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Pretty Little Liars Review: “Out, Damn Spot” (Season 5, Episode 19)

Pretty Little Liars is like a game of spin the bottle - except when the bottle lands on a character, they don't get rewarded with a kiss. Instead, they get accused of being part of the A-squad. The latest victim of this crude game of chance is none other than Aria's (Lucy Hale) little brother, Mike (Cody Christian). As if this kid hasn't been through enough with his girlfriend turning up dead (err, suspected to be dead), he's now become mixed up with whatever sordid plan Ali (Sasha Pieterse) is concocting from the comfort of her jail cell while she awaits trial for the aforementioned murder. What a tangled weave the writers have transfixed viewers with the season.

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pretty-little-liars

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Let’s take a moment to talk about how punctual A was with sending out the photo of the blood samples. The staging was perfect. Aria, Emily (Shay Mitchell), and Spencer (Troian Bellisario) were waiting to tail Cyrus outside the diner and the text provided a convenient distraction for him and Mike to slip away. The Liars definitely need to work on their sleuthing skills. If tonight was any indication of where their skill level has petered off at, then they’re in trouble. Especially since if Mike really had just given Cyrus the samples, logic dictates that he wouldn’t have wasted his time confronting the Liars. Nancy Drew would have come to that conclusion, so why couldn’t the Liars?

On a mostly A free note, however, college has become a pressing matter where the Liars are concerned. The idea of leaving Rosewood in the rearview mirror and moving forward with their lives is like a dream come true. But, they haven’t reached that point just yet. Not only do they have to worry about keeping their grades up with all the external pressure of what A is going to do to them next, but they also have to figure out how to pay for it.

Hanna (Ashley Benson) had a particularly heart wrenching scene on tonight’s episode where she approached her estranged father about providing extra financial assistance for college. It’s nice to see Hanna portrayed as more of a well-rounded character these days and not just the pretty one like she was originally presented. Sometimes the writers have a tendency to make her the weakest intellectual link in the Liars quartet, and it doesn’t do her character justice by any means. It’s always fun to watch her reactions play out on the screen. In this case, it’s her persistent nature – entering a beauty pageant to pay her tuition – so the upcoming episode should give fans something to look forward to besides the endless game that A is playing.

We’re still no closer to figuring out who A is, but Pretty Little Liars still has a few more episodes left this season to make it up to us. Let’s hope so, at least.