Pretty Isn't the Point

Pretty Isn't the Point is the twentieth episode of Season 5 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on February 17, 2015.

Summary
Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna are going through Mike’s bedroom for clues. Aria complains that it feels wrong going through her brother’s stuff. Hanna reminds her that her brother just handed over vials of their blood to Cyrus. Spencer is about to open the protein shake can in Mike’s mini-fridge when Aria finds a Morse code necklace in Mike’s gym bag. The girls think that Mike might have bought it for Mona and just received it now but they find a receipt for the necklace saying it was bought recently. Spencer does an online search and figures out that the necklace says: “I’m With You.” They are certain that it is a gift for Alison.

Emily heads to work and is shocked to see that Talia is on the phone with Pam. Talia gets off the phone and informs her that Emily’s mom just called for a recipe for cobbler. Emily asks her if she told her mother about them and Talia reassures her that she didn’t. Talia tells her that she knows they are going slow and she’s perfectly fine with that. Mike walks into The Brew and Emily tries to tell him that they are closed but he refuses to leave. He orders two coffees to go. While Emily pours the coffee, Mike texts on his cell phone. Emily asks him if needs pastries for his company but Mike tells Emily that both of the coffees are for him because he “had a long night.” Emily asks him what he was up to last night but Mike tells her that he already has one big sister and that’s more than enough and walks out.

Meanwhile, Spencer is at a café in the Hollis campus with Johnny. She receives a message from Emily telling her about Mike’s visit to The Brew. Jonny and Spencer are discussing Spencer’s choice to study abroad and Jonny tells her a funny incident involving him when he was overseas. While they are having coffee Toby walks up to them Spencer introduces him to Jonny and asks Toby what he is doing at Hollis. He says that his father sent him to pick up class schedules for Jenna. She tells Toby that she’s here to meet one of Jonny’s Oxford contacts. Spencer tries to make plans with Toby but he says that he is busy. As Toby is leaving, Jonny make a comment in Italian which annoys Toby. Johnny and Toby are clearly not fans of each other.

Hanna fills Caleb in on the strange necklace that the girls found in Mike’s gym bag. Hanna is sure that the necklace is for Alison and that he is helping Alison since he has been to visit her more than once and is meeting up with her sketchy “friends”. Hanna’s phone keeps ringing but she won’t answer it. The worry is clear on Hanna’s face which prompts Caleb to ask what is going on. Hanna explains that she enrolled in a beauty pageant because she needs the $20,000 scholarship prize to pay for college. Caleb thinks it is a dumb idea and offers to get a loan from his mother in Santa Barbara but Hanna doesn’t want anyone’s help after her father basically slammed the door on her face. Caleb warns her that pageants are “squeaky clean” and they could dig up some of her past. But Hanna doesn’t care and is determined to participate.

After their awkward encounter with Toby, Spencer and Jonny are walking, and discussing Toby. Spencer tells him that she and Toby haven’t been getting along all too well. Just then, they spot a part of their vandalism painting on a window of an art gallery.

Andrew is at Aria’s house for a tutoring session but she is distracted again because of the drama with Mike. Just then, Mike walks in and heads to his room. After Mike is gone, Aria asks Andrew to follow Mike to a gym he visits to see what he is doing and Andrew is ready to help. Suddenly, Mike storms out of his room and freaks out on Aria for going through his room. Aria claims that she was doing laundry, but Mike doesn’t buy it. He screams at her that whatever is in his room is none of her damn business and if she touches anything else of his again she is going to regret it.

Spencer and Johnny head into the art studio. They discover that their vandalism painting has been broken into segments and is being sold. Jonny and Spencer are furious and argue that the painting is their work and can’t be sold. The art studio owner informs them that he received the painting in pieces. He tells them that someone from Hollis found the painting in a dumpster on the way to the dump and bought them to him, so technically they are his.

Hanna meets with her pageant coach who drills her with questions based on current events, which were asked in last year's pageant. Hanna bombs them and so the pageant coach asks her what she plans to do for the talent section and Hanna, in the heat of the moment, says that she dances.

Emily is working at The Brew when she receives a text from Hanna telling her that she needs help with her dance. Just then, a man walks in and inquires about Talia and Emily informs him that Talia already left. The man introduces himself as Talia’s husband, Eric. He recognizes Emily and tells her that Talia talks about her all of the time When Emily starts acting weird, he tells her that Talia has told him that she is dating Emily. Emily clarifies that when they started dating, she didn’t know that Talia was married. Eric explains that he and Talia have been together a long time and that he loves Talia. If Talia wants to “experiment or have a one-time thing”, he doesn’t mind.

The next day, Mike heads to the woods and leaves a package inside a tree. He has no idea that Andrew followed him to the woods and is watching as he puts the package into a hollow in the tree.

Emily heads over to Hanna’s house for their dance rehearsal. Ashley greets Emily since Hanna is in the shower. Emily asks Ashley if it’s okay to date someone with whom you have fun, but know that the relationship is not going to last. Ashley tells her that people get hurt in relationships all the time but no one should get into one with that intention.

Andrew meets up with Aria and tells her about Mike stashing something in the woods behind Mona’s house. Andrew offers to take her back to the tree so she can investigate but Aria declines. He warns her that her brother is definitely up to something, and he doesn’t think that she should be home alone with Mike but Aria assures him that their father will be back soon.

Jonny arrives at Spencer’s house looking for a toolbox to break into the gallery and steal back his paintings since one of the parts of his painting has already been sold. Spencer suggests that he could ask Veronica, since there must be a legal solution but Jonny is sure that she won’t represent a vandal and he doesn’t trust any authority figures either. Spencer wants to help him but Jonny thinks that it’s a bad idea since he almost got her into trouble once already. But Spencer thinks that technically it wouldn’t be wrong since they are stealing back what’s theirs.

Emily and Hanna are at the dance studio training for the pageant. Caleb arrives with bad news – apparently Kate has signed up to use the dance studio for the pageant as well, meaning that she is participating in the pageant too. Hanna is furious that Kate has stolen her father and her college money and now wants to steal her crown too. But Hanna is determined to rehearse and perfect her dance to win the pageant.

Once it gets dark, Spencer and Johnny break in to the art gallery to steal back his painting. Meanwhile, Aria heads to the woods behind Mona’s house. At the dance studio, while Hanna and Emily are rehearsing, Caleb gets a call from Ashley. Ashley asks him about Hanna’s progress and Caleb informs her about Kate participating in the pageant as well.

Jonny and Spencer get all the paintings off the walls and rush out just as the alarm goes off. Later, while Jonny and Spencer are at a gas station Toby pulls up in his police cruiser. Spencer tells him that the paintings are Johnny’s but Toby doesn’t want to hear it and tells Spencer that he is just doing his job. Spencer begs him to leave them alone as he arrests Johnny and puts him in the police car. Toby tells Spencer to just walk away and explains that Tanner is trying to use his relationship with her to get information and they can’t give Tanner any ammunition against her. Toby drives away with Johnny in the backseat, handcuffed.

In the woods, Aria finds the tree Andrew told her about. She climbs the tree to get the package that Mike left. Meanwhile, at the dance studio, Hanna’s pageant coach arrives to check in on her progress. Hanna, thinking about Kate, gets angry and ditches her and Emily’s routine and starts dancing to her own rhythm. Hanna is satisfied with her performance, but the coach bluntly tells Hanna that she isn’t “pageant material” and says that it isn’t going to work out with her. Hanna storms out and Emily snaps at the pageant coach for being so cruel and tells her that Hanna needs to win the pageant. The coach tells Emily that Hanna doesn’t have what it takes but Emily does. Hanna overhears them talking and is devastated. Emily runs outside after Hanna but Hanna gets in her car and leaves without her. Talia arrives and wants to know what is wrong since Emily left her a weird voice-mail. Emily confronts Talia about her telling Eric that Emily was just a “one time thing and an experiment.” Talia defends herself, saying that she didn’t know where this thing with Emily was going. Emily tells her that it’s going nowhere and leaves.

Back in the woods, Aria finds the package that Mike left in the tree. She opens it and sees that it is a vial of blood. Mike shows up and demands to know what she is doing there. Aria thinks the vial of blood belongs to one the girls but he tells her that it is Mona’s blood. Mike tries to snatch the vial from Aria but she drops the vial, smashing it, and then she runs to her car and drives away.

Emily shows up at Hanna’s and tries to convince Hanna that what happened wasn’t Hanna’s fault and that the coach is an awful person. Ashley walks in and informs the girls that she spoke Tom who told her that Kate couldn’t have signed up for that room as she wasn’t even in Pennsylvania that weekend. A depressed Hanna tells her mother about how the pageant coach didn’t think Hanna was good enough and would rather train Emily. Emily tells Hanna that she told the coach off. Just then, Hanna receives a text from ‘A’ taunting her: “Kate won’t win the pageant, but she’s already won your daddy’s heart.” Hanna tells Emily that she is not doing the pageant but Emily announces she is going to participate in the pageant and win the money for Hanna.

Johnny arrives at Spencer’s house. He informs Spencer that Veronica bailed him out but has evicted him and he just came to borrow some packing tape. Spencer apologizes that Toby didn’t stick up for him or call the gallery owner and clear everything up. Johnny doesn’t care and says he is cool with it. Spencer is worried about where he’ll live but he assures her that he can live in his car for a while. Before he leaves, he kisses Spencer.

Aria rushes into her house and screams for her dad. But Mike barges in and says that he can explain. Mike swears that he didn’t hurt Mona. He explains that a few nights before Thanksgiving, he went to Mona’s house to surprise her, but found that she had stocked a refrigerator full of her own blood. Mona told Mike that she has been offered a chance to make things right by exposing ‘A’ and bringing them down. Mona elaborates that she is going to smear the house with her blood and make Alison look responsible because ‘A’ wants to see Alison locked up. Mona says that even though she hasn’t been in direct contact with ‘A’, she will find out who ‘A’ is after she earns their trust. After she fakes her death, she’ll disappear and find out A’s identity. Once she finds out who ‘A’ is, she’ll come back, resulting in Alison getting acquitted. She can take down ‘A’ and the girls will finally be safe, making Mona the hero. Although Mike strongly disagreed to the plan, Mona convinced him that she would be safe. Mike admits to Aria that he doesn’t think Mona is safe anymore since they were supposed to meet a bunch of times but Mona never showed up. He thinks that ‘A’ double crossed Mona and killed her. He reveals to Aria that he visited Alison in jail and told her about Mona’s plan in hopes of finding out if she knew anything about ‘A’. Aria asks him why he doesn’t think Alison is ‘A’ and Mike tells her that Alison wasn’t even in town when Mona was killed since ‘A’ had Cyrus lure her out of Rosewood. Mike confesses that Mona gave him her blood as a promise that she will be back and he put the vial in the tree because it was all that he had left of Mona and didn’t want Aria to find it. Mike starts crying and Aria hugs him.

Aria fills Spencer, Hanna, and Emily is on what Mike told her. They realize now that Alison is innocent, and they were the ones who got her arrested for Mona’s murder in the first place and they destroyed any evidence that could have proved Alison was innocent. They decide that they have to try and help Alison before she goes to trial since they accused her, to her face, of being ‘A’.

The episode ends with someone dressed in a black hoodie walking into Mike’s room. The person goes through Mike’s gym bag. The person then picks up a dumbbell and lifts it. The hooded figure then keeps it back and takes out a wrench from their pocket.

Title and Background

 * The title refers to Hanna as she has to be more than a pretty face to get in to the beauty pageant. Hanna's pageant coach tells her, "pretty isn't the point".

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

Supporting Cast

 * Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers
 * Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
 * Cody Allen Christian as Mike Montgomery
 * Brandon W. Jones as Andrew Campbell
 * Miranda Rae Mayo as Talia Sandoval
 * Will Bradley as Jonny Raymond
 * Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin
 * Matt Marquez as Eric Mendoza
 * Patrick Bristow as Art Studio Owner
 * Jackie Debatin as Pageant Coach
 * Natalie Hall as Kate Randall (flashback)

Trivia

 * The table read was on September 24, 2014.
 * Filming began September 26, 2014 and wrapped October 6, 2014.

Featured Music

 * "We Were Made to Be Broken" by Jules Larson & AG - (Talia tells Emily that her mom was asking for a cobbler recipe, then agrees to keep their relationship quiet).
 * "The Girls" by Calvin Harris - (At the Brew, Emily receives a text from Hanna about dancing, then meets Talia's husband, Eric).
 * "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj - (Hanna and Emily practice a dance routine when Caleb arrives; Ashley calls Caleb to ask how Hanna's doing; Spencer and Jonny steal back his painting; (repeats) Hanna performs for her pageant adviser).

Sneak Peaks
Grade Pretty Isn't the Point A(10) B(8) C(6) D(4) E(2) F(1)