So this week with the PLL re-cap, I, Josh Hinke, will be your captain. Meanwhile, Captain Gilchrist is soaking up the sun in lovely Florida.

When we last left Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Maya (Bianca Lawson), the two were fighting after Em caught Maya smoking a joint at a team party.

We start episode 21 with Emily on the phone with Maya. Em is obviously upset (and I would be too), and we see her leaving Maya a voicemail. “Why aren’t you calling me back? If silence is your way of breaking up with me, then I’m really starting to feel like,” and the beep is all she wrote.

As Emily walks away from her phone call we get a glimpse of Paige. She turns around with hair that actually looks good. No bangs. No bob.

With Maya seemingly out of the picture, Paige zeroes in on Em. She asks to her to go door-to-door with her and ask for donations for the swim team.

Since Em is currently fighting with Maya, and she and Paige share a past, I thought Em might put up some kind of fight before agreeing to go on this money-hunting outing. Lo and behold, however, Em barely even makes an excuse before deciding to join.

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The plot thickens this week as the mysterious A draws another girl into the scheming. Hanna’s friend Mona starts getting text messages from A, some concerning her own thievery, and others about Hanna and her mom. All the same, Hanna predicts that A will soon start the blackmail like she has with the other girls.

This episode also brings the girls one step closer to finding A. They have managed to get the two grand to pay for the phone information. Expecting a name, they receive only an address where the messages have come from.

So after some more A drama, we cut back to Em and Paige. They are just getting back from their donation walk when Paige’s mom calls. After describing Em as “just a friend,” I think we see Em getting just a tad bit jealous. Weird for someone who is pining after the girlfriend who won’t call her back, but I digress. One call from her mother is all Paige needs to start delving in to her coming out story with her mother. Her face is full of happiness. It seems like it really set her free.

It’s most definitely an “awwww, that’s great,” moment. Paige tells her touching story to Em and reveals that it was Em that had given her the strength to tell her parents. In such a touching moment I could feel the tension rising. I knew what was coming next. Any proper sitcom/drama geek knows a kiss is coming. To Em’s relief she gets a text message pulling her away from the tension and into something that seems much more pertinent to her.

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I’d say this episode was very centered toward plot development as the group reconvenes to chat about Mona receiving communication from A, as well as Aria revealing her relationship is still happening with pedo-teacher Ezra. Hanna calls the girls downstairs to watch a video Caleb sent her. SPOILER ALERT: The girls see a video from the night of Allison’s death. Did Melissa kill Allison? That’s what the writers want you to think.

So the plot advances a bit with the A drama but the most exciting thing to happen was the screaming old man.

So after Spencer is respectfully denied some drunken sex, we move on to Em thinking she found Maya in a shop, only to turn the girl around and be utterly disappointed. Rushing out of the shop, Emily runs into Paige, who really wants to know what is bothering Em. Em shares her concerns about Maya while Paige bashes Maya’s character flaws. When all the bitching is done, Paige goes in for the kiss that she wanted earlier.

Denied! Em shuts her down. Paige sighs in that heavy teen angst kind of way as Em walks away into the night. 

Fast forward to the next day and we see Mona at her locker. A tried to blackmail Mona to turn Hanna in for all her theft. She left the police report and everything. We find out, however, that she did not do A’s dirty work. Instead, she’ll be “feeding slop to the homeless.” We hope they don’t make her wear a hairnet. She is much to pretty for one of those. A isn’t done with Mona though, she makes that very clear in the message Mona receives.

So of course, the producers have to end our love story for the week and they do so in a hopeful manner. Em is heard leaving Maya a very sincere voicemail. She cares for Maya and I think that half kiss rekindled the passion Em has for Maya.

So no superb girl-on-girl action this week but a few sweet moments made up for that.  While the action might not have been so hot, the plot and the hunt for A are most definitely heating up.

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