Pretty Little Liars Season 6, Episode 13 recap: The Gloves Are On

“Pretty Little Liars” may have started with a trip to the spa, but this week’s episode quickly went into hyperdrive as the Liars were drawn deeper into the investigation of Charlotte’s murder. Lucas resurfaced, Liam showed us his abs on video chat and Emily came clean…sort of. And then there’s the whole Caleb-Spencer thing. I think I’m equal parts scarred and intrigued by the developments on that front.

Last week’s recap: ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Season 6, Episode 12

The real kicker is what happened at the end — I did not see that coming, though in retrospect, I kind of feel like Hanna’s mom was talking to me when she said: “Don’t look so surprised.” In honor of Ashley Marin, I’ll try to conceal my shock as we recap the major reveals of the episode.

1. Emily’s lies spiraled out of control and into something that kind of resembles the truth.

Let’s start with the good news: Em isn’t sick. Do I feel some kind of way about being manipulated into thinking she was? Absolutely. But let’s not dwell on that. After getting a letter that was obviously forwarded from Pepperdine, Emily was forced to tell her mother that she had dropped out of school. She also told Pam what we’ve already figured out: the graduation photo, as well as the stories about her fellowship and grad school ambitions were all lies.

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When Hanna caught Emily giving herself injections in Aria’s bathroom, Emily divulged even more. The injections are hormones because she’s preparing to donate her eggs. Emily is planning to help a family conceive a child and make some money in the process. Our girl is broke, which explains that pesky credit card issue. It turns out that not only did Emily drop out of school, she also blew through all of the money she got after her dad died.

Emily is definitely still holding on to some secrets, though. Despite Pam’s urgent plea that Emily not keep things from her, Em decided to pour a glass of wine into shrubbery instead of tell her mother why she isn’t imbibing.

2. We found out exactly what happened to Sara Harvey.

In addition to all of Emily’s financial stress, Emily had to confront Sara, who was following her throughout Rosewood. When Emily, Spencer and Hanna tried (without much success) to enjoy a spa day, courtesy of Hanna’s mom, Emily discovered that Sara was catching some R&R of her own in a nearby room. When Pam followed Emily to town to confront her over her lies, there was Sara, staring creepily at Emily from across the street.

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Eventually, Emily met up with Sara at the Radley bar, where Sara basically said she was targeting Emily because she knows she feels bad about what happened to her. Sara offered to take off the gloves she’s been sporting for the past three episodes and Emily looked genuinely afraid. When Em tried to say that she wasn’t responsible, Sara shot back: “Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?”

In last week’s episode, Lorenzo told the Liars that the police had ruled Sara out as a suspect in Charlotte’s death because her burns would have made it difficult for her to carry out the crime. Ultimately, it was Spencer who revealed what really happened. Remember when Emily punched Sara in the face at Radley? Back when Radley was a sanitarium and not a swanky hotel and bar? Apparently, Sara tried to get up and latched onto live wires. It’s hard to ignore the parallels with Jenna’s accident, though Sara’s injury was the result of more than just a mean girl prank gone bad.

3. Ezra got really angry. Hash tag angry.

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Before we get to Ezra, let’s talk a bit about who wasn’t at the spa: Aria. Aria’s been laser-focused on getting Ezra to relinquish the chapters of his second novel. This is for work — her boss is super intense, after all — but it’s clear that Aria’s concern about Ezra extends far beyond whether or not he fulfills his book commitment. Liam and his abs don’t stand a chance. As far as the Liars (Aria, notwithstanding) are concerned, Ezra is suspect number one in Charlotte’s murder. They reason that he would do anything to protect Aria and — reminder — he’s in a very dark place.

The fact that Aria left the hotel with Ezra the night Charlotte died, but can’t explain what Ezra did afterward has already caused major issues. Lorenzo and his colleagues at the Rosewood Police Department have already figured out that a significant portion of hotel footage from that night has been erased– a detail that made its way to Ashley, who confronted Hanna about whether she erased the tape. Poor Ashley got a firm (and false) denial. Enter Lucas, who has made quite the name and fortune for himself as an app developer in Palo Alto, and still carries a soft spot for Hanna. Lucas agreed to be her alibi and it was a flimsy one — as the story goes, on the night Charlotte died, Lucas came to the hotel, where he and a tipsy Hanna shared a platonic all-night conversation and an order of mozzarella sticks.

Over lunch at the Radley (seriously, is there nowhere else to eat in this town?), Aria confronted Ezra over the thumb drive he gave her, which consisted mostly of gruesome images he qualified as “research.” The real writing was in a notebook that Ezra hadn’t touched since before Nicole disappeared. Their lunch meeting also revealed another sad detail about Ezra’s life after South America: he may have a problem with alcohol. Ashley refused to serve him, instead offering to send over an iced tea, because of a recent “incident.” It doesn’t bode well that Ezra’s only defense was that “nobody broke a chair.”

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Despite Ezra’s alarming behavior, Aria continued to try to work with him on the book. She read and transcribed his notes, leading her to conclude that the book was really good after all. Emily’s take was slightly different: that the book was clearly about Aria and one more reason to believe that Ezra would kill to protect his ex-girlfriend. When Aria tried to dismiss the severity of their relationship (“it was high school”), Emily was quick to remind her: “not for him!”

Things came to a head when Aria finally decided to ask Ezra if he killed Charlotte. Only instead of asking, she went on a long-winded speech about how she knows he’d protect her and that she would do the same for him, even lying to the cops if she needed to. By the time Emily, Hanna and Spencer showed up with their own accusations, Ezra was done. Bellows is the only word that seems appropriate, so here goes: “Get out!,” Ezra bellowed. Aria thought she was excluded from this command, but Ezra threw her out too, strongly implying that while he’s not upset about Charlotte’s death, he also wasn’t responsible for it.

Miss a previous recap? Read them here.

4. Spencer and Caleb went there.

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In a storyline that will no doubt fuel tension in episodes to come, Spencer finally told Hanna, in so many words, that she has feelings for Caleb. Hanna looked sort of like she’d been punched in the gut, but also seemed to understand that she could no longer lay any claims to her ex, especially since she’s engaged to Jordan. How emotional was it when Spencer said she didn’t know if Caleb felt the same way and Hanna took a deep breath and calmly said “well, then I think you should find out.”

This conversation was made possible in part by Melissa Hastings, another blast from the past, who was in town to help her mother’s campaign. As soon as Melissa saw Spencer and Caleb together, she called her sister out on trying to hide her feelings. Being Melissa, she also couldn’t help work in a dig. “I know you like to shop from other people’s carts.”

When Spencer got home after Ezra’s angry outburst, Caleb was there to comfort her. After sharing the story about her role in Sara’s injury, Spencer confessed that she’d been “judging herself” for something else. She and Caleb held hands by the crackling fire, shared a passionate kiss and, well, “PLL” sex scenes moved five years forward.

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5. Somebody is picking up where A left off.

Spencer was so focused on Caleb that she didn’t see the text she — and the other Liars — had gotten. “You know who did it and I’m going to make you talk.”  We literally saw Charlotte in her casket, so it looks like we have another A on our hands. And this one signs off with a devil emoji. As the episode ended, we were back in familiar territory as the doll masks and hoodies came out of storage. The hoodies haven’t held up so well, so this villain is looking for a new uniform. Who googles UNIFORMS in all caps like that?

Sara Harvey seems an obvious choice here — she didn’t ever actually take those gloves off. But there are a host of other possibilities. Lucas was, at one point, on the A-team, and giving Hanna a key to his Rosewood loft would be kind of a genius, psychopathic move if he were A. Also on the A team back-in-the-day was Mona, who according to a Hollis University reporter, approached Spencer’s mom about working for her campaign and was rebuffed. There’s also the unknown visitor to Charlotte’s grave from last week’s episode. And as Hanna astutely observed during this week’s episode, no one has heard from Ali since that awkward dinner at her house. After everything Ali did to get Charlotte home, I wouldn’t put it past her to avenge her sister’s murder.

Lingering questions: Who sent the menacing group text? What else is Emily lying about? Are Spencer and Caleb going to start dating? How will Hanna respond (since I basically already answered my own question)? And how will Toby react? How long is Sara Harvey staying in Rosewood? And when do we get to meet the “sir” that showed up at Charlotte’s grave?

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