S3 Premiere: It Happened That Night
The title “It Happened That Night” alludes to an old film, It Happened One Night. Ezra and Aria and Ella Montgomery go watch the film in S1 E2 (“The Jenna Thing”). Ezra mentions that it is one of his favorites, and Ella says that it is one of Aria’s favorites as well.
Also, the infamously tricky-tongued show producer MK commented in an interview that “that night” in S3 “becomes the new Jenna Thing.” A brand new mystery to be solved. Whodunnit? And what happened exactly? Let’s start at the beginning…
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- Set at the end of summer break, five months after MonA was discovered to be A (or at least part of A).
- For summer break: Spencer takes a full load of classes at Hollis College, Aria takes a photography class, Hanna completes part of a list of things she said she was going to do (cooking class with Caleb, expand her vocabulary, etc.), and Emily volunteers to help build houses in Haiti.
*Note: the first thing we see is Spencer’s barn, similar to the S1 Premiere (“Pilot”).
Spencer’s House
- The girls are getting ready for the start of senior year by drinking, and Em is clearly more drunk that the other girls (still heartbroken about Maya’s death).
- “A” sends all the girls a text (which we don’t see but Spencer reads aloud): “Show me your boobs. -A” Hahaha, very funny, “A.” Who could this “A” person be if it’s not Mona? Aria asks if Mona has a ten-year-old brother. But really, who would send that? Lucas?
- The girls go to sleep downstairs and Aria wakes up in the middle of the night to find Spencer’s door open. She wakes up Hanna, who finds Em and Spencer missing.
- Spencer comes downstairs to say that she looked everywhere for Em.
Alison’s Grave
- Emily is seen holding a shovel, standing over Ali’s dug-up grave and open coffin: Ali’s body is missing.
- When the girls find Emily, Spencer checks Em’s phone and finds that she received a blocked call at 11pm. Em doesn’t remember who it was or anything else for that matter.
- Spencer also notices that someone called Em from Spencer’s phone at 12am and starts to believe that it’s a set up.
- Aria and Hanna begin to fill up the hole at Ali’s grave.
Back at Spencer’s House
- Spencer has Em dispose of her clothes into the fireplace to get rid of evidence that Em was at Ali’s grave.
- On their way back to Spencer’s, Aria and Hanna find Lucas suspiciously out late at night, getting into his car.
- Spencer decides they should relocate to the lake house as a alibi for their whereabouts (in case the police want to question them as suspects).
The Lake House
- Spencer receives a call from her mom regarding Ali’s missing body, and while we do not hear the actual conversation, Spencer reassures the other girls that the police have no leads.
- Hanna to Em: “Last night never happened.”
- The girls come up with a story about them roasting marshmallows and being excited for senior year in case the police decide to question them.
Aria
- Wakes up at Ezra’s place after having a nightmare.
- Ezra mentions that he thinks Maya must have had kept some of Alison’s things that connected Garrett to Alison…but Aria says that Maya would have told Emily if that were the case. (gasp! What could those things be?)
- Ezra implies that Maya was probably killed for knowing information about Alison’s death.
- Plans with Ezra for their special Labor Day anniversary recreating the “date” she had with Ezra when they first met at Hollis Bar and Grill (Ezra calls it “Rosewood Grill”).
- Ella and Byron are planning to go their separate ways, and Aria thinks her relationship with Ezra is the straw that broke the camel’s back.
- Goes into the bathroom at school and the door doesn’t lock properly. Someone in black is walking around and goes up to Aria’s stall. Aria screams as the stall door opens, but the stranger has disappeared. Hanna and Spencer go in the bathroom to find Aria all shook up.
- Ezra shows up to pick up Aria from the police station after she is questioned about Ali’s missing body. They plan to have dinner, and although Ella isn’t too happy about it, she allows the two to go out anyway.
Hanna
- (First off, what is up with Hanna’s new look? So much bling! A little too much, especially for a high-schooler. Oy.)
- Goes shopping with her mom and runs into Spencer and Veronica Hastings. Ashley asks Veronica if Garrett orchestrated the disappearance of Ali’s body. Veronica mentions that the court ruled to have the body taken out of the grave, but someone else took the body before that could happen.
- Mentions to Spencer that she is seeing Dr. Sullivan and needs to leave the shop. Almost forgets to remove the expensive necklace she tries on before leaving (reminiscent of her shopping with Mona in S1 E1, in which she tries on sunglasses and actually steals them; also in S1 E1, she runs into Spencer).
- Visits Mona at Radley Sanitorium under the name “Rivers.” Mona is unresponsive and appears spaced out. We find out that Hanna has been visiting Mona and not Dr. Sullivan. She runs into Wren, who says he volunteers twice a month at Radley. Mona stares at the two through a crack in the door.
- Plans to make dinner with Caleb: “Dong Po,” a Chinese dish whose name seems to amuse Caleb (he urges Hanna to say it out loud lol).
- While cooking with Caleb, receives a call from “R.S.” (Radley Sanitorium), and it is Wren on the other line. He tells her, “Mona’s making progress” and believes it is because of Hanna’s visits.
Spencer
- Shares a moment with Toby after he showers at her house and implies that she wants to be intimate with him, but Toby says she’ll remember why she wanted to wait after he puts his clothes on. (Aw, what a gentleman…)
- Toby to Spence: “I can’t imagine what was going on through your head when your mom called.” *raise eyebrow* Hmm…was there more to that conversation between Spencer and her mom? Or am I just reading too much into it?
- Ignores phone calls from an unknown number.
- While with Aria and Hanna at school, says hi to Lucas, but he just looks back at the girls. Aria says he knows something, calling him Boo Radley.
- Goes to the Lost Woods Resort (the motel from the S2 Finale) and enters the room that was previously “A’s Lair.” In the middle of the room is a desk, where Spencer sets up her laptop. She looks around the room trying to remember all the items of “A’s Lair.”
- The unknown number turns out to be Garrett. Spencer goes to visit Garrett in jail, and he says “there’s a lot you don’t know…some of it you don’t wanna know.” He wants the help of Spencer’s mom’s lawyer skills, but Spencer refuses. He also says that he knows who took the body.
Emily
- Is still upset about Maya’s death.
- Is MIA at school when Aria, Spencer, and Hanna see Lucas. Looks scared and upset as she stares at her friends through a window from outside the school.
- Meets with Toby and says, “there’s something I need to talk to you about.” Feels bad about getting “wasted” and “letting her friends down.” Why does she choose to talk to Toby? Maybe it’s because he is the only other person, other than the other girls, that she is close to.
- Sees a car, which triggers some of her memory from “that night.” Receives a text from an unknown caller, which says, “I bet you remember me.”
- Goes to tell the other girls about the car and Spencer mentions that the unknown person is confident that Em does not remember what happened “that night.”
Lost Woods Resort
- Spencer takes the girls to A’s former lair and shows rendered images of what she believes was part of A’s Lair before someone took down all the things.
- We find out that after Maya’s death, Aria, Spencer, and Hanna had gone back to Lost Woods so that they could get rid of the things in A’s Lair. But they were too late (of course). Someone had already gone and taken the things, but they had never told Emily about it until now.
- Spencer: “Someone was helping Mona.” (she thinks it was the black swan).
- The girls hear Spencer’s SUV alarm go off outside and leave the room to find all of the SUV’s doors open. Inside are dozens of pictures of the girls at Ali’s grave from “that night.”
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My Thoughts (Proteuspsych)
- In the beginning of the episode, why does Aria only call out Emily’s name and not Spencer’s? In S1 E1, she only calls out Alison’s name (even though Spencer had also been missing). Why is she seemingly unconcerned with Spencer’s whereabouts? Is there a connection?
- What is the conversation that takes place between Spencer and her mom? It seems suspiciously omitted…or am I reading too much into it? Also, Toby mentions later on that he “can’t imagine what was going on through [Spencer’s] head when [her] mom called.” Hmm.
- Which of “Alison’s things” did Maya find before being murdered? It seems that this is the main motive for killing Maya. Jenna and Melissa seem to be the main culprits at the moment. Melissa was seen among the crowd when the coroners were taking away Maya’s body. And Jenna…well, it’s Jenna. (More on this later).
- Why is Aria being targeted in the restroom? She and Emily are the only ones directly terrorized during this whole episode. Also, Aria has a nightmare. Why is she the only one having nightmares? All, and in all, Emily and Aria seem the most distraught (except for when Aria is spending time with Ezra or when Emily is bonding with Toby, of course).
