After receiving a video from A in the last video featuring Ali and Ian, the girls mull over what their next actions should be. Meanwhile, they leave the video paused on the desktop – an innocent notion until Ian walks in and almost sees it.
The next day, the girls want to take the laptop to the police and show the police the video. However, Spencer discovers that her laptop has been stolen. Immediately, the girls suspect Ian of the theft.
Meanwhile, Hanna still copes with money problems. Desperate for money, she searches incessantly for jobs but comes up with nil. That is, until “A” sends a text message regarding a mysterious potential job for Hanna.
Aria’s old babysitter and good friend, Simone, also comes to visit. Simone, a newfound author, makes plans with Mr. Fitz to have a cup of coffee, because he says that he wants to “pick her brain”. The escalating relationship between Simone and Mr. Fitz worries Aria and she can’t help but feel jealous.
Emily also has problems of her own. Maya has been sent to wilderness boot camp, and Emily is restricted from calling her. However, she approaches a new kid at Rosewood, who is “kind of sketchy”, and asks him to upgrade her phone so she can call Maya without limits. To make him do the job faster, Emily pays three times the normal amount.
Ian notifies Spencer that he is going to chaperone at their school dance, despite the fact that Melissa, his fiancé, is away with friends and he had the invitation to join them. Ian also tells Spencer that he is not comfortable in Rosewood anymore and tells her “to put the past behind us”.
Later that night, Hanna brings a flask full of alcohol to the dance. Emily, upset by her conversation with Maya, proceeds to get drunk and confronts Ian about Ali’s murder. However, she doesn’t directly refer to Ali’s murder, so when Ian later asks Spencer about it, Spencer lies and says Emily knows that Spencer and Ian kissed last summer. Ian gets very angry that Emily knows this and threatens to hurt someone if anybody else knows about the scandalous history.
Also, Emily had also spied Ian going through the athletics office desk and stealing a key from it. This arouses suspicion, for Spencer believed that someone stole her laptop from her gym locker.
Spencer later steals this key and then tries to break into the athletics office desk but can’t. The new kid sees her and offers to help but she refuses, and even offers to pay him to keep quiet about the whole ordeal. He does not accept the money, and also gets in an argument with Hanna later that night as well.
Hanna has a miserable time at the dance. “A’s” mysterious job: dance with Lucas. Every dance is worth two hundred dollars, which then elevates to five hundred, and then to a thousand for the last dance. Hanna’s boyfriend, Sean, breaks up with Hanna by the end of the night because he is so fed up with her behavior.
Hanna ends up finding the hard-earned cash in her coat pocket.
But good news ensues Hanna’s romantic struggle: Aria’s parents seem to be getting along and actually dance with eachother.
Aria and Mr. Fitz reconcile, and Mr. Fitz claims that he loves her, despite the many advantages to dating Simone.
At home, Spencer finds the laptop in her kitchen. No surprise, the video has been erased. However, it was replaced by another piece of evidence: a picture of Ali from the night she disappeared.
The final scene: very suspenseful and somewhat frightening. Aria’s mom, checking coats at the dance, returns a black coat and black leather gloves to a mysterious person whose appearance is not revealed.
8/10