'Pretty Little Liars' Recap: Did Melissa Kill Alison?

Spencer’s crazy sister is also looking crazy-guilty! Do you think she channeled her inner Nanny Carrie on Alison?

The Feb. 27 episode of Pretty Little Liars reinforced one of the most valuable life lessons ABC Family has ever taught me: Parents, especially dads, are never to be trusted. Ever. Spencer (Troian Bellisario) and Melissa (Torrey DeVitto) did a little snooping into their creepy dad’s business dealings and discovered a $15,000 cash transaction he made to a private investigator to look into Alison’s (Sasha Pieterse) disappearance. But it’s what the girls didn’t see that has me worried: a missing gun!

Also, Mr. Hastings appears to know a lot more than we thought. He told Spencer he knew Melissa had been sending Alison threatening texts, so he hired the investigator to make sure Melissa had nothing to do with Alison’s disappearance. (Twenty bucks says she took the gun, y’all.)

And did anyone else think it was super creepy that Mr. Hastings had a butt load of Alison pictures on his desk? Veronica Mars fans, I’m seeing a very Aaron Echolls/Lily Kane-type situation afoot and I do not like it!

In slightly more trustworthy dad news, Emily (Shay Mitchell) teamed up with her dad — temporarily on leave from Afghanistan — to track down Maya (Bianca Lawson), who left a note for her parents before running away from home. They spent the day driving around Rosewood looking for clues, but they could have saved themselves a whole lot of time if they just sniffed out the best weed in town. Come on, we all know where Maya’s head is 24/7.

Also, Mike (Cody Christian) is back! And he’s shaving! And he’s “A”! OK, I may have made that last part up — but until the season finale, he’s still totally a suspect.

Ella (Holly Marie Combs) and Ashley (Laura Leighton) also had a little mom party to figure out how they should deal with “A.” Ella suggested they leave the police out of it (smart), but because Ashley thinks with her lady parts, she decided she needed to get Detective Wilden (Bryce Johnson) in on it. (Not smart!)

And in the episode’s final moments, Aria came face-to-face with her phone buddy — who called her Vivian!

(Oh. Snap.)

OK, let’s talk about what we learned this week: Do you think Melissa had something to do with Alison’s death? Are you ready to start trusting Spencer’s dad? And, seriously, how old is Mike supposed to be? That might be the show’s biggest mystery of all! See you in the comments section :)

— Andy Swift

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I don’t think it was implying that Aria might be Vivian. I’m pretty sure it was just him thinking it was her from the back. On the previews hes telling her when he last saw Vivian hes not thinking that she is. But it is pretty crazy he says that he saw Vivian the weekend aria tells him she went missing…but I think he could have had a history with Ali. And not just Vivian. Maybe she really has a twin in the show not only in the book but idk its all just crazy to think about

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OK… I definitely think that Melissa took the gun but i don’t think she is A and I don’t think she killed Ali. She may be working for A but I don’t think anything more than that. Maybe she refused to help A and that is why A killed Ian. Who knows with this show? I totally think the person who dies is Maya. I mean hello when people go missing in Rosewood they are usually dead. Alison, Ian, and now Maya. 2 out of those 3 are dead (as far as we know) I think A is Garrett and Jenna. I don’t think it’s Jason. Why would he help Spencer? Although there are only so many people who know Spence and Jason are siblings so again who knows with this show??? Hope toby and spencer get back together and I hope ella and byron come to their senses and let aria date ezra!!!! LOVE PLL! Cant wait to see who A is!!!

LOVE THE VERONICA MARS COMMENT!!!! ahahahah and didnt you think that the episode where Alison hid things in the air vent was very lilly kane? this whole show is just like VM!!!!!

um, I have no idea where this whole ‘Aria is Vivian’ thing came from… He obviously just thought she was because he saw her from the back and she had on Vivian’s red coat and very similar hair. Are you guys serious?

So I am just totally leaving towards Detective Wildon as A as well as a female (maybe Melissa)! He’s got the pretty eyes and also has access to pretty much everything! Him being back in the scene is very suss! I can’t wait to see next week where this all leads! I don’t think Aria is Vivienne though..

Or maybe she was mistaken for vivienne because of the long dark hair/her voice since she called in as her.

i LOVE this show so much! I cannot wait for the ep. where ‘A’ is revealed! I still think that ‘A’ is Jenna, Jason, Melissa and The Detective plus others that i havent quite worked out yet (maybe). I dont think Aria would be Vivian, i just dont:)

Melissa creeps me out…I’ve NEVER trusted her (maybe it IS the Nanny Carrie thing!)! Where DID Ali get all that cash if it didn’t come from Peter? I thought it was pretty telling that he was worried about Melissa, as well! I don’t know about the Aria-is-Vivian theory…I hadn’t considered it. I took the Mona comment about the “best secret keeper” to mean her keeping the fact that she was still seeing Ezra after lamenting w/ Spencer about Toby. Although…Aria has always offered to take the phone when they were calling as “Vivian’s friend”…Is Toby really under Jenna’s thumb again? What happened to Noel? I have to say that next week’s “Jenna in the window” preview was hella-creepy!!!!!

Jenna-in-the-window was super creepy, but also… WTF was up with that explosion?

I’m scurred :(

Wait, wasn’t it 50,000??? Not 15,000… I don’t even know.

There’s a chance my eyes are broken (I watch so much TV!) but I’m pretty sure I saw $15,000.

I don’t know why, but what if Aria is Vivian and she was just stringing them along? Because the look on her face at the end didn’t really mirror shock or confusion to me. It was like an “oh crap” face. I don’t know. But Jason nor Caleb were in this episode and that saddens me. At least Toby comes back next week like a total BAMF. Haha

Haha, I never thought of Toby as a BAMF … but this show is full of surprises.

I want to say that Alison just used Aria’s picture for her Vivian ID… but after Mona’s little question about which girl is the best at hiding secrets from the others, now I’m thinking Aria might really be Vivian. :-O