Pretty Little Liars - Recap: Always a Bridesmaid, Never the Body
With one episode to go before the season finale, Pretty Little Liars donned the girls in wedding dresses tonight as several characters made their unannounced returns to Rosewood. Add another breakup to the list!
Was their any way at all that Paige (Lindsay Shaw) could actually get away with tipping the police off to Ali’s “resurrection”? Mostly, Emily spent the episode giving her the cold shoulder. Her friends, on the other hand, stressed about what this meant for Ali. Of course, if A could dig her up before the police could find her, she’d be dead meat… again. Most importantly regarding this plot, Holbrook (Sean Faris) began to investigate the case of who the hell is shoved in Ali’s grave if Alison herself is walking around. As he discussed with an increasingly terrifying Mrs. Dilaurentis (Andrea Parker), a judge has ruled in favor of a reanalysis of “Ali’s” body. A young Alison had once fractured her arm. This skeleton, apparently, did not reflect that. Hmm… that’s quite the oversight for a coroner to not report.
Mrs. DiLaurentis also had her hands full with the planning of that bridal charity event we were invited to during last week’s episode. With Ashley Marin (Laura Leighton) on-board to help out, Hanna had an unknowing extra pair of eyes to snoop around the freaky DiLaurentis home. For example, it was Ashley who stumbled upon a brand new outfit seemingly picked out for Alison, a bag of clothes that were purchased very recently. Basically, this set up the central plot of the second half of Episode 23; the actually charity event that Hanna promptly signed her buddies up for. There was snooping to be done! They needed an address! Or a phone number! Or to simply forget that Alison ever existed because they don’t… even… like her. Okay, I threw that last one in.
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
Jason (Drew Van Acker) returned this week with a significantly upped sense of rudeness to him. Apparently, his relapse and subsequent trip to rehab was “humbling” in a way that led him to join his mother in her disdain for Spencer. In fact, he refused to even acknowledge her presence on the street upon his surprising return. A flashback sequence that was shared with Emily revealed the truth; Ali’s mother always suspected Spencer to be the original A that stalked her daughter before her disappearance.Smoke her out!!!!This family is bizarre.
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
Speaking of uncomfortable flashback sequences, Spencer demanded one of her own this week following the unfortunate firing of Dean (Nathaniel Buzolic). You see, Spencer’s sober coach took time away from harassing her friendships and obsessing over her pee to accidentally fall asleep on her thigh while reading her a bedtime story. I mean, the man pulled out this super thick book on the life and struggles of a boxing great. What did he expect to happen? Veronica (Leslie Fera) has had enough of Spencer’s unfortunate romantic choices, some of which occurred under the very roof of Hastings Manor. Remember, Spencer has an awful habit of hooking up with her sister’s boyfriends. She can’t help it if she falls into their lips just like I’m certain Dean couldn’t help actually falling asleep on her thigh like that. In any case, there was no apologizing, though Spencer attempted to save his job. That was nice, all things considered. Still, the reason why Spencer was choosing to sleep on the couch had to do with feeling unsafe in her bedroom, a revelation that certainly made her mother uncomfortable. This is where the flashback to “the incident” began. Melissa had been asked by her parents to never speak of “the incident,” a flashback that featured what I think was Mrs. Hastings tossing clothes that Spencer had shredded up? Melissa’s clothes? Her teddy bears? I’m not sure, honestly. I did see Druggie Spencer lurking in the shadows of Ali’s porch, though, a sight that totally freaked out both Alison and her mother.
At the Montgomery residence, Ella surprised Aria with her arrival home! Welcome back, Aria’s mom! Just in time to hear all about how your daughter’s teacher has been stalking her for two years in an effort to compile enough secrets to write a book about every detail of her life! Of course, Aria said none of this. She was great at moping and sulking during most of Episode 23, though! In the end, Ella’s goodnight phone call with Zack, her boyfriend, was too much for the littlest Liar to bear. She ripped into her mother for deserting her during her time of need, a desertion Aria practically begged for, if you recall. Still, kids are kids. A Liar needs her mom just like the next teenage girl who isn’t dealing with her undead best friend.
The charity event was probably great, not that we got to watch anything. I’m so surprised Pretty Little Liars didn’t capitalize on the opportunity to do a rom-com sort of fashion sequence to, like, a song that was popular on Top 40 radio about six months ago. I’m not even sure anyone but Aria actually made it down the runway! Speaking of Aria, though, her mother popped up out of the blue, again, to patch things up with her daughter backstage. There, she revealed the whole truth. Zack was calling her to hear the news of Aria’s reaction… to her engagement! Aria, needless to say, was thrilled that her mother found a bit of happiness amidst the muck of her father’s dirty affair. I wonder what Ella thinks about Mike’s infatuation with Mona? Not a single word! Still, it was nice to see Ella give her daughter love advice about moving on and starting over. Although, that Ezra nonsense is a totally different bag of invasive insanity.
ABC Family "Pretty Little Liars"
Travis the Penguin was quite conveniently working as the valet to Mrs. DiLaurentis’ event. This meant that Hanna had the perfect means of distracting Ali’s mother while she scoured Alison’s room for a clue. Travis the Penguin quite boldly guided his fellow valet into smashing a car into the DiLaurentis mailbox to help out his crush. Well, at least he got a kiss from Marin because that accident is going to suck up all of his tips! I like Travis the Penguin, though, so if they decide to drag Caleb’s mane of hair back from Ravenswood, I hope they find something else for him to do now. Maybe he can help Emily with her tablet!
Speaking of Emily’s tablet, it came in handy this week as there was a whole lot of Googling to do. If you recall, Emily was the one to dig the wad of cash out of the back of Ali’s painting, money that came with a phone number and email address. The pieces didn’t seem to fit together until Hanna managed to dig a mural of NYC hotspots out of Ali’s closet. On it, the restaurant attached to the phone number from the emergency cash seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. Emily deduced that the restaurant name “Mama Gabusi’s” was the password to access this private email account. Actually, I believe it was an account that needed a password from senders. As in, this password allowed Emily to send an email to the person she presumed to be Alison on the other end. Presto! It worked! Did you get all of that? I’m going to have to read my own recap to understand all of this when I’m done. By the time Aria met up with this duo, they were ready to speak to Alison, who called from an unknown number after receiving Emily’s message. It’s time for... ALISON TO TELL ALL!
Where was Spencer, you ask? Hastings bumped into her half-bro Jason while searching for her veil. Most of Spencer’s questions this week surrounded whether or not Jason had actually seen CeCe or another blonde talking to Melissa the night of Ali’s disappearance, though she got no answer from Jason this week. By the way, Dean stopped by to bid his frienemy Spencer adieu. Luckily, he’s the expert on all things rehab, and he was able to fill Spencer in on the truth. The rehab Jason claimed to have been recovering through was shut down two years back. Afterwards, Spencer’s Spidey-sense was a-tinglin’, and witnessing Mrs. DiLaurentis handing a suitcase off to a figure clad in black in the woods was all too tempting. This is actually the flash-forward sequence with which Episode 23 opened; Spencer dragging her wedding dress train down a super dirty wooded trail. We caught glimpses of A, but honestly, this was more so just a moment for Pretty Little Liars to scare the crap out of Spencer by having her trip down a hill and nearly walk into a bear trap. Upon reuniting with her friends inside, a shaken Spencer removed her corset to reveal the finger bones of the girl in Ali’s tomb. What answers will the skeleton reveal?
To close the Recap and Review of Episode 23 of Season 4, the girls zipped out of their wedding dresses before heading to an address that was passed on to them by Ali during the phone call. First, Paige sideswiped Emily with an apology that fell on deaf ears outside of her house. Emily forgave Paige for attempting to protect her, even if it meant Ali’s imminent doom; however, she can’t trust Paige ever again. Goodbye, Paige! Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! Don’t ever cut your hair again! Later, the four Liars walked into Alison’s empty, dank squatting residence. I don’t picture Alison drinking a Big Gulp or whatever giant soft drink container they found that tipped them off to her recent presence. In the end, however, somebody else arrived instead of Ali, much to their surprise. We’ll have to wait and see just who it was!
Episode 23 closed with A locating CeCe Drake at a hotel and promptly phoning the Rosewood police.
What did you think of Season 4 Episode 23 of Pretty Little Liars, “Unbridled”? Who showed up instead of Ali? Is Mrs. DiLaurentis A or simply crazy? Where was Jason? Is this a mother-son A-Team? Who was buried instead of Ali?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Season 4 Episode 23 of Pretty Little Liars, “Unbridled”!
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