The episode with all the dads (Tom doesn’t count) and Rosewood’s yearly father-daughter dances that we’ll never hear about again. Are the mothers and sons glad to escape this nonsense, I wonder.
Hanna and Emily discuss Maya, while turning Hanna's bedside lamp off and on. We’re still discussing this in terms of wow is this a breakup instead of huh runaway teen, dangers abound.
Melissa is terrible in this car scene with Spencer. She confesses to sending Ali angry texts because Ali flirted with Ian (that was a 14/15 year old to your 20/21, insane to be threatened by that and not concerned) and then she goes on about how Ian totally didn’t kill Ali
Regardless of what sins Ian did or did not commit on Labor Day night, he did very much assault and try to kill Spencer in the church! No commentary about that huh Melissa.
Should we have a running Worst Older Sibling in Rosewood award. Got to give Aria this much, she’ll never win that award.
Ella asks Aria to keep secret her meeting with Ezria and it’s so gross.
As a friend said, Ezria is not what Aria deserves but it is very much what Byron and Ella deserve for the way they treat Aria.
When I watched this show in high school I don’t think I cared or even noticed how often Byron and Ella are unaligned and refusing to communicate but on this rewatch I am regularly deranged by their behaviour
Ashley offers to take Hanna to the father-daughter dance, which Hanna accepts. Very cute of them, but of course this cannot happen.
Spencer desperately does not want Melissa to be A and in return she has Melissa saying hey our dad is sketchy for sure
In my notes I’ve written “Peter sucks but Nolan North”. It’s true. I have a soft spot for Peter out of all the bad dads because he is the funnest bad dad, like how Noel Kahn is funnest bad teenage dude, but also because I’m like aw, Nathan Drake is here.
Ashley & Wilden have their secret meeting....in the middle of Main street? Morons. You live in a suburb, go meet in an empty parking lot.
Mike went to therapy and became the most well-adjusted Montgomery, at least for now. This teenage boy does not deserve his family being this silly.
Pam is doing a charity run in Texas and I remember that, oh yeah, Pam runs. Fields are probably the most athletic of the families. I don’t think we ever hear of Veronica or Melissa playing any sports.
Wayne tried to run away in high school and I have many questions. Did he have a bad boy phase? I like that Emily only learns this when it’s relevant, unlike Hanna’s familiarity with Ashley’s teenage difficulties.
Spencer ransacks her dad’s desk for clues, finding one before Melissa shows up.
When Spencer storms past Melissa to leave her dad’s office, the camera moves with Melissa’s turn but also downwards to include two photographs on Peter’s desk — teenage Spencer in a field hockey uniformed, the frame saying Happy Father’s Day, and a black-and-white photo of two little girls that are clearly meant to be Spencer and Melissa. Great touch.
Wayne gets an army bonus to his charisma check when he and Emily talk to the bus station worker who simply wants to eat lunch, not answer questions. The way this guy is talking implies he hasn’t been asked about Maya before, so what the hell are Rosewood PD doing?
Emily was even truthful with the cops about what Maya’s proclaimed plans were.
Hanna tosses her phone into the sudsy sink rather than risk Ashley handing it over to Wilden.
Hanna commits so much wastage in this kitchen, it always makes me wince, but Ashley, my friend, you could’ve grabbed that phone out as soon as Hanna stormed off, those few seconds still leave you with a chance of the phone surviving.
Emily and Wayne meet outside the father-daughter dance, Emily in a red dress and Wayne in a dress uniform. They are very sweet here, as they usually are.
Wayne is getting deployed back to Afghanistan and I get distracted wondering about US military deployment schedules in 2011. Okay, Wayne was last on an eight-month deployment, returning in late September 2010. We’re in March 2011 now. He’s been stateside for at most six months.
This doesn’t appear as strange as I initially thought — in early 2011, the US is involved in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The deployment-to-dwell time ratios were not great.
...I hope Wayne Fields is doing okay with all this...unfortunately I suspect all members of the Fields family have similar coping strategies...
Hanna shows up to the dance to tell the girls Ashley is digging too much into A shit, Mona comes up with a questionable plan, and Hanna lingers after in a sea of fathers and daughters to give us another great shot.
We have the usual themes for Byron and Aria. Byron is gross about Aria being his little girl forever, Aria is still mad at him for not endorsing her relationship with a grown man, yada yada
But IIRC he’s under the impression that Aria is dating Holden and hasn’t talked to Ezra since she got grounded, so he must be so ??? at Aria being mad at him.
Aria lies to Ashley and I continue to be confused about the police documents Mona showed Hanna and Ashley discovered.
In the previous episode, the show frames it as evidence Ashley slept with Wilden to get Hanna out of shoplifting charges. Here, it is a mere police report that Aria can claim she photoshopped, a very bad lie Ashley doesn’t believe for a second.
Spencer finds a folder of photos of Ali and yells at her dad once about the $15k, to which Peter finally confesses that he hired a PI to investigate Ali’s disappearance, because he was scared someone he cared about was involved.
Spencer probes further, Peter says the someone was Melissa, given the angry texts
Oh, and Peter learned that someone (read: A) stole his gun, so the cops are here.
Melissa runs off to Philly, not before offering her condo as a refuge to Spencer. I know you’re hard up on options here Spence, but don’t take her up on that.
Ella & Ashley discuss the girls’ fear and lies, as Ella once more expounds her belief that the best thing to do is nothing.
The liars head over to Brookhaven, finding a block where every store is closed, only for Aria to put on the red coat and get mistaken for Vivian Darkbloom. I’ll have more to say on that later, but for now, have a convincing shot of Aria in that coat.
The A tag this week is A retrieving the Rosewood Observer, which declares Maya as officially Missing.
