The Devil You Know

“	See that woman out there? She’s my mom, and she’s a partner at the law firm of Dolce, Gabbana & Liebowitz.	”
	— Hanna

The Devil You Know

Season: 2

Episode: 5

Information

Airdate

July 12, 2011

Written by

Maya Goldsmith

Directed by

Michael Grossman

Chronology
← Previous	Next →
Blind Dates	Never Letting Go

The Devil You Know is the fifth episode in Season 2 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on July 12, 2011.

Synopsis[]

PLL205-0006 — The girls review the facts about Ian

At the beginning of the episode, the girls discuss Ian's death and the plausibility of him wanting to kill himself. The Liars are ready to move on with their lives, but Emily is stuck on the details not adding up to any logical sense. She decides to investigate independently. Just as the girls are talking, Garrett Reynolds appears. Based on the autopsy report, he lets the girls know Ian was dead for about a week; meaning, the texts sent to Melissa were not from Ian!

At the Hastings', Melissa is completely silent because she's traumatized. Also, because reporters are calling the house nonstop making everyone frustrated, Spencer tells one caller off only to discover it was her grandmother. Also, since Ian left behind only his aunt, the Hastings are left with the burial duties. Veronica does't want to get involved at all, but out of sympathy for Melissa, Spencer suggests a funeral to give her closure from her loss.

Caleb visits Hanna's home to see how she is after the traumatic incident. Hanna is still snappy towards Caleb, but she softens after seeing Caleb is sincere. Ashley returns home frazzled that Hanna hasn't answered her phone, revealing how much stress Alison's death has placed on her, leading her to worry for her daughter's safety every time she leaves the house.

PLL205-0219 — Jackie happens upon Aria and Ezra

At Hollis, Aria is perched on Ezra's desk, cluing him in on the details of discovering Ian's body. They are sharing an intimate moment, which is silently overheard by Jackie, who purposely barges into the office to break up their tête-à-tête. Ezra awkwardly introduces Aria as a former student, rather than a friend, like Aria would prefer. The introduction forces her to call him Mr. Fitz. Jackie patronizingly calls Ezra by a nickname, probably to make Aria jealous and later remarks that "Mr. Fitz" should start letting "the girl" call him by his first name.

PLL205-0297 — Emily recognizes Logan Reed

At Speed Demon Express, Emily goes to pick up a package. The worker there looks familiar to her, and from an employee wall picture, she identifies him as Logan Reed, the guy who dropped off Ian's bribe in his stead.

Back at the Hastings', Veronica apologizes to Spencer for not trusting her. She also acknowledges Spencer's hard work and sympathizes with her. She promises to never distrust her again, which she may or may not keep good on... She also lets her know that she's proud of her integrity in wanting to bury Ian for Melissa's sake. She informs her Wren called to see how they're doing and that he's lucky it wasn't Peter who picked up the phone.

At Emily's place, Emily is reading, but distracted. She looks at Ian's suicide letter again and notices a pattern - many of the phrases he uses sound just like messages they've all received from "A."

While Emily starts conducting her research, Spencer conducts research of her own - trying to find an affordable wedding ring for Melissa to replace the one she lost. Frustrated, she realizes she will have to spend much more than she anticipated to replace it. Just then, "A" sends a text, threatening Spencer to reveal her role in Melissa's ring's disappearance - or face it resurfacing at the wrong time.

That night, a black-hooded figure tries to break into Jason's home. But, Jason opens the door, exposing Mike in the act of attempted burglary. Jason informs Aria, who's grateful to Jason for not calling the cops. Jason says he's fed up with cops and also finds satisfisfation in Mike learning his lesson now that he's been caught. Perhaps another motive for not involving cops is his budding attraction for Aria. Aria tries to question her brother about the incident at school, and it's revealed that Mike was the one who broke into Emily's garage and stole her camping equipment. He was also the one who broke into Spencer's kitchen and pushed Aria onto the floor as he fled the scene. He reveals he has broken into other homes as well. Aria agrees to keep it quiet, so as not to foil her family's tense relationship further, making Mike promise never to do it again.

At school, Hanna thanks Caleb for coming over. She's also concerned about his foster mother's treatment of him - getting money while treating Caleb like garbage when she does see him, and ignoring him the rest of the time; all the while, he doesn't even live with her! Caleb is touched, but not interested in trying to change anything - believing it hopeless. But, Hanna is outraged, especially when she later sees his foster mother at school blaming Caleb for making her look bad when she's the one who doesn't know anything about her foster son's well being. Caleb retorts back, but does nothing else. So, later, Hanna takes matters into her own hands and threatens Janet, Caleb's foster mom, to pay up or face a lawsuit filed by her (pretend lawyer) mom. Caleb later visits Hanna to thank her, revealing that Janet took the threats seriously and indeed, paid up. Hanna's heart is officially melted and she kisses Caleb before he leaves to hang out with Lucas.

PLL205-0500 — The girls are convinced Emily is right

Just before English class, Emily shares the news with her friends that "A" probably doctored the suicide letter. They are brought back to the scary reality of "A," having taken a respite when they thought Alison's killer was finally being put to rest.

So, Emily goes back to "Speed Demon Express" to question Logan. Logan is forthcoming, revealing he was hired online for a delivery position. He never interacted with his employer, except on the phone, and the voice of the employer was that of a woman, not a man.

At the Hastings', Spencer tries to smooth things out with Melissa, but her attempt at a private conversation is interrupted by their mother's request for help with a chore. Melissa, meanwhile, remains silent and unresponsive.

PLL205-0622 — "Can I wear this to the funeral?"

Hanna talks with her mother about the upcoming funeral, experimenting with what to wear in preparation. She has a conversation with her mother about Ashley's father's funeral, and it's revealed that although Ashley paid for it, she never attended and does not regret that decision.

At the church for the funeral ceremony, Emily tries to tell Spencer what she learned from Logan. Spencer is not interested, her mind is too focused on her sister's well-being and family healing after this craziness. Emily then informs Garrett Reynolds of what she found out from Logan. He thanks Emily for confiding in him. Later, we see Officer Garrett's paying Logan off to keep quiet about the bribe, and to leave town, stopping Emily's investigation in its tracks. Garrett then calls Jenna to let her know it has been taken care of. We are to believe Jenna is the one who hired Logan over the phone.

Spencer's mom invited the other Liars to the funeral, suddenly regretting separating Spencer from her friends, in light of recent events. There, Mr. Fitz shows up. When questioned about his attendance by Ella and Byron Montgomery, Ezra is at first forthcoming, admitting Aria invited him. However, he explains it was to support all of his former students. Aria is rebuffed, especially when her father acknowledges the gesture towards the "kids."

PLL205-0845 — Ezra won't show affection in front of her 'rents

Ian is then buried, and the girls dust their hands of Ian and the earth that buries him. Aria and Emily spot Jason in the cemetery. Emily forms a negative opinion about him, but Aria doesn't seem to feel the same way. Ezra walks over to Aria, who was disappointed in the way he handled her parents earlier. She tells him she could really use a hug right now, but all he can offer is to call her later.

Aria then goes over to Jason. He confides in her that up until now, he believed he was the one who killed Alison as he got blacked out drunk that night and has no recollection of what happened. He knows he acted violent whenever he got jealous, and he had been very jealous of fearless Alison. He says he thinks he should have died instead of Alison, but Aria says he shouldn't think that.

Then, Jason shows Aria a piece of paper he found the next day, warning him that someone knew what he did, though the reference is vague. That note always made him worry he might have been the one to harm Alison.

After the funeral, Melissa is finally ready to repair things with her sister. She apologizes for choosing Ian over her and for lying to her family. Spencer is about to confess to pawning her sister's ring, but Melissa interrupts saying she needs to talk before she lost the courage. She is about to confide in her a secret when suddenly, a cell phone in Spencer's bag starts ringing. It belonged to Ian and had been planted in Spencer's bag by A. Melissa goes ballistic, thinking Spencer was the one posing as Ian sending her text messages. Spencer is dumbfounded and hurt when Melissa says she will never forgive Spencer.

That night at the Montgomery's, Ella and Byron react to Ian's guilt in Alison's murder. Ella cannot believe she used to have such a cordial, unsuspecting relationship with Ian. Then, Mike informs his parents he is heading ostensibly out to hang out with friends; his parents are unsuspecting of him as well. The couple jokingly opts for a strong drink of absinthe.

PLL205-1169 — Someone has something to tell them

Then, the girls are summoned to another creepy midnight outing when Emily gets a message instructing her to go the cemetery to visit a plot. The Liars join Emily, despite her being vague about why they're there. They end up at Alison's grave where a wall across from them lights up. A projector is showing the remaining footage of Alison with Ian the night she died. The footage they thought was lost. This time, after falling to the floor, Alison gets up giggling. Ian puts on his jacket, gives her a kiss, then turns and walks away.

The girls are now led to believe Ian did not kill Alison, and, just as Emily suspected, Ian's suicide was faked. They go in search of the projector, but a black-hooded figure unseen by the girls walks away with projector in hand.

Notes[]

In "The Badass Seed," Ian says he's giving away a bunch of his old stuff (trophies, yearbooks, etc.) to give to his mom, but in this episode, Veronica says Ian's only living relative is an aunt.
When Emily gets all the parts of the suicide note from old a text she prints off the line; " i lost my temper" but the liars were never sent a text with that in, it was written on Hanna's cast.
It's revealed that Mike is the one that has been breaking into the houses.

Title[]

Listed on ABC Family's website is an alternate name for Season 2, Episode 5: "Don't Kill the Messenger" (rather than "The Devil You Know").
The episode's title, "The Devil You Know" is a shortened idiom for 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't,' and means that it is often better to deal with someone you are familiar with and know, even if he/she is not ideal, than take a risk with an unknown person. In this episode, it seems that Spencer would rather believe that Ian killed Alison than have to cope with not knowing Alison's true murderer.

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Co-Starring[]

Featured Music[]

"Follow Suit" by Trent Dabbs (while Spencer is on her computer trying to find a ring replacement)
"Turn Our Eyes Away" by Trent Dabbs and Ruby Amanfu (Aria and Ezra talk at the funeral)
"Running Wild” by Jules Larson (when Caleb checks up on Hanna after the funeral)

Gallery[]

The Devil You Know has a photo gallery.

Memorable Quotes[]

Spencer: Why would "A" help us when we know "A" ultimately wants to hurt us?

Aria: Oh, Em, come on. For months we’ve been about as welcome in town as a cold sore.

Spencer [picking up the phone]: Listen, you bottom feeding vultures. Stop sucking the life out of my family.... oh, I'm so sorry, Grandma. Yeah, she's right here.

Veronica: There will be no frills, no flowers and, as far as I’m concerned, no tears.

Ashley: Hanna, it's a funeral, not a Nicky Minaj concert.
Hanna: Can't I at least throw confetti?

Hanna [about the church bell]: Who's ringing it this time?

Mike: Can you stop washing my sweats? I smell like a candle.

Hanna [to Janet]: See that woman out there? She’s my mom, and she’s a partner at the law firm of Dolce, Gabbana & Liebowitz.

Spencer [about Jason]: You don't paper over windows unless you're a vampire.

Caleb: It’s a short jump from ‘eat, pray, love’ to ‘drink, snap, slap.’