Benjamin Light and Marco Sparks break down each episode of Pretty Little Liars in ever increasing detail. This feed covers Pretty Little Liars seasons 1-7, The Perfectionists season 1, and the HBO MAX PLL reboot.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 8 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria is a terrible friend to someone in need, too wrapped up in her own drama, Hanna gets to experience the awfulness of secretly skeezy Rosewood men, Emily is offered an assistant coaching position by a fellow student, which is a thing that happens, and Spencer gets a black eye while escaping another of A’s little terror traps.
Behold! The top minds in PLL criticism, Heather Hogan and Jacob Clifton, have joined us for a special roundtable discussion before the Pretty Little Liars Christmas Episode. We’re answering questions from listeners and readers on twitter, such as "which character is the most underutilized,” “Is Ali actually a sociopath,” and “Noel Kahn.” Thanks so much to Heather and Jacob for joining us, this was a ton of fun and we hope you all enjoy it too. You can find more from Heather on autostraddle.com, ...
Recapping Season 5, Episode 7 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria goes undercover at Radley and runs into Bethany’s former roommate, Hanna has to deal with Caleb after he has a run-in with Ali, Emily is forced to invite all her friends to dinner at Pam’s request, and Spencer helps Ezra hide some evidence and then borrows his spy gear to spy on Melissa.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 6 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria tries to pump the brakes on Ezria 2.0 after a couple slips, Hanna has had enough of Ali’s new normal and tries to help her flee town, Emily forces Paige to name names about Mona’s Army, and Spencer attempts to save her parents’ relationship while hunting down info on Bethany Young at Radley.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 5 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria has some metaphorical pie for Ezra after comforting Jenna Thing, Hanna’s world gets rocked by the return of her haunted cyberwolf ex-bf, Emily’s slow thaw with Paige is interrupted by unexpected bedroom eyes from Ali, and Spencer’s parents have finally turned on each other, with Spencer caught in the middle. And an old friend comes back and says hello.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 4 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria backslides onto the Fitzwagon before having a Jessie’s Girl moment, Hanna helps out Ali with the doctor and tries to reclaim her own identity, Emily searches for the elusive Ex Utopia with Paige, and Spencer briefly gains respite from her constant paranoia before getting sucked into her dark suspicions even further. And Ali is so mysterious because maybe something terrible happened to her.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 3 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria returns to the scene of the crime, Hanna has an existential crisis when she realizes that Mona created her in Ali’s image, Emily makes a new acquaintance on the swim team and adjusts to Paige as an ex-girlfriend, and Spencer has a lot of late night conversations with Hastings about Jessica’s death.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 2 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria is losing her mind over her new taste for human blood, Hanna is snooping around her mom’s dealings with Mr. DiLaurentis and soiling her underwear, Emily is doing everything she can to remain loyal to Ali, including walking her new dog, and Spencer takes a time out to bone Toby before spying on Jason as a new suspect.
Recapping Season 5, Episode 1 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria worries about the fate of Ezra Fitz, Hanna ponders life in a field hockey skirt, Emily pries some answers out of Alison about her secret shenanigans with CeCe, and Spencer’s stomach is growling because she hasn’t eaten in two episodes. Oh, and we find out who A is.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 24 of Pretty Little Liars. Now that the Rosewood Police Department knows Alison DiLaurentis is alive, Aria, Hanna, Emilym and Spencer meet up with Ali in NYC to find out what happened That Night and try to put all the pieces together to figure out who A is.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 23 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria’s mother returns with big news about the Muffin Man, Hanna volunteers to help her mom out with the bridal show as a guise to sneak into Ali’s house, Emily cuts Paige loose after one betrayal too far, and Spencer discovers that she has huge gaps in her memory the summer before Ali went missing, and was being a complete terror to her parents, almost like an evil twin.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 22 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria enjoys a lost weekend with a loser guitar bro, Hanna learns about Paige dropping a dime on Ali, Emily confronts Ezra about his insincere assistance, and Spencer gets a new life coach who helps her fugue out about killing Ali That Night.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 21 of Pretty Little Liars. Hurricane Aria descends on the Fitzpalace, turning up new clues, Hanna talks Holbrook into doing a solid for Travis’s dad, and then promptly smooches him, Emily receives an ultimatum from Paige when Ali’s resurrection is revealed, and Spencer begins to suspect that perhaps she was the one who tried to kill Ali.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 20 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria finds out about Spencer’s pill history from Ezra, and then about Ezra, Hanna is afraid of reptiles, Emily tries to walk a fine line between intervening with Spencer and tracking down A, and Spencer’s planned intervention of Aria takes a turn for the worse when Ezra’s machinations turn it into an intervention for her.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 19 of Pretty Little Liars. Join us for a trip inside Spencer’s insane mind, where Aria is the most sophisticated thing in the world, Hanna is an brassy switchboard operator, Emily stars in a sapphic fantasy with Paige, and Spencer, all strung out on Study-Aid pills, struggles to find proof about Ezra Fitz.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 18 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria gets kidnapped by Ezra and she doesn’t even realize it, Hanna suspects that Spencer is up to something, Emily gets recruited by Shana to do something for Ali, and Spencer falls into her own drug-fueled hyperreality, staying up all night to gather convincing evidence that Ezra is A.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 17 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria gets super angry at the world after she spies Mike and Mona getting close, Hanna has become a mystery novel-reading gumshoe after giving up on boys, Emily is even more of a basket case than ever, prompting her dad to turn to Fitz for help, and Spencer Hastings has discovered the clue that will lead her to the identity of Board Shorts, and also discovered Adderall.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 16 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria catches Ezra in a lie, Hanna tries to get over Caleb by #CREEPING on Travis, Emily discovers a new connection to Ali and will take a big risk to see her again, and Spencer careens around like a wrecking ball, making everyone’s day worse in her single-minded pursuit of the truth.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 15 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria has to cancel a secret date with Ezra, and lies to everyone in the process, Hanna keeps quiet about her break-up with Caleb and another secret in Ali’s diary, Emily tries to process whether or not she wants Ali back in her life, and Spencer catches her father lying some more about Jessica DiLaurentis.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 14 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria gives Ezra a second chance when he takes her to his murder cabin, Hanna has a theory and a new plan to track down Ali’s attacker, Emily is trying to process what Ali’s return means to her, and Spencer helps Toby railroad Radley’s parent company into providing lawsuit material.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 13 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria, Hanna, Emily and Spencer all get trapped in a creepy maybe haunted mansion in Ravenswood as they try to determine whether or not Alison is actually alive. A scary man in a World War I-era doughboy uniform and a gas mask pursues them. Is Ali really alive? Find out for sure, one way or the other, in this episode. Also, Ravenswood: zzzzzzz.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 12 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria rekindles an old flame over poetry talk after her philistine boyfriend falls asleep on movie night, Hanna’s work convincing Travis to help gets her mom’s charges dropped but a new crosshair centered on Mona, Emily sleeps over with the door open at Paige’s house, and Spencer gives Toby a piece of her mind about his behavior. And then all the liars go to Ravenswood and we get major revelations about Ali, CeCe and EzrA.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 11 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria dodges calls from Dark Ezra and does choreographed line dancing with Karate Bro Jake, Hanna finds unexpected help for her mother’s situation from an unlikely source, Emily keeps telling Hanna to shut up and is chilly with Paige all episode before finally having a nice dance with her, and Spencer is sick of Toby’s dead mom plot line and finally tells the other liars about it.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 10 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria goes hunting down a CeCe connection when she’s supposed to be on a Fro-Yo run for Jake, Hanna tries to enlists Wren’s help concerning Mona, and must keep Caleb from spilling all about A to the authorities, Emily begrudgingly accepts an invite to come stay at Mrs. DiLaurentis’s house, and Spencer is still humoring Toby in the plot line about his dead mom who is still dead. At least it eventually leads to a sweet Ali flashback.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 9 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria lies to Jake to help Spencer with a Team Sparia mission, and it backfires when Jake shows up at a party with another date, Hanna is overjoyed to welcome her mother home thanks to Mona’s confession, Emily meets with a pro swim coach and has to face reality about swimming, Stanford, and Paige, and Spencer tries to get Shana out of the picture for a bit so she can confront Jenna about Alison.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 8 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria worries about Mikey getting bullied by laxbros, Hanna recruits Mona to brainwash her into thinking she killed Wilden, Emily tries a new strategy for impressing colleges, while her mom slowly falls apart, and Spencer takes advantage of Veronica’s intern to get new evidence connected Wilden to Radley and Toby’s dead dead dead mom.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 7 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria tries to cover for Mike when Connor’s dad threatens to press charges, Hanna copes with her mom in jail and tries to form a legal strategy, Emily steals some evidence and gets her mom in trouble at the RPD, and Spencer enlists Caleb and Toby to track down the plane Red Coat flew to the lodge at Thornhill.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 6 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria’s fantasy world gets torn apart by reality when her brother’s friend gets fresh with her, Hanna is relieved but terrified to discover that A has been behind the suspicions about her mother, Emily declares Shana her new nemesis and looks for ways to hate her, and Spencer and Toby take a trans-dimensional trip to a different TV show called Ravenswood.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 5 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria must ruin her relationships with her family to protect her mother from A, Hanna is losing her mind about her mom and none of the liars will take her seriously, Emily accidentally flirts with Spencer’s College pimp to get into other schools, and Spencer chases down a lead that came from a bird to a creepy panic room in a sorority house.
Recapping Season 4, Episode 4 of Pretty Little Liars. Aria sings to Jake the ballad of Ezria 4Ever, Hanna and the new Lieutenant Tanner size each other up while discussing the Wilden case, Emily can’t swim anymore or she’ll die, according to her terrible doctor, and Spencer finally confronts Melissa about the Halloween train, the masks, and all her other shady activities.
