Pretty Little Liars 1.02 “The Jenna Thing” Recap

Tonight’s follow up to last week’s pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars kept the ball rolling nicely and the imagery between early Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl grows apparent each day, in a good way mind you. What do the Liars and ‘A’ have in store for us this week? Let’s find out.

True Pretty Little Girls Master The Art of Being Subtle

At a diner, our four little liars are all discussing the mess they are now in and what the hell Jenna is doing back in town. They then discuss what I think is the most integral point of the series so far, Allison (or “A”) has dirt on them, but what the hell do they have on her. Emily, Aria, and Hanna all admit that Allison never dared shared a secret with them, but Spencer pipes up that Allison told her that she was having a summer fling with a boy who was already taken. Who the boy was and who was the victim of the boyfriend snatch is unknown to Spencer. Hanna might’ve called it a semi-secret, but for me it’s a start. While the Liars discuss how much they missed their time together, Jenna walks into the diner alone, feeling her way to a seat. The girls all get up nervously and leave the diner and walk to their separate destinations, which to me is awkwardly and foolishly obvious to not only Jenna, but to anyone else in the diner as well. I would so be gossiping about them now if I had of been there…

Pretty Little Girls Face Their Problems Dead On… Then Run Like Hell

The next morning, Hanna and Ashley get ready for their day, but the tension is thick between them. They watch a news report that features Det. Wilden disclosing the specifics of Ali’s death (she was hit by a blunt object, but died from asphyxiation). After talking through the horror of Ali’s death, Hanna apologizes to Ashley for Det. Wilden, i.e, for having to sleep with the detective. Ashley says he’s out of the picture, but Hanna’s expression makes me think that is a ball-faced lie.

Another parent who deals in ball-faced lies is Aria’s father Byron, who announces to Aria and Ella that he will be home late due to an all nighter. Aria calls him out by saying his family should be his main focus point before leaving the room. Ella ponders what that is all about, but Byron downplays it. Ella, I’m going to need you to connect some dots.

Maya stops by Emily’s spot to talk about how Ali’s death has affected her due to the body being found near (or in?) her house, and having Ali’s old room is not helping matters either. Then Maya sort of resorts to flirting with Emily, resulting in the two girls hugging, which is interrupted by Mrs. Fields. Emily introduces Maya to her mother and after a short chat that involves Maya not being comfortable staying in Ali’s old room, Mrs. Fields comes up with a bright idea. She invites Maya to stay over for a couple of days and sleep in Emily’s room. You can practically see the flood gates opening with this suggestion…

Maya and Emily run into Spencer who is practicing field hockey. Maya makes a slight fool of herself in front of Spencer involving Ali’s old house, but it doesn’t unnerve anyone too much. After Spencer turns down a trip to get coffee, May notices that Spencer is kind of “intense”, which Emily says is due to her parents.

At school, Aria finds Ezra Fitz and asks to be removed from his class. He doesn’t want the grant the request, but Aria explains that she can’t sit there in his class calling him Mr. Fitz, which would really shatter the ‘wrong meter’ when you think about it. He finally signs the paper and sets his bird free… On school grounds that is.

Within the halls of Rosewood High we find out that Hanna has a boyfriend and so does Emily, who gets wigged when her boyfriend Ben (Steven Krueger) asks about Mays’s pajamas. I need to mention here that Ben looks like a lost member of Jacob’s Quileute Wolf Pack Tribe. Anyway. Then all of a sudden all four Liars are called to the principal’s office. Before they go, they all receive a text message from “A” that simply says, “Dead Girls Walking”.

Pretty Little Girls Don’t Do Bad Things That Blinds People aka “The Jenna Thing”

When the girls reach the office, they find out that Det. Wilden was the one who had them brought there. He ‘grills’ the girls about their final night with Ali and the scene is laughable, because the questions asked are so ludicrous that I would’ve been either giggling my ass off or pondering how did this guy become a detective. I’m just saying. When asked what’s the point of the “follow up” questions, Wilden just says that the girl’s questions match what they told the police last year, which makes it seem as if their answers are rehearsed.

The girls freak out later during lunch about their lying and the whole “Jenna thing” comes up again, but this time they argue about if they should’ve squawked then or now. Spencer declares that telling now wouldn’t bring Ali back or help Jenna see again, but it would only ruin their own lives. Suddenly, Jenna shows up and shocking the girls that she is back in school. Aria offers for Jenna to come sit with them and she does. The girls are freaked out, but Jenna drops a sorta bomb when she reveals that Ali visited her in the hospital. The awkwardness speaks volumes to the point that even Jenna feels it. She jokes about it, but this only leads us to a flashback of the apparent “Jenna” incident:

While the five girls try on clothes, Ali claims to have spotted Toby Cavanaugh, Jenna’s brother, spying on them outside the window. She decides to teach him a lesson. Ali leads the girls to a shed, which is said to be Toby’s little spot to hang. Ali plans on setting off a stink bomb in Toby’s shed, but Emily, Aria, Hanna and Spencer voice their discontent with the situation. Ali doesn’t listen to them and sets the bomb off anyway with Spencer’s lighter. After throwing the bomb into the shed, Ali spots something that we didn’t see and tells the girls to run. When they get a safe distance, there is small explosion in the shed, but the place rapidly catches fire afterwards. The girls flee the scene of the crime that could’ve possibly been how Jenna lost her sight.

In present day, all the girls’ phones start to ring at the table. Jenna smiles when the girls hesitate to answer texts, but prompts them to answer them. The message is obviously from “A” and this one reads, “If only she could see how guilty you look…” Chills, people…

Pretty Little Girls Keep Their Love Affairs In Order… Or At Least They Try To.

As Ezra Fitz starts his class on the topic of To Kill A Mockingbird and innocence, Aria arrives and lays her request to switch classes on Fitz’s desk. It was denied. Ezra Fitz stares at the notice like a lovesick goofball. I wonder if Aria changed her mind or if it was officially denied. I’m leaning to the former.

While studying at home, Hanna tries to entice her boyfriend Sean into having sex, but he declines. Hanna chalks his hesitance off to two things: 1. He only sees her as the friend she was before they hooked up or that 2. Sean is scared his father, who is a reverend, would frown upon the deed. Sean claims that neither is the case and that he just wants to wait. Um… something is up with that statement, because both seemed forced. Before Hanna can continue enjoying Sean’s company, Ashley shows up with Det. Wilden showing up a few moments later with dinner. Ashley has Hanna send Sean home. Wow.

Spencer sits and waits in a restaurant with her father Pete (Nolan North) who clearly thinks that Spencer is the boring one of his two daughters. Melissa and Wren show up and Spencer lets her flag fly as she does everything in her power to make her sister look stupid and her dad look stupider. But Wren likes what he sees in Spencer and plays along. Melissa, you also need to take a connect the dots class. Seriously.

Emily entertains Maya, who is still dissecting Spencer’s personality by comparing it to Emily’s through sports. After claiming how she stays away from “queen bees and mean girls”, Maya asks Emily what side of the bed does she usually sleep on. Emily responds that she sleeps in the middle and Maya says the same thing, but not just on a literal sense… This girl is working hard, yall. In the middle of the night, Emily lies awake nervous about Maya sleeping next to her. Maya, in her sleep, then lays her arm tenderly on Emily’s side, which Emily accepts after a moment of hesitation. Before I can even get an “uh-oh!” out my mouth, Emily’s phone starts to buzz and its a text from “A” saying, “Didn’t get a goodnight kiss? Here’s one. XO…”

Does “A” have a camera in these girls’ rooms? Or are our Liars bugged and don’t know it?

Pretty Little Girls Handle Complications the Best Way They Can… By Lying.

The next morning on the way to school, Ben still can’t get over his jokes on a hook up between Emily and Maya, not knowing that if he keep playing this hand, Maya might win it all and take his girl. When Emily let’s it be known that his jokes aren’t funny anymore, she plants a big kiss on him to calm his nerves, but this draws unwanted attention. Hanna later responds that she didn’t think Emily was a PDA person, but EMily declares there is a lot that Hanna doesn’t know. And how! Later that night, Emily cries in her room and Mrs. Fields comes to console her daughter, thinking the problem is still Ali’s death. When Emily claims that something might be “wrong” with her, Mrs. Fields doesn’t get the message and still insists that Emily and the other girls find a way to let Ali go so they can move on. Mrs. Fields is another student in my ‘connect the dots’ class it seems…

Aria gets a shock when Ezra Fitz shows up at the theater where her and Ella are about to watch a movie. Ella is shocked at how young (and ‘really cute’) “Mr. Fitz” is, but she invites Ezra Fitz to sit with them during the movie anyway. Awkwardness abounds…

Wren visits Spencer in her room and starts to joke around with her, but he turns the conversation over to the pressure she puts on herself to please her parents, something that he never had to do. He eventually makes his move and kisses her, which Spencer doesn’t hold back at first, but eventually (and reluctantly) tells him that it’s wrong. Wren leaves, but it’s too late. Melissa saw the whole thing and if we know Melissa, Spencer’s about to have some type of punishment land on her. The next morning, Spencer awakes to seeing Wren leaving the cottage with his things. Spence, that might be just the beginning of your problems.

Pretty Little Liars Have Company in Other Liars…

After shopping with Mona, Hanna catches Det. Wilden following her. It wasn’t even like he was trying to hide, though, because he’s being blatant about it. Take his badge, someone, please?! Anyway, Hanna begs for him to leave her and her mother alone, but Wilden says that’s not going to happen until he cracks the case. I don’t think harassing teen girls and bonking their mothers counts as great detective work, Wilden.

In the diner, Emily sits and thinks about the time Ali gave them all their friendship bracelets that Emily still wears to this day. Ali asks for Emily to tie hers on for her, signaling something more going on that the other girls didn’t catch. Aha! Emily was in love with Ali, but I bet Ali played that girl like a fiddle and screwed up her feelings. Oh well…

Ezra Fitz picks Aria up while it’s raining outside. They park in a secluded area and start to make out. All kinds of wrong their, but okay… Later, Aria comes home and Byron asks her to come sit with him and talk her inability to control her emotions. He then discuss with Aria that while the woman he cheated with teaches at his school, he doesn’t “see” her. Byron knows he made a mistake by giving into feelings that were wrong and not right, which he doesn’t think Aria understands, but will one day. Well, she’s been understanding for a couple of weeks now. Aria and Byron make a truce, but more out of Aria understanding her father’s predicament. After this, Aria gets a text from ‘A’: “When students kiss teachers, someone gets HURT. That’s a promise I’ll keep. – A”

When Spencer goes for a jog, she comes across Jenna texting on a pad of sorts and then answering her phone to say, “Send text now.” As Spencer looks on in horror, Jenna feels that someone is watching her.

Juicy.

With Love, From ‘A’

– So could Jenna be “A?” I heavily doubt it. Too early in the game to put a face to the elusive culprit behind the spine-tingling rext messages, but that doesn’t mean that Jenna has her own agenda up her sleeve. Who knows what Allison told her when she went to visit her in the hospital? That is if Allison even did visit her to begin with. With these bunch of characters, lying is a sport well played and I can’t do nothing but applaud their efforts.

– Emily was so in love with Allison, but this makes me think two things: 1. Maybe Emily isn’t really into Maya, but what Maya reminds her of Allison i.e, room, sexuality, bad girl status, etc. Remember when Emily thought Allison was back? She looked as if Maya was a thing of the past just that fast. 2. I think that Emily is actually “straight” or at least “bisexual”. If she is a lesbian, that’s cool too, but I think Allison completely screwed with Emily’s mind so much that I don’t think Emily really knows what she wants just yet. If Allison had of genuinely been affectionate to Emily when it came to that situation, then I would say maybe Emily was having a sexual awakening with Allison. But obviously, Allison used Emily like an old toy that she felt she could play with when she got bored. No respect for Allison in that department whatsoever.

– When it comes to Aria and Byron, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree in a way. Both are doing/did wrong things and gave into temptation when they both knew the situation was wrong and knew the risks and consequences if they are/were caught. I don’t think that the truce between them will last and I bet that when the crap hits the fan, it will be one epic shouting match in Casa Montgomery.

– Det. Wilden is the worst detective EVER! “Why did you guys fall asleep?” HELLO!!!! It was a sleepover, you moron!!!! Am I alone in this?

– Melissa is about to make Spencer’s life a living hell… Just watch and see.

– And is it just me? Or do these girls not know that subtlety goes a mile away. I swear my mouth would be working over time if I witnessed their blatant expressions/actions of guilt. Plus, you got to throw Ezra in that equation as well. His reaction to Aria’s “rejection” on her transfer? Itching for someone to snitch. Seriously!

– I find it fitting that the girls have to read To Kill A Mockingbird for their assignments and the fact that the next episode is called “To Kill A Mocking Girl”. Love the play on titles there.

That’s it for me this week. Sound off below or in our forums about what you think about the show, the books, or what have you. We are eager to hear your thoughts.