This week on Pretty Little Liars, we learn the origin story of Charles DiLaurentis, proving that #SummerofAnswers is a legit thing as opposed to what we were expecting, which was #SummerofBullshit.
We open with Ali filling the Liars in on her dad’s confession: Charles is her older brother, born 15 months before Jason. Her parents committed him to Radley because they feared for Ali’s safety, and kept him a secret from them until they were older so as to give the kids a “normal childhood”. You know, the kind of idyllic childhood where you create a pervy sex tape club and blind a girl with firecrackers. Norman Rockwell type shit.
Ali tells the Liars that Charles couldn’t be A, because he killed himself in Radley when he was 16. Because he was cremated (and bc lies lies lies) Hanna immediately assumes Charles is alive and tormenting them. Ali believes her dad, and Spencer is five seconds from slapping some sense into her. The Liars want to break into Radley and snoop, but no one is there because that place got shut down.
Hanna goes home to find Caleb waiting for her, and he’s gotten Ashley’s permission to stay the night. Hanna goes to sleep, but wakes up to find him parked in front of her window, keeping tabs on her police patrol. He’s pissed because there’s been a 10 minute gap in coverage, but Hanna is annoyed she’s denied cuddles.
Over at the Fields Lesbian Incubator, Sara is having second thoughts on her new pixie cut, but Emily assures her it’s a good look. Pam comes in doling out therapy appointments, but Sara is more interested in water therapy and takes another shower. Maybe she’s like Daryl Hannah in Splash and she’s secretly a mermaid?! I wouldn’t put it past this show.
Aria googles “Charles DiLaurentis” and is legit surprised that nothing comes up. Oh well, she tried! Byron pops in to see her and encourages her to talk to a therapist. Aria is all, “nope, I’m gonna repress these memories forever and hope it resolves itself somewhere in my subconscious” and Byron tries to tempt her with movies and mini-golf, but Aria would rather emo out in the dark room at Hollis.
Over at the Brew, Spencer tries to retrieve her medical records from Radley, and finds out that all their files have been moved to a data center for shredding. Ezra stops by to see her/thrust a journal in her face, but what Spencer really needs is a Lunesta. Ezra introduces her to Sabrina, the new baker, who smokes weed and spills coffee. Upon seeing the spilled drink, Spencer flashes back to the dollhouse, where she wakes up covered in blood and screaming. She scurries out of the brew before Ezra can stop her.
The Liars convene and decide that if they can get Charles’s Radley file, they’ll know what really happened to him, because Radley was a solid institution built on a foundation of truth LOLOLOLJKJKJKJK. Emily wants to tell Sara, but Hanna is like “we don’t know that bitch”, and she’s exactly right. They DO NOT know that bitch. Spencer asks the Liars if their anxiety pills are helping, and Aria tells her she threw them away and you can legit see flames of anger in Spencer’s eyeballs.
This leads to Spencer going trash-diving in Montgomery garbage, desperately searching for pills. She comes up empty handed, but she did find a new personal low, so there’s that. Also, the ABC Family hashtag for this scene was #OMGSpencer, which I found hilarious. I guess #WhattheFuckSpencerGirlYouNeedHelp was too many characters?
Ali is chilling with her dad, and it’s awkward. She asks about Charles’s ashes, which were scattered by Mrs. D in the lake of a thousand masks. Ali asks about the funeral, but her dad said they didn’t have one. She wonders if he was even sad when Charles died, and he admits that it was secretly a relief.
The Liars head to the data center and sneak in behind some movers. Emily tells Hanna she saw Dr. Sullivan, who wants to know if the girls are okay. Spoiler alert: THEY ARE NOT. Spencer flashes back to the room of blood, but snaps out of it when Aria finds Charles’s file.
There are no entries past his 16th birthday, and no info about his death. The visitor’s log says that Mrs. D and Carole Ward visited him, and Emily immediately recognizes Carole as Ali’s aunt who died when they were in 10th grade. Wow Emily, when you love someone you really go all out, huh? The Liars sneak out only to find Caleb waiting for them.
Caleb is angry that Hanna lied to him, and he’s not the only one eager to keep tabs on his Liar. Byron panicked that Aria didn’t call him back and didn’t go to Hollis, and Pam is worried because Sara is climbing the rooftops like she’s Spiderman. Caleb tells Hanna that he put a tracker on her car, which is A) an invasion of privacy and B) actually kind of smart since his gf gets lost more times than socks in a dryer. Hanna is pissed at Caleb for monitoring her like he’s some sort of Donnie Hendrix. Pam is concerned that neither she nor Emily have the tools to help Sara deal with her trauma. Sara listens outside the door, like a creeper.
Spencer swings by the Brew to try to buy weed from Sabrina, who is not a weed dealer, just a girl with a weed card. She takes pity on Spencer however, and promises to share some of her stash. I like this girl. Emily wakes up to find that Sara has snuck out of the house. Did you check the roof though?
Over at the DiLaurentis house, Jason is pissed that his parents made him think that he made Charlie up. They made him question his reality, which is a million times more damaging than just telling the kids they have a mentally ill sibling. Ali shows him Charles’s Radley file, and when he sees Carol’s name on the visitor log, he flashes back to that time he fell down the elevator shaft.
He tried to crash at Carole’s house, but when he showed up he found his mother taking care of the property. She refuses to let him stay, and he hears some noises in the house. Looks like Mrs. D was stashing Charles at Carole’s place.
Emily and Sara grab some coffee, and Sara says she went home to see her mother, who is still a bitch. She tells Emily that she’s too screwed up, but she doesn’t want to go to therapy. Sara just wants to do simple things like swim and go to the beach. Looks like she picked the right Liar to crash with.
Aria works in the Hollis dark room, developing her creepy doll photo collection. She reaches for some chemicals when she finds a bottle of hair dye that reads “You’re my doll, bitch! —A”. Aria flashes back to the dollhouse, where A demands she dye her hair but Aria trashes the room instead.
She wakes up the next morning, with her hair cut into a cute little bob and realizes that she better dye her fucking hair unless she wants a buzz cut. Aria panics and tries to escape the dark room, but the door is locked. She bangs on it until a guy opens the door for her. This is Clark, and he is hopefully not a murderer. Later, Clark and Aria compare photos and flirt. He gives her a creepy tree photo to remember him by.
Spencer, Hanna, Jason, and Ali go to search Carole’s house, which is empty. Spencer flashes back to the dollhouse, where she screams at the camera asking Charles who she murdered. Hanna sees her freaking, and Spencer spills about the blood. Hanna is sure that she didn’t kill anybody, and that it was either a hallucination from sleep deprivation or a mind game.
Jason and Ali find Charles’s grave in the back yard, and realize that their mom must have lied about the cremation. Hanna is convinced it’s a fake, and grabs a shovel, ready to dig up the grave. Were there no beer mugs available? Jason points to the roots wrapped around the grave and says there’s no way A could have faked that. Spencer thinks that maybe A is someone who knew Charles at Radley and took over his identity to stalk the Liars.
Emily takes Sara to a pool and they go swimming, and Paily shippers kick all the trash cans in anger. Emily is glad to see Sara smiling, and they swim around like a couple of gay mermaids. Sara basks in the glow of Emily’s lesbian pool magic, and these two are definitely gonna fuck later.
Over at Casa Montgomery, Aria flips through her photos, and shows some to Byron. She tells him about her room in the dollhouse, and starts crying.
Hanna comes home to find Caleb all pissy that she lied. Although at this point, what did he expect? Liars gotta lie. He brought some clothes because Ashley said he could move in, but Hanna tells him he’s suffocating her and acting like a real Charles. She asks for some space, and Caleb sadly walks out of there.
Spencer swings by the Brew to pick up some pot cookies from Sabrina, but Ezra is there with a quick drug PSA. She snaps that she just wants to sleep and maybe he can get off her dick about it. Like she needs morality advice from Ezra Fucking Fitz of all people.
Mr. DiLaurentis sits Ali down and tells her why they committed Charles. When she was a baby, Charles put her in the tub and planned to drown her, but her dad rescued her just in time. Ali doesn’t want to hear anymore, and begs her father to let him rest in peace. Oof.
We cut to Charles/A rocking the black hoodie, eating some taffy and monitoring the Liars locations. He implanted them with tracking devices! CREEPY.
So, what did you think of the Charles origin story? There’s no way he’s really dead, right? Hit me up @ChelseaProcrast with your theories!
Big thanks to Nicole @PLLBigA for her screencaps, all the creepy tree photos for you!
