“ | The doctor is out. | ” |
— A
|
I Must Confess is the eleventh episode in Season 2 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on August 23, 2011.
Synopsis[]
Emily cannot sleep at night, tormented by thoughts of "A." At the first sign of light, she leaves to get into her car and leave, waking Hanna. When Hanna calls Emily, she discovers Em left her phone in her bag. The Liars gather in Hanna's room and discuss where Emily could have gone. Looking through Emily's phone, Spencer finds a picture of Ezra and Aria kissing sent by "A," along with the caption "Clue Ella in, and I'll let you out." Emily is then seen running through the woods.
After her run, she goes to Dr. Sullivan's office, and surprisingly, the three other Liars are all there waiting for her. As the girls talk about how they are being threatened, Dr. Sullivan can't help but ask who is threatening them. The Liars decide to tell her about "A." Emily tells Dr. Sullivan the threats began even before Alison’s funeral. At first they thought it was Alison, but then her body was found. They also mention "A" is an expert at making other people look guilty. They have clues about who he/she/they might be, but they’ve been wrong before. Dr. Sullivan, in turn, is astounded the girls have not told anybody else about "A," and that she's only person they have ever told.
Toby is working on the Hastings' property when he hears loud music from a car nearby. He walks over to see Jenna sitting inside, eating cherries and lining up the pits on the dashboard. The DiLaurentis' door slams, and Garrett walks back to his car. Toby runs behind a tree, unseen by Garrett, then he sees Garrett kissing his stepsister.
At school, the Liars debate whether or not they should have mentioned Jenna in their talk with Dr. Sullivan. Hanna then changes the subject by asking Spencer if she brought the horse books. Hanna is gifting the books to her soon to be stepsister, Kate. Aria finds it weird that Hanna is being so nice to her mean stepsister, but Hanna insists she's doing this for her dad. The topic shifts back to Jenna when the Liars see her talking on the phone. Emily thinks it was Jenna who sent the Ezria picture. Just then, Hanna's grandma comes over and says hello to the girls. She's in town (early) for the rehearsal dinner the next night.
At home, Ella and Byron argue about proper treatment for Mike's depression. Apparently, the psychologist recommended meds, which Byron favors due to his family history of depression, but Ella would rather try verbal therapy. Just then, Aria walks in noting that her father is late for his own class.
At the Marin's, Hanna flirts with Caleb on the phone, who seems to be enjoying California and his new family. Hanna gets off the phone to face Regina, who bluntly tells Hanna that she disapproves of Tom marrying Isabel. Then Ashley enters, and to her annoyance, realizes Regina is rearranging her kitchen, again. Unabashed, Regina boldly tells Ashley she should try to win Tom back, as Isabel is not the one for him. Ashley brushes off her request and tries to convince her to revert the kitchen to its earlier state, which she does not.
While Byron is at Hollis, Aria goes into Mike's room to tell him their mom wants him to help set the dinner table. Mike gets annoyed and tries to shoo her away, but she refuses to leave, trying to reason with Mike to open up to his family. Then Ella comes in to insist that Mike turn off his computer and come to dinner. She firmly shuts the computer, but Mike gets violent, tries to get the computer back. She falls over on his bed side table, and leaves his mother with a hurt wrist from the skirmish before angrily walking away. Ella insists Aria keep the shocking incident a secret from her father; likely feeling this will give him more fuel for the fire to get their son on meds.
Toby gives Spencer a ride to school in his truck. From their conversation, it seems Jenna and Garrett got into a fight. Spencer is afraid of what external pressures such as Jenna can do to weaken their relationship, but Toby insists they are immune to Jenna's games, and then he plants a kiss on Spencer.
In a school assembly, Dr. Sullivan makes a speech that addresses technology’s role in school bullying. The school bullies are seen to behave typically, with bored and snide expressions on their faces. The girls wear uncomfortable expressions, as Dr. Sullivan encourages the students being bullied to speak out if they don't feel safe. Mona files her nails, and Jenna looks snide. Right after the assembly, the girls congregate outside the building, discussing their feelings of vulnerability. Hanna questions whether confiding in Dr. Sullivan was a good idea in the first place. Just then, Jenna walks over and reminds the girls that Alison could have benefited from such an assembly. She looks smug, and Emily rebuts her by calling Jenna a bully and asking her to move her handicapped equipment so people can get passed her. (Who's the bully, now?)
At the dinner toast for Tom’s wedding, Hanna makes one last effort to bond with her stepsister, Kate. At first, Kate follows Hanna's suit when she apologizes for her earlier behavior and claims didn't mean her threats in their last phone conversation. Chipper, Kate offers Hanna some vodka disguised in water bottles from her purse. Hanna accepts, none too thrilled to be asked to make a speech.
All the while, Emily bonds with Ashley, who is rather quiet, as she prepares herself a glass of wine and a microwave dinner alone in the kitchen. When Emily offers to join her, Ashley is grateful for the company and tries not to think about her ex-husband moving on.
Later, Dr. Sullivan is walking down a street at night near her office, when she receives a phone call. On the other end is a repeat recording of her own voice incredulously (and fearfully) asking the girls: "And I'm the first person you've told about this?" When she hangs up, the person calls again to replay the looped recording. As the camera cuts away from this scene, the look at Dr. Sullivan's face is one of agitation.
She returns to her office and tries to enlist the Rosewood Police Force's help. The two officers, one of which is Garrett Reynolds appear. Dr. Sullivan is certain her office is bugged, and she is convinced the perpetrator must be the same person who trashed her office in Blind Dates. She wants action, but Garrett insist they cannot be of much help without her revealing her patients' names. However, as she is sworn to confidentiality, she reveals nothing.
Back at Tom's dinner party, Hanna is getting drunker by the minute, while Kate pens cheesy words for a toast. She notices Hanna checking out the picture of Caleb on her phone and declares him cute after Hanna shows her the screen. Suddenly, Kate's Uncle Roy passes by, and Kate becomes agitated. Not wanting him to see them, she asks Hanna to drink up quickly. The two sip from their drinks as he passes, and makes no notice of them. But, Kate doesn't explain her strange behavior and instead asks a waiter for more drinks before they enter the dining room.
Back at the Marin's, Ashley tries to locate her culinary equipment and finds that Regina has taken it upon herself to stick a spatula in the same drawer as a glue gun. Ashley confides in Emily about her feelings about Tom and his mother, while Emily confides in Ashley about her failed relationship with Samara. Ashley encourages Emily to have direct conversations with the people she cares about, or risk having to invent what they would say in their absence. Afterwards, Ashley heads for bed, and Emily picks up her cell phone to call someone.
Byron returns home from Hollis to find Aria at the table doing her homework. Ella comes in and downplays her injury, while Byron tells Aria to go easy on her brother for having not joined her and their mother for dinner.
Later Emily is seated at the Apple Rose Grille at a table for two. She is by herself, but when the busboy tries to remove the second setting, she stops him. Just then, Maya shows up.
Toby and Spencer make out in Toby's truck near Spencer's house until Toby catches sight of someone in Jason's house. Spencer then sees two figures and assumes it's Jason and his friends voyeuristically spying on the two lovers' make out session. Spencer gets out of the car to storm up to the house, while Toby buttons up his shirt and tries to stop her. She is dumbfounded and stopped in her tracks when she sees her father come out. When Spencer questions him, he deflects her questions. When Toby steps in to defend his girlfriend, he gets yelled at and threatened by Peter. Spencer ignores her father's order to return home and gets in Toby's truck before he drives away from her irate father.
Next, Dr. Sullivan is shown in her office, determinedly looking through the files she has for Aria, Emily, Spencer and Hanna as a black shadowy figure watches from outside her window.
Maya and Emily share an intimate candlelit dinner for two. Apparently, Maya is out of rehab and is now living some forty-five minutes away from Rosewood with her parents. Emily and Maya catch up over dinner, and Maya is happy to hear that Pam has eased up on Emily, trusts her again, and is more accepting of who she is.
At the same time, Mike sits alone in his room again. Aria passes and sees her brother is teary-eyed. She reaches out to him, and he confesses to being worried about his mother. He asks if she'll be ok. After Aria assures him she will, he then asks if he will be ok. She hugs her confused brother close.
Back at the dinner party, Kate leads Hanna into the ladies' hotel room, rather than the dining room, where they have yet to make their joint speech. By now, Hanna is totally wasted and plops down on the bed. However, Kate is somehow mostly or completely in control of her senses and carries her mother's wedding dress into the room. She brings the dress to Hanna's attention once more, parading it in front of her and commenting on how beautiful it looks. Hanna agrees, but is more interested in getting something to eat. Kate leaves to get such a thing, and Hanna suddenly obeys her urge to play with Isabel's gown for the next night. She holds it to her body and spins around the room with it, but the motion makes her dizzy, and she collapses on the bed before vomiting on the dress. While she's throwing up, Kate returns with a plate of food. When she sees what Hanna is doing, she smirks and turns back around.
Spencer returns home to face her father on the living room couch. But they exchange words in a much more calm fashion than before. Peter confesses that the DiLaurentis family forced him to change the will of Alison's grandmother in the south back to an earlier version that included both grandchildren. The will originally left everything to Alison, excluding Jason. Because of the disappearance and the presumed death of Ali, Jessica DiLaurentis ordered Peter to change the will to include Jason so that he wouldn't look like a suspect in Alison's desappearance and murder. They didn’t want it to look like Jason killed his sister out of jealousy.
Spencer suddenly flashes back to the summer Alison disappeared, when the girls had all been hanging out in Hanna's kitchen with Regina. Alison had mysteriously questioned Hanna's grandmother. She had been talking about her two sons, Tom and Patrick, when Alison had suddenly asked what it would take to have one of them removed from her will. Regina was taken aback by this question, but Alison pressed on with: if one of her sons sold an expensive family heirloom to buy drugs, would that constitute dismissal from the family tree? Regina had gone along with it, saying that anyone who messed up would constitute a truncated family tree.
Snapping back to the present, Spencer shares with her father the conclusion to which she thinks this information points: Jason murdered Alison after she went to Georgia to see her grandmother to have her change her will. Spencer explains she wants to go the police, but Peter won't have it as he fears he'll lose his job as an attorney. Spencer asks her father why he did it in the first place; Peter gets all dark and closed off. Apparently, the DiLaurentis family knows something Peter desperately wants to forget, and they hung that fact over his head, forcing him to change the will. When Spencer asks what it is, Peter gets all gruff and leaves the room, telling his daughter he's answered enough questions for one night. Spencer is left bewildered and confused.
Back in her office, Dr. Sullivan glances at a picture and promptly goes to a file, the file of "A." The identity of "A" is covered up by a sticky note, but as Dr. Sullivan reads on, she sees her notes from sessions with "A." Apparently, "A" always refers to a group of girls he/she does not mention by name as "nosey bitches." Dr. Sullivan has a picture of her vandalized office and the message "A" painted on her office wall with the same words; Dr. Sullivan soon deciphers the identity of "A."
Back in the hotel room, Hanna tries against all odds to rid the wedding dress of her vomit stains. But, she's busted when Tom enters the, having heard from Kate that Hanna is ill. Luckily, Hanna’s grandmother is there to support Hanna. Realizing what Hanna has done, he becomes livid with her. He accuses her of trying to sabotage his wedding and ignores her defense that Kate had been drinking as well. He simultaneously ejects his mother and daughter from the party and leaves the room in a huff.
At home, Aria informs her parents how Mike's break-in had not been an isolated incident and that she's know about it for a while. Having revealed one of her secrets, she pointedly looks at her mother, expecting her to do the same, reminding her how secrets threatened to split their family up once before, and how she doesn't want to take part in it anymore. Just then, Mike descends the stairs to join the rest of his family, his guard down, ready to talk openly for the first time in a while.
In the ladies' hotel room, Grandma Marin helps Hanna recover with some tea. Recovering the dress seems hopeless. Kate enters and offers Hanna some ginger ale, under the guise of being sympathetic. However, Regina noticing how quikly Kate was able to sober, she grabs her purse and reveals that Kate had a water bottle full of Vodka for Hanna and an unspiked water bottle for herself thus exposing Kate for trying to make Hanna look bad in her dad's eyes (not forgiving of Hanna after all). Angry, Hanna vows her revenge, but Kate just shrugs and leaves.
While Emily is still at dinner, Dr. Sullivan calls her with the request to round up the others and meet at her office; she claims to know "A's" identity. However, when the girls arrive, the office is empty. They receive a message from A stating: "The doctor is out!"
At the end of the episode, in Dr. Sullivan's office, the black-gloved figure is seen removing his/her's and the girls' files, as well as, the bug which was planted under a bobble head Freud figure.
Trivia[]
- Hanna is so far the third main character to be shown drunk on the show.
- The title of the episode might be a reference to Britney Spear’s song “Baby One More Time”. Since the lyrics say “I must confess…..” The girls finally confess to someone about A's threats.
- Maya returns in this episode. This is her first season 2 appearance.
- It's seen on Dr. Sullivan’s file that Spencer’s birthday is April 11th, Aria’s is February 7th and Hanna’s is March 7th.
- There's another file with a post-it covering the name of the person who "A" is. The post-it says: “3 missing appointments.” It can also be seen that "A" was born in 1994 making them 16-17 years old - the same age as the Liars!
Notes[]
- Norman Buckley directed this episode in which his sister, Betty Buckley, had a major part as the fabulous Regina Marin.
- After the girls get a text that says "the doctor is out," we later see A remove a microphone from a bobble-head doll that says, "the doctor is in."
- While Emily and Maya are at the Grille, Maya tells Emily to "relax, I'm not leaving before I get my calamari." Which is weird because in episode 12 of Season 1, Salt Meets Wound, Maya refuses Pam's meal because she is allergic to seafood, stating it gives her hives. Oops!
Continuity[]
- Kate gets the revenge on Hanna she promised in the previous episode by manipulating Hanna to get drunk. She had vowed revenge after overhearing Hanna's crude comment about her and her mother.
- Spencer's comment about Ella thinking she's seeing Mr. Fitz comes from "Touched by an 'A'-ngel" after Aria informs Spencer, Ella saw her in his car and so Ella thinks Spencer is the one seeing him.
Main Cast[]
- Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery
- Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
- Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
- Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
- Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis
Supporting Cast[]
- Bianca Lawson as Maya St. Germain
- Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn
- Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal
- Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery
- Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery
- Cody Allen Christian as Mike Montgomery
- Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall
- Annabeth Gish as Dr. Anne Sullivan
- Roark Critchlow as Tom Marin
- Heather Mazur as Isabel Randall
- Betty Buckley as Regina Marin
- Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin
- Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
- Yani Gellman as Garrett Reynolds
Co-Starring[]
- Carlos Arellano as Officer Tulio
- Jessica Kozak as Dark Haired Woman (uncredited)
Featured Music[]
- "Truth Been Told" by Band of Thieves (when Jenna and Garrett meet in his car)
- "Critical Emotional" by Middle Class Rut (when Mike shoves his mother)
- "Wrap My Mind Around You" by Trent Dabbs (when Toby & Spencer kiss in his truck in front of school)
- "Poison and Wine" by The Civil Wars (when Emily and Maya are out and when Spencer and Toby make out)
- "No More Wishing" by Hayley Taylor (when Emily and Maya talk over dinner)
- "Best Day of Your Life" by Katie Herzig (when Hanna throws up on Isabel's wedding dress)
- "Where the Lonely Ones Roam" by Digital Daggers (when Liars are in Dr. Sullivan's office getting texted by "A")
Gallery[]
I Must Confess has a photo gallery. |
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Memorable Quotes[]
Hanna [about the picture of Aria and Ezra kissing]: Is that you? Aria: Yeah, of course it's me. Spencer: Well, unless you're Aria's mom - Just assume it's Spencer... you know - slutting it up. |
Ella: He needs to talk about his feelings, not bury them under medication! |
Hanna [drunk, about the huge bathroom]: You know, I want to live in here. |
Aria: "A" had his/her/its hands around her neck and keeps reminding her. |
Emily: I’m not going to be used like a bowling ball to knock down my best friends. |
Maya [to Emily, about Paige]: She shoved your head underwater, and you still dated her? Girl, I came back just in time! |
Hanna [about Isabel's wedding dress]: Hmm..Sparkly. |
Regina: Cows are happy, and they end up as sloppy joes. |
Regina: I would have waited, and hurled on the bride. |
Emily: Could you please move your stick? There are people trying to get past you. |