Spencer’s family drama hits a new high as Mona’s finally brought into the game and teams Em, Haleb makes it official and Aria continues to work with A.D.
On this week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars entitled, “Driving Miss Crazy,” the Liars are pulled in different directions as they each have their own personal crisis to handle. The episode picks up with Aria (Lucy Hale) and Ezra (Ian Harding) taking dance lessons for their upcoming wedding. Ezra goes to meet his brother and Aria gets her next mission from A.D. She must deliver a package to the Hastings, who are packing up their house for the move. Meanwhile, Detective Furey (Nicholas Gonzalez) stops by Hanna’s (Ashley Benson) to question her and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) about the basement flooding at the Radley. Hanna calls a meeting and the Liars all meet and are surprised when Mona (Janel Parrish) shows up as well. Emily (Shay Mitchell) reluctantly teams up with Mona and investigate the doctor who impregnated Allison (Sasha Pieterse) with Emily’s eggs. He’s not much help but is able to give them the ID of the egg donor.
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At the Radley, Caleb meets Ashley (Laura Leighton), who’s back in Rosewood fearing Hanna is in trouble. He assures her no. Then later Ashley stops at Hanna’s with dinner and asks Caleb what his intentions are with Hanna. He wants to marry her Meanwhile, Aria takes food to the Hastings and also drops a cell phone with a recording that leaves Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and her parents reeling. And Spencer more confused than ever about who to trust. Later, she finds Mary Drake (Andrea Parker) waiting in her car and asks Spencer to leave town with her. While Ezra notices a change in Aria’s attitude and questions if she’s having doubts about the wedding. And Aria has a terrifying dream because of A.D.’s threats, but finally gets papers from her file after completing her latest mission. Elsewhere, Em waits for Mona at her room with the cell phone left at the Hastings and asks her to investigate it. Mona seems uneasy Em is there and hurries inside. There, Mona has a huge ‘A-ish’ lair complete with files on all the Liars. Whoa, so much happened in this week. Here are the top moments from the episode.
Aria’s latest mission from A.D. causes chaos in the Hastings’ household and exposes, even more, shadiness about Spencer’s Dad.
A.D. goes into more detail about what they’ve holding over Aria’s head. Turns out it’s a police report Aria wrote about Ezra years ago but never filed and he could still be charged because there’s no statute of limitations. So A.D. forces Aria into delivering a ‘gift’ to the Hastings as Spencer and her parents prepare for their move to Harrisburg. She drops their house with food, a seemingly sweet gesture, but uses it as a cover to drop a cell phone in a random box after pairing it with their Bluetooth speakers and leaves. A recorded conversation between Mr. Hastings (Nolan North) and Mary Drake starts playing over the speakers. They’re talking about Jessica’s murder and how he and Jessica were planning to do the same thing to Mary. Mr. H is furious and leaves after ripping the speaker off the self. Then later when he returns he tries to convince Spencer and Mrs. Hastings (Lesley Fera) it was nothing but they don’t buy it. And Mrs. H wants to call the police but Spencer convinces her not to.
Damn, the more I learn about Mr. Hastings the more I don’t like him. He’s super shady and seems capable of anything. For heaven’s sake, the man was scheming with Jessica to murder her own sister. It’s really starting to look like Jessica was the unstable twin, not Mary. Mr. H. is so adamant about keeping Mary Drake away from Spencer and his family. It makes me wonder what Mary knows that he was willing to go to such lengths as murder to keep her quiet. I definitely think we’re going to learn a lot more about Mr. H and it;s not going to be good.
Spencer’s parental drama continues as she has a surprise encounter with Mary Drake in her car!
Spencer has a confrontational run-in with Detective Furey at an undisclosed location that isn’t clear if they planned to meet up or he was following her again. Then when Spencer gets back into her car Mary Drake pops up from the backseat, puts her hands over Spencer’s mouth and tells her to drive. They arrive at the Lost Woods and Spencer asks Mary about the phone. Mary’s glad she heard what was on the phone, but she didn’t plant it. Then we get a flashback of Mary’s confrontation with Mr. Hastings and her sister. Mary just wants to see Spencer but they won’t let her. So she decides to stand up for herself and intercepts the pills mean to kill her and gives them to Jessica instead. Then Mary offers Spencer a second chance. She asks Spencer to leave town with her and then they could finally get to know one another. A tempting offer, but later Spencer declines confessing she can’t leave her friends or her mom right now.
“You’d be surprised at the things you have to do to protect yourself.” – Mary.
When Mary Drake appeared in the backseat of the car behind Spencer, I literally gasped. It’s sweet to see Mary and Spencer together. It’s clear Mary really loves Spencer and wouldn’t do anything to harm her. Sadly, if Mr. Hastings wasn’t such a dick, Mrs. Hastings would be open for Spencer to have a somewhat normal relationship with her biological mom. There’s room for everyone and would definitely help Spencer deal with everything.
The stress of working with A.D. has Aria having crazy dreams and Ezra questioning if she’s having wedding jitters.
Ezra is full-blown wedding planning mode, but sadly Aria’s too preoccupied working as a double agent to be fully into it. Ezra notices her change in attitude and thinks she’s acting strangely because of him. He wonders if she hasn’t truly forgiven him for using her and her friends to write his book. She insists it’s not. Then later, as she and Ezra fell asleep watching TV, Aria has an odd, black-and-white musical nightmare. She’s in a fake jail, dressed in a toilet paper wedding veil and forced to watch Ezra, who’s a prisoner, get punched in the face repeatedly. Mona is there as well and singing “Jailhouse Rock.” So is Mrs. Hastings and she calls Aria a “selfish little bitch” when she asks for forgiveness. Aria wakes to a new message from A.D. leading her to the puzzle pieces she’s earned. And when she places them in the game, a message tells her where to find the documents A.D.’s been holding over her head.
“Maybe there’s some part of you that hasn’t forgiven me for taking advantage of you and your friends for the sake of a book.” – Ezra.
Poor Ezra. He has no clue all Aria’s stress is because of A.D. and she’s only working with them because she’s trying to keep him safe. But I still think it’s odd how Ezra went from being all about helping Nicole (Rebecca Breeds) with her recovery to full-blown wedding planning mode like overnight. I still think it had something to do with him seeing Wren (Julian Morris) at the airport. But O.M.G. Aria’s weird ass dream was completely ridiculous and not in a good kind of way. It was a totally waste of time and I definitely could’ve done without ever seeing that awful mess.
Afraid that Hanna’s in trouble, her mom is back in Rosewood and leads Caleb to a super sweet revelation.
After finishing up her business at the Radley, Ashley drops by Hanna and Caleb with dinner. She’s a bit suspicious about them being back together and continues to question if Hanna needed Caleb’s help for something. Caleb explains that he needed Hanna’s help because he needed to figure out his feelings for her. Ashley’s intrigued now. Then Caleb confesses that he cannot imagine his life without Hanna and tells her he’d like to marry her daughter. Hanna’s standing right there too and a huge smile lights up her face. Later, Hanna and Caleb decide it’s best if they stay off the grid and go camping in the woods. Hanna asks him if he meant what he said and of course, he did. So she comes prepared with champagne and cigars to celebrate their engagement. They even exchange cigar wrapper ‘rings.’ Awe.
“I can’t imagine my life without Hanna. I want to marry your daughter, Mrs. Marin. No bells and whistles: Just the two of us exchanging vows.” – Caleb.
It makes me so happy Hanna and Caleb are engaged! Or at least I think we can consider this an official engagement. I mean I am. I absolutely love them together. Having Caleb admit his feelings in front of Hanna’s mom was cute. It was like he was asking Ashley’s permission. While Hanna and Caleb spending the night in a tent in the woods brings things full circle. It’s a throwback to when they lost their virginity in a tent. And them exchanging cigar wrappers as rings. Could they get any cuter? Oh, my Haleb feels!! We better see a wedding or some sort of vow exchange even if it’s in front of a judge.
“I would marry you right this second if we could find a bear that was licensed.” – Caleb.
The Liars are forced to accept Mona’s help playing the Liar’s Lament but are her motives pure? Or does her secret lair mean she’s back to her old ways?
The Liars meet at the game and are surprised when Mona walks in. Spencer. Emily and Aria are reluctant to accept her help, but she reminds them she fix the windshield Archer Dunhill’s (Huw Collins) head came through. Mona and Emily team up and go see the doctor who impregnated Ali (Sasha Pieterse) with Em’s eggs. He doesn’t buy their lesbian couple ruse and sends them on their way. But Mona uncovers his home address on a stolen magazine from his office. His personal mail gives them the evidence they need to go back to confront him. He’s unable to give them the name of the donor but does give them an I.D. number. Later, Em stops by Mona’s to let her know she might have found the donor agency. And she has the burner phone Spencer found to see if Mona can find any clues on it. Mona seems uneasy and hurries Em off. Inside Mona sits down at her computer and we see a huge wall of stuff behind her. There’s a map of the Liar’s Lament, newspaper clippings, photos and the shovels Hanna was looking for earlier that they buried Archer with!!
Wow, I am so confused my Mona right now. She’s been genuinely concerned and all about helping the Liars over the past couple seasons. Her character has evolved so much, but seeing her collection of documents, photos, a blueprint of Liar’s Lament and more has me seriously questioning her motives. It really appears as she’s made an A lair again. Mona did say messing with people’s lives in an addition, so maybe Hanna persuading her to help them play the game caused her to relapse. Or A.D. could be blackmailing her like Aria. Mona did look like she knew what Aria was up to when she saw her in the Brew looking for her puzzle pieces. Perhaps, we should give Mona the benefit of the doubt. She could be doing her own private investigation. I can’t wait to find out.
FINAL VERDICT: A.D. uses Aria to expose more Hastings’ secrets as Mary Drake returns for Spencer, Mona joins the inner circle and Haleb plan a future together in “Driving Miss Crazy.”
This week’s Pretty Little Liars penned by Francesca Rollins and Oliver Goldstick is filled with drama, interesting twists, heartfelt romance and a little bit of ridiculousness, Aria’s musical nightmare. Speaking of that atrocity, it was a total and complete waste of time. Series’ doing musical episodes seems to be a common trend right now. Was PLL’s attempt at a musical? If it was, they failed miserably. However, episode director, Oliver Goldstick, use of a special camera filter giving the scene and antique-like appearance does make it easier to distinguish it from reality. Anyways, Rollins and Goldstick bringing Mona into the game makes for even more drama. There’s always the question if Mona is trustworthy because of her shady past. Her and Emily teaming up is quite the captivating dynamic. The writers continue keeping us on our toes regarding Mona’s motives by revealing her suspicious collection of intel on the Liars and the game and the shovels Hanna was so desperately looking for. While Goldstick slowly panning over Mona’s police-like investigation wall of information and then stopping to zoom in on the shovels piques our interest in Mona’s true motives.
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Rollins and Goldstick surprise viewers with Haleb’s engagement. It’s clever having Caleb admit his true feelings for Hanna in front of her mom like he’s asking her permission. I love how Caleb and Hanna exchanged cigar wrapper ‘rings’ making the engagement in a tent, a homage to when they lost their virginity. Goldstick pans out showing the silhouette of them kissing in the tent reinforces their history with tents. Zooming in to focus on their hands as they exchange rings makes sure the adorable moment isn’t lost on viewers.
How can we forget more damning information revealed about Spencer’s sketchy dad? A.D. forcing Aria to deliver the phone illustrates how far she’ll go to keep that file secret. She hurts another friend. Poor Spencer’s always dealing with family drama. Mary Drake’s return allows her to tell her truth. Offering Spencer a second chance allows us to see a softer, more sane side of Mary. As Mary appears sensitive and sane, Mr. H. and Jessica are looking shadier and less sane, especially Mr. H. Every week more incriminating information about the man is uncovered. OMG, did we ever learn anything about Mona’s dad? What if Mr. H, has another illegitimate child, Mona? Holy plot twist. It’d explain Mona’s devious past and/or present. I cannot wait to find out more next week! Hopefully, we finally learn who’s Em and Ali’s baby daddy.
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS 7×18 airs TUESDAY, JUNE 13 at 8|7c. on FREEFORM
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