Tonight’s episode picks up right where we left off last week (watch here). The girls get a text a text following the first explosion from A, asking if they missed her. Oh, and calling them bitches, as per usual. Toby runs into his house just before a second blast hits. Thankfully, he gets out okay and no one was in the house.

The girls agree that A has been taking a nap and decided on tonight to make their return, but why?
The next day, Hanna spots Caleb at the coffee shop. This time things go a bit better. The explosion is being written off as a gas leak and Caleb thinks the girls need to go to the police, but what are they supposed to tell them? Where do they even start?

Ezra puts his recovery time to good use and goes back to his theory that Mrs. DiLaurentis is behind everything. He begins looking for a connection between Bethany Young, the girl from Radley that was found in Alison’s grave, and Mrs. D.

At lunch, Spencer begins grilling Aria about why she was with Ezra last night before the explosion and Aria admits that she slipped…twice. Damn girl! Women love gun wounds, I guess?

Before Aria has time to digest all of Spencer’s valid points, ie. He betrayed you for years, yada yada, the other girls arrive. Just as they sit down, Ali gets a video text from ‘A’ showing her mother being buried with the caption ‘I buried her like I watched her bury you’. Then the text is deleted. Well, that’s disturbing. Quite the appetite-ruiner as well.

Spencer goes to Radley to talk to her old friend Eddy Lamb, but before she sees him she spots Lieutenant Tanner there, likely investigating Bethany Young’s murder. Once the Lieutenant leaves, Spencer asks Eddy questions about Bethany and whether he remembers anyone visiting her, but he refuses to tell her anything.

Later, Spencer sneaks home to get some of her books and is caught by her dad. He wants to know why Spencer and Mrs. Hastings have moved into a hotel and Spencer explains that they know he lied about where he was when Mrs. DiLaurentis died. He admits to protecting Spencer, but is adamant that he didn’t kill Alison’s mother. He says that he and Melissa drove to the lake to talk. Seems weak.

Spencer convinces her parents to talk things out, but it’s not enough for Mrs. Hastings. She’s been lied to by her husband too many times and tells Spencer that they can move home, but Mr. Hastings is moving out and they’re getting a divorce. Ugh, that’s rough Spence.

Travis comes by Hanna’s house to take her out for their date, which she’s forgotten about. Harsh, Hanna.

She gives him a kiss goodbye and goes back inside to find Alison on the phone with her contacts and planning her escape from Rosewood. Hanna agrees to help Alison get out of town, almost a little too eagerly. I think Hanna has realized that Alison hasn’t changed at all and that things were better while her frienemy was gone.

Emily is still in love with Alison (this has gone from sad to pathetic) and corners Paige in the locker room, begging her ex-girlfriend for the names of people in Mona’s club. Paige agrees to name names and tells Emily and Lucas and Melissa are working with Mona. Later, Paige finds a dead rat in her locker. I can’t even handle it. EW.

Emily runs to Hanna’s house to tell her and Alison about Lucas and Melissa and instead finds Hanna with a packed bag for Alison. Emily goes into a rage and leaves to stop Alison from leaving.

Alison is home gathering her fake ID’s and stashed money when she’s attacked by ‘A’ in her living room. ‘A’ is strangling Alison with her scarf, which is strangely very Mrs. DiLaurentis-looking, when Emily comes in and attacks ‘A’, saving Alison. Why has no one taken a self-defense course? Seriously, how many times have they literally had ‘A’ in their hands, only to lose the psychopath?

Unaware that Alison has been attacked, Hanna goes to see Caleb and asks him how long he’ll be staying in Rosewood, but he doesn’t know yet. Please say forever! They don’t talk about their relationship, or Travis, or Ravenswood, although all three topics come up. Instead, they drink together. I always figured these two would be the drinkers in the group.

Frustrated that Hanna won’t return his calls or stop bailing on him, Travis ends things with Hanna. Ugh, he was cute and sweet. But so is Caleb. Go Hanna!

Aria goes to Ezra’s house after school to help him go through his old Radley files from his days of researching his book on Alison. She tells him the other night was a mistake, but they’re interrupted by Lieutenant Tanner at the door. She’s been awfully busy today.

Aria hides in the bathroom and Tanner questions Ezra about how well he knew Shana and tells him that they found gun residue on Shana the night after he was shot. Okay, so there is one smart cop in this town. That’s about all. Once she leaves, Ezra and Aria begin packing up his files in case Tanner returns with a search warrant. Before they leave, they find an envelope that was left outside Ezra’s door. It’s a drawing of Mrs. DiLaurentis being attacked by a demon and the name on the back is Bethany. Let’s just assume her last name is Young.

Aria and Ezra go through the security footage from the camera outside Ezra’s door (let’s not forget, he used to be a stalker) and see that it was Eddy Lamb from Radley who dropped off the picture. Eddy obviously wanted Ezra to know that Mrs. DiLaurentis and Bethany are connected, but why not give the drawing to Spencer?

Aria shows the drawings to the girls, minus Hanna, and suggests that Spencer go back to Radley. Actually, she almost yells it. Why is she so forceful about Spencer going to Radley? Alison gets a text from ‘A’ telling her not to leave Rosewood or else she’ll kill her. First ‘A’ told her to never come back, now she can’t leave. These are very mixed signals. As someone who was once a teenage girl, I’m betting that ‘A’ is also a teenage girl.

Alison spends the night at Emily’s house (clothes on this time) and the next morning they stop by the DiLaurentis house so that Alison can change before school. Lieutenant Tanner finds them there and invites Alison to stop by the police station later with her dad so they can talk about EXACTLY where she was the night Shana died. I’d be a little nervous if I was Aria right about night.

Oh, and black widow-veil ‘A’ is back.

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