Pretty Little Liars S04 E08 – Traumatic mom tears

Previously: Toby and Caleb teamed up and A threw a car at the Fields’s house.
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The Guilty Girl’s Handbook

Lorraine: Mama Fields is on the phone, presumably with the LOLPD, trying to get some answers about the car that was thrown at her house. Apparently, there was no sign of the driver, which Pam finds super hard to believe. After the phone call, Pam tells Emily to quit sulking around the motel and go to her college guidance session.

Hasting’s House. Emily, Aria and Spencer are together and worrying about the Fields family. Spencer says that A likes to throw cars at people AND THAT’S WHAT WE’VE BEEN SAYING. Wait, did Sara know this was going to happen and inject that language into the recaps early? Whatever is happening here, I like it.

Sweeney: I hadn’t even considered the possibility that Sara had seen this episode already when discussion of A throwing cars first began. I feel like it took us an unreasonably long time to get this far, though, so I’m going to choose to believe that some PLL writer reads our blog.

Lor: Our recaps were already live when this episode aired so it’s posstible…

Aria asks if maybe the car through the living room window was just an accident and Spencer gives her the requisite, “bitch, please,” look. They try and guess why A would want to drive into the Fields house and it’s real cute that they are still trying to guess at A motives. Talk turns to Hanna’s mom. They are waiting to hear from Mariska Mom to see if Ashley can get out on bail. (S: I was glad that they acknowledged that this was just her arraignment and not an actual trial because that was truly bothering me last time.) Not a minute later, Mariska Mom arrives with the bad news that the judge refused bail on account of Ashley maybe killing a cop. You know that old founding principal, innocently in jail until proven guilty! Mariska Mom is going to appeal, but also, they are moving Ashley to the state prison until the trial. Hanna storms away.

Sweeney: And Spencer throws a bonus, “UGH, HOW DARE YOU, MOM,” glare at Mariska Mom. I mean, I hate Mariska Mom as much as the next unpaid blogger, Spencer, but this really isn’t her fault.

Lor: SHHHHHHH.

Marin Manor. Hanna says that she should be the one in jail, not her mother. Aria and Spencer try to say comforting things, especially about Mariska Mom who is an awesome lawyer and wins every time. Hanna ignores a call from Caleb and Aria asks if Hanna wants to go to school. Because apparently, they were at Spencer’s house, there was a whole arraignment, they had time to go to Hanna’s house and it is still before school. (S: OBLIGATORY, “WHAT IS TIME IN ROSEWOOD?”) Hanna tells her friends to go on ahead without her and assures them that she’ll be fine. They leave her reluctantly.

Sweeney: The most important thing that happens in this scene is that Hanna references moving in with her dad and “the gruesome twosome.” CROSSOVER MAGIC!

Lor: Excellent catch!

Rosewood High. Mike catches up with Aria and has a conversation with her here, probably because she was up at 3am to get all her pre-school activities in and he didn’t catch her in the morning. Anyway, their dad is out of town, so he’s checking in with her because he’s going out after his game that night. Aria tries to get him to say what time he’ll be in, but all Mike will say is that he needs to spend time with his bros. Things have been a little different since what happened with Connor’s car, but he’s handling it. Aria notices his bag is from a martial arts class. IDK if it’s the one that had her 2-second-non-Ezra boyfriend, but I assume so. She asks him about the bag and he says he’s taking a class there. Really, all of Aria’s and Mikes conversations consist of Aria asking something in an accusatory tone and Mike replying flatly and slowly, like he’s talking to a particularly dumb child.

Ew-zra. The show tries to be all, “look! Ezra is so cute with his child!”

     

No1curr.

Sweeney:

Lor: Emily comes to see Ezra, who I guess is her college adviser or some crap. He wasn’t expecting her on account of her house swallowing a car. She says she’s fine to be there, though, and doesn’t want to start missing deadlines. And then the worst thing ever, because Ezra is the first adult on this series to kind of figure out what is happening. He says that when he first came to Rosewood, the Liars were being threatened pretty seriously. Mona confessed to most of that, but he asks if history is repeating itself. Emily doesn’t answer so he continues that the first time around they took too long to speak up. Emily cuts him off and says the car thing was an accident. She changes the subject to colleges.

In the hall, Caleb is complaining to Spencer about Hanna ignoring his calls. He’s worried about her being alone. Spencer promises to skip out later in the day and check on Hanna. Caleb asks how the rest of them are doing and Spencer gives him a chirpy reply. He stops her and says he saw the Field’s house wreckage so he wants a real answer. Spencer says they are trying to remain positive. She’s thinking that if A is upping their game, it must mean they are getting too close for comfort to Wilden’s killer. Spencer asks who was on the other line of that number the pulled from Nigel’s phone, but Caleb doesn’t know. Apparently, Spencer didn’t know any of this even though Toby is in New York trying to locate the owner of that number. Best to keep the lines of communication open in your relationship, Spen! You don’t want to be finding out about your boyfriend conducting murder investigations from other people, you know?

Sweeney: Awkwaaaard!

Lor: Back with Em, she’s feeling pretty down on herself because no college is going to want her now that she doesn’t swim. Ezra tells her that she’s done some work outside of swimming, including working in Haiti last summer, which is pretty impressive. He tells her to call her old supervisor and get a reference. The bell rings and Ezra leaves her with the parting wisdom that someone needs to remind her who she truly is. Definitely we should encourage young girls to seek validation and a sense of self from other people.

 

Ashley calls Hanna and they have lots of feels, as they both do their best to remain positive. Ashley says Mariska Mom is going to bring Hanna to jail so they can see each other. She stops herself from saying, “to say goodbye.”

After the call, Hanna goes back in the kitchen where Mona is waiting for her.

    Sweeney: Why was Mona already seated and casually hanging out at Hanna’s kitchen table by the time they got to the, “What do you want?” question?

Lor: Maybe they had snacks first.

After a not!break, Hanna explains that they’d probably punish Hanna less for the murder than Ashley. Mona wonders why she’s being roped in to help and Hanna’s pretty much all, “you lie like a psychopath.” Mona seems pretty proud of that fact.

Sweeney: Also Janel Parrish’s entire direction for this scene seems to have been, “Just do a lot of weird nodding.”

Lor: And she really commits to that direction.

Spencer gets to her house to find a bunch of boxes and a dude she doesn’t know. His name is Beckett and he’s interning with Mariska Mom. (S: Is this the new pedobear on the block introducing himself?) Seems the DA got cute and sent a bunch of case files to Mariska Mom’s home address instead of the office. Spencer offers to help Beckett carry more boxes in, but she eyes them like she can’t wait to crack one open.

Marin Manor of Fake Confessions. Hanna is fake confessing to Mona who asks follow up questions and tells her she can’t just say she did it. She has to get specific about how and why she did it. They start with motive. Hanna says that Wilden was threatening her because she was telling people he got Alison DiLaurentis pregnant and might’ve killed her. Mona says that’s a real good motive.

Beckett is on the phone with Mariska Mom and of course Spencer is going through one of the boxes. In it is a case file on Mama Cavanaugh and the police report Wilden filed on the incident, I suppose. The report says that Mama Cavanaugh fell from a great height but there was no unauthorized personal onsite and all the patients were in their beds. Spencer puts the file away and looks off to the side like maybe that one action will make Beckett forget that she’s just creeping behind these boxes.

Aria visits Jake to see if Mike ever said anything important while taking his martial arts lessons. Jake shares that he did say something odd about it being hard to play your sport when it feels like the team is playing against you. Aria asks what that means, and I don’t know, I thought it was pretty self-explanatory. Even though she stomped over here to ask about her brother, Aria makes Jake promise that he’ll never tell Mike anything about her. He promises and also says that he’s always there for her if she needs help.

Sweeney: In my continued quest to make accusations of characters who have so far done nothing wrong, Jake seems like a genuinely good guy right now which means his best hope is to get written out immediately. If we see him in more than another couple episodes, he’s definitely going to be written into an A-ccomplice place, because the show just can’t have this much decency standing in the way of everyone’s favorite illegal relationship.

Lor: I’m too selfish to wish Jake away, though. PLEASE STAY. KEEP THE PEDZRIA AT BAY.

Spencer goes back to Radley and finds Eddie Lamb. She has a cookie tin in hand and says she’s there to thank everyone who looked after her. He says “you’re welcome” like he really believes she’s there to thank him. Aw. When she opens the cookie tin, the police report is folded on top.

    We cut to Spencer questioning Eddie about the events of that night. He was the one who discovered Mama Cavanaugh not in her bed and the roof access door unlocked. Spencer wonders why the official report said Mama Cavanaugh jumped from a window and not the roof. Eddie says details aren’t important, so I guess if his gig at Radley ever goes south, he should try working for the police next. Spencer wonders why Wilden would lie about that in his report and Eddie asks if she’s ever wondered how Wilden went from patrolman to detective so quickly. Eddie suggests Spencer drop it, but she can’t, because she’s trying to figure out who else wanted Wilden dead.

Marin Manor. They’ve moved onto the shoe portion of the evidence review. Hanna explains to Mona about the missing pair of muddy Manolos. Mona spins the story and says Hanna was wearing them to go kill Wilden, because this was a classy murder. Hanna threw out the shoes so no one would think her mom did it.

Emily is sitting outside and apparently Zoe is just going to show up in town today, which is awful convenient. The second she’s on the screen, I get wicked, “hey! You! I KNOW YOU,” feelings. I let it go for a second but as she asks Emily where she’s been, I caved and took to the Google; IT’S RUMER WILLIS. LOL. WHUT. (S: I spotted her name in the opening credits and “LOL WHUT” accurately summarizes my reaction.) Emily says she’s been too busy to answer emails and text messages, or whatever, and Rumer says she was worried Emily was still dealing with Maya’s death.

  Emily asks if she was any help at all that summer, or just another disaster area. Rumer sings her praises and shows her some pictures of Emily modeling for DeWalt. Oh, I mean, “working in Haiti.” Rumer wishes she had an Emily on all her teams, even the one she’s putting together to work in Nicaragua that summer. Emily looks interested.

Caleb is visiting Ashley, at her request. She’s worried that Hanna might do something stupid, as she is known to do. Ashley says a lot about how Hanna rushes right into situations without thinking and I’m torn between, “wow, that describes her character exactly!” and “wow. That describes every character on this show exactly.” Caleb promises to do what he can to stop Hanna from doing something as crazy as pushing Wilden’s car into a lake or trying to bury a gun next to a frat party.

While Emily and Rumer Willis keep talking, Mama Fields walks up to them. She’s got the pictures of their house, but doesn’t want to go to the police department to drop them off. Emily says she’ll take care of it, but things are awkward because Mama Fields mentions living in a motel in front of Rumer Willis. Is this really the type of conversation you’d have in front of a near stranger? After Mama Fields is gone, Rumer asks if Emily has too much going on to work with them again next summer. Emily is set on going and asks for the sign up sheet.

These Are My Fake Confessions. Mona takes Hanna through her explanation for acquiring the gun (from her father’s desk) and why Ashley’s fingerprints were on the bullets (I don’t know! Could’ve happened at any time). Mona asks Hanna how it felt to shoot someone, which Hanna finds disturbing, but it’s the kind of disturbing detail the police will apparently be looking for. We go into an imagined flashback of Wilden greeting Hanna and saying that Ashley won’t be able to fix anything for her this time. (You know, with her vagina.) Imagined!Hanna pulls out the gun. Mona says it has to be something more than that to go for self-defense. Imagined!Wilden says that maybe Hanna can fix it herself, since she is her mother’s daughter. I bet anyone listening to this testimony would automatically believe it. PEDO-BEAR? SOUNDS RIGHT AND TRUE. In the imagined flashback, Hanna pulls the trigger and the noise brings us back to the present where Caleb is knocking on the door.

Things are tense as Caleb asks what Mona is doing there. Hanna lies that she came over to check on her and everything is perfectly okay because compared to her mom going to jail and her having to live with her dad, talking to Mona is normal. Hanna tells Caleb to leave her alone and he leaves.

Hastings House. Mariska Mom and Beckett are hard at work. Spencer tries to casually sneak on through but Beckett stops her and whispers that if she wants him to slip the file back in the box before her mom notices, he will. LOL. Spencer, girl, you were literally just creeping behind boxes. It wasn’t that sneaky. Spencer says she’ll take care of it herself and Beckett’s all, “whatevs.”

Montgomery Manse. Aria is reading in the living room when she hears an engine revving and tires screeching. Feeling jittery and nervous, she calls Mike, but one of his teammates answers. Aria tells him to put Mike on and Douchemate says Mike isn’t conscious yet and hangs up on her. She dials again.

Marin Manor. Hanna is going through her fake confession again, saying she saw Wilden in town and followed him to the lake. He was angry so she took out her gun. In another imagined flashback, Wilden grabs Hanna’s hand and she fires. In the real world, Mona reminds Hanna that there were two gunshots so in the imagined flashback, Hanna shoots him again.

Sweeney: Yeah, I’m still not sure Hanna understands how self-defense works…

Lor: It’s probably okay. I don’t think the LOLPD would know either.

In the real world, Mona asks her who moved the car and body into town but Hanna says she doesn’t know. She just did the killing. Mona asks if she’s sorry she killed Wilden and Hanna says she is. Mona follows that up by saying that all Hanna has to do is tell the truth now. I can’t tell if she was still pretending to be a cop or if she was just Crazy Mona then. These scenes are weird to recap. Sorry.

Hanna puts some lip gloss on so her lips won’t get chapped while she’s fake confessing. She’s looking pretty cute in her black dress too. She almost makes it to the front door, but Caleb is still in the house and stops her. He wasn’t really going to leave Hanna alone with Mona.

Sweeney: Hanna’s absolutely 100% in the wrong with this insane plan of hers, but that still doesn’t make the stalker boyfriend behavior a good look on Caleb.

Lor: Because it’s not a good look on anyone.

Jake comes over to Aria’s because he’s going to help her find Mike. In like 3 seconds, they deduce where his is in all of town, but before they can head out, Mike calls Aria back. He’s not unconscious, Douchemate was just messing with Aria. Mike says he’s going to spend the night at a friend’s and hangs up. Aria asks Jake why Mike would put her through that. Jake tells her to calm down because Mike’s a good kid who can take care of himself. He promises to tell Aria if things ever get out of control. As it is, he’s more worried about her. She invites him to hang out for a while.

Caleb is trying to tell Hanna how insane it is to confess to a murder she didn’t commit, because prison for kids is still prison. She can’t confess to something just because she fells guilty about something someone else did. Hanna accuses Caleb of thinking Ashley killed Wilden and he admits that he did think that until he spoke to Ashley today.

Heartbreak Motel. Emily comes in all happy about her meeting with Rumer Willis and tells her mom about going to Nicaragua for the summer. Pam tries to look like someone didn’t just run into her house with a car, but can’t hold it together. She breaks down and I actually have a few feels. Mostly because of Nia Peeples and not Shay Mitchell who usually just looks like a deer in headlights during her scenes.

Sweeney: I CRIED. Well, I mean, I vaguely teared up, which is a really incredible level of emotion for this show to get from me. It caught me off guard.

Lor: +1

Close up of stylish heels. Mona walks into the LOLPD and says she needs to talk to a detective about a murder.

Aria is flipping through channels and Jake is still hanging out. The land on trailer for Insidious 2. They comment totally nonchalantly about how great that movie looks and Jake asks Aria to catch it with him. She accepts.

Hastings House. Spencer comes downstairs and has a recap chat with her mom pretty much about everything that’s happened with Ashley in this episode. Spencer takes out the file she took and puts it on the table. Mariska Mom just kind of rolls her eyes and says she should’ve warned Beckett. (S: LOLFOREVER. I’m glad Mariska Mom is laywering again! She’s fun when she’s lawyering.) Spencer explains that it’s a file about Wilden and Radley and Mama Cavanaugh. Someone paid Wilden off to change the details in his report. Mariska Mom says it isn’t relevant, despite the insistence of her non-lawyer, 17 year old daughter. Nothing they do is going to bring Mama Cavanaugh back and if Spencer wants to help, she should help Toby move on.

Mariska Mom gets a call and after she hangs up, she tells Spencer that Mona just walked into the police station and confessed to killing Wilden.

Set to the tune of Meiko’s Bad Things, each of the other Liars get an SOS text from Spencer. Cut to the LOLPD where all the Liars, Mariska Mom and Caleb arrive just in time to see Mona ushered into an interrogation room. Mona smiles a little at Hanna. Huh. I’m almost ready to kind of forget a little bit of how Mona tortured them!

  Sweeney: On any show where I actually retained plot lines, I probably wouldn’t, but this murder confession goes a long way toward balancing the scales for Mona. Or maybe the show just has me all out of sorts after those traumatic mom tears. I can’t tell.

Lor: A-nonymous. A drills from down in somewhere to up in somewhere. I promise that’s a faithful recounting of what I just saw.

 

 

Next time on Pretty Little Liars: Mama Fields throws Emily a surprise party which should go over without a hitch in S04 E09 – Into the Deep.