Pretty Little Liars Episode 423 Recap: All The Broken Hearts

It’s a beautiful day in Rosewood, where people go to seek revenge against teenagers on drugs and also sometimes there’s a lot of minors in big, white, virginal wedding dresses. Yay heteronormativity!

Fuck you guys, Imma look fabulous reppin' this wedding dress in a state that wouldn't even legally recognize my marriage.

Fuck you guys, Imma look fabulous reppin’ this wedding dress in a state that wouldn’t even legally recognize my marriage.


We open and Spencer is walking through the woods wearing a wedding dress. Is she chasing someone or being chased? A is after her. She steps on something. Her eyes go wide! Perfect time to cut away!

PLL423-00006

def just got stabbed


But wait!

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COOKIES!

Hanna is telling the Liars about Paige giving the note to the police. Paige is out of town. Convenient.

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The moment you know your Diva Cup just stopped working.

Spencer is sure that the cops will question her. They think that Mrs. DiLaurentis is stalking them? Spencer and Hanna are sure that Jessica is A, but Emily and Aria aren’t as convinced.

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Scene direction said, “Brooding glance over the shoulder.” Nailed it.

When Emily and Spence leave, they see that Jason is back in town.

Awkwarddddddd

Awkwarddddddd

He ignores the girls and jumps in his convertible. Was he the one listening outside the window? Spencer and Emily chase after him. Or, they try, but Spencer’s car is broken.

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There’s a bunch of pictures of a girl with her face cut out in the ignition and it says, “You know me, Spencer. You killed me.” in A’s handwriting. UH WHAT?


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Reunited and it feels so good!

Aria’s mother is being a mother and asking her about the hotel charges. She asks Aria about Ezra resigning from Rosewood. Aria’s mom is back! Yay! I missed her. I’m so glad she has a parent again.


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You can’t seriously still have a storyline arc in this one. Still?! Really?

Spencer is going to talk to Jason, but Dean, her sober life coach, wants to go with. Dean is obsessed with Spencer’s urine. I don’t think she ends up leaving the house to talk to Jason at all.


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Almost looks like Hanna has her hand around the champagne bottle? Mimosas, anyone?

Hanna’s mom is panicking about a the charity bridal show. Weren’t they real estate agents? Hanna tries to warn her mom about trusting Mrs. DiLaurentis.


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So then you just use your lips like this. There’s no teeth involved, Paige. No teeth. Like ever.

Paige walks in on Emily and Spencer talking in the bathroom. They start to argue in front of Spencer which is uncomfortable… Apparently Paige didn’t call Emily once while she was away. Emily accuses Paige of telling the police. Paige says she did it to protect her. Emily’s pissed, thinking it’s revenge. Who will protect Ali now?


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Saturday? Oooh, can’t do Saturday. I’m busy… uh, pretending I don’t have a neck.

Hanna finds Buzzcut and Buzzcut blows her off. Hanna apologizes for being a flake at dinner. She asks for a do-over date, but Buzzcut says he’s busy. Ouch. Burn.


PLL423-00095

No, no, no, this will not do. I said IVORY and this is CREAM ugh, why can’t you just get it right?!

Mrs. DiLaurentis is yelling at a person on the phone with Ashley doing busy work nearby. The police roll up and she sends Ashley upstairs.

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I didn’t invite you to my pink tulle nightmare, Officer Holbrook.

Officer Holbrook wants to give Jessica an update on the investigation. Mrs. DiLaurentis doesn’t want to talk, wants to just let her daughter rest in peace or some other random lie. Officer Holbrook brings up the fact that in an early family photo, Ali has a fracture in her right arm, but the coroner didn’t mark that the body from Ali’s grave had such an injury. He wants to exhume the body, Jessica says no, but Gabe already has a judge’s order.

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Buying clothes for your supposedly dead child: taking that creeptastic to the next level.

Ashley is in Ali’s room and pulls some clothes out of a shopping bag that seem a little young for Jessica, in my opinion. She bought these yesterday?

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Oh hey Ashley, I see you’ve found my latest Babeland order. What do you say we try it out together?

Jessica walks in and is so pissed. She’s finally so creeptastic I can kind of see her as A.


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fucking mailer daemon, am I right?

Emily is investigating the email address she found on the money. The phone number directs her to an Italian restaurant.

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Tempted to take this picture to my hairdresser next time.

Emily sees Jason and asks what happened. Jason thinks Wilden was behind the elevator shaft thing. Jason has really nice hair. Emily asks him what’s up with his mom and Spencer.

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Sorry, Mom, I can’t hear you over my extreme shoulder poufs.

Flashback time! Ali and Jessica are arguing about someone trying to hurt her. Jessica asks if it’s Spencer. She gets kind of aggressive. Apparently Jessica really believes Spencer was after Ali.


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That awkward feeling when your girlfriend keeps psycho calling your phone when you’re talking to your bestie.

Aria and her mom are chatting and her mom’s phone keeps ringing. Zach is obsessed with her. It’s so weird. Aria seems a little jealous of her mom’s codependent relationship. Finally someone calls out their parents for being pretty damn absent.

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I’ve changed a lot, Mom! I only wear shirts on ONE shoulder now!

Aria yells at her about leaving and being out of the country instead of being with her children. Even if it is misdirected anger, whatever, you kind of abandoned your teen kids to go live with a guy in Austria?

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Has it BAD for you* stupid autocorrect

Spencer is at home, getting texts from Emily about Ali’s mom having it out for her. Dean walks in. Surprise, Dean wants her to talk to him. She admits that she has huge holes in her brain from the summer Ali was killed.

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Hey girl, you just close your eyes. I’m going to read a metaphor to you.

He says he is reading Jack Dempsey’s “Love at First Fight.” Is he seriously going to read to her right now?

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There are like twenty applicable fart jokes that could go here.

Spencer’s mom comes home and finds Dean asleep on top of Spencer in the couch. They must have fallen asleep when he was reading to her.

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Aaaaand THAT’S how lesbians make babies.

Mrs. Hastings fires him immediately. That’s just going to make her like him more, you know that?

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FINALLY someone notices that they’ve been watched through the window forever.

Spencer definitely sees someone standing outside the window watching them.


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Just take a moment to examine the fashion in this shot. What is going on here?

The Liars meet up to talk about Jason. They discuss who is in Ali’s grave. Who is after Ali? Not Ali’s mom.

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Hanna, you can’t just put your whole hand in there like that, you have to ball your fingers together and make a fist.

Hanna runs in to tell them they are putting on wedding dresses for charity.

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They need a reason to be in that house because of the clothes Ashley found.

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Police of Rosewood: Crashin’ the hangouts of teen girls since 2010.

Officer Holbrook comes by to say that he doesn’t want to give them false hope, but says that if she is alive, there’s going to be a lot of questions.


PLL423-00211

Honey, I misplaced my RodeoH. Did it get mixed up with yours in the laundry?

Spencer’s mom is going through all of her stuff. She asks why Spencer doesn’t feel safe. Is she angry with Spencer for not feeling safe? Spencer asks for answers about that summer. Mrs. Hastings says that there was an incident that happened before Melissa left for school.

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Stacy and Clinton would never approve of this one.

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Mrs. Hastings, we really have to stop meeting like this.

Flashback! Mrs. Hastings is throwing away scissored clothing and Ali walks over to press her buttons. Did Melissa and Spencer have a fight? Spencer’s mom has a bit of a breakdown, asking why Spencer is acting “like this.”

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hide ya kids, hide ya wife.

Spencer is hiding outside and Ali sees her. What?! What happened there?

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Apparently those pills made Spencer a bit of a monster. Spencer’s mom begs her to leave that summer alone, which can’t be a good sign.

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uhhhh awkward

Spencer looks out her window to see Mrs. DiLaurentis looking right in at her, then closing the blinds.


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I told you I was busy practicing like I had no neck.

Hanna shows up at the wedding dress event thing and finds Buzzcut working. Okay, so he wasn’t just blowing her off. Now we can feel good about him as a person. Right?

Let’s have a ridiculous montage of people putting on wedding dresses. Don’t get me wrong, I love weddings and Pinterest and people being happily in love. But this is such a jump the shark kind of move.

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The Liars all look pretty miserable, thank goodness.

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ugh marriage is so heteronormative. imma go get civil unioned, bitches.

Spencer goes into the house to look for her veil and runs into Jason. Spencer says she is helping, not trying to hurt anyone.

PLL423-00264

If she was naked, that vase could be very cleverly placed.

She says they have a lot in common, what with their rehab stints and all. She also brings up that Jason saw CeCe wearing the exact same clothes at Ali’s house the night she disappeared. Could it have been not CeCe?

PLL423-00278

Blue Steel

Dean shows up to give Spencer his business card. CALLED IT. Called it that he’d fall for her. They awkwardly hug. Dean says Clark Center, the place where Jason supposedly went to rehab, has been closed for two years. Whaaaaaaaaat! He tells her to be careful, then leaves.


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Love it when bosses get mad at you for doing your job.

Jessica is pissed that the Liars are modelling the dresses. Didn’t she already know Spence would model that dress A messed with last time?

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Who pissed in Jessica DiLaurentis’ Cheerios this morning?

What is her deal? She was fake nice for so long.

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Gosh how did Rose have her corset so tight on the Titanic and still manage to wildly dance in Steerage I just don’t get it

Spence tells the Liars that Jason lied. It’s time for them to model! Which we never see, which is really depressing. Remember their last runway thing? Where the video of Ali being a bitch came on? Were we ever so young? Anyway, Spencer goes outside and sees Jessica walking into the woods to give something to someone. It’s very vague. And of course she goes to find out what’s going on, which is probs the scene from the beginning.


BREAKING: HANNA AND BUZZCUT GOT MARRIED

BREAKING: HANNA AND BUZZCUT ACCIDENTALLY GOT MARRIED

Hanna asks Buzzcut to stall Jessica if he sees her so that she can sneak into the house. Buzzcut seems to be too nice to be true. He schemes up a reason to stall Jessica by breaking her mailbox, then makes out with Hanna because of course.


PLL423-00311

Boo!

Aria is in the back and is basically moments from a breakdown. Her mom sneaks backstage to have a bonding moment about broken hearts and getting over broken hearts and it’s kind of a touching moment. They even cry together.

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I can’t read Aria’s mother’s expression here. Embarrassment? Shock? Weirded outness?

And Zach proposed to Aria’s mom! Aria’s all for it. Sounds like U-Hauling to me!


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Baby, I know we’re both wearing white, but we both know this ain’t our first time at the rodeo. You don’t have to be so nervous.

Emily and Hanna are in Ali’s room looking for the shopping bag. This is begging to be a terrible moment.

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Awww I made something so similar in 8th grade only it was about Las Vegas and had a picture of me on a roller coaster at Circus Circus, which is now a place YOU DO NOT GO SIMBA.

Hanna finds a collage in the closet with clues? Emily hacks into the email address from the money.

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Twenty house points to the first person who tells me what Barile Volante might mean.

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P.S. This whole one initial thing is just so catchy, isn’t it? -E.

She sends a message to Ali.

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Baby, can you not topless Skype me when my friends are around to see?

Moments later, Ali calls Emily’s phone and sounds panicked. They ask who is in her grave. She tells them to “come here and hurry.”


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This reminded me too much of Lady in White for my own comfort’s sake.

Back in the woods and Spencer stepping on something, Spencer sees someone run away. She calls for Alison and wanders around a bit. Then, the metal clinking noise that might be Spencer being stabbed!

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nom nom nom wedding veil

But oh, it’s just her veil is caught in a bear trap! That was the noise, seriously? Wait, why was there a bear trap in the woods? Spencer, watch where you’re running!

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My period tracker said it would start on Tuesday and now look at my dress!

Spencer finds the Liars and tells them where she was. They help her take off her dress and find that there’s finger bones in her corset.

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Basically Spencer was getting felt up that entire time.

Who put this on her and didn’t notice there were finger bones instead of regular boning? Is that one of those questions we aren’t supposed to ask?

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Probably freak the fuck out, nbd.

There’s also a note: What are you going to do when the rest of me comes out of the grave? That is legit really traumatizing.


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Pro tip: Stalk your girlfriend. Just pop out of the bushes late at night.

They’re about to leave for Philly, and Emily is waiting outside for the Liars. Paige comes up to her and says Emily was right. Paige is still so angry at Ali and that’s why she did it. She begs for forgiveness.

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Emily does forgive her, but says she couldn’t trust her ever again. They are so over.

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Wait, so hiding in the bushes WASN’T a great idea?!

Dammit, Paige.


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Ali is living the dream in Sketchville, apparently.

The Liars get to Philly where Ali told them to meet her. It looks like an abandoned store? With lots of cobwebs?

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Everyone looks scared but Hanna who is just really like, “Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me.”

A door opens and they turn around and say, “What are you doing here?” Who was it?!


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In the ending A scene, we find A looking through the guestbook of the Red Finch Inn. They find CeCe Drake’s name and then dial the number for the Rosewood police department. They take a piece of butterscotch candy. Hmmm.


Who was at Ali’s place? I think it might be Jason. We know it wouldn’t be Jessica, but it could be Jason. We don’t know WHY Jason is lying to them. Has he been helping Ali for however long they’ve both been gone? Is that even likely?

Jason seems to be on Team Jessica. Ali doesn’t seem like it. But if Ali is afraid of Mrs. DiLaurentis, why is she buying her clothing? And why is Mrs. DiLaurentis taking such a hard “She’s not alive” to the police.

Also, if there’s an evil twin situation going on with the arm fracture, Mrs. DiLaurentis didn’t even bat an eyelash.

Why is it that when the writers decide someone could be A, they suddenly make them overly creepy and evil and suddenly everything they do is so much more evil than it had been before? Like very obviously evil. Even the looks Jessica was giving to Spencer were so outrageous. What triggered the fact that she can’t even fake nice anymore?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G350Uiej_4M

Y’all ready for the season finale next week? A unmasked?!

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Hansen

Hansen is the former DIY & Food Editor of Autostraddle.com and likes to spend most days making and cooking and writing. She teaches creative writing at Colorado State University and is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in her free time.

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10 Comments

  1. I totally agree that they really made Jessica’s evilness way over the top to the point where it’s ridiculous. At least with Ezra, you suddenly saw all of his previous behaviour in a new light, but this, it’s not even a matter of perspective or interpretation with Jessica! Yeesh!

    And speaking of terrible development – the fact that Spencer went from loathing Dean to suddenly fawning over him because he fucking read to her? Omigod. Veronica nailed it with: “You can read on your own.” It was nice to see some of the moms acting like real moms (I actually cheered when Ella was behind the door. She’s the best mom.)

    And the whole wedding thing was just…again, over the top and pointless. There was no *legitimate* development of the plot with the wedding dresses. It pretty much just made me drool over Emily’s dress (THAT CUT, MY GOD!!).

    Tangent #3: I’m kind of glad that Emily broke up with Paige – that bathroom scene was super intense, but at the same time I’m pissed off because they obviously set it up so that Paige would be terrible in the end. WHY CAN’T EMILY HAVE A GIRLFRIEND FOR FOREVER LIKE STUPID SPOBY.

    • I have a feeling that Paige will be back with Emily sooner or later. They have kind of established the permanent romantic partner for each girl, and I don’t see it changing, spin-offs excluded.

      I was never into the idea of a relationship that started with an attempted drowining, so I wish they would get Emily a new girlfriend! (Also kick Toby and Ezra to the curb. Hanna has the only decent taste in partners!)

  2. I love these recaps. The Aria caption killed me “I’ve changed a lot, Mom! I only wear shirts on ONE shoulder now!” Haha.

    I don’t get why they’ve suddenly made Mrs D so creepy, and how can she be A if she didn’t even know Spencer would be there/wearing that dress? IT DOSENT ADD UP.

    Also, Emily’s dress is amaze.

  3. So long Paige! Emily never being allowed a forever…or even for a while non invisible girlfriend reminds me of an article I read, way back when, in DIVA about the death of Tara on Buffy and how TV shows just wouldn’t show a happy, healthy lesbian relationship because of the possible terrifying ramifications…you know like people realising that can happen. We are fully over 10yrs later but it feels like in Liars they haven’t moved on. Then again if she had a functional relationship she would be a total anomaly given all the ridiculousness the other guys have with their various boyfriends.

    • ” TV shows just wouldn’t show a happy, healthy lesbian relationship because of the possible terrifying ramifications…”

      No lesbian relationship ever lasted on the history of television.
      2014 and still not happening. I trusted Pretty little liars with every inch of my queer heart. The minute i thought i was having prime cuts of steak for dinner, They shoved up crumbs on my face. After all The back story about alison knew closeted paige
      and blackmailed her and paige thought emily also knew like, How? Why F up the storyline so poorly.

  4. :( feeling like i had been cheated on, I trusted you Pretty little liars.. trusted you..
    Paige did exactly what a sensible girlfriend would do in that situation. What else can anybody do? What else but to seek help from the police. Normal citizens seeks for help. Paige slipping the note in the police car was not even as half sleazy as ezra’s shenanigans. Ezra is a pedophile. He had sex with a minor aria and almost certainly with a minor alison. He’s the real criminal but he can get a pass because of the screaming little girls from twitter who are always “ezra is so hot” “ezra is so sweet”
    Respect the lesbian lead and her leading lady. Was i asking for too much pretty little liars? Was i.

  5. Ahhhh I love your captions, they were slaying me! “Police of Rosewood: Crashin’ the hangouts of teen girls since 2010.”… too real, too real. Emily and Hanna in wedding dresses, on the floor next to a bed, gave me some serious gay “Just Married” vibes. I want this movie people!

    Also look at the guest book: “mandi line,” above Cece’s name, is the PLL costume designer.
    Up a few lines: Lazarus. Pretty sure that is the guy who Jesus raised from the dead, and you know how PLL loves their references! Most obviously could be a reference to Ali, or maybe something else is going on with Cece or Wilden. They did talk about Wilden an awful lot this ep.

  6. I know so many people were on board with Paige and Emily’s relationship, and I was too, but in an earlier episode (I think last season) both of the girls concluded that their relationship was doomed to end when Paige went off to college, so the end has been in sight for quite some time. Also, Emily has way to many straight-girl-crush feelings for Ali that need to be resolved before she can have true love feelings for an actual gay lady.
    As far as the Mrs D being A scenario goes, I think we can all agree that it’s ridiculous. The only reason the girls truly suspect it is because Ezra planted the idea. I’m now super confused about whether Ezra is A or just the worst human being on the planet.
    I’m hoping that Ali is revealed as being A so that the girls finally give up on trying to rescue her and instead decide to hunt her down and murder her for good. I just hope they double check she’s not just holding her breath before they put her in the ground.

  7. “Just take a moment to examine the fashion in this shot. What is going on here?”

    Seriously what the hell is happening with that thing around Spencer’s neck?
    I swear if this ends up being a fashion choice similar to the girl in “The Green Ribbon”… I’ll totally accept it.

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