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Finders keepers, losers weepers. Quelle tristesse.
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The Melody Lingers On is the twenty-third episode of Season 5 of Pretty Little Liars. It aired on March 10, 2015.

Summary[]

5x23~01

Alison and her father are meeting with Alison’s lawyer, Rebecca who is prepping Alison for her trial. Alison is still adamant on taking the stand and telling her side of the story since the jury consists of strangers who don't know anything about her. Rebecca tells her the key to winning her case is not telling the jury stories about how she's being framed. They simply just have to prevent the prosecutor from proving his case. Rebecca assures them the prosecutor has the tougher job since he has to convince 12 jurors that Alison killed Mona, beyond any reasonable doubt, and all they have to do is make one of them unsure about it.

5x23~02

Meanwhile, Hanna is meeting with her mom and Ted. Ashley informs Hanna that she's going to Alison’s trial, but Ted doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Ashley is firm in her decision since she wants to be there if something that affects Hanna comes up in the trial. Ashley is sure Alison is setting up Hanna. Hanna tries to convince her that Alison isn't the one setting her up. Ashley tells Hanna that if she knows anything incriminating about Alison, now is the time to come forward. But, Hanna is appalled that Ashley wants her to throw Alison under the bus especially since Alison did not do that to her. Hanna snaps that she's telling the truth; she didn’t do it and neither did Alison. Ashley tells her that she doesn’t care about the truth, she only cares about getting her daughter out of prison.


5x23~03

At Spencer’s house, Spencer, Emily and Aria are looking at newspaper clippings of the communication between Alison and someone they found in Alison’s house. Spencer tells them about her discovery that the phone number listed in the personal ads is the same as that of Varjak’s they found on the receipt. Spencer thinks that although the passport and letter they found were fake, the personal ads must not be planted since they were not found with the other things. Emily is unsure of what to do, since whenever they call the number, it just rings and no one picks it up and James Neilan has locked up his law office. Veronica walks in and warns the girls that they should stay away from Alison’s trial. She tells Spencer that although for Aria and Emily this is just a “suggestion,” but for her, it’s more than that. Emily is worried about what Alison will think if they don’t go, but Veronica is more concerned about what the jury might think if they see the girls at the trial. Aria thinks if they don’t go, everyone will assume the girls believe Alison is guilty. Spencer is annoyed and asks her mother whether they are supposed to turn their backs on Hanna too when she goes to trial. Aria and Emily leave to give Veronica and Spencer some space. Veronica makes Spencer promise that she won’t go near the court room.

5x23~04

Spencer, Aria, and Emily meet up with Caleb at The Brew. He's been trying to track down the number they found for Varjak, but hasn’t had any luck since it's a secure number. Spencer borrows a burner phone from Caleb and composes a text to the number: “Did you miss me? Love, Holly.” She sends the text to see if they'll respond, since they won’t answer their calls.


5x23~05

Spencer rushes out of The Brew to track down Jason, but Jason tries to ignore her. Spencer pleads with him that they need to talk, but Jason doesn’t want to hear it. He tells her he won't listen to her anymore because he listened to her before and now he's a witness for the prosecution. She tells him Alison is innocent. Kenneth arrives and orders Jason to get in the car. Spencer tells him she needs to talk to Jason. Kenneth snaps at Spencer saying he doesn’t care what Spencer wants and tells her to stay on her side of the fence.

5x23~06

At school, Aria runs into Andrew and apologizes for not contacting him as she was busy. Aria tells him that Mike is in Harrisburg with his lacrosse team. Andrew talks about how he's tired of his teacher memorializing Mona, like she won every championship on her own. Aria thinks it must be her way of trying to understand what happened to Mona. Andrew is annoyed at how his teacher thinks Mona was a saint just because she's dead. Aria agrees that Mona was quite an aggressive competitor, but Andrew thinks she wasn’t just aggressive, she was vicious. Andrew comments that they're lucky Mona didn’t get to college and think about running for President. Aria is shocked that Andrew is implying that the world is a better place without Mona, but he casually tells her there are other people on the team too. Later that night, at home, Emily receives a collect call from Alison. Emily apologizes for not believing she was innocent. Alison isn’t upset; she just wants to know if Emily will be at her trial tomorrow. Emily is hesitant, but promises she'll be there. After some silence, both say their goodnights and hang up.

5x23~07

The next day, Alison’s trial kicks off. She's glad to see that Aria and Emily showed up, but looks troubled that Spencer didn't. The prosecution leads and informs the jury that Alison is about to lie to them and say that she was kidnapped and held captive for 2 years, when in fact, she faked her kidnapping and pulled it off with help of her friends. He tells the jury he has witnesses to prove this. He goes on to say Mona knew the truth about Alison faking her kidnapping and so Alison killed Mona to keep her quiet. Aria and Emily listen in shock.

5x23~08

Emily and Aria rush out to the lobby to call Spencer, who's at school, and fill her in on what happened. Aria is worried the prosecution knows about what happened in New York too. Spencer thinks the police must have found Cyrus and he ratted out Alison to save himself. Kenneth walks up to them and snaps at them saying they must've manipulated Alison into making up the kidnapping story. Jason tries to tell his father that Alison lied to the girls just like she lied to them. People start looking at them, and so Rebecca tells Kenneth to calm down. An infuriated Kenneth walks away.

5x23~09

After the court is adjourned, Alison is back in jail. Alison is on laundry duty when Hanna is led into the laundry room. Alison informs Hanna that the personal ads and phone number they found are real. Alison tells her that after her mother was killed, someone bought a tribute ad in the paper, referring to a book Jessica used to read to her when she a baby. This made Alison curious and she responded to the ad. Two days later, she got another ad in the newspaper with a phone number and started texting with that person. The person also claimed they knew who killed Jessica. Hanna is angry that Alison didn’t mention any of this to them, but Alison tells her she didn’t want any of the girls to get hurt. Alison is sure this person was Mona because the texts stopped when Mona died.

5x23~10

Veronica walks into Spencer’s room. Spencer asks her whether she knew about the prosecution discovering that Alison’s kidnapping story was fake. Veronica replies that she did, but it was too late to do anything. Spencer deduces this was the reason her mother didn’t want her going to court. Spencer is angry about Melissa and Veronica lying to her. Veronica explains someone is going to go to prison for Mona’s murder and she doesn’t want it to be Spencer. Spencer asks her if she wants to know whether she herself knew about Alison’s fake kidnapping. Veronica tells her she doesn’t want know because Spencer doesn’t know anything about it either.

5x23~11

Caleb visits Hanna and she fills him in on everything Alison told her. Hanna tells him that Alison is trying to brave, but it’s obvious she’s scared. Caleb asks Hanna about how she's feeling. Hanna tells him that she’s fine; it’s not something she can't handle. Caleb reassures her that they're going to get her out of prison, but Hanna is not so sure about that anymore. Caleb tells her they'll figure this out, but Hanna doesn’t think anyone will believe them. Hanna tells Caleb to make a promise to her: that he’ll stay safe. If things get worse, she wants him to leave town. Caleb disagrees, but Hanna urges him to promise that he'll leave. At The Brew, Aria’s phone rings. It’s the Varjak number calling her, but Aria is hesitant to pick up the call. They all argue over who will answer the phone. Caleb gets annoyed that they're wasting time, grabs the phone and says, “hello.” No one answers on the other end though – it’s just a recording of soft French music.

5x23~12

The girls and Caleb call Hanna and play the song for her. Hanna recognizes the song since Mona used to play it in her room all the time. They realize it wasn’t Mona who was texting Alison, it was ‘A’ taunting her. Emily doesn’t understand why ‘A’ didn’t just let them think it was Mona, but Caleb deduces this is A’s way of taunting them. The girls think there could be more stuff hidden in Mona’s room which could help them clear Hanna and Alison’s name. Hanna’s call gets cut off. Caleb apologizes to Aria for snatching her phone. Aria and Emily decide to go over to Mona’s house and talk to her mom and get into Mona’s room to snoop around. Caleb asks Spencer to wait back.

5x23~13

Caleb regrets not leaving town with Hanna when they had the chance. Caleb tells Spencer that he knew Hanna would never leave her friends behind. Caleb tells her about Hanna asking him to leave if things got worse and adds that he would never do it. He asks her if she has spoken to Toby after she got back from London, but Spencer says she doesn’t think it’s a good idea.


Emily and Aria arrive at Mona’s house. There's no answer at the door. Aria tells Emily that Mona was smart, so if she had any idea about what might happen to her, she must have left clues for them. Emily isn’t sure about this and complains they're running out of time. As they leave, someone watches them through Mona’s bedroom window.

5x23~14

Later that night, Jason stops by Spencer’s house. He apologizes to her for the way his father acted. Jason calls Spencer out for the night she and the others trapped Alison, even though he let her get away when the police came for her. Spencer gets choked up and admits she made a terrible mistake, but Jason tells her he was the one who made a mistake by listening to her. Spencer admits she likes being “certain” about things and someone is using this to hurt her. She tells him she doesn’t think Alison killed anyone. Jason informs Spencer that the prosecution shuffled the witness list and now he has to testify the next day, then he leaves. The next morning, Spencer gets ready to go to the courthouse. She tries to leave a note for her mother, but Veronica catches her. Veronica forbids her from going but Spencer refuses to listen. She tells her mother that if people are going to talk about her, she won’t let that happen behind her back, then she storms out.

5x23~15

In the courtroom, the prosecutor plays the video of a blond person attacking Mona while Jason is on the witness stand. The prosecutor asks him whether he changed his statement about Alison’s whereabouts after he saw the video. Jason admits he did - the day Mona was killed, Alison was not at home. Jason changes his story and says he initially thought the attacker was Alison, but now, he doesn’t think so. The prosecutor changes his line of questioning and asks Jason if he knows Hanna. The prosecutor further asks him if he knows Ashley Marin and if she worked for him. Jason agrees that she used to work for him. The prosecutor questions him if he and Ashley used to meet outside the office “socially” and asks if these meetings were “intimate.” Jason snaps that this is private. The prosecutor theorizes that Ashley convinced Jason to change his testimony and help her daughter by offering him “personal inducements.”

5x23~16

Outside the courtroom, Emily, Aria and Spencer are discussing the events of the trial. Spencer thinks Jason’s testimony is bad for Alison since it makes it seem like Jason thinks Alison is guilty until Ashley made him change his story. Spencer spots Jason and walks up to him. Jason is furious and informs her that his father kicked him out. Spencer offers him a place to stay, but he declines. Before leaving, Jason tells Spencer to hope that she doesn’t have to sit on the witness chair.

5x23~17

Ted and Ashley are at the Marin house. Ashley regrets going to the trial, but Ted doesn’t think it would’ve made a difference if she stayed away. Ted receives a call, but he ignores it. Ashley tells him that eventually, he has to talk to people about what happened in court. Ashley tells Ted that he can go if he wants, but Ted tells her that he made a promise to her and intends to keep it and that they will work things out. Ashley thinks that although he forgave her, people are who they are and cannot change; she asks him to leave. Ted replies that he'll leave after he finishes his coffee, implying that he doesn’t plan on deserting Ashley.

5x23~18

Spencer, Emily, and Aria head to Mona’s house. They bang on the door, but there's no answer and the door is locked. As they walk away, they hear the same French music coming out of Mona’s bedroom window. When they try the door again, it’s unlocked. They run up to Mona’s room and see that it has been ransacked. They find a note from ‘A:' “Finders Keepers Losers Weepers.” Aria thinks this may be a trick, that ‘A’ didn’t actually find anything in the room and only wants them to think they did. As the girls search the room, Spencer picks up a mirror on Mona’s dresser and realizes there is something behind the glass. She removes the glass and finds a note, “Chandelier’s rituals. Sister launched lair. A ruler’s list chained.”

Unbeknownst to them, Andrew is standing outside Mona’s house and sees Emily’s car parked out front. As the girls leave, we see an ice pick lying in the hallway, thrown in through the window.

Aria and Emily head to The Brew where Aria runs into Andrew. He apologizes for what he said about Mona earlier since he thinks Aria got the wrong impression. He explains he doesn’t think Mona deserved what happened to her. Aria tells him that it's water under the bridge. He tells her that if she ever needs help, she can call him. He kisses her on the cheek, surprising her. As he leaves, she promises to call him.

5x23~19

Ashley heads to prison to visit Hanna. Ashley apologizes to Hanna and tells her she holds herself responsible for everything that’s happened. Hanna says it’s not Ashley’s fault and apologizes for giving her such a hard time. Hanna tells her that everything will be okay and that she'ill survive prison. Ashley tells her she loves her.


5x23~20

Meanwhile, Jason is visiting Alison. Jason comments that they're “quite the pair.” Alison tells him her lawyer appears confident, except when she doesn’t know she's looking. Jason comforts her saying he's there for her, but she tells him to get out of town and save himself before he gets dragged down with her. Jason reassures her that he knows she didn’t kill Mona. Alison tells him that although she didn’t kill Mona, she let a lot of other things happen.

Spencer is at home reading the note she found at Mona’s house, trying to make some sense of it. Her mother walks by and glares at her. At The Brew, Emily is cleaning up. She sits down at the recording device that Jonny made. She listens to people’s confessions and laughs, until she hears the same French music. At a lab, an analyst takes out an ice pick from an evidence box to examine it. On the handle of the ice pick its written “Boo Boo’s Ice Cream.”

A hooded figure is shredding Paul Varjak’s documents, including Paul Varjak’s social security card. They use the shredded paper to line Tippi’s cage.

Notes[]

  • Caleb tells Spencer, Emily and Aria that he was unable to track Varjak's phone number.
  • Alison's trial begins.
  • The prosecutor reveals to the jury that Alison was in fact not kidnapped and she faked her kidnapping with the help of her friends; Mona knew about this, and so Alison killed her.
  • Alison reveals to Hanna that after her mother's death, someone bought a tribute ad in the paper, referring to a book Jessica used to read to her when she a baby. Curious, Alison responded to the ad and two days later she received another ad with a phone number and so began texting the person. The person also claimed they knew who killed Jessica.
  • Jason is brought to testify for the prosecution. On the stand, Jason changes his story and says he doesn't think Mona's attacker was Alison.
  • The prosecutor reveals Jason and Ashley's affair and implies that Ashley convinced Jason to change his testimony to save Hanna by offering him "personal inducements."
  • Spencer, Emily and Aria find a cryptic note hidden in Mona's bedroom: “Chandelier’s rituals. Sister launched lair. A ruler’s list chained."

Title and Background[]

  • "The Melody Lingers On" is a 1935 film about a piano virtuoso who has a child out of wedlock to her fiancé, who is killed trying to save her life.
  • "The Song Is Ended (but the Melody Lingers On)" is a popular song composed by Irving Berlin, with lyrics written by Beda Loehner in 1927.

Main Cast[]

Supporting Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • Filming began October 23, 2014 and wrapped on October 31, 2014.
  • The episode was watched live by 1.74 million viewers.

Quotes[]

Rebecca: Don’t be afraid to look at the jury. We don’t want them to think you have anything to hide.


Aria: I'll do it. I'm the least intimidating.


Veronica: We're not talking about ethics.
Spencer: That's for sure.


Emily: I have no idea. Let me change. I think better in lower heels.


Featured Music[]

  • "Summer" by Katie Herzig - (Caleb tells the girls that he can't find anything on Varjak's number).
  • "A Pain That I'm Used To" by Depeche Mode - (Emily hangs up on Alison; Alison takes a shower and looks in the mirror; The trial begins as the jury and judge file in; Alison searches for Emily and is surprised to see her and Aria at the door).
  • "Paris Skies A" by Edward Jay, Eve Loiseau & Vasco - (Caleb holds out Aria's phone for the girls to hear; (Repeats) They play the song for Hanna; (Repeats) The girls hear the song coming from Mona's bedroom; (Repeats) Emily hears the song; (Repeats) A lab tech examines an ice pick; (Repeats) 'A' shreds Varjak's documents).
  • "Atlas Hands" by Benjamin Francis Leftwich - (Caleb tells Spencer what Hanna told him).
  • "No One Needs to Know" by HAERTS - (Andrew apologizes to Aria for what he said about Mona then kisses her on the cheek and leaves).

Gallery[]

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The Melody Lingers On has a photo gallery.


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