Pretty Little Liars Intel: To Kill A Mocking Girl

The girls, on the advisement of Mrs. Fields, are headed into the woods to do something to remember Ali. I'm willing to bet that Emily's mom did not mean for them to go alone into the depths of the woods, but whatever, I guess they used to hang out at a shed there back when Ali was still alive.

• Spencer is either super suspicious or super crazy and knows the exact number of steps from some random tree to the shed. 

Their outfits continue to be questionable and I can't wait until they all settle into their styles. They all have great hair from episode one, but it does take a few for the fashion to really gel. These outfits aren't terrible, but they seem a little baggy for TV.



Hanna, who is more worried about the insects out in nature, let's the bomb drop that she doesn't believe Ali is dead. (Honestly, I think Hanna is going to end up being the one to crack the entire mystery.) She points out that they've all received texts that include things that only Ali knows.

On cue, and after being freaked out by a snapped twig nearby, they receive the follow:



(I can't wait until they get normal cell phones, too.)

The next day (I guess? This show is insane with telling a one night story over four seasons, but then they fail to make it clear when it's one day or the next...) Hanna comes down to find Detective Wilden in her kitchen..wearing only a towel. I love when Hanna asks her mom while he is still around and says, "it was one pair of sunglasses and they were last seasons."

Meanwhile (?), Aria is at breakfast with her parents and is talking about her To Kill a Mockingbird love to her dad while her mom goes inside to get another muffin, but not before referring to the "father worshiping thing" in the book. This seems pointed, but I can't see where it would fit into the plot of who A is.

But someone worships Aria's daddy, because Jody from Center Stage saunters up and is all "I'm Meredith and I'm the one who boned your dad last year." EW!



It's all very awkward as Byron plays nice with Meredith and Aria is horrified and glares at the hussy the entire time.

Check out her feather earring, though:



I love it, but I also am so afraid of having saggy earlobes when I get old.

Speaking of cheaters...

Over at the Hastings house, it is Ice City in the kitchen where Melissa seems more upset about people finding out about her breakup than the actual losing her fiance thing. I love when Spencer walks into the room and Melissa pointedly gets up and throws all of her wedding magazines away. I also love when their mom makes Spencer eat her breakfast in the kitchen because she just got her bedspread dry-cleaned.

It should totally be noted that Troian Bellisario and Torrey DeVitto play such spectacular sisters! They're both so good!

At school, Mona and Hanna arrive, wearing horrible outfits, and find out Noel Kahn is having a party the next night:

• I thought there might be something more to Noel's last name. Something implied. But it is not spelled like the Star Trek guy and the only thing I see online is that it's a German name meaning "small boat". And, I'll be honest, I tried to google the other Khan, but man, nerd alert. 

Aria is like, totally over high school parties, though, and instead makes googly eyes with Fitz in the hallway and then later asks him out. He declines the invitation, which was, hilariously, to hang out with her AT HER MOM'S ART OPENING! Der, you've gotta hide that shiz, girl! (It's funny, though, because at the art opening, Meredith ends up weaseling her way in with an invitation and it's all very awkward. Meredith has balls to show up where Byron's wife is!)

• Check out the blackboard behind Fitz this time. These have to be on purpose, but I'm not sure what this one could mean. Insight vs. Intuition

Spencer, poor girl, is still totally stressed about being iced out of her family while dealing with her super difficult course load. I snapped a shot of her locker dry erase board but it doesn't look like it has any clues on it:




Everything stops, though, when Jenna comes walking down the hall, escorted by Toby! We get a flashback here.

• Toby saved Jenna from the fire that was caused by the stink bombs the girls through into the shed. 
• Toby is older than the girls. 

Wilden speaks with Hanna "for an hour", which is ridiculous because what the hell did he talk about for that long? Hanna, of course, one ups him during the informal interrogation, pointing out that her 10th grade yearbook photo wasn't in the book and he only saw it because he's been hanging out at her house wearing a towel a lot lately.

• Hanna says "it would be stupid to compete with Ali." 
• Hanna had mono in 10th grade.
• Wilden was the class of 1996. That makes him super old. (In comparison to the girls, I mean.) 
• Hefty Hanna! 

 After school, Spencer jets off to Philly, which I think is supposed to be an hour away, to plead with Wren to tell her family that he instigated the kiss. I love when she compares the Hastings house to the Hurt Locker.

Wren tells Spencer that he has already tried and, duh, they're not going to all of a sudden listen to Wren and stop being angry with Spencer. He is charming as eff and also tells her that maybe his "real mistake was falling for the wrong sister." DAYAMN!

We haven't really established Emily as being a huge jock yet, but she is. So much so that she is at school swimming and is somehow the only person in the locker room. Perfect for Sean to come in and be super aggressive and gross. I have to point out that I didn't appreciate his comment that she was treating him like "a marching band geek with funion breath". (I may have hated marching band, but I was in it and I was not a geek!)

Toby is there (WHY?), thank goodness, and beats up Sean while Emily is sort of not sure who she is afraid of, but then she is all "We're done!" to Sean so I guess she decided which boy was the real threat.

At the Marin's, Hanna is getting ready to head to Noel Not Khan's party, but Wilden is still in detective mode and tries to look in her purse after spotting her 'Hanna' bracelet. Ashley turns all "mama bear" (his words, not mine) and kicks him out finally! Woop!

For such a big lead up, you'd think that the party would have more clues, but nope! Actually, barely any clues in this episode at all, when you think about it. The party is out in the woods at Noel Not Khan's cabin and: Hanna tries to get Sean to sex it up, but he declines, Emily shows up with Maya and disses Sean, Spencer (jk, she is at home) steals Melissa's old paper and passes it off as her own, and Aria shows up for a hot minute before heading to her mom's art thing where she threatened Meredith.

• CHO-1274 Maya's license plate
• Melissa's paper was from 3/24/04 and Spencer turns it in on 9/24/10. We are to assume they are about six years apart in age. 
• They never saw Toby peeping in the window. (Remember when Ali yells that she saw him looking at them?)
• In a flashback, Spencer sees Ali threaten Toby to never tell anyone what really happened when Jenna lost her sight. Ali had something on Toby, which is why he took the fall.
• Ezra lives in apartment 3B

Noel Not Khan somehow has a photobooth at his cabin and Maya and Emily head in for some major flirting and...a kiss! But A steals the photos! Oh no!

Hanna receives this text after Sean says she seems desperate:(



Then she 'steals' his car and ends up crashing it. Sheesh! 

Emily thanks Toby for saving her and Jenna is creeping in the corner and all "WHY IS SHE THANKING YOU?!" Ugh, she is the worst.

 The girls do end up back in the woods for their Ali Remembrance thing and are again wearing kind of terrible outfits, but they're getting better!



And then they see this:



Alison's bracelett! ZOMG!


And, that's it! Well, we end with A printing out hundreds of copies of Maya and Emily kissing and posting them on the wall.


So, what's up with all of the To Kill a Mockingbird references? SPOILER ALERT. The one connection I can find now is that Ezra is kind of like Boo Radley. He gets accused of something he didn't do (being A), but he's actually innocent and has been watching the girls all this time and ends up helping them.

The other thought is about the symbolism of a mockingbird. These birds got their name because they don't have a call of their own and end up copying the calls of other birds. Is this referring to Ali's history of pretending to be someone else? We know she was hooking up with older guys. Is she a mockbingbird for pretending to be older? Or maybe the title of the episode is alluding to someone pretending to be someone else later? A twin, perhaps?


Do you have any theories!? I will admit that after the winter finale that aired this week, I am even more confused about who A could be. Alison answered a million questions, but then created a million more! Ahhhh! Let me know on twitter!