After the greatness that the last few PLL episodes have been, with fast pacing, rapid character development and the introduction of various new storylines, Please Do Talk About Me When I'm Gone was a bit of a comedown. Now that's not to say that it was bad episode, or even an alright one, it's just that it was very clearly what we shall now proceed to call a 'bridge episode' - one where almost no new storylines are introduced, there is little plot development and the story takes place over one or two uneventful days.
Still, despite it's generally slow pace, there were still several moments that we enjoyed quite a bit. Unlike the last two episodes, PDTAMWIG doesn't start a few moments after the previous ep - or even the next morning - but what appears to be anything from a few days to a week later. Aria, Hanna and Emily are over at Spencer's house unpacking Alison's memorial (which turns out to be a large, black, bowl-shaped object with stand-out engravings of all five girls on it) and discussing how A's brother, Jason, is coming for the memorial. He is set to arrive that day and wants to meet them the next morning. Here we learn that the girls barely even knew him - he was just the loud, blaring music down the hall. Aria expresses disbelief at how he got into an Ivy and, much appreciated, was Spencer's witty reply 'It must have been affirmative action for goths and emos'. Are we the only ones who've noticed that Spencer and Hanna seem to be getting the best lines every week? Seeing as they're two of our favourite characters, though, we're not that bothered about the bias
On opening the box, Aria notes that, years from now, people will see the memorial and that's all they'll really know of Ali. They'll all be gone (and pretty damn soon, if A has anything to do with it) but she'll still be remembered. Spencer's response to this is perfection - 'That's immortality my darlings'. Which segues neatly to a FLASHBACK - where we see the five girls hanging by a creek and discussing death (because that's just what you do at a lovely, beach-like location), with Aria saying that she wishes they could all pick an age and just say there. Naturally, A's shock response to that is she wants to die young and leave a beautiful corpse. It would be deliciously tragic to die in some mysterious way that would just be - superior (SUBTEXT: like A herself.). When Hanna, understandably freaked out by A's apparently carefully planned out demise, asks her not to talk like that and Aria backs up her with an 'it's gruesome', dramatic-as-ever A replies that 'It's not gruesome. It's immortality, my darlings'. And END OF FLASHBACK.
We come back to the present day with Aria wondering where Alison even got that from. A movie? And we get another great line from Spencer - 'Ali was a movie'. Oh, how true, Spencer.
And cue CREDITS.
Now, while this opening scene isn't up there with the likes of The Homecoming Hangover or Reality Bites Me, it was still insightful and gave us an opportunity to see - once again - just how overly dramatic A was. So, overall, appreciated by all.
This ep, Hanna didn't get a particularly eventful storyline, but, when Hanna complains that her card was revoked by a store clerk,we do learn that her mother, Ashley, is having financial woes Ashley tells her that they're going to have to be a bit more careful with money for a while - an undetermined while (Hanna with no spare money? Oh, the horror!). When Hanna presses the matter further, Ashley admits that she's been trying to keep it off her radar, but they need to start making some cutbacks. She reveals that they've been leading a two-paycheck lifestyle on a one-paycheck household and that she can no longer compensate for Hanna's father leaving.
Despite the obvious ramifications for our girl, Hanna, we are pleased that a storyline with such potential has been introduced. What could be next in this twisted tale? Ashley having to go to Hanna's father for money, their house repossessed? The possibilities are almost endless.
We also got to see Hanna and Lucas become even closer, with her going to see him in the computer room initially to help out with the yearbook, but ending up seeing his fabulous - and clearly very expensive - camera. When she asks him about it, he says that he auctioned off some old stuff and got a very good deal for it. That selling off old toys lets you buy the ones you're interested in now. Cue LIGHTBULB! He asks her if she would be interested but she admits that she wouldn't even know how to start. This, naturally, leads to him offering his help - if she wants - which, of course being essentially broke (*shudder*), she does.
The next day, Hanna brings in a few, old designer bags with Lucas noting that people will definitely be willing to buy that stuff. But why does she even need money all of a sudden? Here, Hanna tells a porky - her mother's cut her off, and we get another FLASHBACK to the same time and setting of the first. A is mocking Lucas who is at the water's edge, fixing his small boat, and this leads to Hanna attempting to call her out on it. Which, of course, A doesn't let slide. She tells Hanna not to look back - something might be gaining on her (HIDDEN THREAT city).
We love this slow beginning to what will obviously be a Hanna/Lucas relationship. Not only do the two have significantly more chemistry to the wet kindling that is Emily and Maya, but we're getting just a bit tired of her current boyfriend, Sean. So, writers, the sooner you get Hanna and Lucas together, the better.
Another nice storyline was Spencer's, who had the duty of working with Jason on Alison's dedication. The morning that he meets up with the girls, and practically takes a dump on their carefully planned memorial (OK, not quite. But, with his adjustments to the program, and suggested 'fine-tuning' of the dedication, he may as well have), to Spencer's obvious disgust. He also reveals that, although the police have been 'jerking around' his family for the past year, there won't be any more of that (0_0).
Just as the girls are understandably reeling from the amount of information he's been throwing at them and the news that he wants them to speak at the dedication, he drops another bombshell; Jenna will also be making a speech. Then he just leaves - like it's nothing - with Spencer escorting him out. When she gets back, the girls are naturally in a tizzy, and ask her what he said. She replies with yet another great line - 'Nothing. He just kept smiling like he was running for office'. The four then fret about why Jason even wants Jenna to speak- he obviously knows the two of them weren't friends. Aria says, wisely in our opinion, that there's no way they can stop her without looking like bitches. Hanna then suggests that Spencer stay on top of Jason and find out what he knows, after all she's the big organiser with the laptop and stuff. He'll need her. When Spencer tries to object (after all the guy isn't exactly the nicest of people), Hanna reminds her that Jenna could get up there and tell everyone about Toby, the fire and everything else.
This culminates in Spencer confronting Jenna in the library and asking her right out what she intends to say at the dedication. Jenna, wittily, says 'I was going to speak from my heart, which made us LOL. Spencer asks what she wants, but Jenna says what she wants, the girls can't give her. As she told Emily, Spencer and her friends are careless and they break things and they think they're never going to have to pay for them. Here our girl, Spencer, snaps and goes all Alison on her. She tells her that she understands Jenna wants satisfaction, but she won't let her turn a dedication into some kind of club to beat up on them. They did love Alison and what happened was terrible. They deserve the memorial and she doesn't have the right to turn into something else. And the next few seconds we loved, because they gave us one of the biggest bombshells of the entire season - Jenna reveals that Alison was done with them. That she was afraid of them. While Spencer's standing there with a face like a smacked arse, Jenna asks if that's why they did what they did.
But that isn't the end of Spencer's world being rocked. When she and Jason are finishing the final preparations for Alison's dedication, they discuss what 'over' really means when it comes to the whole Ali situation. Jason says that it'll never really over. He also notes that Spencer was the only one to ever really stand up to A. He kept waiting for things to get really bad and for them to fight, but it never happened. He also reveals that his mother still needs sleeping pills to drop off, and that, when they don't work, she just walks up and down the house. They'll never really have closure - he'll always be the brother to the girl who was murdered and Spencer will always be her friend. But that wasn't the big shocker, what came next is. Jason reveals that A told him Spencer was the one to throw the stinkbomb. She was the one who blackmailed Toby and told the other girls to back her up.
SAY WHAT?!
Spencer, who is so shocked she can't even defend herself, tells Jason that he is just like Alison. He replies that, in some ways, he's even worse.
0_0 x2
Turns out, though, that all the girls' panic over what Jenna's speech would contain was for nothing. After Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily all speak on how much Ali meant to them (despite the fact that she's now the Bitch From Hell - BFH, as we will be calling her from here on out), Jenna comes out and says something quite strange. Ok, very strange. She says that, after BFH came to see her in the hospital, she realised that A was the strongest person she'd ever met. And that it was her strength that she'd passed onto people that would be her legacy.
Um, OK.
Aria's storyline wasn't much to shout about this week. Ezra's still MIA, but we did get to see a potential love interest in Noel, Sean's best friend. We also found out that Aria used to adore him in a from-afar kind of way. Sadly, now that he's available and he's noticed her (having Sean ask Hanna to ask Aria to accompany the three of them to a concert), she's still moping over Ezra. He does tell her he'll wait for her, but he'll keep his options open. And, naturally, we're screaming at Aria telling her to get her ish together. Luckily, she does seem to realise this, saying that she knows her relationship with 'her boyfriend in Iceland' can only end badly. So, over the next few weeks, we can expect to see yet another new relationship forming.
As for Emily, all you need to know about her is that she's finally with NEW
It is what it is.
Something we found out right at the end of the episode is that the bracelet - the one that belonged to A - they found in the woods was a fake. The real one Jason decided to give them after seeing their 'heartfelt' speeches at the dedication. So someone, as the girls, deduce, must have planted it for them to find.
GASP!
Overall, yet another solid episode. We got to see Aria find a potential new bf, Hanna become practically broke overnight and Spencer be blamed for the whole SMOKEBOMB = BLIND GIRL debacle. After having watched all those sneak peeks , we're really looking forward to tonight's PLL offering - The Perfect Storm.
VERDICT: 8.18/10
www.twitter.com/tha_phoenix
I was looking at some of your blog posts on this site and
ReplyDeleteI think this site is really instructive! Retain posting.
Pinoy TV
Pinoy tambayan