Pretty Little Liars - Ctrl: A recap/review

Aria meets Vivian’s “friend” in a restaurant. The rest of the Liars watch from an adjacent table. The friend is “Jonah,” a nerd who used to work for a cellphone company. Alison had Jonah try to track down A. Alison vanished before paying Jonah and he was fired from his job. Jonah knows who A is, but won’t tell the girls until they pay him what Alison owed: $2,000.

Meanwhile, A goes after Caleb, hard. Garrett and Detective Wilden seize Caleb’s laptop, which A stuffed with stolen school records. Hanna guesses Caleb’s password (the date they first had sex, which Caleb was cagey about, but which we totally guessed) and remotely deletes all the files on Caleb’s computer while he is being questioned. Caleb gets out and sees Hanna waiting outside the station for him. This recap isn’t doing that plot justice, because it was actually exciting, intense, and super-adorable. We love this couple! This is officially the first couple on this show that we really, truly care about.

Emily wins a swimming competition, and Ashley Marin throws the whole team a party. Maya is threatened by Emily’s dedication to her teammates and is also going through a hard time, because her parents found a joint in her room. Maya tells Emily it’s an old one, but her parents don’t believe her and want to send her back to True North. Emily catches Maya smoking a new doobie and the two fight. Maya tells Emily that she’s going to run away to San Francisco and stay with some friends. Maya invites Emily, who turns Maya down, because Emily is not crazy. Also because Maya is the worst.

Byron gets a note from A (a parent got a note from A!!!) telling him to go to a French, vegan café to find his daughter. Detective Wilden has a photo of the Liars dressed up as candy stripers, standing outside the hospital morgue. Since a page of Alison’s autopsy went missing that day, this doesn’t make the girls look good. Fortunately, Hanna comes up with a quick excuse to tell her mom.

Aria has a good plot this week. She ditches Ezra in order to go with Holden to his secret fight club. This is lucky, because Byron doesn’t catch her and Ezra together. Holden does karate, secretly. His parents don’t want him fighting people, because he was born with an abdominal aortic aneurysm (heart problems). Holden tells Aria that he could die doing anything and that his life will probably be short, so he wants to live it to the fullest. Aria clearly draws a parallel to her relationship with Ezra and ruins the nice sentiment.

Holden does well in the fight, but we scoffed at how much spinning his opponent did in the sparring match. You would never spin around like that in a real sparring match against a trained opponent. It’s douche-y and liable to get you hit in the back of the head. No one does that.

Finally, Spencer (who looked extra-pretty this week) is basically living with Aria and doesn’t want to go home, because her family is full of liars. Jason thinks that Alison was using her knowledge of Jason’s paternity to blackmail. Spencer straight-up asks her father if this is what was going on, and he denies it, convincingly. Spencer tells Jason that he’s wrong. Jason blows up at Spencer, but later accepts the truth. He says that they are always at odds because they have the “same wiring.” It’s sweet. Spencer tells Jason that someone was threatening Ali and that Ali figured out who. Spencer has an idea for how to find out. Spencer asks Jason to trust her…$2,000 worth.

Frankly, this episode had it all. Plot progression, heart, romance, suspense, a fight club, answers, creepers, and Maya probably leaving the show! We will know who A is soon! Until then, if this is filler, it’s the best filler around.

Episode grade: A+