Pretty Little Liars - Halloween Special - Season 3 Episode 13 - Recap and Review - This Is A Dark Ride
This had to be the best episode Pretty Little Liars has ever delivered. If you're not watching this show by now, you're seriously missing out. "This Is A Dark Ride" was the annual Halloween Special, and not only was it incredibly intense and totally shocking, but it clued the viewers into a few massive revelations surrounding the A-Team. The time has come. The Liars' heads are the chopping block! Oh, Adam Lambert was there.
The episode opened with wackadoodle Mona (Janel Parrish) singing to another member of the A-Team from her cell. She slipped the A some drugs and bullets. It's Halloweentime; a time for murder and makeup. This is right up Mona's alley, no? Also, I'm pretty sure Janel Parrish is gunning for a record deal because she sings a lot. Mona was working on a craft, a paper mache replica of her own head. Why would she need a dummy of herself? Uh oh, it's time for cuckoo to fly the coop again!
We then met up with the core four. Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Hanna (Ashley Benson), Emily (Shay Mitchell), and Aria (Lucy Hale) strutted the streets of Rosewood contemplating costumes. Emily was ready to give some dork an ass kicking after finding a lawn display featuring a decorative version of Ali's coffin complete with the goon himself dressed up as Ali's corpse, waiting to pounce out. Spencer mocked him for not getting laid. This is what's been missing from my life over the past few months! How about this for a hashtag? #Spencer.
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Garrett Reynolds (Yani Gellman) is reformed, everybody! No, seriously. Apparently, he's absolutely spent since doing time. He made a stop at Spencer's house to drop off some flowers for her mom. In reality, he was looking to confess everything he knew about Ali's murder, and her missing body, to Spencer. Toby (Keegan Allen) barged in to break up the reconciliation in the name of protective evil boyfriends everywhere. Spencer whispered to Garrett to meet up later. She's a modern post-feminist! Toby's just another A!
Both Hanna and Aria dealt with their usual boy drama this week, too. Poor spleen-less Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) can't even reap the benefits of being in the know. He and Hanna have been laying low since he, you know, got shot. Aria, on the other hand, expected to have Ezra (Ian Harding) on her arm when she boarded... The A-Train! Fitz bailed, though. He had to do research for a biography he's working on in Philly. Was that code for "I'm visiting my illegitimate child" or "I'm A" or both? Both. Poor Aria and Hanna would have to board the train to Hell stag. What a way to live. Here's a thought, wouldn't it be interesting if Ezra was in on all of this because he wanted to write the Pretty Little Liars book series after it's all over? So meta.
The Liars turned up the heat this year with their costumes, walking into the train's pre-party like they owned the place, each throwing the others just a slight amount of "I look the best"-type shade. We had a Marilyn Monroe, a Daisy Buchanan, a 50's movie starlet (Lauren Baccall), and Barbarella. The winner of the swag award goes to Paige (Lindsey Shaw).
The pre-party set up some disposition as to what would go down. Lucas (Brendan Robinson) photographed everything and looked noticeably less like a druggie this episode. Aria and Hanna caught a glimpse of the costume we've come to know as "that dirty baby in the potato sack," and Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) faked his death using an Alien knockoff gag. We've been teased for weeks. Someone will die! Noel's faking, to me, put a target right on his face for a real kill later; however, that was pretty much the last of him until the end of the line. Jenna (Tammin Sursock) was a wench, eyepatch and all. I like a girl who can poke fun at her own former tragic blinding via explosion.
Before we get to the actual train ride, let's go through the one side story arc the special gave us. Ashley (Laura Leighton) and Pastor Ted had fun playing scary doctor and sexy nurse. They put on a show for some of the neighborhood kids until it got kind of late. Then, a ghostly gal showed up at the back door asking to call her mom. Right from the get-go, she screamed, "I'm a real ghost, Ash." Ashley let her call her mom, but ended up losing track of her. She found her skulking around Hanna's room and eventually, she was treated to story of the girl's lying sister. When Ashley put her hand on the girl's in a gesture of sympathy, she felt ice. The girl disappeared from the house without an explanation. *minor spoiler* could this be a hint of "the twin" some fans have alluded to?
"They tell me I'm a danger to myself! Now the crazy train is ready to roll! Oh!"
That's Adam Lambert performing his song "Cuckoo." Later on he treated the group to "Trespassing" from his sophomore album, as well. *cue the cast trying not to look awkward dancing in the front row* I liked Spencer's reaction to bumping into a spontaneous Adam Lambert concert.
Spencer: "You've got to be kidding me."
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While dancing, someone dressed as either the Phantom or Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon gave Hanna a spank.
Hanna: "Do that again and you'll leave with a bloody stump!"
The girls need to give a little more of that sass to the A-Team, if you ask me.
Jenna and Toby caught up at the cooler. Toby made kind of a tasteless blind joke, covering her non-patched eye with his hand. Now that we know Toby is on the A-Team, can we support Jenna a little more? Meanwhile, Jason (Drew Van Acker) made his presence known as James Dean! Catching up with Spencer briefly, it almost seemed like Jason was actually tailing Lucas. While Paige and Emily got some alone time in a separate compartment, Aria moped to Adam Lambert about her lack of an Ezra for the evening. Aria promised to be front row at Adam's next performance. She would never make it there! A slipped the drugs Mona gave him into her drink. Side note: I thought Adam did a pretty good job acting!
Oh, and this is how Aria introduced herself:
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Meanwhile, Caleb made himself known as the masked fellow who was teasing Hanna. He came to protect her, but she really doesn't need it.
We got a little bit of what sounded like Mona's eerie humming, only to watch "garbage pail kid" pin Spencer to a wall. It turned out to be Garrett in disguise! Apparently, Garrett only had a short amount of time before he left Rosewood behind for good. He liked Spencer and always wanted to be helping her. It was time to tell Spencer the truth.
Flashback: The night Alison (Sasha Pieterse) died, he and Jenna had left Melissa and Ian to argue in her bedroom. The two ventured into Ali's backyard, which was apparently under construction, only to bump into Alison herself. After throwing a few barbs back and forth, Alison ended up pushing a blind Jenna into the dirt. In an attempt to fool Jenna into thinking he was protecting her, Garrett picked up the murder weapon and banged it against a tree. Alison played dead. In other words, Jenna thinks Garrett actually killed Ali, and both of them had their hands on the weapon that allegedly did kill her later that night.
Spencer wasn't satisfied, though. Who killed Alison? Before leaving Garrett witnessed Alison and... Byron Montgomery (Chad Lowe), a.k.a. Aria's father, arguing in her back yard and tossing threats back and forth! Well, in a town full of awful dads, he's sure near the top of the list, anyway. Spencer ran to find Aria but only managed to bump into Hanna and Aria's purse. The scribble of Aria's name on the window had been wiped away to leave just the "A," and the girls got their first text in a long time.
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"Guess who's not going to make it to the end of the line- A"
Woo, A, your texting looked fancier this week! Should the girls believe Garrett? As Hanna put it, you get a varsity letter for messing with them in this town. Clever, Hanna! Spencer kept looking for Aria, while Emily and Hanna rounded up their dates. Where was Aria? Bound and gagged in a crate! Aria managed to knock the crate over and start working herself free. Meanwhile, Hanna ran into Caleb, or at least, a duplicate costume. After some toying, Hanna pulled the mask off to reveal an Alison mask! Who would end up behind it?
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Spencer found Garrett's mask, but no Garrett! Suddenly, a scary devil/ jester pounced and a fight broke out. Hanging Spencer from the train, it became clear that this could have been the end of the line for the Liars. Whoever was out to get them, was out to start killing them tonight. After a serious struggle, and what I would best describe as a real fist fight, Paige came to Spencer's rescue, pulling off some serious UFC-type moves! Paige gets the M.V.P. award this episode! Finally, reconciliation between these two. In addition, Paige found a giant fake nail on Spencer's dress.
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Back in the box, Aria managed to start breaking free. The tape came off her mouth, just before she realized she wasn't alone in there! Did she really take that long to realize she was sharing the crate with... Garrett's body?! That's right, folks. Garrett Reynolds is no more. In the mean time, Hanna concluded from the oversized nail that some fool is running around attacking ladies in drag, and I'm pretty sure Jenna found Lucas' camera. Is that the same prop camera Aria uses?
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The box started shaking, and Aria realized she was being moved. Placing her on the edge of the train, Aria went into panic mode as the other three girls searched frantically. Eventually, they came to the end of the line. Aria's necklace tipped them off. Hanging by what was literally a nail on the edge of the train door, Aria bought herself another second by stabbing a hand through the cracks with a screwdriver left inside the crate. A wound to give away an A-Team member (Toby) next episode? Hanna smashed the glass on a locked door with an extinguisher, and the three just barely managed to catch the box before Aria fell to her doom. See? The A's are indeed looking to kill these girls. Two of them almost died tonight. Then again, why save Emily from Nate last episode? Do they want credit or is there something else going on here?
The best episode ever came to and end with the group being questioned by police. Noel and Jenna blamed the girls on sight, but Hanna wasn't having it. They barely take these two doofuses seriously at this point. Emily realized that they'd been pushed to release Garrett from jail so the A-Team could kill him. Two of the three film pervs are dead, leaving only Jason. Aria immediately wrote off accusations against her father. To me, a dead Garrett means he was probably telling the truth. As Noel continued to push Spencer, Toby stepped in and things got physical. Knocking Noel into the ice cooler, the contents spilled to reveal Alison's body bag. Oh, Ezra just happened to show up.
The episode closed with Mona smirking like a loon back in bed with her Alison mask, and...
Flashback: Alison's hand bursting out of the plot where she was buried alive! Does Alison Dilaurentis Live?!
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What did you all think of the special episode? Were you as impressed as I was? Is the show going to continue to be more suspenseful now that we know the A-Team is actually out to kill the core four? Who's Halloween costume was your favorite? Will you miss Garrett now that we know more of the truth? Is Toby annoying you now that we know he's (allegedly, I know) part of the A-Team? What did you think of Glambert? Is... Ali... Alive?! Or was it just a Halloween spook?
