Spencer commences losing her shit, in a fantastic way, screaming into a pillow and writhing and just totally selling it, and when she's finally on her literal knees, A TEXTS HER with confirmation that Garrett didn't kill the girls, hee-hee-hee, and Spencer digs down beneath the rock-bottom she hit a second ago and just... It's breathtaking. A wonderfully performed, wonderfully filmed, existential breakdown caught on tape.

Like you could believe that all this girl has had, for a good long time, is one fact she decided was worth holding onto, and suddenly you just see the weight of the last two years crumble down on her from the sky, and Spencer -- our Spencer, our crazy little fightin' Spencer that could carry all of us on her back -- just breaks down and can't carry it, and it's so sad. So sad!

On the other hand, it's exactly how Hanna got sane.

A-TAG

Eats some rainbow sherbet, reads about Garrett in the paper, and then decides on a rental of some kind. Maybe this A will make a virtual-reality copy of Spencer's room, or all their rooms, and then Season Four can take place in the Matrix of Mona's mind.

NEXT WEEK

The Liars visit Mona en masse, which yeah, that shouldn't piss her off at all.

JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps Bunheads, Pretty Little Liars and True Blood for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. IRL work appears in BenBella's SmartPop series of anthologies, and novelette "The Commonplace Book" will appear on Tor.com in October 2012.