Pretty Little Liars - Season 3 Episode 9 - Recap and Review - The Kahn Game

I can't believe it took the writers on this show this long to concoct a plot surrounding a game of "Truth or Dare?" Apparently, when it comes to the Pretty Little Liars, death will befall all those who actually dare to lie. "The Kahn Game" got us fired up for the upcoming summer finale. We hate everyone! Except, the liars!

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

The episode began with Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Aria (Lucy Hale) stopping for coffee to lament the crumbling of their social and academic lives. Their lives are now consumed by A's games. Spencer, yes Spencer, even forgot to apply early admission to UPenn. She's tired of being Velma and she's ready to be Daphne. Hanna (Ashley Benson) is still alive, Spencer. Plus, I always thought Daphne was seriously underused and underrated, and these girls all have a touch of both Scooby friends to them. Aria tried to get Spencer's attention with a picture of Maya she had found sporting that spooky private party stamp, but Spencer was too preoccupied.

Luckily (not really), Cece Drake (Vanessa Ray) was back this week to offer a friendly helping hand. Allegedly, she went to Penn and she knows a guy who now works in admissions. She offered to take the girls to a party he was planning on attending, after they do a little begging. Spencer looked a little surprised to hear that Cece went to Penn. Her inner monologue said, "who did you have to bang?"

This episode was full of scumbags, and the first came to Ashley Marin (Laura Leighton) via police messenger. He seemed nice enough, but doofy Officer Wilden's accusations towards Hanna have managed to get a blood test court ordered. Ashley got Spencer's mom, Veronica, working on putting a stop to that. Ashley also ran into Pastor Ted again this week, and he finally mustered up the courage to ask her on a date.

Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) also grew a pair this episode. After a slightly awkward series of stares and glances down a long hallway in Rosewood High, he spoke to Hanna... with words! They basically just chitchatted, and he handed her a note meant for Spencer containing the password to Maya's website. In other breaking news, Hanna and Caleb officially have the same exact hairdo.

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Hanna lied and passed it on to Emily (Shay Mitchell) instead. A white lie on this show is basically a truth, at this point. The girls have been keeping the contents of Maya's page a secret from Emily, as she's been busy with her own Paige (Lindsay Shaw). They're happy to see her happy for once; however, Emily got the truth out of Hanna, who spilled everything. She's such a Daphne!

Last week we met the poor man's Eleanor Waldorf (Gossip Girl reference) in the form of Ezra's (Ian Hardin) mother. This week Wizards of Waverly Place lent its resident werewolf to PLL. Gregg Sulkin guest starred as Ezra's little brother, Wesley. He seemed a lot less shady and a little cooler than Fitz, if you ask me. Aria's first run-in with Wesley came just outside of Ezra's apartment and just after a brotherly blowout occurred.

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

According to Ezra, his grandfather's car that he sold for quick cash was actually his brother's to sell. Wes gladly loaned the car to Ezra for selling, but once their mother found out, she claimed the car as a family heirloom and demanded its return. The only way Ezra can afford the jacked up price of the Jag is to take a loan from his mother, further shackling him to the awfulness of being born rich. Ezra struggled to finagle a way out.

Spencer threw on her mother's Sunday best in an attempt to impress Cece's college buddy at this mystery party, but Aria wasn't having any of it. She wouldn't be caught dead standing next to a girl in a collegiate blazer at a party with booze and former frat boys. Aria vented to Spencer, and Spencer related to Ezra. Her Nana once offered her $200 to shave her father's sideburns, and she gladly obliged. She even left a scar. Knowing how awesome Spencer is, she probably scarred the man on purpose. She claimed she'd do it all over again, too. This is the girl who will kick A #2's ass by the season three finale.

Surprise! It's a Kahn brother's party, and Aria and Spencer are deer caught in the headlights as they find themselves stamped with the secret party symbol upon entering the gates of Hell, a.k.a. Noel's cabin. The Kahn boys are apparently behind the mystery parties. What a buzzkill, right? Poor Spencer strutted in ready to hand over her college application to Cece's friend, but the second-rate Alison snatched it out of her hands before she could blink. She'll handle it! Don't worry about it! Aria previously pondered why Ali wouldn't show off a pretty older friend like a pair of diamond earrings. Maybe it's because Cece is purely cubic zirconia.

Call me crazy, but Cece's attempt to look cool by drinking straight scotch out of a red solo cup just looked desperate. Grab a beer, bimbo! They're playing "truth or dare?" like five feet away. For all the effort the show put into advertising the introduction to Noel's brother Eric, you would have thought he'd be a duplicate Noel. The tool tendencies were there, but without the question of whether or not he murdered Alison hanging over his head, the similarities sort of ended there. We can give him a pass for now.

It was as if a spell had been cast over the cabin that suddenly prevented all those entranced by it from lying. The mere thought of playing this crazy, whiplash inducing version of "Truth or Dare?" struck fear in the hearts of all those in the Kahn game room. All those except, of course, Cece, who put on her best bitchy sorority chick routine to humiliate all those in her line of fire. Not so cool when you're twenty-two, Cece. Upon seeing Noel (Brant Daugherty) arrive with Jenna (Tammin Sursock), Spencer and Aria thought fast. They decided to use the game to interrogate the two, and judging by the looks on their faces, it kind of worked.

Aria went first and rapidly fired questions about Ali's case at Noel. He fired back with questions about Ezra. Apparently, he's still slightly burnt about that minuscule breakup. Remember when they dated? Me neither. The truth spell wore on Aria, though, and she decided to leave after being made to feel uncomfortable.

Cece: "You are so much prettier than Jenna!"

Maybe Cece is alright after all. Aria called Ezra in a huff to come rescue her, but Wes picked up. He agreed to pass on the information. Guess what happened next.

Wes picked Aria up instead! Tricky, Wesley!

Aria: "First, you take his phone and then you take his car. What's next?"

Just a theory, but if Ezra ends up being the friend to betray the liars on the summer season finale, #TheBetrAyal, the only way the show could possibly recover from crushing the hearts of fan girls by destroying Aria/ Ezra, would be to have Aria end up with a better version of Ezra. I'm way okay with that, already.

On the drive home, Wes thought he was making ground with Aria by talking about how dysfunctional his family is, but a slip of some dirt on Ezra changed things fast. Apparently, Ezra knocked up a girl in high school, and his mother paid to have them "take care" of it. The color drained out of Aria's face. When she finally got a moment with Ezra, she questioned him. Truth or dare, Ezra? He told all, and Aria looked pretty disgusted; however, she agreed to stay with him. He was young and stupid, and it was all a big messy mistake.

Emily laid low this episode. She spent what seemed like hours sifting through the endless pit of of Maya's Space. After subjecting herself to countless awful love poems Maya probably recorded when she was stoned, Paige showed up unexpectedly. Surprisingly, she was pretty okay with the whole scene. She related to Emily with a story about losing her grandfather and finding some old home movies. Maya's dead, and this isn't threatening. Then again, Maya's probably not really dead. She's probably A. Everyone is A!

Spencer was livid over the way Noel and Jenna treated Aria during the game. "You're so next," she sneered at Jenna. That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. Getting interrogated by Spencer would be terrifying. Jenna, trembling and ready to leave, was pressured by Noel to stay. They need answers from Spencer, too. The game started as Aria's round had, with questions about the murder and the case. Spencer shut the room down with a rousing "Where is Ali's body" type of remark, but time ran out. Jenna managed to unearth a few lies of her own. Noel was with her that night she found Emily, and she found her in a diner, not the street. Jenna claims she was protecting someone, just as the girls protected Emily by lying about being at Spencer's lake house.

Hanna had received a text from A asking her to meet at the Rosewood Grille around midnight. He threatened Caleb if she refused to show. Only problem, Caleb is the equivalent of an entire team of Apple Store Genius Bar geeks, and he was the one to send Hanna the A text. He figured out her secret. There's another A! Surprise! Truthfully, any idiot would have figured that much out by now, but at least Hanna can breathe a little easier. Marin make-out session! Even after finding out that A #2 ran his mother off the road, Caleb promised to help Hanna vanquish him at all costs.

Back at the Marin residence, Ashley cooked up chicken parm for Pastor Ted but spent the night on the phone butting heads with Wilden. Ted forgave her. Marin make-out session!

A frat party for post college grads is a party from Hell. Spencer begged Cece to stop macking on the older Kahn boy. Spencer Hastings can't be subjected to lame tomfoolery for this long of a period. Cece didn't seem pleased with her. Spencer figured the admissions connection was a lie and wondered why Cece really wanted to go to the party. Cece saved her own ass by claiming that her admission's friend just stopped in and picked up Spencer's application. At the episode's close, Spencer got an email from UPenn claiming her application was received. Fake or real?

The episode closed with A #2 picking up the keys to a certain "Unit A" from a crazy cat lady.

What did you think of the episode? Were you happy to see kreepy Kahn back in the game? Did you like Ezra's brother Wesley better than Ezra? Is Paige growing on you? What does Cece have up her sleeve? Is Jenna really all that bad, or are the liars and Jenna's group actually on the same team? How bad was Ashley Marin's chicken parm?