4.15 Love ShAck, Baby Because when Pretty Little Liars has conviction in its ideas and deep, dark subject matter to deal with underneath the mystery solving and teen drama, it’s more fun than anything else on the telly. When it veers off on tangents and starts to forget itself in a bid to fulfil episode orders, the silly stuff just doesn’t land in the right way. At the moment, it’s more in keeping with the former and, until the inevitable reveal in which we discover what Ezra’s motives really are, we can enjoy a rejuvenated show that feels as though it’s enjoying itself as much as we are watching. This week’s episode in particular was all about Alison’s diary, and there are some secrets in there that at least one of the Liars had hoped Alison would take to her grave. Nothing particularly juicy was exposed by the character themselves but, with the benefit of a pause button and good eyesight, there’s plenty for dedicated fans to decipher by themselves. Forget Hanna hooking up with Mike Montgomery – who’s this girl stealing all of Alison’s friends? Another little clue was the EF+AD graffiti on the kissing rock, which could quite easily stand for Ezra Fitz rather than Emily Fields, as we were supposed to assume. My biggest complaint about this half-season has to be the Spencer/Toby/Radley stuff, which better be linked to the central mystery soon or it’s at risk of becoming even more redundant. At least it gave Spencer a chance to finally stick it to her family and move out, but the revelation that Toby’s mother tripped and fell rather than committing suicide/being murdered really didn’t matter as much as the writers clearly thought it would. The minor bit of intrigue is the other patient who was being protected by the cover-up. I know that whenever there’s a mysterious Radley patient mentioned on this show my mind automatically jumps to Courtney DiLaurentis, but it’s still possible I’ll be on the right track with my twin theory one of these days. After being very underwhelmed by the Wilden mystery and endless Red Coat teasing in the first half of season four, I really love this new and improved Pretty Little Liars. Even if Ezra turns out to be sweetness and light (doubtful, given that we’ve just seem him creeping around yet another teenage girl’s bedroom) in a couple of weeks time, it doesn’t mean that the new life that’s been breathed into both his character and the A mystery has been for nothing. It’s reminded us of how fun the hunt for the Liars’ tormentor used to be, and proven the writer’s assurances that A could really be anyone. See you next week for more Alison, more EzrA and hopefully some more creepy cabin sequences. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
