The Lying Game Recap: "No Country For Young Love"

Just as I predicted last week, Madison accepted Emma as Sutton’s sister without so much as batting an eye. In fact, she seems to like Emma a little bit more. The only problem is that Mads is a total daddy’s girl and she’s struggling with the possibility that her father is up to no good.

Alec believes that Ethan killed Derek. Nothing Dan says will convince him otherwise, which puts Dan between his brother and whatever deal he made with Alec. The more we learn about Alec, the more involved he seems to be in things.

Emma, Thayer, and Mads continued to look into Derek’s murder, focusing on the college student, Gavin, he’d been dealing drugs with. Not only did they locate the guy and his fraternity, but they learned that Alec is an alumnus. Knowing this only furthered their suspicions and sent them straight to a fraternity party where Mads batted her eyelashes to get in. Apparently college guys are into young, flirty high schoolers.

While Mads entertained Gavin, Emma zeroed in on another student she remembered seeing at Derek’s funeral. He was too nervous to even consider talking to her. When Gavin failed to give them any information, they chased after the panicky guy and went all Scooby-Doo Gang on him. He admitted that he saw an argument with Derek and a man the night Derek was murdered, but Gavin wouldn’t let him go to the police because the man is an alumnus of the frat and the district attorney. Hello, Alec.

Mads refused to believe her father was involved and went straight to Rebecca to check on her father’s alibi. She tells them exactly what they want to hear and later tells Alec about the conversation. Naturally, he’s unhappy, but I’m too worried about what Rebecca’s plan is to care about Alec. She’s weaseling her way in withLaurel, Mads, Alec, and almost had Kristin, who finally became aware of how awkward her husband is when Rebecca is around. Who else caught how Kristin froze when Rebecca mentioned Ted playing the guitar?

Ted maintained that nothing is going on, but judging from the threatening way he told Rebecca to stay away from his family, the history here is deep. When Rebecca fired back at him about killing Justin’s mother, Ted corrected her by saying she knew why he leftCalifornia. Dun, dun, dun. Any guesses?

The mysteries aside, it was a difficult episode for romance. Justin and Laurel broke up. Ethan and Sutton kissed – maybe more? And something is clearly starting to brew between Thayer and Emma, though it may only be on Thayer’s side right now.

Laurel’s continuing her pursuit of music, writing songs about her awkward relationship and growing closer to her writing partner. She realized that she doesn’t trust Justin as much as she used to and she shouldn’t be lying to her family about their relationship. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Something tells me Justin won’t go away without a fight though. I kind of really want him to go all crazy boyfriend on her.

Ethan and Emma struggled with missing one another, which prompted Thayer to promise to be there for Emma and Sutton to go after Ethan. Every move Sutton makes is calculating and she’s managed to get Ethan exactly where she wants him – completely out of touch with Emma. He’s vulnerable because he’s visiting his father and struggling to repair that relationship, missing his girlfriend, and terrified that he may never be free from Derek’s murder. Sutton did advise him to talk to his father, who admitted that he was the reason their lives turned out so bad. His father took the blame for the broken relationship with his sons and their mother leaving him. It was a few steps toward renewing their relationship.

Ethan admitted it was a mistake to contact Emma because she has so much going on. Sutton pointed out that Emma loves him and will do anything for him. It was a truthful statement, but still came off as a manipulating one when Sutton managed to turn the focus back on her. She told Ethan the truth scared her because it’s such a risk to put yourself out there and they kissed. Excuse me while I jump from Team Ethan and Emma to Thayer and Emma for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, Ethan and Sutton’s moment was short-lived when the police busted through the door to find him standing in the living room, his shirt undone and open. Does anyone else think something more happened with Sutton? Or did Ethan wise up and stop things before they went too far? Too bad that Ethan will have plenty of time to think about what he did in jail. Any ideas on how he was found out? Did his father telling his brother prompt Dan to tell Alec? Who called Alec to let him know here Ethan was? And most importantly, what will Emma’s reaction be when she finds out what happened between him and Sutton? I’m kind of looking forward to Emma and Sutton facing off about this, although who knows when that will be since Sutton is still on the ranch.