Pretty Little Liars - Recap: Aria… Breaks… EVERYTHING!

Episode 21 of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, “She’s Come Undone,” handed us an unexpected new lead in the Ali (Sasha Pieterse) murder mystery. Well, she’s still alive, but you get what I’m saying. With Ezra (Ian Harding) out of town for some shameless self-promotion, Aria (Lucy Hale) was free to break everything the man has ever owned in one fell swoop over his apartment. Meanwhile, Emily (Shay Mitchell) faced an unfortunate ultimatum from Paige (Lindsey Shaw), and Hanna (Ashley Benson) has two new potential love interests in her life. Now that Ravenswood is cancelled, can we count on Caleb returning to make it three? As all of this went down, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) faced the threat of rehab and the possibility that she might have taken a shovel to Ali’s skull. Here is the Recap and Review of Pretty Little Liars Season 4 Episode 21, “She’s Come Undone”!

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Episode 21 opened with Aria confessing all to the other three Liars. Yikes. I’m not really sure which is worse: Ezra simply being A or Ezra being a psycho-stalker out for a book deal. In any case, this relationship looks like it’s done, doesn’t it? How could anyone ever get over having their entire life documented secret by secret for years by the one person they’re supposed to trust the most? P.S.- Ezra thinks one of the Liars tried to kill Ali. Well, Hanna and Emily are out because no one is subscribing to those theories. That leaves a potentially crazy Aria and a drug-addled Spencer. More on this later!

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Back at Hastings Manor, Spencer’s parents, Veronica (Lesley Fera) and Peter (Nolan North), confronted her about her amphetamine addiction. Was it time to send Spencer off to rehab? Spencer bought herself one pass to attempt to prove that she could kick the bad habit on her own, promising to keep up with withdrawal meds under her parents' supervision. It was also time to make nice with Toby (Keegan Allen) this week over some cronuts. Croissant-donuts that are basically shells injected with trans fats. Doesn’t the word “cronut” read like a specific species of caveman or something? Spencer’s apology went over well enough, for what it’s worth.

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Hanna, meanwhile, bumped into Travis (Luke Kleintank) looking all spiffy in the school hallways. Did he have a job interview or something? Nope! Travis was due in court as his father’s part in Wilden’s crooked dealings had still gone unpunished. Hanna felt terrible. Remember, it was Hanna who put the pressure on Luke to rat out the true culprit who’d been witnessed the night of Wilden’s murder, and his father had been put through some sort of scandalous bribing situation. Hanna, taking matters into her own hands, visited Holbrook (Sean Faris) this week to try to persuade him to take it easy on Travis’ dad in the courtroom, reasoning that Wilden was about as shady as they come, especially for a police officer. In the end, Hanna’s pull over her new buddy Holbrook seemed to do the trick, and the man threw his weight behind Travis’ father in court to land his dad nothing more than a ruling of probation and community service. Travis, recognizing that Hanna had played some role in helping out his family, booked himself another opportunity for a date as a means of thanking Marin. Funny enough, Hanna then later bumped into Holbook at The Brew. After thanking him for taking a stand, she slipped into a tiny kiss on the lips. Whoops! Hey, doesn’t Hanna seem to do that a lot? In any case, whom are we pulling for here? Travis is fine, but I think I like Hanna with the detective!

Emily attempted to explain a mysterious phone call from a distant Shana to a very exhausted Spencer at school. Shana had phoned from down south in order to ask Emily to drop off the money Ali required in a P.O. box a few towns over. Unfortunately for Emily, this was the episode that Paige decided to start doing some snooping. I can’t blame Paige, of course. Honestly, the way they greeted each other in the courtyard this week had me questioning whether I had missed some breakup moment. Paige spotted the tremendous amount of cash in the white envelope inside Emily’s purse, a lump of money Emily claimed to be a late birthday gift from her bank-fearin’ grandma. Please, no grandma would gift cold hard cash in nothing but a white letter envelope for a birthday, Em. The two made rushed plans for dinner later that night. Most of Emily’s focus during the day was to be directed towards a crumbling Aria.

This “don’t give a sh*t” Aria is so much better, you guys. Aria stormed straight into Ezra’s classroom ready to cause a commotion, only Fitz had skipped town for a “family crisis.” I love that Aria took to simply referring to him as Ezra this week, too. At first, we were led to think it was a slip, but no. Aria has just totally had enough of his nonsense. If Ezra was going to be a coward and call out of work, she’d make him pay. At his apartment, Aria initially took to sifting through his countless files on basically everyone in Rosewood, herself included. Every single detail of her life had been documented word for word, picture by picture. Basically, watching this scene made me think that it would have been so much better for Aria if he had simply been another dastardly A out to make their lives miserable. This is way creepier, everybody. This isn’t even for revenge. This is for fame. Ezra also had tapes from the Grunwald's call logs with Alison, which were probably somehow responsible for tipping him off to the fact that she remains alive.

The best part of Episode 21 was 100% Aria’s massive freak-out at Ezra’s place. Everything that could be shattered was broken. Ev-er-y-thing. Even his diploma?! Yes, even his diploma. Smash that education, Aria! I like that she poetically chose to crush it over his typewriter. In the end, Aria’s pals found her cradled in a ball on the floor of the decimated apartment, surrounded by Ezra’s belongings and all of his gathered information. Now, I understand that Hanna wanted to protect Aria’s feelings and simply remove her from the situation, but Spencer, the smartest thing you could have done was to scoop up all that you could get your hands on. Good for you! This entire chaotic ordeal needs to be stopped.

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Spencer, unbeknownst to the rest of the Liars, had taken the papers and photos from Ezra’s apartment back to her room where she struggled to stay awake while sifting. A had previously taunted her with a bottle of her pills of choice, though she allegedly never intended on using them. By the way, wasn’t Spencer supposed to be on withdrawal meds to prevent this? I guess her parents couldn’t acquire them quickly enough. At this point, Spencer found out something truly startling. First, her father had most likely hired a P.I. to tail her at some point. Second, some notes from Ezra jogged a hidden memory loose from her brain. Spencer recalled a confrontation with Alison the night she was murdered, a fight that resulted in Spencer picking up a shovel and Alison testing her. This is really interesting because people have always had theories that Spencer was the one to attempt to kill Alison that night, but I never thought that Pretty Little Liars would go here this quickly. If she actually was the one to attack Ali, wouldn’t you expect them to save that for the massive big reveal on the show’s finale? This is why I personally began to doubt this theory after this Episode 21, even after witnessing the flashback. Spencer’s father refused to give her any information regarding what Mrs. DiLaurentis (Andrea Parker) had apparently seen that night, according to Fitz’s notes.

Emily made her way to the P.O. box Shana had pointed her towards. Of course, nothing goes off without a hitch on PLL, and this week, Paige decided to tail her girlfriend to catch her in a lie. Outside of the post office, Paige demanded answers, refusing to give back the envelope of cash she’d aggressively snatched away until Emily gave in. Eventually, Emily had no choice but to spill Ali’s secret, and Paige was simply flabbergasted. Perhaps more importantly, Paige refused to allow Emily to continue getting caught in the crossfire of Ali’s lies. If Alison had faked her death for years, she was still the same manipulative, sick girl to Paige. Honestly, maybe Paige did have a point that it was time to get the surprisingly just new Rosewood police team involved. Emily, however, refused to budge. In the end, Paige gave Emily an ultimatum. If she needed to leave money for Alison, she could; however, she’d have to promise to cut ties with her once and for all afterwards. Paige loves Emily and wants to protect her at all costs. Sadly, ultimatums are not sexy, and later that evening, Emily gave Paige the cold shoulder, blowing off their dinner plans after being made to feel uncomfortable.

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Aria and Hanna spent the first part of their evening burning pages from a diary she’d snatched from Ezra’s place. When Hanna stepped out to pick up dinner, though, Aria came across something truly disturbing… a letter from Ezra’s publisher regarding his book’s impending release. Devastated and panicked, Aria picked up the phone and called the publisher, snooping for info regarding the book’s release date disguised as one of Fitz’s peers looking to plan him a celebratory party. Her plan were subsequently brought to a screeching halt, however, when she was informed that Ezra was currently at the office. Ezra had apparently left town to head for NYC to discuss the publication in person. Wow, if that is the truth, Ezra is truly a psychopath and a narcissist. The only other explanation could be that he drove out there to nix the book entirely.

Aria, desperate to punish Ezra beyond destroying everything he’s ever known, rushed over to the front lawn of the school principal intent on busting the lid off of Ezra’s repulsive charade. Luckily, Hanna stepped in to talk some sense into Aria. If she squeals, Ezra goes to jail and her family goes down with him. If Spencer had been there, she would have noted that they could also totally use Ezra to find A and crack the case of Ali’s murder.

Speaking of Spencer, Hastings ran over to the DiLaurentis house completely out of her mind after discovering that she might have hurt Alison. Having taken the pills the summer of Ali’s disappearance, she admitted to having lapses in her memory including moments from that night. The confrontation with Ali’s mom, who refused to admit anything, actually ended up getting slightly physical at one point. Spencer, after grabbing her arm in her quest to end the lies, was basically thrown out of Mrs. DiLaurentis’ home. Back at Hastings Manor, Spencer’s parents and Toby, whom Spencer had previously ditched, confronted her one last time.

You need help, Spencer.

What if Spencer had just replied:

My english teacher has been stalking my every move for the past two years, and he’s going to write a book about every aspect of my life.

That might have thrown them for a loop. Spencer, however, kept her lip zipped and went up to her room to sob on the floor. Did she try to kill Alison in a drugged-out haze?

ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"

Meanwhile, Episode 21 ended with two more major plot points. First, Paige decided to leave a note with the P.O. box information and the reveal of Ali’s status as “undead” in the car of a police officer. Again, maybe not the worst idea, all things considered, but Paige can kiss her relationship goodbye for sure. Lastly, A closed out this week’s show by reading Ezra’s story he’d/ she’d scooped up off the grass last week. A then burned the pages in a furnace. Who could it possibly be? Toby again? Ali’s mom? Ali?

What did you think of Season 4 Episode 21 of Pretty Little Liars, “She’s Come Undone”? Do you like Aria’s new wild streak? Is this the end of Paige and Emily? Who do you want to see Hanna with? Did Spencer attempt to kill Alison? Who is A?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Season 4 Episode 21 of Pretty Little Liars, “She’s Come Undone”!