Recap of “Scream for Me” PLL Episode 5x08

Aria isn’t a very good maid of honor, Hanna gets an unwelcome roommate, Spencer and Emily almost get kicked to death, and Ali manipulates Hanna’s mom.

The Liars are singing Christmas songs in music class while Ali is outside the classroom getting interrogated by Lt. Tanner.  The girls, Aria in particular, is concerned as she watches from inside.  Ali tells Tanner that she hasn’t spoken to Shana, or anyone else, since before she was abducted.  Tanner isn’t buying Ali’s story, since there is no explanation as to why Shana would move to Rosewood if she thought Ali was dead.

When Tanner asks if Ali ever contacted Shana, Ali says she thought the questions were going to be about her mother.  She says the freak who kidnapped her is probably the one who killed her mother.  Tanner says the police have many theories.

Spencer thinks Tanner is questioning Ali at school to make the point that the other Liars are next.  Maybe the cops saw Ali sneaking out of her house.  Emily asks Aria if she told the police about Spencer’s tapes.  Aria pointedly looks at Hanna when she says that she knows how to keep her mouth shut.

Ali joins them and says the questions were all about Shana.  She can’t tell if Tanner knows they were in Philadelphia.  Tanner was trying to trip her up. 

Aria, freaked out, wants to call Ezra and warn him that Tanner will ambush him while he’s having a medical checkup in New York.  He needs to know what Hanna broadcasted in the Brew.

Ali notices that all the ‘A’ notes in her music book are circled in red.  There is a note from “A”: “Glad to see you singing.  Last time you were all choked up.  –A”.  Ali doesn’t know how who did it, since she had her bag with her all morning. 

In the hallway, Emily says Mona might have recruited half the school to torture Ali.  Spencer reminds her that they are all being tortured.  Emily wonders if Sydney can tell them who else was in the Brew when Hanna spilled about New York.

Emily and Spencer approach Hanna just as a beer can falls out of Hanna’s locker.  Spencer wants to know what is going on.  Yesterday Hanna’s blouse was on inside out and her locker smells like Oktoberfest.  Hanna says the beer can is probably Caleb’s.  She doesn’t want to hear their concerns about her drinking issues.  She already has one friend throwing her shade.

Emily asks if Hanna has talked to Aria.  Hanna says that Aria doesn’t want to talk to her.  She already left Aria a message.  Spencer says they heard the message.  It sounded like Hanna was underwater and Caleb was laughing in the background.  Spencer suggests that Hanna talk to Aria again. 
 

Emily tells Hanna that she needs to apologize to Ali for almost outing Ali’s story to Emily’s mom.  They were there to support Ali, not to throw peanuts at the stage.  Spencer says they will talk more at lunch, but Hanna’s got other plans.

Outside, Aria calls Ezra and tells him that Ali was grilled by Lt. Tanner.  “A” must have tipped Tanner off about New York.  Aria’s got to get the sketchbook back to Big Rhonda, too.

Aria’s mom, Ella, stops by the school to drop off engagement party invitations.  She asks if Aria will be her maid of honor.  Aria is thrilled to be asked.  Ella is relieved and tells Aria that she booked an appointment at the bridal shop for today.  Aria says she can’t make it because she’ll be volunteering at Radley.  Ella asks if another volunteer can cover for her, since it is tricky getting an appointment.  Aria gets a call from Ezra, so she rushes off and tells her mom that they will figure something out.

Emily finds Sydney and thanks her for helping Hanna sober up last night.  She tries to cover what Hanna spilled by telling Sydney that Hanna was totally out of it.  She says Hanna makes stuff up when she’s drunk, like that her grandfather invented the paperclip.  Emily says she got a call from Hanna saying they should go to New York again, even though they’ve never been to New York.  When Emily asks if Hanna invited Sydney, Sydney denies hearing Hanna mention New York at all.

Sydney thinks the real reason Emily is talking to her is because of the Assistant Coach offer.  Emily doesn’t know what Sydney is talking about.  Sydney tells her that the whole swim team voted to make Emily Assistant Coach.  Sydney says that Emily is either an amazing liar or she’s idiot for thinking Emily already knew.  Emily is shocked and isn’t exactly happy with the news.  She’s got so much going on.  Sydney is disappointed that Emily doesn’t want this.

Hanna calls Caleb, wondering why he didn’t meet her for lunch.  Caleb overslept.  He offers to come over now, but Hanna says not to. 

Ali approaches Hanna and offers her a bottle of water.  Hanna apologizes for the other night at Emily’s house.  She knows it was completely not cool for her to act that way.  Ali says that they were all under a lot of pressure, so it’s fine as long as there isn’t something else going on.  Hanna denies being upset with Ali.  Ali says her dad is going out of town and she needs somewhere to crash until he gets back.  She asks if she can stay at Hanna’s house.  Hanna reluctantly agrees to talk to her mom about it.

Spencer and Toby look at the photos of Bethany’s drawings.  Spencer doesn’t understand it.  If Bethany pushed Toby’s mom off the roof at Radley and Ms. DiLaurentis covered it up, then why did Bethany draw Ms. DiLaurentis being skewered by a demon?  Why did Bethany turn on Ms. DiLaurentis and did “A” have something to do with it?  “A” is the only common denominator between Bethany and Ms. DiLaurentis.

Toby can’t put all this behind him.  He wants answers and he’s going to get them from the inside.  Toby drops a bombshell, telling Spencer that he enrolled at the Harrisburg Police Academy.  Spencer is in disbelief that Toby would do that without telling her.  She doesn’t want to support this plan, but Toby is tired of watching the people he loves feel unprotected.  The cops in Rosewood are either bungling or corrupt.  He thinks they need someone in the Rosewood PD who cares and has access to the police records.

At Radley, Aria can’t find Eddie Lamb.  The nurse says yesterday was Eddie’s last day.  Aria asks if he left a forwarding number.  The nurse asks if Aria is there for art therapy finger-painting or to speed date the orderlies.

Aria slips into Big Rhonda’s room to put the sketchbook back under the mattress.  Rhonda shows up unexpectedly.  Aria says she just wanted to look at the book.  She apologizes for invading her space and tries to leave, but Rhonda stops her.  She says she can forget Aria was there, but it will cost her something. 

Hanna comes home to find Ali sitting in her kitchen, telling her sob story to Ms. Marin (Hanna’s mom).  Apparently Ali didn’t wait for Hanna to talk to her mom and just decided to come in and ask Ms. Marin herself. 

Ms. Marin informs Hanna that Ali will be staying with them for a few days until her dad gets back.  She tells Ali to go upstairs and rest while she and Hanna finish cooking dinner.  She gives Ali a luxury bottle of bath salts to help her relax.

Ms. Marin thinks everything that happened to Ali is so upsetting.  Ali has no support system at all.  Ms. Marin used to think Ali was too tough for her own good, but it is good that she was.  Otherwise she wouldn’t have survived at all.  Ms. Marin asks Hanna to make the day bed with clean sheets after dinner.

Hanna, not looking forward to dinner with Ali, says she has plans to help Caleb study for his exit exams.  Annoyed, Hanna tells her mom that she asked a million times to use those bath salts, but her mom never let her.

Aria gives Rhonda a root beer and a snack, the price for Rhonda keeping her silence.  Rhonda asks if Aria was a friend of Bethany’s.  Aria says she never met Bethany, but her body was buried in her friend’s backyard.  Everyone is curious who Bethany was and why she ran away.

Rhonda tells her that everyone thinks about running away, but others had it much worse than Bethany did.  Rhonda never had anyone signing her out to take her to the circus the way Bethany did.  The rich lady with the beige purse was always giving Bethany things.  Aria asks if it was Ms. DiLaurentis.  Bethany says the name was something like that.

Aria asks if Bethany received a layered yellow top.  Rhonda doesn’t remember that, but she does remember the horse Custard.  The rich lady took Bethany to adopt a pony. 

Aria asks why she gave Bethany gifts.  Ms. DiLaurentis was murdered recently and buried next door to where Bethany was buried.  Aria asks if Rhonda knows who could have killed them.  Before Rhonda can answer, the nurse comes in.  She is furious that Aria gave soda to a diabetic patient.  She demands that Aria leave the room.

Hanna tells Caleb that the one person she can’t stand to look at is now wearing her pajamas and drooling on her pillow.  Hanna wants food, but all Caleb brought was a big bottle of whiskey.  Caleb wants to go on a trip with Hanna, far away from Rosewood.  He thinks they both need to change things up.  Hanna rules out Japan because the only sushi she eats is California rolls.  And Myanmar is out of the question because she can’t go to a place that she can’t spell or pronounce.

Hanna is starving, so she goes to the Brew to grab a tuna melt while Caleb waits in the car.  Hanna stares through the window at the Brew.  Zach comes out and says he closed up early.  He offers to make Hanna’s sandwich, anyway. 

Sydney stops by to give Emily a jacket with ‘E. Fields Assistant Coach’ written on it.  Emily says Sydney won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.  Sydney admits it is because they are no longer training together.  She wants to make sure Emily will still be in the bleachers.  It sucks being the new kid with no one cheering her on.  Her boyfriend is in college.  Her mom isn’t into swimming and her dad is always traveling for his frozen yogurt business.  She mentions that Emily must have seen one of the frozen yogurt shops when she was in New York.

Emily immediately catches Sydney’s slip.  Sydney covers by saying Emily mentioned she went to New York, but Emily says that was Hanna.  And Sydney had denied Hanna ever mentioned New York that night.  Sydney says her brain is mush from too much time under water.

At the Brew, Zach warns Hanna that he can smell the whiskey on her.  He tells her that he always had a thing for bad girls.  He promises to keep it a secret and asks if she can keep a secret too.  He refuses to take payment for the tuna melt and he rubs Hanna’s back before she leaves.

Aria calls Spencer to tell her everything she learned from Big Rhonda.  Spencer asks if Aria was fired, but Aria wasn’t.  She didn’t kill Rhonda; she just gave her a root beer.  She just didn’t know it needed to be sugar free.  She asks Spencer if they can figure out which stable it was.

At home, Ella is furious at Aria.  Aria completely forgot to meet her mom at the bridal shop.  Ella went through a lot of trouble to change the appointment time.  Ella asks if this is passive resistance.  If Aria doesn’t want her to get married again, then she needs to be open about it. 

Aria assures her mom that she is genuinely happy for her.  She just honestly forgot about the appointment.  Aria’s mom will try to change the time again and Aria promises that she won’t miss it next time.

Hanna and Caleb get drunk.  Hanna wants to go home, but Caleb can’t drive.  Hanna, disturbed by her encounter with Zach, says that her skirt is too short.  Caleb says it’s perfect.  Caleb and Hanna kiss.  Caleb can tell something is bothering Hanna.  Hanna says she is just drunk, tired and wants to go to sleep.

Hanna is a no-show in music class.  Emily thinks Hanna is avoiding Aria.  Spencer says not returning a call is avoiding.  Chasing down a morning muffin with malt liquor is something else.  Spencer thinks someone needs to talk to Caleb.

Emily says Aria found out the name of the stables.  Spencer wants to head over there.  She thinks maybe Ms. DiLaurentis was protecting someone out of fear, rather than love.  Maybe Bethany was the one who hit Ali. 

Hanna comes into class disheveled.  She says she fell asleep in Caleb’s car.  She wonders where everyone else is.  They tell her that class is over already.  Emily tries to pull a stuck krispie treat out of Hanna’s hair.

Spencer asks why Hanna is napping at 10 AM.  Hanna couldn’t sleep since Ali is her new roommate.  She has other stuff going on, too.  Hanna says she had a really weird moment with Emily’s boss, Zach, last night.  He got too friendly by putting his hand on her back for way too long.  Spencer asks if Hanna is sure she is not reading too much into it.  Was she buzzed at the time?

Hanna is furious that Emily and Spencer don’t believe her.  She only told them because a part of her wants to tell Aria. Spencer says that Hanna shouldn’t say all this two days before the engagement party if there is any chance that she misinterpreted Zach’s intentions.  Emily says this is something that you can’t take back once it’s said. 

Ms. Marin storms into Hanna’s room, angry that the school called to report Hanna absent.  She is surprised to find Ali, sitting by the window.  Ali claims to have heard someone last night outside the window, trying to get in.  She couldn’t sleep and in the morning she couldn’t move.  Ms. Marin sees that Ali’s pillow and blanket are in the closet.  Ms. Marin is horrified that Ali was so scared that she slept in the closet.  She decides to take the day off of work so she can stay with Ali.

Emily and Spencer visit the stables to talk to Declan, a guy that teaches riding lessons.  Emily seems terrified around the horse, Zara.  He isn’t interested in teaching beginners and doesn’t seem impressed that Spencer has ridden horses for eight years.  Spencer says their neighbor, Jessica DiLaurentis, used to ride up here.  There was a horse named Custard.

Declan asks if Emily is there on a dare.  She looks like the only horse she’s been around is a stuffed one in a crib.  Spencer says Emily is just shy.  As Declan leads Zara away, Emily backs away from the horse.  Spencer is annoyed that Emily suddenly became mute.

Ali is calming flipping through magazines on Hanna’s bed.  Ms. Marin comes in and says Hanna is going to have dinner with Caleb again.  Ms. Marin wants to take Ali out for dinner.  Ali says she is fine at home, but Ms. Marin says Ali has been inside all day and should go out with her.

Spencer and Emily follow Declan.  Spencer asks if he ever lets people adopt horses.  He says that he has a few times, in special cases.  He asks if the lady they are talking about is the one who came up with the strange girl who wanted to ride the horse in her slippers.  He doesn’t remember names, but he doesn’t think they came back after the bucket incident.

The lady asked the girl to call her Aunt Jessie.  The girl had a meltdown and threw a bucket.  Spencer asks if they were with another blond girl who called the lady ‘mom’.  Declan says a lot of people come to the stables.  He doesn’t take attendance.  He suggests that the girls head out before the storm hits.

Emily wants to know why Spencer asked about Ali.  Ali already said that she never met Bethany.  Spencer points out that Ali says a lot of things that aren’t true.  Spencer just thought it was worth it to ask that simple question.  Emily wants to leave, but Spencer wants to look around some more.

Hanna is eating in her car alone  when Zach jumps in.  Zach makes his intentions clear by giving her his phone number and telling her to hit him up.  Before getting out of the car, he puts his hand on her knee.  Hanna rips the phone number up after he leaves.

Ms. Marin is making dinner reservations for her and Ali when the storm gets worse.  Ms. Marin closes the kitchen window and hears a noise.  She finds the front door slightly open.  Then she sees someone in the kitchen.  Ali comes downstairs and Ms. Marin takes her phone.  The intruder leaves the house.  Ms. Marin and Ali walk past a knife on the floor.  Ms. Marin calls the cops.

Lt. Tanner comes over to get more information.  Ms. Marin says it was a man’s shadow that she saw.  Tanner asks Ali, who is certain it was a man’s shadow.  When Tanner asks why she is certain, Ali says it was big and loud.  Tanner asks her to clarify about it being loud.  Ali says the man’s weight made the floorboards creak.  Tanner points out that Ali said she wasn’t aware of the intruder until she came downstairs.  Then they went to the kitchen.  Are there floorboards in the kitchen?

Ms. Marin is furious with Tanner’s questions.  Tanner says this is just standard police protocol, but Ms. Marin says they are treating the victim like the criminal.  Ali has been through enough.  There is a predator out there and the police have done nothing to catch the psycho.  The police need to find him before he strikes again.

Aria is busy making name cards for the people invited to her mom’s engagement party.  Spencer, Emily, Alison, and Hanna are all invited. 

Hanna knocks on door, drenched from the rain storm.  Aria offers her a towel to dry off.  Hanna knows they aren’t on the best of terms right now, but she has to tell Aria that Zach hit on her.  She thought he was joking at first, but then he got in her car.  He clearly wanted to hook up with her.

Aria, shocked, asked if Hanna kissed him.  Hanna denies that, saying Zach was the one who made a move on her.  Aria, furious at Hanna, says that Hanna is the one who is always the problem.  All the girls are getting ulcers while they try not to say the wrong thing, but Hanna is busy getting hammered in front of Emily’s mom and blabbing to strangers.  Hanna tells Aria that she already said she was sorry.  Aria says Hanna didn’t say anything; “A” was the one who told them what Hanna spilled.  Hanna couldn’t remember anything. 

Aria asks if Hanna invited Zach into her car.  Was she trashed?  She says Hanna can spiral out of control and self destruct, but she isn’t going to let Hanna take her mom down, too.

In the stable, Spencer finds Melissa’s riding helmet.  The initials say M.H. and Spencer recognizes the riding crest where they used to take lessons.  “A” locks the stable door without Spencer and Emily noticing.

Emily is ready to leave, but Spencer wants to check the list again.  Maybe Melissa signed in under a different name.  Emily says maybe under the name Maleficent.  Emily can’t get out of the locked stable.  A horse, spooked by the thunder, kicks Spencer in the eye before they can get out.  Spencer grabs the helmet as they run out.

At home, Spencer puts a wet towel on her red eye.  Toby comes over after receiving Spencer’s message.  He immediately notices that she smells like manure.  Spencer tells him that she went to the stable and found out that Bethany didn’t like bribery.  Melissa may have been at the stables or “A” planted Melissa’s helmet there. 

Spencer tells Toby that they were locked in a stall when a horse went psychotic and almost kicked them to death.  Toby asks if “A” took credit for this.  He’s tired of feeling powerless.  Spencer apologizes for earlier.  If Toby being a cop ends all this, then she says he should study hard and graduate early.  With her parents split up and Melissa being a part of all this, it’s getting so much worse. 

Zach, Ella, and Aria are busy making tissue paper flowers for the engagement party.  Ella teases Zach’s bad flower making skills.  Aria watches them, confused by what Hanna told her.  Zach compliments Aria’s tissue paper flower. Ella says Mike isn’t good at it, so he’s hiding upstairs.  Aria needs a break from the flowers.  Zach suggests they watch a movie.  Aria, not wanting to hang out with Zach, says she’s wants to go to bed.  Ella looks confused, saying they picked the movie because Aria said she wanted to watch it.  Not knowing how to get out of it, Aria agrees to watch with them.

Ali is in her room at home, packing a bag of clothes to take back to Hanna’s house.  Emily is with her, frustrated that Aria isn’t picking up her phone.  Spencer rushes in.  She wants to know why there is a cop car outside.  Ali says the police brought her to get her dad’s number and to pick up some clothes.

Spencer says Hanna’s mom is a basket case.  The intruder really freaked her out.  Spencer can’t believe that their parents are now being physically attacked.  This isn’t the same “A” that broke into lockers and left them nasty notes.

Ali tells them that it wasn’t “A” at all.  It was Noel Kahn.  Ali asked Noel to break into Hanna’s house.  She needed someone that mattered, like Hanna’s mom, to stop questioning her kidnapping story.

Spencer is horrified that Ali would do something like that.  Ali, not sorry, says “It worked, didn’t it?”

“A” walks past framed photos of Spencer and Ali, and Spencer riding a horse.  “A” caresses a riding helmet.  “A” lifts up the chair cushion and pulls a box out.