TRUNK SHOW

Spencer: "So Paige was either being her usual sweet, awkward self, or she was being her other usual self that is scary and unhinged. It is so hard to tell on this show."
Hanna: "Are you saying she threatened your fingers?"
Spencer: "That, but also I think she's buttering us up so she can murder us."
Hanna: "Quick, what's the craziest thing we could do right now?"
Spencer: "Steal her purse and look for that knife in it, I guess?"
Hanna: "Yeah, that's good. Real crazy and sketchy."

They do -- this whole knife thing came out of left field even more than usual, did it not? -- and I think they find it, or at least something that makes them squeal... And Emily comes out looking smashing, goes from overjoyed to pissed as hell in three seconds, yells at both those bitches, and takes off. Paige sort of follows in her wake, looking all kinds of guilty. Spencer does not give a shit about any of this, because she just found something (what is it?) in Paige's purse, and filched it, so she's happy as usual.

I feel like this show is always wonderful, you know, and insightful about what it's like to be a person and young and under constant threat and constant surveillance, but this episode... I don't know, it seems more real. Everything surrounding Paige and this ongoing relationship between Paige and craziness, and Alison, and Cece Drake, and the way it's messing with Emily...

Maybe Emily's obsessive defense of her is a little OTT, but the rest of it is intriguing and evocative and strikes a real chord. It's the same kind of feeling as the original Jenna Thing, I guess, or like from around the first season to ... The time that Aria was Anita, that was the last time this particular feeling came into the mix. Well, no. Also when Hanna saved Jenna from that fire. And sometimes -- most of the time really -- Mona Vanderwaal. But nothing lately.

When it comes, though, it's so true, and sad and scary and hard to pin down: The way the fear and paranoia and all that stuff becomes rage, or the hate becomes so intense it's not that different from love, and you get a second to look, really look, at the girl they're going after, and something says, But she's also just a girl.