"Grave New World" is the 13th episode of the fourth season of the American mystery drama television series Pretty Little Liars.
The episode also serves as a backdoor pilot to the series’ spinoff Ravenswood, which follows a group of people investigating the supernatural occurrences in the titular town.
In the episode, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Spencer attend the Ravenswood Founders Day Celebration party at the cemetery in hopes of tracking down Alison, who they believe is still alive and on the run from A.
Meanwhile, Caleb meets Miranda, a girl in the foster system looking for her uncle, while on the bus to Ravenswood and helps her deal with some issues stemming from her past in the town.
The episode garnered a lukewarm reception from television critics, who believe it fell flat from the summer finale and the last Halloween special.
Aria (Lucy Hale), Emily (Shay Mitchell), Hanna (Ashley Benson) and Spencer (Troian Bellisario) arrive at the Ravenswood Founders Day Celebration party, donning nineteenth-century attire.
The girls spot Luke (Brett Dier) wearing a vintage soldier's costume similar to the one they found in Ezra's apartment.
Hanna spots two short blond figures in red coats while Emily is separated from Aria by Mrs. Grunwald (Meg Foster), who warns them to go away.
While on a bus to Ravenswood, Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) is approached by Miranda (Nicole Gale Anderson) after being frightened by the man (Irwin Keyes) she was sitting next to.
As she turns on her cellphone light to read the message, she notices a swarm of rats on the ground and runs through a passageway, which leads to a door to a room in a mansion.
Aria, Emily and Spencer listen to Alison's cries for help and discover a tape recorder with her voice playing.
In March 2013, Pretty Little Liars was renewed for a fifth season and green-lighted for a spinoff series, Ravenswood, which would premiere in October of that year.
[3] The episode served as a backdoor pilot for the series’ spinoff Ravenswood, featuring guest appearances from Nicole Gale Anderson as Miranda and Brett Dier as Luke, the main cast of the show.
[5] "Grave New World" originally aired on October 22, 2013, as part of the 13 Nights of Halloween programming special on ABC Family, and was followed by the series premiere of the Pretty Little Liars' spinoff, Ravenswood.
The episode marks the third annual Halloween special from the series, each premiering apart from the regular summer and winter seasons.
[7] Nick Campbell of TV.com expressed a mixed opinion about the episode, writing "We can't really say it was a disappointing outing for the Liars because of the ending, but it was almost a cheap trick to salvage a series full of weak events by pulling the Alison trump card.
Club's Caroline Siede gave the episode a C+, finding the “slow and atmospheric” pace of the special unfitting for the series while praised the Liars' costumes, Spencer's in particular.
[12] Teresa Lopez of TV Fanatic gave the Halloween-themed episode two and a half stars (out of five), calling it "a disappointing follow-up, spending more time setting up the mysterious new show Ravenswood than advancing the plot of Pretty Little Liars."