Pretty Little Liars S04 E10 – Fake notes

Previously: Ashley gets out of jail (but not free) and Mona goes back to Radley.

The Mirror Has Three Faces

Marines: The girls are trying to sneak back into school after leaving midday to try and see Jenna. They were turned away, and Hanna laments not breaking out their candy striper outfits again. Spencer is pretty sure their teacher noticed them all missing but on they sneak. And by “sneak” I mean walk at a leisurely pace and exposit loudly in the halls about figuring out who drowned Jenna.

Emily gets a text message.

 
Emily, girl, you need to get your priorities in order.

Anyway, Mrs. Dilaurentis has invited the Fields to stay with her since their house got a car thrown at it. Emily is very against staying there and sleeping in Ali’s old bed, but Hanna says she has to, because for some reason, it might be their best chance to find CeCe. The bell rings and the girls scatter without a word. Maybe they didn’t have words to follow up the leap in logic that staying in a dead girl’s room will help them find some other girl.

Sweeney: Sleeping in dead girl’s bed? Buckets of nope. No fucking way, girls. I don’t care if your logical leap makes sense. Buckets of nope either way.

Mari: SHHHHH.

After the credits, Spencer explains that the whole, “sleep in your dead best friend’s room!” thing was a little insensitive on Hanna’s part. Hanna is whatever about it, because clues. Spencer wants to invite Emily to stay at one of their houses, but Hanna says hers is a no go. Mama Marin is still sad about being accused of murder and stuff. Hanna spots Caleb and takes off with him.

Spencer sees Mr. Fitz struggling with his classroom door. Spencer offers to pick it for him. He takes a deep breath and declines her offer. He’ll just got back to the janitor’s office; it’s the second time he’s locked himself out that day. Ezra walks away with out his briefcase, just so we really drive home the point that something is wrong.

Outside, Caleb fills Hanna in on his investigations: there was an unpaid cable bill in the PO box that is important for reasons I’m not sure about (something about an address in New York…) (it’s late as I write this. The later it is in the day, the less likely I am to remember one of the 279,973 PLL plot points…). He traced the cable bill to a physical address in Philly. I’m pretty sure thieving mail is frowned upon.

Rosewood’s One Coffee Shop. Jake is really impressed by some shots Aria took of him martial arting. He casually mentions a match he’s participating in that night and Aria wants to go. He tries to downplay its importance, but Aria says if he will be there, she wants to be there too. Look, as long as Ezra won’t be there, I’ll be fine.

Radley. Stupid Wren is showing Mona pictures and asking for her “emotional response.” The first is a picture of a happy family on a farm. My emotional response was, “that must smell like poop.” Is that an emotional response? I feel like it is.

Mona says it’s a happy picture and sarcastically says it makes her happy. Wren takes a very graceless, “well how do you feel about killing Wilden,” turn. Mona says the Liars used to bother her, but now they are on the same side. Wilden was bothering them and she got rid of him. Wren doesn’t believe her. He says they’ll resume soon, and then she can be honest with him. Mona cryptically says that she used to be honest with him before she figured out where his loyalties were and that he was keeping secrets. Plus, she noticed that he forgot the “g” in “diagnosis” in his notes. I noticed that he was writing way lower on the page while she was talking, but the camera shows only two lines up at the top.

Sweeney: He was just fake writing. Wren, not the actor, “I’m not actually qualified to do this job because my supposed medical specialties shift whenever it’s most convenient for me me to perv on teenage girls. Tra la la la, I bet it sure looks like I’m doing my job, though!

Mari: Mona’s on to you, dude. I’m sure of it.

Wren says he knows Mona stopped taking her medication and leaves.

One Coffee Shop. Toby sees a letter addressed to him on the steps up to his apartment. It’s the sheet music for “Any Time” with the note, “leave the lamb alone and go for the lion. Kisses – A.” Even though the Bible uses a lot of lion/lamb symbolism, the first thing I thought of when I heard the lion/lamb thing was of Twilight. Incidentally, pretty much the full first page of image results you get from Google when you try searching for the lion/lamb line from Twilight are Blingee gifs. Which are apparently still things.

And-so-the-lion-fell-in-love-with-the-lamb-twilight-movie-12088424-500-375

Dead Girl Room. Emily walks in and immediately decides she can’t do this. Mrs. DiLaurentis has assembled Ali’s room just as it used to be. (S: It’s super creepy.) Spencer starts babbling about how not at all strange this is. Emily says she isn’t helping. She doesn’t want to stay there alone since her mom is out of town for another night and she isn’t in a great place with Paige at the moment. Mrs. DiLaurentis comes in to make things extra awkward by offering the girls vanilla wafers and having lots of emotions about Ali’s clothes still in the closet. She tells Emily to make herself at home and on her way out says it’s so nice to see them in her dead daughter’s room.

Caleb visits Hanna at her house. He asks if she wants to go check out that address in Philly, but since Aria will already conveniently be out there, she’s going to do that for them. Hanna was actually hoping Caleb would get her into Radley. These two have the best dates. Caleb doesn’t want her to go see Mona, who is undergoing a psych evaluation. Plus, A’s recent track record includes a car thrown at a house a Jenna almost drowned in a lake. Caleb doesn’t think she should be going to their enemy for help. Hanna doesn’t think Mona is the enemy. Caleb gets real crazy and suggests that Hanna go to her parents and the police and tell them that A is back. Hanna scoffs. Using your words will only make it worse. Caleb says it can’t get any worse. Hanna wants to think about it.

One Coffee Shop. Hanna finds Wren there, and on purpose too, because she’s tracking him down. She asks him to let her in to see Mona, but Wren can’t do that. Hanna says it isn’t even about Mona, though. She’s wondering if CeCe has contacted him or Mona. Wren admits that a blonde girl tried to get in to see Mona the night before, but she was turned away. Hanna begs him to look into it further and he says he will. Once Hanna is gone, he picks up his cellphone and tells the person on the line that they have a problem. He’ll handle his end and Mystery Person has to handle their end. Wren stares off to the side a little, probably seeing the Toby Edit upon him.

Sweeney: It’s not a proper Toby Edit, though, on account of how he’s always actually been a total scumbag. Any ambiguity about his other potentially nefarious deeds is just sort of secondary. 

Mari: Toby shows Spencer his note from A. She figures it means that Toby should ditch Eddie Lamb and talk to Dr. Palmer. Toby recognizes the sheet music as something his mother used to play for him all the time.

 
 
 

Spencer promised Emily she’d go back to the DiLaurentis house. Toby says that Emily can’t know anything about what they are doing or else A won’t help him anymore. Spencer asks how long she’ll have to keep lying and Toby basically says for as long as it takes. I wonder if, “we’re investigating something important but can’t say what, *wink*” would be cheating.

Sweeney: The girls should definitely ask A how winks fit into the terms of their secrecy and ban on Words Using.

Mari: Non-verbal communication in general would be good to know about.

Mrs. DiLaurentis catches Emily looking at some pictures in the living room. Emily asks for something to eat and Mrs. D offers to fix it for her. Just as soon as she dries the tears she was just crying since her husband has decided to divorce her. They are being watched by someone from the outside.

Pedo-partment. Ezra hands a paper over to Alex Mack and tells her to open it, even though she already knows the truth. Alex Mac looks very confused so Ezra explains that he saw a lawyer about getting his name put on the birth certificate. Alex Mack asks how he could do that but Ezra cuts her off and pushes the paternity test results toward her again. She doesn’t open them but Ezra says she knew all along he wasn’t Malcom’s father.

Hanna texts the other Liars that she thinks CeCe snuck in to see Mona. She sees Caleb about to walk into the building she’s standing outside of. CAUGHT! It’s Mariska Mom’s office and Hanna was there to drop some papers off. She wonders what Caleb was up to. He admits he was about to tell Mariska Mom about A, because he doesn’t know how to protect her anymore.

 
 
Sweeney: Tyler Blackburn has really been stepping up his game, trying to prove he’s worthy of his ill-fated spin off.

Mari: Those tears could probably almost carry it’s own show!

To prove that Caleb probably can’t really protect Hanna, we cut across the street where Wren is watching them make-out, completely unnoticed.

Hastings House. Wren has come to see Mariska Mom and she basically says she hates Wren’s guts. She asks why he’s even there. He’s come to warn her about Mona. Wren thinks Mona is going to turn the tables on them and is still interested in hurting the Liars. Mariska Mom says he could lose his medical license for this, since Mona is his patient. Wren says that’s true, but the Hastings were almost his family. Kind of like twice, too, with the kissing the baby sister and all.

Sweeney: And the repeated advances when she was kind of sort of his patient! So, you know, he gives no fucks about holding onto his medical license.

Mari: Pedo-apartment. Alex Mack confesses that she had a one night stand. Ezra yells at her for letting him believe he was Malcolm’s father. He took Malcolm to the movies and baseball games, so I’m not sure if he’s hurt or wants a refund. He also did other stuff like help with homework and memorize the names of stuffed animals. Alex Mack Apologizes and leaves as Ezra cries.

Sweeney: I can’t tell how much my judgment is clouded by my hatred of Ezra, but he’s really insistent on the “you knew” line, even though it seems like she has every reason to be sincere in her basic claim that she just didn’t know if it was Ezra or the One Night Stand.

Mari: I thought the same thing. I mean, Ezra’s relationship with his mom was pretty ruined after the baby-that-wasn’t-even-his thing, but I still hate him. I don’t want to waste more feelings on this.

Aria snuck out of Jake’s event and is tracking down the Philly Address of Some Importance. Aria finds it and sees a woman moving her stuff out. She’s very unhappy and when Aria asks for CeCe Drake, Unhappy Mover says that if Aria finds her, to  share the information.

Back at the DiLaurentis house, Mrs. D is sharing details of her failed marriage and dead daughter with Emily. Mrs. D says she even thought she saw Ali once. She then sighs and says she doesn’t expect Emily to understand. Emily does though because of her rocky high school relationship, which is almost the same thing. Mrs. D asks about “him” so Emily clarifies.

 
 
Mrs. D says she’s proud of Emily. I feel a little bad for thinking she’s a nut case. Emily says Mrs. D isn’t the only one whose seen Ali. Mrs. D takes it in a not-very-literal way and says that Emily loved Alison just as much as she did. Apparently, she knew that these feelings were unrequited and wishes Alison could’ve returned them.

Unhappy Mover is CeCe’s ex-roommate. When CeCe dropped out of college, she stopped paying rent. Aria asks if CeCe dropped out or was kicked out. Unhappy is surprised Aria knows about that. CeCe claimed that Alison got her kicked out of college. It all goes back to the frat party they went to. Alison pushed a girl down the stairs and blamed it on CeCe. I’m mostly guessing that’s what’s going on here. CeCe assumed all the Liars were in on that plan and hated them all for it.

Sweeney: Just a reminder that these two were already in college and calling high school freshmen nasty names. Stay classy, ladies.

Mari: Hanna goes to the DiLaurentis house to check on Emily and finds it quiet. She hears a door open and we see that it is Red Coat. Up in Ali’s room, Hanna looks around a bit and opens up a musical jewelery box. In the small mirror, we see Red Coat wearing an Alison mask walk behind Hanna.

Toby and Spencer visit Dr. Palmer. Toby reintroduces himself and hands Dr. Palmer the sheet music. He’s all, “I don’t play piano,” and Toby looks heartbroken. I’m not sure what he was expecting to happen.

Sweeney: I was hoping you understood this because I did not.

Mari: Aria gets a phone call from Ezra and declines it, choosing instead to go watch Jake kick stuff. Ezra stares at his own creepy reflection creepily.

Mariska Mom visits Mona, to warn her off hurting her family.

 
Mona doesn’t give her a reaction and even when Mariska Mom is gone, all we get is another unreadable stare at the camera. Janel Parrish is really pretty but I’m getting a little tired of just staring at her face with very few discernible emotions.

Toby is questioning Dr. Palmer, but not getting very far, because dementia. Spencer starts playing Any Time and Dr. Palmer thinks it’s Marion. Dr. Palmer says it would mean a lot to Toby to know that Marion is enjoying music again. Spencer asks about the blonde girl Marion should steer clear of. He can’t say anything useful though because an orderly comes over to wheel him away. As he’s leaving, though, he tells the orderly to show Mrs. DiLaurentis to his office.

Spencer is trying to tell Emily and Hanna about Dr. Palmer without cluing them in to Toby’s secret investigation. Emily points out the dementia thing, but Spencer thinks it’s still a worthwhile clue. She thinks Mrs. DiLaurentis was at Radley at one point. Emily asks if they plan on just asking Mrs. D about it and Hanna sees nothing wrong with this plan. Emily can’t take them anymore (and is late for work) and leaves.

Downstairs, Mrs. DiLaurentis is bummed the girls aren’t staying for dinner and a sleepover. Spencer uses the chance to ask if Mrs. D knows Dr. Palmer. This sends us into a Ali!back. Alison is at the piano when Mrs. DiLaurentis comes storming in, yelling about the stunt Ali just pulled. Mrs. D got a call from Radley, saying they had her daughter and she’s a danger to herself. When she gets there, though, Mrs. D finds that it isn’t her daughter all; it’s CeCe Drake dressed up as Alison. Ali smiles, though she claims she didn’t know CeCe would go through with the stunt. Mrs. D says that toxic friendship is over and CeCe isn’t welcome into their home.

Sweeney: Again, CeCe’s around 21, playing these hilaaaaarious pranks on a 14 year old and her family.

Mari: They probably should’ve kept CeCe at Radley.

In the present, Spencer asks if CeCe and Ali every pulled a similar stunt. Mrs. D says no, but their friendship was weird and obsessive. Cute little Hanna asks if she means that they shared make-up. Mrs. D says it was more like they shared personalities. I… don’t know what that means. (S: Neither do I. Traumateers, please share your theories in the comments.)

Hastings House. Spencer and Hanna are filling Caleb in on the shared personality thing. Mariska Mom gets home and tells Hanna she should probably get home. Caleb wants to know what’s going on and Mariska Mom says that she’s being accused of bullying a confession out of Mona. The charge won’t hold for long, but in Ashley’s best interest, she’s recused herself. Ashely doesn’t have a lawyer. We only know the one in Rosewood, too, so things are looking bad.

Somewhere in Rosewood, Aria and Jake sit on a stoop and eat sandwiches. Jake apologizes for the less than fancy fare, but Aria is totally okay with it. They flirt a little over his fight injuries and kiss. Aria once kissed Ezra by this clock so I guess it’s supposed to be ~*significant*~.

 
 
 

Emily gets back from work and finds Mrs. D knitting. The repairman is there also and has fixed the furnace, but unfortunately, it seems Mrs. D has a bigger problem on her hands.

Hasting House. Hanna is freaking out and wants to get home to her mother ASAP. Spencer tries to calm her down, but it’s no use. Hanna asks who they think made the anonymous tip.

We cut to Radley. Wren is sitting in a hallway, calmly talking on the phone saying he totally suspected the confession was coerced, but his almost mother in law of all people! As he talks, he’s filling in the Happy Farm Family picture, coloring the woman’s coat red.

Mrs. D goes down into the Basement of Don’t Go In There with Emily. They find the belongings of a squatter. Mrs. D doesn’t seem too worried about it, leaving Emily to investigate alone. When she cuts the lights off again, she notices what looks like five bullet holes in the ceiling above the squatter’s bed. She gives the camera lots of Big Eyes and I truly, truly have no idea what’s happening.

Sweeney: I think those are the drill holes that we saw in one of the earlier A-nonymous bits though this information/guess doesn’t actually explain Emily’s reaction at all.

Mari: OH. That makes more sense. Good remembering things.

A-nonymous. A picks through the Fields house and plants Ashley’s muddy murder shoe in the wreckage.

 

Next time on Pretty Little Liars: Ashely looks guilty again after her muddy shoes are found in S04 E11 – Bring Down the Hoe.

 

Marines (all posts)

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.





Nicole Sweeney (all posts)

Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.





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