‘Pretty Little Liars’ season 5, episode 3 review: Aria, Ezra, and important truths
“Pretty Little Liars” could have went in the predictable route in Tuesday night’s episode in delivering shock after shock, but we appreciate that they didn’t. Instead, the “aftershocks” here were more of the emotional variety as we started to get a sense for the first time as to where the heads of all these characters were at after Ali’s return to Rosewood.
For Hanna, for example, this was a major identity crisis given that Mona manipulated her into being the same exact woman that Ali was, even down to the way that she dressed. How does someone reconcile all of that?
Meanwhile, Aria was trying to establish some line of communication with Ezra, while at the same time keeping her distance. This was a good episode for our beloved teacher, at least in that he made a good impression on Aria despite his gunshot wound, and he also made it clear to Ali that every communication between them was to be above-board for a change. Could the old Ezra be coming back? If nothing else, she trusted him enough to let him know the truth about her killing Shana. The secret seems to be safe, at least for the time being.
Spencer was preoccupied in figuring out what role Jason had to play with both Ali and the death of her mother, and he continued to profess his innocence … while turning suspicion onto Spencer’s own creepy dad. Her father continues to hide the truth from her, and the same thing goes for Melissa … who is basically a puppet at this point.
For the most part, Emily is the one that was spared of most of the Ali storytelling for now. Instead, she was more relationship-focused as the arrival of a new swim-team member started to open up old wounds between her and Paige. Paige tried to profess her love again for her, and Emily wouldn’t quite have it. We totally felt for Paige in this, even if she was the one who messed things up in the first place.
Overall, a very good “Pretty Little Liars” episode. It didn’t go crazy, and instead allowed us to focus on the characters that got us hooked on this show in the first place. Grade: B+.
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Photo: ABC Family