Guess who’s coming to dinner on Pretty Little Liars? Ali, Hanna, Emily, Emily’s mom and that’s about it. This episode Spencer and Aria have not time for a gathering orchestrated by Mrs. Fields because she misses seeing the girls together? I think that was the reason given. Spencer has more family issues to deal with and Aria is actually making progress in her snooping about Radley and Hanna’s only at the dinner at Emily’s annoying persistence.
This episode title, “The Silence of E. Lamb,” has to harken back to our friendly Radley employee Eddie Lamb. Lamb has secretly (silently even?) helped the girls in their pursuit of “A” by leaving Bethany Young’s picture at Ezra’s doorstep. This in turn encouraged Aria to infiltrate the sanitarium, where she has discovered Bethany’s former roommate, Rhonda.
I’m not sure what to make of Rhonda. Pretty Little Liars has always done a good job at showcasing a diverse cast but I’m a little hesitant to embrace this character. Rhonda is a young black women and an obviously physically intimidating presence. It makes me uncomfortable that on a show where clever and terrifying mind games are usually what instill fear in the Liars, the decision was made to make a character that instantly frightens strictly on appearance alone a black girl. I’ve always been impressed with the casting choices made by the show but I will be, maybe unnecessarily, wary until her character is fleshed out more.
The Bradley/Aria storyline is picking up some steam. It’s nice to see Aria occupied with something/one other than Ezra. I feel as though Aria’s character has become defined by what the show insists is the endgame relationship. Aria rarely gets a chance to be outside of the Ezra sphere and the viewers deserve to understand Aria as a whole unattached person.
I can’t get a read on Emily. She seems to be the one that Ali holds the most sway over. She behaving in the completely opposite way that Hanna is. Hanna is ready for Ali and all her manufactured drama to just go away. Hanna and Caleb have just themselves back together and Ali is already trying to pull Hanna’s strings by telling her that she doesn’t trust Caleb. I know that’s because Caleb is so on to Ali’s game. Besides Mona, he has been the only person in all of Rosewood to go toe to toe with Ali and not flinch. Ali does not like not getting her way and she’s not manipulating Caleb at all.
Hanna and Caleb slowly finding their way to each other was my favorite part of the episode. Caleb has Hanna’s back no matter what happens and she needs that back up more than ever. “A” is starting to get the girls to throw suspicion on each other with a text sent to all the Liars except Hanna suggesting that Hanna has been running her mouth about things (most probably lies) that Ali has told the girls.
The one thing the show convinced me this week, other than Hanna and Caleb forever, is that Ali hasn’t changed. Just the looks she throws to various characters alone suggest her true motives, which I can only guess involves playing the girls off of each other for her amusement again while reasserting her dominance over Rosewood in general. I hope there’s a reason for need to be in complete control other than she just finds it fun to manipulate people’s lives. That’s a simple answer and I think Pretty Little Liars is more than capable of giving us a twisted yet satisfying one.
[Photo via ABC Family]
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