Blood Is The New Black

Blood Is The New Black is the second episode of Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars.

Synopsis
The episode opens in English class. Emily sorts through her bag as she sits down and finds a necklace that looks like human teeth, spelling "dead girls can't smile." Terrified, she asks to be excused and hurries out of the class as her friends follow her.

The girls gather around the necklace in the bathroom, their unofficial meeting place for important discussions. Hanna knows they are real teeth because of that time she worked in a dentist's office and saw them everywhere. While trying to decide whether to give it to the police, they drop it in the toilet. Spencer tries to grab it slowly, but the sensors turn on, and the toilet flushes away their evidence.

Emily, meanwhile, needs to take tests to make up for her time in the hospital. Ezra, due to his experience in teaching is put forward by Aria to tutor Emily, who listens to music as not to get nervous. As Emily takes her tests, she sees a student put a clip in her hair and suddenly remembers something - strangely similar to the way her captor had, in the car on the way to the graveyard. Jenna was driving, and had pulled her hair in the same way.

Later on, at night, Ella grades Emily's test at school. "A" watches her from the window.

Aria finds another grave present in her locker; a pair of earrings she put into Alison's casket to remember the times they spent together - the earrings represents the one time they trashed her dad's office pretending to be his college-age mistress.

Aria gets a text threatening to out her to the police if she doesn't tell her dad, so "A" is back to forcing people into uncomfortably honest situations. Her father is extremely disappointed and mad at her, but lets her off easy since Aria had to lie for him for years. Aria goes to apologize to Meredith, who is trying to get a job at Rosewood High, much to Aria's fury. Meredith then mentions the earrings aren't actually hers, shocking Aria.

Spencer makes various visits to the jail to see Garrett. Garrett isn't all that helpful because he wants her mom to be his lawyer and her mom wants Spencer to stay away from the dangerous people behind bars.

It is later revealed Spencer's mother is Garret's lawyer, and he tells Spencer someone has them fooled all - medical records don't lie, before sealing his mouth shut - advice from his lawyer.

Meanwhile Toby has done some investigating on his own. Toby figures out that Jenna has been refilling her prescription for eye drops, even though her surgery didn't work.

Hanna is still seeing Mona, who is still catatonic, no matter how many times Hanna mentions new spring colors or Noel Kahn. Outside in the hallway, Hanna speaks to Wren. He mentions his father was also in a mental institution, and he's thrown around more than the chair Hanna tossed in Mona's room. Wren explains to Hanna what she's suffering is ambiguous loss - the person she cares about is still there, but she's lost them anyway.

Hanna finally breaks down and tells Caleb where she's been going when he figures out she's lying. He's hurt she couldn't tell him the truth and accompanies her to visit Mona, even though he doesn't want to. There he bumps into Wren, who parrots the same "ambiguous loss" talk Hanna had mentioned to Caleb earlier.

Hanna finally figures out a way to break through to Mona - giving her a makeover, complete with eye shadow, foundation, and mascara. Mona finally asks Hanna if she's "getting them again" - the texts. Before Hanna can get anything out of Mona, she's shuffled out of the room. Alone in her seat, Mona slides tweezers out from under her, stabbing herself as her fingers begin to bleed.

All four girls are seen arguing in the bathroom about Hanna having to go back to talk to Mona to get more information out of her. When they are about to leave they see Jenna heading towards the bathroom, so they quickly go back in, but Spencer leaves the earring above the sink to see what Jenna's reaction would be. With two girls hiding and spying per stall, Jenna walks in and walks toward the sink. When she spots the earring she takes her glasses off and inspects it. The girls are sure that she can see and when Jenna evacuates the bathroom they are convinced that she can see.

"A" is seen buying various black sweaters and gloves, enough for a team, the cashier notices, while wearing a red hoody.

Title

 * "Blood Is the New Black" is an obvious twist on "Red Is the New Black," the idea that something modern could replace a classic trend. This could be a hint that the new "A" will be worse than Mona.
 * Black was the colour of the hoodies that A wore, blood may be referring to the red on the red coat

Errors

 * When Ella and Ezra are talking to each other, Ella rubs something off the chalkboard. In the next shot, it appears untouched.

Main Cast
Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Guest Stars
Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwall

Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh

Yani Gellman as Garrett Reynolds

Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall

Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers

Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery

Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery

Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz

Julian Morris as Wren Kingston

Amanda Schull as Meredith Sorenson

Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings

ContinuityEdit

 * When the liars are in the bathroom before spying on Jenna Hanna asks if she can slap her again this occurred in "Someone to Watch Over Me,"
 * The girls found out through spying on Jenna she has lied about her Eye surgery failing in If These Dolls Could Talk officially confirming Spencer's suspicion of Jenna after Toby gave her Jenna's eyedrops earlier in the episode and also Jenna was the one who drove Emily to the graveyard in It Happened "That Night" as Emily later recalls in this episode.
 * ​Mrs.Hastings finds out Spencer has been visiting Garret since It Happened "That Night" and banns her for any more future visits.
 * Ali's grave being dugged up is mention from It Happened 'That Night' and A starts sending the girls her pieces of her and to Aria a keepsake (earrings) she put in Ali's coffin in thePilot.
 * In a flashblack its revealed Aria and Ali trashed up after Aria discovered her dad having a affair with Meredith inThe First Secret.
 * ​Also Meredith was last seen in The First Secret even though it was the prequel episode when chronology she was last seen in the Pilot.
 * Emily triggers a memory of the night she was at Ali's grave after seeing a girl in her english class put up her hair the same way Jenna did.
 * The mysterious person wearing the red coat who visited Mona in UnmAsked after she was committed to Radley Sanitarium appears again in the final scene buying something for a "team" futhermore in UnmAsked Mona asked Spencer to join the  'The "A-Team saying "You had to earn it, the right to be a part of it'." It's highly implied the person in the red coat is the mastermind or least the second A the girls have run in to.