The Homecoming Hangover

The Homecoming Hangover is the 7th episode in Season 1 of Pretty Little Liars, airing July 20, 2010.

Synopsis
At the homecoming dance, Spencer, Aria, and Hanna scream for Emily. They call her, only to find her cell phone abandoned outside the chemistry laboratory. They enter the lab to find it upturned, with broken beakers and blood on the floor. They think it is Emily's, while it is actually Toby's, but Emily is bleeding too, from her fall in the fun house. Toby drives an unconscious Emily to the hospital and drops her off at the emergency room.

The next day, Emily is back inside her room, recovering from her wounds. Aria and Spencer come to visit and quickly inform her of Toby's sordid past with stepsister Jenna to keep her from contacting him again. Emily does not quite believe that Toby killed Alison and had intended to kill her as well. Why take her to the ER if he meant to kill her? Meanwhile, Officer Barry comes to the house to let Mrs. Fields know what had happened the previous night; Toby Cavanaugh had taken Emily to the emergency room before driving away. Mrs. Fields covers up her shock at hearing that Emily had not gone with Ben, not wanting Officer Barry to know that she hadn't been aware of who her daughter's date was. Pam also learns that Toby had taken off on his motorcycle after taking Emily to the emergency room and is now nowhere to be found.

It seems that Emily thinks that she was injured due to Toby attacking her, and not from tripping on her dress as she had run away from him. However, she hadn't admitted her belief to the police. Hanna comes over next, while Spencer and Aria try to convince Emily to come forward to the police. Hanna whips out Toby's psychological profile from her pocket; she had tried to return it, but when she arrived at the office, she saw cops looking for that very piece of evidence!

While Hanna and Emily are alone, Emily finds out from Hanna why she had thought Maya would have been her date to the dance. Hanna confesses that she saw the picture of them kissing and finds out in turn from Emily why she went with Toby and not Maya. Emily admits that she's afraid of everything changing. Interestingly, Emily is the winner of a Toyota Corolla from the dance's raffle.

Aria begins to wrestle with the separation of her parents, further mitigated by their refusal to actually speak to each other and instead communicate through their kids. Ella won't attend Mike's lacrosse game so that she won't have to sit with Byron. She tries to contact Ezra, but he won't return her many phone messages. On top of all of this, she receives flowers from a surprise suitor – Sean, who admits to having fun with her at Homecoming once Hanna ditched him.

Spencer tries to repair her burgeoning relationship with Alex, who’s now been reduced to kitchen duty at the Hastings’ country club. Spencer's presence in the kitchen angers a server named Stephanie, who is afraid of getting in trouble with management. But, Alex tells her to back off, and Spencer gets Alex to give her another chance - he's willing as long as Spencer gives him full control of the evening.

Later, still recovering from her head trauma, Emily awakes to find a surprise visitor: Jenna, along with her seeing eye dog, Shadow, pretending to be there only to deliver Emily some cookies. She presses Emily to share with her anything she knows about her stepbrother’s whereabouts and wants her to promise to give her the stolen file in order to keep out of prying hands. After all, she did keep quiet about what she knew of Emily and her friends blinding her. She claims that she is doing it because she cares about Toby, but perhaps she is just trying to protect her own reputation.

Meanwhile, Hanna finds herself increasingly attracted to the geeky, different Lucas, who takes photos of the discordant Sean and Hanna as a belated homecoming royalty shot for the yearbook. Lucas takes several shots of the two, (perhaps purposely) annoying Sean with his suggestions, such as to have Hanna pose sitting on his lap. Sean smiles through gritted teeth, and the shoot ends in a bitter argument between Hanna and Sean.

At home, Emily tries to contact her friends to make sure they keep the file, but Pam sits herself down in Emily's room, hoping to spend some quality time with her daughter. She takes Emily's phone, completely thwarting Emily's attempts. They get into an argument about Toby and whether he can be trusted; Emily tries to defend him, but her mother is livid that Emily dated him behind her back. When Pam presses Emily for details about the night before, she firmly insists that she needs sleep, ending their discussion.

The girls, without Emily, head toward the shed to hide Toby’s file that Hanna stole, but in a panic, Aria decides to throw it in the river instead – moments before Emily finally gets through to their cell phones pleading with them not to destroy it. All the while the girls bicker, panicked, and in the process Hanna complains that only she gets caught for her mistakes; unlike Spencer, who got away with stealing Melissa's essay, Hanna had to pay bitterly for shoplifting. Later, we see a gloved figure - no doubt: "A" - gingerly pulling the sheets out of the water.

Later, Aria reels from the sudden disappearance of Ezra, who by all counts has skipped town. In place of Mr. Fitz, the English class gets a substitute teacher, the familiar "Miss Shepard."

Jenna approaches Emily at her locker, and Emily lets Jenna know that the file has been "taken care of." Jenna is not happy to be forced to trust Emily that the details will not get out.

When Spencer hears that Alex has canceled their date to work at the club, she thinks he's lying, as the club is supposed to be closed. But, on an impulse, she visits the kitchen, and to her surprise, finds him there, working overtime. She helps him with his kitchen chores in order to spend time with him. However, the fun comes to an end when she discovers a nasty prank called The Bitch Board that he and some of the other club workers have created that pokes fun at the elitist members (which include Spencer, as well as her sister, Melissa.) Alex does remind Spencer that her sister had treated him with the same level of respect.

At school, Sean tries to pursue Aria, but she cuts him short and reminds him that Hanna loves him, and taking revenge on her by asking out her best friend is low. He agrees, and just then, Mike comes barreling through the hallway, physically fighting with another student. Sean helps Aria break up the fight, and Mike walks away ticked off.

Later, Lucas and Hanna bond over funny internet videos. Lucas confesses how intimidated he used to be by Hanna when she was still a part of Alison's group. He reveals how much it had hurt that Alison called him "hermy, the hermaphrodite," and Hanna shares how Alison had called her "Hefty Hanna." Lucas can't understand how Hanna had been her friend.

In school, Emily approaches Maya and honestly lets her know that she cares about her. She also tells her that she is okay knowing that the photographs of them are about to go public.

Ella and Byron meet in the Rosewood High School hallways after hearing about Mike's fight at school. There, they argue over their children and come to an impasse about Byron's leaving. Byron doesn't want to leave; Ella wants him to go. Later that night, she makes the decision to move out since Byron won't, and the two arrange for how they will care for their children.

Aria tries to visit Ezra in his apartment, but he is nowhere to be found. She uses the key under the mat to get in, and while she's inside, hears the answering machine record a message from a New York school confirming their interview with Mr. Fitz the next day.

Sean then visits Hanna at home, ready to make up. But, they still don't connect all the way, especially when Hanna shows Sean the videos she had enjoyed earlier with Lucas. Sean doesn't get Hanna's humor and calls them dumb. Back at the club, Spencer finds her way back to Alex, ready to move past their disagreement. He then pulls Spencer into a slow dance that ends with the two of them kissing deeply.

A day later, Emily discovers cops in front of the Cavanaugh house, with a shaken Jenna in tears. She sees a smashed up motorcycle, but is too afraid to ask if Toby is alive. While processing this news with her friends, she receives a text from "A": "Thanks for getting Toby out of my way." They thought they were done with "A," but apparently not.

Title

 * This episode records all the negative fallout of the previous Homecoming episode for all four liars and is therefore appropriately named, "The Homecoming Hangover." Who needs alcohol when there's homecoming?

Main Cast
Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery

Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin

Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields

Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings

Guest Stars
Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall

Chuck Hittinger as Sean Ackard

Brendan Robinson as Lucas Gottesman

Jim Titus (III) as Officer Barry Maple

Sara Shepard as Miss Shepard

Nia Peeples as Pam Fields

Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery

Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery

Cody Allen Christian as Mike Montgomery

Diego Boneta as Alex Santiago

Bianca Lawson as Maya St. Germain

Valerie Rose Curiel as "Stephanie," server at Rosewood Country Club

Mark Beltzman as Charlie

Featured Music

 * "Let Me Down Easy" by 2AM Club (the girls look for Emily)
 * "Wish You Well" by Katie Herzig (Aria gets flowers)
 * "Starting Now" by Ingrid Michaelson (photo shoot with Lucas)
 * "Siempre Tu" by Diego Boneta (Alex and Spencer dance in the kitchen)
 * "Icarus" by White Hinterland (Aria throws Toby's file in the water)
 * "Where I Stood" by Missy Higgins (Emily sees Jenna crying)