Pretty Little Liars: “The Last Dance” Review

Pretty Little Liars
Season 6, Episode 8: The Last Dance
Air Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2015

This week’s episode had everything you could ever want from an episode of Pretty Little Liars. The PLL Moms get drunk and locked in a basement, Toby gets kicked off the police force, Caleb wears an ascot, and there is a fairy tale themed prom.

Pretty Little Liars

What makes “The Last Dance” so great is how, for the first time this season, all of the Liars’ storylines are completely intertwined. The episode begins as the Mamma Liars tell their daughters that the school board has banned them from attending prom as well as commencement. The show expertly weaves in and out of each Liar’s home as the moms break the news to their daughters. It is so great to see the girls interact with their moms, and see how unique each of their relationships are. Ella is compassionate and understanding when talking to Aria, Veronica is blunt and to the point with Spencer, Pam is protective and concerned with Emily and Ashley is just as annoyed as Hanna but has her hands tied.

To help make this easier on the girls, the moms have come up with a prom alternative. They will throw a pseudo-prom in Spencer’s barn for the five girls and their dates. The idea is so lame that Ella can barely keep a straight face when telling Aria about it.

Pretty Little Liars

The Liars head over to The Brew to sulk about prom. Ali points out that even if they were to attend the real prom, they’d only hang out with each other while everyone else just stared and Aria tells the girls it’s probably for the best that they don’t attend since Charles has always had a sick affinity for freaky formals. For the first time this season, I can truthfully say that I liked Aria. I know, it’s a miracle!

Spencer leaves The Brew to look for Toby and finally finds him in front of police station. She apologizes for getting Toby stoned on gummies which caused him to get kicked off the squad.  Ladies and Gentleman, Toby’s five minutes of being a cop has ended. Let’s have a moment of silence. Lorenzo also got fired but it’s okay because there are only two requirements for joining the Rosewood PD: 1) You must be willing to date a student currently enrolled in Rosewood High and 2) …. Actually no, there is only one requirement. Either way, finding replacements for Toby and Lorenzo should be a piece of cake.

Ella excitedly enters The Brew to tell Aria some great big news, she got first place in that photography competition and won a summer internship in LA! To be clear she won for her creepy doll photos, not for A’s creepy morgue pics. Aria is not sure if she should go though. With Charles still on the loose, A could be waiting for her at the LAX baggage claim. Man, it is such a nice change not having to cringe every time Aria opens her mouth. When Ella leaves, Ezra asks if Aria wants him at the barn prom, stating that the only reason he said no before was because he didn’t want to share a punch bowl with all of his former students. He has no problem attending prom if it is one of his ex-student’s backyards.

PLL6.08_4

Emily and Hanna do not have the same luck as Aria with procuring a date for the barn prom. Sara declines Emily’s invitation because her old school has prom on that same day. Thank god, I hope that means I don’t have to hear her speak anymore this episode. Something about Sara’s voice causes me physical pain. Caleb can’t come either because he is heading to New York. He tells Hanna that it is to help his dad with some work, but the industrial strength computer Hanna finds in his trunk suggests otherwise. Over at the Marin’s while Hanna is trying to find out what Caleb is actually up to Ashley and Emily have a heart to heart. It was so nice to see a liar connecting with another liar’s parent, especially because they are all in this shit together now. It was also lovely nod to the time Emily lived at Hanna’s.  Ashley convinces Emily that the girls should take the barn prom seriously, and try to enjoy it saying:

Ashley: You all have been robbed of so much already, just put on those dresses, dance and feel beautiful.

I love that the girls do not have to hide everything from their moms anymore, and that they are finally able to turn to their parents for support.

The four liars arrive at the barn in their fairytale themed prom gowns. Hanna is dressed like a storybook princess, Emily is the Black Swan, Aria is channeling Snow White and Spence missed the memo and looks like she is attending a charity banquet. The only person missing is Ali, who was lured by Charles to the prom. Ali pretends to head to the barn, waving at Pam so the parentals think she is attending, and runs through the woods to head to grandmother’s house the prom with the big bad wolf following right behind her.

In the barn the girls take group pictures until they gets bored and they all take out their phones. It’s really sad watching the four of them take pictures by themselves, and then sitting on the couch looking at their classmates Instagrams. They really have been robbed of so much by A, it is not fair that the school board is robbing them of their prom. While scrolling through Rosewood High’s live Insta-feed though, they spot Ali in the background of a photo and realize she is not just fashionably late to the barn, she ditched them for  the real prom. Photobomb fail Alison.

The gang ditches the barn, their parents and their police detail and head to the real prom to find Ali. When they arrive Aria is very confused to find Clark as the prom photographer, especially because he has not returned a single one of her calls since the art gallery. She goes to confront him while the rest of the posse searches for Ali. Hanna runs into Caleb who is back from NYC. He admits that he wasn’t in New York just to see his dad, he was actually in a super secret interview getting employed doing cyber security work. He can’t tell Hanna where he is working, who he is working for, or how he got the job, but she shouldn’t worry because it will pay for Hanna’s full tuition and a huge New York City loft. This job sounds as legit as The Boiler Room. Emily is also in for a surprise when she spots Sara. While dancing, Sara tells her that whatever happens, Emily means a lot to her. I am hoping that means that Sara will be gone very very soon.

Pretty Little Liars

When the girls finally get ahold of Ali, she whines about how the girls are going to scare Charles away just like they did last time. All she wants to do is meet murderous kidnapping brother. Spencer tries one more time to plead her case with Ali, telling her not to follow her worst instincts. Ali just brushes Spencer off saying that Spencer couldn’t give a shit about her, and that Spencer never actually liked her anyways. Ali leaves to  continue her quest of asking every masked person at the prom if they are Charles.This is a huge blow for Spencer. Yes, Spencer was the only liar to stand up to Alison, but she also spent that last 2 years (5 seasons) trying to solve Ali’s fake death.

Ali runs into the fake prom forest, which is chalk full of mirrors, to find Charles, and all of a sudden Clark flashes his very shiney sidearm and chases after her. Clark does not get far though because the Scooby gang corners and disarms him. When he yells at them to let him go, saying that they have no idea what they are doing, Toby retorts with “Actually I do.  I’m an officer.” Oh man, Toby always knows how to make me laugh. What makes it better this time though is that he isn’t an officer because he just got fired.

It turns out that Clark is not actually a student at Hollis, he is an undercover cop. Poor Aria, this is the second time in her young teenage life that an adult male has befriended her under false pretenses. First Ezra, and now Clark.  Aria is understandably dumbfounded and hurt, and will need an unimaginable amount of time in therapy to work out her trust issues. Instead of being sympathetic towards her friend, Emily snarks at her “Really Aria, you didn’t know?” Emily, just for that, I hope you are forced to listen to Sara speak for hours on end.

The Moms

The Momma Liars convene in the Hastings’ kitchen to keep an eye on their girls during the barn prom. By keep an eye on the girls, I mean eating seafood and getting drunk. It is utterly amazing.

Out on the back porch, they try to wrap their heads around how the DiLaurentis family kept so many secrets. While topping off everyone’s glasses, Veronica tells the girls they don’t know the half of it, and lets it slip that Jason is Spencer’s half brother. Veronica retells the story of her husband’s infidelities but it is too much for her to handle, so she heads inside to refill her already half-full wine glass. The remaining moms decide that instead of checking on their daughters (who have already snuck out) they should go console their host.

Inside, the women continue to discuss Jessica DiLaurentis and convince themselves that it was Mr. D who killed and buried Jessica next to the Hasting’s lilacs, not Charles. Veronica wants answers and she is going to get them, right now, by marching over to the DiLaurentis’ house. Did I mention how in love I am with these drunken Momma Liars scenes?

Pretty Little Liars

They storm next door, but Mr. D is not home. This does not deter them from snooping around. Just as they find the old picture of Jessica with her two boys, Jason’s doppelganger Rhys stealthy sneaks into the room giving women a fright. Rhys starts interrogating the moms and when he asks if any of them are actually part of the DiLaurentis family, Ella retorts “Are you?” Veronica quickly sobers up and uses her lawyer skills to take control of the situation. When Pam starts to suggest they should leave, both Ashley and Ella shush her like she is a child to shut her up.

Once Rhys departs, the moms continue searching the DiLaurentis house for clues but are distracted when they hear a noise coming from the basement. All four women head downstairs to investigate the noise, and get locked in the basement.  Suffice to say, the moms have fully sobered up. While locked in the basement together they realize that the fear they currently feel, is nothing compared to the fear their daughters have had to live with for the past two years.

Back at the prom, the Liars find Ali’s phone laying on the ground next to a broken mirror while Charles chases Ali until they are in a secluded hallway where he takes off his mask and reveals his identity to his sister.
So that was a pretty great episode, am I right? I hope everyone is ready for the finale.

 

Aria Quotes of the Week:(Dare I say it, but Aria had the best lines this episode. So for one week only, this section has been renamed)

Aria: “We’ll fill the ballroom with police. It’s fairy tale themed, they can come as the village idiots”

Aria: “For all we know, Charles is in Spencer’s barn installing a lethal disco ball, which would make sense because that is where all of this started.”

Questions/Comments:

  1. Dear Rosewood School Board- If you want to keep your students safe from a serial abductor,  do not have a themed prom where the drink servers wear masks, and there are a myriad dark alleyways to hide and stalk.
  2. Did anyone else notice that ‘Disturbia’ was playing when Alison entered the prom. Now I really have no idea what year it actually is in Rosewood.
Alyssa Berkowitz
Alyssa Berkowitz
Alyssa (TV Editor) likes long walks on the beach, Greek food, talking about television, watching a good sunset, and girls who wear glasses. Wait, this isn't a bio for OKCupid? Alyssa got her start recapping in college when her friends got tired of her constantly talking about TV and suggested she start a blog. The idea was if she wrote about TV she would talk about it less. Well her friends succeeded in one of their goals...she started writing about TV.

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