Pretty Little Liars season 4 episode 7 review: Crash And Burn, Girl!

This review contains spoilers.

4.7 Crash and Burn, Girl!

The final scene of this week’s Pretty Little Liars was completely unnecessary given how much Emily had already mucked up her life (and her mother’s) so spectacularly and, the way the Liars are going this season, they don’t need any help getting into trouble. The whole story with Ashley Marin and Wilden’s murder may or may not have anything to do with A, for example, and Emily stealing the key from her mum’s desk was just another one of those self-destructive moments that make this show so frustrating to watch at times.

What did she think would happen? That no one would notice that the key to a murder victim’s apartment had gone missing? They did notice and, given that her mother was the person tasked with looking after it, that means even more problems for the Fields. Some good did come out of it, thankfully, when she, Spencer and Aria visited the apartment and found a package left by A. Was it left for Wilden or for the Liars? It would have been strange if the police hadn’t discovered it already, so my guess is that A left it there as soon as she realised where the girls were going.

The highlight of the episode, as predicted, was Caleb and Toby’s detective work independently of their girlfriends. We got a touch of this last season when Caleb and Paige briefly hooked up over mutual concern for their significant others, but this was so much better. They actually got something done, for a start, and their amateur sleuthing revealed that Cece was the person in the plane on the night of the fire. I’m still convinced that the girls did see Alison that night, but Cece as Red Coat would be ok, I guess. With Spencer finally mentioned to Toby that Cece had visited Mona in Radley, he’s going to be on the warpath.

Another strong element of the episode and, frankly, the season, was Hannah’s business with her mother. It’s pretty impressive for a teen mystery series to deal with something as heavy and serious as the death penalty, but that’s what Spencer reckons could happen if they don’t prove Ashley’s innocence before she goes to trial. The consequences of A’s actions and, therefore, the Liars actions, are so high this year, and the newly ruthless and murderous A isn’t disappointing. Mona liked to play with dolls, but this girl likes to play with body parts – it seems she wasn’t bluffing.

As per usual, Aria’s storyline had nothing to do with anything we’re interested in and everything to do with her love life (sorry, Ezria fans!). After Connor’s car was smashed up at the end of last week’s episode, his parents want someone punished and their first and only suspect is Mike. He claims he didn’t have anything to do with it, using the fact that he’s a lacrosse player as an excuse (huh?), so maybe my first prediction that it was Ezra will prove correct. He seems a bit too dismayed when he learns of Mike’s potential fate, and the principle had a good point when he mentioned Ezra’s unhealthy bias towards the Montgomery family.

So is Cece really Red Coat? We’re in episode seven, so I sincerely doubt it, but maybe Jenna (and Shana) told Nigel Wright to say that if anyone came asking questions. Let’s just make Caleb and Toby lead mystery solvers from now on, yeah? The promo for the next episode shows Hannah seemingly framing herself for Wilden’s murder, but that’s probably not something the show would want to show you a week early. See you there!

Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, Under The Gun, here.

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