The sun is nearly setting on another half a season of the guilty little pleasure of choice among teens, adults, lesbians and a growing contingent of trendy gay boys, and wow, the writers are pulling out all the stops for our little lesbian of Rosewood, Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell).
This first half of the second season has been up and down for Emily and her love life, with her dating the fetching, albeit slightly shifty, Samara, only to have that storyline squelched by that pain-in-the-ass blackmailer ‘A.’
Never fear however, Emily has game, and she’ll scroll through her little black book this week to find just the right salve to rub on her wounds – as it were.
There’s just one more episode left in the summer season, so let’s get to it. Here’s this week’s recap of Em’s storyline.
“I Must Confess” Ep. 2:11
This week’s episode kicks off with Emily tossing and turning in the wee hours of the morning when she receives a disturbing text. Although, atypical of Pretty Little Liars style, we don’t get a point of view shot of the text. Remember, Em’s staying with Hanna (Ashley Benson) while her folks are rekindling their romance on an army base in Texas. Later that night, Hanna is awoken a few hours later by a presence in the room and the sound of a car driving away.
Cut to Hanna, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Aria (Lucy Hale) gnashing their teeth over a missing Emily, who apparently took off in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Emily’s barreling through the woods like there’s a problem she’s attempting to outrun. The girls discover that the problem is a photo ‘A’ sent to her of Aria and her pedo / pedagogue Ezra making out. ‘A’s corresponding text basically informs Em that if she throws Aria under the bus with Aria’s mom, Emily can have her life back.
Next, an out-of-breath, sweaty Emily turns up at her hot shrink Dr. Sullivan’s office. “I’m ready to talk,” Em tells the good doc Dr. Sullivan (Annabeth Gish). When Dr. Sullivan opens the door to her office, the rest of the girls are there waiting for Em. Without going into details about just what ‘A’ is holding over the quorum of fashion-forward high schoolers, the girls spill about how they are being blackmailed by a nefarious and omniscient, technically savvy mo-fo in a hoodie. Thus, the doctor becomes the first person outside the group to be privy to ‘A’s’ shenanigans. As an aside, what kind of therapist takes walk-ins in the early hours of the morning, and where can I find a therapist like Dr. Sullivan who once starred in Mystic Pizza and Shag?
Later that week, Dr. Sullivan delivers what is essentially an anti-bullying speech to the school, going on a rant about social media, texting and the like, much to the chagrin of the little liars, who look shit scared that ‘A’ will retaliate for their tattling to Dr. Sullivan.
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Following the anti-bullying assembly Jenna, who has plenty of reason to hate the girls – namely blindness --taunts them outside the school, saying it’s too bad Dr. Sullivan wasn’t around when their bitchy dead friend Alison was tormenting kids. And here’s how we know that spilling her guts to Dr. Sullivan has lifted Em’s spirits.
“I guess it takes one bully to know another Jenna,” Emily says. “Could you please move your stick? There are people trying to get past you,” Em says, pushing past Jenna. And Emily’s no fan of a big stick, so Jenna had better move it. Bad joke, I know, but I couldn’t help myself.
That evening, Hanna’s off to her dad’s wedding rehearsal with her spitfire grandma played by the irascible diva Betty Buckley. Now, if PLL wants to unseat The Good Wife as my absolute favorite show du jour they just need to cast Broadway divas Patty Lupone as Aria’s auntie, Lea Salonga as Em’s older cousin and Linda Eder as Spencer’s godmother and I’ll be a completely gaga devotee. But enough of my show queen fantasies and back to the story.
While Hanna’s off trying to make nice with her evil stepsister Kate, Emily keeps Hanna’s mom Ashley (Laura Leighton) company. Em and Ashley had a sweet moment a couple of weeks ago when Ashley basically told Em that she is welcome to have her girlfriends over to the house as long as she does not get her girl-on-girl action on under her roof.
Attempting to ignore the fact that her ex, with whom she may still has a little spark, is about to get married, Ashley is busying herself straightening up after Hanna’s grandma rearranged the kitchen. But Emily, taking a cue from Dr. Sullivan perhaps, wants to get to the bottom of how Ashley feels about Hanna’s dad remarrying. In a bit of nurturing quid pro quo Ashley asks, “Why are you okay with having frozen dinner with me on a Friday night? Where’s Samara?”
“That didn’t work out,” Em says.
“Beyond repair?” Ashley asks, and Em responds that she’s not sure, that she still has a lot of questions. Ashley makes a mini speech about getting questions answered, implying that one should go to the source to answer them… It’s all a little puzzling but the conversation appears to have sparked something in Em.
“Thanks Emily,” Ashley finally says. “Thanks for making a rough night a little less… rough.” And the sound of “awwws” emanating from couches throughout the land could be heard. Emily and Hanna’s mom just might be my favorite PLL duo of the moment.
Inspired by Ashley’s words, Em picks up her phone and texts someone…
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A little later that evening Em’s seated at the liars’ favorite Rosewood watering hole, and there’s a table set for two.
Suddenly, Em’s face – and the faces of lesbian romantics nationwide—lights up at the sight of one Ms. Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson). If you recall, the last time we saw Maya, Em’s mama Pam had turned her daughter’s lesbian lover over to the juvie rehab police after she’d dug through Maya’s backpack to discover a little herbal relaxant.
“Hello Maya,” Em says, bursting with adorable awkwardness. “Hello Emily,” Maya says coyly. Cut to Spencer and Toby making out in Toby’s truck, and it’s pretty much looks like the picture Em must have in her head of what she and Maya will doing after a compulsory welcome back from rehab dinner. On a side note, Spencer and Toby have the cutest matching “butt chins” – thank you Glee—ever!
Back to Em’s and Maya’s din-din and the two are making small talk. We learn that Maya has been back from juvie – or wherever she really went—for about two weeks, and she’s living about 45 minutes away.
“So, your parents went to Texas, but you stayed here,” Maya says, attempting to assess Emily’s situation. “Mommy must trust you these days. Yeah right, she’s probably got someone watching us right now,” Maya adds. And who can blame Maya for being a tad paranoid. Pam did kind of fuck up her life for a while.
“My mom’s not like that anymore. She’s really come around to -- me being me,” Em says.
“A lot has gone down since I left,” Maya says, rather portentously. Maya admits she’s wondering what made Emily decide to call. Hmm. Let’s see. Since Maya was carted away Em’s had one girl who tried to drown her and another I’m still not sure had the best intentions. That Samara had her shady side. Maya really is Em’s best prospective dating material, even if she does have a penchant for lighting up the good shit from time to time.
“When you were still here I was not in a good place. There were things, people, I was afraid of,” Emily says.
“I know. I was one of them,” Maya replies.
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“You were, and I’m sorry for that. But I’m not afraid anymore,” Emily says with burgeoning enthusiasm. “I’m ready now, to move on and make real plans,” Emily continues, causing me to shout “Slow down!!!!” at the TV, but Maya says it for me.
“Oh Em, slow down. Now you’re scaring me,” Maya says.
“Am I?” Em asks nervously.
“Relax, I’m not leaving before I get my calamari,” Maya says, placing her hand on Em’s and then slowly starting to pull it away. But Emily has played the field and she knows what’s out there. She’s not missing this opportunity with Maya. Em does the old two-hands on top of Maya’s trick and looks longingly in her eyes, which likely elicits more “aws!” from TV nation.
Following about 10 minutes wrapping up the other girls’ stories for the episode, PLL cuts back to Em and Maya, who are now on dessert, and Maya saying, “She shoved your head under water and you still dated her?” Yes, but they sang P!nk songs together, and that was kind of charming right?
“I came back just at the right time,” Maya adds.
“You did,” Emily says, brimming with excitement, before she’s interrupted by a call from Dr. Sullivan.
“Emily, I’m sorry to be calling this late,” the doc says. “Can you get a hold of the other girls and come to my office now? I know who ‘A’ is,” Dr. Sullivan adds. And all I can think is “DAMN that A.” Yes, we want to know who the fuck ‘A’ is so we can all get on with our lives and stop obsessing about this ridiculously addictive and enjoyable teen show, but we also want to see how Em’s date with Maya plays out.
Cue the sound of all the girls receiving text messages from Em, but by the time they reach the doctor’s office, Dr. Sullivan is nowhere to be found.
Then, the dreaded sound of an ‘A’ text comes through.
“The doctor is out – A,” the text reads. Now ‘A’ is really on my shit list for ruining Em’s reunion with her first love and for maybe / possibly killing off Annabeth Gish.
Tune in next week for the summer season finale! Here’s hoping Em gets some more Maya time, but something tells me they’ll be focusing on wrapping up this ‘A’ BS and there may not be time for Emily to get her groove back.
