Pretty Little Liars 4X04 thoughts

  Spencer: "Senior year is supposed to be the best year of your life.               
                                         Did you know that?"
     
  Emily: "Hmmm if you survive it"
    

Just like 4X01 this episode gave us lots more answers and even more questions to deal with so let dive right into the review.

After Caleb tells her about her father's missing gun and that her mum may have taken it. Hanna is on the warpath. Telling Caleb to forget everything he told her. She's asking Spencer if she has shown the mask to Melissa yet, because she doesn't want Melissa to skip town and pin the blame for shooting Wilden on her mother. Emily comes and tells the other liars that her dad is back which is a bad thing because of the Family Services situation. Officer Holbrook and his superior lt. Tanner are watching the 4 girls outside of school to continue their investigation and wonder why 4 pretty girls attract so many corpses. 

At school the 4 liars are sitting together talking about Hector and wondering if he will notice any heads missing (Melissa's head) Emily gets a text from her dad telling her to come home straight after school to discuss the family services situation. Claiming that she doesn't know what to think because she lied about getting hurt and lied about taking the pills.

Aria: "Little Lies"
 
Hanna: "Yeah it's the problem. A big lie gives you something to hang on to. Trouble starts when you shave the truth and it just gets all twisted up."

Aria is talking about her mum going away and refuses to talk to the others about Jake. (Seriously what is with her and teacher figures?) Before the girls leave Hanna wants Spence to hurry up and make a decision about Melissa.

 
Spencer finally comes clean and tells Veronica aka mummy dearest (and Melissa) that she didn't get into UPenn. Her mum is visibly upset because her family have all gone there.

At Hanna's mum's office Hanna arrives just as the police open up Wilden's safety deposit box. Holbrook and Tanner (sounds like the new Mulder and Scully) find some cash, two passports and his drop gun.

The next day Ems goes back to visit Doctor Vargas and reassures him that nothing is wrong, he's got the wrong impression. But she fails to convince him otherwise. Before she leaves he tells her that she will need surgery to heal her arm and that she can't swim until them or risk doing more damage to her arm. He later says that even after the surgery, she may not be able to swim again.

Meanwhile Hanna bumps into LT Tanner in the middle of Rosewood and tries to dump Melissa in it and convince her that Wilden wasn't a good cop. Caleb comes just in time before she can say anything incriminating about her or her mum.

Soon after Aria and Jake were hanging out when they bump into Malcolm. (That kid shows up at the wrong time) When Jake asked who he was, she said he was her teacher's kid. (Which technically he is) Later Aria decides to tell Jake about her relationship with Ezra. He understands but he gives her an analogy talking about being hurt or being injured. She assures Jake that their movie is over (her and Ezra) it has to be.

Meanwhile in a not too distant city, Toby meets up with Dr Palmer and the two discuss his mother. Dr Palmer also thinks that Toby's mum was pushed. We also learn that Dr Palmer is not quite himself because he is living in a place for the not so fully minded. Before Toby leaves Dr Palmer tells Toby to tell his mum to stay away from that blonde girl. (Hmmm could he been talking about Alison)

The Fields family discussion ended pretty badly with Emily running out of the house and her dad running out into the street yelling her name. Which of course could and did alert the neighbours.

Back at the Marin household Hanna confronts her mum. About killing Wilden for like the tenth time. She manages to tell a little truth saying that she was in Rosewood when Wilden was killed. Later the detectives arrive and want to question her mother. Hanna covers for her mum saying that she was out. The police are quick to point out that her car is in the drive way. Caleb jumps in with an excuse 'coughs' lie about the car saying that he drove it because she asked him to fix something with it.

Aria and Spencer set a trap for Melissa by planting the Melissa head in her suitcase. Of course Melissa finds it and “Team Sparia” (as Spencer calls them) are watching her and filming. They follow Melissa to Hector's mask making shack place and find her dragging a sack (not body sized Spencer) turns out her faces are in there. Spencer follows her to while Aria keeps an eye on Hector. Aria finds more Ali moulds and confronts Hector about it. He explains that he gave Melissa the same deal as the girls. Their face for information.  We then flashback to Hector and Alison. Alison is in a hurry and wants the money he owes her. Hector doesn't have it so she takes whatever money he has leaves in a black car. Hector of course didn't see who was driving.

Now things get juicy. Melissa starts to give Spence and us a whole bunch of answers. She has been protecting Spence from the start. She was afraid of Wilden which is why she sent Jenna and Shana to watch over the girls. Wilden was the one that started the fire at the lodge. Wilden tried to kill Spence on the Halloween Train before Paige came to the rescue. She also thinks that Ali might still be alive. The last bit of info we learn is that Wilden was taking orders from someone which is why he tried to kill Spencer but Garrett also on the train was a bigger target. (Could Wilden be working for Red Coat? And could Jason somehow be involved?) Spencer asks if she killed Wilden? We never got an answer for that question. Once again my mind has exploded just like after the Mona answers.

Meanwhile at school Ems finds Paige swimming and tells her the truth about how she really injured her arm. Paige now knows the A is back on the radar. She assures Em that everything will be ok but while Paige walks Em home they see Rosewood's finest at her door. Turns out someone called the police about a domestic disturbance coming from Emily's address. So Emily immediately goes to talk to the police and tell them that it was a mistake. Was it A the called the cops?

Spencer returns home with Aria still reeling from her confrontation with Melissa only to find that Melissa has done a disappearing act. She skipped town, this could make her look guilty to the police. But Aria asks Spence if she believes everything Melissa told her. Spence replies "Enough of it, for now." Just then they both get a text from the very absent 'A' this episode.

 

                    "Melissa's guilty of plenty, but she's not 'A' material. Kisses."

After reading the text Spence decides to call Em and tells Aria to call Hanna. But Hanna just walks in before Aria can even call her and tells them that she thinks her mum killed Detective Wilden and 'A' knows it.

In the last scene of the episode we see 'A' fishing the broken pieces of Melissa's mask and putting it back together piece by piece. How will 'A' use the mask?


So what are your thoughts for next week?
Do you believe everything Melissa said?
Why was Ali in such a hurry to get the money Hector owed her? And who was driving the car she got into?


As usual can't wait till next week

Grade - A