Reality Bites Me - Part 1 of 2 - Same old, same old

Episode Synopsis: This week, relationship drama takes centre stage. Ella tears into Byron after he admits he had an affair. Aria hides from her dysfunctional home life by attending Ezra's reading. There, she meets his college roommate, who makes Ezra feel weird about dating a high schooler. Ezra is even more freaked out when he sees a message from A on Aria's phone, and assumes that she's told all of her friends about them. Emily befriends Toby, who has way too much hair and sits around reading Catcher in the Rye all the time. Hanna suspects Sean has found a new girlfriend, but it turns out she's just his ride to Virginity Club (that isn't an euphemism, by the way). She also discovers that Jenna's been seeing a psychotherapist and that Jenna wears the same colour of lipstick A wrote her mirror message with. And after Spencer's father makes her throw a tennis game to help him win a client, she realizes that winner-takes-all is not the way for her after all. She comes clean about plagiarizing her essay and goes on a date with cute Alex, the country club hottie. 

So, the thing about these early episodes is that the show was clearly still finding its way. Plotlines appear and disappear (Spencer's plagiarized paper, Jenna's lipstick) and the costuming is All. Over. The. Place.

Let's begin with the things that stay the same, shall we? Such as Aria's boho chic - cute dresses with cute boots:

You can only sort of see here, but she's wearing tan knee-socks inside of darker brown boots, which looks adorable. She is like a little perfect boho pixie. Check out how her shiny, shiny hair looks great with her cute purple handbag:

And she looks so high-schoolish in the photo below. This is just after Ezra suggests that, perhaps, dating might be kind of a bad idea. Seriously, she suddenly looks about 13:

Oh, and I should also mention that this dress-and-boots combo is the outfit of the week. Everything goes pretty much downhill from here.

That being said, Aria had a standout ensemble during the episode's opening pajama party. I mean, only Aria would layer a cropped long-sleeve tee over a white henley, with XXL floral print pajama pants. But it looks adorable on her:

Ezra also dresses pretty consistently with his character from the latter-half of the season. I know for sure he wears another pair of ill-fitting cords later on. I guess he's still early enough in his job that he hasn't earned enough money to purchase a vest to go with this outfit: 

He wears the same shirt and pants out to the reading later on, reminding us that he's not so far removed from his starving-student university days. He looks like an actual twentysomething when he adds this t-shirt, though:

Hanna's look this episode is also typical Hanna - by which I mean, all over the place and kind of a mess. She didn't really get her act together, sartorially, until she got involved with Caleb. And I wonder if this pajama ensemble is a holdover from her Hefty Hanna days:

Yes, that is covered in little yellow teddy bears. Another possibility is that she picked this up when she got her scrubs to wear for her fake-job at the dentist's office. Has anyone ever looked cuter wearing kittycat scrubs? I think not:

She's even colour-coordinated her nails to the fuschia kittycats.

And I don't know about this very zipper-y outfit:

I like the ginormous ring, similar to others she wears later on in the season. But the dress seems kind of a bizarre choice to wear to school. True, we never see any of these teens in class, but this is more of a club dress than a daytime ensemble. Here's a better look of the dress. I think the necklace may be attached?

Also? What is this show's obsession with cropped jackets?

THESE NEVER LOOK GOOD.

Hanna looks cute in this outfit, which she wears for snooping around the psychiatrist's office (and then hilariously pretending to be his client, "Martha"):

This is mostly cute. The top is white with gold sparkles, which I enjoy. However, the tank is sheer enough that you can see her cami inside, which would be fine, except that the cami doesn't cover her entire midsection. A full-length black cami would have made this so much better. Still, it's like 85% cute.

Ashley Marin is, as always, a style star. Last week Steph couldn't decide whether red or blue was her best colour. And this week, I offer that maybe fuschia is her best colour?

Oh, who am I kidding. Every colour is her best colour. She is completely fabulous. Never change, Ashley!

Reality Bites Me - Part 2 of 2 - What's my name again?

Spencer has been replaced in this episode by a robot clone who doesn't know how to dress herself. This is the only explanation I can come up for this dress-over-pants travesty:

Or this cropped/ruffled tank over other tank catastrophe:

Her tennis outfits are fine. Nothing revolutionary here:

Seriously, where is Toby? She always dresses cute when Toby's around.

Oh, right. He spends this whole episode lurking around under 20 pounds of hair, abdominals hidden away, reading a beat-up copy of Catcher in the Rye and pining after Emily.

 

Though, who can blame him for the latter? In this episode, Emily is suddenly and inexplicably a total sexpot.

"Oh, hey you guys. I figured I'd change into these booty shorts and knee socks for our sleepover party."

Girl looks good leaving a room. Is it any coincidence that she gets every male and female in the entire town panting after her?

And then she brings out the jewellery - bam!

She looks so casual here, wearing like fifteen necklaces at once. And yet somehow, it seems very Emily. I don't know. When Aria does this, the necklaces go down to her waist. Maybe it's the delicate size of the chains that doesn't overwhelm her? And check out the rest of her outfit and her stylish yet utilitarian bag:

This is... cute. I'm confused. Who is this stylish hottie and what has she done with "jeans and a tee" Emily? Maya's influence? Toby's influence?

How is Emily in lab goggles looking more stylish than ANY OF SPENCER'S OUTFITS IN THE ENTIRE EPISODE? Is this a parallel Rosewood universe?

OK. She's in jeans and a tee. That's definitely Emily.

Oh, and the blind girl dressing better than anyone? Yup, that's our Rosewood. Notice how she's wearing a lace-patterned dress? Remember that time she was like, "He likes lace" and we all thought she meant Toby, but really she meant Garrett (or possibly Ian?). Don't know if that was an intentional callback or not, but I just shivered again at the memory.