Thursday, March 21, 2013

Pretty Little Liars - A dAngerous gAme


A fragile Spencer (Troian Bellisario) returns home from Radley and invites Aria (Lucy Hale), Hanna (Ashley Benson), and Emily (Shay Mitchell) to a welcome home party which she tells them her parents are throwing in Spencer's honor. However, the true reason for the party is revenge, as Spencer has finally given in to Mona (Janel Parrish) and returned from Radley a full-fledged member of the A-Team. After earning Mona's trust by kidnapping Malcolm (Teo Briones) and putting the final nail in Ezra (Ian Harding) and Aria's relationship, Mona comes face-to-face with her reward for delivering the girl's to A on a silver platter - a face-to-face conversation with a very much alive Toby (Keegan Allen).

Ezra (Ian Harding) accepts the substitute teaching position in the district, at Aria's insistence, but Aria stays firm with her decision to end their relationship. As Emily stumbles upon a secret meeting between Shana (Aeriél Miranda), Melissa (Torrey DeVitto) and Jenna (Tammin Sursok) who she realizes are all members of the A-Team, Hanna babysits for Malcolm hoping to discover who the girl was who took Malcolm to the fair. Before the end of the night Emily, Hanna, and Aria will realize the party is A's latest trap for the Liars and suspect Spencer is now working for their enemy.


The Liars formulate a plan using a little misdirection of their own in order to discover Spencer's true loyalties and set a trap too good for the mysterious Red Coat to resist. After trapping Mona in the woods three of the Liars find themselves locked with her in the burning cabin as Spencer makes her way through the woods in hopes of finally getting a glimpse of the person responsible for all the Liars' torment and pain. Although none of the Liars get a good look, Mona, Hanna, and Spencer all believe they saw their dead friend Allison (Sasha Pieterse) wearing a red coat and pulling the girls from the fire.

One cliffhanger isn't enough as all four of the Liars and Mona discover Detective Wilden's (Bryce Johnson) cruiser, miraculously retrieved from the bottom of the lake, parked in the street with a special surprise for the girls in the trunk. There are plenty of logic holes, both big and small in the episode (why was Red Coat on the plane? how did it land so easily at night in the middle of the woods? who locked the girls in the cabin? why would Red Coat save them is she is responsible for their torment? how did anyone manage to salvage the police car and drive it into the middle of town without anyone noticing? why was Toby "framed" for the fire if no one was there to see it and question him?), but despite all these issues "A dAngerous gAme" keeps the plot moving at a quick pace and delivers a solid, if flawed, season finale with plenty of unanswered questions for the Liars to delve into when the show returns for its Fourth Season this summer.

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