morning only to find that his mother is there visiting. Aria has never met her before, so she introduces herself and is very polite. Ezra’s mother acts as though she is delighted to meet Aria, and invites her to an upcoming social event at a local art gallery. Aria accepts the invitation, and Ezra’s mother puts on a good show, but it’s clear from that very moment that this woman has got something up her sleeve. Or at least, I certainly had a hunch, and it turns out I could not have been more right. When Aria shows up at the art gallery a couple nights later she discovers that Ezra’s family is in fact very wealthy; they own the entire gallery, and his last name is Fitzgerald, not Fitz, as he always made her believe. She finds it strange that he never told her about this before, but doesn’t think too much on it. Later she is admiring a painting when suddenly Ezra’s mother approaches her. She starts the conversation in a very pleasant tone, but quickly becomes a complete bitch. She tells Aria that she has ruined Ezra’s life, and that she wishes nothing more than for her to leave him alone from now on. Upset, Aria slips out of the gallery without telling Ezra and runs home to her dad. Poor girl…what do you do when your boyfriend’s mother is a bitch? Another very good question is: Why didn’t Ezra ever tell Aria about his family’s wealth? Was he really just trying to avoid the attention, or is he hiding something?

Hannah

Hannah is in near-panic mode because the Rosewood Mental Hospital is considering moving Mona to a hospital out of town. She meets up with Wren, begging him to talk to the other doctors and tell them not to move Mona. He agrees to talk to them, but says that he can’t promise anything. As it turns out, the doctors don’t listen to him, but he does tell Hannah that if she talked to them, they might reconsider. And so she does, and in the end it all works out and the doctors decide that it’s best to keep Mona in Rosewood where she has a friend. When Wren informs Hannah of their decision she is ecstatic, and not so accidently leans forward and kisses him on the lips. After she’s done it, you can tell by the look on her face that she’s like, “Oh shit…that was a mistake.” Wren, on the other hand, doesn’t really react at all, other than stare at her for a moment before saying how happy he is for her. You can barely see it, but for about a nanosecond there’s this look in his eyes that says, “Don’t go there, Hannah.” He totally wants to, though…everybody knows it. All I’m going to say is, I saw this one coming from a mile away. Guess we’ll have to see what becomes of it.

Spencer

Spencer has been at the computer for several days (again) trying to crack the password to the website that Mona gave them in the last episode. She knows that she’ll never be able to figure it out on her own, and so she asks Caleb for help. Apparently he’s some kind of computer genius. (It is always rather useful to have someone like that around.) Long story short, Caleb helps her figure out the password, and when they finally get onto the site they discover that it’s full of videos that Maya made. Spencer doesn’t feel comfortable watching any of the videos, especially without Emily, and Caleb agrees that they ought not to. After he leaves Spencer text messages the others and tells them that she and Caleb got onto the site, and that they need to come over so that they can all look at the videos together. They can’t get a hold of Emily, though. She’s…well, busy.

Emily

Emily is trying to figure out what happened to her the night that she was drunk. She knows that someone slipped something into her drink, but she has no idea what happened afterwards and she wants to find out. And so she goes to talk to Paige. (Is it bad that the first thing I thought when I saw her was, “OMG! It’s Moze!”?) Paige obviously knows something, but she is very reluctant to talk about it. Finally Emily gets her to tell her everything. Apparently Emily showed up at Paige’s house that night, and she kissed her. Emily is upset at hearing this, and runs off to talk to Maya’s cousin Nate. Emily is confused because she doesn’t know if she kissed Paige because she thought she was Maya, or if she did it because she truly has feelings for her. After a long heart to heart with Nate she concludes that she does in fact have feelings for Paige, and so she rushes back to her house to tell her. It is at this time that Spencer text messages her. Emily doesn’t get it, though, because she and Paige are in the swimming pool. Somehow I get the feeling that that’s something Emily and Maya used to do together. I was glad to see that Emily has finally found someone. It’s about time she gets a little love!

Well, that’s about all I’ve got for now. Don’t forget that episode nine is on tonight on ABC! Be there or be square.