Welcome back to my weekly review and recap of “Pretty Little Liars.” To catch up on the previous episode, click here.
What happened to the liars in A’s dollhouse? “Songs of Innocence” shines a little light on what they went through while detailing the aftermath for each character. For the most part, Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer spend the episode separated, but we are treated to a nice study of how they deal with their experiences differently.
Aria wants someone to be punished
When Ezra tries to comfort Aria, he suggests to express her feelings through writing in a journal that only she can see. But she immediately brushes this thought away, since she wants to forget all about it.
This reaction goes a little too far once Andrew is captured by Toby and his new partner, Lorenzo Calderon. Aria is just looking for someone to blame so she can let it go. When being questioned by the police about A’s identity, Aria swears it was Andrew who held them captive. She even lies about seeing Andrew in the dollhouse without a mask.
However, while she still feels confident Andrew is behind everything, she learns it is not right to use her words to get others in trouble. Instead, she decides to “stick to the visuals” by taking up photography as a hobby. Something tells me Aria is going to use this as a way to get photographic proof of A’s identity.
Emily tries to defend herself…and possibly opens up to romance?
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Emily takes a more defensive stance. She puts on her father’s army jacket and cracks the code to his weapons safe. Much to her mother’s dismay, Emily goes to a shooting range to let out her frustrations. However, when she breaks down in front of her mother, she realizes a gun does not take the fear away but makes you the same as what you’re afraid of. This does not stop her from putting her father’s army jacket back on later in the episode, though. Could this be hinting at a future in the military for Emily?
If she takes this career path, it looks like she may have a potential army wife. Throughout the episode, Emily hints at her sympathies toward Sara and how she was held captive in the dollhouse for two years. Could she be having feelings for Sara? The story definitely seems to be going in that direction, especially considering Sara runs away from home at the end of the episode and the first person she runs to is Emily.
Sara seems to run away from her problems a lot. The first time, she ends up in Charles’s clutches. Then, she runs away again two years later. Sara explains this by detailing how her mother used to get a ton of attention after she disappeared. Now that Sara’s back home, her mother doesn’t know what to do.
Something seems a little off about Sara right now. Why did she run away…twice? There is definitely more to her than meets the eye, and we’ll hopefully find out in future episodes. Let’s just hope she’s a good person, since we simply can’t stand to see Emily go through any more heartbreak!
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Hanna needs a new environment
After being sickened by seeing her bedroom, Hanna decides to trash all of the furniture—bed and all—and plans to redecorate the room entirely. In doing so, she becomes a little distant from her mother and Caleb until they finally get through to her. Caleb promises her she will feel better because “sometimes you end up stronger in the broken places.” She starts to show signs of recovery when she says she wants her old nightstand back, symbolizing that she doesn’t necessarily want to forget her past.
However, Hanna’s mother is the first one to have her discuss what happened in the dollhouse. Apparently, A played games with the girls such as Truth or Dare or, “Who deserves water today? You or somebody else?” And the girls would have to flip a switch to decide. Once they flipped a switch, they would hear a scream from another room. Let’s hope we get more details of the torture the girls went through, even if it is a little scary to think about.
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Could Spencer return to her drug use?
She probably won’t do this, considering it would take the character ten steps backward, but it’s still a scary thought. When Spencer gets home from the hospital, she is angry with her mother for not allowing her to go on anti-anxiety medication under doctor’s orders. Spencer decides to take matters into her own hands and steals a pill from Aria.
While in her bedroom in the middle of the night, she holds the pill in her hand and contemplates taking it. She quickly wraps it in a tissue and hides it in a drawer just before her mother walks in. After learning Spencer hasn’t been sleeping, she grabs a pillow and invites her to watch a movie until they both fall asleep. Spencer instantly complies, showing she doesn’t necessarily need the pill to feel better. However, as long as it is hiding in her dresser, there is no doubt it will be a temptation for her in future episodes.
In other news, could Alison have a new love interest?
Ali and Toby have a rather tense meeting in the street where she is introduced to Toby’s partner, Lorenzo. While Toby and Ali discuss how they “all went through a lot” and how they are “glad it’s over” for drastically different reasons, Lorenzo serves as the outsider. Later on, he sees Ali at church and they bond over being the “new kids in town,” since Lorenzo is actually new to Rosewood and Ali is new to the church.
Before leaving each other at church, Lorenzo promises Ali he won’t tell anyone he saw her, because she doesn’t look like someone who would want other people to know. Later on, when she runs into him at the Rear Window Brew, Ali tells him he was right. She was embarrassed about going because she’s afraid of what people might think—that she’s “going for show” or she “went crazy in jail.” Lorenzo’s response: “Would you like one of these mini hamburgers?”
For the first time in awhile, Ali actually meets someone who doesn’t know anything about the girl she used to be. Lorenzo is not judging her and seems genuinely interested in getting to know who she is now. It should be intriguing to see where this relationship goes.
But wait…what about Charles DiLaurentis?
Since Andrew was captured by the police, everyone seems a little suspicious. Toby thinks it was too easy to catch him, and even Aria’s mother is wondering how a high school boy could afford all of this technology (Did she ever meet Mona?).
Meanwhile, Ali asks her father about Charles. He says there is no one in the family by that name and doesn’t even question her or wonder where the name came from. There is obviously a secret, especially considering Ali finds a family album where photos are visibly torn out. The trailer for next week’s episode seems to reveal that Jason knows about Charles and even refers to him as “Charlie.” Let’s hope the #SummerOfAnswers holds up to its name and that “Charlie” didn’t bite Jason’s finger.
Current A suspect: Lorenzo. This isn’t for any legitimate reason. I just think the writers want to make Ali’s life a living hell by giving her a real love interest only to yank it away from her. But let’s hope that’s not the case!
Rating: 9/10
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