Pretty Little Liars Recap: “These Boots Were Made For Stalking”
GTL: Games, texts and lies is all the Liars know these days. They’re trying to figure out Liar’s Lament and what it means for their futures. Spencer is trying to find Mary Drake, Hanna is trying to start her fashion career, Ali is debating whether to keep her unborn child, Aria is trying to save her engagement and Emily? Well, Emily is the lucky next player.
After Spencer went first in A.D.’s game, and after Hanna tried to destroy it, the Liars were shown footage of them burying Ali’s psycho dead husband in the middle of the woods. Meaning, if they tell or destroy the board game, their lives will be over. But come on, they’ve been playing this game for seven years and they’re still standing. Have these girls learned nothing?As everyone is debating on what to do next, Emily acts like she’s above it all, stating they’re no longer in high school and should just go to the police. YES, I’ve been saying this since Season One people! Alas, they don’t agree with my sane advice and Emily just storms out.
In the locker room at Rosewood High, Emily and Paige are discussing their past which includes the tension between Ali and Paige. One of Emily’s swimmers, and public enemy number one, Addison overhears them. After their conversation, Emily spots Addison and confronts her about eavesdropping. Addison states that she’s a “quiet dresser.” Cue my eyes rolling. Emily proceeds to ask why Addison missed practice the day before and the teen tells her she had a headache. Rolling eyes again — this girl needs to stop.
Later on in the day, Addison snaps pictures of Emily consoling Ali in her classroom. The little brat takes these pictures to Paige because she overheard the whole Ali-Paige tension conversation earlier. She tells Paige because she’s the Athletic Supervisor she went to her and not the principal. No, you did that to start drama. Alas, Addison tells Paige she feels uncomfortable around ‘Coach Fields’ because she’s been ‘hovering’ and ‘getting to close’ to the other female swimmers. Addison then shows Paige the pictures of Emily consoling Ali, as though it’s proof.
This stirs the little green monster inside Paige, telling Addison she did the right thing by going to her. Yeah, okay. Paige of course knows Addison is a brat and warns Emily. This fires Emily up and Paige has to talk her out of attacking a 16-year-old snob. Paige tells Emily to take the day off and that she’ll handle it.
After leaving school Emily goes to Spencer’s barn to see the game. She has a hunch that Addison is a pawn in A.D.’s master plan to mess with them. Emily also wants to make sure that her secret about never taking her final exam to get her degree is revealed. To recap, A.D. took the exam for her. Nice of A.D., I guess. The game’s iPhone says #BENCHME and when Emily presses it, surveillance video of Addison and her boyfriend smoking a bong during swim practice appears. So much for that headache she claimed to have.
Emily goes straight to the high school to confront Addison. She threatens Addison to retract her statements or she’ll reveal what she really does in her downtime. Of course the brat isn’t scared of Emily and tells her instead of stalking, she should be busy getting a lawyer. This girl is atrocious! Thankfully Paige steps in and tells Addison her father is waiting for her in the principal’s office. Apparently an email was forwarded to the principal and Addison’s parents where she gloated about getting Emily fired. It was never confirmed if Addison did this or if Paige really does have Emily’s back and framed a teenager.
Either way, Emily is safe for another day from Addison’s wrath but she still has A.D. to worry about. As she’s leaving the locker room she notices an envelope in her mailbox. It’s the second puzzle piece to the game. At the same moment, she gets a text that reads, “Embrace your dark side, Em. I’ve had to. That’s how you win the game.” Awesome.
While Emily was playing the game, some serious stuff went down with three of the other liars. Spencer shows hot Detective Marco Furey the letter from Mary Drake and tells him to make finding her priority. Within hours Marco finds a motel Mary could be staying at. While he’s filling Spencer in, Jenna walks through the police station. She’s not arrested on the spot because there is still no concrete evidence she shot Spencer and also because she tells a sob story blaming the whole horror house kidnapping incident on dead and gone Noel. Ugh, hate her.
After Hanna learns about Jenna’s return, she and Caleb follow her to a local cobbler. Hanna left shoes with him so while Caleb was confronting Jenna (nothing came of it), Hanna went to get her shoes. The cobbler wasn’t there, but A.D. definitely was. Hanna mysteriously gets locked inside a cage and she starts having major flashbacks to when Noel kidnapped her months before and tortured her in a barn. Thankfully, Caleb comes to save the day as always.
Then there’s Aria. She’s been spending more time with her childhood friend Holden who is to be the chef for Aria and Ezra’s wedding, if there is one. Ezra has been spending a lot of time with Nicole, Ezra’s thought-to-be-dead fiance, in New York since she was rescued. An article even comes out about how Ezra’s been at his fiance’s side and that sends Aria into a tailspin since she’s his fiance, not Nicole. She tries to go see Nicole at the hospital, but thank God for Holden because he talks Aria out of her very bad idea. He’s such an angel and is totally in love with Aria — talk about your friend zone.
In the end, the Liars are back in the barn with the game to place the puzzle piece on the board. With the two pieces together, Spencer notes that it looks like a map with a dark area shaped like Rosewood. Maybe the game wants them to go somewhere. Maybe it wants them to find someone. You never know when A.D. is running the show.
Who is A.D.?: Ali’s secret twin who has yet to be introduced
Quote of the Episode: “At least when I threatened adults, I looked up from my phone.” – Ali
