Pretty Little Liars Review: “Grave New World” (Season 4, Episode 13)

For a teen drama, Pretty Little Liars has done a commendable job of establishing a certain level of creepiness that sets it apart from the competition. For this season in particular, the team behind PLL has put an emphasis on this aspect of the show, but there’s nothing like adding a cemetery to the mix to make for a spooktacular Halloween episode, right?

The last time we saw our favorite Liars they were raiding the lair of “A,” or board shorts, as he might have been renamed, in the nearby town of Ravenswood. Their mission to find out what happened to their best friend Alison (Sasha Pieterse), propelled by a faceless menace that has targeted the group in recent years, has led them to this eerie town before, but this is the first time the entire group has made it within the perimeter.

You may notice that the colors that were muted during daylight hours to convey a more palpable sense of the haunted feeling the town gives off were more vibrant this evening. Although the original concept made for a great horror story vibe in the singular sense, with Ravenswood becoming the backdrop for the Pretty Little Liars spin-off, it also set a precedent for the overall look of the show. The combination of the less intense tones and the ominous music might be a bit much when considered in the context of multiple episodes but I’d say that the new aesthetic choices are a welcome change, and looked more on par with what Pretty Little Liars generally delivers.

Besides the change in logistics, the story is pretty much the same. Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Aria (Lucy Hale), Hannah (Ashley Benson), and Emily (Shay Mitchell) are following a clue that they hope will lead them to Ali. The Liars have come up with all sorts of theories over the years about what happened to her, but have never been closer to the truth. Even though police have been unable to find her killer (at least, beyond a reasonable doubt), that hasn’t stopped her friends from letting ‘A’ guide them in the right direction – and the wrong direction – meanwhile, throwing every possible mis-direction at his/her disposal at them along the way.