'Pretty Little Liars': It Happened That Night 3.01 Recap

Full of drama, secrets and new surprises, the new season of ‘Pretty Little Liars’ did not disappoint!

The episode starts five months after the season 2 finale with the four girls hanging out at Spencer’s house drinking and talking about their summers and the start of school. During the middle of the night, almost like that dreaded Labor Day Weekend when Ali went missing and was murdered, Aria and Hanna woke up looking for one of the girls, Emily, and Spencer came walking in to the room saying that she disappeared and couldn’t find her. You then see Emily standing in front of Alison’s dug up grave with the coffin open. When the girls arrive, Emily can’t remember anything that and someone had broken in to Spencer’s house and used her phone to call Emily’s phone. Spencer leaves a note for her mom, and they leave immediately for the lake house and make it seem like they were there all night. In the morning, the girls receive a call from Dr. Sullivan informing them that Ali’s body has gone missing. They weave together a lie about what they did that night and decide that “last night never happened.”

When the show returned from commercial, it almost seemed as though the night before really DIDN’T happen as Aria seemed to have woken up from a nightmare until Ezra brought up that the girls were at the lake house and far away from Rosewood last night and showed Aria the paper. Ezra tries to lighten the mood and bring up their “anniversary” of when the met. Can Lucy Hale and Ian Harding be any cuter??

Cue a Hanna scene with one of her many funny quotes to lighten the mood. As she talks to her mom while shopping, she points out that an outfit makes her mom look pregnant. Ashley then points out that you have to have sex to get pregnant. As like almost any mother/daughter relationship, Hanna gets grossed out and tells her mom that “you’re allowed to date, but you’re not open for business.” Of course Spencer’s mom hears and asks, “you’re opening a business?!” Got to love some of the funnier scenes where lines are misconstrued and questioned wrongly.

We then see that Hanna has been lying about her whereabouts and has been visiting Mona in the psych hospital. While Hanna is talking to Mona, she tells her that she has been there for herself to try to understand why Mona hated her so much. Well Hanna, you did kind of abandon her and treat her almost as Ali had before she died. Think that could have any effect on her feelings towards you? As she is leaving Mona, she runs in to Wrenn just outside of the door. Does he just pop up/work everywhere? My goodness.

Cue Toby’s abs. Whaaaaaaaaaaat?! They could create a character of their own! That’s a 12 pack right there! Wait! What just happened in that scene? REWIND! Ok. So Toby’s plumbing is out and he has to use Spencer’s shower. Can it stay out? Phew! Basically that scene involves kissing, some flirting, and questions of waiting until Toby calms everything down. They talk about Alison a bit before Spencer finally has to stop the conversation because of the memories it brings up.

There is finally a bit of reality brought in to everything that has gone on with Aria having a panic attack after being locked in a bathroom stall and someone walking around the bathroom dressed in all black as if about to attack her. Normally, the girls just scream and then all is well. But it seems that the situation is finally being written in to the story in a more realistic way with panic attacks and just being down right afraid to go anywhere. Hanna’s one liners come back again though and calm the mood as she uses one of her new words she was bring in to her vocabulary over the summer, “one day we will all have jubilation.”

At the end of the season 2 finale, I don’t think anyone would have thought the girls would go back to the Lost Woods Resort for any reason. But when we see Spencer pack up her laptop and then later pull up in front of the now completely deserted motel, something is up. As she walks in to one of the rooms, it is completely empty except for a desk. No bed, no dressers, nothing and Spencer is seen setting up her laptop taking a look around the room.

Yet again, Wrenn pops up and seems to be at the psych ward again. He is calling ‘Ms. Rivers’ (Hanna’s fake name to visit Mona, but who doesn’t know Hanna and the other girls by now?) to tell her that the doctors believe that her visits are having an effect on Mona and helping her to make some progress. Of course no one knows about her visits or that she ran in to Wrenn so when Caleb walks in to the room, Hanna quickly pretends that she is talking to Spencer and hangs up the phone. Oh Hanna. You are not subtle at all.

Does anyone else just love the Emily/Toby friendship? Toby is always so willing to talk to Emily and help make her feel better. After everything that Emily has been through, she needs someone like that.

All throughout the episode, Spencer has been receiving calls from an unknown number and making up who they are and ignoring the calls. Finally she answers the phone and before we can find out who it is, the police are at the door for Aria. The girls are being questioned about their whereabouts when Alison’s body was stolen and they tell their lie about being at the beach house that night catching up from their summer apart. The poor girls are always suspects when it comes to the case.  But does anyone still get the feeling that there is more to Ali and Jenna and everything that started the whole fiasco than has been told already? I know I sure do.

Hanna goes back to the psych hospital the next day as Wrenn had told her that she should to see the change that has been occurring in Mona. As Hanna is talking to Mona, Mona gets this really nice, friendly smile on her face that makes it seem as though she is really turning around and there is a breakthrough, but as the camera pans over, we see that Mona is seeing Ali sitting in a chair. And what is she wearing but a red trench coat! Could that be who Mona has been “listening to” all this time? Is Ali still being her conniving self even from the grave for Mona?

We finally find out who has been calling Spencer. Officer Garrett. He informs Spencer that the police were very close to pining Alison’s death on her and that all the evidence they have against him is bogus. He doesn’t know who killed Maya, but he may know who killed Alison and tries to negotiate getting Spencer’s mom as his lawyer. As he is being dragged away, he tells Spencer that he also knows who stole Ali’s body.

As Emily is going for a run, she sees a car that she seems to recognize and receives a text that says “I bet you remember me.” She recognizes the car from when she was dragged to the cemetery because of the convertible openings and the color of it. She thinks that she has begun to selectively forget stuff that has happened, kind of like the fugue state that Clay Evans was in during the last season of ‘One Tree Hill’. Spencer then tells the girls that she has something to show them. She takes them to the Lost Woods Resort and shows them that she has been recreating A’s lair so that they can tell the police exactly what they saw because everything had been taken out of the room after the accident. They then come to the conclusion that Mona was having help the whole time and are on the search for the Black Swan. The final cliffhanger is when the girls hear the car alarm going off and see hundreds of pictures of the girls around Emily at the grave when they thought that no one was watching them.

“Mona played with Dolls. I play with body parts. Game on, bitches. ~A”

Check out the promo for next weeks episode, Blood is the New Black (June 12, 2012) and come back here for another recap after the episode!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7nczMJrzFI&w=853&h=480]