Pretty Little Liars - Hit and Run, Run, Run - Review: "How to Get Away With Murder (Fingers Crossed)"

7.04 - "HIT AND RUN, RUN, RUN"

Directed by Michael Goi
Written by Maya Goldsmith
Reviewed by Gavin Hetherington

SEASON GUIDE

• 
  
  Season 5 Episode Guide
  Click on an episode title to be taken to the review of the episode. Episodes 1-13 were reviewed by Jasmine Alyce.
  
  5.01 - "EscApe From New York" (June 10, 2014)
  5.02 - "Whirly Girlie" (June 17, 2014)
  5.03 - "Surfing the Aftershocks" (June 24, 2014)
  5.04 - "Thrown From the Ride" (July 1, 2014)
  5.05 - "Miss Me x 100" (July 8, 2014)
  5.06 - "Run, Ali, Run" (July 15, 2014)
  5.07 - "The Silence of E. Lamb" (July 22, 2014)
  5.08 - "Scream For Me" (July 29, 2014)
  5.09 - "March of Crimes" (August 5, 2014)
  5.10 - "A Dark Ali" (August 12, 2014)
  5.11 - "No One Here Can Love or Understand Me" (August 19, 2014)
  5.12 - "Taking This One to the Grave" (August 26, 2014)
  5.13 - "How the 'A' Stole Christmas" (December 9, 2014)
  5.14 - "Through a Glass, Darkly" (January 6, 2015)
  5.15 - "Fresh Meat" (January 13, 2015)
  5.16 - "Over a Barrel" (January 20, 2015)
  5.17 - "The Bin of Sin" (January 27, 2015)
  5.18 - "Oh, What Hard Luck Stories They All Hand Me" (February 3, 2015)
  5.19 - "Out, Damned Spot" (February 10, 2015)
  5.20 - "Pretty Isn't the Point" (February 17, 2015)
  5.21 - "Bloody Hell" (February 24, 2015)
  5.22 - "To Plea or Not to Plea" (March 3, 2015)
  5.23 - "The Melody Lingers On" (March 10, 2015)
  5.24 - "I'm a Good Girl, I Am" (March 17, 2015)
  5.25 - "Welcome to the Dollhouse" (March 24, 2015)

• 
  
  Season 6 Episode Guide
  Click on a title to be taken to the review for that episode. Episodes 6-8 were reviewed by Kate Sidwell.
  
  6.01 - "Game On, Charles" (June 2, 2015)
  6.02 - "Songs of Innocence" (June 9, 2015)
  6.03 - "Songs of Experience" (June 16, 2015)
  6.04 - "Don't Look Now" (June 23, 2015)
  6.05 - "She's No Angel" (June 30, 2015)
  6.06 - "No Stone Unturned" (July 14, 2015)
  6.07 - "O Brother, Where Art Thou" (July 21, 2015)
  6.08 - "FrAmed" (July 28, 2015)
  6.09 - "Last Dance" (August 4, 2015)
  6.10 - "Game Over, Charles" (August 11, 2015)
  6.11 - "Of Late I Think of Rosewood" (January 12, 2016)
  6.12 - "Charlotte's Web" (January 19, 2016)
  6.13 - "The Gloves Are On" (January 26, 2016)
  6.14 - "New Guys, New Lies" (February 2, 2016)
  6.15 - "Do Not Disturb" (February 9, 2016)
  6.16 - "Where Somebody Waits For Me" (February 16, 2016)
  6.17 - "We've All Got Baggage" (February 23, 2016)
  6.18 - "Burn This" (March 1, 2016)
  6.19 - "Did You Miss Me?" (March 8, 2016)
  6.20 - "Hush... Hush, Sweet Liars" (March 15, 2016)

• 
  
  Season 7 Episode Guide
  Click on an episode title to be taken to that review. Episodes 2-3 were reviewed by Kate Sidwell.
  
  7.01 - "Tick-Tock, Bitches" (June 21, 2016)
  7.02 - "Bedlam" (June 28, 2016)
  7.03 - "The Talented Mr. Rollins" (July 5, 2016)
  7.04 - "Hit and Run, Run, Run" (July 12, 2016)
  7.05 - "Along Comes Mary" (July 19, 2016)
  7.06 - "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (August 2, 2016)
  7.07 - "Original G'A'ngsters" (August 9, 2016)
  7.08 - "Exes and OMGs" (August 16, 2016)
  7.09 - "The Wrath of Kahn" (August 23, 2016)
  7.10 - "The DArkest Knight" (August 30, 2016)
  7.11 - "Playtime" (April 18, 2017)
  7.12 - "These Boots Were Made For Stalking" (April 25, 2017)
  7.13 - "Hold Your Piece" (May 2, 2017)
  7.14 - "Power Play" (May 9, 2017)
  7.15 - "In the Eye Abides the Heart" (May 23, 2017)
  7.16 - "The Glove That Rocks the Cradle" (May 30, 2017)
  7.17 - "Driving Miss Crazy" (June 6, 2017)
  7.18 - "Choose or Lose" (June 13, 2017)
  7.19 - "Farewell, My Lovely" (June 20, 2017)
  7.20 - "Till DeAth Do Us PArt" (June 27, 2017)

'HIT AND RUN, RUN, RUN' REVIEW

"Knock 'Em Dead!"

I'm back bitches! A huge thank you to Kate Sidwell for filling in for me the past two weeks while I've been in South Africa. I'm so thrilled to come back to Pretty Little Liars with a truly great episode to review. I found out about Rollins' death while I was in SA and couldn't watch the episode until I got back, and while episode 2 (to me) was rather dull, episode 3 picked it up, and here we are in episode 4 where I am happy to announce - I loved it! 'Hit and Run, Run, Run' was probably my favourite episode of season 7 so far. The performances were truly astonishing, especially by Troian Bellisario and Ashley Benson, and the stakes felt rather high considering we begin this episode burying a body! So the girls spend the episode figuring out how to get away with murder, all the while covering their tracks while the emotional effects of it also take hold.

"You either love someone or you don't."

Spencer was just fantastic in this episode, and she had some super-duper one liners. She's always the one who takes control, so here we see her totally lose it and she acknowledges her loss of self-belief. It's heartbreaking to watch, but it's easy to understand considering her world is falling down around her. She's just helped bury a body AND she and Caleb are on very rocky ground. The scene where he comes by and they talk on the other sides of the door, all the while Hanna can be seen listening in the background, tore my heart a new one. It was so hard to watch knowing Hanna could hear everything while Spencer desperately tried to get him to go away, but she had to listen to what he had to say. The story about D.C., and the way he wanted to kiss her, was very romantic but we could see the conflicted feelings Spencer had on her face. She didn't know what to do! So Hanna is crying and Spencer is crying and Caleb is crying and I start to feel myself crying. A bit of a dick move for Caleb to just up and leave like he did Hanna, it felt very deja-vu and it shows he likes to run when the going gets tough, and not face responsibility head on. I find myself disliking him a little bit each episode this season, which is killing me.

I like how this also caused some conflicts between Spencer and Hanna, and the hostility sure does reach its head in this episode. I'm not sure how I would react if I was Spencer, and she certainly hits it hard when she meets Marco. The hot and heavy scene in the elevator was very sexy and I couldn't fault Spencer at all, but after seeing her reflection, she stopped. I'm kind of glad she did as her morals would have been all over the place. She probably shouldn't have told him that she was "burying a body" when he's a detective, but it was there for some good effect. Also, am I the only one who thought the card Spencer put on the counter to pay for her bill was Elliot's? It wasn't confirmed, but the way the camera focused on it for a second has me worried that now there will be a transaction at the Radley, which will prove Spencer had the card in her possession and used it to buy drinks AND the train tickets. It may not have been, but if it was, wow Spencer, you really did let yourself lose control. Things aren't going smoothly in this cover-up at all!

"Somebody knows what we did tonight."

Hanna continues her downward spiral, but things may be on the up. Firstly, though, we can see how traumatised she is by killing Elliot with the car, and she can't seem to move from that haunting position. The way Elliot landed on the car was very creepy, and that would be burned in my memory forever. Damn, it already is. She nearly lost her mind when the car was also gone, which truly shows how messed up her mind is when she couldn't breathe. Fortunately, she has a guardian angel, whom I will discuss in a second. Hanna continues to make some very bad choices, especially with not going to the police. I get how bad it looks, but Elliot took Alison out of the hospital to the middle of the woods - the police would have questioned that, looked into Elliot's file, saw that he was a fraud, and then at least all the girls wouldn't be damned. They're all going to jail at the end of the series, and for good too. Alison said it best, why do they think a lie sounds better than the truth?

Speaking of Alison, her nightmare is also never over. Alison and Hanna are basically the tortured victims of season 7, and even with Rollins gone, she doesn't seem to be free. Sasha also gave a great performance in this episode, and I loved her scenes at the asylum with Aria. It's obviously traumatising, but she realises she needs to go back into her restraints, and just for added effect, puts that awful face mask on to show how bad Elliot is. You can't help but feel sorry for the poor lass. And the ending, with Mary Drake coming into her room saying she is taking over now, really makes me question what she knows. Does she know Rollins is dead? She's a very hard book to read, but I hope she will be in the next episode more to answer some questions about that. Surely she can't be as bad a carer, right? She'll want people to be on her side, even if that means faking a smile.

Back to Hanna's guardian angel, have I mentioned how much I love Mona? She really is the brains behind everything, and I'm starting to think she might just be smarter than Spencer at this point. Spencer made some stupid decisions in this episode, all the while Mona works (unknowingly) to cover their asses, and she does a great job about it too. When the car was missing, I thought "great, Mary has it", but turns out Mona fixed it without them even knowing it. I do have to remain a little suspicious of Mona, just because I don't want to be caught off guard again, and some of the things she says just seem too good to be true. I can totally believe that she had been tracking Rollins around and keeping an eye on him, so my suspicious mind is probably just an overactive imagination. I missed the Hanna/Mona scenes, so I will be very glad to have Mona back full-time again.

"I can't help but feel a little nostalgic."

Speaking of returns, another big one was Jenna! We haven't seen her for a while (a lot longer than Mona), so the sound of her walking stick certainly inspired some dread into my heart. And by dread, I mean it in a good way, as I love that Jenna is back. She was missed, and like always, she demonstrates just how creepy and ominous she can be. The dinner scene that she crashes with her cryptic talking was very entertaining, just to watch how stiff the girls became, hoping that silence will be their friend. But of course, they don't help themselves remain hidden. It appears Jenna wants to make amends with Toby, and whether or not he will listen to her will remain a mystery, but the big event to involve Jenna is the ending. So she knows Rollins and calls him Archer (so he is A.D.), which has to mean that she is working with him, right? And what peculiar timing to show up again, just as he dies. More of Jenna please, so we can understand her because I am truly fascinated by her return.

Aria and Emily were kind of left as fodder in this episode. Even Aria didn't have Ezra to give her something to work with, so instead she just helped Hanna try and track the car, and helps Alison get back into bed. As trivial as I am making that sound, I did enjoy her scenes with Alison, especially when she has to put the straps and face mask on her. Rather brutal, but necessary. Emily is also there to just scold Spencer about her reckless behaviour, which was also a very good scene, but she really didn't do much besides that. It's rather sad when I can fit two main characters into one paragraph. I wish I had more opinions on what they did in this episode, but they didn't do enough for me to really say much. They were okay, though Aria was slightly more useful than Emily.

EPISODE VERDICT

The premiere was okay, episode two was rather boring, episode three perked up drastically, and episode four was actually pretty amazing, even with some of its faults. The scenes with Spencer and Hanna can be applauded as some of their best performances on Pretty Little Liars, and the conflicts between some of the girls really strengthens the show in general. I admire that they're trying to do a bit more and incorporate all four main girls together with this murder, and it mostly works. I need more for Aria and Emily, but fortunately I have my Mona back, and Jenna has also returned in a big way. I like when the show has these kinds of episodes that rekindles my interest, and I'll surely be looking forward to next week. I'm hoping 7A will only go from strength to strength now, and have I mentioned how grateful I am to be back (though I probably won't make as much an impact as Jenna did, I need to take a few lessons)!

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EPISODE AWARDS

Prettiest Little Liar: Spencer Hastings.

Boyfriend Material: Toby Cavanaugh.

Biggest Asshole: Jenna, just cause she's sketchy as f*ck.

Most Sympathetic Character: Spencer, her heart is so broken.

Favourite Episode Pairing: Hanna and Mona! Love them.

Best Line: "Well, you two sure know how to run a surprise" - Mona.

Funniest Line: None.

Best Moment: Mona shows up with Dr. Rollins' car, all fixed.

Saddest Moment: Caleb and Spencer's chat at the door with Hanna listening. Heartbreaking.

Creepiest Moment: Jenna catching up with the girls at the Radley.

Shadiest Moment: Jenna phoning the burner phone and calling Rollins "Archer".

Funniest Moment: None.

Damned Disappointment: The girls didn't just come clean to the police.

Biggest Question Mark Award: What's Jenna's involvement with Rollins?

Biggest ReveAl: Jenna is back!

What did you think of last night's episode? Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know your thoughts on the episode in the comments and tune into the next episode, airing on Freeform on July 19th!

About the Author - Gavin Hetherington

Award-winning author of the 'Abyssal Sanctuary' series. As Senior Staff, Gavin joined SpoilerTV in August 2014 and reviews Dead of Summer, Devious Maids, Mistresses, Pretty Little Liars and Salem. Gavin will write previews for Empire and Shadowhunters, and backs-up Once Upon a Time, Reign and Scandal. Gavin also writes special anniversary articles, most recently Charmed. You can contact him at [email protected].

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