Pretty Little Liars Episode 420 Recap: Free Fall, Expensive Pills

PLL420-00011

SHOVE, DOVE, ABOVE, SHALL I GO ON?

Mona and Mike are at the Apple Rose Grille, and Mike says that he wants Mona to say the big L word. UH WHAT. How long have you guys been dating?! Two episodes?! Slow it down there, champs. To further increase the awkwardness of this scene, Ezra walks in!

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Lost my lips.

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Just joshin’ you, there they are.

Mona talks to him, saying she doesn’t want to be a part of whatever he has going on anymore and he threatens her, telling her that she has to help him. What does he have on her? What are they doing together? Any guesses?


PLL420-00012

omg I knew that Ke$ha song would come back around to haunt us.

Hanna and Emily are eating pizza at Hanna’s place, talking about Spencer and Aria and their addictions to drugs and love, respectively.

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Why is everyone always hanging out without me?!

Spencer comes in and gives them the rest of her pills, which is very after-school-special, but I want to believe she’s trying.

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Jesse Spano’s stash

I want to believe!

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No, Hanna, see, I drew you this diagram so you could see that clearly the first person’s left leg goes OVER the other person’s right leg. THAT’S how you Autostraddle.

Spence convinces them that they need to figure out how to get A to come to Ambrose Pavilion, which is in the zoo. They need to convince A that Ali will be showing up at Ambrose Pavilion to get the money. Spencer is sure that it will be Ezra showing up.


PLL420-00155

ugh I have to have parents again in this episode? This is so not even fair.

The next day at the Hastings house, OH MY GOODNESS IT IS MRS HASTINGS. SHE IS ALIVE AND AROUND. Spencer is sleeping a lot, so that’s yayyyy, but she lies to her mom, then Toby, about where she will be that night so she can do the Ambrose Pavilion drop.

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Yeah baby, we’ll do anything you want to.

Surely lying to two separate people won’t backfire, like the times in high school my best friend and I would say we were staying at each other’s houses and then it’d be 3am and we’d be sleepy and have to camp out in my car in a grocery store parking lot because we couldn’t go home. Just saying.


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So then I’m like, you want ME to wear these pink pants for an entire fucking episode? I don’t THINK so!

At Casa de Fitz, Aria and Ezra are hanging out, doin’ some dishes, as you do, and talking about Spencer. Aria tells him about Spencer’s intervention, and almost spills that Spencer thinks Ezra is A. She stops just short of saying that, and Ezra mentions something about Radley, saying that the helmet and a tattoo made her lose it before.

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What do you mean I should never play poker?

Aria catches him on this, asking him how he knew about the tattoo. He is very obviously caught in this lie, and it’s really unnerving.

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So I married an axe murderer.

This is the first time we see Aria actually considering that Ezra might be A. How scary would that be, for real?


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At the Brew, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna have devised a plan that tells Ezra they’ll be at Ambrose Pavilion, where Ezra overhears Emily saying they’re going to give the money to Ali there tonight at closing.

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Spencer, I told you not to send me those kinds of Snapchats while I’m at work.

He eavesdrops and writes this down. Interesting!


PLL420-00195

Zombie Spencer returns!

Spencer is at home, and she’s not doing so great. She’s sweating, and shaking, and generally going through some bad withdrawals. She calls up the doctor’s office pretending to be her mother to refill her prescription. Then, Andrew calls. We kind of have to assume she’s getting her drugs that way.

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Wait, my daughter called you and all you heard was “BRAAAAINZZZZ?”

After Spencer leaves, the doctor calls back and Mrs. Hastings answers. BUSTED.


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love or self-absorption, you decide!

Aria busts into the cabin, trying every possible literary code word for his security system. Faulkner, Wordsworth, Dickinson… then B26 works, their song on the jukebox. Kinda cute. B26 is also his first published poem, so maybe it’s just self-righteous after all.

PLL420-00223

Do do dooo just leaving these right here even though I can hear Hansen’s sister yelling at me.

She walks in and immediately leaves her keys near the door (my sister starts yelling “The keys! No! Don’t be so fucking stupid!”). Aria is looking for evidence about A, and finds the trap door to his lair. IT IS EMPTY. The A Lair is totally gone.

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What, no sex swings down here?

What the fuck? So he installed a security system and moved his lair for what reason? Did he catch that Aria must be onto him?

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Can’t tell if I’m more pissed Ezra lied about being vegan or a psycho murderer.

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The last time my writing was critiqued with THIS much red pen, I cried for two days and ate all my feelings in pizza, but maybe Ezra has a thicker skin.

While she’s looking around, she finds a manuscript hidden in a hollowed out version of Carnivore’s Delight. The manuscript is a story about Alison, and furthermore, kissing Alison, and even more than that, a ton of fragmented sentences ugh. Here’s the text of the first page:

The first thing Alison ever told me about herself was a lie. Lying was her oxygen. She could do it while she was laughing, she could even do it when she was kissing you.

That’s what’s remarkable about lies. How they can fool you, what they’ll become. Where they can take you. It all starts with one. No matter how simple, no matter how grand, a truly great lie can live on after you’re gone. Surprising even it’s architect with the places it can climb – deep into our hearts, twisting into our souls. The fantastical places it can take you high above this world, far into another. Before ultimately crashing the flames of the fire scorching anyone left in the way.

Such is the case of Alison DiLaurentis. A girl constructed by lies, held together by secrets. A life founded in fiction. Predestined for tragedy as fantasy and reality intertwined, forever blurring the lines of a life cut short. All of it adding to the allure of the girl – suddenly gone.

I often wonder what she thought on that waning summer night, as the shovel came down. Slashing through skin, driving to bone. As the light faded out on her mischievous game she flippantly referred to as life. Was she scared as her body started to waver? As she stared up from the ground, as the sod began to surround her, as her lungs filled with dirt? Was she scared or deep down did she know it was the only way it could have been. An unpleasant finish but a captivating end. Or was it only the beginning…?

I wondered at the time, what would become of those she left behind? To her family and friends. To the ones she’d collected along the way. When the trail for answers went cold, would these hot blooded souls be left to chill______? To the girls who called her their friend which is only to prove they ______Their queen crusader. She’s lead angels to….

Aria is immediately convinced that Ezra is A. Someone pulls up in the driveway: duh, it’s Ezra! Good timing! He had a text from the security system about the wrong passwords being entered. He also has like nine hundred security cameras he stalks constantly, so.

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He walks into the cabin and finds Aria’s keys. My sister feels so validated. Aria steals the manuscript and makes a break for it outside, and Ezra chases her through the woods, maximizing on his creepy Ezra face.

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Near orgasm or just filled with terror?

He calls her phone and hears it, but she hides fairly well. I’ll be honest, this scene really scared me. Would Ezra hurt Aria? I don’t know!

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Hansen

Hansen is the former DIY & Food Editor of Autostraddle.com and likes to spend most days making and cooking and writing. She teaches creative writing at Colorado State University and is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in her free time.

Hansen has written 189 articles for us.

18 Comments

  1. I still think Ezra is guilty, guilty, guilty. His story was just a little too convenient, and I hope Aria doesn’t buy it.

    We have seen Ezra in a black hoodie, I think, in the episode where the Liars discover his Ravenswood lair.

  2. First, the dentist’s office, and now, a snake exhibit. What the hell, Pretty Little Liars?! Are you TRYING to kill me?

    I also think it was Mona pretending to be Spencer pretending to be Alison at the zoo. But, at the time, I couldn’t help but think how much it looked like Helena from Orphan Black because of how she was slouched over and a little ragged looking.

    Ezra is the worst. And the creepiest. Did he just admit to sleeping with not one, but two underage girls? And that he knowingly took advantage of Aria for his dumbass book?

    • Ezra is definitely the worst. What is with the men in this town sleeping with teenage girls?! Are there literally no women over the age of 18 in Pennsylvania at this point? Is see you Wren, Ian, Officer Holbrook, arguably Wilden… wtf.

  3. 1. I really appreciate the “Love Actually” reference.

    2. I hadn’t considered Mona as the girl in the blonde wig.

    3. I literally screamed when Ezra showed up on the ski lift.

    4. This show compounds my anxiety. If anxiety were interest, I would be making bank after each episode.

    • I hadn’t seen that video before! I’m not crying right now or anything don’t even worry about it

    • Thanks for sharing, but I really think you should warn someone to take a deep emotional breath before sending them off to watch that!

      Also, there were some weird PLL parallels – the other woman looked a bit like Ali, I thought. And the camera and period setting reminded me of the scene in the 40s episode with Paige and Aria and the camera. And the accident on the bridge seemed kind of suspicious to me.

    • Okay, that settles it, I’m definitely projecting the SUPER GAY VIBES that Troian has onto Spencer. That woman sure likes to dabble in her sapphic short films…

      (Now, if only Dianna Agron could team up with Troian for something……….)

  4. Wait, was I the only person who thought Ezra was A but he was just lying to Aria? Seriously, the whole time I was like, Aria, don’t believe him! Clearly he’s A! I mean, what? Why did he have cameras on them everywhere they went? That’s not how you write a novel! I don’t understand why everyone (like the entire internet) thinks that Ezra was telling the truth to Aria about being “an author,” I am so confused. Why’d he tell Spencer she was going down a “dangerous path” and why would he hide his manuscript in a cook book and why would he dress like A? whatttt

    • Yup. I’m wiith you Riese. I think there’s still a lot more to find out about him. But even if he’s not “A” he’s still scum.

      • Oh, I definitely still believe he’s A. He’s the only one with the resources and the funds to be able to do so. If they actually follow through with the “he’s only writing a book” and redeem his character, I will be so pissed.

    • EXACTLY. isn’t stalking and filming to that extent like really illegal or something? OR SOMETHING?

      not how you write a book!!!!

    • No, I’m actually gobsmacked by how many people bought his awful lie, especially since I thought it was explicit in the TV show that “You guiz, Ezra is totes lying to Aria and he’s super scary AND SHE’S NOT TAKING ANY MORE OF HIS SHIT”

      • Yeah!! I thought the TV show was telling us that Ezra was obviously lying to Aria — because we know SO many things she doesn’t know about his actual activities, so w/r/t the rules of storytelling, that’s the only thing that makes sense for the show to have done. i was 95% sure that aria wasn’t gonna buy it, or was just pretending to buy it, but then i realized that she didn’t know all the stuff that we know. but i guess in the past the writers have said that ezra wasn’t A? that’s what i read somewhere. i mean, what, is A also sending out photographers to follow the liars? wouldn’t ezra and a have um, crossed paths considering they were both full-time stalking the liars? if they try to make this that ezra isn’t A then i am going to be so upset.

  5. Yeesh! Ezra is such a tool! So he not only admitted to accidentally sleeping with one underage girl, he also admitted to knowingly sleep with another! I can’t believe the people who I see trying to excuse his actions at this point. I also saw some mainstream site wondering if he could be redeemed and talking about how all the love interests have done bad things. Which is true, but then they fucking compared Ezra screwing his student and Paige being a bully to Emily and dunking her once like they were somehow anywhere close to as bad a thing. Yuck!

  6. even if he’s writing a book [really?] he initiated a relationship with a 16 year old to gain access for his book. that’s statutory rape and a pile of other things. i’ve struggled with the relationship throughout the series but they seemed genuinely respectful and caring, but now it’s just creepy and falls into sexual exploitation. for real. the only way for this to be redeemed/explained is for her to realize she was sexually exploited and work through that in some way.

    also, fuck your book. you don’t need to take advantage of underage impressionable people to write a book. just the weirdest, most obviously bad thing ever.

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