The Perfect Storm

"" is the 9th episode in Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars, airing August 3, 2010 - and the 9th episode overall.

Synopsis
A huge storm is on the horizon, as Aria, Spencer, and Hanna study in preparation for the SAT exam the next morning. Emily is nowhere to be found, though. Where’s she at? Well, later Emily arrives home, soaking wet, covered in mud, and crying.

The next morning, Veronica escorts the girls into Rosewood High, leery of why the test is going to be administered as planned with a hurricane brewing outside. There, she has a strange run-in with Spencer’s new beau Alex, and the two share a familiar glance that signals a previous encounter. Later, Alex is tense towards Spencer, feeling distanced from her lifestyle.

Hanna and Lucas  grow closer, as Lucas continues to score Hanna bick bucks selling her lesser used accessories on the internet. But Mona is not enthusiastic about this new relationship development and mercilessly taunts Lucas for not being manly enough. Later, fed up, Hanna pulls Mona aside and calls her a hypocrite for treating someone of lesser social status so heartlessly when they used to be on that same strata themselves!

Soon, they all run into Detective Wilden bearing shocking news: somebody has trashed Alison’s memorial, and he’s there to investigate. The girls cover for Emily without knowing why. They lie about Emily's whereabouts the night before and claim that she was studying with them, although they are weirded out by Emily's secretiveness about what she was really doing, when even they don't know the truth. Aria gets a surprise of her own when she spots Ella, there as a volunteer proctor for the exam; a tense moment is shared as both are still resentful from Ella’s sudden move out of the house. Aria has been avoiding visiting Ella's new place, for not wanting to validate her mother's decision to separate from Byron.

After it has become clear that the SAT is canceled for the day, Noel convinces Aria to sneak out from the crowd and join him in an empty classroom as he shows off his musical talent on the guitar. Aria displays musical talent of her own, as she sings to Noel's playing. They share some kind words of understanding and grow closer. A moment of attraction brings them to almost kiss, but the elusive Mr. Fitz walks in on them, cold showering their moment. A possibly suspicious Noel leaves, but Aria stays behind to defend her behavior to Mr. Fitz; she has only responded to his coldness by moving on towards someone her age displaying affection. Mr. Fitz is clearly torn between agreeing with Aria's logic and perhaps feeling jealous or at least, resentful.

The girls wait in the library before the exam, and Emily gets a text from "A" that sends her on a hunt for the book "Great Expectations" in the library; there she finds a personal love letter she wrote to Alison the summer she went missing. Detective Wilden secretly confiscates Emily's belongings and corners her in the locker room, where the students are supposed to be congregated for safety reasons; he forces her to report to a classroom for questioning. Although uninvited, the other girls follow, suspicious of the detective's shadiness.

There, he accuses Emily of trashing Alison's memorial and even casts aspersions as to whether she murdered Alison. He pulls out the detached pieces of Alison's memorial and exposes Emily's letter to her friends. Flustered, Emily confesses that she loved Alison as more than a friend, but never intended any harm towards her. She felt bad about the mean things she wrote in that letter and went to Alison's memorial seeking closure and forgiveness. By the time she arrived, it had already been vandalized, and she took the figurines from the statue in her bag because they were the only pieces of the memorial that weren't broken. Just then, Veronica walks in, outraged that the girls' safety has been compromised when they should be in the locker room during this storm. She gives Detective Wilden a piece of her mind and blasts him for trying to interrogate minors without an adult present; doesn't he know anything they say would be admissible in a court of law? The girls are quick to chime in and exclaim the absurdity of accusing sweet Emily of murdering Alison, never mind stealing her bag without a search warrant. It seems that Detective Wilden has no more future working on this case.

By the end of the episode, much has been revealed. It turns out that unlike other members of the Hastings family besides Spencer, Veronica is quite of fan of Alex. After she had cancerous cells removed from her breast, unbeknownst to her family, she got drunk and visited the club, where Alex patiently listened to her anxieties. Veronica is grateful to Alex and gives Spencer her approval of their relationship after including her in the secret. Spencer is supportive about her mother's confession and later kisses Alex in appreciation without explaining why.

Guest Stars

 * Diego González (IV) as Alex Santiago
 * Brendan Robinson as Lucas Gottesman
 * Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn
 * Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings
 * Yvette Freeman as School Administrator
 * Bryce Johnson as Darren Wilden

Featured Music

 * "Never Get Enough" by Honey Pie
 * "Quiet Hearts" by Amy Stroup

Memorable Quotes
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