To plea or not to plea. That
certainly is the question of the hour. Detective Tanner has pegged Hanna as
Alison’s partner in crime, convincing the D.A. to offer a plea bargain for
Ali’s confession. So long as Ms. DeLaurentis admits to killing Mona and naming
Hanna as her accomplice, Ali will receive a reduced sentence to fifteen years in
prison with the possibility for parole in ten. Given Alison’s innocence, she
scoffs at the deal, until her lawyer lays out the facts. Her chances of
acquittal are slim to none. If she loses, she’s facing life in prison. Mrs.
Hastings gets wind of this development and hurries over to the Marin’s,
informing Hanna’s mother of the ordeal.
Emily seeks out Ezra’s help
in trying to uncover the true identity of “Varjak.” James Neilan, the attorney
who delivered Mona’s posthumous letter to Hanna during the Christmas special,
knows something. Ezra agrees to pay him a visit, calling out the lawyer for his
involvement in Mona’s murder. Fitz presses him for information, but comes up
empty-handed. Aria meets up with Emily who’s waiting for Ezra outside Neilan’s
office. Given that “Ezria” is on what Ross Geller would call a “break,” this
leads to an uncomfortable run-in between the separated couple when Ezra exits
the building. Thankfully, Fitz managed to rattle Neilan’s cage enough, because
the attorney soon rushes out from his office with his cell to his ear. He tears
off down the street, and the trio hops into Aria’s car to tail him.
They eventually come to a
gated piece of property deep in the woods. Emily takes off out of the car just
as Aria receives a text from Andrew. The distraction causes Ezra and Aria to
arrive at the front gate after it closes, but Emily thankfully managed to slip
inside beforehand. Now, all alone, Ms. Fields approaches a cabin, seeing Neilan
enter the premises. Clearly flustered, Mona’s former attorney empties out the
safe inside. Emily takes advantage of the distraction and begins sifting
through the garbage left outside, coming across a receipt from Tony’s Pizza
with the name and number of Varjak listed on the slip.
Meanwhile in London, Spencer
goes against her mother’s wishes and rebooks her flight to head back home.
Melissa, however, encourages her to stay. Some strings were pulled and Spencer
gets another interview set up for St. Andrews. The sisters finally make amends
and agree to a fresh start. Succumbing to her new plans, Spencer decides to
lighten up. She enjoys her much needed break away from Rosewood with Wren and
Melissa’s flat mate, Colin, keeping her company. The Englishman invites her to
see a rendition of Hamlet with him, and
the pair goes out for drinks afterward. Some banter exchanges between the two,
and they kiss once arriving back at the flat.
Sadly, Hanna’s not sharing in
her good fortune. Ali receives threats insisting she take the plea bargain, and
her unwillingness gets her roughed up behind bars. Finally reaching her
breaking point, she decides to go through with the deal. Caleb races over to
Hanna’s house, informing her that a warrant has been issued for her arrest. In
a state of panic, Hanna prepares to run, but Caleb convinces her otherwise. She
must come clean with Tanner about “A”. That’s the only way she’ll get out of
this. With all the threats from “A” still on her phone as proof, she agrees.
The two go down to the precinct to confess to Tanner, but just as they’re about
to speak with the detective, Hanna’s phone goes on the fritz. “A”’s trusty
skills with technology emerge in the form of a hack, wiping out all the
messages sent from the blackmailer.
The other girls inform
Spencer of Hanna’s arrest, and they receive a message from “A” calling for a
clean slate. Flipping through the texting history, they all discover that “A” hacked
each of their phones as well, and any evidence they had is now gone. Ali refuses
to sign the plea bargain, making Hanna’s future look a bit brighter.
Unfortunately, Hanna gets put behind bars anyway, but to everyone’s surprise,
it wasn’t Alison’s doing. Mona’s blood-covered clothes were discovered by
police, and forensics revealed a sample of Hanna’s own blood on the sweater.
“To Plea Or Not to Plea”
falters more frequently than it delivers in execution. Melodrama reigns supreme
over the storyline, filling a majority of the runtime with utter fluff. The
entire hour recap can be summed up in a single sentence: Aria breaks up with
Ezra and Hanna gets arrested. The End.
The fluff patting the
runtime only points out what everyone already figured was going to happen. Aria’s
relationship with Ezra hasn’t show any progress for a number of episodes with
no hope in sight, so Aria’s decision to end things seems more like a mercy
killing than a bombshell. The same goes for Spencer. As of recently, her
relationship with Toby has been about as smooth of a ride as sitting in the
back of a school bus going down a gravel road. The way that both girls handle
their rocky relationships is the problem. Love triangles are never the answer
to resolving conflicts; in fact, its sole purpose these days is to only make
things worse. If Aria naturally gravitated towards Andrew and Spencer found
herself swept off her feet by Colin or Jonny after an official break up, then
all’s well. Technical cheating on both their parts is a bit too bitter to
digest, especially when the couples in question have been together for numerous
seasons. Everything falling apart all at once just reads as pure melodrama than
natural progression. And let’s not even get started on the recent build-ups
suddenly hitting brick walls. The entire storyline with Mike’s involvement in
Mona’s murder gets wiped out entirely five minutes into the show. With only two
episodes left to the #BigAReveal, things better shape up and fast.
Pretty
Little Liars - “To Plea Or Not to Plea” Rating: C
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