The Lying Game

Hello friends. I hope everyone has had a luxuriously relaxing Labor Day weekend and have returned to their TVs refreshed and ready for football season (YAY!), fall TV shows, and, of course, more episodes of The Lying Game.

On the Labor Day episode  titled—I shit you not—”Twinsense and Sensibility,” Emma and Sutton realize they grew up having the same nightmare and have a seemingly large breakthrough in their search for the bio mom, Laurel continues to be awesome, Char feels left out of the loop, and Ted gets suspicious.

But before we delve into the specifics of the episode, I have a bit of a soapbox: the opening credits. I abhor them. They are stupid and I have absolutely no idea how they are related to the story. I guess that maybe that doesn’t matter? But, it’s not like ABC Family has no idea how to make good opening credits. The PLL credits are great and completely evoke the idea and themes of the show. These? NOT SO MUCH. And the song seems to cut off in a weird place. Every time I see them I think ‘What the hell?’ and am left trying to figure out who thought they were a good idea. If any of you can explain them to me, PLEASE do so in comments.

Alright, so now that that’s over with, let’s get on with it, shall we?
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On this week’s episode of The Lying Game everyone dances and lies. Really. They all dance and lie. Except for Ethan, who dances, but does not lie. At least, not yet. Or to our knowledge.

All right, so! This episode, titled “Being Sutton,” starts and I am immediately thrown off because Emma’s hair is different. Like, very different. It’s shorter and lighter and more layered. Or maybe I’m just crazy. Anyway, the episode is centered around the annual Father/Daughter Dance at the country club the Mercers and all of their people belong to.

But beyond that, Emma is super concerned about the whereabouts of Sutton’s stolen laptop and the fact that Sutton didn’t show up at the rendezvous point. Ethan is also concerned, but not as much as Sutton. Which I find weird since he’s supposed to be Sutton’s secret lover and all. But . . . whatever, I’m not gonna overthink it.

So, Emma (as Sutton, mind you) goes to school and meets up with Mads (who has the shiniest hair EVER) and Char, and is nice to people, including Nisha. Everyone is so weirded out by her niceness that they comment on it and KEEP commenting on it throughout the episode. Then Mads and Char start talking about The Lying Games, which are apparently A THING. I imagine it’s like their Burn Book. But…worse? Or something?

But that is not the issue at hand! The issue at hand is the damn Father/Daughter Dance that Emma has to attend.

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Last night ABC Family added The Lying Game—which said quickly sounds a little like The Lion King—to their cadre of teen-centric, prime-time series. The show centers around Emma Becker and Sutton Mercer (both played by Alexandra Chando, who looks a helluva lot like The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev), identical twins separated at birth; Emma grew up as a foster kid in Nevada, while Sutton was adopted by a wealthy couple in Arizona. The reasons for why they were separated have yet to surface. How much you wanna bet they don’t surface until the SEASON FINALE? And, even then, probably not in the season finale? Because I’m calling it right now.

As the episode starts, Sutton has returned from a summer vacation in Paris (Le Bitch.) and she and Emma are video chatting, because Sutton found Emma at some pre-plot and pre-Paris time, about potentially meeting each other in the near future. Sutton rants about her adoptive parents and how they are liars and are hiding something big, and how she’s close to finding their biological parents . . . it’s all a little much. Emma just nods and smiles.

Then, Emma’s foster brother (who looks like Tim Tebow) frames Emma for stealing money and something signed by Bruce Willis from her foster mom and then tries to blackmail Emma into having sex with him. Instead, Emma hits him, runs away, and takes the first bus to Phoenix, so she can find solace with Sutton and live happily ever after. Now, I don’t want to make light of the issue at hand (using blackmail to gain creepy foster-sibling sex, just to be clear), but that scene would probably have been a lot more upsetting if the actor playing the foster brother didn’t look like Tim Tebow. But because he does, it was mostly kind of hilarious.

Anyway, this horrifying but serendipitous turn of events gives Sutton the opportunity/bright idea to have Emma, the twin she’s NEVER MET BEFORE, pretend to be her for a couple days while she goes to L.A. to track down the bio ‘rents (or is she really going to see her friends’ older brother?! Cause that’s definitely insinuated at some point). Emma goes along with this when she’s reassured that everything there is to know about assuming the identity of her twin is on Sutton’s computer. This is obviously code for “Nothing can go wrong!” in the land of teenage dramas.
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