S3 Episode 16: Misery Loves Company

Yes, it does. Back to chronological events.

Montgomery

• Aria is still drinking Meredith’s Cure All Tea. Em and Spencer are talking to her about Byron. Hanna arrives with reinforcements: News Trash, Ginger Ale, and Saved By the Bell DVDs. Aria appears to be more woozy. Someone is watching them. Mike is staying with Ella (at least now we know he hasn’t fallen off the edge of the planet). The liars, except for Aria, do not trust Meredith. The pages are hidden in a safe place. Aria says that she plans on talking to Byron about them when he gets back.

A’s Lair

• Toby in a Hoodie is waiting for Mona. They have “plans” for tomorrow. (What those plans are seem to be different between these two.) They talk about Spencer. Toby says that Spencer is still lying to him about A—saying that A went away from Mona went to Radley.
• On their plans for tomorrow, Toby says that they are rushing. Mona reminds him that she’s not the one calling the shots. “Fear cuts deeper than the sword.” (Who is Mona afraid of and what does that person have on her?) Mona says that they need to understand that she’s in charge. Toby says he’ll take care of it.

Toby’s Apartment

• Em arrives, says thanks to Toby for letting her hang around while she reads her book.
• Toby is fishing. Em lies to Toby about A.
• Toby refers to the liars as Thick As Thieves.
• Em says that Mona brought the liars closer.
• Toby leaves. Em calls Spencer saying “Mission Accomplished” with the keys to the apartment left with her.

Marin

• Caleb (and his new do) is working on something at the kitchen table. Hanna asks him for fashion advice, as she needs to go to a job interview. When Hanna leaves to change, she overhears him call someone, saying, “I’m in. I’m not letting her do anything else to Hanna.”
• Hanna goes back to the kitchen and asks him. Caleb lies about the call and tells her that he told his mom. They argue and cite Mona’s “car accidents” aka running over people (seems like an A trait. We only have Mona confirmed to have run over Hanna but no proof as to who did the same to Caleb’s mom. We also know that it was Toby who caused Lucas’ skateboarding accident.). Hanna asks Caleb to promise that he won’t do anything stupid (well, we all know how that works). She walks away, he starts texting.

Hastings

• Toby just finished showering at Spencer’s. Spencer is getting dressed. Toby tells her that his apartment is getting a plumbing makeover so this will be the last time he’ll need to use hers. He entices her to come over later that night to test out the new tub. Spencer makes an excuse and tells him that they have a dinner to go to. They will ‘celebrate’ their anniversary tomorrow. While going through Toby’s stuff, you hear something drop.
• Veronica Hastings arrives and reminds Spencer about the dinner. She says the episode’s tagline: Misery Loves Company. Toby leaves. We find out that she is in on the anniversary surprise, handing Spencer a recipe for lasagna.

Montgomery

• Meredith is looking for the pages when she realizes that Aria is on the couch. Aria is looking for her phone. She asks Meredith to tell Ella to come by. Meredith tries to get more information from Aria but Aria falls asleep midsentence. (That was golden.)

School

• Paige and Emily are having lunch. Em brought all her favorites. They talk about Paige seeing a shrink and she tells Em that she made an appointment.
• Hanna comes over and ‘borrows’ Emily. She asks Em to follow Caleb and gives her tips on being stealthy (LOL). She says, if all else fails, LIE.
• Meredith approaches Ella and tells her that Aria is doing much better (Darnit! I knew it! MereDeath is Cray Cray!). Ella doesn’t believe her and tries to call Aria. We find out that Meredith has Aria’s cell. Call declined. (Double Darnit!)
• Em follows Caleb, witnesses Mona meeting with a study group (minions). Caleb drives off, Em follows.

Toby’s Apartment

• Spencer is busy preparing for their anniversary that she doesn’t even notice the Radley ID.
• (Note: See photo of the scrabble board. For some reason, I feel like the words there mean or will mean something later.)

Corin’s

• Hanna heads to her interview and notices a blonde wearing a red coat in the reflection. She looks around and the red-coat is gone.
• Hanna goes into the shop. There are scary mannequins all around. Lights out. Someone in a hoodie is running around. Hoodie pushes a row of mannequins towards Hanna and she falls over. Hoodie leaves. Hanna gets a text: Next time you’ll be left faceless. -A
• (Note: MonA was disarming Corin’s Network Security. This can’t be the ‘plan’ they were referring to. No way.)
• On the floor, she finds the key to A’s lair.

Caleb and Paige

• Caleb senses that someone is following him. He enters the café and takes a seat. Em watches outside. Spencer texts Em to tell her that Hanna was set up by A and to come and talk. Before Em could see who Caleb is meeting, she leaves. It’s Paige. (Coincidentally, Caleb and Paige are meeting. The other two who were shot in hoodies.)
• They talk a out being afraid and A-incidents. Mona. They are plotting against Mona. They think that if they get to A’s Lair, they’ll be able to stop her.

Marin

• Spencer says that Corin moved her store a month ago (Really Hanna? You didn’t even check?). Em is suspicious of Mona.
• They start talking about the A-Key and Mona 2.0. Spencer takes the key.
• Spence has to leave. Hanna gives her a tip (LOL).

Montgomery

• Aria is still sleeping. Here we go. The hALIcination (hallucination) begins. Ali looks in her drawer, and then in her bag. She heads over to the closet and takes the doll. She takes the pages hidden inside the doll. Aria wakes up and starts talking to her. Aria asks, “Do you see A?” Ali responds that A is everywhere they turn and that she is surprised that Spencer hasn’t figured it out yet. She asks her about the stories in the pages. Ali tells her, “If I tell you the truth, you don’t have to believe it.” Yada-yada-yada. Ali then says, “DO I LOOK DEAD TO YOU?” Ali tells Aria not to drink the tea and that Meredith is after the pages.
• She gets up and heads towards the door. She turns and tells Aria, “You know why I picked you, right?” Aria says no. Ali winks and leaves the doll right beneath the light switch.
• Aria wakes up and sees the doll beneath the light switch. She grabs her tea cup and before she takes a sip, changes her mind and tosses the liquid onto a plant. She heads towards the door. It’s LOCKED.

Right-Outside a Pharmacy & the Montgomery

• Em and Hanna are chatting about double-jointed athletes. (LOL)
• Meredith is at the pharmacy, asking for a refill on Clonazepam. Pharmacist tells Meredith that she just had a refill last week, but she wants another claiming to have lost her pack. She is extremely frustrated.
• Outside, Em and Hanna witness all this.
• Clearly upset, Meredith grabs packs of Antihistamine (Yep, Dextometrophan).
• At the house, Aria tries to pick her lock but it’s not working.
• Hanna and Emily look up the drug. They try calling Aria but are led to voicemail. Aria breaks a piece of mirror and keeps a shard next to her.

Hastings

• Spencer is looking at the A-Key, trying to sort something out. Toby surprises her and he sees the key on the counter.
• Toby asks Spencer about the A-Key and she tells him that it’s Melissa’s and places it in the drawer. He abruptly makes an excuse to leave.

Montgomery

• Aria wakes up with Meredith staring at her. Meredith is acting really scary and threatens Aria. Aria makes a run for it but Meredith knocks her out.
• Hanna and Emily head over to Aria’s.

Spoby

• Spencer calls Toby while he is driving, supposedly on his way to his apartment.

Montgomery

• Hanna and Emily use the spare key to get in the house, looking for Aria. Lights are out, from the storm. (The stars on Hanna’s top are very distracting.)
• They search for Aria in her room, obviously not there. Creepy Meredith enters the room and ask them why they were there. She says that Aria might be in the basement and the two follow her. (Meredith is Stepford-Creepy) They get locked in the basement as well.
• In the basement, they find Aria on the floor and wake her.
• Aria is up and Em says that Meredith is pacing upstairs trying to figure out her next move. They look in the window. Byron arrives.
• Crazy Meredith is staring at the fire when Byron walks in the house. Meredith tells Byron that Aria knows everything. And she has proof. Her friends know too. Byron heads to the basement.
• Byron tells them that he didn’t hurt Ali. Flashback to that night. Byron meets with Ali and refuses to pay for blackmail. Ali is holding a shovel. Just as he is walking away, he sees Melissa on the phone, by their porch. He tells the liars the whole story.

Hastings

• Hoodie Toby is at the Hastings searching for something. Spencer walks out with the A-Key in her hand. She asks, “Is this what you’re looking for?” And tosses the key. She is crying. Toby faces her. She slaps him.
• Toby asks, “How long have you known?” She hands him his ID from Radley (See! There’s no way the Snoop Queen had missed that. E. LAMB.).
• Veronica arrives. Toby disappears. Spencer cries harder.

Montgomery

• At the living room, Aria is sitting by the fire. Byron tells her that he called the cops on Meredith but she seemed to have disappeared. Aria asks why Byron kept it a secret. He explains and asks her in return how she found out. She tells him about the diary. Byron then asks her if there’s any part of Aria that thinks he killed Ali. Aria takes the pages and throws them to the fire.

Toby’s Apartment

• Spencer is outside crying and tries to talk to him, wanting an explanation. She is heartbroken (as with the millions of people watching this scene).
• Inside, Mona is sipping the wine while listening to music. She smiles.

My Thoughts

• PLL Formula: Storm, power out=something big is about to happen.
• Mona smiles at the end, did she know about this? Was this the plan?
• Why was Meredith that bothered about the diary entry? There has got to be something more about her that we don’t know about. Aside from the fact that she’s crazy.
• Did Spencer have any suspicions before this episode?
• Red coat is back. And blonde.
• Where is CECE?
• I’m still trying to digest everything so I might post a follow-up later.