The TV Chick

Last night’s Pretty Little Liars titled “Careful What U Wish 4″ featured A making the girls do some pretty horrible things. But what else is new right? It wasn’t my favorite episode ever, but I love everything Pretty Little Liars, so it did not disappoint. I think just coming off such an amazing episode last week, I was hoping for more of the girls teaming up to figure out who A is. That said, there were a few fantastic moments which I will touch upon later. The episode starts off with a very close call. Emily wants to turn the Alison/Ian video into the police, and Ian almost sees his face several times. I kind of think that he did see the video given what transpires later on.

Meanwhile, Hanna is concerned with money and she asks if she can work for Sean’s mom again. Her relationship with Sean is a bit of a puzzle to me. Sometimes they are together, sometimes they aren’t, sometimes she doesn’t like him, sometimes she does. I suppose that’s high school though. Then in comes a new character, Simone (a published author who lives in NYC), who used to babysit for the girls. I knew she was going to come in and cause some trouble for the Aria/Ezra relationship, but I actuall liked her. I don’t want her to be with Fitz but I think it will be interesting to learn her thoughts on Alison and her history with Rosewood. Enter Ella (Aria’s mom) who says that Fitz wants to have coffee with Simone and pick her brain. Oh Simone.

But Simone isn’t the only new character around Rosewood. There is a new guy in school, Caleb, who seems super shady. Both Caleb and Simone were not in the book series, and I tend to enjoy when they go off book a little. But Caleb is seriously creepy. Hanna offers to take Emily’s phone to Caleb so he can mess with it so she can call Maya. Later that day, Hanna is on her laptop and sees Spencer is online but Spencer has her laptop shut in her bag…only she doesn’t because someone stole it out of her bag. The girls quickly conclude that the coaches have access to Spencer’s locker which is the only place that she left her laptop that day. And who happens to be a coach? Ian, of course.

Meanwhile, Aria shows up at Fitz’s apartment, but he is about to go out and meet Simone. He tells Aria that it’s nothing and that he couldn’t say no to her mom. And there is a super awkward moment when Fitz makes Aria leave first so he can count to 50 and then leave. Can I just say how much I love this relationship, even though it is not legal and Fitz was being kind of lame here. Back at Rosewood High, there’s a dance marathon. (Side Note: I love school dance episodes but Rosewood sure has a lot of dances.) Emily sees Ian lock up his bag in his office and the girls get the brilliant idea to try and get into the drawer to check for Spencer’s laptop.

To bring more trouble, Simone shows up to the dance and spills to Ella that she thinks Fitz is terrific. Creepy guy Caleb gives Emily back her phone (for an extra 40 bucks to rush the job). But when Emily talks to Maya, it is not all she wished for. Apparently, Maya seems happy. Trouble in lovely-girl-on-girl paradise perhaps?! But there’s even more trouble at the dance: Hanna gets a message from A saying she’ll get 200 dollars for every dance with Lucas. Aww, you are so mean A. So much torture.

At the dance, Simone is talking to Ezra about Prague and Aria goes over to break them up. Naturally, Simone embarrasses Aria with tales of her as a little kid. Aria gets Ian’s coat and the keys to his drawer from his pocket. Ella figures out Aria is jealous of Simone, but she thankfully hasn’t figured out they are dating. Lucy Hale was a true star of this episode. Between her moments with Fitz and the girls, she was truly fantastic. I adore her as Aria, but Aria has gained a new found confidence in this episode and I was excited to see that. Lucy Hale really shines in this episode and I loved seeing this side of Aria (jealous, sneaky, but also a fiercely loyal friend).

Because of A Hanna dances a slow dance with Lucas, further torturing both of them. Sean is pissed off and walks off on Hanna because apparently she’s danced with Lucas for 5 dances. A increases her original offer and says she’ll give Hanna $500 a dance with Lucas. Wow, A. So this is what Ashley Benson was talking about when she said that A would make Hanna do some horrible things. But while this is going on, Caleb catches Spencer in the act and asks if she needs help. She has to bribe him to forget he saw her there.

Back on the dance floor, Aria is about to get super pissed at Simone and out her relationship with Ezra but Spencer saves her and asks Fitz to dance. Simone thinks Spencer is crushing on him. Ha! If only! Emily stole Hanna’s flask from her coat pocket, and drank the whole thing outside by herself until Hanna comes along and discovers her in her sad state. Emily asks Hanna why she was dancing with Lucas, and admits that Ali used to do the same sort of thing to her. Hanna feels awful. Sean tries to repair things with Hanna, but Hanna insists she has to dance with Lucas and he shouldn’t ask questions. Sean refuses to accept this, and ends things with Hanna. I kind of thought Sean liked guys anyway, so no big loss. Lucas to the rescue! She dances with him and cries on his shoulder. I like Hanna and Lucas together better than I like Hanna and Sean together but I feel like her Mr. Right hasn’t been found yet. Hopefully it’s not Caleb.

And now Emily is drunk, and comes back into the dance to yell at Ian, She confronts him, and tells him he won’t get away with it. Aria and Spencer try to drag her away. Ian stops Spencer and wants to get the truth about what’s going on. Another creepy moment happens when they dance together, and Spencer tells Ian that they know they kissed last summer. He tells her that better be the truth (that only her friends know) or someone’s going to get hurt. Oh Ian. I don’t think you are A but you certainly are kind of threatening and weird. In addition to Lucy Hale really having a fantastic episode, I absolutely LOVED drunk Emily. It takes a good actor to play a good drunk, and Shay Mitchell did so hilariously and very realistically. I laughed a lot when she insisted she could open her own damn door. I think there might be some aftermath to this drunkenness, and I can’t wait to find out what it is.

When Hanna and Spencer try to get Emily home, Lucas attempts to reconcile with Hanna, and wants a chance now that her and Sean are over. Hanna clearly doesn’t like Lucas in that way and A’s torturous ways made her act in a way she wouldn’t normally act. As she walks away from Lucas, somehow a scarf and a lot of money falls out of her wallet. Say what you want about A but that bitch does follow through with her promises. After the dance, Aria and Ezra talk about what transpired inside. Aria doesn’t know why Ezra wouldn’t want Simone (hey, Simone is pretty but I’m confident Aria wins in this department). He tells her he is already in love with someone else. AWWW! LOVE!! Seriously, I can’t get enough of this relationship.

Spencer and Hanna take Emily home, and of course Emily wants to drunkenly call Maya. Like a good friend, Hanna takes away Emily’s phone. Hanna confesses that she had to mess with Lucas, but Emily is fast asleep and doesn’t hear her confession. Aw, poor Hanna. And then somehow, Spencer’s laptop is magically on the coffee table. The video is gone and the trash is wiped. There is a picture and a message from A about watching their backs because she didn’t and a picture of Ali and a shadow. But who is this shadow? The mystery of Ali’s killer remains.

As I mentioned, the Ezra/Aria moments were a highlight of the episode for me. I love the innocence of this relationship. No one is jumping into bed with one another. No one is scheming and cheating (except for A maybe), they are just quite simply in love with each other. I think that’s what makes me root for it so hard. In the world of unstable, crazy Rosewood, here are two people that genuinely care for each other without any sort of ulterior motive. Another highlight was the Emily drunken moments and seeing her friends help her out. I am curious to see why Maya is so happy and when she might be returning to the show. I have my guesses as to what might happen with Emily’s love life (I think she may try to date a guy for a bit), but who knows. Next week, Lindsay Shaw comes on as a bit of a rival to Emily in the athletic world so that will make for some good drama. It also looks like A will be tearing apart the “liars” next week which will be interesting since they seem to have formed such a close bond recently. I’m sure that we haven’t seen the last of Simone and she will go after Fitz without knowing about the whole Aria situation. I’m excited to see where that storyline goes too. I was kind of half expecting Toby or Jenna to show up to the dance, but I guess they can’t be around every episode. “Careful What U Wish 4″ had some fun moments, a ton of drama and totally sweet relationship moments. I adore this show, and I can hardly wait until next week.

Pretty Little Liars airs Monday nights at 8 pm on ABC Family.