11x30/31 Nowhere To Run RECAP

In Canada I don’t know if it was called its original title ‘Bleeding Love’ or not. Anyway this stand-alone two part episode was meant as a bridge/filler between the summer novella and the back fourteen that hasn’t been set to air until the spring of this season. It was pegged by some as a Halloween episode and while it did air around Halloween time in Canada it didn’t air until mid-November stateside the first time that episodes didn’t sync up across North America since season 9. The feel of this episode is a bit weird and not cause it had the same ‘movie’ cinematography as Hollywood, Manhattan, Spring Fever, and season twelve’s Vegas. Also it was purely coincidental that this episode’s recap would be queued to post on Halloween (okay sure so I doubled up a few episodes to make it so but whatever)

Anyway it all begins on a dark and stormy night…..no seriously it does. Clare’s looking at a dress in her room and letting out a scream. Alli, back from her summer in Ottawa comments saying it’s not THAT bad as Clare brings up it’s not the dress it’s the fact that her mom’s getting married to her exes’ dad in the morning. Alli asks if she’s talked to Jake but he’s gone rogue all summer working as a counselor by his cabin. Clare admits she still has feelings for him but she needs to move on. The girls soon hear a foreboding notice and Alli thinks it’s coming from the closet. There is nothing in there but soon the lights flicker out and they see a mysterious shadow by the door. As the lights return Jake’s there and he wants to talk. He tells Clare he was just there to move things into his new room and he’ll see her at the wedding. Clare tells him the space he gave her was a good thing all things considered and tomorrow is a fresh start between them. Jake leaves the room leaning against the wall with a sigh as he opens up the box in his hand to reveal a bouquet of roses.

WHATEVER IT TAKES (in the initial air there was a special title sequence but here on the DVD we get the new season 11 part 2 sequence….. it’s a bit discombobulated cause it has a mix of old scenes and new which wouldn’t be so bad except the old scenes have students in the polo’s for the grades they were in last year sans Katie and Marisol who are in sport uniforms and Fiona who was retained while the new characters obviously have their new polo’s. It begins with the old Adam and Jake/Alli/Clare scenes, then a new scene with the new freshman Tristan, Maya, Tori, and Zig. Then the KC/Jenna/Ty scene despite them giving the baby up and being splitsville, Katie/Marisol, Imogen/Eli/Fiona, Conner/Wesley (despite Spencer not being on the show due to personal reasons then told they exhausted plots for Wesley and firing him), new scene with Mo and Miss Oh which is pretty much the same as the one with her and Sav in part A, Bianca/Simpson/Owen, and finally Dave and Drew)

In the Torres basement Drew and Katie are getting things ready for Welcome Week and Katie is telling Drew to cut what he’s working on out straight. Drew comments how it was supposed to be their week of fun before school started. She comments how she just got back from soccer camp and needs everything to be perfect. Drew tells her to breathe because it already is….she’s a soccer star, student council president, and is dating the hottest guy.....yea….for now….is all I’m saying. Adam comments from the couch that Drew so didn’t say that out loud and Katie nods saying how her life isn’t magically perfect and it takes long and hard work. Bianca then comes downstairs saying she needs the table and we find out she’s been doing work for Omar as part of her plea bargain…. In addition she’s been watching a shit ton of horror movies with the brothers. In hearing that Bianca and Drew spend all summer together Katie’s crazy jealous and says Drew wanted fun so she’ll give him fun in the form of lunch…..her treat.

Alli’s helping Clare get ready for the wedding and we find out how its blood relatives only since it’s happening in the living room. First off….with it happening in the living room on such short notice one is to wonder if Jake and Clare will be sharing a sibling sometime soon….no…they won’t….and speaking of siblings it’s important to note Darcy is MIA (though in a deleted scene she did send a gift) and there are a handful of extras in the scene whom I assume must be somehow related to either Glenn or Helen. Alli changes the subject saying Dave hasn’t texted her back and they used to text 24/7 when she was in Ottawa and now that she’s home zip. Clare comments how at least Dave isn’t going to be you’re step brother. Clare comments how she’s going through a major life altering crisis with a new step-dad and a step-brother boyfriend and Alli’s constant boy drama is pedestrian at best. Alli gets a text from Dave wanting to meet her at the Dot and she leaves. The wedding begins and Glenn whispers to Jake ‘she looks beautiful’ and looking at Clare, Jake nods ‘she does’.

Dave and Alli meet at the Dot and Alli wants to know if he wants to go half on something. Dave says no, and he needs to be up front. He had a fling with a girl while they were on a break….it was a onetime thing and it’s over and he wants to be with Alli. Alli’s pissed because they were planning to wait for one another. Dave walks off and Alli is crying and soon Katie, Drew, and Marisol join her.

The reception is going on and Jake wants to talk with Clare. Jake tells her that the parents are going off on their honeymoon and he wants to know if she wants to reconnect. He was doing allot of soul searching at the cabin and he loves her. Clare tells him no, he can’t….he broke up with her via text and he’s her brother and she can’t. Jake leaves and Clare just sits and watches her mom and Glenn cut the simple sheet cake with a photo of the four of them on it.

Jake shows up at the Dot where Marisol, Katie, Drew, and Alli are sitting outside still and he joins the group still in his suit. Alli asks if the wedding is over and Jake says he needs air. Marisol asks if he’s excited for senior year and Drew asks what he did on his summer break. He says he was at his cabin and they think it’s cool he has his own place. Jake then decides to invite them over of an end of summer party that night and the others are in. And if the combination of Jake/Drew/Katie/Marisol/Alli at this point in cannon seem odd and amusing well it’s at this point that ELI bikes up to the crew and is promptly invited to the shindig by Marisol…..this is going to make for one wild party that’s for damn sure.

Clare is licking the frosting off of Jake’s face on the cake as Clare’s cell rings. It’s Bianca…..she can’t get a connection to Drew’s cell….or Katie’s or Jake’s cause why her or Adam would have those numbers….well at least the latters is anyone’s guess and she wants to know where the Xbox remote is. This is the first Clare is hearing of said party cause she hasn’t heard from Jake since the fight at the wedding. Clare realizes she needs to get there to talk to Jake and Bianca tells her she better hurry cause Cabins = Kissing. Clare asks whose there and Bianca tells her Drew, Katie, Marisol….at her name Clare knows she definitely needs to get there cause Marisol is a bit of a slut….or at least that’s what Clare thinks cause I assume she knows that Marisol was to Jenna what Jenna was to her back in season nine if you know what I mean….nudge nudge. Adam asks Bianca if Clare knows where the controls are and Bianca tells Adam they should go to the cabin. Adam can’t cause of PT from the bullet in his shoulder but Bianca is in and plans to pick Clare up.

Jake tells Alli he’s glad she could come and she says her parents think that she’s at his house with Clare. Marisol, Katie, and Jake then pull up in the other car and the five some go into the cabin. Marisol is wining about the musty smell of the place as Alli is looking round for bug spray….there is a candlestick, knife, lead pipe, rope, wrench, revolver…magazine. Katie asks if they had the place long and Jake says how his dad got the place really cheap back in ’99 and tells a story about how the couple who owned it was rumored to of had a double murder suicide pact. Jake asks Alli to look for wood to start a campfire leaving Marisol to wine about the lack of TV and Wi-Fi and Katie and Drew to sit her….or….they could have some fun and they run off. Marisol then finds a bag of pot in the couch which is the second massively foreshadowing thing that happens in the episode…the first being the mention of Dave’s girl on the side….

Clare and Bianca are lost en route to the cabin. Bianca then starts getting all creepy listing off horror movies saying all the best start in the woods. Clare tells her to stop and Bianca comments how she’s in love with her step brother and how she should stop playing with her 1980’s head band and navigate however the car is broken down and it’s approaching sunset and they are in the middle of nowhere.

Marisol is on the couch listening to her iPod when she hears noise coming from the room….it’s Katie crying out help me and when she opens the closet she sees Katie covered in ‘blood’ as a masked man jumps out from behind her. The masked man is Drew and the blood is really paint. Drew is teasing her for being so scared at their joke and Katie tells him to take a step back.

Alli and Jake have started a fire and he asks how she likes it. She likes being able to forget Dave. Jake says how being there always seems to solve his issues but it never does. Alli asks if he had any summer flings and while he thought about it he thought it would still be cheating because his heart still belonged to Clare. The duo then start to roast marshmallows as there is noise in the distance. Jake comments it’s just a wolf. Alli asks if there is anything else wild in the woods and Jake says Coyotes but he’ll keep her safe. Alli says Clare’s really lucky to have him and they share a moment and end up kissing. As their lips connect however footsteps can be heard behind them…. It’s Clare and she’s PISSED. Bianca comments now that’s just wrong.

The two girls show up at the cabin as Katie and Marisol roll their eyes wondering why Bianca of all people are there considering the history with her and Drew. Before anyone can talk about her or the Jake/Alli kiss the lights go out and once a lantern is lit Clare’s gone rogue. She’s ran off tearfully in the woods and we get a creepy horror movie like soundtrack…..TBC

Jake turns on the lights and goes to look for Clare however Marisol is worried about what if they go out again. Drew comments how she’s a drama queen and Bianca points out how she came all the way up there for her step brother only to find him kissing Alli and if she were in Clare’s shoes she wouldn’t want to be there either. Drew offers to search as well and Alli wants to come too. Jake says it’s better if she stays behind and Bianca comments he’s right. Bad things happen in the woods and with Alli as the skanky bitch of their current sinario she’d die first by horror movie standards. Alli points out this isn’t a movie it’s real life and she asks Alli whose fault that is. Katie tells Drew to be safe and she kisses him goodbye as Katie/Alli/Marisol and Bianca are all held up together.

I KNOW I CAN MAKE IT THROUGH

Clare is trying to get a phone signal to call a cab as she hears noise. She calls out hello and starts running only to trip and slice her hand open on rocks.

Marisol is paranoid with the lights going out and the weird noises but Katie’s more befuddled at Bianca’s presence. Bianca comments how flickering lights and noises always happen in movies before someone gets killed. Marisol wants to go home she’s not having fun but Katie won’t let her. She can’t let her friend drive home alone in the dark in good conscience and she will NOT leave Bianca alone with Drew. She’s freaking out and Katie tells her to calm down and she’ll make her some herbal tea…. Or….Marisol could try another herb. Katie rolls her eyes at her friend wanting to smoke something she found in a couch and plus her friend is already on edge. After former dealer Bianca says the pot is legit and Marisol says she is only on edge cause of Katie and Drew’s prank, Katie caves and tells her friend fine light up. Alli doesn’t want them doing it inside since if her parents smell it on her she’s toast and so the girls head outside.

Jake can’t believe Clare would come all the way up for him and he and Drew are talking about Clare and girls in general. Drew then finds Clare’s headband covered in blood. Drew wonders if the murderer got her and Jake says it’s an urban myth as their flashlights die out.

Katie and Marisol seek solace in a tool shed.

Alli is venting to Bianca saying she’ll feel guilty if something happens to Clare and how every time she goes out to try and have fun it always ends in drama. Bianca comments even from Alli kissing Jake was low. Alli says that coming from BOILER ROOM BIANCA. Bianca wants to roast marshmallows however they hear a knocking on the door. They scream.

Marisol and Katie hear the scream and while Katie wants to go back inside, Marisol thinks the shed is the safest place to hide. Marisol is getting stoned and Katie’s getting the early effects of a contact high. She’s worried that Bianca is using her feminine whiles on Drew to get him back and wonders if they were screwing around while she was at camp. Marisol calls Katie paranoid and Katie tells her she’s terrible when she’s high. Katie wants to go back however they are locked in.

Clare’s arm is cut as she’s trying to move about in the woods….we hear more creepy noises and heavy breathinging and see shadows moving around the area as someone grabs her. Clare screams and we find out it was Eli. He went to the cabin and Alli and Bianca said she was missing. They also screamed allot and he wonders why the girls are all jumpy. She asks how he got there and he tells her he took a greyhound to the nearest town then biked the rest of the way. Clare’s shocked that he biked and Eli says he’s been doing so all summer. He saw Jake and the others at the Dot and thought he’d create a rapport with his classmates before school. He then checks out her hands.

Katie wants to get out by digging a burrow under the door and they end up hitting something. It’s a tin box with wedding bands engraved ‘David Pratt’ and ‘Joyce Pratt’ and they are freaking because they must be the couple in the story.

Eli wraps Clare’s hand and offers his jacket before asking if they are playing some intense game of hide and seek. Clare says no, someone just got over things way sooner then she thought they would. Clare then asks if it’s weird that she’s glad he found her. Before he could answer Jake and Drew arrive and Jake asks if she’s okay. Clare replies like it matters.

Katie can’t die in the shed and leave Drew to Bianca and Katie picks up a chainsaw. Alli hears the sawing and looks out the window as the girls bust out blaming Bianca for locking them in the shed so she can hook up with Drew. Bianca comments weed does make her paranoid. Katie tells Bianca that she’s stolen Drew from his girlfriend once and she’ll do it again. Bianca says how if she can’t trust Drew with other people they will never last.

Clare and the boys show up at the cabin and as Alli asks if she’s okay she says nothing. Jake bandages her hand saying how he’s glad she came and she asks then why was he with Alli. Jake says she kissed him (lies) and kissing her back was his biggest regret because he loves her. He tried getting over her but he couldn’t and when he found her bloody headband he was scared and flooded with regret. Clare tells him she thought of kissing Eli when he found her out of spite. Jake tells her he was stupid to run away after prom and the wedding and he’s done running.

Drew asks what the girls were up to and Bianca teases Katie to tell Drew about the drugs. There is more noise outside and Marisol begins to flip. Eli comments how everyone is in there and it’s revealed to the boys about the weed. Marisol smoked a blunt and Katie ingested second hand smoke. The girls show Jake the rings and everyone starts to freak out and Bianca suggests Clare or Katie sacrifice themselves to him being the virgins of the party. Jake wielding an ax opens the door and its Glenn and Helen. They called to check in on Clare and she wasn’t picking up and she wasn’t at the house either. There had been a voicemail from the Bhandari’s about Alli being at their ‘country place’ and so they knew the kids were at the cabin though they didn’t expect a party. Jake apologizes and the parents are just glad they are safe. Jake explains that they are all on edge because he told them the Pratt murder legend. If it’s just a legend why were there rings though? Glenn said he found them when they moved in and buried them and how the scariest thing about a cabin of teens is the teens who aren’t leaving until the damage to shed is fixed. Helen asks about Clare’s hand and she says it’s just a cut and Jake helped fix it.

The next morning they are getting ready to go. Jake feels bad for messing up the parents honeymoon and Jake is riding with Clare. Alli wants to come too but Clare tells her how she kissed her boyfriend and she’s pissed. Alli says she has no idea what happened while the wedding was going on and Clare asks for her to tell her. Alli says she’ll just think it’s pedestrian and Clare says the truck is full before seconds later telling Eli to toss his bike in the bed of the truck and ride with them. Bianca needs a jump and she’s going to walk to her car and wait for Drew. Katie offers her to ride down the road with them and Marisol asks what that’s all about. Katie doesn’t want Bianca to have power over her and says keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Marisol then comments about Katie’s knee and she says it’s nothing when in reality it is the third major foreshadow of the episode. Alli’s riding with the seniors and she says how it sucks how she lost her boyfriend and best friend in twenty four hours and school is going to suck.

Jake’s eating the ‘Clare’ piece of the cake as the parents show up. Helen tells Jake there are fresh sheets on his bed and if he needs anything this is his home now. The episode ends with the siblings slash lovers falling asleep in adjacent rooms.