Episode Rating: ***.5/5
Words of caution before viewing this episode of Pretty Little Liars: it is not for the faint hearted. It will manage to creep you out so much with it's twisted twists and turns, make you scream out in horror and will barely give you anytime to digest what happened before they move on to the next scary incident. Fasten your seatbelts and stay alert, because trust me, it is A dArk ride.
Unlike the previous Halloween special in Pretty Little Liars, "this is A dArk ride" deals with a a Halloween party in the present time. All the girls are dressed up as characters from movies or books and boy, do they look smoking hot or what? In the beginning we see Mona being her usual creepy self and painting a paper mache head while she talks about Halloween being better than Christmas to a hooded figure. I personally don't believe this is Toby, because if it were truly him then there would be no reason for them not revealing his face.
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| Mona Mania. |
The girls board the Ghost Train with their respective others...well except for Hanna and Aria whose boyfriends couldn't make it. Each of them truly make a fancy appearence. All of them look totally beautiful and fabulous. Spencer is dressed up as Lauren Bacall (and Toby as Humphrey Bogart), Aria as Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Hanna as Marlyn Monroe, and Emily as Barbarella. What they think is going to be a fun evening with great music by Adam Lambert turns out to be a gory and deadly one with a lot of near death experiences, and well, death itself. I don't understand why these girls even go out to such places anymore, knowing the kind of danger that follows them around like a powerful magnet!
While a lot of drama was going down in the train, Hanna's mother Ashley Marin was celebrating Halloween in her house with her boyfriend Pastor Ted when she saw a creepy little girl whom she later believed to be a ghost. The girl had a dead voice and talked about constant fights with her sister. Her skin was unbelievably and cold and when Ashley went to call Ted, the girl just disappeared like that, out of the blue. It is to be noted that this was the same girl that appeared in the tale narrated by Alison in the previous Halloween episode. Are they playing around with the twin theory here?
This was one of those episodes that manages to keep the viewer glued to her seat until the very last scene and also manages to scare the life out of her every other second.
Some of the highlights of the episode were:
1. Garrett's Story: The entire flashback story narrated by Garrett Reynolds was an extremely interesting and twisted one. The mystery of the night that Alison DiLaurentis died never gets over. When I learnt of the person she had interacted with that night, I had to pause my laptop screen and scream 'HOLY SHIT'. It was one of the most unexpected plots ever, and in so many ways it's so disgusting and twisted. Also, it was interesting to note that Garrett said that he has liked Spencer all along and was supposed to keep her safe. I hope they actually dwell deeper into that.
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| Garret talking to Spencer. |
2. Aria's kidnapping: Hats off to Lucy Hale for her acting in this scene! It was beyond brilliant. She brought out the claustrophobic and traumatizing expressions so well and made the viewer feel what Aria was feeling. The part where she saw the dead body next to her was out of the world creepy and I totally screamed out loud at that part.
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| Aria trying to set herself free. |
3. The girls and their grand entrance: Ooh, this is definitely one of my favourite bits. All of the girls made a never to forget appearence. Hanna was dressed up in a typical Marilyn Monroe dress and she got a flashy entrance (pun intended), as Lucas took a picture of her just as she entered. Aria, dressed up as Daisy from the Great Gatsby book was shown looking at her reflection in a pocket mirror. Spencer and Toby dressed up as Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Boggart made an unforgettable entrance, as they slowly appeared out of the smoke, looking like THE couple of the night. Last, but not the least, Emily, dressed up as Barbarella entered hand in hand with her girlfriend Paige, and in Hanna's words they did look like "a wedding cake from outerspace." All the girls got wonderful costumes and they looked really rad.
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| Hanna (Ashley Benson) as Marilyn Monroe. |
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| Aria (Lucy Hale) as Daisy from The Great Gatsby. |
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| Toby (Keegan Allen) as Humphrey Boggart and Spencer (Troian Bellisario) as Lauren Bacall. |
4. Toby making fun of Jenna: When Jenna asked Toby how her pirate costume was, he replied that it was very nice, cockily adding "I liked you better like this", while covering her other eye as well. All one could say was 'OH BURN.' That was, perhaps the only funny moment in an episode filled with a lot of twisted incidents.
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| Toby telling Jenna that he liked her a lot better when she was blind. |
As far as acting goes, all four of the lead cast did a great job. Troian Bellisario was as usual outstanding and perfect in each and every scene. Lucy Hale totally aced the scene in which Aria was held captive in a wooden box. Shay Mitchell was her usual subtle herself. Ashley Benson also made a mark. The supporting cast were really good as well, especially Sasha Pieterse and Yani Gellman.
"This is A dArk ride" was an episode that opened up the forum for many more questions. The mystery of Alison DiLaurentis' murder has just gotten deeper and more complex, with one more suspect being added to it. There is no end to the twisted limits of the show, and sometimes, I believe it is necessary to untangle ourselves from the show, lest we go mad. Who am I kidding? It's kind of impossible to do that, especially since I cried for six hours everyday for a whole week after Toby was revealed to be A!
The promo for the next week's episode shows Toby in his "A" avatar, working for the A-team. It also has some steamy "Spoby" scenes. For the link, click HERE.
That's all for now folks. Keep checking in for more reviews and such.
Until then,
Nidheya Suresh
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ReplyDeleteGood write up Ammus.
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