TV Review: Pretty Little Liars 5×08 “Scream for Me”

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This week’s episode was full of betrayals. They were betrayals and deceptions of the worst kind—from your closest friends.

Aria’s mom, Ella Montgomery, is back in town for her engagement party to Zack, the owner of The Brew. An engagement party would probably lighten the mood around Rosewood. However, way too many other things are happening right now for the PLLs.

Aria returns for her volunteer hours at Radley just to find that Eddie Lamb no longer works there. Has “A” made him disappear or did he voluntarily remove himself from the situation so that “A” wouldn’t harm him? We need to know what’s going on with Eddie and I’m hoping the following episodes give us more insight.

But anyway, Aria totally gets caught by Rhonda when she’s returning Bethany’s sketchbook. I must say, I really like Rhonda. She’s cool in my book. She bargains with Aria to keep quiet about catching her if Aria is able to get her some hot Cheetos and a soda. Rhonda is a diabetic and can’t eat these things. I thought it was funny that of all the things she could’ve asked Aria for, that’s what she chose. But as Rhonda munches on her goodies she reveals some important information to Aria. Mrs. D would regularly sign Bethany out of Radley and take her horse riding in Harrisburg.

Emily and Spencer immediately drive over there. Besides the fact that Bethany hated Mrs. D (“Aunt Jessie”), they also find a riding helmet with the Hastings crest and Melissa’s initials sewed on the inside of it. Once again Melissa is involved in all of this huge mess and I’m itching to find out how. Hopefully PLL doesn’t string us along for too much longer. Oh, and “A” locks Emily and Spencer in a horse stable with a stallion that almost stomps them to death. It was scary.

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Meanwhile back in Rosewood, Ashley Marin is being emotionally toyed with by Alison. Alison pushed past Hannah and assured her stay in the Marin house while her dad is away. I don’t understand how Alison’s dad is consistently not there after his wife was killed right after his kidnapped child has returned to town—but that’s PLL for you. Anyway, Mrs. Marin is fully believing every word that comes from Alison’s mouth (god bless her good heart) and even allows her to use the bath salts that Hannah has begged her for “a thousand times.”

Clearly, Hannah isn’t happy to have Alison at home and she ditches them to be with Caleb. The night consists of zero studying but tons of booze. It’s sad to see the self-destructive path these two are headed on. Caleb is obviously dealing with the aftermath of Ravenswood and isn’t in a condition to help Hannah as he usually would. So, as much as I ship Haleb right now I’m wondering if Travis could come back into the picture and make things less foggy for Hannah. It’s also sad to see how Alison sucks people in so much that Mrs. Marin is becoming clueless about her own daughter’s condition.

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Caleb and Hannah’s drinking session got them a bit hungry and they stopped by The Brew where the weirdest thing happened. Zack, Ella’s fiancé and Emily’s boss, hit on Hannah going as far as rubbing his hand on the small of her back. Why is Zack suddenly a creep who preys on drunk minors? If it wasn’t disturbing enough, the next day he hops into Hannah’s car and gives her his number since he assumes she’s feeling the same “vibe” he is.

However, the absolute worst part is when Hannah tells Emily and Spencer after the first incident with Zack. They question if they maybe didn’t just misinterpret the situation!

No, guys, she didn’t!

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Hannah has been drinking a lot lately but she has always been one of the most honest of the PLLs. She wouldn’t dare make up something like this no matter how drunk she got. It was disheartening to see Emily and Spencer judge her current condition instead of trying to help her get through it. They’re counting the beer cans in her locker but they aren’t being proactive in bothering to figure out why Hannah is having these episodes. Hannah however has always been concerned with all of the other PLLs. When Spencer had her pill addiction and Emily went through her steroid use after her arm injury, Hannah was always there. Hannah was recently there for Spencer when her parents split up without any judgment. It was disappointing that they weren’t able to do the same.

When Hannah runs to tell Aria about what happened in the car with Zack, Aria completely blows off on her. Granted, I’m sure Aria doesn’t want to hear that her mother’s fiancé is hitting on one of her best friends days before their engagement party. I’m also sure that Aria is still a little moody about Hannah blabbing off to Sydney while drunk. But Aria not only didn’t believe Hannah, she told her that she’s always the problem and even asked if Hannah was the one who had invited Zack into her car. At that point Aria totally crossed a friendship line with Hannah, proving that she doesn’t really know or trust her enough.

Basically Aria said that if Zack did do something it was because Hannah had provoked him. The funny thing is that Hannah has consistently been there for Aria as she dated their teacher, Ezra.

The PLLs have been there more for Alison than for Hannah which isn’t fair. Alison lied to them for years and even before she did disappear, she tortured all of them with secrets. It seems it’s all been forgotten because Emily and Spencer run to her aid when it seems that “A” broke into the Marin house. Ashley and Alison saw “A” with their own eyes as he slipped into the house, through the kitchen and out the back door.

But Emily and Spencer seem to regret their faithfulness to Alison once they find out that “A” was actually Noel Kahn. Alison asked him to dress like “A” and scare Mrs. Marin while Alison was in the house with her so that Mrs. Marin would now testify to the police about someone being after Alison. She instantly made herself more credible to the PLL parents and to others who were questioning her abduction story.

Emily and Spencer are not amused. I think it’s mostly because Alison keeps making all these moves without ever once informing the other PLLs beforehand. She keeps taking them on this rollercoaster of lies they have to keep up with. I do believe that Alison is truly scared about “A” but her scheming and secretive ways haven’t changed one bit. She doesn’t truly trust the PLLs because if she did she would be much more open with them.

In other news, Toby is becoming a cop. This was Spencer’s reaction when she found out that he signed up for the police academy:


Followed by the words: “Oh no you didn’t!”

Toby’s motives for entering the police force are well intentioned. He’s tired of feeling powerless and of his girlfriend constantly being close to death without him being able to protect her. I’m not sure where this storyline will go with Toby, but if he does become a cop I’m sure it’s going to unleash some pretty good, secret inside information.

Also, Sydney is the worst spy Mona has ever had on her team. She’s losing track of her story with Emily. Emily mentions that Hannah was drunk and probably blabbed about New York even though it wasn’t “true.” Sydney says Hannah never mentioned it and then mistakenly questions Emily about New York later on. She needs to get it together because she’s two seconds from blowing her cover. She also really isn’t good at playing it cool when caught in her own lies.

This episode was mostly about the inner destruction that’s occurring between this group of friends. Trust is being broken and unity is quickly disappearing.

Let’s see what happens next week. It seems that “A” has been prying in the Hastings house once again.

Tell us what you thought about this week’s episode!

–          What is up with Aria being so mean to Hannah?

–          Why is Zack suddenly a creep who likes to massage minors?

–          How long will it be before Sydney blows her cover?

–          Where is Noel Kahn the rest of the time when he’s not pretending to be “A” for Alison?

Comment below!

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