Pretty Little Liars S5.03 Review – Surfing the Aftershocks « 

Pretty Little Liars S5.03 Review – Surfing the Aftershocks

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Pretty Little Liars S5.03 Review – ‘Surfing the Aftershocks’

The Liars, Alison and even Mona each had their share of the drama this week and ‘Surfing the Aftershocks’ was more like a new earthquake off the Richter scale. This is the guilty pleasure I look for each week,

With his former mistress unearthed from the grave in his backyard and his secret son back home, Mr. Hastings is ready to put his house up for sale as soon as the police tape is down. Melissa is pointing fingers at Jason as the murderer of Mrs. DiLaurentis while Spencer refuses to believe her half-brother could be so diabolical without more proof.

Never one to shy away from getting the truth, Spencer heads over to Casa DiLaurentis for a chat with big bro. Now that the funeral is over, he’s packing up and heading out; his dad doesn’t want him, living with Ali is like living with a ghost and his mother’s secrets killed her. Spencer waives the email Mrs. DiLaurentis never got to send in his face and, like the good big brother he could have been had not all his parents been selfish assholes, Jason helps her figure out who the email could have been sent to (Mr. Hastings) and why Mrs. DiLaurentis chose not to send it (she wanted to tell him in person). Warning his sister that she can’t trust their father, Jason reminds Spencer she can either know the truth or be happy.

Spencer doesn’t need to worry about whether or not Jason did it for too long – Hanna and Emily come to the rescue, discovering a seedy rehab Jason was at in Philly at the time of Mrs. DiLaurentis’ murder – and decides to take the same truth telling tactic with her dad. Mr. Hastings is a harder nut to crack, esp. when Melissa sweeps in to defend him, and all Spencer gets for her trouble is being told to go to her room. When she refuses, Mr. Hastings tells her his gifting her with plausible deniability. From a family of lawyers, that’s love.

So it’s looking more likely that Mrs. DiLaurentis told Mr. Hastings that his daughter killed her daughter, he assumed it was Spencer and came to an agreement with Mrs. DiLaurentis about Jason to protect her. Now he knows that’s not true, it was (most likely) Melissa who did the killing. Aw, Hastings. Melissa may be right, you may be the Borgia’s to the DiLaurentis’ Medici, but at least you protect each other. Kinda.

After being mistaken for Ali by a man who has never laid eyes on either of them before, and whose only description of Ali was most likely young, pretty blonde girl, Hanna spirals into an identity crisis. Is she simply an Ali clone? Has she ever known her true self?

I certainly buy that Hanna, like teenagers everywhere, would be contemplating her true self vs the self she shows the world. The rest of it, well, I’m never a huge fan of when a show recons their own history, and I guess season one was ambiguous enough with Hanna’s ‘It Girl’ status that it’s possible that Mona was pulling the strings, but I just don’t buy it.

Mona has always seemed a little too desperate for Hanna’s attentions to have her created Hanna with evil intentions. Or maybe like Emily, Mona simply loved Ali too much, and when she was gone tried to create a newer, gentler Ali by giving Hanna the Ali upgrade. Still, if that’s the case, if Mona had all this power over Hanna, why didn’t she bring Hanna to heel when she started hanging out with Spencer, Em and Aria again?

This new Popular Mona & Hanna origin story has enough holes in it that it should be Swiss cheese, but I loved their walk down the hall, complete with a shocked Spencer and Emily, so much that I kind of want to see where it goes. Though they really should have remembered that Ali and Hanna had been getting their hair done at the same salon since before Ali went missing, so no way do I believe Mona chose Hanna’s blonde hue.

Mona, who is everywhere this episode, informs the Liars that Ezra’s back in Rosewood and forces Aria to sign his get well card. If that wasn’t enough, Spencer forces Aria to go see Ezra

I was truly shocked (and proud) that Aria hadn’t forgiven Ezra completely yet. I know that will change, but way to put up a good fight for yourself, Aria.

Ezra and Aria make doe eyes at each other. He knows about Ali’s lie, wonders why they all have to stick to Ali’s story, but promises not to blow their cover.

Afterward, Ali decides to stop by Ezra’s to give him back his manuscript. She knows he knows more, and Ezra says if he did, he would only have kept that information to protect Aria and Ali tells him to keep it safe. These two and their drama, they both love the stage. Ali does seem to sincerely hope it works out between Ezra and Aria which would give me pause if I was him. Ali doesn’t generally want good things for other people before they happen for her and she’s single.

Aria comes back to apologize for Ali and they make more love me eyes at each other. She ends up telling him she killed Shauna and Ezra promises to help keep her safe.

I know he took a bullet for them, but it seems way too soon to trust him considering he spent so much time spying on them and could have been ‘A’ less than a week ago in Rosewood time.

Ali pretty much spends the episode being exactly who we’ve always know her to be. She throws Hanna’s past weight struggles in her face, she randomly (and coincidentally, she claims) chooses the dress her mom wore to her funeral to wear to her mother’s and she manages to avoid the police when she wants to.

For a girl under house arrest she sure gets around, she goes to the funeral home wanders to Ezra’s and eventually is stopped on the street by Mr. Hastings. Mr. Hastings, as a lawyer, do you think it’s a good idea to offer an underage teenage girl a ride home? Especially one whose mother was your mistress and who you believe one of your daughter’s may have tried to kill? If Ali twists this around, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Will Ali get home okay? Will Mr. Hastings tell her to stay away from Spencer or drive her to the train station and buy her a ticket out of town? Will Ali start spinning tales about a wild romance with, or being taken advantage by, Mr. Hastings.

Well, it is because she’s still into Ali, but in the meantime, looks like Emily’s got two fools of her own. A new student, who will probably go all single white female on Emily, wants Em’s help with her swim time and Paige makes some noise because she’s jealous. Emily, who is most likely still fantasizing about being with Ali, tells Paige she hopes they can be friends, but they’re done. I wish I could care about any of this. Honestly, all I kept wonder was, why does Emily get stuck with all the high school dates? Spencer, Aria and Hanna all get to flirt with grown men, but Emily’s still dating on the high school circuit except for that brief thing with the college girl, which reminds me Claire Holt is available.

Family loyalties are tested, Rosewood is minus a cute brother, lingering looks are shared between lovers and identities are questioned. What’s Mr. Hastings doing with Alison? Will Melissa tell Spencer the truth she’s hiding? Do you think Mona built the New Hanna? Is Alison still a bitch or just misunderstood? Could Emily’s new swim fan be the next member of the ‘A’ team? Speaking of, ‘A’, I kinda miss their crazy, think they’ll show up soon? Share all your theories in comments or at the forum.

By Jenni Tetzlaff on June 24, 2014   /   News, Reviews   /   Leave a comment

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