Someone to Watch Over Me

Someone to Watch Over Me is the 20th episode in the series. This episode aired on March 7th, 2011.

Synopsis
Spencer is shaken when the investigation that’s focused on her leads to the police searching her home. They go through everything in her room, her jewelry, her closet, and even want to take her laptop, but her mother refuses on the grounds that it was not in the search warrant. Unfortunately, the police and her mother found out about Spencer's and Ian's kiss, making Spencer look especially guilty for having lied.

At home, Aria catches onto her parents' secret romance and the fact that Ella stayed the night when she sees two dirty coffee cups on the kitchen table when she wakes up. Her mother tries to pretend like she is just arriving, but Aria confronts her parents with what she (happily) knows. Aria offers for her and Mike to cook dinner tonight where they'll all eat together as a family again.

Meanwhile, Hanna and Caleb seem closer than ever. At the Marins', Caleb makes eggs for breakfast, and Ashley gets used to having a guy in the house. Before heading out to school, Hanna finds what she thinks is a present meant for her in Caleb's bag in the form of a jeweled owl, presumably in commemoration of their first night when they heard owls in the woods.

At school in the cafeteria, Hanna shows the other girls the picture she snuck of the owl before returning it to Caleb's bag. Just then, Aria spots Sean and Paige flirting with each other, as they share a table and jokes in the lunch room. Emily can’t help but wonder if there could ever be a future between her and Paige. Hanna, on the other hand, oblivious to Paige's questionable sexuality status, is happy for Sean to be moving on.

At the same time, Aria texts Ezra a text about wanting to look into his eyes, but the text doesn't get sent to Ezra - it gets sent to Ella. (Their names are probably close together on her contact list.)

Awkwardly, Sean approaches Emily to ask if Paige is single, thinking that the two swim team mates are friends. He apologizes for even asking, knowing Emily is Hanna's friend, but Emily assures him that Hanna truly wants him to be happy, and that she doesn't know Paige well enough to talk him up to her.

Aria then goes to her mother's classroom to chat. There, her mother confronts her with the text, curious who Aria's new love interest is. She is not too concerned, and when Aria gets secretive, she gives her daughter the space she requests. Aria is a bit short with her, but Ella is allowing and even deletes the text to appease her daughter. Not before teasing her about watching her in the halls to figure out who the secret boy is.

This, combined with the possibility the cops might search her house too, gets Aria worried. So, she creates a bag full of Ezria mementos and gives it to Emily for safekeeping, so as to protect the privacy of her relationship with Ezra. She leaves one thing out, though - a book by Sherwood Anderson dedicated to her by Ezra - too special a memento to give away. She leaves it on her bedside table.

Aria isn't the only Liar to realize that the cops may not be done with their search - Spencer gets to deleting incriminating emails from her computer. Despite all of her troubles, she continues to form an unlikely friendship with Toby, who is all too familiar with the feeling of being suspected by the police and coaches Spencer accordingly, urging her to serve the cops coffee in a bold move acknowledging their presence, yet not being afraid.

At school, Emily confronts Paige about her relationship with Sean; after all, Paige did kiss her. However, Paige acts nonchalant and seems to be looking forward to their date, distancing herself from Emily.

Ella lets Byron know about the mistaken text from Aria, but the two differ on whether Aria should be entitled to her privacy. Byron is more concerned that they know who their daughter is crushing on, especially given their daughter's recent arrest.

While Aria gives her bag of mementos to Emily for safekeeping in her locker, they overhear Caleb mysteriously speaking on the phone with someone, telling that person that something cannot happen that night. He keeps referring to "her," and it becomes clear after he mentions that he is living in her house that he means Hanna; the other person seems to be saying negative things, while Caleb is defending her. When he gets off the phone, Aria and Emily hide before Caleb can see them. The two interpret the phone conversation to mean that Caleb is talking to another girl in a romantic way. When they share their suspicions with Hanna at lunch, she is loathe to believe in his dishonesty. However, when Jenna walks into the lunch room wearing the owl around her neck, Hanna is devastated. She tries to text Caleb, but to no avail; he isn't responding.

Then, Emily walks into the girl's bathroom, where she overhears Paige and a friend talking. The friend brags about Paige's winning over Sean and breaking him out of his shell. Emily leaves, disturbed. Later, Ella sees Aria texting on her phone from a distance and pauses, contemplating her daughter.

Spencer then watches Jenna outside, who is wearing her headphones oblivious to those around her. Spencer figures out that the owl is a flash drive, when she sees Jenna insert it into her computer. Hanna tries to reach Caleb for answers, but he is M.I.A. So, she writes him a note, slipping it into his locker. She walks away, then pauses and turns around, then tries to crack the combination, using 2-1-4, and it works. She is furious and hashes it out with Caleb when she returns home from school. He says he never meant to hurt her and told Jenna he couldn't help her anymore once things between him and Hanna started happening. She is not satisfied with this though, and makes him leave.

Later, Toby and Spencer spend comforting time alone, sitting alone in his house discussing running away and what that feels like. Spener recounts a story from her childhood. When she was 7, she and Melissa got into a huge fight and their parents sided with Melissa. Spencer was so upset, she mad herself a tuna-salad sandwich and ran away... to the movies, where she watched an animated princess film. She returned home when she got lonely only to find that no one even noticed she was missing.

At home, Byron is suspecting of Aria and so goes into her room. He almost opens the one piece of Ezria evidence Aria left behind - the Sherwin Anderson book, until Ella sees that he is prying and stops him. They argue about the amount of privacy and freedom they allow their children. Ella says they agreed not to be the types of parents who poke and pry. She says that if Aria is keeping secrets, it's because she learned the behavior from them. Byron takes this as a reference to his past affair and the two start arguing because they have never really dealt with that elephant in the room. Mike walks by and looks disappointed to see his parents arguing once again, just when he thought things would be getting back to normal.

The next day at school, Emily and Aria talk at their lockers. Emily turns away when she sees Paige standing with Sean and some other friends. Spencer is at home, and Veronica walks into her room to encourage her daughter not to be afraid of the search warrant. Back at school, Aria, Hanna, and Emily walk into the bathroom. When Hanna sees Jenna, she walks up to her and surprise slaps her across the face, to Emily and Aria's shock. At least, she has the decency to bend down and return Jenna's sunglasses to her without making her crawl on the floor.

Mike is angry at Aria for aggravating their parents' fragile relationship by keeping secrets about some boy. He tells her to break up with him, or pretend to; just do whatever it takes to get their parents to stop fighting. Things are further aggravated when Ella blows off their dinner plans, leaving her children and husband to dine alone.

Spencer goes on a run and when she returns, she finds Ian sitting in the dark. Speaking of running, he wants to help Spencer run away and tells her she should take the help now while he's offering it, because when she's arrested, it'll be too late.

Just when she thinks she completely misunderstood Paige, Paige visits Emily's house, going to her room. She shares the details of her date with Emily and expresses how fake dating Sean felt. She expresses her fear to admit she's gay. Eventually, Paige kisses Emily.

Hanna breaks down, heartbroken over what Caleb did to her, and Ashley is disheartened. Hanna pretends to be taking a bath, but her mother knows that she is really crying alone in the bathroom.

That night, Spencer's mom goes to her room and tells her daughter they have a chance at getting the search warrant thrown out. She goes on to tell Spencer the police found fibers in the bracelet Alison gave her that match the sweater fibers found at Toby's and that she believes someone is going through a great deal of trouble to make Spencer look guilty. The police question whether Spencer removed Toby's sweater from Alison's corpse after she passed, which Spencer rightfully finds horrifying.

At the end of the episode, we see "A" preparing a 'thoughtful' gift for Hanna: a glass heart with Hanna's name on it, hand smashed with a hammer; crazy glue; and a custom note signed by "A": "Dear Hanna, Try putting the pieces back together."

Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Guest Stars
Lindsey Shaw as Paige McCullers Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall Ryan Merriman as Ian Thomas Chuck Hittinger as Sean Ackard Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings Cody Christian as Mike Montgomery Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery Arden Cho as Pru

Featured Music

 * "To Be Alone" by Madi Diaz (Aria accidentally texts her mom)
 * "Trust" by Generationals (Aria removes evidence of her relationship with Ezra from her room)
 * "Heavy Heart" by Madi Diaz (Hanna cries)
 * "Sea of Love" by Cat Power (Spencer and Toby talk about running away)

Memorable Quotes
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