Previously: Lots of pedolationship stuff happened. Ashley ran over detective Wilden and then brought her child back to the crime scene.
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Sweeney: This episode begins shortly after the last, with Emily arriving to hear Spencer’s big secret. Hanna’s not answering her calls, so Spencer has to confess without her: Toby is A.
Marin Manor. Ashley and Hanna return and Ashley wants to call the hospital and the cops, which would have been good ideas a while ago, before she went to get her child to help her with her crime. Hanna explains that now that she’s left the scene of an accident and all, she should just not call the cops. Ashley continues to let her child be the grown up and agrees, but only so long as Hanna promises not to tell her friends about this.
Lorraine: Aw, man. I enjoyed a nice little run there of liking Ashley Marin. This taking advice on her criminal activity harkens back to the days she was stealing money from the bank.
Sweeney: And this is only her behavior at the beginning of the episode.
SHHHHH!
Hastings House. Aria and Emily are trying to process this – that Toby’s basically been fucking with Spencer in an epic way. Emily refuses to believe it, convinced that Toby loves her and there’s more to this story. Emily keeps ignoring Spencer and says that the Toby she knows wouldn’t do anything to hurt them, and Spencer just laughs at them. Mona’s too far away to have been responsible for locking her in the steam room. Spencer tells Em that the sooner she wraps her mind around it, the better.
Sweeney: I started to say something to that effect, but stopped myself because I actually really appreciate that the show didn’t go there. They didn’t highlight the Toby/Emily friendship as much as I would have liked, but I really love that they didn’t privilege one kind of relationship over the other in that way. I wouldn’t have been particularly upset (or surprised) to see them go that route, but I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t.
Rosewood’s One Coffee Shop. Emily’s at work, but distracted by this latest bomb. She calls Toby and leaves him a voice mail, begging him to call. She also retrieves a jar of keys (weird) which includes one for Toby’s loft.
Pedo Pad. Aria arrives with coffee, calling out to, “Babe,” and awkwardly realizing that Ezra’s son is the first person she sees. She feels gross about calling a seven-year-old, “Babe,” and it’s another one of those moments where I feel like maybe someone in the writers room is trolling us. #pedohumor (L: SAME. It’s not funny when they do it.)
Anyway, Ezra left Aria a message that she didn’t receive because she was busy attending high school classes. Malcolm is there because Maggie is looking for a job in Rosewood to make things easier. Aria gets really antsy and fails to hide her relief that Maggie’s staying at a hotel and not at his place. He then invites her to stay and get to know Malcolm better, which is great because she’s perfect baby-sitting age! She’s worried about whether Maggie will approve, but she stays.
Toby’s Loft. Emily and Hanna are scouring the loft for evidence except Emily’s scouring and Hanna’s anxiously watching the news. Emily gets pissed and tells her to focus on the task at hand. Hanna apologizes but says she’s not sure the search has a purpose, since Toby’s probably dangerous. Emily still doesn’t believe it, noting that he can’t be dangerous since she’s been alone with him so many times. “No more than I’ve been alone with Mona,” Hanna rightly points out. Emily just scoffs at this valid observation because Emily knows that in Rosewood whenever all the evidence says that one thing must be true, that thing clearly cannot be true because of reasons.
Lor: If only she would just say that! “No, guys, we can’t be right because we never are.”
Sweeney: Emily cools her rage and settles into her feels: she and Toby told each other everything – he was the person that gave her the courage to come out. While having all the feels she finds a parking pass for his Radley alias. Hanna suggests talking to his negligent parents.
Lor: Girl, just because Ashley Marin knows a few things about your life or your whereabouts 50% of the time, doesn’t me a single other parent in Rosewood can say the same.
Sweeney: Pedo Pad for Ironic Child Bonding. The gang is playing with trains when Alex Mack/Maggie returns home, excited to see her son and expressing no signs of discontent at Aria’s being there. Ezra takes Malcolm to wash up, leaving them to have an awkward chat. Aria swears that she’s not responsible for telling Ezra and Alex Mack isn’t even upset because she’s glad to see Ezra and Malcolm bond. There’s a big to-do over both of the parents having stuff to do and Aria steps up and volunteers to baby-sit for Malcolm, in spite of her discomfort.
Hastings House. There’s a knock on the door and waiting for Spencer is the funereal wreath we saw A making at the end of the last episode. There’s a note that reads, “Someone close to you will pay for your loose lips.”
Rosewood’s One Coffee Shop. Spencer’s telling the girls about her little gift and she learns about Emily and Hanna’s search. Spencer says she hears Emily’s insistence on getting the truth from Toby’s own mouth, but adds that she’s been searching for him for weeks (omitting the rather pertinent “with a private detective and everything” detail) and he clearly doesn’t want to be found.
With that, they notice Mona’s there too, ordering coffee. Spencer confronts Mona, thanking her for the orchids and adding a STAY AWAY FROM MY BFFs. Mona mocks Spencer’s sanity a bit for funsies but then leans in to add that Spencer shouldn’t leave orchids in direct sunlight or they won’t last the night, throwing in a pointed look at Emily for dramatic, murdery flare. She takes her pumpkin latte and peaces out.
Lor: Can’t leave the pumpkin latte because threatening people probably leaves her parched and a little drained!
Sweeney: Gotta get that harassment fuel!
Montgomery Manse. Piper Mom swings by to pick up old tax receipts while Aria’s there rummaging through old toys. Aria’s being weird as hell about super basic questions, lying about why she needs the toys and about knowing Maggie – Ezra had the balls to call his baby girlfriend’s mother for leads on jobs for Maggie. Awkward. With that, Aria runs away.
Lor: I must’ve totally blocked out the part where everyone is all cool with this child dating her former teacher. I appreciate my brain for that.
Sweeney: Our memory lapses are just our brains saving us from ourselves for continuing to watch this shit show.
Emily goes to Toby’s house and finds the mailbox overflowing. Contrivantly, the sugar baby truck arrives just as she’s taking that in. It’s being driven by a guy who works with Toby – Toby’s been gone for a few weeks. He left this guy the sugar baby truck and asked him to finish a job. Contrivance Co-Worker is only there to pick up a tool and has no additional useful information.
Hastings House. Spencer takes a closer look at the “With Deepest Sympathy” ribbon and dramatic music plays as she storms out, because I guess she realized something, but I have no idea what.
Elsewhere in Rosewood, Ashley and Hanna have an unimportant conversation about their mutual stupidity. Ashley’s g2g back to her job where she robs people and almost gets run over when she thinks she sees Detective Wilden staring at her across the street.
Spencer took the information-packed ribbon to Emily. The revelation was that all the letters are shiny except for the E and the M, which has Spencer convinced that Emily is the next target. Emily is brushing it off, and says she has to get to swim practice. She concedes to at least stop looking for Toby.
Pedo Pad. Hanna’s over and Malcolm is listening to music. They talk about how they TOTES CAN’T BELIEVE that she’s dating a guy with a child. A child he had when she was about that child’s age. Hanna brings up the, “What happens when Maggie moves here?” thing, but Aria’s determined that they’ll figure it out, because nothing bad happens to her for long. Aria’s also wondering what big signs they missed about Toby. Hanna points out that Dr. Sullivan’s (Senora Therapy’s!) first return coincided with Toby’s. This is maybe significant because Senora Therapy’s the one who helped guarantee that Mona went to Radley instead of, you know, juvie.
Rosewood PD. Emily’s talking to her mom, anxious about the Toby situation. Mama Fields tells her daughter that she’s just being overly trusting and big-hearted. Mama Fields hasn’t trusted Toby since he started that fire that he didn’t start. (L: DETAILS.) Mama Fields goes off to do some away-from-desk task, leaving Emily to use this official police computer to “check her email.”
Pedo Pad for Babies Watching Babies. Aria’s fishing around the fridge for juice boxes while Malcolm jumps on the bed. While her back is turned he bounces right off and onto the floor. She rushes over to him and he’s bloody and crying.
Rosewood’s One Coffee Shop. Mona’s got a bag full of cash. She gets a call from someone who she tells that it’s “all here,” and heads off to meet. We see that Spencer’s spying.
Hospital. Malcolm is getting bandaged up and Aria’s freaking out. Ezra tries to say that it’s cool, but then grills her about what she was doing, asking what he’s supposed to tell Alex Mack. Aria has a temper tantrum about not knowing how to be a parent. Because she’s still a child, so duh.
Spencer follows Mona to that one random place in the woods where a lot of the bad shit goes down.
Marin Manor. Hanna gets home and leaves what sounds like the millionth message for her mom to call her back. She hears a noise in the garage. She goes to inspect and finds Wilden’s car in there waiting. The video from his car is playing and Hanna leans in to watch as her mom runs Wilden over.
Lor: It looks real bad on video because you can barely see Wilden (and his super murdery expressions) at all. Just, you know, Ashley throwing a car at him.
Sweeney: Elsewhere, Emily is completely disregarding her promise to not get herself A-ttacked by going, alone, to meet Toby in some shady ass warehouse.
Hospital. Aria and Ezra are keeping Malcolm company when Maggie arrives.
Lor: I had no feelings about this Plot Development Child, but can we love his expression here? This is me watching Pedzria scenes:
Sweeney: AMAZING. “In which Malcolm is all of us.”
A nurse chooses that moment to come inform her that non-immediate family needs to wait outside. Not sure where she’s been for the past however many hours, but OK.
Spencer follows Mona’s path into the woods and it leads to what appears to be Toby’s body – he’s wearing a motorcycle helmet, but the hip tattoo is visible. Spencer cries and kneels down to remove the helmet, but before she can, she hears Mona tell her that he’s dead. She runs off after her. She doesn’t catch her, though, and your regular dose of bullshit is interrupted by some stellar feelsy acting from Troian Bellisario as she collapses in a clearing and sobs.
Lor: Damn, she’s good. I mean, I still don’t understand why she wouldn’t be all, “FUCK YOU MONA,” and gone to check out the body, but feelsy acting is feelsy.
Sweeney: Oh, obviously the writing continues to be fucking stupid. That’s a given, really.
Montgomery Manse. Aria has clearly just told Piper Mom the whole truth. Piper Mom’s not mad, she’s just worried because she doesn’t know how to help Aria. Now that Ezra’s aware that he has a child, this should, in theory, mean that everything in his life should be about his child first. Aria says that she and Ezra think that they can make it work. Piper Mom says that they can try, but it’s also OK if she doesn’t really want it to and, “sometimes the best thing you can do is take a step back and give yourself a chance to breathe.” Because nothing drives home the realness of your pedolationship like the realization that your girlfriend is equally as close in age to your child as you. (L: EW. WORST.)
Bad Choices Warehouse. Emily follows Red Coat inside and finds Contrivance Coworker in there, confused by her presence. As far as he knows, Toby’s still out of town. Contrivance Coworker tries to tell her to leave and lets slip that he knows her name, even though she never told him. He’s got work to do, though.
Marin Manor. Hanna calls Aria over to try to figure out what to do. Aria wisely suggests that Hanna tell her mom about the possibly dead man’s cop car. Hanna doesn’t want to involve her mom due to how her mom has handled this with, dare it even be possible, even less maturity and wisdom than any of the PLLs would have. Hanna doesn’t want to involve her and Aria, scoring points with her gift for stating the obvious shouts that Ashley clearly already is involved, being that she’s on video running over a cop. Hanna whatevers this and tells Aria she’s got a stupid plan.
Bad Choices Warehouse. Emily goes to her car to find the window smashed in and a red envelope with her name on it waiting in the passenger sheet. She takes it out and finds an, “In Memoriam” for Toby Cavanaugh.
Even Worse Choices Lake. (L: A+) Hanna, as if to prove to me that I haven’t seen all the idiotic tricks up her sleeve of absent-self-preservation, is having Aria (itty bitty Aria!) help her shove Wilden’s car into a lake. A lake that’s borderline sinkhole, based on how quickly it goes under once they give it a good push.
After a Not Break, it turns out that the girls actually don’t think that the car sank fast enough. They stand and watch at it eventually goes all the way under. Then, because of weird magical possessed car reasons, the red flashing light suddenly turns on again for a second. Then it turns off and all goes quiet so the girls can leave.
Back at Marin Manor, Ashley’s waiting with Chinese food. Hanna lies, saying that she had to help Aria out with something. She gets away with this lie because Ashley Marin is reminding us that she is the one who brilliantly hid money in a pasta box. She tells Hanna how she thought she saw Wilden, and then drove back to where she hit him and saw that his car is gone. She figures that maybe all of this means that she didn’t hit him that hard and he’ll probably maybe just go away and everything will be fine. I can’t even with the Marin women right now.
Pedo Pad. Maggie and Malcolm are playing with Legos while Ezra is on the phone with Aria. He invites her over and she says she can’t because she’s got to go shave her hands.
Later, some cops are calling in a Jane Doe they found wandering around the woods. It’s Spencer, and she’s fully snapped.
Lor: She saying something, but not out loud. While looking for gifs, I found a few guesses as to what it is, but my favorite was, “he loves me, he loves me not.” I’m not going to watch again to confirm that could be a possibility, but I like the Internet for suggesting it.
Sweeney: At Emily’s house, she’s appropriately disturbed by Hanna’s stupidity. There’s also the question of Toby’s possible death. Emily’s concerned that this is her fault. They try to do thinking, but Spencer’s not there and they need to go tell her.
A-nonymous: a fisherman is doing some fishing and reels in a Rosewood Police baseball cap.
Lor: Keep fishing, bro! You could win… A NEW (ish) CAR!
Next time on Pretty Little Liars: Spencer is held at Radley for 72 hours and meets an interesting person there in S03 E22 – Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
