Spencer is woken up in the middle of the night with the nonstop sounds of a crying baby. It is coming from the 'Liar's Lament' game phone. Stuffing the phone in a pillow and trying to sleep with pillows over her ears doesn’t help, so she calls her friends over to ask one of them to take the phone.
All of the Liar show up with the exception of Alison, who is out of town. Of course, none of the Liars want to keep the phone. Emily, who is still living with Hanna, claims that she can’t take the phone because Caleb snores. Hanna is quick to deny that, though.
The fight over who gets stuck with the phone is cut short when a message announces that it is Hanna’s turn to play ‘Liar’s Lament’. “Play with me Hanna” the message says.
Hanna hides the game phone in her purse so Caleb won’t find it. “Guys aren’t going to go through a girl’s purse because they’re too afraid to accidentally touch a tampon,” Hanna tells Emily the next morning.
Hanna’s fashion business is off to a good start, thanks to Mona. Hanna’s dress was featured in the style section of the newspaper. Caleb shows Hanna a photo of Katherine Daly, the Senator’s daughter, wearing Hanna’s dress at a charity gala. The newspaper says “Katherine Daly stuns fundraising crowd in a fashion forward silhouette from local designer Hanna Marin".
Caleb, being the sweet boyfriend that he is, already bought copies of the newspaper article for Hanna’s mom, dad and grandmother.
Hanna and Caleb are ready to celebrate with some champagne, but Emily has bad news. The blog Runway Rebel, written by blogger Zoe Castello, has a post titled ‘Stolen Design on Senator’s Daughter?’
Hanna is sure the anonymous source for Runway Rebel was A.D.. You can’t spell 'anonymous' without 'A.D.', Hanna tells Aria. Aria points out that there is no ‘D’ in anonymous, but she gets Hanna’s point.
Hanna’s freaking out over the Runway Rebel post. It has already been reblogged 500 times. What if her former boss Claudia thinks Hanna stole designs from her? Hanna is sure Jenna is the one who is trying to ruin her fashion business. Aria promises to help Hanna.
Caleb finds out Jenna already checked out of the Radley. Since Sydney Driscoll helped Jenna in the past, she may still be helping. Caleb can track Sydney through her cell phone.
Aria listens to a news clip of an interview Ezra’s old girlfriend Nicole Gordon gave. Nicole says she was able to survive by concentrating on love and the possibility of seeing Ezra again.
Hanna and Caleb feel bad for Aria, but Aria tells them not to look at her with sad eyes. There’s nothing Aria can do while Nicole still needs Ezra. Hanna and Caleb found their way back to each other. Aria believes she and Ezra will, too.
Aria leaves to dig up info on Sydney. Hanna gets a new message on the game phone that says ‘Time to play’. It tells her to answer the door. Someone keeps banging on the door, but Hanna is too scared to open it. Caleb opens the door and says to Hanna “It’s you”. A.D. has delivered a really creepy mannequin doll with a Hanna mask sewn onto it.
Hanna finally tells Caleb about A.D.'s game, describing it as similar to Simon Says, but meaner. The mannequin talks when Caleb pulls the string on the back. “For more information, please see the appendix,” the mannequin says. Caleb wonders if there is some type of rule book or instructions manual for the game. Caleb decides to inspect the game to see if he can open the game and look inside it.
Meanwhile, Hanna meets up with Lucas. (Lucas is funding Hanna’s fashion business). They have to do damage control because of Runway Rebels. The daughter of one of the investors reads the blog. Lucas tells Hanna not to be worried about the investor meeting later that day, but Hanna is freaking out. What if Claudia sues her for stealing the design?
Lucas assures Hanna that his company can absorb the loss. He’ll find some way to write it off. He believes in Hanna. He tells her to bring some visual aids and sketches to the investor meeting.
Yvonne is finally out of her coma, but she is clearly struggling. She manages to do basic tests like squeeze a ball. Toby decides he can’t wait any longer. He shows her their wedding rings and says he wants to get married right away. Yvonne slips the ring on Toby’s finger and says ‘I do’.
Caleb sneaks into Spencer’s barn to inspect the board game. He calls Hanna to tell her that he can’t find instructions anywhere. He wants to open the game up, but he doesn’t know how. He wants to uses tweezers to try.
That reminds Hanna of the game Operation. She looks at the mannequin again and realizes that the appendix clue meant she’s supposed to cut open the mannequin. In a surprising twist, blood gushes out when Hanna cuts it open. She pulls out a plastic bag with the words ‘Wear Me’ on it.
Detective Marco Furey spots Spencer at the Brew. Spencer’s been struggling with the Mary Drake reveal, so Marco wants to make Spencer feel better. He takes her to play ping pong.
Spencer is good at everything and ping pong isn’t an exception. At horseback riding camp, she would play ping pong on rainy days. Spencer was the champion five summers in a row.
Spencer thanks Marco after she beats him. She really needed to win on an existential level. Marco feels like a winner, since he spent the day with a pretty woman instead of at his desk.
Spencer and Marco are about to play again when he notices blood on Spencer’s shirt. The game must have reopened her gunshot wound. He grabs a first aid kit and helps patch her up.
Marco opens up about his past. When he was little, he was a chubby, shy kid with glasses. He loved coming to the rec center because of the woman who ran it. She always greeted him with a hug and a smile. He didn’t get many hugs at home. His mom was addicted to prescription pills. His mom is clean now and they talk on the phone once a month.
Spencer has been so caught up in her own soap opera. She forgot that she’s not the only person with a complicated story about a birth mother and surrogate mother.
Marco gives Spencer some really good advice. He tells her that she doesn’t have to choose between her birth mother and adoptive mother. She just needs to love the people who want the best for her. After that advice, Marco and Spencer kiss.
Aria and Emily do some digging into Sydney Driscoll. Sydney graduated from Berkeley with a double major in economics and French. She studied abroad her junior year. She now works as a private client banker. Her department services people with lots of money.
Sydney checked into a charity gala for the Manhattan Children’s Hospital two days ago. Coincidentally, the Senator’s daughter (Katherine Daly) wore Hanna’s dress to that event.
They look through photos from the event and spot Sydney snapping a pic of Katherine Daly. So was Sydney Driscoll the anonymous source for the Runway Rebels? They wonder what else Sydney has done for Jenna.
The police said it wasn’t Jenna’s gun that shot Spencer. So Aria and Emily think the confession Jenna gave to the police was to protect the other shooter (Sydney).
Earlier that morning, Caleb taught Aria all about hacking and technology. And Aria is already an expert at it. So now Mona and Caleb aren’t the only ones who can hack into people’s phones and listen to private conversations. Emily is shocked at how good Aria is, considering Aria is "the same girl who accidentally had her phone on airplane mode for half of 9th grade".
Aria and Emily track down Sydney. Aria waits in the car while Emily confronts Sydney. Emily takes some type of device with her that lets Aria hack into Sydney’s phone.
Sydney knows about Noel’s death and Spencer getting shot, but she denies any involvement.
Remember in episode 7x10 “The DArkest Knight” when Sydney pretended to be Jenna and had drinks delivered to Mona and Caleb? Now Sydney is claiming that it was just a harmless practical joke. Sydney says that she drifted apart from Jenna after high school.
Meanwhile, Aria successfully hacks into Sydney’s phone and accesses her calendar. They listen in on her phone conversation. Sydney calls an eye institute to pay for Jenna’s eye surgery. She tells the institute that the money is from A.D., short for anonymous donor.
Sydney gets a text from a blocked number that says “Did you do it?” Sydney replies “It’s done”.
Aria and Emily confront Sydney again. They demand that Sydney come with them to visit Jenna. Sydney refuses, so Aria twists Sydney’s arm and shoves her against a wall. Sydney finally says the surgery was paid for by her client from the bank. She doesn’t know who the person is, just that the initials on the account are A.D.
Sydney also claims that she has no idea where Jenna is. Jenna hasn’t been answering her calls. Sydney says Jenna’s games are too dangerous for her taste.
Aria hand Sydney her yoga bag back, but not before slipping a GPS tracker inside it. Absolutely loving Aria this episode!
Hanna shows Caleb the incredibly short dress A.D. is forcing her to wear to the investor meeting. Caleb says the dress is like “everyone is gonna see your ‘spice tuna roll’ short”. Once Hanna wears the dress to the meeting, A.D. will give her a puzzle piece for the game board.
Yesterday, Hanna was so excited about the meeting with the investors. She was going to walk in confident and impressive. People don’t always see her that way. Hanna begs Caleb to put a stop to A.D.’s plan before the investor meeting. Caleb promise to try.
Caleb heads back to Spencer’s barn, desperate to break open the ‘Liar’s Lament’ board game. He can’t tell if the game is mechanical or electrical.
Spencer comes in and there is initial awkwardness, since they haven’t really been alone together since they broke up. They handle it pretty well though.
Spencer tells Caleb that she spent the day with Marco. Caleb isn’t surprised. He picked up on some vibes between them. Caleb asks if Marco is good to her. “You deserve that,” Caleb tells Spencer.
Spencer grabs some beers while Caleb pops one of the miniature buildings off the game board. Gas shoots out from the game board and Caleb struggles to breath. He collapses on the couch. Spencer rushes over and calls 911.
Meanwhile, Hanna arrives at The Radley for her meeting with the investors. She’s wearing the short dress under her coat and she knows A.D.’s game is messing with both her fashion career and Lucas’s business.
Hanna tells Lucas that she never knew how much she wanted her fashion career until Lucas gave her everything she wanted. Lucas tells her how talented she is. Before going in, Hanna wants to thank Lucas for everything he’s done. Lucas is the most generous friend she has. Whatever happens in the meeting, she wants him to promise they will always be friends.
Spencer texts Hanna to tell her that Caleb is in the hospital. Hanna rushes to the hospital and Lucas promises to cover for her in the meeting.
At the hospital, Caleb is given oxygen. Caleb tells Hanna the gas was worse than the time they first met and Hanna sprayed extra hold hairspray in his face. After the gas hit him, he couldn’t talk, breath or think.
Caleb is worried A.D. will retaliate for Hanna skipping her turn at the game, but Hanna doesn’t care about the stupid game. She just wanted to make sure Caleb was okay.
The Liars are waiting for Hanna in the hospital waiting room. Hanna gets a text that says she doesn’t get her puzzle piece, since she didn’t finish her turn at the game.
Hanna is furious with how unfair the game is. When it was Spencer’s turn, all she had to do was visit a friend. Spencer didn’t have to skip out on business meetings or deal with false accusations. Aria wonders if the game is unfair on purpose. It throws the Liars off balance.
Meanwhile, Toby and Yvonne get married while Yvonne is still in the hospital bed. They eat butterscotch cream wedding cake and save the last piece for their first anniversary. They make plans to visit Buenos Aires and Patagonia for their honeymoon. They also plan to visit Moscow and Iceland. “Are you happy?” Toby asks Yvonne. “Happiest” Yvonne sweetly answers. Then, without warning, Yvonne drops her flower bouquet and dies.
Toby stumbles into the waiting room. Without saying anything, Spencer can tell something is wrong. Toby collapses on the floor and cries while Spencer holds him.
Aria gets back to Ezra’s apartment and leaves another message for him. Sabrina just quit working at the Brew because she got another job in Atlanta. Sabrina left a list of possible replacements for her, but Aria doesn’t know how to handle it.
She asks if Ezra want her to interview the bakers. Aria has never run a business before. She wants to help, but things have been unraveling without Ezra around to run the Brew. I know Ezra wants to help Nicole, but did he really just abandon the Brew and leave Aria to deal with the business decisions without even returning her calls? Not cool, Ezra.
Suddenly, Aria sees someone sitting in the dark on Ezra’s couch. Aria grabs a knife and turns the light on. She’s shocked to see it is Nicole. So if Nicole is there, where is Ezra?
An envelope with no return address is delivered to the Rosewood police station. Marco opens it and finds a severed finger inside. Whose finger do you think it is? Archer Dunhill’s? Jessica DiLaurentis?
Poor Hanna. Her turn at the game was a lot worse than Spencer’s turn or Emily’s turn. Luckily, Aria, Caleb and Emily did everything they could to help her. Mona’s always been a badass and good at getting things done, but it looks like Aria’s giving her a run for her money. Absolutely loved how Aria took charge in this episode. What did you think of Pretty Little Liars episode 7x13 “Hold Your Piece”? Leave your thoughts/comments below!
Aria was the best in this episode
ReplyDeleteYeah, loved Aria's takedown of Sydney. Aria did take all those martial arts classes back in season 4 :)
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