TV Review: Pretty Little Liars “Adventurers Beware”

Have you ever played a boardgame before? Of course you have. From Candy Land to Chutes and Ladders, from LIFE to Monopoly. We’ve all played them and, if you’re like me, you play to win. Every. Single. Time.

It was Emily in the Lighthouse with the Knife.

It was Aria in the Theatre with the Shotgun.

It was Hanna in the Woods with the Car.

Perhaps it makes all the sense in the world then that Spencer – the one suspect card that everyone spends rounds believing is the answer, but actually is not – is the first one to roll the metaphorical dice in Liar’s Lament™, as we finally edge closer to revealing Charlotte DiLaurentis’s killer. And if you’ve played CLUE before, then you know there’s nothing quite as satisfying as finally taking that CONFIDENTIAL envelope and revealing the who, the what, the where.

But we’re not quite there–yet.

Spencer gets her hands on her own envelope this time around, but not before completing her turn of the game. As the girls have learned by now, before you can accuse your murderer of choice in Rosewood, you need to know the rules you’re playing with. One false accusation and you could end up losing – and more than just the game.

Episode 11 of Season 7, the mid season premiere, serves much the same function as the start of any game night does. We are setting the board and picking out our playing pieces, all the while A.D. lets us know the new rules. It’s fitting that once again a new -A has stolen the game. As the title declares, Playtime is here again.

And so 7B officially begins.

Toby wonders if maybe Rosewood has to disappear before they can all leave because, if there’s one thing that we all know, Rosewood has been the jungle all along.

Is it a five or an eight yet?

“Adventurers beware: do not begin unless you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game will vanish only when a player has reached A.D. and called out his or her name.”

SCORE CARD:

SHIP WATCH:

Spencer: Contemplating the what-if’s of life with Toby. Still technically dating the detective (???).

Hanna: Back on track with both Caleb and Mona.

Aria: Engaged to Ezra who is dealing with Nicole’s resurrection.

Emily: On a break with Sabrina, while Alison and Paige engage in mortal combat over her heart.

ABSURDITY:

• The filter that made it seem like Spencer was born in a noir film, despite the fact that it was 1994.

• Of Late I Think of Rosewood: Grunwald gets a namecheck, Holden is back in town.

• “Do you trust me?” / “Sometimes.” / “Make this one of those time.”

LINE OF THE NIGHT:

(gif source: prettyliargif)

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