Pretty Little Liars - Season 3 Episode 15 - Recap and Review - Mona-Mania!

Needless to say, it was "Mona-Mania!" tonight on Pretty Little Liars! As it turns out, knowing who A #1 is may be even more frustrating than not having a damn clue. The tables continued to turn on our favorite Liars in episode 15, as the A-Team continued to play their newfound confidence against them. Aria, for one, has begun to find her inner bitch, and I sure as hell love it. I'm no advocate for bullying, but for Christ's sake, throw that lunatic Mona in the trash already, Spencer!

The episode opened with Aria (Lucy Hale) and her father (Chad Lowe) having a heart to heart cold as ice chat about what happened to Meredith the night of the marathon. As it turned out, a true culprit had turned up, and Aria's ladies found themselves off the hook. Still, Aria wasn't having any of Byron's phony father nonsense.

Meanwhile, the other Liars continued their quest to sniff out the twisted custodian because nobody wanted to deal with Aria's daddy issues. Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Emily (Shay Mitchell) were sent into a frenzy when an A leaped from the shadows of the man's office and rushed out the door. Hanna (Ashley Benson), on the other hand, barely noticed what had just happened. It all played out like a scene from one of those Halloween haunted houses. You know, you think it's a dummy until it jumps out at you, then you scream your head off like a Pretty Little Liar. Needless to say, Ali's journal turned up blank, save for a note bookmarked from A prompting them to quit looking.

After meeting up at the coffee shop to discuss nightmares, like Aria's dad murdering Alison and Hanna getting gum stuck in her hair, the conversation turned to Spencer's plight to win the title of Academic Decathlon President. Cool, Spence. As it turned out, the boy who A sabotaged at the close of episode 14 was actually her only competition. Mona (Janel Parrish) showed up shortly after to talk about the marathon explosion. She claimed the janitor had been stalking her since she ran the A gift shop at his motel, even going as far as to say that he tried to blow her up. Eh, no one was buying it. Aria, for one, has had it.

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At school, Hanna revealed that she caught a glimpse of none other than Lucas (Brendan Robinson) in the custodian's office! See, she wasn't entirely oblivious! It was Lucas who tried to "scare" Mona with the explosion, leaving Hanna worried that he could end up in deep trouble. Later, Hanna even made the journey over to Lucas's actual house, where we finally got a good look at the kid's bedroom. Seriously, how great was his geek memorabilia collection!? Seeing that as Hanna's backdrop almost made me miss an important piece of information. Mona had been blackmailing Lucas, having had info that he'd been selling test answers. Basically, he was a glorified personal assistant to A, even admitting to delivering a package from Jason as his last mission. He thinks Mona is the one who attempted to run him over! In the end, Lucas is looking to leave Rosewood High, everybody.

Just before she could scoop up the presidency unopposed, Mona joined the ranks of Spencer's geek squad claiming that participating in a school club was as requirement in her reintegration. Spencer sat seething as her teammates divided among the two candidates. Mona did some campaigning. I mean, yeah right. Those kids were supposed to be smart? Whatever, Mona had something up her sleeve. Spencer got a subsequent text from A:

"Quit while you're ahead, bitch!- A"

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At this point, these girls don't even flinch at an A text. Convinced that Mona was revisiting her A-ways to intimidate Spencer, the girls wasted no time mean-girling her in the courtyard the next day. "Screw you and your anti-bullying viral video, Maniacal Mona!" Well, they said more than that, but that was the gist. Jason helped Mona film the video by supervising her internet use. She allegedly can't have a phone or use the internet.

Aria and her mother, Ella (Hollie Marie Combs), had a mother/ daughter chat in her classroom. Aria did her best to covertly pry regarding the whole "did Dad kill my bff" situation. Ella felt guilty herself, claiming that she and Byron got a little tipsy that night off of one too many glasses of vino. They missed Aria's first call the next morning. With Ella passed out, Aria was left wondering if her father purposely got her mother drunk. Later, Meredith visited Ella to make things awkward by suggesting things not be awkward. Also, she explained that she wasn't pressing charges for her burn. Well, somebody other than Aria was framed, so obviously not, mistress.

Back at the Montgomery household, Aria, Emily, and Hanna went over the facts. Only, the pages ripped from the journal were missing! Aria had stashed them in her boot. Byron popped in to witness the chaos, recanting some old story about how Aria used to cleverly hide her Halloween candy in her boots… Oh, that's creepy. Why would he give himself away like that? Later, Aria witnessed a pretty brutal fight between Bryon and Meredith in which Byron got physical, yet again.

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It's always good to see trusty Paige (Lindsey Shaw), if you ask me. I'm all for Paige at this point. Paige's parents apparently had her on lockdown, too. After the Halloween train catastrophe, why wouldn't they? Remember when Paige beat the crap out of A? Emily pressured Paige into going with her to a swim team party in the middle of the woods. She meant to say cool, then she started saying great. "Grool."

After studying like a well-bred wildebeest with Toby (Keegan Allen), Spencer was all ready to demolish Mona in their quiz-off for presidency. By the way, I like the fresh chop, Toby! Set on beating Mona fair and square, Spencer looked like she had the quiz-off in the bag, until her cockiness got the best of her. Mona took the win by one point. At least Spencer had the King of the Nerds on her side, right? What a great shoulder to be pissed off on! In other news, Mona just reached a whole new level of annoyance. Hanna showed up at her victory party to support Spencer, but she ended up lashing out at Mona over manipulating Lucas. This is the kind of blow-up that feels great in the moment but terrible next week when Mona kills Lucas. Back a the Hastings' house, Spencer iced her sore brain with a neat little icepack that matched her outfit. Hanna got an A text threatening her with "slicing and dicing" after she cut through that chump Mona. Spencer now realized that Mona doesn't have to be A to screw with them, she just has to bait them in just the right manner.

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Having witnessed her father assaulting Meredith, Aria scurried off to meet her at the coffee shop, even if she was a little under the weather. Meredith sat their, sipping sadly in her teacup. The fight occurred because Meredith caught Byron snooping through Aria's things. She managed to swipe the journal papers, and, of course, she read them, too! Knowing that Byron had snuck out that night, Meredith and Aria went back and forth comparing information. Apparently, he assumed Meredith was in on Alison's blackmailing scheme, even stopping by her apartment before heading over to Alison's house the night she went missing. Later, the two confronted Byron without revealing that they knew he'd taken he journal notes. Afterwards, Meredith whipped up a batch of her signature "powerhouse potion" tea to cure her flu, and the two agreed to zip their lips before knowing the whole truth. Aria had a good episode, I thought. She's wising up and getting involved!

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Just like Nicki Minaj.

On the way to the party, Paige parked the car, desperate for fresh air. Paige's parents could give a crap about protecting her. It was Paige who put herself on lockdown! True, people keep dying, and the A nonsense seems to be escalating. After a brief walk to calm her nerves, the couple returned to Paige's car to find a tire slashed! Paige fumbled to change the tire, left in an utter panic from the latest debacle. Suddenly, Emily caught a flash of one of an A in the woods. More angry than scared, at this point, Emily dashed after the hoodlum, hoping to unmask a new enemy. Toby just barely escaped.

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That night, Paige crashed at Emily's, and the two opened up about the entire ordeal. Emily pleaded with Paige to see someone about her newfound crippling anxiety. Emily, in turn, found herself feeling guilty for confiding any of her incriminating secrets in Paige.

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Episode 15, "Mona-Mania!" closed with the kook herself, Mona, stalking Aria's dad, while Toby buried their Halloween masks under some leaves.

It looks like Spencer discovers Toby's secret in next week's episode! Is it me, or does Spencer Hastings seem like the kind of gal who'd sort of enjoy discovering that her boyfriend was A?

What did you all think of Episode 15? Will all of the "Mona-Mania!" get to the Pretty Little Liars? What will become of Lucas? What's Jason's deal? Could Meredith be the true murderer?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Pretty Little Liars Season 3, Episode 15, "Mona-Mania!"