The Liars
Doesn't everyone look nice? It's a lot of effort for a scene that's just a plot recap, but the thing is, they all stay in these clothes for the whole episode so it actually did MATTER what they were wearing. You can't stick a girl in Loser Pants and an AS IF sweatshirt for an entire hour without the show becoming a comedy.
Caleb and Hanna
Hanna, who is wearing an outfit it would've behooved any Hollywood starlet to pick up for a court date, gets an earful from Caleb about how Mona is not trustworthy. Caleb is always right but Hanna ignores that because of Reasons. (I think she wants to believe in Mona again because everything else sucks.) Caleb also tells her he found an address in Philadelphia for CeCe Drake on Something that he and Toby found Somewhere. That will be handy for when Contrivance conspires to get Aria to Philadelphia.
Jake
And Contrivance arrives in the form of Jake, who has a martial arts match in the city. Aria wants to go see him kick the shit out of someone, because it makes her feel like he will beat up anyone who endangers her (that is me editorializing). Nobody discusses Jake's indeterminate age.
Wren and Mona
Wren (remember him? Shrink and also Spencer's sister's ex-fiance and Spencer's ex-hookup and also once he decided he was into Hanna?) interviews Mona -- back in Radley -- about her confession. She tells him that she knows he's not being loyal and that he should F off. He tells HER that he knows she's off her meds. He also tries to give her some kind of emotion-association test by showing her this terrible picture.
Yikes
It's supposed to be a happy family photo, but what we all know is that the boy child is being juggled like a bowling pin and is about to fall to his death, assuming Mr. Ed doesn't take a bite out of the little girl first.
Messages
Toby opens the envelope that A left for him last week -- except he opens it in a coffee shop, where he appears to have found it? Whatever. It contains this note, which he decodes to mean that he needs to talk to his mother's dementia-suffering psychiatrist again, which means that poor Toby has to emote some more.
Wren
Hanna asks Wren for some help with Mona, and this leads Wren to call someone and say there's a problem and that they each need to fix it. So Wren = potentially EEEEEEVIL. Which is way better than Wren continuing to be yet another on the town's long list of men who has the hots for underage girls.
Caleb
Caleb, looking cute in one of the two coats they've given him for this season, is going to tell Spencer's mother all about A being back. But Hanna bumps into him and gets pissed that he's going over her head. He says he's afraid he can't protect her anymore, and as the fighting turns to making out, Wren watches from his car. Creepy. So he's both EEEVIL and maybe still into dating seventeen-year olds. Maybe it's not that there are no hot high school boys in Rosewood; maybe it's that there are absolutely no women within the 18-34 age range.
Wren
Next, Wren tells Spencer's mother that he thinks Mona is planning to flip on them again, just to mess with the girls. He says she still hates everyone and is dangerous, and Spencer's mother believes this. So she goes to see Mona in Radley and they get verbally feisty with each other and Spencer's mother lightly threatens her that if Mona messes with them, she'll find out how dangerous Mama Hastings can be. It's a great idea to threaten a mental patient. I do it every day.
Maggie
MAGGIE. Bianca's name is Maggie on this show. Okay: Guess what? Ezra is not Malcolm's father. Fug Nation knew it first. Well, technically, Maggie did. She knew it was a possibility but didn't deal with it because she wanted it to be his. Ezra is very weepy about this, and Maggie just sort of sits there looking both cute and like her wardrobe is made up of pieces from everyone else's.
Emily
Emily and her mother are now staying with Dead Alison De Laurentis's mother. She and Emily bond over having visions of Alison, and Andrea Parker is awesome even though she is stuck in some really bad capri khakis, so she is the real hero.
Hanna
Hanna goes snooping up in Dead Alison's room, which is like a shrine to her. It exposes how hella batshit unflattering this dress is on her. It's such a shame, because it's theoretically cute, but actually as naughty as Dead Alison herself.
Red Coat
And while Hanna is snooping, Red Coat -- in the creepy Alison mask -- pops up behind her and glares at her in the mirror. As you do. Stupid Red Coat hates being subtle. There is NO REASON for this person not to have been caught yet because she/he waves herself like a flag.
Toby and Spencer
Toby goes to talk to the Old Doctor and basically he hallucinates that Spencer is Toby's mother, and mentions Mrs. De Laurentis's name. It was a very long scene.
Girl
Aria takes a detour in Philly: Predictably, she goes to CeCe's address, and finds her roommate moving out. I guess CeCe disappeared, and left the roommate with nothing but great earrings and a hideous shirt that makes her look bloated. The roommate tells Aria that CeCe hated all of Alison's friends and called them all She-Devils, and that she was kicked out of school and basically blames everyone for everything. For four basically nice people, man, EVERYONE hates these Liars.
Aria
Aria finally gives us a full look at her outfit, and it's really cute, and also -- again -- a lot more Hanna than Aria to me. Except for the fishnets. She ignores a call from Sad Ezra in favor of watching Boring Jake fight somebody so Sad Ezra stares sadly at himself in a mirror. Please can he develop a split personality, or go get a mask made of himself.
Flashback!
Spencer and Hanna confront Mrs. De Laurentis, and she reveals that CeCe Drake pretended to be Alison and checked herself into Radley, just to mess with Mrs. D. She hated CeCe and Alison was awful. The end. Nobody has ever shown a clip of anything, ever, that indicates why any of these people were ever friends with Alison. She was across-the-board awful, which makes it impossible to imagine why any of them ever put up with her. Anyway, Mrs D. said that Alison and CeCe were weirdly obsessed with each other, often switching clothes and personalities. Then WHY didn't she put a stop to it somehow? Your kid was, what, 14, 15? And CeCe was in college? THAT IS CREEPY, LADY.
Hanna
Hanna is wearing hot minty studded pumps, which don't look great with her black dress, but whatever, I'm just glad we got a foot shot. They discuss that Alison's mask-making habit ties into her and CeCe's obsessions with swapping identities, or whatever, and then Mama Hastings comes home and announces that an anonymous tip got her accused of badgering Mona and now she has to recuse herself from Sydney Andrews' defense. I would feel bad for her, except she should have known better than to sneak into Radley, pay off a guard, and hiss things at a loon.
Wren
Cut to Wren, coloring in the horrible picture with, yes, a red coat, while chirping away on the phone that he was just so SHOCKED that his almost-mother-in-law committed such an unethical act, and that he just HAD to turn her in for it. So he set her up, basically. So Wren is officially on Team Mischief, and his British accent makes his rotten soul sound very sexy.
Emily
The De Laurentis's heating was out, and a repair man found a hole in the basement indicating someone had been living there. They decide whoever it was is gone, but then Emily finds some drill holes that peep up into the house and she gets concerned that All Is Not Well. Dude, whether it seemed vacated or not, you BOARD THAT SHIT UP. Mrs. De Laurentis is not very security-minded for someone whose daughter disappeared and turned up dead. Also maybe call the police and look at the debris there, because you can probably have it fingerprinted and see how old it is. Then again... Rosewood PD is full of dumb and/or dead people. So maybe just hop on eBay and look for a home kit.
A
Meanwhile, in the rubble at Emily's house, A finds Sydney Andrews' dirty Manolo, and no, that's not a euphemism for anything. It is the shoe she wore the night Wilden died. You guys, it was earlier this SEASON and I don't even remember why it was at Emily's house and not Hanna's. Did Hanna hide them there? Well, the point is, A is winning. A always wins. Otherwise he/she would go by a lesser letter grade.