Emily let go of her relationship with Paige and Spencer and Caleb may have found Mona’s body in Pretty Little Liars’ “Over A Barrel.”

PLL 5.16 Recap

Over at the Brew, Ezra (Ian Harding) is still going crazy dealing with contractors and other new business things, so every time Aria (Lucy Hale) tries to talk to him about her letter to Jackie, he gets distracted. Meanwhile, ‘A’ is taunting her with the letter, making it come out of the receipt machine when she pays for her coffee. Luckily, Emily (Shay Mitchell) intercepts it, but it’s clear ‘A’ can get the letter to Ezra at any time, and Emily and Aria both know she needs to be the one to tell him first.

Elsewhere in the Brew, Emily is still struggling to get along with the new cook, Talia (Miranda Rae Mayo), who insists on changing everything, from how Emily makes a latte to how she dresses. Talia gets that Emily is still wallowing from her breakup with Paige, and encourages her to make a clean break and finally move on, which includes giving Paige back her ratty old t-shirt that Emily now wears to work. Talia also comments to Emily about how hot she finds Ezra – her boss and Emily’s best friend’s boyfriend – but then she also seems a bit flirty with Emily…

Who Is H?

When she’s not dealing with Ezra and her lack of college prospects, Aria goes on a wild goose chase to find a mysterious ‘H’ who sends her text messages saying he or she wants to meet and is “tired of hiding.” Aria assumes the ‘H’ is Holbrook (Sean Faris), and thinks that maybe he wants to switch sides now that Ali’s been arrested. Alas, ‘H’ fails to show up, first at the Grill and then at a local flower shop. Instead, Aria enjoys a lunch with Jason (Drew Van Acker) and fills him in on their suspicions about Holbrook. ‘H’ also sends her on an errand to deliver flowers to Hanna’s mother, Ashley (Laura Leighton), with a card that says the flowers are from Jason.

After accidentally seeing Jason sneak out of her mother’s bedroom, Hanna (Ashley Benson) tries to confront her mom about cheating on her boyfriend, Ted (Edward Kerr), but Ashley doesn’t want to talk about it. She admits it was a mistake, but insists Hanna stay out of it, especially now that Ted has returned from his missionary trip.

Ted Proposes To Ashley

Unfortunately for Ashley, she can’t ignore her infidelity for long, as Ted decides the time has come to propose. When he asks Hanna for her blessing, she goes straight to her mother and tells her that she likes Ted and she does not want her mother to throw away a good relationship for Jason DiLaurentis. Aria arrives at the Marin house just as Ted, Ashley and Hanna are sitting down for a family dinner. She gives the flowers to Hanna and promises not to tell anyone about the card from Jason. Ted proposes at dinner with a peanut butter cookie and a diamond ring, but Ashley says she needs time to think about it, and Ted leaves. Hanna is right, she says, Ted deserves to know the truth.

Did Spencer and Caleb Find Mona’s Body?

Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Toby (Keegan Allen) are still adjusting to their new relationship now that Toby is a cop. He’s still upset with her and Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) for going back for the knife and he doesn’t want Spencer and Caleb to keep investigating Mona’s death on their own. As she and Toby grow apart, Spencer sparks a friendship with the college student who moved into the barn outside. He’s a hippy type, who left school to study art and travel the world. Maybe the University of Hawaii acceptance letter Spencer has sitting on her table can stay closed, he says. She doesn’t necessarily need to go to college. Putting Spencer’s college choice aside, her bonding moment with her new tenant is cut short when she receives a text…from Mona.

It turns out it’s a text alert from a security system set up before Mona’s death, and all four girls received the same text alert. Caleb is able to trace the text back to a security system. Mona rigged her computer so that, if someone were able to get through the encryption, a text would be sent to the girls with the computer’s coordinates. Caleb does some hacking to gain access to the security system and is able to locate the laptop. It’s sitting in a storage facility. While Aria goes chasing for ‘H’ and Hanna tries to manage her mother’s love life, Spencer and Caleb sneak into the storage facility. There, they find a storage room full of shelves of carefully bagged evidence. Maybe Holbrook is hiding evidence there, building a case to frame one of them. Also in the locker is a metal barrel, one that could easily fit a dead Mona inside. On the shelves, Spencer recognizes chemicals that could mix to create a solution to preserve a dead body, or disintegrate it. Spencer and Caleb are both tempted to open it, but they stop themselves and try to wipe down the surfaces they touched to avoid leaving fingerprints before leaving. They talk about possibly telling Toby and the police about what they found, but decide against it. Spencer wants to wait until they have concrete evidence before calling in the police. After a bit more hacking, Caleb discovers who owns the storage locker: it’s Hanna’s name on the lease.

Finally, the episode ended with an ‘A’ (or ‘H’) figure in a hoodie accessing Rosewood PD files with Holbrook’s password.

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.