Recap of “Close Encounters”, PLL Episode 4x16

Once again, the Pretty Little Liars take a road trip to the Busy Bee Inn.  This time, they’re racing to save Alison before “A” hurts her.  When they get there, they realize that they are too late.  The window is broken and Aria finds a shirt that might be Ali’s.  The girls wonder if Ali fought “A” off and got away, or if “A” took Ali somewhere else.  The door swings shut and they see a message on it.  “You’re too late – A”

Emily and Hanna discuss the situation on the phone while Emily takes her mom’s pie to church for the bake sale. Emily thinks the worst part is not knowing what happened to Ali.  Hanna has doubts that Ali was actually at the Busy Bee Inn.  The whole thing seemed a little too perfect, like the whole thing was orchestrated.

Spencer’s dad stops by Toby’s place to talk to him, only to discover Spencer there.  Spencer confronts her dad again about Jessica DiLaurentis and threatens to tell her mom.  Her dad finally admits that Jason fell off the wagon and they are trying to get him into rehab.  They’ve been keeping it a secret because Jason got arrested for starting a bar fight and he didn’t want anyone to know.  Ms. DiLaurentis has been keeping the divorce a secret because she’s afraid Jason might relapse when he finds out.  And Spencer’s dad wants to avoid bringing up Jason or Ms. DiLaurentis’s name to Spencer’s mom. 

Toby comes into the room and Spencer’s dad asks to talk to him alone.  Spencer’s dad says that there is not enough evidence for a lawsuit.  Wilden is dead and no one is willing to testify against Radley.  Toby’s father is willing to sign a settlement.  Toby will get money in return for his silence. 

Ezra tells Aria that he’s heading to Philadelphia to meet up with his friend Curtis.  Aria gets a text from Jake, who’s back in town.  Aria’s already made up her mind.  She’s going to break things off with Jake.  Ezra seems surprised that Aria already knows which guy she wants.  Aria tells him that he’s the one and that he’s always been the one.

Hanna decides to throw out half her wardrobe, getting rid of all the clothes that remind her of Caleb.  Spencer tries to get her to talk, but Hanna doesn’t want to talk.  She just wants to move on. 
 

Shana shows up at the church with a message from Alison.  She says to stop looking for Ali, the girls almost got her killed last night.  Shauna’s known Ali since she was three.  She lived next door to Ali’s grandparents in Georgia.  Ali asked her to find out who tried to kill her.  She’s been pretending to be Jenna’s friend to find out if Jenna was the one after Ali.  Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.  Emily tells Shana to prove that she’s really friends with Ali.

Jake and Aria get together.  Jake missed her, but Aria pulls away when he kisses her. When Aria says she needs to talk, Jake figures out that she’s back with Ezra.  She’s been distant on the phone and it turns out the kid wasn’t Ezra’s, so he figured she was back with him.  Jake is hurt, he thought things had been going pretty good between the two of them.  Aria says that she liked spending time with him, but Jake knows that she likes spending time with Ezra even more.  Aria explains that she has a long history with Ezra, but she hopes she can still be friends with Jake.  Jake says he’s going to need a little more time before they can be friends. 

Spencer tries to convince Toby not to sign the settlement right away.  If he signs, he can never talk about what happened to his mom.  If he talks, he will have to give the money back and pay a penalty.  One minute her dad wants to shut down Radley, now he wants to shut down Toby.  They don’t have any proof that the death really was an accident.   They don’t know why Toby’s mom was on the roof and who was the fragile patient she was with.
 

Emily explains to the girls that she asked Shana what Ali said after pulling Emily out of the barn the time they were looking for Dr. Sullivan.  If Shana knows the exact words, then that will prove that she really is friends with Ali.  The girls wonder if Ali suspects Paige, since Shana knew Paige first.  They also wonder why Ali would trust Shana, but not trust any of them.  Spencer points out that Shana could be “A”’s minion, trying to make them believe “A”s story so that they all stop looking for Ali.  They have no reason to trust her and how are they suppose to believe that Shana dropped everything and moved to Rosewood to help Ali?  Emily is the only one of the girls who believes Shana is telling the truth.

Travis stops by Hanna’s house to pick up his umbrella that he left behind.  Hanna brushes off Travis’s concern about her and tells him that she is fine.  She asks him to stay and play pool on the pool table her dad left behind.  Travis teaches Hanna how to play and they end up kissing.  Travis wants to take things slow because Hanna is still getting over Caleb, but Hanna kisses him again.  Hanna’s mom walks in on the kissing.  Hanna gets angry when her mom basically kicks Travis out.  Hanna’s mom says that throwing herself at a new guy isn’t the way to get over the old guy.  Hanna lashes out at her mom.  She’s sick of people telling her how she should handle getting over Caleb.
 

Emily and Shana meet up again.  Shana knows the exact words Ali said to Emily and knows that Ali kissed her.  Shana says she doesn’t know where Ali is.  Ali always finds her.  Shana has known that Ali is alive ever since Mona went to Radley.  Ali wants to meet Emily alone at night.  When Emily asks why only her, Shana says that Emily must have been Ali’s favorite.

Emily tells Spencer that Shana knew word for word the conversation she had with Ali.  She even looked into it and Shana really did live next door to Ali’s grandparents.  Spencer asks why Ali would only want to meet with Emily.  Emily says that she doesn’t know.  Spencer knows that Emily wants to believe this is Ali reaching out, but it’s not.  It’s “A”.  Emily says that she only told Spencer because she didn’t want to lie.  She tells Spencer not to make her sorry that she told her.

Aria comes home to find a present from Jake.  He mailed it to her when he was out of town.  It’s a necklace engraved with “Aria”. The note says “Thought this would look beautiful on you.  See you soon.”

Spencer’s dad is busy preparing for Spencer’s mom’s return.  He hired a caterer to cook dinner.  Spencer confronts her dad about the settlement.  She doesn’t believe that he did what was best for Toby’s family.  When he leaves the room, Spencer takes the opportunity to look in his briefcase.  She finds out that Jessica DiLaurentis is on the board of trustees at Radley.  Her dad walks in to find Spencer snooping.  Spencer asks if Jessica DiLaurentis was the one who said the death was accidental.  She asks if Jason is really in rehab or is that something her dad made up.  Spencer calls Toby and leaves him a message telling him not to sign the settlement. 

Jake is walking down the street when he sees Ezra screaming at a blonde lady.  Ezra says “look at me.  This doesn’t make sense.”  He tells her that she has really screwed up.  As she drives away, Ezra bangs on her car and yells that this isn’t over.

Aria goes over to Jake’s to give back his present.  He tells her to keep it.  What would he do with it, since he doesn’t have another Aria in his life.  Aria is about to leave, when he says that he really cares about her and doesn’t understand why she would want to be with a guy like Ezra.  He saw Ezra totally go off on a woman today.  Aria says that Ezra was in Philadelphia all day.  Jake says that he always thought Ezra was the one Aria was afraid of.  When Aria says that she’s not afraid of Ezra, Jake tells her that maybe she should be.  Aria says that Ezra doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, but Jake tells her to keep her eyes open.

Hanna’s mom takes her out to a place where you pay to smash plates against the wall.  She explains that she used to lash out at all the wrong people when she was angry.  A friend suggested that she come here.  Hanna doesn’t see how this will help the situation.  Her mom says that it will help with the anger.  Maybe afterwards she will see things differently.  They both start throwing plates. 

Aria is waiting in Ezra’s apartment when he gets back.  She gives him the third-degree, asking if he had fun with Curtis and if he caught the last train.  When Ezra says that he just got back in from Philadelphia, Aria tells him that Jake saw him screaming at a woman.  Did he even go to Philadelphia?  Ezra admits that he didn’t.  He was arguing with Maggie’s lawyer.  Maggie is preventing him from seeing Malcolm.  He didn’t tell her because the whole situation with Malcolm destroyed their relationship once and he didn’t want that to happen again.  The conversation with Maggie’s lawyer was heated, but not violent.  Ezra suggests that Jake wanted to make him look bad so that Aria would reconsider her decision.  Ezra apologizes for hiding things from her.  Aria says that she wants things to work with him, but that will only happen if they are honest with each other.  Aria says that she chose Ezra knowing all the stuff that comes with a relationship with him.  She’s really happy that she chose to be with him. 

Shana drops Emily off outside a building and drives off.  Emily goes in and finds Ali there.  Ali says that she’s missed Emily so much and it’s been so hard to stay away.  Emily wants to help her, but Ali doesn’t know who to trust.  Emily says that Ali can trust Spencer and Aria, but Ali isn’t sure about them.  Ali knows that Emily never stopped caring about her and she regrets all the things she did to hurt her in the past.  Ali thought she knew who was after her, but she was wrong.  Spencer comes up behind them and Ali flees.
 

Emily is furious at Spencer for scaring Ali away.  Spencer explains that she thought Emily was in danger.  She apologizes, but Emily doesn’t forgive her.  Spencer thinks Ali is playing games with Emily.  Ali knew Emily was pulling away and wanted to make her feel special.  Emily says that Ali was different now and that she was sincere.  When Spencer says that Ali is trying to divide them, Emily insists that Ali wouldn’t do that.  Emily is furious that Spencer was listening to her conversation with Ali and screams at Spencer not to touch her.

Spencer goes to Toby’s apartment and finds him crying.  He signed the agreement before he got her message.  He had a long talk with his dad and they decided to move on.  It doesn’t matter what really happened.  Spencer brings up the fact that they still don’t know who the other patient was, but Toby tells her to stop.  Poor Spencer is left alone, crying on the couch.

Hanna leaves a voicemail for Caleb.  She’s been replaying past moments, trying to pinpoint the exact moment that she lost him, wondering if she could have done something different.  She wants Caleb to know that the year she spent with him was the best year of her life. 

While Aria and Ezra have a cute moment sharing dessert, Jake is working out his anger with his kicking bag.  He collapses to the floor with a bleeding foot. When he inspects the kicking bag, he finds knives inside it.

At night, a person dressed in black opens a school locker and takes out picture of what looks like a little Ali and little Shana.  The person rips the picture in half and burns the half with Shana in it.