Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 58 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT I Have Hot Ice Cubes In My Head
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 02.04.2014
Fantastically, she bails on the conversation with Ali in a perfunctory manner, and then pulls out her SIM card and battery and ditches the phone in her dust as she's leaving. Just tears hell out of there, which is sad, sad for Ali especially, but also pretty bad-ass. Like she came here and worked at the Halloween store (until Emily got her fired) and did all this superspy stuff, so now it's like she's been training her whole life to go instantly bug-out bag on this horrible place, and it's great. Later, babe. You really got me there at the end.
Here's what I think: She's not doing anything weird or hinky to them at all. I think she took a hard look at herself, and the bullshit she did to them, and realized that she had burned every single bridge, and -- in a way -- earned the stalking and horror that came her way. She has no idea how many different ways they've mourned her, or who to trust: Not even Emily, except through a proxy, and even that turned out poorly. And what was the first thing they said about it? "Obviously she is fucking with us, and you're too dumb to notice it." Exactly what her image of them -- resentful, spiteful, callous -- would have done.
Like the Jenna Thing again, from the other side: When they cornered Jenna about why she was always after them, at her wit's end she screamed that it was because they are scary as hell, and she had to get them first.
But this is ten times worse, because the horrible ideas she has about them all are exactly what she was trying to do in the first place: Make them awful and invulnerable, just like her. Dolls to play with, so she could be loved without having to love in return. There is no reason for anybody to forgive Alison, because she can't forgive herself, and so the Liars become just another part of the shadowy Enemy that Rosewood teaches you is made of: Everybody.
So all of that is going on when Ali gives up on the cash, thinks about missing her bus, refuses to sit still and wait for the Hunter, and gets on with what little money she's got left. And all of that is going on when she moves from Hopper space to Hopper space, the floating phonebooth to the dingy neon-lit bus, and heads off into the night, leaning her head exhausted on the window and giving in to sorrow, great sobbing heaps of it. You'd almost think she was a real live girl.
A-TAG
Ezra, down in that little Lair of his -- that little Liar of his upstairs, asleep -- takes a few minutes out of his busy day of whatever the fuck is ever going on to watch Dark Passage, a very twisty Bogie noir that ends up in a crazy twist about obsession and, essentially, shipper assholes ruining any given fandom.