You know in every show there’s that randomly inserted musical episode that you probably usually skip? Yeah, this is that episode. “It’s episode 10, double digits,” Lacey sings offkey to welcome you to the recap of the season one episode entitled “Keep your friends close”, as sung helpfully by Yasemin. “Just thought I’d carry it on,” she adds. No, really, this is a running joke throughout this episode. Protect your eardrums.
Ian makes his official introduction to the series as the girls’ new field coach, and we...
You know in every show there’s that randomly inserted musical episode that you probably usually skip? Yeah, this is that episode. “It’s episode 10, double digits,” Lacey sings offkey to welcome you to the recap of the season one episode entitled “Keep your friends close”, as sung helpfully by Yasemin. “Just thought I’d carry it on,” she adds. No, really, this is a running joke throughout this episode. Protect your eardrums.
Ian makes his official introduction to the series as the girls’ new field coach, and we learn through Spencer that he broke Melissa’s heart back in the day. “She doesn’t have a good track record with men, at all,” Lacey observes as Yasemin makes a jab at Spencer: “I think someone gets in the way of these relationships.”
Although Melissa’s failed relationships are a running theme of this episode, it’s Camp Mona that really takes the cake. All of the girls are invited, much to their disdain, and only Hanna is up for it until A reveals it’ll be a scavenger hunt to find their identity. But Camp Mona and the hunt will have to wait because school comes first according to an eavesdropping Ashley, who still gives Hanna a singular $100 note. But visit to the principal’s office dampers Hanna’s plans and a text from A to Mona claiming Hanna used liposuction to lose weight gets her uninvited from Camp Mona entirely.
Poor Ashley probably could have used the extra dosh, however, as she spends most of this episode fighting with a robot telephone operator to try and rejig her mortgage. Adding salt in the wound is Mrs Potter, who visits her safety deposit box once a year “like clockwork” and unwisely brags to Ashley that she’s the last of her kind. When she goes, so does the fistfuls of money she’s dumping onto Ashley’s desk. When Mrs Potter takes all the butterscotch but forgets her key, Ashley decides to pocket it alongside all of Mrs Potter’s cash.
At the Hastings House Melissa seems pleased by Ian’s return, although Spencer still has to grovel for ruining her previous engagement. Yasemin is confused why Melissa still blames Spencer, but Lacey points out the Hastings girls have likely been put up against each other since toddlerhood. “Spencer learned to walk, and Melissa had to learn a bike,” Lacey says, correcting herself. “I don’t think you’d make it in the Hastings household,” Yasemin quips. Lacey agrees, fancying herself more of a Marin girl. Anything but a Montgomery.
Aria is at least still giving a boy her age a try, but Ezra Fitz and A are determined to ruin it. Aria and Noel talk outside Aria’s locker which she opens and a book falls out, adorned with a note from A. Unaware, Noel does as the note tells him and opens to page 22 which features the world’s worst poem by Ezra Fitz. Lacey is more than happy to give a dramatic reading. “What’s your favourite line? I think mine is ‘Gold Falafel, as though ice’,” she adds.
Throughout the episode more clues are given about Alison’s killer, and almost all of them point toward Toby Cavanagh. The girls are shown the ‘”I know you wanna kiss me” video by the FBI, and Hanna is most out of sorts over the green sweater she is wearing. It’s revealed via news bulletin later that this sweater belonged to Toby, leading the girls to believe he was Alison’s older boy much to Aria’s disbelief.
The liars digest the Toby of it all in their own way and Emily, in a heart-to-heart with the freshly returned Daddy Fields, almost comes out to her family only to chicken out. However, A has taken the moment from her when it comes to Good Ol’ Pam who, while eavesdropping on the daddy-daughter conversation, reveals she has been sent the photobooth pictures. While Yasemin debates whether Pam is truly homophobic, Lacey says it like it is: “I mean the homophobia is right across that face.”
Finally, the liars make it to Camp Mona and the drama begins. As Emily pulls into the campground, Toby pops up from her backseat with a new haircut that is equally as hated as Ezra’s old one by your hosts. “It’s giving lego head,” says Lacey, while Yasemin compares it to a six-year-old girl’s home haircut as given by her mum. He clears things up about that night but Emily is dubious to believe him, dishing the gossip to her friends back at Camp.
In a series of cuts that give your hosts whiplash several things are revealed. Spencer cracks A’s scavenger hunt, dragging Emily to the “Wright” place and discovering via a tree carving the true identify of Alison’s older boy. Hanna makes her own discovery through her binoculars, spying Aria getting into Ezra’s car. But she’s not the only one to have seen them, as someone leaves an ‘A’ message on the rearview window.
Confident she knows who A is, Hanna summons her friends to the parking lot only to be run over by a car. Far from being concerned, your hosts can hardly keep in their laughter. “I’m curious, what part of this do you find funny?” Yasemin asks as Lacey giggles behind her build-up of the scene. “Everything,” Lacey breathes out. A tells the girls via text that Hanna knew too much, leaving the episode on a cliffhanger.
But perhaps the juiciest reveal comes in the A scene, where an extended cut of the iconic video confirms what Spencer and Emily have begun to suspect: Ian was Alison’s older boy and, more worryingly, he was with her that night.
Quotes
“That’s not even the worst bit though, [Ian] like touching, ugh – whilst he’s doing that, he then decides to kiss her neck and at this point, I nearly crawled into a ball and cried.” – Yasemin
“I think I belong in the Marin household. Just, so dumb with multiple wines.” - Lacey
“I have a few questions here. Firstly, how did [Toby] get in the car? Secondly, when did he get in the car and how long has he been in the car?” – Yasemin
“Aria – Miss I just threw a tantrum because my teacher boyfriend wrote a poem about me – is judging.” - Lacey
“[Emily] should have put gloves on, that’s what Pam would have done, and got tweezers, but she had to work with what she had.” - Yasemin
“[Toby’s] a nice boy, when he’s not wanted for murder and stalking people in cars.” – Lacey
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