Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Destroy Everything You Touch Today
By Jacob Clifton | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 03.07.2011
(And it's a third irony in the way the camera zooms in super tight on their hands while they're kissing -- after the three seconds or whatever that's allowable on TV -- because we're all still playing the Game. It's my belief, or at least hope, that this pan and shot were created to be so specifically jarring just so you would ask, "What's with the hands? Is this romantic? Am I being censored from seeing girls kiss? I bet it's that one. Same-sex kisses are still an Event because we are not quite yet the Future. 2011, where is my flying gay-married car?")
Ashley stands outside Hanna's room, listening to her cry. Caleb's been gone for hours, his stuff is gone, the guestroom bed is empty, and Ashley knows that whatever it was, she was basically right; she doesn't feel great about this, and wants desperately to hold her daughter, but Hanna's too ashamed and hurt to let anybody see her yet. She showed the Liars her owl photo and told them she finally lost her virginity, to a wonderful boy who told her all his secrets, and then in front of everybody he slapped her across the face, and the sunglasses went flying, and everybody could see her. How ugly she really is.
You can't explain this one to anybody, but the hope is we can eventually figure it out ourselves. Poor kid! But you know what, she will. Hanna generally gets the Most Improved medal when it counts.
Meanwhile Spencer's finally able to sleep, in her bed, when her mom comes home and worries over her some more before telling her the latest intel she got from her back-channel with the cops: The bloody sweater's fibers were found caught in the SPENCER bracelet that keeps being such a big deal. You know, the ones she supposedly bought?
Even Mom is like, "Okay. I know you didn't kill this girl, but is there any chance you stashed this sweater in Toby Cavanaugh's house? You know, when you were so convinced it was him, before you decided to tear our entire family apart and go after Ian?" You can see how she got there. The cops have gone to an even weirder place and decided that possibly Spencer brained Alison, hid her body, and then stole the sweater.
Mom has another awesome line -- "Inside their minds, it makes sense!" -- and then, just when you think Spencer's going to get betrayed once again, Mom says the most comforting thing: She's sure now that Spencer is being framed. And she holds onto her daughter for about a year, while she cries.
Creeper tag: One of the best yet -- admittedly it's much harder now to compete, after the whole popcorn-bowl scenario -- in which A opens a lovely giftbox containing a large red glass or hard-candy heart with HANNA on it, places this on a piece of paper, smashes it with a hammer, and then scoops the shattered pieces of Hanna's heart back into the box, with a tiny tube of superglue and a note: Dear Hanna: Try putting it back together. Kisses! A.