Haunted by their pasts. On Pretty Little Liars' Tuesday, August 16, episode, key characters struggled to make it through their daily lives as they were confronted by old lovers, old confidants and horrifying memories.
It Was All a Dream
The episode began with Hanna (Ashley Benson) trying to convince Ali (Sasha Pieterse), Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Aria (Lucy Hale), Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) that Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) is A.D. When the group agreed that it was too soon to act on their suspicions, Hanna stormed off, and Caleb followed her. As they argued, Noel drove up and hit Caleb with his car. Although it seems that every person in the history of ever in Rosewood has died via car accident, the Freeform drama’s writers allowed our hopes for a Haleb reunion to live another day as Hanna woke up from her nightmare.
Caught in the Act
In light of the news that Ezra’s late love, Nicole, may actually be alive, Aria was panicked because she deleted a call on Ezra’s phone from Nicole days earlier. As Emily, who encouraged her to delete the call, tried to calm her down, Aria declared, “I lied to him, Emily,” just as Ezra walked in the room. After Aria explained what happened, she and Emily left brooding Ezra to think.
Back to Normal
As they sat drinking coffee, Ali told Emily that she was going back to work at Rosewood High School. When Emily asked if she thought it might be too soon because of the whole fraudulent-husband-drugging-her-to-the-point-of-insanity thing, Ali said she had no choice because said evil husband, Archer Dunhill, stole all her money. Ali left to make first period, while Emily stayed behind to talk to the Brew’s waitress Sydney, who she has been kinda/sorta dating in between bartending and covering a murder. As she went to leave, she ran into Principal Hackett, who told her to apply for the head swim coach position at Rosewood High.
As Ali entered her first class, she opened the door to find all of her students in "A"-like black hoodies. Although she threw up as a result, she later told Emily her first day back was full of “usual pranks.”
On the Record
Spencer searched for a Dr. Cochran after hearing Noel was on the phone with him in the show’s previous episode. She and Aria went to the doctor’s office and met Dr. Cochran’s daughter, who told them that the man they are looking for was an Ob-Gyn who lost his license. She warned, “Wherever my father is, it’s where he belongs. Don’t go looking for him.”
Later, Spencer got a call from Dr. Cochran’s daughter, who said someone ransacked her office the night before, and she thought Spencer and Aria hired someone to get what they wanted from her. To keep the girls away, the doctor told Spencer where her father was and that to get him to talk, she needed to bring him whiskey. Spencer texted Aria: “Looks like Noel Kahn just did us a favor.”
Aria and Spencer went to Dr. Cochran, who immediately started talking about how pretty they were and slipped in a brief mention that he may or may not occasionally buy hookers. Spencer eyed the bottle of whiskey they brought him and quipped, “Curb the perv, or the bottle walks.” We may know basically zero things about what’s happening in Rosewood at the moment, but at least we can be confident in the fact that death threats haven’t distracted the Liars from delivering A+ one-liners.
When Spencer asked him about Mary Drake (Andrea Parker), Dr. Cochran replied, “My job was to make the problem go away, problems like babies.” He said he dealt with two of her babies and that the first one was a boy, but he wasn’t sure what happened to the second child.
Read Into It
Hanna opened her door to find Mrs. Grunwald. For those lost in the web of past characters returning this season, Mrs. Grunwald was the psychic from season 4, who later revealed she pulled Ali out of the ground after Jessica DiLaurentis buried her alive.
She told Hanna she had a dream with a sense of darkness surrounding her and Caleb. They went to the hotel to sit and talk as Hanna told Mrs. Grunwald that someone has been trying to hurt the Liars. Mrs. Grunwald said the source of the danger is very close to them, and then Noel Kahn appeared a few feet away.
File It Away
After Ali noticed a filing cabinet in the principal’s office, she returned at night and opened the "class of 2012" cabinet. She grabbed Noel’s file and saw the first page that read, “I warned you bitches. Do you really want to end up dead?”
Test the Waters
Emily decided to apply for the swim coach position and ran into her ex-girlfriend Paige who, of course, was also applying for the job. They went to get drinks (is it a law in Rosewood that all exes must remain friendly enough to go on dates?) and go down memory lane dissecting why they broke up. While some people might cringe at this thought, they seemed to be enjoying themselves enough to order another round.
Flight Risk
Aria came home with a plane ticket for Ezra, so he could find out if Nicole is still alive. She drove him to the airport, and after an emotional makeout, he walked in to catch his flight. Aria returned home and was looking at her (gorgeous!) (bedazzled!) wedding dress, but quickly zipped it back into its bag.
Taking Action
While Spencer, Emily and Hanna were figuring out what to do next, Hanna had a flashback to being tortured in the cabin and ran outside. “The deal is on. I get you the money, you give me the keys. Tonight,” she said to an unknown person on the other end of a call. “The less you know about this, the better.” She then went to Caleb to tell him she would be going to New York. She turned around to hug him, and they almost kissed (ugh), but she walked away. Later, she stood alone in a dark room duct-taping newspapers to a window.
Tell Us: What was Hanna up to at the end of the episode? And should Emily and Paige get back together?
Pretty Little Liars airs on Freeform Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
