Cat's Cradle

"That's immortality my darlings."

- Emily copying Alison (Emily to Aria).

Cat's Cradle is the third episode of Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars. The episode aired on June 25, 2013.

Synopsis
The episode starts out with Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily at The Brew discussing Tippi and how Hanna's mom is connected to the bird because the bird is connected to, Alison is connected to Wilden, and Wilden is connected to Ms. Marin. Aria says there are connections that they don't even know about. Hanna states that her mom did not kill Wilden and the girls know that this is the truth. Emily brought notebooks and journals that she found in Mrs. Dilaurentis' house that were next to the bird's stuff. They look through the journals and Spencer tells Emily she has to hide this stuff so Mona doesn't find it and start asking questions. Mona wasn't at school that day, and no one knows where she has been, making them nervous. In the box of notebooks, Hanna finds a mask.

They look over and see the owner of The Brew, Zack on a date with Aria's mother, and Aria asks if it is weird to be jealous of your mother's love life, but Aria says she is seeing Jake tonight. Ella and Zack talk about Zack's upcoming trip to Vienna, Austria and he asks if Ella would like to come with him, but she says she can't because she has a daughter. He tells her to take motherhood of the table. Ella later talks to Aria about the trip, and is debating on whether to go or not because if she doesn't, she would be away from Zack for about a year.

Then, Melissa walks in The Brew. The girls are shocked that she is back because they thought she was gone for good after they found Wilden. They wonder if what Mona said about her being the other Queen of Hearts is true or not. Spencer goes up to her sister and asks her about her trip to Washington. Melissa says she thinks she will get an internship in San Francisco or even London. Spencer says she found the perfect get-away, and Melissa responds by saying it might be good that they both get out of Rosewood if they know what's good for them.


 * Pll17jpssdåjvojbv.jpg Caleb is back in town from the trip to see his dad . Hanna asks him how it went, and he says that he told his dad he was sorry for accusing him of taking the bell from the church because they found out it was someone else did it. Caleb says he got along well with his dad and things might be OK. Hanna seems upset and Caleb knows why, and he tells her that people know her mom didn't kill Wilden. Hanna says A will make her look guilty, and they plan to find a way to prove that Ms. Marin was really in New York at the time.

Spencer is looking up the phone number that Tippi gave them, but she can't find it in a directory anywhere. Toby seems upset, and Spencer goes over to him. He says he wants to know what really happened to his mom. Spencer is worried that the others will find out about Toby returning the lair it to A, (he returned it to



A for information about his mother, who allegedly killed herself by jumping out of a window at Radley) and wants to tell them before they find out from someone else, but Toby doesn't want them to know. Spencer plans to go back to Radley and find out the truth about Toby's mom.

Emily goes to the doctor about her shoulder and he prescribes her the same pain medication that Emily was taking that caused the bad reaction while swimming. It turns out that those pain pills weren't hers and she used her mother's pills, but she just tells her doctor that she heard those can cause bad reactions.

Aria goes over to Jake's house and they watch an old movie. Aria says she loves black and white movies, but Jake doesn't like it, but he's plays it off saying he's just kidding. Jake notices Aria's reaction and asks her why it makes her so nervous when she thinks they disagree on something. Aria says she just wants to make sure they have stuff in common, but Jake says this takes the surprise factor out of a relationship, and he doesn't think Aria likes dull.

Hanna visits her mom at work and sees flowers on her desk and asks where they are from. Ashley says they are from the bank for everyone who went to New York. Hanna takes the Thank You card from the flowers, and it says "Hope you're feeling better. The show was a dud, you didn't miss anything." Instead of finding proof that her mom was in New York, she finds proof that she didn't go. Hanna throws it in the trash and storms out of her mom's office. Later, Hanna's mom tells her that if anyone asks her about it, "Don't lie; just don't say anything."

Aria, Emily, and Spencer are leaving school. Aria tells them about her mom being offered the trip to Austria. Spencer tells them she couldn't find a name for the number Tippi gave them, but she's not giving up. Emily says she started going through Ali's notebooks and asks the other girls if they want to come over tonight and search them together. Spencer says she can't because she promised Toby she would help him with something.

Emily's mom come up to them outside of school and tells Emily she's giving her a ride home. She is angry because the doctor called and asked if Emily has been taking her mom's medication. Emily denies, but Pam says she checked the bottle and saw pills missing. When Emily tries to walk away, Pam grabs her arm and starts yelling, making a scence, so Emily gets in the car and leaves. Aria then gets a text from A saying "Cleaning up Rosewood, one mean mommy at a time. Dig we must. Kisses - A"

Hanna talks to Caleb about her mom not being in New York, and Caleb says all they know for sure is that she wasn't at the play. Hanna says she's going to end up without a mom or a dad, and Caleb asks if Ashley talked to Hanna's dad about what is going on, and she says no because her parents only communicate through attorneys. Caleb says it isnt a bad idea to talk to an attorney about this before Ashley gets into trouble.

Hanna goes to the Police Department to give Emily's mom flowers, but she is not there at the time. Hanna notices a suspect board on the wall in another office and goes in to see that Detective Holbrook has been tracking the entire situation to find who killed Wilden. Holbrook sees her there and tells her to step outside and Hanna asks why she is up there. He says lots of people are on the board: people that knew him and people that didnt even know they knew him. They see Melissa come in and Holbrook goes up to her and takes her into an office.

Caleb goes to find Mr. Marin at his office and tells him what is going on. Caleb tells him that Wilden was giving his exwife and his daughter a hard time and now he's dead. He tells them they are worried he will try to make Ashley look guilty. He says they need help: Ashley is going to need a lawyer and Hanna needs to know that her dad is there for her. Tom says he will keep it in mind and leaves.



Aria is helping Emily go through Alison's notebooks and she asks Emily if she told her mom about taking her pills, and Emily says yes. Aria is looking at the mask they found and she notices a second mask underneath that looks like Alison. They notice a mark on the back of the company that made the mask - Hector Lime's studio. They call Hanna to come over and she says it's the same type of mask that Mona had. The three of them decide to go to the studio where it was made.

The studio is creepy and Hector is even creepier. They ask him about the "Alison" Mask and he says he put an ad on the internet asking for a beautiful model to make a Joan of Arc mask and Alison came. Hector tells Emily she'd make a beautiful Medusa. He says he would give them info if Emily modeled for a mask.

He tells the girls that Alison wanted masks because she wanted all her friends to look like her. Hector also says that Alison told him to break the mold when he was finished, and he did. While he is working on the mask for Emily, Hanna snoops around the studio. When they leave, Emily says she bets that was how Alison felt to be buried alive.

Hanna shows the girls a mold that she stole from in the studio. It looks like Melissa. They hypothesize three scenarios: Melissa followed Alison there, or Alison followed Melissa, or Melissa and Alison went there together. Hanna later gives the mask to Spencer.





Meanwhile, Toby and Spencer sneak into Radley. They go to the room where Marion stayed and find a window that his mother supposedly jumped from. He says he gave the RV to A for nothing because it turns out that she really did commit suicide after all. Spencer looks out the window and notices a roof ledge which juts out "all the way around the building" about 10-15 feet, and she says she doesn't know how Toby's mother fell, but she doesn't think his mother jumped. She says she thinks "A" gave him something genuine [the file]. Toby says they have to talk to Dr. Palmer who was with his mom that day.



As Caleb is walking home, Tom drives up to him and asks Caleb if Ashley sent him to talk to Tom, and Caleb says no. Caleb then says that Tom knew she was in Rosewood that night. Tom says Ashely came to his house and asked for money. They talked in the garage. He says it was more money than he had at the time, and Isabel was calling him in. When he came back, Ashley was gone. Tom says he did something that he had been afraid to do since Wilden was found dead. He keeps a gun in his desk at home, and he finally looked in the desk and saw that it was missing.

The next day, Pam tells Emily that Family Services called her. They want to interview Pam about Emily because someone reported the way they saw Pam yell at Emily outside of school. She says Family Services suspects that Emily's shoulder, her ulcer, and her trouble with the police is caused by family troubles at home. Emily texts Aria and tells her that A called Family Services about her mom.



Aria goes get coffee with Jake at the Brew and at the same time, her mom is there with Zack. Aria goes over to her mom and encourages her to go on the trip with Zack. Ella decides to go to Austria.



Hanna goes home and talks to her mom through the bathroom door. Ashley apologizes to Hanna. We see Ashley standing at the sink while the bath fills with water. She seems nervous and upset.



Melissa tells Spencer that she saw Hanna at the police station and asks why she was there. Spencer says Hanna was wondering the same thing about Melissa. Melissa says the new detective asked her to come in to talk about Wilden. She says she thinks they are talking to anyone who had anything to do with him. Melissa brings up that one time that Spencer had asked her if she had to protect Spencer or someone else she loved, who would she choose. Melissa asks Spencer what would her answer be if she asks her the same question.

That night, Emily gets a text from A which has a picture of her mom that was edited to make her look like she is behind prison bars. Pam comes in and tells Emily that her dad is coming home from the army because Family Services called him too.

The last part of the episode shows A putting on a record of the song, "Dem Bones" and then putting up an x-ray of Emily's hurt shoulder that must have been stolen from Dr. Vargas.

Title and Background
The title is a well known series of  string figures created between two people as a  game. The aim of the game is to make a set of figures including the "cat's cradle". This is created by two sets of crossed string between both hands. A second player grasps each cross horizontally using the  thumb and first fingers, pulls these outwards, down under the line which runs below the crosses from the first players wrists, and back up. The first player lets go of the figure and the second player stretches it open by bringing apart the thumbs and fingers. This figure is the "diamonds".

Main Cast

 * Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
 * Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
 * Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
 * Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Guest Cast

 * Torrey Devitto as Melissa Hastings
 * Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery
 * Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
 * Jed Rees as Hector Lime
 * Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers
 * Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin
 * Nia Peeples as Pam Fields
 * Ryan Guzman as Jake
 * Roark Critchlow as Tom Marin
 * Sean Faris as Gabriel Holbrook
 * Steve Talley as Zack
 * Joseph Zinsman as Robert Vargas

Trivia

 * Prep for this episode and 4x04 began on March 22, 2013.
 * The read-through was on April 1, 2013.
 * Filming for this episode and 4x04 began on April 4, 2013 and ended on April 22, 2013.