TV REVIEW: The Liars Make a Grisly Discovery in Pretty Little Liars “Over a Barrell”

By Nicole Bozzani

To be over a barrel is to be at someone else’s mercy, something Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hannah know all too well, having been at the mercy of A for quite some time now. Even with Alison away in jail they can’t seem to break her evil spell.

Previously the highly suspicious residents of Rosewood were looking forward to college and their bright futures. The story remains the same in “Over a Barrel” except for a series of events no high school student could possibly handle.

Aria’s attempt to persuade Jackie to attend college may have seemed to go over well to her, but anyone else with an observant nature knows that cannot be the case. Aria learns this quickly with a bookmark and a receipt containing her entire letter. How resourceful of A! Aria is left with two choices: follow the red herring that is Holbrook or tell Ezra the truth about her extremely hurtful (and slightly selfish) letter. What ever will she do? Follow the red herring on a journey across the city of course. To be fair, following the first clue seemed like a good idea, but how many more times is she going to fall victim to these random text message schemes? At some point she has got to realize how dumb this is!

Meanwhile, Spencer (while still on the rocks with Toby) and Caleb decide to investigate the random security text messages Mona has sent from beyond the grave. Once they discover the storage locker they to break into it, uncovering a barrel filled with acidic liquids capable of “pickling” a person. Whomever truly keeps tabs on that storage locker is determined to start breaking bad in a whole new way.

The entire spy mission in the storage locker puts even more strain on Spencer and Toby’s relationship and with good reason. Spencer seems bothered by this for about 5 seconds until her new friend and renter, Johnny stops by. Spencer seems to take a liking to him very quickly when she discovers he is an artist and makes his own paints. Johnny is a bit of an odd ball. He’s a bit suspicious too, asking around about the happenings in town he sees on the news, and the fact he digs in garbage. Johnny’s biggest task right now is reminding Spencer there’s a big world out there and it doesn’t necessarily have to mean college. Gasp! Spencer Hastings not caring about college!?!

After Hannah discovers her mother getting a little too cozy with Jason, she is blindsided when Pastor Ted returns with a big surprise. Well, about as surprised as Ashley was when she also discovered Pastor Ted was going to propose. On the whole, Pastor Ted is a good guy and he would be good for them, but it’s quite possible the Marin girls are just in too deep. Emily is ready to say goodbye to Paige for good, but she may only be single for a minute if the new cafe girl has any say about it. She is definitely fishing for information on Emily and there is a certain tension that exists when they have scuffles and disagreements at work. It would be nice to see Emily finally have a friend (or something a little more) with someone not so closely related to the entire Alison/A/Mona situation.

For an episode without Alison there were still plenty of twists and turns. Additionally, there were plenty of questions brought up rather than answers given which seem to be par for the course. How many of them are causing the audience to jump to the wrong conclusions? It still remains to be seen who was logging into Holbrook’s computer or how Hannah rented the ever suspicious storage locker, but one thing is for sure: these teenagers need to stop answering scavenger hunt text messages.