Wednesday, May 31, 2017

PLL 7x16 Recap “The Glove That Rocks the Cradle”: Aria Does A.D.'s Dirty Work

Aria, wearing a black hoodie, goes further down a dark path in Pretty Little Liars episode 7x16 “The Glove That Rocks the Cradle”. Also, the police suspect Spencer killed Archer Dunhill. The Liars, again, fail to catch A.D. in the act. Alison tells Emily that she loves her. And the Liars confront Lucas about the comic book he wrote with Charles.

The episode starts off with a Rosewood police officer interrogating Spencer. (Last episode, we found out Spencer accidentally used Archer Duhill’s credit card to pay for drinks at the Radley on the night the Liars accidentally ran him over). He asks about the joke Spencer made that night about burying a body. Once the police officer starts asking questions about the credit card used that night to pay for drinks, Spencer just keeps repeating “I don’t recall”.

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Detective Marco Furey finally stops the interview and comes in. He wants to help Spencer, but he can’t until she tells him the truth. He warns her that she is standing on quicksand. The more she struggles, the faster she’ll get pulled under. He’s offering her a rope, but she refuses to talk.

Marco tells her to do herself a favor and get a lawyer. In two days he’ll have the credit card receipt from the bar. If Spencer’s signature is on the receipt, he’ll have a warrant for her arrest.

Emison is still going strong in this episode. Emily surprises Alison with a nursery room for the baby. Emily filled the baby room with Alison’s old baby things from the attic. 

Alison likes the nursery and invites Emily to move in. Since they are having a baby together, it makes sense for Emily to live there.

A.D.’s blackmail is taking a toll on Aria. She was tossing and turning all night. Ezra thought Aria was having nightmares.

Now that Ezra is back in Rosewood, he wants to focus on the upcoming Ezria wedding. Ezra thinks they should take dance classes. They could learn the Salsa, the Tango or the Waltz. Otherwise, their first dance together as married couple will be the Electric Slide.

Ezra asks when Aria is free, so he can sign them up. Aria can’t focus on dance lessons or wedding planning with A.D. blackmailing her. Ezra asks if she’s upset with him about the Nicole situation, but Aria assures him that she’s not. She gives him a quick kiss before rushes to Spencer’s house.


Spencer tells her friends about the night she got drunk and used Archer Dunhill’s credit card to pay for her drinks at the bar. Her friends lash out at her. Alison asks if Spencer screwed anything else up. Hanna freaks out, asking why Spencer got drunk. Spencer got drunk after Caleb broke her heart and went back to Hanna, though. So Hanna backs off.

Hanna decides to break into the room where all the Radley receipts are kept. No one will see her during the weekly staff meeting. And Caleb will make sure Hanna isn’t recorded by the surveillance cameras. He can shut down the security system for ten minutes. Any longer and the security company will be alerted.

Suddenly, A.D.’s ‘Liar’s Lament’ game starts up again. The miniature Hanna game piece is in front of the Rosewood High School building on the board game. The game phone has the message “Pick up my homework or go to detention. Remember, prison food makes you fat.”

A.D. gives Hanna the address of a computer repair center at 125 Finley Ave. Hanna has to pick something up there and bring it to Rosewood High.

Aria, who looks uncomfortable around her friends now that she’s keeping a big secret from them, gets a text from Uber ‘A’ that reads “Hanna thinks it’s her turn, but yours isn’t up yet and you’re playing for me. A.D.”


Caleb wants to go with Hanna while she does the game tasks. Hanna isn’t worried about going to a computer repair store, but Caleb reminds her that she almost died in the cobbler shop.

Hanna wants Caleb to focus on helping Spencer. They owe it to her. Spencer wouldn’t have self-sabatoged that night if it weren’t for their love triangle. Hanna saw what a mess Spencer was when Caleb came over that night.

Hanna feels guilty because she gave Spencer permission to fall in love with Caleb. Caleb tells Hanna that she doesn’t have to punish herself for that. Hanna says the only thing scarier than playing A.D.’s twisted board game is losing a friend over it.

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Spencer helps Emily set up furniture in the nursery room. Spencer plans to meet with Marco alone to ask him not to pursue the Archer Dunhill investigation. Spencer knows Marco cares about her, so she's sure she can convince him.

Emily warns Spencer that it is a bad idea. She shouldn’t underestimate someone’s feelings. Spencer says Emily is doing the same thing with Alison. Emison is having a baby, not a puppy. Emily is sure Alison will want to be part of the baby’s life, even though Alison hasn’t said that. Emily tells Spencer to stop judging. It isn’t an easy situation for her.

Ezra meets with Aria’s boss, Jillian, to discuss press events for Ezra’s book. Jillian wants Ezra to talk about how he fell in love with Nicole and discuss his reunion with her. Ezra doesn’t want to only talk about Nicole, since Aria will also be at the events talking about her role as co-author. However, Jillian doesn’t want Aria at the press events. She wishes Ezra waited until after the book was launched to get engaged to Aria.

When Aria comes home, Ezra tells her about the meeting. Aria isn’t the happy ending Jillian was hoping for. It would be better for book sales if Ezra ended up with Nicole. Aria doesn’t mind if Ezra does the press alone, though. Selling more books will help them build a better future together. And Aria isn’t eager to be in the spotlight. Aria promises to be in the front row cheering Ezra on at all the events.

Hanna picks up A.D.'s hard drive and Caleb takes a look. Hanna’s worried it will make the computer explode, release toxic gas or a box cutter will poke his eye out, since those are all things A.D. does.

Instead, the song “You Belong To Me” by Patsy Cline plays. Hanna remembers that ‘A’ played Patsy Cline’s song “Walkin’ After Midnight” in the dollhouse. Hanna is sure this song means something. Caleb asks if there is a connection to Lucas.

Hanna insists that Lucas isn’t A.D., pointing out that Lucas saved her the night of Charlotte’s murder by giving her an alibi.

Spencer goes to Marco’s place to talk. Marco doesn’t give her a warm welcome, so Spencer says that she’s the same person he played ping pong with and kissed. However, Marco realizes that he didn’t know Spencer that well. All he knows now is that Spencer is involved in a murder.

Spencer says Archer Dunhill was a monster who preyed on lost and vulnerable people. She thinks it is justice that he died in the same disgusting way that he lived. He got what he deserved.

Marco understands why Spencer feels that way, but it is his job to find out who broke the law. Spencer begs him to stop being a cop and be a human being for a minute. She’s not asking him to lie or help her. However, she is asking him to let this case slip through the cracks. “You can do that, can’t you?” Spencer asks as she cries.

Marco hands her a tissue and says that he can’t. “I guess you didn’t know me as well as you thought,” he tells her. As Spencer is leaving, she sees a few flash drives. She steals the flash drive with Lucas’s name on it.

Spencer shows the flash drive to her friends. They watch a video of the police interrogating Lucas after Charlotte’s murder. Lucas initially claims that he was at the hotel with Hanna that night. He isn’t willing to testify, though.

The police caught him in a lie. (Remember the ice machine lie in PLL episode 6x13 “The Gloves Are On”? During the interrogation, Lucas said he went down the hall to get ice.  Lorenzo knew the third floor at The Radley didn’t have an ice machine).

So Lucas came back to the truth. He had no clue where Hanna was that night. He lied because she asked for his help. Lucas doesn’t think Hanna had anything to do with Charlotte’s death, though.

Lucas was then asked if he thinks Hanna’s friends killed Charlotte. Lucas is sure of Hanna’s innocence, but he doesn’t have faith in the rest of the Liars. He’s seen too many things that the Liars are capable of. He wouldn’t be surprised if one of them killed Charlotte.

The Liars are enraged when they watch the interrogation video, accusing Lucas of throwing Hanna under the bus. Yet Hanna continues to defend Lucas. He was busted telling a lie, so he told the truth. That makes him weak, but it doesn’t make him sick.

Her friends aren’t convinced. They bring up the time Lucas destroyed Alison’s memorial. And they point out that Lucas joined Mona’s Army. Everyone has a dark side if they are pushed hard enough.

Hanna says that Lucas is her friend, just like the rest of the Liars are. No matter how shady her friends have looked, she knows in her heart none of them would hurt her.

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“That’s not true,” Aria says. For a second it looks like Aria might come clean about doing A.D.’s dirty work, but she doesn’t. Instead, she brings up the time Hanna was so scared of Lucas that she pushed him out of a rowboat.

Aria comes up with a plan to catch A.D. in the act. The Liars should stake out the school to see who takes the hard drive from the locker after Hanna leaves it there.

The next morning, Alison is rushing off to work. She doesn’t have time to admire the baby mobile Emily brought for the nursery room. Alison also doesn’t have time to eat breakfast.

Emily snaps at Alison for not eating breakfast and forgetting to take her prenatal vitamins. Emily accuses Alison of flaking out on her. Emily says Alison might toss the baby and run off to Paris. Annoyed, Alison takes the prenatal vitamins. “I knew pregnancy would come with some drastic mood swings. I just didn’t know they’d be yours,” she retorts.

Mona drops by unexpectedly to see Hanna. Hanna heading to Rosewood High to drop off the flash drive. She tries to think up a lie, but Mona tells her not to bother. It’s like watching a frog jump out of boiling water.

Mona doesn’t understand why Hanna is shutting her out. Hanna asked for her help and Mona is ready to play A.D.’s game. Mona can’t help Hanna if she’s kept in the dark. So Hanna reluctantly tells her that Emily and Alison are staking out the school to see who picks up the flash drive.

Mona offers to help, but Hanna doesn’t want her friends to find out that Mona knows about the game. Mona can’t believe that the Liars still don’t trust her. “Fine. I’ll help you and your friends like I always do and then crawl back under a rock,” Mona snaps. Mona has literally bled herself to protect Hanna. “How many times do I have to save all of you until I’m finally part of the group?” Mona asks. To Mona, it seems like they’ve never left high school.

While Emily and Alison are staking out the school, A.D. sends Aria on another mission. This time, it’s to destroy Emison’s nursery room. So Aria puts on A.D.’s black hoodie and sneaks into Alison’s house.

Aria takes down the baby mobile and replaces it with a mobile has Liar dolls hanging from strings. She throws blood around the room, stomps on things and rips the head off a teddy bear.

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Meanwhile, Emily and Alison have a heart-to-heart while waiting for A.D. to show up. Emily is sorry about their fight earlier. She’s just scared. Alison admits to being scared, too. She feels like Emily is always testing her. Alison doesn’t know what the tests are, but she knows that she’s failing them.

Emily and Alison split up when they think A.D. is in the hallway. Someone rushes past Alison and knocks her down. So Emily takes Alison home earlier than expected, startling Aria who is still in the nursery room.

Aria stumbles and cuts her arm as she tries to flee. Emily, hearing the noises, grabs a Pottery Barn candlestick to use as a weapon against the intruder. Luckily, Aria makes it out before Emily whacks her with the candlestick.

Since Aria was busy doing A.D.’s bidding, she couldn’t make it to Ezra’s book signing. Much to Jillian’s disappointment, Ezra tells the crowd that he isn’t going to write another book about Nicole. He announces his engagement to the co-author of the book, Aria Montgomery. He says his inspiration in every sense of the word is Aria.

The Liars meet at Alison’s house to look at the destroyed nursery room. The Liars now realize that A.D. has a helper. There is no way A.D. could have been at the school and at Alison’s house at the same time.

Spencer spots Aria’s earring on the floor near the broken mobile. She gives it back to Aria, but she looks a little suspicious of Aria afterwards. After all, Aria wasn’t standing anywhere near the mobile.

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At the Radley, Hanna frantically looks through boxes of receipts. The boxes are labeled, but the receipt wasn’t in the right box. (Does that mean A.D. already took the receipt?) There is no way they can find the receipt before the ten minute window is up, so Caleb decides to get rid of all the evidence. He dumps all the receipts on the floor and busts a water pipe to flood the room.

Hanna gets a call from Mona, who is alone at the school. Emily and Alison mistook Mona for Uber “A” and chased her out of the building. Mona reports that A.D. never showed up to get the hard drive.

Hanna spots Lucas on the Radley security camera. What is Lucas doing there?

Detective Marco Furey obviously noticed that the Lucas flash drive was missing. He calls Spencer and demands that she give it back. Spencer denies taking the flash drive. She even threatens him, wondering how it would look if people found out she was alone in his apartment at night.

Lucas goes to his loft, where Hanna is staying, and frantically searches for something. The Liars all show up to confront him. They accuse him of destroying the nursery and throwing blood on the crib. Aria, looking uncomfortable, suggests that it wasn’t Lucas.

Lucas has no idea what the Liars are talking about. He quickly admits to being friends with Charles, but he didn’t know Charles was Charlotte. They only stayed in contact through email. And he definitely didn’t know Charlotte was the one torturing the Liars.

Lucas never told Hanna because of guilt. He felt like it was his fault the Liars were tortured by Charlotte. In high school, his emails were about the mean queen bee Alison and her loyal band of followers. Lucas wrote about how Alison made his life a living hell while the rest of the Liars just watched.

Lucas received his comic book Arcturus with an anonymous note that read “Want to keep your friendship a secret? Meet me at the Radley”. So he went, but no one showed up.

Lucas was frantically searching his loft for his second comic book. He couldn’t find it, though. The second comic book turned the idea of vengeance into a game. Lucas didn’t want the person who sent the note to get his/her hands on the second graphic novel. The second graphic novel didn’t have an ending because he never finished it.

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The rest of the Liars leave and Hanna has a moment alone with Lucas. Hanna tells Lucas that she believes him. She knows he wasn’t a part of what happened to them in the dollhouse. She’s never doubted him.

Hanna asks why Lucas put the factory for sale if their business partnership was real. Lucas, who might possibly be the sweetest person on PLL, tells Hanna that she is so talented. He had trouble getting other people to take a chance on her, though. So Lucas was Hanna’s sole investor. He was too embarrassed to tell Hanna that he couldn’t do it anymore. He lost all his money by investing in Hanna’s fashion business. Lucas doesn't mind losing all his money, though. Hanna was worth it.

Spencer once again gets interrogated at the police station. Marco says all the Radley receipts were destroyed in a flood. And the security cameras were mysteriously not working, either. So Marco is now going to broaden the scope of his homicide investigation to include Spencer’s friends.

Alison and Emily clean the mess in the nursery. Alison says Emily has always protected her. From the moment Alison met Emily, she knew she could always count on her. She brings up her past failed relationships. Alison is finally ready to tell Emily that she loves her. They share an Emison kiss.

Aria goes home and notices that she cut her arm when she ran out of Alison’s house. Aria collapses on the couch and cries. What is A.D. going to make her do next?

A.D. already has Lucas’s second graphic novel. A.D. starts drawing an ending for the comic book. The drawing is of a tree and a tombstone. A.D. write “HERE LIES” on the tombstone, but doesn’t fill in the name. Is A.D. planning to kill someone soon?!

What did you think of Pretty Little Liars episode 7x16 “The Glove That Rocks the Cradle”? Aria took a huge step to the dark side by destroying the nursery. Don’t think it will be too long before Aria reaches her breaking point. And things are looking really bad for Spencer. Not sure why she expected Marco to ignore a murder investigation, though. There’s no way he would stop investigating a murder just because she asked him to. I’m definitely hoping Mona will be included in the group more often. Yes, she was the original “A”. But she’s constantly saving the Liars and each time they ice her out afterwards. And I loved the sweet Lucas moment when he told Hanna that she was worth it. Reminded me of all those cute Lucas and Hanna scenes in season one of Pretty Little Liars. Leave your thoughts/comments about the episode below!

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