Over My Dead Body - Part 1 of 2 - OMFG it's the PLL!

Episode Synopsis: Oh, I guess a few things happened. Maybe. I don't remember. WHO AM I KIDDING? This episode was BANANACAKES! 'A' is holding Dr. Sullivan hostage and makes the PLLs do this evil, messed-up scavenger hunt to save her. Each girl is given a creepy talking doll (!!) and a terrible assignment. Aria is told to "Get rid of Jackie!" and so she confronts Ezra's ex. Then Ezra's ex blackmails her right back. Hanna is told "Stop the wedding!" which she does, in maximum dramatic style. Oh, and now her Dad hates her. Spencer is told "Keep Toby safe!" which she interprets as meaning she has to wear a unicorn sweater and break up with him, which she does. And then Wren kisses her. (!!) Emily is knocked out by carbon monoxide gas and than has a hallucination of Alison (OR WAS IT REALLY A HALLUCINATION?). Then, the PLLs dig up what they think is Dr. Sullivan's buried-alive body, but it's just a doll face and boots, and THEN then get ARRESTED because the shovel they were using is Alison's MURDER WEAPON! And that creepy officer who used to sleep with Ashley is back! And Ezra accidentally confessed to being in love with Spencer (that's not a typo, people)! And Spencer's Dad is probably Jason's secret Dad! AND Jenna and Garrett KILLED ALISON and MIGHT BE A, or maybe not? Is it time for the Halloween special, yet? Please?

So. Aria looks cute with her hair pulled back, right? I wanted to focus on what's cute about this look before we begin investigating where it all goes SO VERY WRONG. So, cute ponytail! Yay!

And then.. OK. The earrings would be nice window frames maybe, but as earrings? It makes my lobes hurt just looking at these pyramids dragging down poor Aria's ears. (Note: I feel sympathy for the ears, because of all the crazy things Aria  makes them wear. It wasn't their fault they got stuck to her crazy skull!)

Oh, and what's that? Aria's wearing a shirt that's 1/3 tank, 1/3 tee, 1/3 tights-with-a-run-in-them?

Oh, and a forearm bracelet. But what's that? You don't think the shirt is that bad? Well, what about this rear view?

And did you notice she's wearing it with a floor-length, plaid skirt? Or that she has one visible bright purple bra strap? And she wonders why Jackie doesn't take her seriously as a romantic rival?

What about now? Does this rhinestone skull necklace make her look more like a grown-up?

Did somebody mention a crazy skull? Note: I really like the rhinestone skull necklace. Aria usually wears dark colours, but she does up her pink dress with as many bad-ass details as possible. Like the glowing zombie-eyes rhinestone necklace, and these kind of bad-ass black details on the back:

But... yeah. That's still a pink tutu with gigantic pink flowers stuck all over the skirt. Maybe a few feathers would have made it more "Aria"? Actually, it would have been cute if the Evil Aria Doll was wearing feather hair extentions. Maybe next time, A?

And then we have Spencer, and her dependable wardrobe covered with farm animals.

Because that's a horse on that sweater, right? A horse sweater with corduroy jeggings and boots? Or is that... not a horse? Is that... a medieval unicorn pattern sweater?

This is my favourite Spencer outfit EVER! She's this super-intense, caffeine-infused, completely obsessive investigative detective high school student. Wearing part of the Bayoux Tapestry as a sweater? Could anybody else in the universe pull this off? Spencer is half-lovable, half-terrifying.

Sometimes, she's 100% terrifying.

Remember when Hanna was like, "What's creepier than creepy?" Spencer is what's more intense than intense.

And then all of a sudden, she's wearing this light summer dress and pretending to be a normal teen.

This dress is super-cute. It's white with pastel yellow, pink and green stripes. And if Spencer can wear a white-ish dress to a wedding, then I think it's officially OK now. Actually all of the PLLs (apart from Hanna) wore white-ish dresses to the wedding. 

Spencer's dress is seriously so cute, you guys. Kate picked it as outfit of the week, and I totes agree.

Love the stripes. Love her curly hair. Love that she's wearing a watch with it, as though any 16-year-old in the universe tells time from anything besides their iPhone.

Emily begins in normal Emily style, in a grey Free People tee. Cute detail in the front, but nothing special, right?

But then! The back! Is completely insane!

It's a black tank with a grey tank attached to the back of a backless grey tee? What? Is this all one shirt, or two shirts? Or three shirts?

Emily is the only one, at the start, not to get an Evil Talking Doll. This is extra-devious of A, because not getting a doll made ulcer-getting Emily even more stressed than if she'd gotten one. Of course, she did get an Evil Emily Talking Doll around the same time that A left Evil GPS Directions in her car.

Evil Talking Doll's dress is American Girl chic, I think. One of the best-dresses of the mini-PLLs.

And then I think Emily borrowed one of her mother's dresses to wear to the wedding.

The polka dots are cute, and the silhouette is nice. I bet Hanna made her add the peach-coloured belt for added edge, but the neckline is super-matronly. 

However, the shoes are TO DIE (no pun intended). Platform heels and little bows on the heels? Amazing. Although I don't blame Emily for taking them off after they had to walk through the woods to find Dr. Sullivan. These are shoes for standing and posing, not for walking.

And then we have Hanna. Does she now carry around a personal wind machine? Because I don't blame her, her hair looks gorgeous in the wind.

I want her hair. So much. Also, her BP tank is simple and cute, and the jewellery is surprisingly tasteful for Hanna.

And what's she so smiley about in this picture? Oh, it's because Caleb just arrived! I think most of the viewing audience was making this exact same facial expression when he arrived on her doorstep.

Also, she's wearing really cute glittery pink nails:

And who are Randy, Scotty, Susan and Swimmer? SWIMMER? Is that a person, or just the name of a cute guy she met at the beach one time?

And then she changed into her brown bridesmaid dress. It's bland for a normal dress, but actually pretty wearable for a bridesmaid dress. And though she angsted early in the episode, I caught no evidence of back fat on Ms. Marin during the wedding scenes.

And I think it speaks to the power of her pretty, pretty hair that, even when she's covered in dirt and hanging out in a police station all night, her hair is still gorgeous. Check it out:

I don't know what's in the water in Rosewood, but it seems to make everybody's hair SO SHINY! Yeah, the PLLs might be dealing with some terrifying horror movie shenanigans, but their hair always looks nice. And that's the most important thing, right?

Over My Dead Body - Part 2 of 2 - Hey there, Pretty Eyes!

So, basically, anybody on this show could be A, right? Literally ANYBODY. Because that clue the waitress gives about "pretty eyes" could work for just about anyone.

Let's work through this week's suspects, shall we?

Exhibit A (ahem, pardon the pun): Alison herself!

She may or may not have been a hallucination that appeared to Emily after the incident with the car and the gas in the garage. She was wearing a pretty un-Alison sort of outfit, with boots, jeans and a pretty tank. Usually she's all Sookie'd out in sundresses and things, but this outfit is fairly practical.

Does that mean Emily was dreaming of Alison dressing like her, or does it mean that Alison has started wearing pants? Who knows?

Eyes: Pretty. Other clues? Has name beginning with the letter A. Possible obstacle to being A? She is dead. (... OR IS SHE?)

Exhibit B: Maya!

The world's oldest teenager reappeared again this week, to tell Emily that she wants to just be friends for the time being. I don't know how convincing that argument is when you're wearing a see-through shirt with a visible black bra.

Eyes: Pretty. Other clues? Was she really off at Bible camp this whole time, or was she lurking around being A? Possible obstacle to being A: she has real feelings for Emily, and I can't imagine her wrecking Emily's swim team career with steroids.

Exhibit C: Jackie!

Ezra's ex is behaving like a crazy person, trying to get him back by whatever means necessary. And she thought nobody would notice her plagiarized French paper? Has she met Detective Spencer Hastings?

This meh purple top and meh jeans really are no competition for Aria's wackadoo wardrobe. If you're trying to steal a guy from a girl with 10-tonne earrings, I think you need to step it up in the style department.

Eyes? Meh. Other clues? Meh. Obstacles to being A? She'd be messing with Aria way more if she was A. Aria's really come out unscathed, for the most part, by A's schemes.

Exhibit D: Jason!

Alison's (and maybe Spencer's?) hottie ex-underwear model debuted a shorter 'do this week that made him look kind of like he wandered in from the set of a 2004 episode of One Tree Hill.

I mean, he looks cute, but less cute. Somehow. I think he may need to go shorter, or something. Or take off his shirt...yeah...he needs to just take off his shirt. 

Eyes: Pretty-ish. Other clues: General stalkerishness, mysterious goings-on in his house. Obstacles to being A: if he was A, he could force Aria to break up with Ezra to be with him. Which hasn't happened. Also, he seems kinda nice.

Exhibit E: Ezra!

Aria's boyfriend/ex-teacher may seem squeaky clean, but he did show up in Rosewood at the same time that A started stalking the girls. He used to wear suits and vests as a high school teacher, but now is a jeans-wearing college professor.

Looks more like a college student than a professor, but whatevs. Eyes? Pretty. Other clues? See above re: appeared in Rosewood at the same time that A began creeping. Aria gets less hassles than the other PLLs, indicating A may like her best. Obstacles to being A? The show's writers would be massacred by angry Ezria fans if it turns out their entire relationship was a lie.

Exhibit F: Toby

Spencer's (ex-)BF casually mentioned that his brake lines were cut, as if that wasn't OBVIOUSLY the work of somebody out to get him. And then he weirdly starts wondering, out of nowhere, what their babies would look like? I'm a fan of Toby's usually, but he was weirdly creepy this week.

And on top of that, he wore this out-of-character and wildly unattractive purple button-down shirt to visit Spencer in jail. 

Eyes: Pretty. Other clues: Weird behaviour this week. Befriended first Emily, then Spencer, indicating a need to get close to the PLLs one way or another. May blame them for sending him to jail over The Jenna Thing. Obstacles to being A: Wants to rebuild his reputation after being accused of killing Ali, so why would he mess that up through psychological warfare with the PLLs?

Exhibit G: Garrett and Jenna.

This is an obvious choice, after their scene this week where they seemed to be confessing to something... but what? Killing Ali? Placing the anonymous call that trapped the PLLs with the shovel? These two are either A, working for A, working with A, Ali's killers, or just two deeply creepy people.

And Garrett, for the first time, looked kind of hot to me this week. Maybe it's because we now know he's truly, truly evil and only became a cop for nefarious reasons?

And I'd like to mention because I haven't yet, that Garrett used to be on a Canadian/Australian sci-fi teen soap called Guinevere Jones playing the reincarnation of Lancelot. And I still harbor some resentment towards him for stealing the reincarnation of Guinevere from the reincarnation of Arthur. Basically, I always knew he was up to no good, so this week's reveal wasn't that big a surprise. 

Oh, and Jenna still has the prettiest hair of any blind girl on TV. And a fabulous sense of style for someone who can't see what she's putting on in the morning. Does Toby help her pick out her outfits? Or are they somehow done up with Braille?

Eyes: Garrett - pretty. Jenna - covered in sunglasses and scarred (or are they??). Other clues? EVERYTHING. Obstacles to being A: they seem like an obvious choice now, and the show wouldn't be that obvious. (...OR WOULD IT?)

Wildcards:

Any of these tertiary characters could be A, but that would just be weird.

Officer McCreepy!

He's baaack! Remember him? He's the police officer who was obsessed with proving the PLLs killed Ali, and then started sleeping with Hanna's Mom until he disappeared off the show for basically an entire season. Remember him? I only do because I recapped the pilot a few months ago.

Ashley is like, "Ugh, I had forgotten about him too. Please don't let us have any scenes together."

Dr. Wren!

He has pretty eyes! He behaves inappropriately and has reasons for wanting Spencer to break up with Toby. Plus, his British accent could be construed as being somewhat evil, in a James Bond villain sort of way.

Isabelle!

OK, there's basically no way that she's A, but I wanted to include this picture of her in her wedding dress that Hanna puked on last week. Yay for dry-cleaning! [I thought Tom (maybe? or someone else) said that they had cleaned Isabelle's dress...but this isnt the same one from last week...plot continuity mistake? --Ed. Kate]

Caleb!

He has pretty eyes (and a pretty everything else) but I'm pretty sure he isn't A for the same reasons that I've excluded Ezra and Toby. The fans would FREAK! OUT! if any of these boys were shown to be A. And the psychological manipulation A uses seems like it would come from a girl, somehow.

And Caleb got his hair cut this week too, I think. Like Jason, it wasn't a good decision and I hope he takes lots of vitamins to grow it back out to mid-90s Jordan Catalano lengths ASAP. And then takes off his shirt. Call me!

And I will see you bitches for the Halloween special, which CANNOT COME SOON ENOUGH! - A

Mini Recap: Over My Dead Body

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG. I'm still reeling from the suspense and trying to catch my breath after not breathing for an hour. Do we actually find out who 'A' is in the summer finale? Of course not. But do we find out who killed and Ali AND the real secret that Spencer's dad is hiding (did you catch it?...it was pretty sly)? Why yes, yes we do. 

Drama-rama du jour
'A' has tasks set up for each girl to complete or they won't get Dr. Sullivan back

Gratuitous Male Shirtlessness
Who needs shirtlessness when the secrets are slowly but surely revealing themselves?!

Best Outfit
While it was lovely to see Em in a dress, Spencer's white dress was my fave

Best 'A' Message
"She's still alive bitches. Start digging." -A

Current 'A' Suspect
Uhhh...we still don't know. But we finally know who Alison's killer was...or should I say killers.

Ann has the joyous occasion of recapping the summer finale this Friday!