Posted by Dustin on 06.23.2010 at 2:03 pm

So yet another amazing episode of “Pretty Little Liars.” First a mini-cap of some of the highlights, then some thoughts . . . then I’ll give you a few things from the books that haven’t been in the show. Whether they are useful, you can decide (nothing spoilerish or ahead of where we are on TV).

Toby, the “creepy peeping tom kid” returned in this episode. We learned he is Jenna’s step-brother and was sent away for a year for starting the fire that burned the garage and Jenna. What we also learned was that Allison was the only one who claimed to have seen him peeping in their windows, they didn’t have proof other than her, and Allison basically blackmailed him into taking the fall for her. So Allison knew something on him.

Hannah used to be “Hefty Hannah” and was the fat girl of the group that Allison tortured a lot (but it seems she tortured them all on some level). Hannah had always loved her boyfriend Sean, who has taken a virginity pledge and refuses to have sex with Hannah. Could he be gay?

The detective who is now Hannah’s mom’s boy toy questioned Hannah about a lot of what was going on with Allison last summer, who was who. Hannah kept her mouth shut pretty well, and even said she did some digging on him when he went to school here years ago and he was apparently a real party guy. Later when Hannah’s mom found him looking through her purse, she threw him out, but not before he found a bracelet that was a gift from Allison (the bracelet she gave to all the girls with their names on them).

Aria found out the woman her dad was fooling around with, a former student at the college, was now a TA there. She was also making a hard play for her dad again. The mom put on some kind of art show and she showed up! Aria threatened her, but she basically just laughed at her and said she can’t do anything about this. That girl is in trouble!

Ben kept pushing Emily to sleep with him, even attacking her in the women’s locker room. Toby came to her rescue though, and she didn’t know why. However when Jenna learned what he did, she was NOT happy with him. At the end of the show (or in the previews?) Toby told Emily to be careful who she trusted.

Emily and Maya went to a big party together (where everyone was) and made out in a photo booth. Someone with black gloves took their photos though, and by the end of the show had made a million copies and stapled them all over their wall. Bizarro!

Spencer had troubles at home after Melissa caught her and Wren kissing and called off the wedding. Melissa blamed it all on Spencer. Spencer was under pressure to get a paper in, but with all that was going on couldn’t concentrate. She stole an old paper of her sister’s and turned it in as her own.

The girls all decided to pick a tree to decorate as a memorial tree with stuff Allison gave them. They ended up in the woods with their things, but Aria wondered why they were keeping this hidden? She said they should pick a tree in town, or buy a bench or something. They wanted whoever killed Allison to have to see it every day. Suddenly someone was heard in the woods running away. The girls investigated and found Allison’s bracelet . . . the one she supposedly went to her grave with!

Soooooo . . . . the fact that someone (the killer?) has the photos, made copies and so neatly put them up on the wall probably counts out Jenna, unless she really isn’t blind or has someone working for her? Who would be so obsessed with either Emily (Ben?) or Maya (?) to make so many copies of their kissing photo?

It’s a horror movie cliche, but after this episode I got the feeling that the cop/detective might be Allison’s killer. He was far to interested in things about Allison’s past, who she knew and stuff, things he claimed gave him a better perspective on the past . . . yet Hannah had to wonder what any of it had to do with the case? Also he seemed very interested in Hannah’s bracelet, and then of course there was Allison’s dropped one at the end of the show. Hannah also pointed out what a party boy he was back in his day . . . and a week or so ago they made it a point to say Allison was dating an older man, but nobody knew who he was. I just have a feeling he was who Allison was seeing, and he may have been the one to kill her . . . now he’s trying to make sure nobody can connect them (cause clearly Allison had a whole lot of secrets she was keeping from everyone).

Now for some thoughts from the book. First up, I am not even UP to the point in the book where the show is. I’m only about 30% through the book and they haven’t even found Allison’s body yet (but the girls are getting emails and notes from “A,” no texts though). So no real spoilers, just additional thoughts.

In the book they don’t hint around at all that Maya is a lesbian. She comes out and tells Emily as much. She says she’s going to dump her boyfriend who lives back in California because she likes boys, but doesn’t like them like she likes girls. She also makes note that her boyfriend is clingy, having already written her two letters in the span of a week. The sexual tension between the two is also much more . . . . evident in the book. Basically they go places with descriptions and scenes (and the lack of clothing) which they obviously can’t do on television given these are supposed to be teen girls.

In the book they make it a point when Emily and Maya met as Maya’s family was moving in for Emily to note all the junk outside Allison’s house with a sign “Free, please take.” It was things from Allison’s room that the family left behind, even boxes of old school books and the like. I think that was important, because it wasn’t really made clear in the show. Could Maya have found a journal with all the girls secrets? Then again, Maya couldn’t have stolen the photos from the booth in the scene in the show. I don’t know if they’ve changed the killer from the books for the show. Her obsessive boyfriend from the book?

In the books we learn “Hefty Hannah” became bulimic to lose all her weight. Also in the books Hannah out right questions whether Sean could be gay, because of his virginity pledge and the fact that he dresses well and is nice to everyone no matter who they are. She also wonders if perhaps he is “just terrified of vagina.”

In the book we learn that Spencer has always been in her sister’s shadow. No matter how many AP classes she took, her sister took one more. No matter how many clubs she was in, her sister was in more. She could never live up to her perfect sister, who was clearly the favorite. Her sister also had just met Wren like two months prior when they came to town and planned to live together (I don’t think they were planning to marry). Wren also had a lot more sexually tense scenes with Spencer in the book, again stuff that wouldn’t fly on TV.

Finally some things from the book about the cop/detective also clue in he may be the killer. (Note I read this chapter after seeing the show, so I already had my suspicions.) In the book he’s a cop, not a detective. It seems his pretty much a newbie on the force. They made it a point to say he was a senior when they were all in 7th grade, when Allison disappeared (in the book Allison is gone 3 years not 1). He also had a reputation for sleeping with half the girls in the school as well.