- Title: Pretty Little Liars – The Guilty Girl’s Handbook
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With the car crashing through Emily‘s (Shay Mitchell) front door and Hanna’s mother (Laura Leighton) refused bail, Emily struggles to think about her college future, which isn’t easy despite some reassuring words from both Ezra (Ian Harding) and Zoe (Rumer Willis), and Hanna (Ashley Benson) enlists the help of Mona (Janel Parrish) to try and make a reckless decision to construct an elaborate lie and admit to the murder of Detective Wilden (Bryce Johnson).
While taking a peek through the files her mother has collected for the defense of Hanna’s mother, Spencer (Troian Bellisario) discovers a file which leads her to make a trip to Radley and talk with Eddie Lamb (Reggie Austin) about the night Toby’s mother died and the statement Wilden deliberately changed in the report. Meanwhile Aria (Lucy Hale) worries about Mike‘s (Cody Christian) recent attitude and aggressive behavior, especially when she learns her brother is taking martial arts lessons from Jake (Ryan Guzman).
With the exception of Aria’s overreaction to her brother (which seems mainly included to give Hale something to do and continue to tease the possibility of Aria and Jake getting together), the relationships between mothers and daughters dominate “The Guilty Girl’s Handbook” as Emily feels guilty at what A has put her mother (Nia Peeples) through and Hanna decides to throw her own life away to save her mother from prison over Caleb‘s (Tyler Blackburn) objections. Both stories work well and provide Mitchell and Benson the chance to carry the emotional weight of the entire episode. The episode ends. to everyone’s surprise, when Hanna is beaten to the punch as Mona confesses to the murder (which is made all the more convincing based on specific information she and Hanna go over for hours preparing Hanna’s story).
