'Pretty Little Liars' Review: Hanna Is Entering Dangerous Territory

This weeks episode of Pretty Little Liars, “Scream for Me,” was filled with substance abuse, reconciled loves, awful displays of friendship and some more juicy details about Bethany Young and her life post death.

Hanna (Ashley Benson) was MIA when it came to being her normal self and taking part in putting the puzzle pieces together to figure out who A is with her friends. She replaced her friends with booze and boys. Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) seemed less sketchy in this episode than he has in the past few episodes and didn't keep disappearing and reappearing; we finally got consistency with him. As soon as his face reappeared in Rosewood, Hanna turned to alcohol. And in every scene this week, she was either hammered, in the process of getting hammered or hung over. She let all of her worries about A go, and focused on spending time with Caleb, the only person that seemed okay with seeing Hanna this way. (He was also the one providing her with alcohol.) Hanna’s drinking was not only due to encouragement from Caleb, but also to her anger towards Ali (Sasha Pieterse) and her lies to deceive people into feeling bad for her.

Ashley (Laura Leighton) showed her face a lot more in this episode; I was beginning to forget she even existed. Ashley went into full mom mode and acted like Ali was her own child as she opened the doors to her house to Ali and told her to make herself at home. I thought it was a bit odd how Ashley didn't pay much attention to Hanna and her drinking problem and instead invested all of her attention towards taking a day off from work to stay home with Ali and making dinner reservations for the two of them.

The whole fake break-in scenario that Ali planned with Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty) was not cool at all. Ashley did not deserve to be frightened like that. Out of everyone in the episode she was the most kind towards Ali, and for Ali to pull something like that was not right. It really showed how Ali is willing to hurt, scare and do whatever she wants to anyone to protect herself.

Aria (Lucy Hale) had her investigator pants on again in this episode. She spent extra time in Radley trying to figure out the connection between Bethany and Mrs. DiLaurentis. She was extra daring as she took risks that could get her into serious trouble (who wants to mess with angry Rhonda.) I enjoyed the thrill that I got while she was doing those sneaky things. Her being super sneaky and persistent paid off and she got Rhonda to open up about Bethany for a bag of Cheetos and a ginger ale. Rhonda explained how a “rich lady” signed Bethany out of Radley and would shower her with gifts, including Custard the horse. I agreed with the theory that the girls came up with: Mrs. D was probably scared of Bethany and felt the need to bribe her with gifts to stay safe.

Hanna seemed to get into all kinds of trouble this episode, on top of her binge drinking, the situation with Zack was a bit odd and out of nowhere. I didn’t know which direction the writers were going by sticking that in during this episode, but I don't see how making Aria’s soon-to-be stepfather a child molester adds to the story. Yes, there is more drama, but I think it is unnecessary.

So, why did Eddie leave Radley and where did he go? And is Hanna ever going to sober up and get back to her old self?

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

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