The Homecoming Hangover… I Hope There’s Asprin In Prison (Pretty Little Liars Episode 7 Recap + Broken Laws)

The beginning of this episode takes place approximately one second after the end of the previous episode.  We have departed from the creepy Rosewood population sign and returned to the high school where Spencer, Aria and Hanna frantically search for Emily.  They attempt to turn on the lights in the hallway, but of course, the lights have magically stopped working.  However, the music downstairs is still going full-blast — perfect for the ongoing murder movie theme of “Pretty Little Liars.”  Nobody downstairs heard any of the commotion; nobody heard the shattering glass in the chem lab, nobody heard Toby and Emily screaming on the top of their lungs, nobody heard Emily’s nosedive to the hallway floor, and now, nobody hears the girls bellowing “Emily?!” in hopes of finding their friend before Toby can murder her.




In another display of her above-average intelligence, Spencer suggests splitting up.  I demand an explanation for her smart girl reputation.  Hanna objects to Spencer’s splitting up idea, and the girls finally reach a compromise; they will split up together!  Conceptually, this makes absolutely no sense, but it somehow sounds better than the girls individually searching for their missing friend who they think is currently accompanied by a murderer.  Aria calls Emily’s phone which rings ominously outside the chem lab.  Toby and Emily have painted the chem lab floor red with what the girls assume is Emily’s blood.  Little do they know that it’s really Toby’s blood, an immediate result of Emily’s ninja attack on him.

It turns out, Toby is driving his car; Emily is in the backseat.  Both of them have matching bloody faces as if they’ve joined some off-screen gang, but Emily’s injury is worse; she’s unconscious.

The following day, there are cop cars in front of one of the girls’ houses, and for once, it’s not Hanna’s!    Emily has been released from the hospital, and the police are questioning her mother.  We learn that Toby dropped Emily off at the hospital, gave her to a nurse and then left.

Aria and Spencer visit Emily at home and barely ask her how she’s doing before firing at her with information about Toby’s file and Toby and Jenna’s relationship.  Emily is skeptical; she is alive and has just won a brand new car — a Toyota Corolla — in the Homecoming dance raffle.  If Toby wanted her dead, he could have both, had her in a body bag and gotten his next murder confession tattoo by now.  Homecoming, Free Again!

As a police officer and Pam Fields discusse the shadiness of Toby handing Emily off to a nurse and bolting, Pam blurts out that she thought Emily went to Homecoming with Ben.  She quickly covers this up with a non-convincing lie that she knew Emily went to Homecoming with Toby, but she “forgot.”  The police officer pretty much laughs in her face as he says that “everybody lies.” This especially applies to you, right now, Pam.  You clearly know NOTHING about your daughter’s love life.   Simultaneously, we see Emily tell Spencer and Aria that she lied to the police and said that she tripped and fell instead of telling them that Toby “attacked” her.  I admit that I’m a tad confused here; I did not see Toby attack Emily; I DID see her trip and fall on her face.  However, Emily’s mother has definitely lied to a police officer, and it appears she did so to prevent the officer from questioning Emily any further and potentially collecting some damning information from her.  She insists, “Whatever Emily told you is what happened,” as she creates a human barrier that blocks her front door from cops but allows Emily’s friends to enter.  Also, if Toby DID attack Emily in any way, then she has lied to the police as well.  I’m pretty sure the girls are getting well-versed in this one now, and we discussed it for the first time in my entry on The Jenna Thing.

Broken Law # 1 Alert!

Hindering apprehension or prosecution (in relevant part) – 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 5105(a)(5): “A person commits an offense if, with intent to hinder the apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of another for crime or violation…he  provides false information to a law enforcement officer.”  

“The offense is a felony of the third degree if the conduct which the actor knows has been charged or is liable to be charged against the person aided would constitute a felony of the first or second degree. Otherwise it is a misdemeanor of the second degree.”

Come on, Pam.  How do you expect to set a good example for your daughter if you commit the exact same crimes that she does?!  And you wonder why she’s lying to you… Seriously, if Pam continues this pattern, she’s going to be on Ashley Marin’s law breaking level in no time!

Toby has become public Rosewood suspect # 1 on all fronts.  The cops are suspicious about his late night motor-cycle ride after dropping Emily off at the hospital, AND, when Hanna attempts to return Toby’s file and cover up her theft, she sees the cops outside talking to Toby’s shrink.  They already know that the file has been stolen.  Now, Hanna has no choice but to stuff the enormous file into her bag where it doesn’t quite fit.  Conveniently, the part of the file sticking out is the part that reads, in enormous letters, “TOBY CAVANAUGH, CONFIDENTIAL.”  Seriously?  Hanna should be an expert at lying and breaking the law by now.  At least put the file in your bag upside down so those incriminating words are not sticking out for the entire world to see.

After her failed attempt at returning the file, Hanna arrives at Emily’s house and tells the girls the news about the cops searching for the file.  Aria and Spencer have insisted that Emily tell the police the truth now–but she has to leave out the information about the file!  So, by telling the police the truth, apparently they mean that Emily needs to lie to the police again.  Also, now that Hanna knows that the police are investigating Toby’s whereabouts and looking for his file, she clearly knows that returning the file would help their investigation.  However, it seems that she has decided that the file looks better as an unconventional handbag decoration, which leads us right into:

Broken Law # 2 Alert!

18 Pa. Cons. Stat . § 4104.  Tampering with records or identification (in relevant part):
(a) “Writings.–A person commits a misdemeanor of the first degree if, knowing that he has no privilege to do so, he falsifies, destroys, removes or conceals any writing or record, or distinguishing mark or brand or other identification with intent to deceive or injure anyone or to conceal any wrongdoing.”

Hanna has both, removed the record with intent to deceive, and concealed it with intent to conceal any wrongdoing.  Great work, Hanna.  Another A+ for you.  It’s too bad breaking the law isn’t a class offered at Rosewood High.  Hanna would definitely do better in that class than she did in Real Love Waits club.

Spencer and Aria politely leave Emily’s house as soon as Hanna arrives.  Before the girls rush out the door, Hanna asks them for their advice on what to do with the file, because all of the girls clearly know  right from wrong in terms of obeying the law.  Aria tells her to just shove the file into her locker so that they can deal with it at a later time.  In legalese, there’s another term for what Aria told Hanna to do.  Considering that we have just discussed that concealing the file from the police is against the law, and Aria has told Hanna to continue doing just that, we’re ready for:

Broken Law # 3 Alert!

This is one that you might remember from my previous post on There’s No Place Like Homecoming, where it appeared as Broken Law # 1.  18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 902:  Criminal Solicitation: 
“(a)  Definition of solicitation.–A person is guilty of solicitation to commit a crime if with the intent of promoting or facilitating its commission he commands, encourages or requests another person to engage in specific conduct which would constitute such crime or an attempt to commit such crime or which would establish his complicity in its commission or attempted commission.”
18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 905: Grading (in relevant part): Grading of criminal attempt, solicitation and conspiracy.
(a) Grading.–Except as otherwise provided in this title,…  solicitation … [is a crime] of the same grade and degree as the most serious offense which is… solicited …”

Uh oh.  Aria is catching up to her friends in the crime game.  We’ll have another Pretty Little Felon before we know it!

Additionally, since Hanna is the one who stole the file and has now clearly made the decision to hold on to it, it’s time to discuss:

Broken Law # 4 Alert!

It’s common in Pennsylvania that when someone is charged with theft, they are also charged with: Receiving stolen property – 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 3925:   (a)  Offense defined.–A person is guilty of theft if he intentionally receives, retains, or disposes of movable property of another knowing that it has been stolen, or believing that it  has probably been stolen, unless the property is received,  retained, or disposed with intent to restore it to the owner. 
(b)  Definition.–As used in this section the word “receiving” means acquiring possession, control or title, or lending on the security of the property.”  

I did not include this one in the previous post on “There’s No Place Like Homecoming,” because at the time Hanna stole the file in that episode, it appeared that she had received and retained the file with intent to restore it to it’s owner later; Spencer pretty much forced her to miss being crowned Homecoming queen to steal the file, and Hanna intended to return it as soon as possible.  Now, it is clear that Hanna no longer intends to return the file.

Now that Spencer and Aria have left Emily’s house, Hanna and Emily have time to have a private conversation about Emily’s karma.  Hanna is amazed that Emily managed to go to Homecoming with a so-called murderer, crack her head open, and win a new car in one night.  It is rather impressive, I must admit.  This chat about karma quickly turns into a full-blown conversation on Emily’s potential voyage out of the closet.  Emily asks Hanna why she thought that she would bring Maya as her date to Homecoming, and Hanna finally tells Emily that “A” sent her the picture of Emily and Maya kissing.  Hanna has a mature reaction to the situation.  She assures Emily that no matter who she decides to date, she’s not signing a contract, and that her friends will love her no matter what.  They loved her when she was Emily dating Ben, and they’ll love her if she’s Emily dating Maya.  So apparently, Emily’s friends will love her regardless of her love interest, unless her love interest is a stone cold killer like Toby.  In all seriousness though, Hanna’s conversation with Emily was refreshing.  There was no judgment and no sign of discrimination.  At least lying criminals can still be good friends, too!

Next, Spencer visits Alex in the kitchen of the club.  She insists that Melissa lied to him at Homecoming and asks for a do-over date.  While doing so, she pisses off Alex’s co-worker, Stephanie, because Spencer being in the kitchen is a complete violation of a million health-care codes.  Spencer insists that she is fully vaccinated and refuses to leave until Alex agrees to go on another date with her. This time she won’t completely ignore him, she promises.  Alex agrees to the date, but only if he gets to plan it from start to finish.  Spencer Hastings does not always get to run the show.

Aria is trying to reach Ezra on all of his phones, but she keeps getting his voicemail.  She receives a bouquet of flowers from Sean, because it’s perfectly normal for your best friend’s boyfriend to send you flowers in Rosewood.  A furious Mike rescues Aria from having to tell her mother who sent the flowers.  He is angry that Ella will not be attending his Lacrosse game.  Seriously, Ella?  Missing your son’s lacrosse game?  What will your neighbors think of you?!

Back at Emily’s house, Emily awakens from her deep slumber to the sound of the creepiest dog bark in the world.  Emily has another visitor; cracking her head open has made her the most popular girl in town!  Who is Emily’s visitor?  None other than Jenna Marshall… and her little seeing-eye-dog, too!  Jenna and her mother have baked cookies for Emily.  Jenna, in the scariest voice that she can muster, informs Pam that the cookies taste better with milk.  “You do have milk, don’t you?” scary Jenna asks Pam.  This is obviously code for “get out of Emily’s room and leave me alone with your daughter, even though you think that my step brother tried to kill her.”

Jenna sits down on Emily’s bed and asks “How are you feeling?”  Emily answers her with the most polite response she can come up with, “Why are you here?” And these girls wonder why Jenna, the girl that they blinded and the girl that they treat with the utmost respect at all time, could ever hate them.  Rude much, Emily?  I probably wouldn’t eat those cookies either though.  Jenna informs Emily that she’s worried about Toby.  After all, he’s troubled, and now that the police are looking for that file, Jenna does not know what Toby might do if the file falls into the wrong hands.  Emily’s confused; she tells Jenna that she thought that she’d be relieved that Toby was gone.  When Jenna realizes that Emily and all of her friends know about the file’s contents, Emily assures her that nobody will ever find out.  Jenna replies, “Secrets have a way of getting out, like the secret Ali shared with me at the hospital.”  Apparently Ali and Jenna’s secret is an exception to this rule about secrets having a way of getting out, because Jenna does not tell Emily anything more about it.  Instead, she demands that Emily get the file for her.  She does not want the police to find the file, and after all, Jenna has kept quiet about a lot.  The least Emily can do is get the file for Jenna; she owes her that much.  Jenna has managed to terrify Emily and the entire Pretty Little Liars audience, and bring us to:

Broken Law # 5 Alert!

Jenna may not be as guilty as Hanna is when it comes to this file, but she knows that the girls have it, she knows that the police are looking for it, yet she has requested that the girls return the file to HER.  She doesn’t tell the police anything that she knows about the file, even though this could help with their investigation about Toby’s whereabouts.  Does this sound legal to you?  No? That’s because it’s not.  Jenna could get in trouble for: 18 Pa. Cons. Stat . § 4910: Tampering with or fabricating physical evidence (in relevant part). “A person commits a misdemeanor of the second degree if, believing that an official proceeding or investigation is pending or about to be instituted, he: (1) alters, destroys, conceals or removes any record, document or thing with intent to impair its verity or availability in such proceeding or investigation…” (emphasis on conceals and availability added by me).

It looks like Jenna is not all that innocent, either.

Meanwhile, at school, Hanna arrives in the yearbook room where Lucas is going to do a makeup photo shoot so that she and Sean can have their Homecoming queen and king pictures in the yearbook.  While Lucas and Hanna wait for Sean to arrive, they make small-talk by joking about the custodian’s drinking problems and brain damage due to breathing in too much cleaning product.  Compelling stuff.  Toby’s file is still conspicuously sticking out of Hanna’s bag; seriously, is she going to keep it there forever?  Finally, Sean enters the room, and he is immediately rude.  Also, he couldn’t bother to wear pants to this photo shoot; he has to get to basketball immediately!  When Hanna’s phone rings, she has finally realized that she should perhaps, pay a tiny bit of attention to her boyfriend.  Because of this revelation, she conveniently misses Emily’s frantic phone call about Jenna.  Hanna keeps trying to apologize to Sean as they smile for the Rosewood high school peasants.  Sean angrily cuts the photo shoot short and attempts to scare Lucas with his alpha-male attitude, bro.

Emily’s mother confiscates her cell phone before she can call any of her other friends and tell them about Jenna and her poison cookies and scary dog.  Pam proceeds to flip out on Emily for going to Homecoming with Toby, giving her added stress, which I’m sure is doing wonders for Emily’s health conditions.  Pam spits out accusations about Toby blinding Jenna and trying to rape Emily.  Pam and Spencer would get along swimmingly, what with their tendencies to immediately assume the worst about everybody.

At Aria’s house, Byron and Aria discuss Mike’s lacrosse game and the Ella situation.  Aria wants to know if Byron is moving out; she’d prefer to hear it from him instead of finding out when she’s setting the dinner table and he doesn’t show up.  Byron assures Aria that he would never move out without telling Aria and Mike first; right, he’d just cheat on their mother, but he would NEVER move out without telling them.  He’s such a trustworthy father.

Next, Aria, Spencer and Hanna drive to their favorite place in the world: the woods!  Hanna wants to burn the file there — a brilliant idea if I’ve ever heard one.  Emily calls them to tell them NOT to destroy the file, but the girls miss her call.  Spencer and Aria remind Hanna that burning the file is a terrible idea.  Spencer wants to send the file to the police anonymously, and Aria believes that burning the file is a bad idea because the police could use the file to build a case against Toby — that evil murderer.  What a novel idea, Aria.  NOT hiding evidence from the police would definitely be a new activity for these girls.  Hanna explains that she absolutely CANNOT get caught with this file; it’d be her third strike after stealing sunglasses (GUCCI ONES), and Sean’s car.

Spencer snatches the file out of Hanna’s hands, which begins a game of tug-of-medical-file-war between the two girls.  Spencer screams that the police need to have the file because “The devil has a name, and it’s Toby!”  I knew that Keegan Allen and his 666 pack had a purpose on this show.  Spencer is 100% sure that Toby is “A,” but this is not enough for Hanna.  Hanna makes a remark that if she got caught with this file, she’d go to prison, but Spencer would probably just win another award like she did for stealing Melissa’s essay.  Aria is sick of this argument; she intervenes by throwing the file into the river.  The girls flea the woods, leaving Toby’s confidential medical files to drown.  Aria should know better by now.  This adventure in the woods has given us two more broken laws.

Broken Law # 6 Alert! 

SEE Broken Law # 3 of this entry:  18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 902:  Criminal Solicitation.  Now Hanna is the guilty one; she lured her friends into the woods attempting to get them to help her destroy Toby’s medical file.  She wanted to burn it, which isn’t exactly what wound up happening, but Aria managed to destroy the file in the water, bringing us to:

Broken Law # 7 Alert! 

SEE Broken Law # 2 of this entry**: 18 Pa. Cons. Stat . § 4104.  Tampering with records or identification.  Now Aria is the guilty one, as she has destroyed Toby’s medical records with the intent of concealing wrongdoing.  

How adorable, Aria and Hanna have played a game of trading crimes!

Back at school, Spencer and Emily discuss Jenna.  It’s a good thing that Emily didn’t eat those poison cookies.  What is going on here?  Apparently the Marshall-Cavanaugh family does not want Emily alive, if Spencer’s wild assumptions are correct.  Alex cancels his do-over date with Spencer.  Aria meets the author of the PLL book series; Sara Shepard is playing Ms. Shepard, the substitute teacher for Ezra’s English class.  Jenna confronts Emily about the file.  Emily tells her that she doesn’t have to worry about the file anymore; it’s gone for good.  Jenna brings back her signature scary voice and tells Emily, “I hope you’re not lying to me.”

Hanna goes to the yearbook room, responding to the message from the universe (which really was just a message on a post-it) that Lucas wanted to see her.  She chooses which royal photo she wants to appear in the yearbook.  At least Lucas probably is not “A.”  He communicates with post-it notes, not text messages.

Spencer stalks Alex at the club which is closed on most Mondays– but not today, because there’s a “breakfast thing” at the club tomorrow.  This show has a wide range of definitions for the word “thing.”  I hope that nobody goes blind at this one.  Alex’s boss says that Spencer can help Alex make melon balls — but only if she wears a hair net.  Spencer helps Alex with the fruit, leading Alex to comment, “Wow.  If your parents could see their little girl now…” doing actual work instead of just stealing someone else’s fruit kabobs!  Ok, we get it.  Spencer is too rich to have a job.  Then why do the Hastings sisters care so much about being at the top of all of their classes?  Spencer shrugs off this comment and tells Alex to move his melon balls.

Aria screams at Sean for sending her “Screw You Hanna Flowers.”  Their conversation about Hanna and her boring love for Sean is interrupted by Mike Montgomery beating each other up in the hallway. Mike is the one who started the fight.  It seems he’s taking after his older sister and her law breaking ways:

Broken Law # 8 Alert!

Simple assault (in relevant part) – 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 2701: (a) Offense defined: — “A person is guilty of assault if he: (1) attempts to cause or intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another…” 
(b)  Grading.–“Simple assault is a misdemeanor of the second degree unless committed: (1)  in a fight or scuffle entered into by mutual consent, in which case it is a misdemeanor of the third degree.” 

I’m going to go with the second degree misdemeanor here, as it didn’t seem that Mike’s friend entered into this fight mutually.  He only got physical when he had to defend himself, and his actions were likely justified. Justification of self defense.  18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 505 (in relevant part) : “the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself against the use of unlawful force by such other person on the present occasion…”

That’s not all for Mike Montgomery.  The fact that this happened on school grounds does not help him.

Broken Law # 9 Alert!

As we discussed in my entry on “Reality Bites Me,” Pennsylvania has a law against bullying.  Pennsylvania Tit. No. 24 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. §13-1303. 1-A. : “Bullying: intentional electronic, written, verbal or physical act, or series of acts: (1) directed at another 
student(s); (2) which occurs in school setting; (3) that is severe, persistent or pervasive; AND (4) has the effect of: (i) substantially interfering with student‟s education; (ii) creating a threatening environment; or (iii) substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school. “School setting:” in school, on school grounds, in school vehicles, at school bus stop, or at school activity. School entity may define bullying to encompass acts occurring outside the school setting if the definition meets (1), (3) and (4).” As we discussed in the aforementioned entry on “Reality Bites Me,” most schools have their own policies regarding punishment for bullying, and we find out in a later episode that Rosewood has a zero tolerance policy for bullying.  

One more thing, Mike!

Broken Law # 10 Alert!

Disorderly Conduct: 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503: “(a) Offense defined.–A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he: (1) engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; (2) makes unreasonable noise; (3) uses obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture; or (4) creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.
(b) Grading.–An offense under this section is a misdemeanor of the third degree if the intent of the actor is to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, or if he persists in disorderly conduct after reasonable warning or request to desist. Otherwise disorderly conduct is a summary offense.”

I would say Mike’s behavior fits the description of Disorderly Conduct very well.  He definitely created a public inconvenience, engaged in fighting and violent behavior and made unreasonable noise.  Aria and Sean noticed the fight between Mike and his friend from all the way down the opposite end of the hallway.  Mike’s decision to bellow “Go to hell!” at his sister after the fight had broken up also does not help his cause.

Meanwhile, Hanna and Lucas watch videos of a cat playing ping pong and a turkey on a snowboard.  Lucas nervously confesses to Hanna that he used to be terrified of her and the rest of Alison’s posse.  He pretty much declares that Alison was the Wicked Witch of the West while perhaps Hanna was more of a Glinda the Good Witch.  We learn that Alison called Lucas “Hermie the Hermaphrodite” because she didn’t like his glasses.  Lucas believes that Alison was “straight up evil.”  Hanna attempts to lighten the mood by confessing that Alison had a nickname for her, too.  It was “Hefty Hanna.”  However, Hanna still contends that Alison made her feel special.

Back at the club, Spencer discovers a picture of herself in one of the kitchen’s cabinets.  Somebody has drawn horns on her head.  Apparently the kitchen staff at the club believes that the devil has a name and it’s Spencer, NOT Toby.  If I had to guess, I’d say the person who put that picture up was probably Stephanie, the girl that Spencer pissed off earlier in the episode.

Emily “warns” Maya that a lot of people are going to see their photo booth kissing pictures.  Maya doesn’t care.  Emily misses Maya and wants to “try a new thing called being honest with herself.”  Byron and Ella show up at the school — they’re here because Mike picked a fight and Aria has been skipping her classes.  Ella tells Byron that the kids are probably acting up because Ella and Byron have been behaving badly, AND she no longer wants Byron sleeping on the couch like some sort of drunk uncle.

Aria goes to Ezra’s apartment where she overhears a voicemail that says that Ezra is interviewing for a teaching job in New York.  Sean shows up at Hanna’s house; he brought her her English homework.  Apparently Aria was not the only liar who “wasn’t feeling” the substitute teacher in Ezra’s class; Hanna skipped English that day.  Sean thinks that the videos that Lucas showed Hanna are dumb and immature.

Alex/Diego Boneta dances with Spencer to his own song, “Siempre Tu.”  The couple is ballroom dancing in the kitchen; at least they’re finally dancing, seeing as they did not do much of that at Homecoming.  At least they get to dance during the Homecoming Hangover!

Emily drives passed a hysterically crying Jenna.  Jenna also has cops at their house.  The girls of Rosewood should be charging the police officers rent.  At the Montgomery household, Mike comes home and he’s still in a bad mood.  It turns out that Ella is moving out, and we see a very depressing Ella/Byron scene as she leaves.

Hanna, Spencer and Emily are at Emily’s house talking about Toby’s whereabouts and whether or not he’s still alive.  His bike is wrecked, and Emily didn’t ask Jenna if he had died.  The girls’ conversation consists of Spencer saying “Well I’m not going to cry about the devil’s death and neither should you!” and Hanna declaring that if Emily liked Toby she can cry about it.  Then there are apologies all around.  Emily receives a text message from “A” that reads, “Thanks for getting Toby out of my way.”  Spencer is stunned; she thought Toby WAS “A!”

At the ending of this episode, we see someone in black gloves digging up Toby’s drenched medical file.  Maybe it’s “A” digging the file up, maybe it’s one of Rosewood’s lovely police officers digging it up, or maybe “A” IS one fo Rosewood’s police officers!  Who knows anymore?  I DO know that we will definitely have a lot to discuss in my next post about Pretty Little Liars season 1, episode 8, “Please Do Talk About Me When I’m Gone.”  Stay tuned and thanks for reading!