Songs of Experience

"The point was that we thought we hurt each other. That was what Charles really wanted us to know. That there was a point that we would do it."

- Spencer talking about Charles' psychological torture.

Songs of Experience is the third episode of Season 6 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on June 16th, 2015.

Summary
Spencer is on the phone with Emily. Emily informs Spencer that Sara Harvey, who is staying at her house, is pretty sure that Andrew was not the one who kidnapped her. Spencer is not convinced since Sara is not stating the reason why she thinks Andrew isn’t ‘A’, but Emily points out that Sara was held captive for over two years, and Andrew was in school with them the whole time, so there is no way that he could have snuck off to feed his hostage. Emily is then on the phone with Aria who is still sure that Andrew is ‘A’- because if it wasn’t Andrew who abducted them, they’re back to not knowing A’s identity. Aria then talks to Hanna over the phone. The girls are preparing to go back to school for the first time since they were kidnapped. Hanna informs Aria that Mona won’t be at school since her mother took her to Saratoga. Hanna also agrees that Andrew is ‘A’. Hanna wants to meet her at school, but Aria is hesitant to go back. Hanna gets off the phone and tears out the page with Andrew’s photo from her yearbook.

Emily is getting ready for school when Sara walks in. Emily tells Sara that Pam will drive Sara home, but Sara wants to stay at Emily’s house until Emily returns from school. Emily agrees and gives her a spare burner phone in case she wants to call her. Sarah admits that she doesn’t want to go back since people only know her from the news as the girl who was kidnapped. Emily, while trying to comfort her, tries to stroke her hair, but Sara cringes away. Sara apologizes and starts panicking. Seeing Sara shaken up so badly, Emily feels guilty and decides to skip school and to stay home with Sara.

Aria stops by The Brew on her way to school. Ezra walks up to her and expresses his surprise at the fact that she is going back to school already. When Aria admits that she is not ready to go back just yet, Ezra suggests that she stay at The Brew and relax, perhaps write something, but Aria doesn’t want to write. He reassures her that she will be safe at The Brew if she wants to stay.

Spencer stops by Alison’s house. Although Alison argues that her father has no idea who Charles DiLaurentis is, Spencer tells Alison that she needs to talk to her dad again as Spencer doesn’t believe him, and she knows that Alison doesn’t believe him either. Alison asks Spencer to leave, but before she goes she tells Alison that she is going to talk to Jason about this. Alison doesn’t want Spencer to drag Jason into this because she cannot have another person hating her, which puzzles Spencer. Alison believes that she is the cause of the all the troubles they’ve faced and blames herself for the girls’ abduction. Spencer tries to assure her that is not the case, but Alison is not convinced.

Hanna shows up to school, only to discover that none of the others bothered to show up. She runs into Dr. Sullivan, who informs Hanna that she consults with the school counselors there and suggests that Hanna should stop by and talk to her. Dr. Sullivan then walks into the school. The school bell rings and having waited long enough, Hanna makes her way into the school.

At The Brew, Aria is going through photos she clicked when she comes across one of Andrew. Ezra walks upto her and Aria explains to Ezra that she just wants to know who Andrew really is and why he hated them so much, since all she knows about him is what he told her. Ezra calls Andrew’s doctor, and pretends to be a detective from the Rosewood PD, trying to get information about him. Ezra tries to ask about Andrew’s place and date of birth and gets off the phone. He explains to Aria that medical information cannot be given over the phone and that Andrew’s place and date of birth is sealed, with the rest of his adoption records.

At school, Hanna sits down with Dr. Sullivan in a classroom. She explains how she thinks that the thing ‘A’ hated most about them was their friendship, and ruining it was the big win for him. Hanna talks about the sick games Charles made them play. Dr. Sullivan wants Hanna to schedule some alone time with her, and Hanna agrees, but she wants all four of them to talk to Dr. Sullivan. She assures Hanna that if Hanna is able to get the girls to her office, she will make time for them.

Alison runs in to Lorenzo, who is coaching a soccer youth group for boys. Lorenzo invites Alison to be the leader for the girls youth group, but Alison declines, saying that, “There are mothers in this town who wouldn't appreciate me supervising their daughters.” But Lorenzo won’t take “no” for an answer. Toby watches Lorenzo and Alison from inside a restaurant.

At Emily’s house, Sara, Emily and Pam are going through Emily’s closet to find clothes for Sara. Pam states matter-of-factly that Sara is probably going to start over with her clothes. Sara tells her that she has to since her mother gave away her clothes, because she, “needed the space." This leads to some obvious awkwardness in the room. Pam asks Sara why she ran away from home two years ago and Sara explains that she couldn’t pretend to be happy anymore, pretend that her father would come back one day. Emily then gets a call from Hanna.

Toby pays Spencer a visit and requests her to tell Alison to stay away from Lorenzo. Spencer thinks that this is Alison and Lorenzo’s business, but Toby reminds her that this is Alison they are talking about. Spencer believes that Alison has changed, reminding him about how she helped find the dollhouse. Toby points out that Alison has a history of using cops for her own benefit and simply states that Spencer completely trusts her, he will drop the matter. Spencer doesn't reply.

Hanna meets up with Emily outside Emily’s house. Hanna wants to go meet Dr. Sullivan and wants Emily to come with her, but Emily declines, telling her that Sara is waiting for her. Aria also shows up at Emily’s house and informs Emily and Hanna of her discovery that Andrew is adopted, which means he really could be Charles DiLaurentis.

Spencer pays Jason a visit, and asks him if he has ever heard of someone named Charles DiLaurentis. Jason tells her that he doesn’t know anyone named Charles and thinks that Andrew was just doing it to mess with Alison. Spencer gets a text from Hanna, calling her to Dr. Sullivan’s office and is about to leave when she hears Jason mumble something. Jason admits that he knew someone named Charlie, but “Charlie doesn’t exist.”

Hanna has convinced the other girls to attend a group session with Dr. Sullivan. Emily, Hanna, and Aria are waiting for Spencer to show up. Dr. Sullivan gets a call and leaves to attend it. Spencer storms into the waiting room and tells the girls that Jason told her who Charles is. Apparently, Charles was Jason’s imaginary friend, but one day Mr. DiLaurentis told Jason that Charlie had to go away. They realize that there was nothing imaginary about Charlie: Kenneth lied to Jason. The girls decide to tell Dr. Sullivan what they’ve discovered when Emily receives a video call request from Sara. Emily accepts it, and a video showing Sara sleeping opens. A gloved hand extends towards Sara, with a knife in hand. A message pops up on the screen, warning the girls that if they don’t leave Dr. Sullivan’s office in 30 seconds Sara will die. Dr. Sullivan finishes her call and comes back to the waiting room, only to find the girls gone. Meanwhile, the girls race to Emily’s house to check on Sara, who is fine and has just gotten out of the shower. Emily runs over to her and hugs her.

Later, Pam returns home and informs the girls that while she was visiting the police station, she found out that the police are releasing Andrew Campbell because they have no case against him as he has alibis for when Sara Harvey was abducted and when Mona was kidnapped. Aria wants to know when Andrew was released, and Pam replies that he hasn’t been released yet. Aria realizes that since Andrew was still in jail when someone made the threatening call to Emily, he can’t be ‘A’.

The girls pay Alison a visit and tell her all about Jason’s “imaginary friend” Charles and try to convince her that her father lied to her. Alison is upset, and reminisces about how Jason always thought something was missing from the family. They decide to look through the house and try to find proof that Charlie existed. Hanna gets on the phone with Dr. Sullivan. She apologizes for leaving without notice, making up an excuse that her mother slipped in the shower and promises to make another appointment. While going through the house, Alison points out to Spencer that Toby is probably back to hating Alison. Alison then talks about how nice Lorenzo is, and how Toby must’ve told him all about the not-so-nice things she’s done. It’s obvious that Alison actually likes Lorenzo, and seeing this, Spencer tells her that  she’s got a second chance at life and she shouldn’t waste it. Meanwhile, Aria while searching the DiLaurentis house, dumps out jars full of buttons she finds. Deep inside a jar, at the bottom, she finds a folded up picture of two little boys with Jessica.

The girls discuss the photo and deduce that since one of them is Jason, the other one must be Charlie. Alison is obviously shaken up by this revelation. She tells the girls that her father will be back soon and so they should leave. She promises find out what the photo means and inform them about what her father tells her.

The girls leave and are walking home. On their way, they come across the police station and spot Andrew leaving. Aria walks toward him and tries to talk to him, but he shouts at her to stay away from him. A furious Andrew tells Aria that the whole time she was locked away, he was searching the woods trying to find her. He wanted to be the hero, but got thrown in jail instead while his parents were investigated and his uncle’s farm, the Campbell Apple farm, was turned upside down, all because he didn’t want to believe what the people of the town thought of the Liars. Aria tries to explain, but Andrew doesn’t want to hear anything and angrily states that he can’t wait to graduate and get as far away from them as possible. Hanna points out that they may not even graduate, but Andrew contemptuously tells her that school wants them gone just as much as the rest of the town and will even make them graduate with honors just to get rid of them. Toby and Lorenzo offer him a lift in their squad car, but he even refuses to get in the same car with them. He compares the girls to a toxic dump before storming off. Spencer calls after Lorenzo and introduces herself and the girls as Alison’s friends. This annoys Toby who glares at her as he leaves.

Aria feels horrible about what happened with Andrew, but Spencer assures her that Andrew will forgive them eventually. Aria has started thinking that what happened to Andrew was her fault, but Spencer tries to comfort her, saying that he was set up. Hanna states that people know what happened to them, but still don’t believe the girls, which seems to be true. The girls realize that they are more alone than, which Spencer points out has been A’s goal all along. Hanna then admits what Charles did to her in the dollhouse; he made her play a game with switches, about hurting the others. Aria confesses that she was also made to play the game in which she had to shock one of the other girls, but she herself never got shocked. Aria and Spencer also admit that they were also never shocked. The girls realize that Charles tricked them into thinking they hurt each other. Spencer states that the aim of the “game” was that Charles wanted them to know that there would come a point where they would hurt each other.

Emily returns home, to find that Sara has given herself a makeover; she has put on make-up and cut off all of her hair.

Spencer returns home, only to find her mother waiting up for her. Veronica informs her that the police will be coming back for protection since Andrew has been released with all charges dropped. Spencer wants to go to her room and sleep, but Veronica tells Spencer about how Andrew told the police that the girls tricked him into helping them. She asks Spencer if Andrew is telling the truth, and Spencer replies that just because a story is made up of facts, it doesn’t make it true. Veronica then asks her how school was but Spencer scoffs that she knows Veronica knows she didn’t go to school. Spencer nearly breaks down in tears and blames her that Veronica doesn’t want to put an end to the ‘A’ thing as much as she wishes it never happened. Spencer admits that she doesn’t see a happy ending for them coming any time soon and rushes upstairs to her room.

Meanwhile, Hanna goes through shade cards, deliberating on which color to paint her room. Aria clicks pictures of her room. Alison puts the photo the girls found back into a photo album. Jason returns home and Alison shows him the photo. Spencer takes the pill she stole from Aria previously and falls asleep. Kenneth returns home and Alison and Jason confront him, asking him who the other boy in the photo is. Kenneth refuses to answer but Alison and Jason are firm in their stand. Kenneth finally gives in and starts telling them something, while a hooded figure watches them from outside.

Title and Background

 * "Songs of Experience" is a poetry collection of 26 poems forming the second part of William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience". The poems were published in 1794.

Main Cast

 * Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
 * Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
 * Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery
 * Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
 * Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal (credited only)
 * Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Supporting Cast

 * Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz
 * Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
 * Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings
 * Drew Van Acker as Jason DiLaurentis
 * Annabeth Gish as Anne Sullivan
 * Brandon W. Jones as Andrew Campbell
 * Jim Abele as Kenneth DiLaurentis
 * Dre Davis as Sara Harvey
 * Travis Winfrey as Lorenzo Calderon
 * Andrea Parker as Jessica DiLaurentis (uncredited; flashback picture)

Trivia

 * The table read was on April 1, 2015.
 * This episode and previous episode was filmed simultaneously. Source
 * Filming began April 2, 2015 and wrapped April 21, 2015.
 * The episode was watched live by 1.74 million viewers.

Featured Music

 * "Do Nothing" by Casy Hurt - (Aria is sitting at the Brew when Ezra brings her some food; He asks Aria if she is ready to go to school & tells her that she can stay at the Brew).
 * "Crystallize" by Aaron Wright ft. Fleurie - (Aria researches Andrew online when Ezra comes into the office and catches her, she questions her knowledge of Andrew then Ezra decides to help her; Hanna talks to Dr. Sullivan about Charles).
 * "Skipping Stones" by Claire De Lune - (Hanna contemplates what color to paint her room; Aria takes pictures of her room; Alison shows Jason the picture of their mother, Charlie and himself; Spencer takes the anxiety pill then falls asleep).