In comparison to the chaos of the previous episode of “Pretty Little Liars,” in which Meredith went psycho and Spencer discovered that Toby is working with Mona, last week’s episode was much more relaxed. Season 3, episode 17, “Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno” aired on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 on ABC Family.
Emily receives a package from the Jones family, who is related to “Nate.” Nate, whose real name was Lynden Jones, pretended to be Maya’s cousin earlier in the series. After Maya (Emily’s ex-girlfriend) went missing, Nate moved to Rosewood and got close to Emily. Nate turned out to be Maya’s stalker and wanted to kill Emily for “stealing” Maya from him, but Emily killed Nate in self defense earlier in season three. The package comes from Nate’s family and contains cards Emily had written to Alison, along with a Biology notebook that Ali had borrowed from Emily. In the notebook there is a written conversation between Alison and CeCe, one of Alison’s other friends. The conversation was about a “beach hottie” that Alison was afraid of, so Emily goes to CeCe to ask her if she remembers the conversation.
CeCe tells Emily that she and Ali had gone to Cape May for a summer and the “beach hottie” was a boy Ali slept with, but CeCe didn’t know his name. Alison was scared of him because she thought she was pregnant but she didn’t want to tell him that.
Spencer tells Emily that she and Toby broke up, but she is not ready to talk about it so she wants to keep it just between the two of them. Spencer has not told the girls that Toby is “A” yet.
Spencer is in class when she gets a text from Aria that says, “Ezra freaked. He broke up with me. Can you meet in the park?” Aria had planned on telling Ezra that he has a son, a secret Aria found out from Ezra’s ex-girlfriend. Spencer leaves class and goes to the park, where she sees Ezra. Spencer gives him a piece of her mind and reveals the secret, only to find out that Aria never told him and the text was a set-up from “A.” Ezra leaves to meet his son.
Hanna overhears Paige, Emily’s girlfriend, on the phone with Caleb, Hanna’s boyfriend, and learns that they have been working together to try and stop Mona from bothering the girls. Hanna follows Paige because she thinks Paige is meeting Caleb, but Hanna ends up at a gay bar where she sees Paige flirting with another girl. Hanna gets taken to the police station for underage drinking.
Emily turns in the Biology notebook to Detective Wilden, whom the girls do not like. Moments later, Emily sees a picture of Wilden and some other guys at Cape May, and her suspicions grow.
Spencer hires a private investigator to follow Toby in an attempt to find out what the “A” key unlocks.
Although this episode was not as chaotic and did not have as much action as its predecessor, it set up many potential conflicts for the girls to have later on. With Spencer still hiding Toby’s secret, Wilden having been at Cape May, and Ezra off to meet his son, there is no telling what could happen next. The next episode of “Pretty Little Liars” will air on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, at 8pm on ABC Family.
