‘Pretty Little Liars’ season 7, episode 9 review: Is Noel Kahn Mary Drake’s son?

When it comes to titles, Tuesday night’s “Pretty Little Liars” clearly has one of the best: “The Wrath of Kahn.” If you’re a fan of “Star Trek,” don’t you have to stand up and clap? Then again, we’re not quite sure just how many “Star Trek” fans are regularly watching this show, but the name is cool all the same.

What is also rather notable about it comes via the reveal close to the halfway mark in the episode tonight: Noel was actually at the Dollhouse with Charlotte back before we jumped into the future. He had a far greater role in the madness than anyone knew. Also, we certainly got the implication that he may have killed Sara, which is further reason to want to run away from him as far as possible, unless you’re someone who just wants to take him down.

By the end of the episode, Spencer finally tried to convince Hanna that they were on the same side / finally willing to do something that this show almost never does: Go to the police. Before that happened, though, she ended up spending some alone time with Marco. Unfortunately for her, Noel is still out there … or is he? As it turns out, Hanna’s mission may be a bit more badass than we first thought!

As for some other notable highlights from tonight…

Emily and Paige – After learning that Noel could behind almost everything, she decided to finally open up to Paige about what she’s going through.

Aria and Jason – We learned earlier this season that these two did have a brief romantic history in the years in which the show jumped over, and they re-teamed tonight to piece together a few elements of this mystery at present. We’re not going to say this was the most-productive story in the world, but we appreciated the history lesson until things did get productive near the end. The first big surprise came when she learned that Nicole was not one of the hostages. The second one suggested that Noel could be Mary’s secret son, and if that happens, things get all the more interesting! Episode Grade: B+.

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