The Badass Seed

The Badass Seed is the 18th episode in the series. This episode aired on February 21st 2011.

Synopsis
As if Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily don‘t have enough drama in their lives, Mr. Fitz decides to put on a school production of the award-winning play The Bad Seed, the story about a girl who wreaks havoc on her small town – eerily echoing our Pretty Little Liars’ own troubles. Aria goes to the tryouts at 4 PM to support Hanna and act opposite her, with no intention of joining the play herself. However, the girls urge Aria to be Ezra‘s stage manager for the production, so that she can spend more time with him. The other girls, in addition to Mona, are interested in getting parts in the play. Jenna enters the scene and offers to compose flute music for the play, letting Mr. Fitz know that she approves of his choice of play and thereby annoying Aria.

The next morning, Spencer has a dream that she is walking inside her house at night. She hears a baby cry and descends the stairs into the living room, where a baby is lying in a bassinet. As she approaches the crib, someone sneaks up on her from behind and covers her mouth with his hand. Spencer wakes up with a start. She then hears ripping noises and goes downstairs to investigate. Ian is in the living room, using a tape gun to board up some boxes. A green Neufelds bag is sitting at the bottom of the staircase. Ian is boarding up baseball gloves, yearbooks, and trophies to give to his mother. Ian asks Spencer for help in taping down one of the boxes, but Spencer flinches, and Ian takes note. He tries to reassure her that it's only a glue gun and that he's not dangerous; he declares that he never hurt Alison DiLaurentis and had nothing to do with her mother, though he adds that he's not surprised that she ended up the way she did. When pressed, he accuses Alison of having been a "psycho stalker who couldn't take no for an answer."

Meanwhile, after seeing both his wife and daughter take a liking to Mr. Fitz, and Aria's assuring him that Ella's accompanying Ezra to the book event is definitely not a date, Byron asks him out for a drink, where the two begin to form a common bond over literature. Byron mentions in passing the fact that Aria is applying to colleges in California, a point that Ezra dotes on as he contemplates the future of their relationship.



At the Marin household, Ashley grows increasingly suspicious of their lack of food, as Hanna has been secretly housing foster boy Caleb in their basement. Hanna admits to having Caleb over a couple of times for dinner, but even that bothers Ashley, as she doesn't completely trust Caleb. (Caleb overhears Ashley's words about him.)

Then, Aria surprises Ezra in his apartment before school. There, Aria convinces Ezra that going for drinks with her father is a good idea, as it will allow him to appreciate the man in her life, even if he doesn't know the extent of it. And, she proposes the idea of being his stage manager, and he accepts.

Next, Hanna walks into the bathroom to grab something while Caleb is showering. Ashley enters as well, looking for her phone, which she has put in the charger there, prompting Hanna to jump in the shower fully clothed so that her mother won't realize it is Caleb showering, not Hanna.

At school, Emily chats with Spencer at one of the outdoor tables. Spencer spots an incoming call from Paige McCullers on Emily's phone and wonders if Paige is harrassing Emily again. But, Emily assures her that the two have bonded over common relatives in the military. When Spencer mentions her plans for dropping off a French book at Toby's after school, Emily asks to drop it off instead, as she is looking for a chance to talk to him. Spencer hands it over, though a bit reluctantly. The two then spot Ian and Jenna standing talking to each other. Ian is holding the Neufeld's bag that had been at the foot of the stairs that morning and hands it to Jenna.

At play practice, Aria and Ezra prove to have an uncomfortable, awkward working relationship, namely Aria's slipping up by referring to Mr. Fitz as Ezra while seated next to him. All the PLL's are present, as well as Mona, who raises an eyebrow. Spencer and Hanna have been cast as main characters. Hanna and Mona also catch up at play practice; when Mona sees Caleb spying Hanna, she is inquisitive, and Hanna confides in Mona about her morning shower. Hanna does not make much eye contact with Caleb, as she is too sheepish about seeing him naked. Suddenly, Ian walks into the room, expressing surprise that he's in the wrong room for the varsity team practice. The girls huddle close together and comment on how creepy Ian is.



Spencer flashes back to a college party Alison had snuck them into with fake ID's, probably in an effort to spy on Ian. Ian had been flirting with a particular tipsy girl and had gone off with her to one of the rooms upstairs. Looking back, the girls wish they had said something to Melissa sooner about Ian.

After school, Emily goes to drop off Toby's french book. Toby is sitting on his porch working on his motorcycle. He lets Emily know that Jenna was the one who turned him in, putting Emily's fears to rest that Toby think she violated his trust. She asks him to go out sometime, and Toby is cautious, thinking she means in a romantic way, but Emily assures him that she means it only as friends, and the two plan a breakfast date.

At Rosewood High, Byron passes Ezra in the hallway and is extra warm towards him, in contrast to the way he treated him a few days back. He commends Ezra for his work at school and urges him to accept his drink offer, and Ezra is inclined.

After school, Hanna sits in her kitchen, making a sandwich while practicing her lines for the play. Caleb walks in and tries to divert her attention, but Hanna is cool towards him, choosing to focus on anything except Caleb. Finally, Hanna walks away, leaving Caleb with her unfinished sandwich. He tries to directly ask her to help, but she refuses.

At the Grille, Ezra and Byron finally meet. Byron is quick to encouage Ezra to quit his day job at Rosewood High in favor of a position as a college professor that will allow him to spend more time on his writing. Byron is complementary, calling Ezra gifted and offers to help him procure a job at Hollis College.

Later that night, Toby and Spencer talk at her house to discuss Jenna's and Ian's meeting in school that day. Spencer demands that Toby steal Jenna's phone so that they can uncover what he's hiding. She convinces him that if he doesn't, he is liable to be framed for murder again.

The next morning, Emily then approaches Toby's door, looking to meet up with Toby for their breakfast date, however, Jenna calls out to her and meanly lets her know that Toby has blown her off to have breakfast with Spencer instead. Emily is surprised and upset to be stood up like that, and Jenna is sure to rub it in. Wordlessly, Emily leaves, catching Jenna's flute playing before she goes, which she is probably composing for the school play.

In her kitchen, Spencer makes Toby breakfast, and he hands her Jenna's phone, which he stole the night before; he is afraid of Jenna's reaction. Spencer uses the opportunity to ask Toby why Alison had been so sure that Toby was the one spying on them. Toby is firm that he never spied on anyone; the only thing he can make of Alison's assumptions is that she had something on him.



Later at school, Aria apologizes to Ezra for messing up. It seems that more is bothering him than just the play; he was upset to hear Byron mention Aria's applying to colleges in California. Aria reassures him that she imagines them with a future and that she only applied to a single college in California, and in Ezra's favorite city at that. However, Ezra is much more questioning of the possibility of their relationship working out.

Meanwhile, Spencer enlists Caleb to help crack Jenna‘s phone for any secret messages she‘s been sending, but he can‘t hack it. Instead, Caleb mocks the girls for stealing a blind person's phone, guessing quite obviously that they have stolen Jenna's phone.

Back at play practice, things get tense between Aria and Ezra, as the two blame each other for mistakes in scheduling. Aria calls for five, so that she can have a private conversation with Ezra to alleviate the tension.

Later, Spencer has a flashback to the night of the party. The girl that Ian had left with had suddenly taken a nasty tumble down the stairs in the middle of the party. They had all exchanged looks after her fall, although Ali had been no where in sight. In hindsight, the girls are left to question whether Ian or Ali had pushed that girl. Later, the girls had stood on the lawn talking, not knowing where Alison is. When Alison had shown up, she had seemed either oblivious to the girl's accident or indifferent Later, when the police had come, the girls were afraid of being caught underage at a drinking party. Alison had taken charge of the situation, brazenly asking the police officer for a ride home in his car, not wanting to take the bus, claiming that she felt too tipsy to drive, when really she wasn't old enough to even have a license. The girls had gone off together, and Spencer and Ian had exchanged looks before getting in.

Hanna also gets a chance to try to patch things up Caleb. Caleb sees that Hanna is ignoring him and so packs up his things, ready to leave her home. Hanna stops him, but when he brings up her poor treatment of him, she admits that seeing him naked caused her to avoid him. He lets her know that it doesn't mean that she has to have sex prematurely. Thus they make up and even share a kiss.

At the end of the episode, "A" plants a bloody trophy of Ian‘s in the school‘s prop department, which the girls stumble upon and turn into the police. While failures to turn evidence into the police before were mistakes, in this instance, reporting to the police was the mistake, as the police find the trophy to be a fake - there was no tournament in the Hilton, and the blood wasn't human; it was from a rat...

Eerily, the last scene is presumably one of a room in A's house. There are four cages, each containing a white rat, animal feed, and a wheel. Each cage has one name of each of the girls taped to it. The cage labeled "Spencer" is missing a rat, however...

Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Guest Stars
Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh

Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers

Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall

Ryan Merriman as Ian Thomas

Josh Clark as Detective Breyer

Elizabeth J. Carlisle as Tipsy

Justin Giddings as Brad

Featured Music
Party Girl - McFly