Hanna, Spencer, and Emily arrive at Aria's to console her with junk food and rag mags - thinking she's sullen from her father's affair being revealed to her mother by "A," when in fact she's bruised from her tiff with Ezra. The next day, 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.
Hanna makes a false move in nudging Maya to attend Homecoming with Emily (after "A" sent her the photo strip of them kissing) just as 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. Melissa gleefully accepts the chance to chaperone the event, and takes the opportunity to drive a wedge between her sister Spencer and new beau Alex. Aria and Ezra's efforts to keep things platonic are thrown a curveball when they're both assigned the same booth to administer. At the dance, the girls convene, convincing Hanna to steal the file once they discover Toby's tattoo - "9/01, Free at Last," memorializing the date Alison disappeared.
When Aria volunteers to keep Sean occupied on the dance floor while Hanna slips out to retrieve the file, she sends the newly-crowned Homecoming King mixed signals and makes Ezra jealous. 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 his file that Hanna retrieved from the psychiatrist, not Jenna's. When Emily becomes more and more unsettled by Toby's behavior as he tries to explain, she runs away but trips on the train of her dress, hitting the hard floor and falling unconscious.
