Pretty Little Liars Episode 517 Recap: We All Scream for Ice Cream!

https://twitter.com/tracyj314/status/560278280792588288

https://twitter.com/HeatherBlakely/status/560244574665183232

My most especially enormous thanks to Nicole (@PLLBigA) for these fantastic screencaps and also for showing me this Hannily thing today that made my heart bang around in my chest in a surprising and delightful way. Follow her on Twitter so your heart can bang around too!

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

44 Comments

      • Or they could just attack A when A goes for one of them. Worst comes to worst, they’d just get glass in their hair.

      • It also makes the show darker. I think they are all aware they could die and have an unspoken understanding that the remaining continue to try and figure it out.

  2. – Pretty convenient that Spencer’s phone no longer gets reception so that they can no longer track the laptop. At least that’s what Spencer told them.
    – When Risen Mitten was looking at the door at the end, there were finger prints on it. That means that someone knows about Mittens stash, but didn’t say anything. That makes a suspect of Spencer, Aria, and Emily. The person had to be tall enough to look in the window, so that pretty much eliminates Aria. Those heavy duty lockers would most likely not be on the second floor where Emily was looking, so that drops her suspect…ability?

    • Exactly what I was thinking, one of them definitely saw inside that room. But they couldn’t be A, I mean how dumb would that be too leave fingerprints there? But they must have seen something inside that made them keep it quiet.
      I agree that Aria would have been too short, but I don’t know if we can eliminate Emily. She said she was going to go to the second floor, but then we see her going Down some stairs. So what level did they start on?

      • Unfortunately someone pointed out to me that it’s all three of them. They mess with that door when they first got there. I watched the episode twice, and I still missed it.

  3. The Hannily dance is going to kill me down dead. It’s been nice knowing you all. See you in the afterlife.

    • Lol, same.
      And it’s probably pretty sad that I’m wishing away 3 weeks of my life just so I can watch that scene.

  4. I lost at at Spencer’s reaction to the Ezria fanfic, and the dialogue about the apples.

    Amazing, hilarious recap!

    P.S. I’m secretly totally into Emily and Talia. But yeah how even old is she? Going by TV laws she’s probably a 30 year old playing a 17 year old or some such thing.

    • Talia seems fun! And non-murderous! (Is anyone allowed to be a character on this show without multiple layers of traumatic secrets though?) I cannot tell what age she’s supposed to be but praying she’s like, 22 and Em is 18 or something. (ps hi charlotte!)

      I was SO pleased with Tanner calling out Toby for how ridiculously miniscule his policey experience is. Also Toby you do not deserve Spencer. No one does, maybe Lucy Liu, but that’s it, and certainly not you. Do not hang up on her and walk away! But also hang up and walk away because you don’t deserve her. (Okay, point made.)

      • Actually I”m really bothered by Tanner being so dismissive of eye witnesses seeing Holbrook make out with a Teenager he was supposed to be investigating. It reeks of both Rape Culture and the same Problem with Police culture that lets them not even go to trial for killing people.

    • Surprisingly, the girl playing Talia(Miranda Rae Mayo)is actually younger than Shay Mitchell by I think like 4 or 5 years.

  5. I’m really getting disappointing in your “Age Appropriate” comments. Yes Ezria has become problematic on many arguable levels. But you where okay with it before the -A misdirect. IN my view Age gap related prudishness is just as wrong of Sexual Orientations related prudishness or non monogamy prudishness or any other prudishness.

    Emily is 18 now unless the age you start High-school is different in Rosewood’s alternate dimensions. Because she had her Senior year birthday already.

    And to add some perspective, there are cases in human history where Minors have raped adults.

    • When has Heather ever been ok with the age gap? I can recall her writing numerous times, from Season 1 about the age-appropriateness of the Ezra relationship.

      But yes I agree, Emily has already had her birthday, so I’d definitely say that she’s 18, so no age-inappropriateness there.

      And i don’t mean to be rude, but Aria was his student, he knew that she was underage, and there is no way in hell that she was at fault in this relationship. He sought her out. So I’m not sure why adding that about minors raping adults has anything to do with it. Yes I know that there have been cases where this has happened, but there has never been any hint of this occurring on the show. (Ok, wait, maybe the Jenna-Toby thing, where i’m pretty sure Jenna was younger than Toby when she forced him)

      • This Jared person has been trolling HH’s recaps for weeks, pissing and moaning about the mistreatment of Ezra. So, while all of your points are logical and correct, I’m afraid they won’t make much of a difference.

        • I’ve been following Heather’s recaps since about the middle of 4B, of all the many comments I’ve made a small percentage has been about Ezra in any way. They increased lately because of my mind fluctuates but I’m done with that now. I will probably never comment on that again at all.

          My favorite PLL Ship is Sparia.

    • “There are cases in human history where Minors have raped adults”

      Why not chuck in a “women rape men too!” and a “NOT ALL EZRA’S” while you’re at it

  7. You know I’m Paily all the way, so I’m hurting and torn right now. But I think I’m okay with Talia and Emily being a thing for the rest of the season. I mean it’s just nice that Emily gets to be a lesbian in more than name and keep having romances like everyone else. I really appreciate Joseph Dougherty and Marlene King for that. And also for Talia being a woc. I think they listen to fans about as well as any show runners out there.

    Anyway, I’m still confident that Paige will be back. They’re just taking a break right now. But Lindsey is too great and the writers love Paige too much for this to be the end of her. So yeah, let Emily have a fling with Talia while she rebounds.

  8. “Rosewood High: Best Years of your Life” THERE ARE TOO MANY JOKES I COULD MAKE!

    “Rosewood High: Best 40+ Years of Your Life”

    Rosewood High: Your Lives Aren’t Going to Get Any Better”

    • “Rosewood High: It’s Even More Downhill From Here”

      “Rosewood High: The Is As Good As It’s Gonna Get”

      And really, saying high school is the best time of your life is an awful thing to say at any school, let alone Rosewood!

  11. So Keegan Allen recently said in an interview that we all know who A is, and I think I have to jump on the Aria train. Mostly cuz it would make the show so interesting, (not to mention making the Ezria thing so much less infuriating), but also because it kind of makes sense. But I also wouldn’t hate it if it was Sparia.

    • I have said for a long time that I hope Aria is A. It’s the only way that she will ever be interesting as a character. It’s laughable how vapid they make her (ENOUGH with the Ezra obsession dear God!) compared with the other liars. I feel like the writers have to be doing that for a reason, right?

      • Exactly! And the whole brushing over Ezra, like it only makes sense if Aria’s using him for something

    • It’s a good theory, but if Aria is A, then why would she have felt so betrayed when she found out about Ezra? My bet is on Tanner.

  12. I need to move to Rosewood where there is apparently an infinite supply of hot girls who like girls.

  13. Am I the only person who was bothered by the whole Talia trying to assess Emily’s sexuality by asking her about Ezra thing? As a bisexual woman, I just read this as massive erasure – oh, you couldn’t possibly like both! I know, for Emily, she is monosexual, and I’ve no problem with that, but I’m angry that a show which has Jenna and Alison (neither of whom are self-identified bisexual, but both have had romantic / sexual involvement with men and women) as central characters…well, this is a step back? I’m just angry at the way I’m always left out of or hushed up on TV. Also, where the fuck are Jenna, Wren and Noel? Do I pay more attention to the loose ends in the plot than the writers?

  14. I look forward to your recaps almost as much as I look forward to the new episode of the week :D

    P.S. Anyone else starting to eye Tanner as a possible A?

  15. Just caught up on the PLL eps since Christmas and then came here for the recaps of course. LOL’d so many times reading these recaps!

    [[Aria starts yelling maybe my favorite thing that has ever come out of her mouth: “SPENCER, WHAT’S HAPPENING?! SPENCER, WHAT DO WE DO?!”

    Spencer’s like, “ELSA IS ATTACKING US! WHAT DO YOU THINK IS HAPPENING, ARIA? LIQUID NITROGEN IS FREEZING OUR BRAINS!”]]

    and

    [[If I were teenager in Rosewood and I thought that was true, I would lie down in the street and give up.]]

    Hahahaha! :)

  16. My poor Paily-loving heart… I would like Talia (queer! woc!) under different circumstances but I am still annoyed that they shipped Paige off to replace her with another love interest.

  17. so apparently this is my level of humour:
    Jason: You don’t have to quit just because we did the horizontal hokey pokey.
    Ashley: That’s not what this is all about.

    But also:
    Aria advises the Liars to split up because she knows less of nothing than Jon Snow

    The Sparia fanfic thread is perfect.

    I’m out.

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