After five months without “Pretty Little Liars,” I was hoping the first episode of 2011 would reveal some clues as to who A is, how Alison was murdered and, more importantly, "whodunit."
Instead, we got about 42 minutes of Hanna lying in a hospital bed, and yet I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.
The second half of season one began exactly where the first half left off:
Hanna was taken to the hospital after being hit by a car near Camp Mona, the slumber party located in the woods where a teen girl was allegedly murdered a year prior. Like that wasn’t going to end badly.
Aria spotted Noel, dressed in black and lurking in the background, but she wasn’t the only person to see something out of the ordinary that night.
Later, at the hospital, Hanna told the girls she saw Noel write something on a car’s back windshield right before her accident. At that point, Aria decided to come clean about her relationship with her English teacher, and told the girls that Noel wrote “I see you” on the back of Fitz’s car. (Not something generic like “Wash me” or “Go Sharks!” as Fitz pointed out earlier in the episode.)
At that moment, Noel knocked on the door of Hanna’s private room with a get-well basket. Though Aria gave him the benefit of the doubt, his alibi didn't quite check out.
After the girls left, Mona stopped by to make amends, waving a white La Perla bra, “the international peace symbol." After a quick makeover - because heaven forbid Hanna look only slightly made-up as she nurses her broken leg, broken ankle and several bruised ribs - Mona took off so Hanna could rest.
Moments later, someone else was at the door. (How are all these people getting past security?) This time it’s Lucas, the seemingly innocent yearbook editor we caught covered in mud a few episodes back, sneaking in to give a fake-sleeping Hanna a quick kiss on her forehead.
When Hanna asked Lucas about the kiss over a cup of tapioca pudding, she told him, in the kindest way possible, that she just wants to be his friend. After a few disheartening words, Lucas stormed out.
Hanna’s next visitor wasn't quite as… alive. Or is she? When Alison stops by dressed as a candy striper, Hanna tries to get answers about the night of her death, but the response she receives is just as cryptic as a text message from A.
“Telling the truth to the wrong person at the wrong time is how I ended up where I am,” Alison said. “Take it from me, you’re always better off with a really good lie.” Then she added: “I really should do something about A. That [expletive] is genuinely getting on my nerves.”
Before disappearing into the hallway, Ali leaves a lipstick stain - perhaps the same color lipstick we saw on Spencer's mirror a few episodes back - on the plastic cup beside Hanna’s hospital bed. So… what do you think? Was she really there, or is Hanna on too many painkillers?
Back to Aria’s illicit relationship with her English teacher (which level-headed Spencer calls “really self-destructive" but also “really hot”): Noel confronts Aria about it at school, but she begs him to keep her secret. Did she learn nothing from the first 10 episodes? And, more importantly, does anyone else think Fitz should grow his hair out again?
In other news…
Emily told her parents she’s gay; Spencer’s sister Melissa eloped with her ex, Ian; Noel spied on Fitz after-hours at school; Jenna warned Emily to stay away from Toby; and Hanna awoke to a message from A written on her cast:
“Sorry about losing my temper. My Bad. Love, A.”
The episode ends with a shot of the tree Alison and Ian carved their names into - the same tree Spencer and Aria went looking for earlier in the episode - burning in a fireplace.
What did you think of the 11th episode? Is Lucas actually A?