Pretty Little Liars - Season 3 Episode 1 - Recap and Review - It Happened That Night

The time has come for the return of Pretty Little Liars! The opener for Season 3, "It Happened That Night," was part catch-up, part set-up, and part screw-up (Sorry, Emily). This show isn't slowing down at all in it's third season. If anything, the reveal that there are indeed more "A's" out there working together means that these liars can be tortured more often than one at a time.

Five months after A’s big reveal, the core four are at the Hasting’s pad, partying to “S&M” by Rihanna, probably because it’s not a high school end of summer reunion without a little “na, na, na, come on!” these days, right? They deserve a night of normal teenage shenanigans. The girls have spent the summer apart, studying art, taking college courses, building houses in Haiti, and working on vocabulary/ becoming a bitchier blonde.  Can you guess who did what? Now they’re back in Rosewood, and while Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Aria (Lucy Hale), and Hanna (Ashley Benson) have seemingly all moved on, Emily (Shay Mitchell) is heartbroken over Mya.

First "A" text of the season: “Show me your boobs.- A”

The whole town knows about A now, and the girls have been hounded by the press and public. Party’s over! Soon enough, the girls pass out. Hanna and Aria wake up, from a really bizarre sleeping situation on Spencer’s couch, to an open door. Spencer arises, and Emily is missing. We cut to Emily, wasted drunk and holding a shovel, above Allison’s #emptygrave.  Yes, that was the twitter trend ABC Family promoted. The girls eventually make contact with her, and rush to the gravesite. Emily’s call log had a missed call listed around 11pm. Spencer realizes her phone called Emily at midnight, as well, and she puts two and two together. Someone was in her house, and they’ve been set up… again! As a result of subsequent setups, though, these girls have become experts at covering their trails and burning evidence. They realize the only one who could want Allison’s body is her killer.

Clever Spencer devises an alibi. They weren’t even in town that night. Instead, they had been at her lake house all day. She even writes a fake note to her mom before they actually head over there. Soon enough, Mrs. Hastings (Lesley Fera) calls with news of the grave robbery, and Spencer acts concerned. Emily is feeling guilty for slipping up as a result of her inebriation. Emily didn't seem that drunk to me. Aria wants to go the cops, but of course, that’s not going to happen. Spencer’s smarter than the police, anyway.

Fast forward to Aria jolting awake from a nightmare on Fitz’s (Ian Harding) couch. She lies to him about being at the grave the night prior. They plan their anniversary dinner. Next, Hanna is out shopping with her mom (Laura Leighton). Her mom asks her opinion on a dress.

Hanna: “I love it for a pregnant woman!”

What a successful summer Hanna has had! This scene is more so important because Spencer is shopping with her mom, too. The moms whisper to one another about the murder trials, and Mrs. Hastings reveals that they were planning on reexamining the body. Also, we find out that Hanna has been going to “therapy,” meaning she’s been visiting Mona (Janel Parrish) and using an alias. No one knows, she’s been lying. At the hospital, we catch up with Mona. The lights are on, but no one is home.  After Hanna finishes her visit, she bumps into doctor-of-all-trades, Wren, who apparently works at the mental hospital now, too. Hanna pleads with him to keep it a secret. We see Mona, seemingly very sharp and active, glaring through the crack of the door. Is Mona playing crazy?

Meanwhile, reporters have been bugging Emily at her house, but her scary mom has managed to keep them at bay. She gives Emily an emotional pep talk about moving on after Mya’s death, but Emily feigns being fine. In another PLL bedroom, we have Spencer flirting with Toby (Keegan Allen). They’ve decided to on sex, but Spencer can’t remember why because she’s too enamored with Toby.

Toby: “You’ll remember after I put some clothes on.”

Cool, Toby. Spencer is lying to Toby about the gravesite incident, too. The next day, the girls are back at Rosewood High to kick off their senior year. Hanna and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) have been taking cooking classes together, and Caleb complains about having to grocery shop alone. Cool, Caleb. Guess what? Hanna lies about the gravesite visit, too! In the bathroom, Aria is having a tough time locking a stall. No matter, though, her bladder will have to wait. Is that really A she spies? Or just an illusion brought on by her panic attacks. Aria has been struggling with her fears. Spencer and Hanna rush in to rescue her.

Spencer: “She can’t hurt us anymore! Bitch crazy!”

Hanna: “Someday we will all have jubilation.”

Successful summer, Hanna! Later, Aria has a moment with her mom over packing boxes. Ella (Hollie Marie Combs) is moving out, and her parents have decided to separate. It’s different this time, though. Ella seems at peace with the decision. Aria blames her relationship with Ezra for tearing her folks apart, but her mother truthfully denies this. This is a very calming scene. It’s good to see these mothers comforting their daughters, at least for now. Emily’s mom is a little tough, though, so she calls Toby and they meet for coffee. She vents to him about her drinking habits, and about how she’s still a mess over Mya.

Toby’s sage advice: “That’s what’s so great about friends, they’re not your family, they accept you for who you are.”

Spencer has supposedly been studying for a test, but she’s actually been secretly journeying back to A’s lair. She’s studying A.

Hanna and Caleb are cooking. She gets a call from the psych ward, and it’s Wren. They think Mona is making progress because Hanna has been visiting, and they want her to come in the next morning. Hannah doesn’t want Caleb to know who she’s on the phone with.

Hanna: “Spencer, I don’t want to eat raw veggies if we’re hanging out in bikinis all day, but chips and salsa sounds great! Bye Spencer!”

Aria gets a call at home to go down to the police station. She, Spencer, and Hanna retell their fake lake house story in montage form. Meanwhile, Ella runs into Fitz outside the station, and warns him that it’s not such a good idea for him to show up there.  Afterwards, Aria invites her mom to join them on their anniversary date. Smart, Aria!

During Mona visit number two, Hanna thinks she’s making progress. Mona turns to her and offers a small yet sweet smile. Hanna thinks it’s directed towards her, but it’s actually directed at a hallucination of Allison in her red coat reading in the corner. Wow, maybe Mona is crazier than we were led to believe, or maybe she’s just on drugs.

She’s been typing up a storm in A’s lair, but Spencer leaves after getting a call from Garrett (Yani Gellman). He asks her to visit him in jail. He claims to be innocent, and to want to help her. In return, he wants her mom to represent him in court. Spencer sternly refuses, but in a desperate move, Garrett shouts that he knows who took Allison’s body. Doesn't it matter that he just shouted that out loud in front of everyone?

The next day Emily is out running, and she gets a text. A familiar car is near by, and the creepy text says something about how Emily “knows she remembers them.” Emily realizes she knows more about the night she wandered out to Allison’s grave than she had originally thought. The car drives away, and she knows it’s a piece of the puzzle. She meets the others back at Spencer’s house to tell them. Hanna confesses to visiting Mona, and the girls scold her for giving Mona positive attention after she harassed them for two whole seasons. Along with these revelations, Spencer decides to show the girls what she’s been working on.

At A’s lair, Spencer shows the girls the digital replica of A’s room she’s spent all summer working on. It’s pretty stellar computer imaging, if you ask me. Especially because it’s apparently all done by memory. They confess to Emily that they’ve been hiding something from her. They tried to clean out A’s lair after Mona was taken down, but it was already emptied by someone. They’ve figured out that A really is a team, and that Mona could never be in two places at once or strong enough to accomplish some of A’s more devious work.

Suddenly, the car alarm goes off, and the girls rush outside. They left Spencer’s laptop! Why leave the laptop? It’s so easy to just grab! The car is open and littered with photos of the girls at the gravesite. Someone set them up, and of course, someone saw them.

First real A text of the season: “Mona played with dolls, I play with body parts. Game on bitches!- A”

Yeesh.

What did you all think of the premier of season 3? Are you buying that Aria’s panic attacks are causing her to see things or that Emily is blocking memories? Did Emily really seem that drunk to you? Is Mona really a nutcase? Why doesn't Spencer remember Mona flat-out asking her to join the A-Team after the big reveal last season?