The Bad Seed is the 18th episode in the series. This episode was aired on February 21st 2011.
Synopsis
Aria is Ezra's stage manager.
As if Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily don‘t have enough drama in their lives, Mr. Fitz decides to put on a school production of the award-winning play The Bad Seed, the story about a girl who wreaks havoc on her small town – eerily echoing our Pretty Little Liars’ own troubles. Aria goes to the tryouts to support Hanna and act opposite her, with no intention of joining the play herself. However, the girls urge Aria to be Ezra‘s stage manager for the production, so that she can spend more time with him. Jenna enters the scene and offers to compose flute music for the play, letting Mr. Fitz know that she approves of his choice of play. Aria is annoyed.
Meanwhile, after seeing both his wife and daughter take a liking to Mr. Fitz, and Aria's assuring him that Ella's accompanying Ezra to the book event is definitely not a date, Byron asks him out for a drink, where the two begin to form a common bond over literature. Byron mentions in passing the fact that Aria is applying to colleges in California, a point that Ezra dotes on as he contemplates the future of their relationship.
"May I come in?"
At the Marin household, Ashley grows increasingly suspicious of their lack of food, as Hanna has been secretly housing foster boy Caleb in their basement. Later, Hanna shares a first kiss with her house guest, but Hanna turns cold towards him after she jumps into the shower with Caleb to avoid her mother detecting his presence. Ashley goes into the bathroom looking for her phone, which she has put in the charger in there, prompting Hanna to jump in fully clothed so that her mother won't realize it is Caleb showering, not Hanna.
Spencer Hastings enlists Caleb to help crack Jenna‘s phone for any secret messages she‘s been sending, but he can‘t hack it. Instead, Caleb mocks the girls for stealing a blind person's phone.
Mona and Hanna at play practice.
Finding more and more parallels with the play, the girls flash back to a college party Alison took them to in an effort to spy on Ian; when a tipsy girl takes a nasty tumble down the stairs there, the girls are left to question – was it Ian, or Ali? Ian had been flirting with her, and the characters exchange looks after her fall.
At play practice, Aria and Ezra prove to have an uncomfortable, awkward working relationship, namely Aria's slipping up by referring to Mr. Fitz as Ezra while seated next to him. All the PLL's are present, as well as Mona, who raises an eyebrow. Hanna and Mona also catch up at play practice; when Mona sees Caleb spying Hanna, she is inquisitive, and Hanna confides in Mona about her morning shower. Hanna does not make much eye contact with Caleb, as she is too sheepish about seeing him naked.
Ezra is upset with Aria.
Later, Aria apologizes to Ezra for messing up. It seems that more is bothering him than just the play; he was upset to hear Byron mention Aria's applying to colleges in California. Aria reassures him that she imagines them with a future and that she only applied to a single college in California, and in Ezra's favorite city at that. However, Ezra is much more questioning of the possibility of their relationship working out.
Hanna also gets a chance to try to patch things up Caleb. Caleb sees that Hanna is ignoring him and so packs up his things, ready to leave her home. Hanna stops him, but when he brings up her poor treatment of him, she admits that seeing him naked caused her to avoid him. He lets her know that it doesn't mean that she has to have sex prematurely. Thus they make up and even share a kiss.
At the end of the episode, "A" plants a bloody trophy of Ian‘s in the school‘s prop department, which the girls stumble upon and turn into the police. While failures to turn evidence into the police before were mistakes, in this instance, reporting to the police was the mistake, as the police find the trophy to be a fake - there was no tournament in the Hilton, and the blood wasn't human; it was from a rat...
Eerily, the last scene is presumably one of a room in A's house. There are four cages, each containing a white rat, animal feed, and a wheel. Each cage has one name of each of the girls taped to it. The cage labeled "Spencer" is missing a rat, however...
Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery
Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis
Notes
- There was a flashback in this episode.
Guest Stars
Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers
Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall
Ryan Merriman as Ian Thomas
Josh Clark as Detective Breyer
Elizabeth J. Carlisle as Tipsy
Justin Giddings as Brad
Featured Music
Party Girl - McFly
Memorable Quotes
(hanna)"i have to practice being drunk."
Caleb (to Hanna and Spencer): "What do you guys do on the weekends? Break old ladies hips?" |
(spencer):"some people are pure evil."
Caleb (to Hanna): “Wanna share a towel too?” |
Mona: “What gives, Velma—did you have a nasty dream last night about Shaggy?” |
Aria: "I'm not your gopher." Mona: "You sure bite like one." |
Jenna (to Ezra): “I’m fascinated by the nature of evil.” |
Mona: “I think my character is being totally selfish. I don’t even know how to play that.” |
Ian (to Spencer): “Your friend Alison was a psycho stalker who wouldn’t take no for an answer.” |
Alison: “I don’t know about you vestal virgins, but I’m here to make some memories.” |
Alison: “The bolder the move, the less anyone questions it.” |
Spencer (to Toby): “Until they find the real killer, your nightmare is never going to end.” |