A Hot Piece of A

A Hot Piece of A is the 15th episode in Season 2 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on January 9, 2012.

Synopsis
After their recent encounter with "A," Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer think they may be closer than ever to figuring out who "A" really is. They head back into the greenhouse to look for the box and decide what to do next. They have a contest over who has had the worse day. Spencer suggests calling Caleb to help them recover information from the phone, but Hanna doesn't want to get him involved. The phone rings, caller unknown; each girl is afraid to answer it. They never get the chance because more glass comes crashing down from the ceiling. They drive away, heading straight to Caleb against Hanna's wishes.

Caleb hooks the phone up to his laptop and explains the recovery process. While downloading the information, the owner of the phone shuts it down remotely. Caleb agrees to try to unlock the files they do have if Hanna is okay with it.She reluctantly agrees.

Aria leaves her room in the morning before school. Byron walks by and tells her to change her clothes because she is dressed inappropriately. Before an argument can break out, Ella steps in. She tells Aria to pick her battles while choosing new clothes for her to wear. Aria had hoped perhaps Ella would be more accepting of her relationship with Ezra, but Ella is in agreement with Byron and forbids Aria from seeing, and even saying goodbye to, Ezra. She admits to having liked Ezra prior to his confession the other day.

Spencer approaches Toby outside his house to apologize for not being able to tell him why it's not safe to be together. They sit in his truck for privacy and begin to kiss despite the conversation they just had.

Caleb works on decrypting the files on his laptop at school. Hanna is concerned someone may figure out what he's doing, but he assures her he hasn't told anyone. He tries to get her to tell him what it is all about. Hanna calls out Lucas' name as he walks by and makes plans for a study session later on, even though Lucas doesn't seem to have time for it.

Garrett pulls up to the house, interrupting Toby and Spencer's make-out session, shouting into his cell phone, clearly speaking to Jenna.  He pleads with her to open the door and says it was a bad idea to bring a third person into their plan.  Spencer wonders who he could be referring to then ducks when Garrett looks their way.

But when the girls decide to enlist Caleb’s hacking skills to help with their quest, Hanna no longer wants a part of the plan. The last thing Hanna wants is to get Caleb involved in something else shady and also to open the door to questions that Hanna can’t answer. Once the girls realize that "A" has a helper, Hanna has no other choice. Instead of focusing on figuring out who the "helper" is, Hanna decides to put all of her efforts into throwing a surprise party for Caleb. But will a surprise party at Spencer’s lake house be the diversion Hanna is looking for, or just a recipe for disaster? Meanwhile, Aria and Ezra must deal with the aftermath of coming clean.

Aria and Ezra are forbidden to see each other even though they want to. Aria is under constant house arrest and soon will not be allowed to have much contact with her friends as well. Emily is having trouble focusing on anything with so much going on that she fails to be able to take a retake of a test which leads her to have an awkward conversation with Ella who asks her if there are more things she does not know about her daughter. Emily says she's the same Aria she always was: someone to be proud of. The girls ask Caleb to hack A's phone he agrees as long as Hanna is okay with it. She isn't really, but she goes along with it anyway. Before the girls are able to see anything, A disables the phone so they are only able to view the files downloaded before the phone was disabled, but to be able to view anything takes sometime so they have to wait. While this is going on Caleb and Toby are both trying to get more information out of their girlfriends about what is going on with them.They both can not say anything about what is going on for fear that A will go after them next. Hanna tells Caleb that nothing else is important besides this and kisses him. Spencer tells Toby that she still can not see him or tell him anything but she wants to so bad and that she hates shutting him out. They make out for awhile until Garret comes for Jenna with full rage as he talks to her on his cell. She refuses to let him in as Toby and Spencer overhear Garrett's frustration.

Byron goes to Ezra to yell at him and also make sure he never sees his daughter again. Ezra tries to defend himself but Byron will not hear it and promises to tell the police, but after talking to Ella she talks him out of it because they want to protect how people view their daughter. Aria continues to secretly leaves voice mails for Ezra he finally answers one of her calls saying he wants to hear her voice but stop calling she breaks down crying. Aria,Byron, and Ella go out to eat to found out Ezra is there so they leave. Aria stares at him for as long as she can with sad eyes, waiting from him to do something. But all he does is stare back. Aria and her family run into old family friend and his son, Holden, who they push on Aria. Later, Aria sneaks a voicemail to Ezra, saying that her mom might be coming around. Just then, her mom walks in. Aria lies and says it was Holden, and that they might go to a movie sometime. Emily and Spencer find out that Lucas has called the help center they are volunteering at for community service they soon worry for Hanna's safety and if he is A or A's helper. Hanna refuses to believe that Lucas is anything bad since he has always been there for her and states everyone had a problem with Ali.

Caleb finally unlocks a photo found on the A phone. It is of four dolls and old Victorian wallpaper background. Spencer asks for him to send it to all the girls phones. It is the day of the surprise party. Emily stops by the hot line to give back the script she stole to show the girls what she believed A said. Only to answer a call by Lucas saying he never wanted to hurt anyone but now he has to he just can not picture her face. Spencer and Hanna go into her Lake house attic where they are throwing Caleb's surprise party to get tiki torches.Spencer discovers that her attic has the same wallprint as A's picture of the doll's. Hanna leaves to answer the door. Lucas appears upstairs to get tools Spencer questions how he knew to go up there and what he was looking for. He says he needed something to hang the banner there is a bang he continues to say people keep tools in their attics. It cuts to the party where Hanna is freaking out to get everything perfect before Caleb arrives.

Mona and Noel complain about the green peppers that Noel is allergic to on the Pizza. Emily arrives to see Lucas. They discuss the cake and how lucky Caleb is to have Hanna's love. Emily tries to say to Lucas without telling him she was on the other end of the hotline conversation to think before he acts, his whole face turns shocked; she rushes out to find Spencer they talk then try to find Hanna. Mona says that Lucas and her went out on the lake in the boat for the fireworks. Emily and Spencer go to stop/save Hanna but they are to late they are out on the lake.

Lucas starts to stop the boat Hanna thinks he is just tired then the situation gets creepier she begs him to turn the boat around he will not listen she asks whats wrong she gets up to help he yells at her to sit down. He gets up and says this is not about the stupid fireworks and throws them Hanna hits him on the head with a paddle he slams into the water she tries to row back to dry land but she cant and is somehow tipped over. Emily and Spencer continue to scream Hanna's name. Emily goes to call the police as Hanna appears she swims to shore she is freezing and can not say a word. Noel and Mona appear wet asking what is going on. They are asked where they went and say it is the perfect night to take a dip. As the row boat gradually makes its way closer to Hanna,Spencer, and Emily Caleb arrives asking whats going Hanna says surprise still freezing. It cuts to a shoe of Lucas's floating in the water and A( a person dressed in all black retrieving the shoe with the oar).

Main Cast
Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings {C Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin {C Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery {C Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields {C Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Guest Stars
Shane Coffey as Holden {C Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers {C Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh {C Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal {C Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn {C Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz {C Yani Gellman as Garrett Reynolds {C Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery

Continuity

 * Emily makes a reference to the makeout session Hanna and Caleb had on the couch of Spencer's family's cabin by the lake. Spencer is shocked because it was her grandmother's couch.