‘Pretty Little Liars’ ‘The Guilty Girl’s Handbook’ review: A confession? (Photos)

July 31st, 2013

Peter Nolan

One of the best parts of “Pretty Little Liars” in how it throws fans for a loop with unexpected twists and turns. And the twist and turn on “The Guilty Girl’s Handbook,” which aired July 30, was pitch perfect.

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So is A is escalating lately on “PLL,” as Spencer (Troian Bellisario) says, because they’re getting too close for comfort? Possibly. But A was remarkably absent from this episode, even though plenty of other things were afoot.

Emily’s future
Namely, Emily (Shay Mitchell) and her family are still reeling from a car going through the front of their house. As if its not bad enough, the driver got away from the stolen car. But despite all the bad in her life, Emily is determined to get away, and so she signs up for a summer with Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua. But when she sees her mom break down, at the thought of how everything has gone wrong lately, she wavers in her decision. As for Paige in all this? Apparently, she’s no longer a factor, at least not right now.

Aria looks out for Mike
Aria’s (Lucy Hale) family life is a bit odd, too, on “Pretty Little Liars” “The Guilty Girl’s Handbook,” but nowhere near in the same way. Mike is going through a tough time of his own, and Aria isn’t sure what else to do but talk to Jake, the martial arts guy who is now also teaching her brother. But really all of this, so far, just seems to be an excuse for Jake and Aria to hang out more.

Spencer returns to Radley
In one of the more random twists and turns on “PLL,” one of Mrs. Hasting’s temps, Beckett Fry, is sorting through case files in Spencer’s (Troian Bellisario) house. They’re looking for a way to keep Ashley Marin from being transferred to a state prison, and that means looking for mounds and mounds of paperwork from the DA.

But in all that paperwork, Spencer finds the one thing she can tie to Toby’s case about his mom. Eddie Lamb was at Radley the night Mrs. Cavanaugh died, and the report he gave to Wilden differs from the official report Wilden filed. So was Wilden bribed? Was Mrs. Cavanaugh really killed? And will this story really amount to anything this season, other than suspicions and paperwork?

Hanna’s desperate plan
The most thrilling part of “Pretty Little Liars” belonged entirely to Hanna Marin (Ashley Benson), as it typically has of late. And it seems like Hanna is going to, once again, make the worst decision ever. “I’m going to confess to killing Detective Wilden,” she tells Mona (Janel Parrish).

While this plan is a desperate and foolish one in many ways, at least Hanna thinks it out a bit more than she did the whole burying the gun in the woods. After all, she does enlist Mona’s help, because Mona is the “only one who actually knows how to live in a lie.”

And live in a lie Mona does as she asks all the pertinent questions to Hanna, while also helping Hanna make it a story of self defense, hence the episode’s title “A Guilty Girl’s Handbook.” Mona helps Hanna cover every one in her bases, so much so that it seems like Hanna kind of believes her own lies. “Now all you have to do is tell the truth and everything is going to be alright,” Mona tells her.

But then Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) shows up — after a heart-to-heart session in the prison with Ashley — and he knows that Hanna is about to be brave, loyal, stubborn, and, well, a bit insane. And that’s when he stops her for just long enough.

Mona takes that time to make up for everything she’s ever done to Hanna. She goes to the police station and confesses to killing Wilden. But is it all a lie? Or did she really do it? Is she turning herself in because Hanna went to her for help?

Whatever it is, it’s just one more piece of the puzzle, and most definitely not the answer to the riddle of the craziness that is Rosewood.

“Pretty Little Liars” airs on ABC Family Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT.

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