Pretty Little Liars season 4 episode 21 review: She’s Come Undone

One suspect is out of the running in Pretty Little Liars, or are they? Here's Caroline's review of this week's episode...

This review contains spoilers.

4.21 She’s Come Undone

I may have been a bit oblivious to the contents of the press circuit Marlene King did after last week’s episode but, now that I’m all caught up – it doesn’t look as though Ezra is anything more than a struggling writer with a taste for high school girls. He might have betrayed the Liars, stalked them, threatened to expose the details of their lives to the world, falsely assumed the role of a high school teacher and utterly destroyed a young girl’s existence, but at least he isn’t A. Phew! At least that’s what we’re supposed to think, and I still have a glimmer of hope that this u-turn is some kind of elaborate double bluff.

She’s Come Undone wasn’t the cheeriest of adventures, but it let the dust settle after the revelations of the previous hour. Aria isn’t at all happy with this turn of events and, aside from attempting to confront Ezra at school, turn him over to the principal, and trashing his apartment, she also wants to run away (fair enough, seeing as she doesn’t seem to have parents anymore) from the rubble of her previously innocent and oblivious existence. As fans and theorists have pointed out since the beginning, Aria hasn’t ever been targeted by A like the other girls – another reason why the show should have stuck with EzrA as the answer – and this is her first taste of utter betrayal and destruction.

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But, for the viewers, it’s great. Aria has her fans, but she’s no doubt the least interesting and complex of all of the Liars and, with all of the meaty stuff she got to do in this episode, Lucy Hale came alive at last. Aria finally has a storyline that, though it’s admittedly still about boys, ties into the larger mystery and, with Spencer out of commission and Hannah taking over in the bad romantic decisions department (hurry back Caleb!), it arrived at exactly the right time. The smashing up of Ezra’s apartment might have been an obvious turn of events but, with her rage now working against the other girls, the show made up for it in other ways.

And even with Spencer hooked on pills she’s still doing the most mystery solving out of everyone. The fact that the clues have now led her to look right at herself is interesting in that it both makes her current addiction much more plausible and finally half-explains her strange behaviour after Alison’s disappearance – aka the very first scene of the show. We’ve been waiting so long for answers about that fateful sleepover and, with the promise of revelations in the season finale, I can only think that Spencer’s loss of memory will lead us to a much more shocking revelation in the end.

The stakes have inadvertently been raised by Paige’s betrayal, of course, and I can’t be the only one wondering why she would possibly consider trusting the police department with such a vital clue after everything that’s happened. Detective Holbrook seems nice enough – at least Hannah thinks so – but we know by now that new players arriving in town are invariably bad news. Emily, Hannah and Caleb might be the only ones without an ounce of suspicion on them right now so, with far too many love interests for Hannah to choose from, my bet is that either Travis or Holbrook is going to be working against them.

Ezra might not be A, but there’s no denying that this particular dalliance with denial has produced a far more interesting couple than we went in with. Ezra and Aria have become compelling characters, the moral ickiness of their relationship has been highlighted once again and, with access to his notes (though the manuscript has been burnt by A by now), Spencer is going to have a field day. That’s if she stays of rehab and/or prison long enough to sift through the pile of papers to picked up on the way out of his apartment, of course, but then I wouldn’t put it past her to solve the case from within a jail cell, such is her level of obsession.

Assuming that Ezra, Spencer and Paige are out of the running for the identity of Alison’s killer, and with only a few weeks to go before we get the answer, what do we think? Is there any credence to the Aria theory? Could it have been something to do with the NAT club – aka Melissa, Jenna, Jason and CeCe – like we always suspected? Until next week, let’s get theorising!

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, Free Fall, here.

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