Recap for “Bite Your Tongue”, PLL Episode 4x17

The pretty little liars are split up this week due to Emily’s anger at Spencer.  Aria and Emma return home from the movie theater, complaining about the guy who was on his phone during the chick flick.  Emily lashes out as soon as Aria brings up Spencer’s name when she mentions that Spencer would have pegged the annoying guy with her jelly beans.  Aria tells Emily not to hold a grudge because Spencer was just trying to protect her.  Emily thinks that Spencer was trying to control the situation.  She says she made a mistake trusting Spencer.  Now she’ll never hear from Ali again. 

Aria and Emily go inside Aria’s house to find Mike throwing a party.  Aria is pissed, since Byron left her in charge while he is away and she doesn’t want to spend the weekend peeling pepperoni off the walls.  She tells Mike that he has ten minutes to get everyone out.

Emily and Aria head to Aria’s room and are stunned to find Mona there.  She claims she was looking for the bathroom and ended up in Aria’s room.  Aria informs her that she doesn't have a toilet in her bedroom.  Apparently, Mike invited her to the party.  Before leaving, Mona compliments Aria on her wallpaper.

Spencer is spending the night trying to decode Ali’s journals.  She calls Hanna because she’s having trouble deciphering Ali’s handwriting.  Hanna is in bed reading.  She’s got a new obsession – James Patterson novels.  She’s been reading his books and trying to understand the criminal mind.  Hanna thinks that they will find “A” if they follow the cover-up.  She informs Spencer that she is no longer seeing Travis.  Spencer is surprised that Hanna spent the night at home instead of going to the movies with Aria and Emily.  Hanna wasn’t invited to the movies because Emily is pissed that Hanna is not pissed off at Spencer.

The next morning, Aria confronts Mike about his friendship with Mona.  How can he hang out with the girl who spent junior year torturing her and her friends?  Mike says he met Mona in the school counseling group.  Aria wants to know what they bond over, terror tactics?  Aria brings up the fact that Mona split their parents up by sending that letter to their mom about their dad’s affair.  Mike defends Mona, telling Aria to stop judging.  People make mistakes, including him.  Aria says that there’s no comparison to the things Mike has done and the things Mona has done.  Mike doesn’t understand why Aria can forgive their dad for the affair, but she can’t forgive Mona for being the messenger.   

Emily’s dad is back home on temporary furlough.  He talked to a mechanic, who said that Emily’s car had a computer glitch that triggered an anti-theft device and shut the car down from a remote location.  Her dad knows something is not right.  Emily has been jumpy and hasn’t been eating.  Emily tells him that it’s just the stress of senior year, but he is still concerned.  He wants to drive her to school, but she insists that she’ll bike there. 

Maggie visits Ezra at school.  She wants her keys back because her landlord won’t give her back her deposit until she returns all the keys.  Ezra offers to watch Malcolm, but Maggie informs him that Malcolm is back at home in Seattle.  She changed her mind about bringing him with her.  She’s just back to ship some boxes home.  Aria comes in and Maggie leaves.  Aria is furious at the way Maggie treats Ezra, but Ezra tells Aria that getting angry won’t help.  People get what they deserve.

Hanna is looking for another mystery novel to buy when Officer Holbrook from Pennsylvania State Police comes over.  He recommends that Hanna try some books by Swedish authors.  Hanna is dismissive of him until he apologizes.  He knows that Hanna and her mom were innocent people who became collateral damage in the Wilden murder investigation.  He wants to make sure they are okay now. 

Hanna gets a text from Emily and races over to meet her.  Emily tells her that “A” killed her car in the woods.  Emily doesn’t feel safe in her own home.  Hanna begs Emily to bury the hatchet with Spencer because she is sick of picking sides.  Spencer comes up and tries to talk to Emily, but Emily storms off. 

At school, Aria spies Mona and Mike being touchy-feely.  When Mike leaves, Aria confronts Mona.  She wants to know what Mona is up to and what’s with the sudden interest in her little brother.  Mona says that Jesse, the new counselor, warned her that this would happen.  She says Jesse is amazing.  He brings people together who need each other.  Aria knows that Mona always has a hidden agenda.  Mona claims that the pretty little liars are the ones with an agenda.  Why did they ice her out after she helped get Hanna’s mom out of jail?  Mona says that she’s tired of it.  She’s hanging out with a different crowd now and Aria just needs to suck it up.
 

Mona heads over to Ezra’s classroom because he wanted to see her.  He tells her to close the door.

Hanna freaks out at a bus boy when she thinks he threw out her newest mystery novel.  She calms down when she finds it on the table, but Officer Holbrook is amused, especially by her mispronunciation of the word "fjords".  He’s impressed that she’s almost finished reading the book that he recommended, but Hanna admits she reads the endings first.  He tells her to go back and read the middle because that’s the best part.  He doesn’t want to give spoilers, but he tells her that the dental records are important.  It always comes down to teeth. 

Aria decides to have a chat with the Jesse.  She wants to know if anyone can join Mike’s discussion group.  Jesse says the group is open to anyone, but he did reach out to certain individuals.  Aria says that Mona is the devil.  Jesse thinks that Aria has unresolved issues and she would benefit from the discussion group.  It would be a safe place for her to explore her anger.  Aria insists that she is not angry, she is just concerned.  Jesse says that he doesn’t discourage friendships.  If students bond, it’s because they’ve found common ground.

Ezra sends a text: “There’s been a setback, re: Alison.”  Emily’s dad comes in, wanting to discuss Emily’s issues.  He thinks that it was a mistake to have Emily stay at the DiLaurentis house.  Ms. DiLaurentis acts as if her daughter is going to come home.  Staying in that environment took a toll on Emily.  Since Emily trusts Ezra, maybe he can get her back on track.  Ezra offers to give her some extracurricular projects after school.  After Emily’s dad leaves, Ezra calls someone.

Spencer totally forgot to study for a physics test.  She asks Andrew, who’s been studying nonstop, to come by her house after school so they can study and look over his notes.  When he comes over, she admits that she didn’t ask him to come over for a study session.  She wants a study aid, something to help her stay up for a while.  Andrew denies having anything, but Spencer presses.  He admits that he has pills that he has a legitimate prescription for.  He agrees to give her some.  He knew that she didn’t really want to see his notes, but he came over anyways.  Andrew, still crushing on Spencer, was hoping that she was no longer with Toby.

Emily wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing noises.  She closes her window.  She hears creaking and realizes that someone is outside her door.  She grabs a pair of scissors and lunges at the person entering her room.  Turns out it was her dad checking in on her.  As Emily apologizes, we see a handprint outside her window. 

Spencer is up all night thanks to Andrew’s pills, but she’s not cramming for her physics test.  She’s deciphering Ali’s “Love and Death” journal entry.  Spencer figures out that Ali went to a college bar called “The Hart and the Huntsman” to meet up with an older guy.  They discuss Ali’s writing and the mystery guy eats boysenberry pie with beer.  They kiss.

Spencer barges into Hanna’s room at four in the morning to share her discovery.  She asks if Hanna wants to come to the bar with her.  Hanna says no.  Inspired by the crime novel recommended by Officer Holbrook, she thinks someone switched the dental x-rays to make it look like Ali was dead.  She’s going to go to the dentist to see who it could have been.  Spencer doesn’t want to update Aria and Emily about the new leads.  Hanna reassures Spencer that all will be forgive when they find “A”.

Aria confronts Maggie, telling her that it was a nasty of her to come up without Malcolm.  She knows how much Ezra wanted to see him.  Maggie says that it is none of Aria’s business, but Aria thinks Maggie made it her business when she begged her not to tell Ezra about Malcolm.  There’s no excuse for the lies and screwing up someone’s life.  Aria thinks that Ezra is too much of a gentleman to kick Maggie to the curb, but someone needs to.  Maggie makes a snarky comment about Aria sleeping with her teacher to maintain her gradepoint average.  Aria snaps and grabs Maggie’s arm.  Maggie drops a box and Malcolm’s picture and toys fall out.  Aria quickly leaves.

Aria gets Emily up to speed on what happened with Maggie.  Aria’s afraid that she made things worse for Ezra.  Emily doesn’t think Ezra will be mad, especially since it’s not like Aria is still seeing him.  Aria doesn’t answer.  Emily agrees to cover for Aria if she skips class.  Aria and Emily see Mike and Mona kissing.

Hanna goes to the dentist.  The hygienist tells her that Sean is coming home from boarding school soon.  She informs Hanna that she has a loose filling that Dr. Acker needs to look at.  When the hygienist comes back, Hanna is already in the file room.  She assumes Hanna left and cancels the request for Dr. Acker to come to the room.  Hanna, rips pages out of the records and puts them in her purse.  Not knowing that the hygienist went home and Dr. Acker is not coming, Hanna sits back down to wait for the dentist.  When someone comes in, she assumes it’s Dr. Acker.  The person behind her puts the gas mask over her face and Hanna loses consciousness.

Spencer goes to the Hart and the Huntsman alone.  She sees Ezra there, eating a boysenberry pie.  Ezra claims the pie was recommended by the waitress.  He stops the waitress and cancels the rest of his order.  He suggests that Spencer try the pie and rushes off.  The waitress comes back with a beer.  She figures Spencer can have it, since it’s already paid for.  The waitress think that the boysenberry pie and beer combination is kind of gross, so obviously Ezra lied about the waitress recommendation.  Spencer realizes that the beer is called “Board Shorts Ale”.

Aria leaves a voicemail for Ezra, apologizing for going off on Maggie.  She knows that Maggie probably told her lower that Ezra is involved with a violent psychotic freak.  Aria admits that she just got so angry and didn’t know what came over her.  When Aria tries to leave, Jesse asks if Aria has given any thought to joining the group.  Aria admits that she has things she needs to work through.  She needs some sort of outlet.  Jesse suggests basketball morning pickup games.  Aria declines, but Jesse tells her that his door is always open.  Aria tells him that she really doesn’t want to lose her brother. 

Emily is at school at night, making copies in the copy room.  She hears a noise and calls out for Ezra.  The door slams shut and the intercom starts blaring out rock music.  The lights flicker.  A sign reads “Act normal, bitch.”  Emily panics and calls her dad, begging him to come pick her up.  Emily tries to get a window open, but can’t get it up all the way.  She pushes a desk against the door to barricade herself in.  Her dad pulls up to the school as a hooded man with black gloves tries to get into the room.  Emily breaks the window and screams for her dad to help her.  Her dad climbs up and safely brings Emily down, then collapse on the ground.  Emily calls an ambulance.  She blames herself for her dad’s injury, but her dad says that it’s not her fault.  He didn’t want to worry her, but he had some tests done.  The results aren’t back yet, but something might be wrong with his heart. 

Emily arrives at Aria’s house to spend the night, since her dad is still in the hospital.  Emily blames “A” for almost killing her dad.  Spencer shows up at the door.  Aria had texted her about Emily’s dad.  Emily and Spencer hug, finally burying the hatchet. 

Hanna shows up, freaking out about being treated by “A” at the dentist office.  Her jaw hurts, her lip is numb and the records are gone.  Aria asks who is this “A” monster.  Spencer glances at Aria, but doesn’t mention her theory about Ezra.  Spencer uses tweezers to pull something out of Hanna’s mouth.  It is a small note that says “I told you: dead girls can’t smile. Stop looking. A”.

“A” shreds the patient records taken from Hanna’s purse while she was unconscious.  “A” puts the shredded paper on the floor of Tippy’s bird cage.  In the room, there is a map marked with the location of Wilden’s yacht in Cape May.