Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 8 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Do It To So-And-So
By Jacob Clifton | Season 3 | Episode 15 | Aired on 01.15.2013
I must admit, this episode is doing wonderful things for Aria. This whole season has been great for her, but post-Halloween she's really earning her Shusher status.
Meredith: "No, it's not that bad. But he came to see me the night she died..."
Aria: "He was with my mother the entire night!"
Meredith: "You know that's not true, right?"
Aria: "...Yeah. Fuck it."
Meredith: "He still thought I was the one that destroyed his office [that time with those earrings] and somehow had convinced himself I was in cahoots with her, trying to Hitchcock him from both sides. Anyway, he went from my house to meet with her. I begged him not to go... Next day, dead."
ALSO AMAZING
A fun, extended sequence in which Spencer trounces Mona, at about a 2:1, with lots of funny little factoids -- "Not a picaresque, a bildungsroman," which I won't get into except to say that only Mona Vanderwaal could confuse those two things, because that's literally what she is, not to mention what this show is: a picaresque that thinks it's a bildungsroman -- and their constantly ringing bells.
SWIM & GET MURDERED IN THE WOODS PARTY
Paige: "Sorry I fuck everything up."
Emily: "Let's just get frozen yogurt and be on a date."
Paige: "That's my girl... Oh great, a flat tire."
Which sends her into another panic, especially when they see how slashed it is. Paige wants to run away from the rustling in the bushes, but you know Emily is just gonna... There she goes. Aw, damn. That's my girl indeed.
They lose Toby after a while, and head back into town. I love, once again, how all of Toby's business is automotive: Cars, bikes, skateboards... Maybe there's a stable amount of transportation karma in Rosewood, and Hanna will never hurt anybody again with a car or a boat. Maybe Caleb's mom is finally safe.
QUIZ-OFF
That neat gauzy effect from Aria's house at the beginning, crossed with techno music, lends a Hackers-esque urgency to the proceedings, and we get a lot of close-ups directly into camera as the ladies continue their showdown. Spencer gets to her last question, which is fifteen former parts of the Soviet Union in alphabetical order -- the thing she nailed earlier, with Toby -- and begins melting down just a little bit. Mona corrects a couple of them, but once her time is up Mona has to go back through them all.