There's No Place Like Homecoming

There's No Place Like Homecoming is the 6th episode in Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars. This episode aired July 13, 2010.

Synopsis
Hanna, Spencer, and Emily arrive at Aria's to console her with Chinese take out and rag mags – thinking she’s sullen from her parents' marriage troubles, when in fact she’s upset over the breakup with Ezra. While discussing their plans for homecoming dance, the girls open their fortune cookies to find another prank from "A" notes cluing them into the fact that he or she will be attending homecoming as well.

At school, Hanna attends a "Real Love Waits" meeting to keep an eye on Sean and his new friend Amber. There, Hanna finds an unlikely friend in Lucas. The members are asked to role play situations in which they would be pressured to have sex. Sean and Amber pair off, with Sean convincingly acting the part of the instigator who wants to go all the way with Amber, and Amber refuses accordingly. Hanna is called to take a turn - with Lucas. Unenthusiastic, she pretends to ask Lucas upstairs to her room, and after initially refusing to play along, he then says "yes," making Hanna finally smile and Sean see red.

Aria tries to approach Mr. Fitz at school, but he claims to be late for a staff meeting. Maya and Emily aren't very warm towards each other either; Maya says she isn't going to homecoming, but at least the girls agree to hang out at some point.

At lunch, Spencer urges Hanna to try and steal Jenna’s file from the psychiatrist’s office that’s in the same building as where she works, certain that it contains the key to the identity of "A" or at the very least what the Cavanaughs are hiding. They then catch sight of Toby, who temporarily picks up his shirt long enough for the girls to spot a tattoo that says "901 Free At Last," presumably memorializing the date Alison disappeared, but they haven't put this together yet. Next, Toby surprises Emily with tickets to Homecoming. She’s nervous to accept because of what her friends may think, but can’t deny her burgeoning attraction to him either.

Meanwhile, Spencer is worried about how things will go over when she brings Alex to the dance. Mona's snide comments don't help, but the PLLs are reassuring. Spencer is on the homecoming committee, so she is painting for the dance when Alex shows up to school wanting to know what Spencer is wearing so that he can buy a matching suit. He also forks over cash for their tickets; Spencer tries to refuse, but Alex insists, seductively slipping the money into her back pocket.

Then, Hanna makes a false move in nudging Maya to attend Homecoming and makes a comment that Emily wants her to come. Hanna knows that Emily is anxious about what others will think of the person Emily wants as her date to the dance, but is not prepared to hear that her date is Toby.

Later, Toby meets with Jenna, who warns Toby that Emily will hate him when she finds out his secret. Toby is resentful, but he has no choice but to lead his blind step-sister to where she needs to go. After school, Hanna goes to Mrs. Ackard's office building to try and sneak into the psychologist's office, but there are workers doing construction there. So, she rigs the door so that they can get back in later over the weekend. Hanna visits Aria's house later to get ready for homecoming. She comforts Aria about her family situation and unsuccessfully tries to get her to admit who she's crushing on. Hanna assumes it is a boy in Iceland and insists she move on.

At the dance, Hanna and Spencer joke with Aria that they will share their dates with her. Spencer then catches sight of Melissa, who is attending to present the crown to the next homecoming queen, as she is a former homecoming queen herself. She tells Spencer that she knows that she stole her essay and seems intent on ruining the night for her sister.

Mona and Hanna get into a heated argument when Mona makes nasty comments to Lucas, who has come to photograph the dance for the yearbook. Hanna greets him warmly, but Mona shoos him away. After he leaves, the two argue over whether popularity is more important than befriending nerds.

Meanwhile, Melissa takes the opportunity to drive a wedge between her sister and Alex; she mocks Alex for being a lowly laborer at the Rosewood Country Club and then goes behind Spencer's back to make Alex believe that Spencer only invited him to anger their father. Next, Aria and Ezra’s efforts to keep things platonic are thrown a curveball when Aria discovers that they’re both assigned the same booth to administer. There, Aria reaffirms that "A" is not a friend, only someone messing with her. Before Ezra responds, Mrs. Welch comes to relieve Aria.

Then Toby and Emily arrive at the door. Emily calms Toby who is nervous about making an appearance; when they finally do, the other PLLs, not to mention Maya, are not thrilled. Emily is particularly surprised by Hanna's reaction, as she had seemed so supportive of Emily following her heart. Hanna then confesses that she had thought Emily was referring to Maya, but before they can continue their conversation, Toby appears.

The girls try to enjoy by dancing with their dates, but then Spencer calls them to convene, convincing Hanna to go steal the file. She commissions Aria to keep Sean occupied on the dance floor while Hanna slips out to his mother's office building. Outside, Hanna sees Lucas leaving early as well, so she gets him to give her a ride to the office; he confesses that he had come to the dance in order to take photographs and also to cast his vote for her as homecoming queen.

Meanwhile, Spencer all but ignores Alex, while worriedly keeping an eye on Toby and Emily. "A" tampers with a Tarot card at the fortune teller's booth to let Spencer know that she is also watching the pair and that her friend is about to get it. Vexed by the Hastings sisters' treatment of him, Alex eventually leaves.

Then, Emily approaches Maya and accuses her of saying something to Hanna, who gets offended by Emily's attitude and defensively insists that Hanna had said something to her. She accuses Emily of not being okay with who she is and confirms her suspicions when Emily can't look her in the eye and deny her feelings for Maya. Toby picks up on Emily's hurt and realizes that he isn't Emily's first choice of a homecoming date.

On the dance floor, Aria and Sean appear to finally be having a good time. Ezra spots them, then walks away, and Aria runs after him. Out of earshot of the dance, Ezra tells Aria that seeing Aria dancing with guys her own age makes him realize that breaking up with her was the right thing to do. At the same time, Aria's attention to Sean sends the newly-crowned Homecoming King mixed signals. Hanna misses being crowned, and Sean is photographed standing alone. She did manage to find the file, though.

Later, Toby whisks Emily away to the Chem Lab to confide in her privately about his big secret, which the girls have just uncovered in what turns out to be Toby's file that Hanna retrieved from the psychiatrist, not Jenna’s. The girls realize what Alison had blackmailed Toby with in order to force him to take the blame for "The Jenna Thing" - she knew about Toby's sexual relationship with his step-sister. Jenna is seen standing close by to the girls, eavesdropping on their conversation, unbeknownst to the PLLs. Assuming that this was Toby's motive for murder, they send Emily a text message claiming that Toby killed Alison, making her more and more unsettled. As Toby tries to explain, she pushes him into the cabinet of beakers, injuring him badly before hurting herself as she runs away and trips on the train of her dress, hitting the hard floor and falling unconscious.

At the end of the episode, the black-gloved figure is seen vandalizing a Rosewood town sign. The figure spray paints over the last digit of the population census (7988) and changes it to 7987...

Title

 * The title is an obvious play on Dorothy's famous last words in Oz, "There is no place like home."

Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis

Guest Stars
Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall

Chuck Hittinger as Sean Ackard

Diego Boneta as Alex Santiago

Brendan Robinson as Lucas Gottesman

Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz

Bianca Lawson as Maya St. Germain

Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal

Torrey DeVitto as Melissa Hastings

Rose Abdoo as Fortune Teller

Brian Letscher as Mr. Gazzaro

Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh

Carlson Young as Amber Victorino

Jill Holden as Mrs. Welch Robert Keith Wyatt as Chewy

Zachary Christopher Fay as Homecoming Student

Featured Music

 * "Hold On" by St. Lola & The Fields (Aria reflects on relationship with Ezra)
 * "Worry About You" by 2AM Club (Aria makes entrance at dance)
 * "Same Night Sky" by 2AM Club (the girls can't find Emily)
 * "Only For Me" by 2AM Club (Hanna thought Emily was going to bring Maya)
 * "Make You Mine" by 2AM Club* (Hanna and Spencer dance with their dates)
 * "Let Me Down Easy" by 2AM Club (Hanna asks Lucas to drive her to the office)