Mike confirmed he’s working for Alison while Emily and Talia took their relationship to the next level in Pretty Little Liars’ “Out Damned Spot.”

PLL 5×19 Recap

When the episode begins, Aria (Lucy Hale) is desperately trying to ignore Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Hanna (Ashley Benson) and Emily’s (Shay Mitchell) badgering about Mike (Cody Christian). She can’t believe that he’s guilty of anything other than being a moody teenager. But, the girls grow increasingly suspicious after seeing Mike at the local blood drive. Hanna, Aria and Spencer have all given blood – Emily was rejected because of her recent trip to Haiti – and they see Mike stumble into the fridge where all the blood samples are being kept before walking out. Spencer immediately suspects he stole some of their blood, but, again, Arai insists that’s not true. Meanwhile, Aria has other fish to fry: she got accepted into an arts school, but needs to get her grades up to secure her spot. Desperate, she ends up cheating off Andrew (Brandon Jones) during a math test and he catches her, but instead of turning her in he blackmails her into letting him tutor her.

Aria, Emily And Spencer Follow Mike

While Aria’s studying in anticipation for her first study session with Andrew, Mike gets a phone call from the women’s correctional facility, but Aria answers the phone. When she confronts Mike about it, he slams the door in her face.

Over at the Brew, Emily and Talia (Miranda Rae Mayo) get closer, and even go on a romantic bike ride together, where they kiss by a lake. But, Emily’s little love bubble pops when Ezra (Ian Harding) informs her that Talia is married. Emily is furious, and, while avoiding Talia, she sees Mike getting a nice wad of cash out of an ATM. Luckily, he leaves his receipt behind and she grabs it after he leaves, seeing that he has over $10,000 in a bank account and just took out $400. From there, Emily heads straight to Aria’s house, interrupting her study session with Andrew.

Emily tells Aria about Mike’s sudden windfall, and Aria tells Emily about the phone call from Ali. Just then, Mike drives off, and Emily wants to follow him, but they don’t have a car. So, they turn to Andrew and convince him to take them in his car. To cover, Emily says that they’re worried Mike is on drugs, so they need to follow him.

Once they figure out that Mike is heading to the creepy A dinner (where Toby and Spencer met when they were both working for Mona), Emily calls Hanna and Spencer to have them come meet us. Hanna doesn’t answer, but Spencer is on the move. She’s going through some stuff of her own. Jonny (Will Bradley) convinced her to go with him to help paint a mural at Hollis, but it turns out he was vandalizing a building, not creating a commissioned art piece. She reveals to him that she was arrested for murder, and she can’t afford to get into more trouble with the law right now. Jonny feels bad, and the two make up later with a little bit of awkward flirting.

A Has Their Blood

Spencer meets the girls outside of the dinner and tells Andrew to go home. They watch as Mike meets with Cyrus (Jake Weary), the fall guy Ali set up as her ‘kidnapper’ when she returned to Rosewood. Mike hands him an envelope, which Aria and Emily assume is full of the cash he took out of the ATM. Aria wants to storm in and break up their secret meeting, but Spencer holds her back. She wants to wait and then follow Cyrus when he leaves to learn more about their evil plans. Unfortunately, Mike and Cyrus outsmart them, sneaking out while the girls are distracted by a text from A. In the test, they find out that it wasn’t cash in that envelope; it was vials of their blood. Cyrus corners them on his motorcycle and teases that he could make a deal for the blood, but he is scared off when Andrew appears with a bat.

While Aria was watching her brother betray her, Hanna was being betrayed by her father. After getting acceptance letters from an impressive amount of colleges, Hanna is stumped at why none of the schools are offering her any financial aid. Turns out, they know her mom can’t afford college, but also that her father can. Despite her mother’s legal deal with her dad, Hanna decides to appeal to him directly. She visits him at his office and tells him about her college acceptances, and he’s proud for a moment, but immediately freezes up when asked if he could pay for it. He tells Hanna that he can’t offer her any more tuition money than the pre-determined $10,000 a year. He has to pay for her stepsister’s tuition to Dartmouth, so he really can’t do it. Hanna is crushed, but, after a pep talk from Ezra, is motivated to get the money herself, by any means necessary, including entering a beauty pageant. At home, Ashley (Laura Leighton) tells Hanna that she has accepted Ted’s proposal, but also told him that she slept with Jason, and now he’s the one taking time to think.

The girls – minus Emily, who makes up with Talia – end their night at Spencer’s, where Aria is spending the night for fear of being alone with Mike. Now that A has their blood, Hanna, Spencer and Aria know it’s only a matter of time before their DNA turns up somewhere and lands them in a jail cell with Ali (Sasha Pieterse).

They’re right: the episode ended with a hooded A figure taking drops of Hanna’s blood and putting it on a pink fabric. A is watching the video of Hanna talking about clearing out A’s storage locker full of murder evidence in Mona’s case, and appears to have samples of all the girls’ hair.

Pretty Little Liars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC Family.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.