Pretty Little Liars is one of the most iconic mystery teen tv shows of all time. It featured four high school bullies being tormented by an anonymous villain who went by the alias A as they worked tirelessly to solve the disappearance of their group’s Queen Bee, Alison Dilaurentis.
Of the four girls, Aria Montgomery was the one often accused of being the evil black hoodie-wearing stalker by the fandom. She was written so suspiciously that Lucy Hale herself played the character with the idea that she would eventually be revealed as A.
Aria was the first of the liars to be introduced to us in the pilot. She was also the first to get an A text, which was sent in the middle of class, full of witnesses. Her inappropriate romantic relationship received the most screentime of all the girls, and she was overall framed as the main character in the ensemble, especially in the earlier seasons. Even considering all of that, she got it the least brutal when it came to torture from A.
A would run Hannah over with a car in one episode, and then save Aria’s inappropriate student-teacher romance in the next episode. It was bizarre how much she was favored by their stalker. Spencer and Emily had multiple relationships sabotaged. Hannah had to ruin her father’s wedding, knowing he would probably abandon her in consequence. Emily lost any chance at a swimming scholarship due to an injury caused during a physical attack by A. Spencer’s house was searched as a person of interest in Alison’s disappearance, and Aria got a “get my man’s ex girlfriend out of the picture” essay placed gently in her lap with tender love and care. It just never added up.
She had so much potential to be an iconic villain that the world would overanalyze and criticize for years and years to come. But of course, as they did with all the good potential villains, they wasted her. But what if they didn’t?
What if the showrunners were more concerned with making a great story that had a gut wrenching twist and impactful storytelling than with shock value and unpredictability?
What if Aria was A?
The Alternate Ending
Marline King insisted that this show was made on the strength of friendship, so therefore none of the main girls could ever have been A. But ma’am be so fucking forreal. Aria was not as good a friend as the other girls. Granted, they were all shitty friends to one another at some point, but Aria was the worst of them. She slut shamed Hannah for being victimized by a grown man. She would flat-out abandon the girls during times of genuine crisis to go be in Ezra’s crusty ass apartment. She eventually even joined the A team and trashed Emison’s nursery to protect the man who groomed her. So much for the strength of friendship.
There was a popular theory of Aria developing Dissociative Identity Disorder with Alison as one of her identities, eventually becoming A. I would like to say, I don’t completely hate this idea. And before anyone jumps down my throat with the whole conversation about handling mental illness carefully in the media, I do agree. But let’s be honest, the story they went with was Cece Drake’s transition indirectly being the main cause of her becoming A, so… if they were gonna produce strange and harmful content, they could have at least made it make sense within the confines of the story, ya know?
The show makes it a point to discuss mental health and how it specifically has had an impact within Aria’s family. Her father’s brother struggled with it his whole life, and her younger brother also had his own issues. How great would it have been if that were a red herring in our faces the whole time? And if Aria was really the puppet master over Mona, and she dated Mike for leverage to get out. Wouldn’t that make you look at that whole storyline so much differently?
There was also a scene a couple of episodes before the dollhouse where Aria got an email about a fence being finished, and this could’ve been a hint. It would explain the whole “Miss Aria You’re a Killer” thing. This would also explain why Aria’s mom was so reluctant to go to the police about Ezra. If she knew her daughter was struggling with her mental health, a police investigation would potentially bring that out. These Rosewood mothers were all about appearances, afterall.
This also adds so much context to Aria’s character. She was always missing in action, to the point where it was strange that the show never directly called attention to it. I also always found it fascinating how Cece hijacked the art gallery showcase. Imagine how epic it would have been if Aria really did want to share her work from the dollhouse and did it so cleverly that she had Tanner shitting bricks.
Many people who develop DID, do so due to sexual trauma they experienced as children. Maybe Aria was abused, either by Byron’s brother or another family member, and those records could become available during a trial. A lot of people speculated that Aria spent some time in Radley. Treatment for DID would explain why Eddie Lamb recognized her, but didn’t say much or elaborate. It would also explain why he didn’t trust her with much information.
Now, in terms of how a middle-class teenage girl could pull off such extreme and expensive plots is a whole other topic. And to answer this, I would say that as much as I would love to give her all the credit, I just can’t. It makes no sense at all. So she would have to have a partner.
And for a partner, I have two possible ideas.
Partnered with Ezra
First, it could be Ezra. Personally, that would be the only way I would keep this man in the show beyond, like, season 2. He should’ve BEEN in jail, baby. Bare minimum, once the book tea was spilled, A could’ve killed him. But we don’t live in a perfect world. So fine, let’s say in this timeline, he discovered Aria’s disorder organically and fully took advantage of her.
Ezra came from money. Even if he dropped the Fitzpatrick name and ditched his mom, he still had access to resources. He had connections in publishing; who knows where else he had connections? He was able to pull off that whole apartment in Ravenswood and the cabin in the woods. He was clearly capable of more than he let on financially.
This would explain why their relationship was always protected, despite the other girls’ relationships constantly being in shambles. There were multiple points in the show where one of the girls was in crisis and had individual missions, and we would just see Aria hanging out at Ezra’s apartment, like all was well. It was bizarre.
As for a motive, Ezra’s character was always motivated by one thing in this scenario. His writing. He was determined to write the best damn books he could, and he used Aria’s disorder as his inspiration.
Partnered with Alison
On a different note, her accomplice could’ve been Alison. I always liked the flashbacks with Aria and Alison because their dynamic seemed so different than the other girls. Alison bullied Hannah for her weight, was intimidated by Spencer, and love-bombed Emily. Aria was the only one with whom she seemed to be on even playing field.
Yes, she threatened Aria to tell her mom about the affair, but realistically, it just wasn’t the same. Let’s not forget Ali was with Aria when she trashed her dad’s office and blamed it on Meredith. None of the other girls did things like that. We also saw Aria kind of bullying Mona in one of the flashbacks, too. Alison seemed closer to Aria than she was with the other girls, although the show didn’t really explore it much. And maybe this is why.
Maybe Alison trusted Aria more than the other girls. Maybe she trusted her so much that she clued Aria in on being alive much earlier than the others. Potentially sometime after rescuing Hannah at the lodge fire? From there, she manipulated Aria into joining the A team. Eventually, enjoying the power it gave her, Aria could’ve decided, you know what… “hell yeah. This is so much better than being a victim. I’m in control.”
I know the internet loves this “A” theory, but the more you try to make it logical, the more it really falls apart, ya know? Were you an Aria is A stan? Which accomplice do you think makes more sense within the parameters of the story?
I cannot wait to chat about it with y’all in the comments! If you’ve stayed this long, I think it’s safe to say we’re internet friends now.
If you liked this theory, check out my Wren is A theory post here.