'Pretty Little Liars' Review: Holly Marie Combs Gets A Chance To Shine

Tuesday's episode of Pretty Little Liars, “March of Crimes,” took some of the spotlight off of the usual faces we see, and focused more on the girls’ parents. The scene with Byron (Chade Lowe) consoling Ella (Holly Marie Combs) was one of the most memorable for me. We were finally able to get a deeper glimpse into their love life, away from their kids. Byron took the audience down memory lane back to their apartment on East 3rd , and comforted Ella by expressing his thoughts of what a wonderful woman she is by making a small space feel bigger. The way that the scene began and ended were on two completely different spectrums. When it began, Ella had her back facing Byron in the beginning holding in her tears and clearing her voice to make it sound less shaky and fragile, but by the end of the scene tears were streaming down her face as they held each other in their arms.

It was sad to see Ella and Zack’s (Steve Talley) engagement party get canceled, but that lead Aria to repair her relationship with Hanna. Aria (Lucy Hale) and Hanna (Ashley Benson) had a heart to heart about what a douche Zack is and again, we saw more tears. Hanna started crying after hearing that Aria was afraid to believe what Hanna said about Zack, and that it wasn't the first time he pulled a stunt like this one.

Hanna seemed to get back to her normal self again. It was nice to see her dumping the whiskey down the drain. I’m glad Hanna has finally come to her senses, but I think her mom’s words were the ultimate push that Hanna needed to get back on the right track.

Since this is Pretty Little Liars, of course there always has to be a suspicious person at every moment, and in this episode there were two. First and foremost was Noel Kahn (Brant Daugherty). He has always been a character that was on the DL, and he seems to be playing a more prominent role in the past two episodes. We knew from last episode that Ali (Sasha Pieterse) asked him to break into the Marin house to make sure Ashley doesn't find out the truth about Ali’s story. In this episode we uncovered some more things about what he is really up to. Emily (Shay Mitchell) found the pictures he had of Ali when she was “dead” in his car, and when Spencer goes up to the Lake House to store them there, he follows her. At the Lake House, he is adamant about getting those pictures back, but Spencer refuses to cooperate. She asks why he needs them so much and he tells her that he is using them for protection just incase Ali decides to turn on him. He also spills about how he was sent by Ali to get those pictures from Jenna, and a few seconds later the house blew up. Coincidence? Not with this show.

Another character who was acting quite dubious was Sydney (Chloe Bridges). What was up with her and Jenna wearing head to toe matching outfits? Yeah, they may be on the same team but matching outfits is taking it to the extreme. Emily was not pleased once she found out that Sydney never told her that she was friends with Jenna (Tammin Sursok), let alone knew Jenna. Emily felt played as she yelled at Sydney for latching on to her and making her change her plans so she could help Sydney improve her technique in the water. Sydney’s explanation was that she has known Jenna for a while and once Ali was back Jenna felt alone and turned to Sydney for a companion, but I don't believe that story. Sydney has been hanging around Mona and Jenna which means she is up to no good, and they are definitely making her participate in whatever evil plans they have.

Ali wasn't as powerful in this episode as we are used to seeing her. During this whole episode it seems like her story was the only thing she was talking about. The episode comes to a close when Ali is summoned to the police station because her suspected kidnapper was supposedly found, which comes as a shock to her. Not because they found the kidnapper, but because there was no kidnapper in the first place. His story was identical to what she had told the police and the look on his face was so convincing.

Is A behind this whole kidnapper act? The scene cut off when Ashley asks Ali if that was the man who kidnapped her, so I am interested to see what hole Ali is going to dig herself in this time. A doesn't seem to be as dangerous as before but I think he/she will be back to plotting dangerous situations for the girls sooner than we think. Let's get ready.