The Kahn Game

The Kahn Game is the ninth episode of Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on August 7, 2012.

Synopsis
At the café, Aria shows Spencer a photo of Maya's arm with the same black eye tattoo that Holden had from the past episode. Spencer expresses no concern for the photo as she starts to stress about missing the early admissions deadline to the University of Pennsylvania. CeCe Drake comes in and passes Aria back her phone that she had left on the counter, and hears about Spencer's college conflict. Apparently, CeCe knows about a Friday night party where a man from the UPenn admissions will attend. Spencer desperately pleads with "puppy dog eyes" for CeCe to let her and Aria tag along to the party so Spencer can give her application to him.

After having a "moment", Caleb approaches Hanna at her locker. Their conversation is quiet and short and Caleb gives Hanna a piece of paper with the log-in information for Maya's site. Two seconds after Caleb leaves, Hanna gets a text saying "The Apple Rose Grille at closing time. Go alone or Caleb pays" from A. She shows Spencer but she doesn't want Hanna to go, seeing it as unsafe for her to go.

Soon after, Aria is seen in the hallway outside of Ezra's apartment, hearing a loud argument going on. Ezra's brother, Wesley is now shown for the first time as he greets Aria while Ezra shouts at him to leave. Aria is surprised that again, Ezra has kept another family member from her and Ezra reveals why Wesley was there. Wes was offering Ezra money in order to buy back the car that he sold before. Apparently, the car wasn't his to sell in the first place in which his mother had claimed it an "old family heirloom" and wants it back. However, Ezra doesn't want to borrow the money, or even have to deal with his rich family for that matter, so he goes to withdraw money from the bank and leaves Aria behind along in his apartment.

Hanna later confronts Emily about having been able to hack into Maya's website a few days ago. Upset, Emily asks why she didn't tell her sooner and Hanna responds that they all saw her so happy with Paige that they didn't want to ruin that for her with past memories of Maya. Instead of giving the log-in information to Spencer like Caleb asked, Hanna gives it to Emily to see for herself instead.

Aria revels on Spencer's bed about how Ezra "kicked" her out of his apartment earlier, while Spencer proposes gaudy business attire to Aria that she will wear to impress the UPenn man, "Steven," at the party. They arrive at the party with CeCe and Spencer and Aria realize that the party is taking place at Noel Kahn's cabin. CeCe also reveals that Noel has an older brother named Eric, who is running the party. Not only that, once they try to get into the party, Aria and Spencer see that they have to get stamped with the same black eye that Holden and Maya had on their wrists. As it's a wild college party, Spencer and Aria feel uncomfortable while trying to find Steven with CeCe. Instead, they find Noel and Jenna and Aria challenges Noel to a game of "Truth". Within a certain time limit, each person can ask whatever they want to the other back and forth and they must tell the truth. So after CeCe and Eric have a rather playful game of "Truth", Noel and Aria have a turn.

Noel tries to get Aria to tell everyone about her relationship with Ezra, but she is careful and leaves her answer vague. Aria continuously questions Noel about Maya, and he says that Maya came to the Kahn party a few times with an open invitation. Jenna tells Aria and Spencer that her and Noel know they lied about being at Spencer's lake house the night that Ali's body was stolen. Meanwhile, Officer Barry Maple arrives at Hanna's house and speaks to Ashley. The police now have a court order that demands for Hanna to take a sample of her blood to see if it matches with the blood from Alison's bracelet. Ashley also rekindles her relationship with Ted, but while on a date with him, she mainly talks to Veronica Hastings about protecting Hanna and taking care of the court order.

Spencer has challenged Jenna to play "Truth" but Aria decides to leave the party, after realizing Noel and Jenna know about her and Ezra. Aria then calls Ezra but it's his brother who picks up. She tells him to tell Ezra to pick her up and gives him the address. At the party, Spencer and Jenna are face to face.

Spencer tells Jenna that she never mentioned that Noel was with her on "that night". She asks Jenna what else she lied about, but Jenna asks Spencer if she is going to keep the promise she made the day that Jenna told her about Emily. Spencer doesn't answer.

She asks Jenna where she found Emily, and Noel butts in and to his mistake, reveals that they found Emily drunk in a diner, not in the middle of the road. Jenna asks Spencer if she got Emily drunk and Spencer says no, and returns the question. Jenna says no and Spencer asks, "So why did you lie?"

Jenna says she lied "to protect somebody. Isn't that why you lied about your lake house?[...] (But then says the lake house part wasn't a legitimate question, it was a joke.) Where is the video?" Spencer says that it's safe and when Jenna asks where, she says she can have all the videos she wants if Jenna tells her where Ali's body is. But time runs out.

Caleb reveals to Hanna that the text telling her to go to The Grille was from him. He did it in order to find out if Hanna was still being bothered by A. Hanna tells him that she kept A a secret from him to protect him. Caleb says he will stop "A" no matter what. They kiss.

Meanwhile, Veronica tells Ashley that the situation with the court order for Hanna's blood has been settled and Ted and Ashley share a kiss. Spencer finds Cece and Cece says she already gave her application to the UPenn guy.

Wesley arrives and Aria accepts the ride. In the way to Ezra's apartment, Wes inadvertently tells Aria about Maggie, Ezra's ex-girlfriend whom he got pregnant in high school.

Emily tells Paige about Maya's secret website but Paige understands how it feels to miss a loved one who is no longer alive. Aria arrives at Ezra's and tells him she knows about Maggie. Ezra explains that his mother gave Maggie money to go away and never talk or contact Ezra anymore because she thought being pregnant in high school was ruining him. That's why he got away from his family and changed his last name to Fitz. Spencer leaves a message for Toby saying that she misses him a lot. She then gets an e-mail from the UPenn acknowledging that they received her early decision application.

In the end we see "A" in the office of a cat obsessed woman, who gives them a key to their new apartment, unit A.

Trivia

 * Tyler Blackburn's song Find a Way was played twice during this episode.

Title

 * The name of this episode is a pun on the term "con game", which refers to a trick used to gain secret information and/or money from a person by deceiving them. However, the current spelling refers to the Kahn brothers.

Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Guest Stars
Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall

Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn

Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers

Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz

Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin

Gregg Sulkin as Wesley Fitzgerald

Robbie Amell as Eric Kahn

Vanessa Ray as CeCe Drake

Lindsey Shaw as Paige McCullers

Edward Kerr as Ted Shirley Jordan as Mrs. Pillsbury