Friday, February 26, 2016

'Pretty Little Liars' Rosewood Roundup ("We've All Got Baggage") [Contributor: Megan Mann]


"We've All Got Baggage"
Original Airdate: February 23, 2016

The final minute of last week’s episode managed to screw with our brains and make us think it was Melissa at the heart of the crime one more time. Could it have been that easy? Or could it be Sara who is not only totally off her rocker, but renting the room that used to be Charlotte’s cell, for lack of a better word. Let the sleuthing begin!

Emily opens the door into Creepy Sara’s hotel room and sees a total disaster. Ali and Hanna follow her in. The girls want to show Ali the hole in the wall, but when Emily looks, the hole is gone. It is as if it was never there to begin with. Ali doesn’t understand why Sara would be stalking them, but Emily is desperate to prove how sketchy Sara is. Hanna knows they need to leave room though. When they sneak out, the maid comes out of the bathroom and slowly takes off her disguise. Big Bad is way too close for comfort!

Real Rosewood Disney Prince Caleb managed to corrupt the file of Veronica’s medical records, making it impossible for anyone to leak it. Spencer doesn’t think that this is going to go away. But if she tells her mother, she’ll have to also tell her how she figured it out and Veronica already has enough to worry about. Emily interrupts and asks Spencer to go back to the hotel with her. She’s become a woman obsessed with catching Sara in the act. In the midst of her tirade, she suspects Spencer and Caleb know something that she doesn’t. Reluctantly, Spencer tells her of Melissa’s broken suitcase. This causes Emily to spiral even further.

Aria is frantically trying to figure out what to do about the book situation with Liam. She’s worried that her boss will fire her and that Ezra is going to be furious with her. Liam still thinks that Ezra would be flattered that a former student cares about him this much. And instead of correcting him and telling the truth, Aria just lets the moment zip by. She says she’s going to tell him that afternoon, but I highly doubt that’s going to happen.

Hanna holds up a dress to show Ella. She’s helping her with her wedding dress and any other outfit needed for the day. Jordan calls and Ella encourages her to answer it, but Hanna is in work mode and at least the Montgomery nuptials have a date; something that Hanna is lacking. In a rare moment of backstory, Ella details her and Byron’s first wedding — a totally off the wall, nontraditional affair and that she wants this one to feel more elegant, more bridal. When she asks Hanna about her dress, Hanna quickly changes the subject.

Meanwhile, Emily makes a new friend in line at Hollis named Damien, which seems pretty suspect to me.

At the Hastings home, Spencer finds Melissa in the kitchen. She then asks Melissa whose suitcase she has and then asks what happened to her other one. “It was broken. I tossed it.” Oh, but did you, Melissa? Veronica walks in and asks Spencer what’s wrong. When Spencer reveals what she knows, Veronica then tells her that Gil asked her not to share it with anyone, as it was destroy her campaign. Spencer gives a riveting speech and Veronica is so proud of her daughter. It’s such a tender moment.

Ali is grading papers when her phone chimes: “Does the good doctor know why Charlotte ran out of your house that night? I do.” And just like that, Ali is back in the thick of it.

Byron notices that Aria is merely picking at her food and totally out of it. He decides not to push her and asks her to become ordained to marry them. Aria doesn’t think that’s such the best idea. Wouldn’t Mike feel left out? But as it turns out, he’s not coming. Mike won’t forgive Byron for what happened before, and Aria thinks it’s his loss. If it’s what makes her parents happy, she’ll do anything.

Spencer and Caleb discuss the text that Ali got and wonder what she could be hiding about that night. As they walk, they spot Melissa sitting in her car talking on the phone. When she gets out to talk to them, Spencer brings up the luggage tag being needed for reimbursement. Melissa says it’s already been paid for. Caleb asks Melissa how she broke her suitcase and she said that it was like that when she got it at the airport and that she hit traffic. She walks away and Caleb tells Spencer there was no game that day. Great, Melissa is lying to everyone. Again.

Sticking to her word, Aria tells Ezra about the chapters, but he tells her there’s nothing to change now. He asks if she liked what was submitted and how well they were received. Aria says that she’s going to go to Jillian and explain the situation to her, but Ezra points out that she’ll walk out unemployed if she does. Aria was just trying to protect him and he can’t be mad at her act of love.

Hanna is doing everything she can to keep herself distracted by helping Ella with the wedding. Aria walks in and tells her that she didn’t invite anyone because she didn’t want Hanna to be uncomfortable with Spencer and Caleb sitting two feet away. Again, Hanna deflects and makes it seem like she’s happy, but her snippy responses seem to suggest otherwise.

Ali and Dr. Rollins sit out on the porch where he asks her what happened the night Charlotte died. Ali’s worried that she upset Charlotte and delivered her right to whomever did that to her. Seems a little bit far-fetched, but okay.

Emily is already panicking about going back to college. It wasn’t like it was four years ago when the threat was gone and she could live freely. How is she supposed to take notes when she’s always thinking about how Sara could be torturing Hanna for something Melissa might have done? Okay, let’s tone it down there, Em. Hanna is super confused but lets it go when Damien (seriously, the name is getting to me) calls. Hanna says he looks familiar, but unless she’s purchased any used books at Hollis, Emily doubts it. Speaking of, Emily got a box from Hollis earlier that day. Odd, she hasn’t ordered any. When she opens it, there’s a baby book with a bookmark that reads, “You need to start talking before our baby does.” Yikes.

Veronica gives a press conference discussing her illness. It just proves that she’s beaten cancer and she never gives up without a fight. Hanna walks into The Brew and sees Spencer and Caleb watching it all cuddled up together. She walks up to them and they disentangle themselves, Hanna spills how she thinks Melissa could have done it. A few years ago in London, she ran into Melissa during a fashion week event. Melissa was angry and said that Wren left her because the girl who made their lives a living hell was now coming to take hers down as well. In a heated moment, Melissa grabbed Hanna’s phone and called Charlotte. She believed someone needed to put her in her place. Hanna asks Spencer to check if it was Melissa that called from that café the night Charlotte died and then asked about the overstepping blogger from before.

Because that overstepping blogger could be the one who is “making friends” with Emily. The two are walking down the street and he asks what made her come back to Rosewood before suggesting they get coffee and enjoy the nice weather. Emily’s phone sounds with a text from Hanna about Damien playing her, that she needs to lose him quickly. Instead of heeding the warning, Emily says to skip the coffee and head straight to dinner. Emily, what kind of game are you playing?

Liam approaches Ezra in the lobby bar. They get down to discussing the chapters and assuming that Aria has already told him everything, he tells Liam that the protagonist was inspired by Nicole, not Aria. Liam is clearly confused by his comments and when Aria approaches, she quickly asks how long the two have been sitting there. Liam walks off on a sarcastic comment and when Aria follows him, he tells her that he figured out Ezra was more than just a teacher. Should have come clean, girl!

Hanna says that Ella has no need to be nervous. She and Byron were already married once before, but Ella says she feels like she’s 19 all over again. “Well, I think it’s fate for people to be together, be apart and then find their way back to their first love. What’s more romantic than that?”

Hanna, stop with your obvious hopes that you wind up with Caleb. But as it turns out, Byron wasn’t Ella’s first love. It was another boy she went to high school with and when they graduated, they went their separate ways. Meanwhile, Jordan calls and Hanna doesn’t answer again. She’s too busy thinking about Caleb.

Ali sits examining the text from Big Bad and decides to text back asking if it’s Sara. Like she would tell you if it was. Dr. Rollins comes up and asks why she’s been avoiding him. He doesn’t want to be pushed away because of her unnecessary guilt. He loves her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Well, that proposal was fast.

Spencer goes to congratulate Veronica but notes that something is wrong. It turns out that a story was leaked while she was giving her speech that could crush all of the goodwill Veronica had just done. The story is about Yvonne terminating a pregnancy in high school which is a bit of a problem when her dad is running on a pro-life platform. The leak apparently came from the Hastings office, so an investigation is sure to come. “Any idea who would put that out there?” Melissa asks. Do they really think Spencer would have done that?

The wind blows ominously through the trees as Emily approaches the Two Crows diner. Either it’s unpopular or it’s closed as there are no patrons despite the glowing neon sign. She tries to open the door, but it’s locked. A Jeep’s engine turns and the lights are blinding. The engine revs and makes a fast move towards Emily. She jumps out of the way in time and the car drives off. She looks again into the diner and hears the Jeep on its way back, nearly taking her down again. Here I really thought we were over the trying-to-kill-the-Liars-with-cars thing. Ugh.

Aria gives a beautiful speech about understanding who you are before committing yourself to another, how her parents are an inspiration, and pronounces them married once again. It’s so sweet that you almost forget about the danger Emily is in at that moment.

Speaking of, Emily tries to get her cell phone to work but there’s no reception and the car comes for her once again. This time, the car destroys her phone and therefore her only means of communicating with anyone else. She runs back to the storage containers, climbs to the top and her hand grazes a piece of metal. The exact type of metal that was said to have killed Charlotte. Uh-oh.

As Spencer and Caleb speculate who could have leaked a story, Veronica comes in visibly angry. An expert was hired and they traced the leak back to Spencer’s IP address. That’s impossible, as she hadn’t touched her laptop all day. She’s not lying despite what Veronica thinks. Caleb takes the blame and says that they were going to do the same to her. Spencer knows that he’s lying, but he won’t back down. He needs to not only resign from the campaign, but gather his things and find somewhere else to go.

Emily lays low, clutching the piece of metal as the car drives off. She makes it down the ladder before the car comes racing back, almost crushing her. She makes it at the very last second, but drops the piece of metal in the commotion. Someone gets out of the car before it pulls away. What a good way to get Emily’s fingerprints on the supposed murder weapon.

Liam shows up as the ceremony ends and Aria apologizes for never fully divulging her history with Ezra. She held back because she wasn’t sure herself, but Liam believes otherwise after reading what she wrote. Maybe it was writing those words that helped her figure it all out. “How does it end?” he asks. “I didn’t know until right now,” she replies. Well, that was sweet.

Hanna is cleaning up when she comes across the box with the veil inside. She slips it on and grabs her phone to call Jordan with a wedding date. It is another sweet moment that quickly cuts to Caleb packing his things and Spencer crying that he can’t go. If this is what it’s going to take to allow Caleb the time and freedom to figure out who actually did this, he’s willing to take the fall so long as Spencer is willing to figure out what Melissa has been up to. Talk about drama.

The door flies open to the loft. Emily throws her destroyed phone on the table and Hanna asks where she was and what had happened. Emily says she was attacked, but it wasn’t by Sara. Sara wants the murder solved and whoever this was is trying to cover it up. Emily found the weapon and they were willing to kill her just to get it back. “So what are you saying? That there’s more than one person after us?” Hanna asks.

“There’s definitely two,” Emily agrees.

A shadow passes by the Montgomery’s window and then a sharp rap sounds against the door. My nerves got all jumbled up and it turns out, it’s only Ali and Dr. Rollins coming to ask Aria if she could marry them. Tonight.

A table containing various wigs and accessories is also loaded with remote controls and manuals. What is Big Bad planning to do with them? More importantly, how did he/she get a slice of cake from the Montgomery wedding? Was Big Bad a guest or just someone in disguise with the catering? This use of disguises is giving me a headache and now the threat of someone new is too.

Does anybody have a slice of cake for me?

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