Pretty Little Liars ‘Dead to me’ review: Heartbroken with a side of madness

Is it just me or does Spencer look more and more MAD each episode after she found out about Toby’s secret? Well, we can hardly blame her. I think anyone would go a little mad if they found out their beloved boyfriend was in fact the same person who basically ruined your life time after time and has tried to kill either you or your friends on several occasions (of course that might have been another crAzy team member). That’s really just life in Rosewood, isn’t it?

I had a hard time grading this episode to be honest. I didn’t really feel like anything happened even though a lot actually did. I guess it’s because I feel like the girls are catching up to stuff we more or less already knew. Like the fact that the blonde girl in the red coat is in charge? Well, I don’t think any of us needed hypnotherapy to figure that one out. However, the big question still remains, who is she? I’ve tried to make a list of the blond girls we’ve met so far who has something to do with the girls, but please feel free to add anyone I left out in the comments field.

–       Hannah (Even though it’s not wise to assume anything in Rosewood, I think it’s pretty safe to rule her out.)

–       CeCe (I believe there’s more to this girl than we’ve seen so far.)

–       Meredith

–       Alison (Or maybe a long lost twin?)

Whoever it is, I’m hoping her identity will be revealed before the end of the season. I’d really love to see a game changing turn on the show. I want the girls to be the cats and the A-team to be the mouse next season, anyone else feel that way?

Even though I enjoyed seeing Hannah help Caleb with his family stuff (it was pretty obvious his ‘uncle’ was his dad, wasn’t it?) and watching Aria long for Ezra while bonding with his brother, I think Spencer and Emily were pretty much the stars of this episode, so to speak. How awesome was this? (Couldn’t help myself)

As I said before, I think Spencer has gone a little mad over the last few episodes, but I believe it was the ‘not-knowing’ part. As she referred to herself, she has pretty much been plucking petals of a flower ever since she found out Toby was on the A-team – ‘He loves me, he loves me not’. She was convinced that the key led to the A-lair and if he had taken the time to remove everything, knowing that she had the key, he would actually be ‘evil’. If not, there might have been more to the story, only, the place was completely empty and she more or less got her answer (I’m still not convinced though. I’m a sucker for happy endings, and I’m saying there’s still hope!). I do believe that Spencer will in fact now experience a breakdown… inside a breakdown, wonder how that’ll turn out. More madness? I hope that she’ll confide in the girls soon instead of pushing them away. I think it was extremely careless of her to spill everything to Jason. They’re not even sure it was Wilden who was the father (even though I personally think that) and with their past history in mind, something bad is almost bound to happen when they jump to conclusions.

Watching Spencer’s, in my opinion, realistic reaction to Toby’s betrayal, it was nice seeing Emily react very humane and realistic to taking another person’s life as well, self-defense or not. I like the fact that the show doesn’t just let her forget about it over night, especially because Emily has always been somewhat more sensitive than the others. I’m also thinking that the person in the hood from her flashback might have been Toby and that she’ll somehow figure out his secret by remembering seeing him that night.

I know it’s just the writers’ way of keeping us guessing etc, but I’d really like to see just a tiny reaction from Toby about Spencer finding out. I realize that this would probably give away too much on whether he’s really a bad guy or not, but still. The same goes for Ezra. I’d like to see just a 30 seconds clip of him with his son just to get a sense of whether he’s thinking of moving there, leaving Aria, or anything really, but that’s probably too much to ask for unfortunately.

Notes and thoughts

• WHO IS THE GIRL IN THE RED COAT?
• It was probably Wilden who removed the picture of him in Cape May from the police station after reading the notebook (Guilty much?)
• If the person in the hood at the end of the episode was able to buy alcohol, was that a hint saying the person is 21+ or did they simply use a fake ID? 
• Will we have a love triangle à la The Vampire Diaries with Aria/Ezra/Wesley?