Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Wait Until My Clothes Cling To My Frame
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 01.22.2013
ABOVE THE BREW
Spencer goes to Toby's apartment, I guess to just feel more awful, and can't get in. She breaks down outside the door, begging him to tell her there's more to it than how it looks. It is absolutely wretched to watch. Also mesmerizing.
"I know you're in there. Will you... Will you just tell me that what I saw tonight wasn't real? Please, just tell me that there's more to this story. That there's something that I don't know. Please. Please, Toby... Please, Toby."
She falls down on her knees outside the apartment, having fully lost her shit, and it's incredibly sad. This girl who trusts nobody, this girl who's smarter than everybody, played for a fool. It's just vicious. And her existential crisis about it -- the sick idea that there's still a way this can be okay -- is somehow the worst part. Like that's how stretched out her brain is, by this. That she could find a way to forgive him, if he'd just open the door.
And meanwhile over at Spencer's house, Mona helps herself to some anniversary wine, grinning sickly to herself. Challenge accepted. Will they try to turn her, do you think? Mona's always wanted her on the Team, which means Red Jacket probably does, too. Spencer's always had the greatest capacity for darkness, out of all of them, and this might do it. Or, alternately, Melissa could show up with a new boyfriend, and Spencer can just focus on sleeping with him. Take the edge off.
NEXT WEEK
Astounding! So fantastic! Everything has happened! It was magnificent and heartbreaking and stuffed full of stuff happening! Everybody's Halloween costumes have finally come true! What form will Spencer's madness take this time? I say she goes fully dark. That girl never zigs when you think she's going to, and from the scenes it looks like she's turning into a kind of Jenna Thing. Ezra dumps Aria probably for a baby-related reason, making himself a lightning rod for Spencer's conflicted craziness. Some Pretty Little Bobbleheads pay the ultimate price, Emily and Hanna feel weird about going to the cops, and Aria possibly finds a shovel.
JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps The Good Wife, Deception, and Pretty Little Liars for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. IRL work appears in BenBella's SmartPop series of critical anthologies, and a novelette, "The Commonplace Book," appeared this fall on Tor.com.