Pretty Little Liars: This is a Dark Ride (Halloween Special) Recap/Review

I love Halloween so much and I think one of the reasons that I love Halloween is because of the special Halloween episodes of our favorite TV shows. So of course I loved Pretty Little Liars' second Halloween special. I think that it's awesome how ABC Family does a special one off episode just for Halloween. Now all we need is a special Christmastime episode. But back to Halloween, 'This is a Dark Ride' starts at the Radley Sanitarium with Mona singing 'If You Go Down in the Woods Today' while preparing her Halloween tricks for the Liars with another member of the 'A' Team. This scene is uber creepy because of Mona's song and I'm not sure if Mona is talking to Toby or if this is a third member of the 'A' Team. I love how excited Mona is about Halloween, I am Mona. On the sane side of town, Spencer, Hanna, Emily and Aria are discussing who they're gonna be for Halloween when they stumble upon a house owned by someone named Clifford that has a (cardboard) coffin outside with the name 'Alison DiLaurentis' written on it. Emily is having none of it so she marches up to give Clifford a piece of her mind. But, Clifford pops out of the coffin and scares Emily before she gets too close. God, Clifford! Cut to the opening credits, I love how they re-used the Halloween credits from last year!



Spencer returns home to find Garrett waiting to talk to her. Garrett informs Spencer that he has to get out of Rosewood but before he can tell her anything helpful, Toby barges in and gets Garrett to leave. I can't look at Toby the same way ever since I found out that he's part of the 'A' Team, sigh. You probably went into this episode knowing that someone was gonna die and I guessed it would be Garrett, they were wrapping his character up so it seemed obvious. At the dental offices, Hanna and Caleb are making out in the closet, I think this is because Hanna doesn't want to put Caleb in danger. I'm not too sure why they were making their relationship a secret but that's my understanding. Over at Ezra's apartment, we find out that Ezra won't be attending the Halloween Ghost Train ride. Cut to the Rear Window Brew, this seems to be the starting point for the crazy ass Halloween train ride, so all aboard. I love the song that plays in this scene and it fits so well with the episode. Here's the Halloween costume run down... Hanna is Marilyn Monroe, Aria is Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Jenna is a pirate (LOL at the eye patch), Lord knows what Noel is supposed to be, Garrett is that freaky evil doll from last year's Halloween special (but we're not supposed to know this yet so lets keep it a secret), Spencer is Bonnie (Spencer looks killer), Toby is Clyde, Emily is Barbarella, Paige is a magician, Jason (who I thought was Michael J. Fox as Teen Wolf) is James Dean and Caleb is the Phantom of the Opera. Anywho, Noel pulls the first trick of the night when he pretends to choke, I wish he would have choked. I totally knew he wasn't choking. Back at the Marin residence, Ashley and Pastor Ted are handing out candy to innocent trick or treaters. However, we find out that the not-so-innocent Mona has broken out of the Radley Sanitarium again. The Radley Sanitarium needs better security if it's gonna let crazies waltz out whenever they want.

The crazy train shenanigans continue when Caleb gets frisky with Hanna. Although, at this point Hanna doesn't know that Caleb is in attendance so this is kind of awkward. What's also awkward is the fact that Jason walks away in the middle of a conversation with Spencer to follow Lucas. Moving back to Ashley's subplot, do you remember the little girl from Alison's story in the last Halloween episode? Well she shows up at Ashley's house. There's a lot of speculation that the story was about a younger version of Ali or Ali's twin sister. Therefore, it makes no sense that this little girl is standing here because Ali is dead and if this were Alison's twin then she would look a lot older. So this little girl must be a ghost, right? On the train, Caleb unveils himself to a happy Hanna, while Aria and Adam Lambert have an awkward conversation. Adam asks Aria her name but he can't hear her over the sound of the train so she writes it on the window. After Adam is done with Aria, she gets a little starstruck and starts to daydream. Not a good idea as a member of the 'A' Team (with really long red fake nails) strikes by spiking Aria's drink. I know that Aria wasn't paying attention but it was so obvious that this person was spiking her, watch your drinks at all times over Halloween kids, you don't wanna end up like Aria. Then there was a nice scene between Paige and Emily in which Paige admits that she's really happy. I thought this could have perhaps been foreshadowing and that maybe Paige was the one who was gonna die but my prime suspect was still Garrett. However, the nice moment is cut short when we see an 'A' watching the girls from outside the door. The freaky evil doll then jumps out and scares Spencer.

Garrett takes off the mask and says to Spencer that he's going to tell her everything he knows about the night that Alison was killed. This is told through flashback, which I like and I hope that episode of when we find out who really killed Ali will feature many flashbacks or be filmed all in flashback. Anyway, Alison and Jenna get into a fight on the night of Ali's murder and Jenna pleads for Garrett to come to her defense. So Garrett picks up the field hockey stick (that was buried in Spencer's backyard) and starts hitting a tree. When Jenna asks what he has done, Garrett doesn't respond. Although, we know that Alison is still alive at this point but Jenna still thinks till this day that Garrett killed Ali. And that's not the end of the story; Garrett went back to check on Ali but he saw Alison with Byron, Aria's dad! I had heard something about this storyline before but I didn't think it was going to happen, it's pretty sick of Byron. So Spencer goes to find Aria for Garrett to tell her about this. She runs into Hanna along the way and they both go in search of the littlest liar. However, what they find is Aria's bag with her phone in it. Aria's phone goes off and it's a text from 'A' saying that Aria isn't going to make it to the end of the line. 'A' has also erased the 'r', 'i' and second 'a' from the window so all it says now is 'A'. We then see Aria trapped in a crate, this excites me so much. I don't know why but I love when characters are trapped in tight spaces like when Veronica Mars was trapped in that fridge or when Spencer was trapped in the fun house in season 1 of Pretty Little Liars. Best Halloween Ever!

Trying to set herself free, Aria moves the crate from side to side but the crate hilariously falls to the ground and Aria remains trapped. What did she expect? During Aria's failed attempts, Hanna tries to tell Caleb that 'A' is on the train but she soon finds out that she's talking to the wrong person and this person that she's talking to is part of the 'A' Team. This member is wearing a long blonde wig and a mask that looks like Alison's face. Perfect, as if there wasn't enough going on. Back with Ashley, she finds the little ghost girl in Hanna's room. This little girl is definitely a ghost because Ashley touches her and she's freezing cold like death. When Ashley asks Pastor Ted to help with the little girl, they go back to Hanna's room to discover that the girl is gone. Meanwhile, Spencer finds Garrett's mask and is attacked by the same 'A' that spiked Aria's drink. Although, Paige comes to rescue Spencer but not one of them think of pulling off this person's mask. I mean seriously, how are we supposed to get answers with a group like this? Paige does find one of the long red fake nails though, that will come in handy (see what I did there?) Aria is still having the worst night ever when she discovers Garrett's dead body next to her in the crate, typical Halloween in Rosewood.

Aria tries to escape again when she sees a nail in the crate and starts rubbing it against the duct tape on her arms. I'm really scared in case Aria cuts her arms or something. Back to the three remaining Liars, Spencer puts the fake nail against Hanna's nail and Hanna tells her that it must belong to a really big girl but Spencer thinks that maybe it belongs to a male. Interesting... Spencer then tells Paige to go meet up with Toby and Caleb and she also thanks Paige for saving her. I like how the partners of the Liars are in on the plan too because 'A' is way too much for these girls to handle on their own anymore. After this, the crate begins to move with Aria still inside and we hear the voice of a male and female, the male voice sounded like Noel to me. Whoever they are, they were trying to throw Aria and Garrett off the train. However, Aria stabs the male with a screwdriver and the girls get to her in time.

When Ashley asks Pastor Ted if he believes in ghosts, he says no meaning that Ashley imagined the whole thing or she's a ghost whisperer. On the train, the cops have arrived, can't we have one party that doesn't end in disaster in this town? But the night ends worse when Toby and Noel get in a fight, they break the coffin that has been holding drinks and out spills a body bag. By the way Jason looked at it, I'm guessing that it's Ali's body. Also, Mona made it back to Radley and we find out that she was the one who Hanna thought was Caleb earlier. The final image of the episode is a creepy one with a flashback to the night of Ali's death, showing Ali's hand reaching out of the dirt, these were probably her last moments as her lungs filled up with dirt. Such a great Pretty Little Liars episode with plenty of answers, questions and twists. I need January to come faster because I need to see the rest of this season right now!

Overall episode score:-
This is a Dark Ride = A+