tv_talk | Pretty Little Liars: Home Base

Talk about the other episodes in the second half of season 4, or any other PLL stuff!

Thoughts on the epsiode? Is Spencer right about Ezra being A, or is he something else entirely? Should the girls trust Shana?

I feel like they're being pretty definitive about Ezra being A, but then again, nothing is ever too definite on this show. Anyway, I hope Ezra is A because I never liked him or Ezra/Aria, and I hope Aria realizes (or believes) soon.

I also hope the pill-popping!Spencer thing goes away soon. This is now two shows I watch that are using this storyline!

I'm loving intervention, meddling, super!Hanna. Although I pretty much always love Hanna. :)

Yeah he's clearly shady as hell, and either A or maybe Board Shorts (though it's not really clear exactly what that means). And I agree, it will be much more interesting if he he ends up evil after all this. It's hard to take back some of the stuff he's done already (unlike what they did with Toby!). I'm looking forward to Aria getting the news, hopefully she will get to have some interesting reactions.

What other show are you watching that has the pill popping? I think the next episode addresses it some but I don't want to spoil you any more!

Also loving Hanna so much lately! And she is my favorite almost always too :)

Nashville is the other show I watch where a character has suddenly developed a pill-popping habit.

So what did you think? Like the weird old time style? The clothes? Did anything actually happen in this episode?

This episode was a lot of fun and gorgeous to look at. Everyone looked fabulous (well, they always do, but they looked fabulous in a different way, especially the guys), and most of them got into the noir style with their acting, too. I thought to myself that this was the way to do a "drug" episode, lol.

As I watched, I was wondering if any of it was actually "happening," just translated to noir. By the end, clearly it was all in Spencer's head as a way to get her to realize what she did about the altered diary they found in Ezra's desk. But I still got confused because Spencer was imagining things for the other characters even when she wasn't there (Emily and Paige, Aria and Ezra). So...?

Anyway, by the end they all know Aria and Ezra have been together.

I really enjoyed it a lot as well, a lot of awesome little details went into it to making it feel like a loving tribute to those sort 40s movies. Though I'm a sucker for most special weird episodes like this on any show really :)

At first I was confused too if it was Spencer's weird drugged up interpretations of reality or not. I guess some of it can be read as Spencer's interpretations of things, at least some of the character reactions (ie Aria is sort of naive sometimes, Ezra is super evil, Alison's a selfish jerk). I'm not sure what to say about the Paige/Emily stuff except that I guess Spencer really ships them :)

Even though not a lot happened, I don't terribly mind partly because not a lot has been happening in general, but also because this was at least fun and entertaining and there's nothing bad about that, and seeing them all dressed up in awesome costumes (well different sort of awesome costumes than they usually wear!) and some hilarious lines that they gave to the characters as well.

Definitely looking forward to next episode to see them tell Aria and her reaction to everything.

Reviews and Recaps for Shadow Play

Av Club - "Like Veronica Mars before it, this show has always been a modern day noir masquerading as a teen drama."
Tv.com - "Spencer pigeonholed her friends into particular roles that may seem obvious to us, but that are interesting in the context of knowing that they reflect what she thinks."
Tvequals - "Whatever the case, this was a wonderful episode that, however dubious some of the things that may have gone down were, was a joy to watch."
Vulture - "Everything about PLL that is already fantastic — big kisses, bold declarations of war, generally suspicious facial expressions — is made all the more awesome by the heightened film noir-reality in “Shadow Play.”"
Afterellen Recap - "This episode is a marvel in so many ways, the main one being: a 45-minute eyeballgasm."
Autostraddle Recap - "Toby comes in wearing a trench coat and I’m having a hard time taking this show seriously anymore and we’re only seven minutes in."

Discuss this episode here! I have yet to see it but will add my thoughts soon!

OMG feelings!

This is the second episode in a row I've been glued to. I was afraid the Ezra as A reveal wouldn't happen at all, but, as per usual, it happened in a totally unexpected way instead. I LOVE that Aria herself did her own investigating (though I suppose Spencer's outburst put the idea in her mind, Ezra's slip was enough to get her to take it seriously), and the scene on the chairlift was horrifying.

It was heartbreaking to watch that scene where the girls confront Spencer about her drug use. Because they're all right. Spencer's behavior is cause for concern, but she IS right at the same time. It's horrible for them to doubt her, and at such a crucial moment. And then more heartbreak later when her mom confronts her as well and Toby gives her that sweet necklace.

What the heck is going to happen now?!

I didn't expect so much information about Ezra to come so soon. Although I do hope there's more to the story really because it felt sort of lackluster and didn't make sense really with what they've shown him doing I thought.

I did like Aria actually investigating stuff and I'm looking forward to seeing how she handles everything. Hopefully they'll give her some interesting stuff for the rest of the season!

Ah that scene where they try to confront Spencer when she's trying to tell Aria about Ezra was just so painful. And I agree, I was surprised at how seemingly quickly Hanna and Emily seemed to be so doubtful of her all of a sudden.

I'm pretty sure that was just the lie Ezra came up with to sell to Aria to keep her in the dark about his being A.

Sorry for not getting this up sooner!

Thoughts about the episode? Like how Aria is dealing with things? Spencer is the saddest person ever? Think Paige was right to do what she did?

Edited 2014-02-26 04:20 (UTC)

Mostly I'm totally confused now. So...Ezra isn't A? He's indeed writing a book, yes? From the sounds of the notes in which he refers to A, it seems he doesn't know who that is? So he's just a creep, but not an A creep?

I completely get Aria's reaction. How horrible. The urge to destroy and to push away her friends and get away. I don't blame her at all. And she was still able to listen to Hanna about going to the principal. I totally hurt for her.

Ditto Spencer, although I'm honestly tired of the pills. And I'd kind of forgotten about what happened with her and Ali that night.

I both understand Paige's actions and think she's sort of right but am still angry with her for going against Emily's wishes.

How about Hanna kissing, er, the cop/detective (I forget his name!)? Is it weird that I didn't mind even though I love Caleb/Hanna? I think it's my latent Sean Faris crush (he's the actor that plays the cop). Also, I love Hanna loving everyone. lol

I sort of thought that he had to at least know more about A than he implied because if he has been monitoring them, like Emily said, then he surely saw some of the A stuff.

Also I'm sort of sick of Spencer and the pills too, I wish they'd wrap that up sooner than they seem to want to.

I am a super Hanna/Caleb shipper so I am not into Hanna kissing anyone else myself, but I can definitely see being into that dude as well! It is amusing how she is just kissing everyone she has a random friendship with though!

To be honest, I now have a plot bunny I want to write in which Hanna kisses her friends and would-be friends because she's just such a sweetheart and likes to thank and comfort people with kisses. :) And because she can't kiss Caleb right now so she's got an excess? lol

That sounds seriously awesome to me!

Discuss here!

I'm going to guess that Mrs. D is another red herring and not really "A." At this point I'll only believe someone's A if I know the end of the show is coming.

I just really hope Ezra and Aria are done for real. It seems so, but this show loves getting them back together. I loved Aria's week at the college with that guy. He was an adorable sweetheart. I hope he comes back at some point.

I'm not sure what to believe when it comes to Spencer. Is what she's "remembering" real?

Is the Travis/Hanna relationship going anywhere? He did not look too happy, even after the kiss. And I wondered if Holbrook was going to do something sneaky with Hanna to find out about the note that we know Paige wrote.

Yeah I would imagine Mrs D is definitely going to be another red herring. At this point everyone is going to be A and not be A at the same time!

It would be nice if the show would actually stick with something for once, and I especially hope its Ezra being a full on creepy and the end of Ezra/Aria too.

Also personally I don't care about Travis/Hanna at all, because as I've said, I'm all about the Hanna/Caleb. I hope so much they bring him back next season!

Thoughts? Concerns? Annoyances?

Lots of set up for next week, but I was glad to finally see Jason, just because he's part of the story. Hopefully more answers to come.

Also wow 4 moms at once, that doesn't happen very often!

Also I thought the bridal show was gonna take up more time, but it was really just an amusing excuse to get them in wedding dresses (and then get one of them dirty at least of course!).

Yeah, there were a lot of moms, lol. It was cool to see Aria's again.

I was glad to see Jason again, too. I always liked his character. Or found him hot. One of those. ;)

I wonder if the (former) live-in drug counselor dude will be back?

Initially I was intrigued and dug this untold backstory of Spencer's, but now I'm not so sure. Is everybody going to get some secret past we've never known about for convenience's sake? That's what it feels like right now with Spencer.

Still not buying Mrs.D as A. Kinda worried Ashley's going to get fired now.

The Paige/Emily breakup felt anti-climactic, but they've never been a hardcore ship of mine or anything. We've only seen them together sporadically of late, too (same with Spencer and Toby).

Looking forward to all four girls and Alison being together! Who's there with them at the end of the episode?

I was really glad ~~Piper~~ Aria's mom was back!

Jason's not super my type but he does seem to get hotter every time he comes back. I don't know if there was any point really for the drug counselor unless he comes back. Though if he doesn't, that wouldn't surprise me at all too.

I totally know what you mean about Spencers random drug past that comes from nowhere and was just put there to explain things unnecessarily. I'm not a fan really either.

The Emily/Paige break up was sort of very casual (sometimes those things confuse me if they're break ups or not, I was really confused with Hanna and Caleb's break up!) I sort of liked them as a couple, especially more so than any potential Emily/Alison ship possibly happening, which I have seen a lot of people hoping for. Alison is fun to watch and interesting, but I think she'd be a terrible partner for Emily.

Too many guesses for who shows up at the end; it could be someone like Mona or Shana who would might be reasonably following them. Or it could be someone completely random.

I'm not a fan of Emily/Alison either. I still don't trust her or like the way she treated the girls, though I like the way the show complicates her character. I did like Maya/Emily, but oh well!

I was wondering about CeCe being who shows up given the episode tag. But I also thought Mona. I didn't think of Shana.

Discuss the season 4 finale right here!!

Edited 2014-03-19 01:07 (UTC)

Urgh, not happy with what they're doing with Ezra, even though I sort of saw it coming. I hope he's dead, although I doubt it.

I feel like we didn't really get that many answers. Basically, I suppose now we know that it was Ali's mom who buried her, seemingly without knowing she was dead (Alison appears to be of two minds on this), and that she's protecting someone. My best guess would be Jason, but I don't remember if he has some airtight alibi from that night. Much of the rest of the episode is showing us stuff we knew, just from Ali's side, yes? I guess we didn't know that it was Ali who pushed Ian? But now we don't know who pulled the girls from the barn because Ali says it wasn't her.

We still don't know who "A" is, who the girl in Ali's grave is or who killed her.

I'm also confused about why Ali was weird around Spencer at the start and saying she wasn't yet sure about her, yet later reveals that she IS sure?

Yeah I was annoyed at all the Ezra redemption attempts. I hope he's dead too.

Agree with you about not getting answers. A lot of it was just going over everything Ali did "that night" and seeing her point of view. Which filled in a little bit but nothing new besides the stuff about her mom. Also I thought of Jason too because he's the only one that Mrs D would have any motivation to protect (Besides maybe Mr Hastings but he thinks Spencer did it anyway). Maybe Melissa thinks Jason did it too and that's what she was telling her dad. (Though someone else killed whoever is in the grave though it seems!!)

Ooh, I forgot about Ali saying it wasn't her that pulled them from the fire. Maybe it was Cece in a mask (those stupid masks!) or they are going to go the twin route, which I really hope not!

I feel like Ali being all weird with Spencer was just some of the regular old Ali teasing them and enjoying having some control over them. She wanted their undivided attention so she wouldn't tell Spencer what she wanted until Ali was ready to do so.

With the fire, wasn't Emily basically hallucinating seeing Ali anyway? Lol, I seriously can't remember anything anymore.

I got the vibe that Ali was being pretty straightforward and even repentant at times with the girls in the present, so I don't think she was messing with Spencer. My best guess is it was the writers creating drama!

Also, what happened to Noel? He disappeared. And what are the "secrets" of his Ali referenced?

Yay, Caleb's back this summer!

The fire at the barn, Hanna saw Ali's face and Mona claimed it was Alison too, but she ran away and they were all suffering from the smoke inhalation. What's sad is that I remember this stuff really well :)

You're probably right, Alison putting Spencer off was just pointless drama for the episode.

Hoping they can bring back some other people when it comes back for season 5, since they are trying to make Noel and Melissa seem semi important again. Also I think Lucas is going to be in season 5 which should be good!

It's not sad at all that you remember! I wish I did!

I actually read an interview with one of the showrunner's, and she said that Ali was still messing with Spencer, so you were right about that. She also said Ali had just gotten better at it, which is scary. I honestly thought she'd just seemed sincere!

I'd been wondering if they would bring Lucas back; that's cool.

Hope everyone is excited for this new season! For once I'm not too spoiled, so I have no idea what's going to happen this premiere!

Discuss the season 5 premiere right here.

I made a post in my journal here about the premiere, but hope to hear others thoughts about the episode here!

In case anyone is interested, Marlene King did an AMA on reddit a few days ago. There are some spoilery hints for what we are going to see this season, but nothing too specific.

Enjoyed Aria going a little crazy and all of the amusing Liars interactions. Also all cheese is good (and melty apparently).

Mostly I'm wondering when Caleb is coming back! /one-track-mind

SAME!

He is the only male character on the show I really love. I think it's not for a few episodes though :(

Thoughts? Feelings?

I love Hanna <3

Great Hanna stuff; I hadn't thought about her as an Ali-makeover. It's been a while since they've shown or hinted at Hanna's past transformation. I was hoping for a more radical second transformation than what I saw in the previews for next week, though!

I can't help liking Jason; mostly I think it's because he's hot. ;) I always want him and Spencer to be on good terms (versus Melissa--has she ever been honest without designs?).

Ugh, the inevitable Ezra redemption arc. Ali said the exact thing I hate that this show gives us with the Ezra/Aria romance: Ezra's not a bad guy, just too romantic! Because that totally absolves him from being a creeper, a cradle-robbing statutory rapist that lied his ass off to Aria and the others.

Is the new girl clinging to Emily just "the new girl"? What's her role going to be, I wonder?

I hadn't really thought about it like turning Hanna into an Ali clone for Mona's personal plaything, but it was a really interesting twist on it. And I had expected a little more change from Hanna than what it looks like it is!

I gotta say Jason was definitely working the beanie and more casual clothes, angry face. I don't always find him that hot, but I definitely appreciated him this episode!

Yeahh I don't know if I could say enough bad things about the way the show handles Ezra and his terribleness. It's going to be painful watching them push him and Aria back together and making him "good again."

I thought it was the best episode in a long while. The Mona/Hanna makeover scenes were really creepy, if you think about how Mona played with the Allison doll. It was like she used Hanna the same way--as a living, breathing doll she could groom and play with.

I really enjoyed all the Hanna/Mona stuff too, it's so twisted and fascinating. I hope they go into it more this season!

Discuss tonight's episode right here!

Ruh-roh. Hanna's gone back to shoplifting. And her hair was more different than it appeared in previews, although I think she'd look fabulous as either a redhead (like her mom) or brunette totally.

Waiting for whatever Mona's got planned to happen soon.

Where'd Ali's scar come from?! And how long until we find out? :)

Ha, everyone but Hanna was avoiding Ali.

Tonight's episode was written by showrunner Marlene King and it was PLL's 100th episode. Thoughts?

It felt like the Bad Romance episode! Ezra/Aria (goes without saying), Ali/Emily (noooo Emily!). Toby and Spencer were fine, but there's the breakup of Spencer's parents' marriage (tbh I don't trust ANYONE in that family but Spencer). And...and

CALEB FINALLY. (Just please shave. How cliche is stubble/facial hair for signalling a guy has gone to some Dark Side?). He and Hanna are both in Bad Places. It seems train-wrecky right now, but...whatever, they WILL be together again! I declare it.

I just don't even know who I'm rooting for or against lately (except the Liars, who I love eternally). I knew that new chick was going to be trouble.

Yeah there were a lot of romantic subplots all throughout. I could have done without some (Ezra/Aria) but I'm glad the show is addressing Emily/Alison even though it's going to end up badly; it feels like it needs to happen regardless for Emily so she can learn from it and get over Ali for good.

I was so excited to see Caleb too! (Happy to find someone who like him here, because there's apparently a fair amount of people that don't like him too.) Hopefully they'll calm down his hair/facial hair situations oon because yeah too much going on there, even compared to Ravenswood from what I recall. It really feels like the show might jsut go witht he most obvious OTPs (sometimes to its detriment imo) so yeah I tend to think they'll get back together eventually too :)

I still can't remember that new chick's name, except now she's Jenna's sister/lover/bff/something instead of just swimming stalker girl!

People who don't like Caleb? That's a possibility? ;) (Of course, Ezra/Aria has its fans, too.)

Yeah, first there will be some Caleb/Hanna angst for sure. I'm interested to see where Hanna will go as a character; she feels in flux right now.

I hope there's more explanation about what happened with Caleb and Ravenswood than what we got tonight. Also, what was with that look Caleb and Ali exchanged at the end?

Was someone trying to kill Jenna again? How many times is someone going to attempt to blow her up/set her on fire? And why??

I really think there has to be some more (even if vague) explanation of Ravenswood, because that stuff with him didn't even make sense.

I don't know if he was just looking at Ali like that because he is surprised to see her a live and he probably doesn't have happy friendly feelings towards her since he knows what a jackass she was previously.

Yeah I'm confused if there is someone separate who blew up the cars/house or if it was some weird inside job by Mona/Jenna/New girl. Is A now completely separate from them? Ahhh so confusing!

Discuss!!

Enjoy the pot roast?

Pretty Little Liars: Home Base

General Discussion

4x18 Hot For Teacher

Re: 4x18 Hot For Teacher

Re: 4x18 Hot For Teacher

Re: 4x18 Hot For Teacher

4x19 Shadow Play

Re: 4x19 Shadow Play

Re: 4x19 Shadow Play

Re: 4x19 Shadow Play- REVIEWS

4x20 Free Fall

Re: 4x20 Free Fall

Re: 4x20 Free Fall

Re: 4x20 Free Fall

4x21 She's Come Undone

Re: 4x21 She's Come Undone

Re: 4x21 She's Come Undone

Re: 4x21 She's Come Undone

Re: 4x21 She's Come Undone

4x22 Cover for Me

Re: 4x22 Cover for Me

Re: 4x22 Cover for Me

4x23 Unbridled

Re: 4x23 Unbridled

Re: 4x23 Unbridled

Re: 4x23 Unbridled

4x 24 A is for Answers

Re: 4x 24 A is for Answers

Re: 4x 24 A is for Answers

Re: 4x 24 A is for Answers

Re: 4x 24 A is for Answers

Re: 4x 24 A is for Answers

5x1 'A' is for A-l-i-v-e

Re: 5x1 'A' is for A-l-i-v-e

Re: 5x1 'A' is for A-l-i-v-e

5x2 Whirly Girlie

Re: 5x2 Whirly Girlie

Re: 5x2 Whirly Girlie

5x3 Surfing the Aftershocks

Re: 5x3 Surfing the Aftershocks

Re: 5x3 Surfing the Aftershocks

Re: 5x3 Surfing the Aftershocks

Re: 5x3 Surfing the Aftershocks

5x4 Thrown from the Ride

Re: 5x4 Thrown from the Ride

5x5 Miss Me x 100

Re: 5x5 Miss Me x 100

Re: 5x5 Miss Me x 100

Re: 5x5 Miss Me x 100

Re: 5x5 Miss Me x 100

Re: 5x5 Miss Me x 100

5x6 Run, Ali, Run

5x7 The Silence of E. Lamb