Pretty Little Liars - The Naked Truth

We got some answers this week! Clues were flying around everywhere too. First we learned that Jason is Spencer’s half brother, by her father. One of us knew this from the books (well, in the books, Ali is Spencer's half-sister, but close enough) and is pretty glad they kept this in. Spencer didn’t take the news well. Jason blustered around the school, trying to get a message to his daddy, or, better yet, a meeting with him. Secondly, we learned that Holden is definitely in a fight club. Ok, we didn’t learn that for sure, but that’s what we thought when we first saw his bruises. During this episode, Holden kicked Noel Kahn to get him to let go of Aria, and it looked Jet Li-esque. But a bag of pills fell out of Holden’s bag while Aria was looking. What do pills have to do with Fight Club? Did Tyler Durden take pills? We don’t think so, even though we’ve only seen that move 300 times. So we could be wrong.

The school set up a “Truth Up” night at the school. This was an all-night workshop where kids were supposed to share, get real, work out their problems, and address issues. These things actually exist. Ern once got roped into helping run one of these things by a friend who really, really likes middle school kids. It wasn’t overnight, but there were truth episodes. Everything was dandy (well, for an emotional day with middle-schoolers, meaning it was ridiculous and pointless and just stirred things up) until a boy decided to tell Ern he’d been abused. But would Ern pleeeeeease not tell his teachers? Uh, yeah right, kid. Enjoy foster care.

Anyway, the Pretty Little Liars “Truth Up” was both less dramatic and more eventful, if that makes sense. Kate and Hanna were required to attend, and their mothers chaperoned. Of course, nearly everyone on the show was there too. Hanna sees Kate’s shirt lift when Kate takes off her sweater and notes that Kate has a birthmark on her side. This was not present in the photo. Hanna astutely realizes that A would never photoshop the birthmark out and that this was probably Kate’s head photoshopped onto another body. Clearly, A would not save Kate the embarrassment of choosing another body. A is a jerk. So that means A didn’t do it! Hanna calls Kate into the bathroom to accuse her of sending the photo. Kate fesses up, not knowing that Aria was in the bathroom with a tape recorder. Oh snap. They take it to the principal’s office and Hanna is vindicated. We wonder what Mr. Marin thought of all this. We hope he thought it was awesome, because we sure did.

We saw some cattiness between the Mrs. Marins. Hanna’s mom for the win, obviously. She was like a momma bear. Hanna’s mom also tried to get Hanna to tell her about who has been blackmailing her. Later, she, Aria’s mom, and Spencer’s mom shared coffee together at the school and discussed how something has been going on with these girls and that it’s related to Alison. Wouldn’t it be awesome if the Liars didn’t figure out who A was at all? What if the moms got together, snooped on the girls, found out about A, and then found out who A was? And then had Holden beat the living crud out of A? That would be totally unexpected, no? Also, it would be just like real life/this show. The moms teaming up and getting stuff figured out when the girls couldn't. These moms are the best.

Spencer went to pick up Vivian Darkbloom’s item with the claim check. It was a (cute) red raincoat that had a phone number in the pocket. Rather that google the number or use a people-finding site to get the name associated with it, the girls decided to call it. There was no answer at first, then a girl picked up and said, “No one here knows anyone named Vivian,” and then a guy called the girls and told them he had questions. They arranged to meet the guy, who thinks Aria is “a friend of Vivian’s.” Clever, Aria. Without Ezra, Aria was pretty tolerable this week. Well, her shoes looked like neon yellow Crocs and she was really slow on the Holden thing, but other than that, tolerable.

Mona was able to hack into a school computer to get information she used to blackmail the school vice president into letting Emily swim again. There was a truth wall where someone wrote “I know who killed Allison DeLaurentis.” Even though Jenna is blind, she can play the piano (along with other people, in real life, so it's not that impressive). Hanna gives Caleb her phone so that he can figure out who sent the picture (before we find out it was Kate), but we see A sneaking into Caleb’s bag while he sleeps and stealing his laptop. Spencer was particularly snarky and aggressive this week.

Episode grade: B+