With only 10 episodes left — and five months before they premiere — Screener takes a look back through the twisty mysteries and tangled lives of everyone’s favorite “Pretty Little Liars.” So join us daily as we revisit Rosewood of old. The entire series is streaming on Netflix — re-watch with us!
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Up next: Season 1, episode 16, “Je Suis Une Amie,” aired Feb. 7, 2011.
What we thought then …
This episode is mostly about the Liars’ relationships, so it perhaps should have been called “Je Suis Une Copain.”
But on the “A” front, there is one particularly interesting development that has yet to be explicitly solved on “PLL” — who put Toby’s sweater back in his house?
The whole reason Toby (Keegan Allen) is arrested for Alison’s (Sasha Pieterse) murder is because her blood is found on his sweater, the one he gave her when they met up the night she disappeared.
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At the time, we’re supposed to think Jenna (Tammin Sursok) planted the sweater — because when Spencer (Troian Bellisario) questions Toby about it, he looks like he’s going to tell her who he thinks he planted it, until a window slams shut behind them. It seems we’re supposed to think Jenna doesn’t want him to talk because she framed him, which lines up with her being furious with him about ending their relationship.
What we know now…
In the timeline of Alison’s quite eventful evening that night, she wears the sweater to the Kissing Rock, but she doesn’t have it on when she gets back to the barn and has her confrontation with Spencer.
Somewhere in between, Alison must have taken it off. While this has never been explicitly answered by an EP or the show itself, presumably Mona (Janel Parrish) scooped it up and held on to it, then used it to frame Toby for Alison’s “murder” after Ali’s “body” was found.
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Now, it certainly could have been Jenna and Garrett (Yani Gellman) who scooped up Ali’s sweater, but that doesn’t exactly fit with what else transpires that night.
Remember, Mona knew all along that Alison was alive because Mona helped her escape. Mona was the one who intended to kill Ali that night and ended up killing Bethany Young by mistake. When Mona came across Ali wandering alone that night, she must have assumed her blow to the head didn’t actually kill Ali, so she decided to help Ali disappear and make everyone think Ali was dead. That seems like a good motive to hang on to that sweater.
It also explains why Mona-as-“A” switched the dental records — so everyone would think the police found Alison’s body and not Bethany’s. Mona must have realized when a body was found that she hit someone else that night — and since she doesn’t know about Melissa, she probably assumes she was the one who killed Bethany — and Mona wanted everyone to think it was Alison. It also kind of explains why Mona would frame Toby — to keep the cops looking in any direction but hers. Or it could be Mona just being crazy and liking to wreak havoc.
Hindsight hilarity…
It’s fun to watch the three budding relationships, in this episode in particular. Spencer starts tutoring Toby and finds him beguiling (Alex who?), Hanna (Ashley Benson) invites Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) to sleep in her basement (not a euphemism) after his school air vent lair is discovered and Paige’s (Lindsey Shaw) nighttime ride in the rain shows off how she might be feeling about Emily (Shay Mitchell).
Also, the Hanna-Caleb thing leads to one of the most hilarious throwaway lines/visual gags “PLL” has ever done:
It’s even better in slo-mo:
Creepiest dude award goes to …
Definitely Ian (Ryan Merriman). He threatens Spencer and then beats her to the punch of telling Melissa about them, so that he can spin it in as good a light as possible.
But he doesn’t tell Melissa about Alison and now Spencer doesn’t really feel like she can because Melissa won’t believe her. Also, Melissa’s pregnant.
Best ‘A’ message …
There isn’t really a good one this episode, but the “A” tag is excellent.
First of all, “A” has French lessons on vinyl — because of course she does. Also, check out the “Clue”-like collection of weapons, including the infamous trophy that’s about to come into play in a big way…