Thursday, July 23, 2015

'Pretty Little Liars' Rosewood Roundup ("O Brother Where Art Thou") [Contributor: Megan Mann]


Rosewood Roundup: "O Brother, Where Art Thou"
Original Airdate, July 21, 2015

Hello! And welcome back to another week of the Rosewood Roundup! Last week the girls finally learned how A had known where they all were every second via the trackers in their necks and that in three episodes we would finally see Charles’ face. Oh, and did I forget to mention the part about how Charles is probably still alive since he snuck out the same night Bethany did? Whew, what a whirlwind. Let’s jump into this week’s episode.

Aria and Spencer are researching microchips to figure out what’s going on, you know, in their necks. While Aria jokingly suggests they leave them in, Spencer actually (seriously) agrees. Her reasoning? Charles has no idea that the girls know about the trackers. It’s the only leverage they have at the moment, and they have to figure out how to use it. The phone rings and it’s Mona letting them know that Leslie has finally agreed to talk to the girls.

Switching over to Alison and Papa D. and... um, excuse me. Where are you two going? Alison shakes as she asks her dad where they’re headed. “Where were you just now? Where are you taking me?” He tells her that they’re going somewhere safe and that's when Ali sees the birthday card from Charles. “He’s alive isn’t he? And he’s coming for us.” Ali knows the truth without her father, whose hands are caked in dirt, even answering. She’s scared and so is Papa D.

Hanna, who is turning into as good of a liar as Aria, tells her mom that she was just running out to grab muffins, even though she was going to Mona’s. Ashley surprises her with a college tuition check and said she applied for every scholarship she could find while Hanna was missing. It helped to feel like Hanna still had hope for a future, even though she was gone. The name of the organization sounds eerily familiar and I’m fairly positive it was the group that purchased Radley once it was closed down. Since Jason suggested it, does anyone else feel like the DiLaurentis family owns part of that company? Feels fishy to me.

None of the girls can get a hold of Ali and it’s starting to worry them. Emily is stopped by Sarah’s friend Claire from a season or two ago. Remember her? (She was in the "previously on" in this episode, so you knew she would reappear.) Anyway, she asks where Sarah is and Emily is certainly reluctant to give up any sort of information but eventually gives in and says Claire can see Sarah once she’s done at therapy.

Oh, right, Toby! You still live here? What’s up, my dude? He gives Spencer this really great speech about how they don’t do secrets and even though Spencer agrees, she lies RIGHT TO HIS FACE and says she’s merely going to Aria’s to write her valedictorian speech. Ugh to the max.

Hanna, Spencer and Aria get to Mona’s and Leslie is a no-show. Again, Aria makes another reference to a doll and I’m frankly starting to wonder what they’re trying to say with that. That’s something that’s far too frequent to just mean that she’s scared of dolls. They're making a point to include it and I want to know what that point is. Anyway. Moving on... Leslie tells Mona that she has made too much progress in her stability to talk to the girls about this, feeling that it might set her back. Well, Leslie definitely set something off as the girls are furious. They, in turn, start to interrogate Mona who says that while she thought that this person stole the A game from her while in Radley, she was on so many drugs that she could have said anything. The girls certainly don’t buy it.

Emily tells Sarah that she doesn’t have to see Claire if she’s not ready and if she needs her to, she could come and act as a buffer. Things get awkward as the girls discuss the kiss the night before and it just stays awkward. Emily suggests that they should both take the time to think about what they want after everything that they’ve been through. I told you there was definitely something there!

Lorenzo comes to the house looking for Alison, and Jason says that she’s out of town with their dad. He says he’s been trying to get a hold of her, but, like everyone else, has been unable to. Jason tells Lorenzo that the cops can leave, since Ali wouldn’t be home for a few days. As Jason walks away, he spots a red balloon attached to the porch. It comes with an envelope with an invitation to Charles’ birthday party and a blue, plastic frog. Okay, so clearly now, all of the DiLaurentis family has been warned of Charles' very-much-alive-ness and are totally freaked out.

And look, you guys, Mike decided to come back, too! This is great. So many throwbacks in this episode. I’ve been wondering where he’s been. (Besides over on Teen Wolf.) Mike asks Aria if she told Mona not to call him, as she’s been shutting him out. This confuses Aria. She doesn’t understand why Mona won’t return Mike's calls or texts or agree to see him. Mike asks what to do, but Aria doesn’t genuinely know.

Emily and Sarah meet up with Claire and things are super tense. But Sarah breaks the silence and asks all about everyone the girls knew and were friends with. While this is happening, Spencer and Hanna are at the coffee shop looking at the Carissimi Group’s website for more information on her scholarship -- a scholarship not listed on their site. A-ha! See?! I knew they were the group that had purchased Radley! I knew there was something fishy about this! Spencer, do your sleuthing and find out that it’s the DiLaurentis family. We all know it and now you have to prove it.

While Emily gets territorial over Sarah and doesn’t want her staying with Claire, Spencer, pulling out more intellect, says that the group’s name means “beloved” in Italian. As in Charles, beloved son. As in, Jason told Ashley about it and this minor mystery is finally all coming together. Spencer gets a call and walks off while the waitress drops a bag of (totally cannabis) candies into her bag. The phone call is from Ali and before Spencer can tell her, Ali reveals that she already knows Charles is alive. She’s worried about Jason and Papa D. is stressed trying to figure out what to do.

While Sarah tells Emily her presence has put Emily's family out enough and she’s leaving soon to go stay with Claire, the other Liars head over to talk sense to Jason. Oh, and Mike sneaks into Mona’s room to confront her. She knows what they did was wrong and stupid, but Mike doesn’t care as long as Mona’s alive. When the Liars meet up again and fill Emily in on what's happened, Hanna says she put a GPS tracker on Jason’s car so they’ll be able to follow him. Emily reminds them that they’re being tracked as well. “That’s why we’re going to remove our chips and leave our cell phones behind; anything that Charles can track us with.” The girls fight over whether or not this is a good idea. Spencer says they’ll bring Toby into the loop. “He has a gun and a badge. He can protect us.” Hanna brings out a scalpel and a towel and Spencer asks, “Who wants to go first?”

Toby is obviously furious with Spencer and the girls for withholding this information about Charles. Dude, they JUST found out he was still alive. They went from thinking he was alive to being certain he was dead to fully convinced he's alive again. Give them a break, okay? God. But he won’t let the girls follow Jason. He says it’s too dangerous and if he can’t tell Tanner about this, then he has to work alone. He spots the sweets left in Spencer’s bag, swipes them (dude, not cool) and leaves. While Ali is sneaking sleeping pills to render Papa D. unconscious in a plan that already seems like a terrible idea, Toby is popping mouthfuls of Spencer’s special candy and getting his partner to “help out” another precinct and swing by where Jason is located. At least when Lorenzo becomes suspicious, Toby doesn’t lie to him.

Instead of listening to Toby or dialing 911 like Aria is poised to do, the girls stupidly decide to follow. But it seems their plan has... actually worked! Once Toby has walked in, A checks the trackers and sees all the girls are still at Spencer’s house. Finally, the Liars were actually one step ahead of Charles! This is great news! I have the distinct feeling that this victory will be short-lived, but STILL.

Ali walks out of the hotel and gets into Mona’s car. Jason, meanwhile, looks to be in some creepy, rundown arcade. He sees a shadow walk towards him and knows who it is immediately. Ali decides that her best option is to call the police and tell them that she knows A is her brother Charles. The cops bust into her house and spot the invitation from Charles almost immediately (good job, Rosewood's finest). Toby bursts in just as Jason is about to speak to Charles, and he tells them to get on the ground. Charles runs and causes a diversion, throwing around metal tubing that ends up hitting Toby and almost hitting Spencer. The lights go up and having eaten Spencer’s special candy, Toby becomes disoriented.

Jason is furious with Spencer (even as he does save her from getting crushed in Charles' escape) just as the cops burst in and all of the girls are being told to freeze and put their hands up. Oops.

Ashley screams at Hanna for being stupid, of course. Elsewhere, Mike enters Aria's room and calmly talks to her. It’s the first time someone seems to really listen to one of the girls about how she feels. How great, seriously. Mike gives her the envelope from the photography contest. Did she win? Aria, open the envelope!

As our weekly obligatory montage begins to play, this is what happens: Toby is rightfully angry with Spencer but is still looking out for her. What a peach. YAY, ARIA! You’re a finalist! Emily is sad Sarah’s gone.

Ali comes into her house and sees Jason about to start drinking. And he’s furious. He wanted just one moment alone with Charles, one moment alone to tell him to turn himself in. As they’re about to continue arguing, a voice rings out from another room saying, “Jason! Come play with me!” Both siblings are visibly shaken and run toward the sound. It’s a family video of a party that they remember only as a “second cousin’s” birthday party. Ali spots a note in the room that reads: “I wAnted to trust you” and shows it to Jason.

In the final few moments of the episode, we see A opening a birthday gift from a friend and ally. It's a painting of the very video that Jason and Ali were just watching featuring the children. Wait, A has a friend and ally? WHO IS IT? TELL ME WHO IT IS. I NEED TO KNOW.

Do we think that Mona is still working with A? She’s been known to double cross and work both sides and she does have the power to slip in and out of somewhere undetected. Could she be playing for the A team again? If not, who could it be? With the reveal of A so close, what are your predictions? Who are we leaning towards it being? After all, it’s been said over and over again that we’ve seen Charles. Who do we think it is, guys? Tell us in the comments below or tweet me at @MissMeganMann!

Until next week, my pretty ones!

1 comment:

  1. Gaah I can't believe we're so close to the finale/face reveal of A. For the last season at least it's gotten to the point where it's more annoying than compelling that we still don't know A's identity and this episode was one that really builds the tension towards the reveal.

    On a side note, I loved that they used "Build It Better" by Aron Wright in the scene Emily becomes jealous of Sara & Claire’s and gets all mad when Claire invites Sara over for dinner. That was a cool, relaxed song to use for the one part of this episode that wasn't action-packed and intense.

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