Pretty Little Liars Episode 420 Recap: Free Fall, Expensive Pills

PLL420-00221

BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE

Simultaneously happening, Ambrose Pavilion turns out to be a reptile house, because OF COURSE IT IS, of course Pretty Little Liars is just capitalizing on all of my biggest fears: dentists, garbage disposals, now snakes? What’s next, people hiding out in the bushes near your house late at night? Oh wait.

PLL420-00013

Anyway, we’re at the snake place, ugh, and the audio about the snakes keeps mentioning carnivorous. Uhhhhh.

PLL420-00279

Eh, it’s not THAT impressive, I’ve used dicks with Paige that were at least twice as big.

Spencer is late. Someone in a blonde wig comes in, who they assume is Spencer, but then the real Spencer comes in behind them. So who is in the blonde wig, hmm?

PLL420-00284

What’s that, the Liars are somewhere at night? Let’s fuck with the electricity!

The Liars get trapped in the exhibit and all the lights start flashing and at this point in the show, which is at the same time as Ezra chasing Aria through the woods, I am not too proud to tell you that I was hiding behind my hands for this part. They eventually bust out of the reptile exhibit and pass a discarded blonde wig.


PLL420-00275

What ski lift is open until 8pm in an off season?

Aria runs to some ski lifts, which are very conveniently closed, and Ezra hops on just at the last second.

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I told you like twelve times I wanted the cookie dough Oreos but you keep buying the birthday cake kind and I just won’t fucking stand for it anymore and THAT’S why we’re breaking up, Ezra!

Being caught on a stopped ski lift with someone who may or may not want to kill you sounds like a terrible idea, don’t you think? But it is a great time to make someone listen to you.

PLL420-00302

Learn to write your story in complete sentences, asshole. It’s not a clever voice, it’s just stupid.

She starts screaming at him (I am all for that reaction, seriously) about how much he’s lied and hurt her. He admits many, many things here:

1. He knew Alison when she was alive. She lied to him about her age.
2. He says he never hurt Alison.
3. He is working on a true crime novel about her.
4. He knew who Aria was when they met.
5. He took the Rosewood job knowing it would put him closer to the Liars.
6. He knew Alison was alive.
7. He says he’s in love with her.

PLL420-00014

She is holding his manuscript telling him that she’s going to read every last word, wanting to know what was worth destroying their relationship over. I am so Team Aria at this point. Ezra shoves it out of her hands. It falls a million feet to the ground. He didn’t think to make copies and now it’s all in the freezing lake with eels?! Ughhhh.


PLL420-00305

Mona fixes her hair, perhaps after being under a blonde wig? Hmmmmm make that obvious.

We dash on over to the Montgomery household, where Mona is coming in late for a date with Mike, who is a jerk and started their movie without her. I think it was Mona in the blonde wig at the snake exhibit. Thoughts on this? Aria comes in, looking just about as traumatized as you’d imagine. How’d they get off the ski lift? She walks right past Mona, who looks guilty as fuck.


PLL420-00322

I’m back for ONE fucking episode and you’re already on drugs? Jesus, Spencer.

Spencer comes home to Toby waiting up for her. He says her mom was worried about her. Totally, totally busted. Toby gives better guilt trips than my own mother, and that’s saying something. He gives her a necklace, which was meant for their date. Why is Toby such a hopeless romantic in this episode?

PLL420-00326

Wonder how dehydrated Troian got filming this episode with all of her tears.

Spencer’s mom also guilt trips her, and confirms that she used to have a drug using problem, which solidifies the fact that A didn’t sneak that note into her file. Also, is it weird that no one asks Spencer where she was? Really?


PLL420-00331

Symbolic placement of literature? Don’t mind if I do!

Aria is lying in a comatose state at her house, naturally as one is known to do after finding out their boyfriend is a stalker whackjob, and an amazing Lily Lane song is playing.

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Reasons Aria would need to leave Rosewood: 1) Ezra is a criminal/definite stalker. So save your little heartfelt inscriptions, buddy.

She looks over at the Sherwood Anderson book (Winesburg, Ohio) that Ezra gave her “For when you need to leave Rosewood, Ezra” is written on the inside. She throws the book across the room.

aria-throws-ezras-book

I love that they gave Aria a little bit of a ragey moment here. My rage feels validated by her rage.


PLL420-00337

Fucking litterbugs.

Over in A land, A is picking up the manuscript pieces. Note that they aren’t showing us it is Ezra. We just get the black hoodie and black gloves.

Big things we learned in this episode:

– So much stuff about Ezra! He’s writing a true crime novel, knew who Aria was, knew Alison, et cetera.
– Spencer has a history of substance abuse.

Okay, I think it’s huge that Ezra admitted to knowing Ali. It’s really interesting that his character has become so ambiguous. Is he good or bad, truly? It seems way too obvious that the show has told us he is A and we’ve never seen him in the black hoodie. We saw Toby in the black hoodie before the Liars knew, but never Ezra. It could mean that he’s the big A, or that he’s separate, or a C-team, or a good cop even? It could literally mean anything. Maybe he’s even a mediocre writer and he’s telling the truth.

Do you think Ezra loves Aria or do you think he was telling her that to get the manuscript back? Here’s the promo for next week.

Looks like Aria’s going to finally snap.

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Hansen

Hansen is the former DIY & Food Editor of Autostraddle.com and likes to spend most days making and cooking and writing. She teaches creative writing at Colorado State University and is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in her free time.

Hansen has written 189 articles for us.

18 Comments

  1. I still think Ezra is guilty, guilty, guilty. His story was just a little too convenient, and I hope Aria doesn’t buy it.

    We have seen Ezra in a black hoodie, I think, in the episode where the Liars discover his Ravenswood lair.

  2. First, the dentist’s office, and now, a snake exhibit. What the hell, Pretty Little Liars?! Are you TRYING to kill me?

    I also think it was Mona pretending to be Spencer pretending to be Alison at the zoo. But, at the time, I couldn’t help but think how much it looked like Helena from Orphan Black because of how she was slouched over and a little ragged looking.

    Ezra is the worst. And the creepiest. Did he just admit to sleeping with not one, but two underage girls? And that he knowingly took advantage of Aria for his dumbass book?

    • Ezra is definitely the worst. What is with the men in this town sleeping with teenage girls?! Are there literally no women over the age of 18 in Pennsylvania at this point? Is see you Wren, Ian, Officer Holbrook, arguably Wilden… wtf.

  3. 1. I really appreciate the “Love Actually” reference.

    2. I hadn’t considered Mona as the girl in the blonde wig.

    3. I literally screamed when Ezra showed up on the ski lift.

    4. This show compounds my anxiety. If anxiety were interest, I would be making bank after each episode.

    • I hadn’t seen that video before! I’m not crying right now or anything don’t even worry about it

    • Thanks for sharing, but I really think you should warn someone to take a deep emotional breath before sending them off to watch that!

      Also, there were some weird PLL parallels – the other woman looked a bit like Ali, I thought. And the camera and period setting reminded me of the scene in the 40s episode with Paige and Aria and the camera. And the accident on the bridge seemed kind of suspicious to me.

    • Okay, that settles it, I’m definitely projecting the SUPER GAY VIBES that Troian has onto Spencer. That woman sure likes to dabble in her sapphic short films…

      (Now, if only Dianna Agron could team up with Troian for something……….)

  4. Wait, was I the only person who thought Ezra was A but he was just lying to Aria? Seriously, the whole time I was like, Aria, don’t believe him! Clearly he’s A! I mean, what? Why did he have cameras on them everywhere they went? That’s not how you write a novel! I don’t understand why everyone (like the entire internet) thinks that Ezra was telling the truth to Aria about being “an author,” I am so confused. Why’d he tell Spencer she was going down a “dangerous path” and why would he hide his manuscript in a cook book and why would he dress like A? whatttt

    • Yup. I’m wiith you Riese. I think there’s still a lot more to find out about him. But even if he’s not “A” he’s still scum.

      • Oh, I definitely still believe he’s A. He’s the only one with the resources and the funds to be able to do so. If they actually follow through with the “he’s only writing a book” and redeem his character, I will be so pissed.

    • EXACTLY. isn’t stalking and filming to that extent like really illegal or something? OR SOMETHING?

      not how you write a book!!!!

    • No, I’m actually gobsmacked by how many people bought his awful lie, especially since I thought it was explicit in the TV show that “You guiz, Ezra is totes lying to Aria and he’s super scary AND SHE’S NOT TAKING ANY MORE OF HIS SHIT”

      • Yeah!! I thought the TV show was telling us that Ezra was obviously lying to Aria — because we know SO many things she doesn’t know about his actual activities, so w/r/t the rules of storytelling, that’s the only thing that makes sense for the show to have done. i was 95% sure that aria wasn’t gonna buy it, or was just pretending to buy it, but then i realized that she didn’t know all the stuff that we know. but i guess in the past the writers have said that ezra wasn’t A? that’s what i read somewhere. i mean, what, is A also sending out photographers to follow the liars? wouldn’t ezra and a have um, crossed paths considering they were both full-time stalking the liars? if they try to make this that ezra isn’t A then i am going to be so upset.

  5. Yeesh! Ezra is such a tool! So he not only admitted to accidentally sleeping with one underage girl, he also admitted to knowingly sleep with another! I can’t believe the people who I see trying to excuse his actions at this point. I also saw some mainstream site wondering if he could be redeemed and talking about how all the love interests have done bad things. Which is true, but then they fucking compared Ezra screwing his student and Paige being a bully to Emily and dunking her once like they were somehow anywhere close to as bad a thing. Yuck!

  6. even if he’s writing a book [really?] he initiated a relationship with a 16 year old to gain access for his book. that’s statutory rape and a pile of other things. i’ve struggled with the relationship throughout the series but they seemed genuinely respectful and caring, but now it’s just creepy and falls into sexual exploitation. for real. the only way for this to be redeemed/explained is for her to realize she was sexually exploited and work through that in some way.

    also, fuck your book. you don’t need to take advantage of underage impressionable people to write a book. just the weirdest, most obviously bad thing ever.

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