Episode Report Card Angel Cohn: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pump Up the Volume
By Angel Cohn | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 12.29.2010
Hanna tells the girls that her dad's in New England for a few weeks, but that he's making a special trip to see her. The girls look at her skeptically, thinking that her father is probably only trekking all this way to ream her out for crashing Sean's car, but Hanna assures them that isn't the case. And if it is, well, at least he's paying attention to her. Some professor we've never seen before stops the girls to talk to Spencer to tell her what a remarkable job she did on her Russian history essay. He of course submitted it for some stupid award called The Golden Orchid. Yes, really. It's a competition, that if she wins, would look great on her applications. Or as Emily translates, it's more "academic bling" for Spencer.
Emily wanders over to her locker after the bell rings and takes off the scarf and leaves it behind. She heads into her chemistry class, and Toby is the only one in there. He's just joined that class. He wants to know what happened to the scarf, because he thought it looked good on her. Of course he ends up being her lab partner. Let the Bella and Edward awkwardness ensue. But not until after she opens her text book to see the photo booth pictures of her and Maya.
Aria walks into her kitchen, and her mom is whipping up some chicken dish, and offers up veggie burgers for Aria. She claims to be having dinner with Spencer, and Holly Marie Mom says that mostly-forgotten Mike won't be home either, so she and Chad Dad will have the place to themselves. Flashback to Chad Dad and Meredith making out and Alison telling Aria that she has to tell her mom what she saw. She gets a call from Chad Dad, and Ali swipes the phone and says that her dad will just try and talk her out of saying anything to her mom. Ali thinks Holly Marie Mom should find out from Aria before she somehow finds out. Given how oblivious Holly Marie Mom still is, Alison needn't have really worried. In present day, Aria struggles with telling her mom, and ends up awkwardly asking for a carrot.
Hanna's trying on outfits for her dinner, and she and Spencer are discussing the relative merits of having a smart older sister to steal papers from. Spencer says that if she withdraws the paper, the teacher will know something is up, but if she doesn't, she chances winning the competition and having her own thieving exposed. Spencer gives her a jacket to try on over her dress. Hanna wants to look smart to impress her dad, who hasn't seen her since she shed the extra pounds. Spence doesn't think that Hanna looks like herself in the jacket, which Hanna takes as a compliment. Then Hanna wants to know if Spencer has peeked at the blocked messages to see if they've gotten any threats from "A." Both girls claim that they haven't.