Pretty Little Liars is one of the most iconic mystery teen television shows of all time. It featured four high school bullies, Aria Montgomery, Emily Fields, Hanna Marin, and Spencer Hastings, 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.
There was a lot of discourse when the show was airing around both characters of Alison and Aria. A lot of speculation that one or both of them was behind the vicious torment subjected onto the liars.
Alison’s body had been found at the end of the pilot. Her bracelet and infamous yellow top had been discovered on the body. DNA matched. All the signs pointed to Alison being dead, except two little tiny details. One, whoever their stalker was knew details about them they only ever shared with Alison. Two, Alison visited each of the girls after they attended her funeral. Was she alive? Were they hallucinating? Each of them, though? That seemed far-fetched.
Fans also accused Aria of being the evil black hoodie-wearing stalker. The whimsical artist of the group who had been groomed by her English teacher, a man who also had been involved with Alison before her disappearance. The writers made her so suspicious that Lucy Hale herself, the actress who played Aria, played the role with the expectation that she would be revealed as the villain in the end.
For this post, we’ll first review all the evidence and clues for Aria and Alison working together as “Big A.” Then we’ll rewrite the ending reveals to make everything fit together seamlessly and explore how I’d wrap up the show differently.
Evidence Against Aria
Aria was the first amongst all the liars to be introduced post-Alison’s disappearance. We learn that she had been away in Europe with her family after discovering her father was having an affair with one of his college students. She was set up as the lead of the ensemble, getting the first “A” message and being the only one with somewhat positive flashbacks of Alison.
Yes, I know that Alison is trying to bully Aria into telling Ella about Byron’s affair, but before that, they were laughing at Mona together as they avoided a conversation with the girl. We never saw Hanna, Emily, or even Spencer actively participate in bullying other kids. In fact, they always looked uncomfortable in those flashbacks, but Aria was actively engaged here.
You’d think that Mona would be the hardest on Aria, after Hanna, for this. Instead, she’s the most lenient with Aria. The most she got was a letter to Ella about the affair, after Aria had already decided to be a snitch anyway.
What if getting her first text in front of witnesses while all the other girls were alone, the favoritism from their stalker, always disappearing without an explanation, the handwriting on the Halloween train, the shush from Lucy Hale in the opening sequence, Mona calling her Big A in the hallway at school, the constant phone swaps and mirror shots, all actually meant something?
The Favoritism
There is no debate on the topic of who got the least brutality from “A.” That’s every rendition of “A,” too, not just 1 or 2 of the 3. Mona literally ran Spencer to a mental institution. Cece drove a car into Emily’s house. Alex kidnapped Hanna and attacked her with a cattle prod repeatedly.
Aria was literally handed a plagiarised essay to get rid of Ezra’s ex, so they could continue on their relationship without a hitch. Meanwhile, Spencer’s relationship with Alex got sabotaged. Same for Emily and Samara. Mona even tried her best to make sure Caleb got the boot forever, even though that wasn’t as successful.
Aria got a haircut? She was stapled to the wall that one time, and almost got poked in the eye at the Dilaurentis house when she was snooping… Granted, I don’t think Cece knew which of the liars that was; I think she just wanted to avoid being seen. Her mother’s car was filled with bees after Ella decided to go to Europe with her boyfriend.
Most of the things that A did “to” Aria impacted other people more than they did her. These were also things she was heavily conflicted about, to the point where it could be argued that A even stood up for Aria. Or she was making a stance for herself, using A as a means to gain control over her circumstances.
You may be thinking, but Nathania, Aria was literally shoved in a box with a dead body and almost shoved off a moving train. Yes, yes, that is true. That wasn’t A, though. It was the “B” team being Melissa and Wilden who were actively being blackmailed by “A” with completely separate motivations from the show’s main antagonist. This also begs the question. Why did they even consider putting Aria in the box and throwing her overboard to begin with? Why Aria specifically? Could it have been because they were suspicious of her involvement?
It feels like the favoritism gave Aria a certain freedom that the other girls didn’t have. Aria could afford to spend the afternoon with her feet propped up on Ezra’s couch, while Emily was desperately scrambling to figure out who put steroids in all her lotions or Hanna was trying to get Wilden’s swampy car out of her garage. They’d be in the middle of trying to solve the mystery, and Aria would always have some mediocre or irrelevant task to go off and do instead of helping. Maybe she was sneaking off to plot their demise with Alison.
Mona even called Aria “Big A!” How much more on the nose can you get?
The Personality Disorder
I talked about this already in my Aria is A Theory post, but I’ll briefly touch on it again here.
When the show was airing, there was some speculation that Aria had something called Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is a condition that some people develop as a result of severe childhood trauma. Essentially, their brain creates different alters that help them cope and navigate their everyday lives, bringing whatever alter forward fits their current circumstances.
In this case, the suggestion was that Aria had an alter being “A” that would torment her and her friends as a coping mechanism for losing Ali, or some other unforeseen motive. This would explain the typed-up file from Dr. Sullivan and why Eddie Lamb recognized Aria. She was also the only one of the liars to have these hallucinations, like when she thought Ezra had been arrested at school, outside of Spencer’s drug noir moment.
It is established in season one that Aria does have a family history of mental health malfunctions with her uncle scott, and brother Mike, but those storylines aren’t explored nearly enough. I do think it would have been brilliant, though, in hindsight, to watch Ella and Byron focusing so much on Mike’s mental decline that Aria’s Shenanigans completely fell through the cracks. That feels like intentional misdirection and great writing, but Marlene wasn’t quite on that timing.
I do just want to say that having this disorder would not be a motive in itself. There are people who live with this every day and don’t stalk or torment their friends and family. I will acknowledge, though, that this show didn’t give a flying fuck about whether or not their content was harmful. Considering the reveal they went with was Cece Drake’s transition indirectly being the main cause of her becoming A. I think this falls under the same realm of being stupidly insensitive and disrespectful to an entire community of people that doesn’t need to be made into a horror trope.
With all that being said, Dissociative Identity Disorder is not the route I would have taken Aria’s character upon revealing her as A. I think that using mental illness as a motive is insensitive and lazy. Before we get into the reveal I would’ve given Aria, let’s explore the evidence against Alison.
Evidence Against Alison
Desperate for Cash + Faked Death
There were many clues throughout the first few seasons that Alison intentionally faked her death. It was a pretty popular theory, due to flashbacks in which Ali would say things like how amazing it would be to leave behind a young, beautiful corpse, essentially granting her immortality. In this timeline, we’ll say that Alison lured Bethany to Rosewood with the intention of killing her and using the body to fake her death.
Personally, I think this made a lot more sense than Mona and Cece both accidentally hitting the wrong person over the head with a rock in the exact same location on the same night. We’ll say that Alison intentionally sent Bethany a duplicate outfit, and put her bracelet on the lifeless body after hitting Bethany with the shovel she took from Spencer.
We know that Alison was blackmailing everybody and their daddy, trying to rack up cash before she went missing. We never learned what that money was for. Maybe to abort Wilden’s baby? I think it was said that it was just a scare, and nothing came from it, but I think it would’ve been more interesting if she was intentionally saving money so she could run away and investigate A, who was Mona at the time.
In the Christmas special episode, Hanna found letters written from Bethany, thanking Alison for sending her clothes and sharing excitement about getting to see her around Labor Day weekend. In canon, we learn that this was forged evidence that Cece planted, but what if it wasn’t? What if Alison really did lure Bethany, a mental patient who looked very similar to her, to Rosewood that night with the intention of killing her and faking her death?
What could’ve been interesting, though, is if Alison didn’t like watching the girls just move on with their lives so quickly. They weren’t traumatized enough by her disappearance. It’d only been a year after all. Was that all the time they needed to get over losing the best thing that ever happened to those bitches? Spencer was still kissing Melissa’s boyfriends. Aria was also hooking up with a guy she’d liked. Hefty Hannah was Queen Bee with Loser Mona, and Emily was moving on with Maya.
While I would keep Mona as the main A for seasons one and two, I’d have Alison send some texts as well. These specific texts would be the ones that made up Ian’s suicide note. I never liked Mona’s involvement with that plotline and feel it fit Ali more to be tormenting Melissa. Maybe this was around the time Cyrus and his friends attacked her, so she was desperate for money, hence stealing the ring Spencer pawned.
Speaking of the whole Ian thing, we might as well talk about the NAT club and the other murders that occurred during Alison’s missing in action era.
Murder Spree
I made another post where I rewrote the NAT club, with Alison being the mastermind behind killing off each of the NAT club members. For this post, we’ll just say that storyline is canon, so check it out if you haven’t already.
In a nutshell, though, Alison hated each and every member of the NAT club. Ian tricked her into thinking he actually liked and cared about her. Melissa stood between them and was sending her threatening texts. Jason was a creep who let his friends groom and film her. Blinding Jenna wasn’t enough to get her to stop annoying Alison, and now she had her little lapdog doing the swinging for her. It made sense for season one Alison to come up with a plan to fake her death, destroy A, obliterate the NAT club, and then figure out a way to rise from the ashes later on.
Alison knocked Ian off the bell tower. How’d she know he was there if she hadn’t been stalking either Ian or the liars? Then, Garrett was killed on the Halloween train. Wilden gets blamed for this, but there’s no proof Alison wasn’t on the train. She could’ve overheard him telling Spencer about extorting Aria’s dad. At that point, Alison would’ve been having too much fun with cosplaying as A, and getting away with murder. She’d have tasted the power and wouldn’t be ready to let it go. This would prompt her to think fast and kill Garrett before Wilden and Melissa come in with an unconscious Aria and shove her in the crate.
Jenna got attacked multiple times, but we’ll say Alison accepted that the bitch just refused to die and eventually gave up. Maya, though, wouldn’t be so lucky. While we did get the Lyndon James reveal, I’d have this be a fakeout where we assume that because he wanted Emily and Paige dead, he killed Maya. But what if “Maya Knew” was a real hint from Mona, telling the girls that Maya discovered Alison was alive and got killed for it?
Even Wilden ended up dead, and in canon that was Cece, but what was her motive? He wouldn’t let Ali come back? At that point, you might as well say that Cece covered for Ali, who was really the one who offed him.
It could even be argued that Aria and Alison worked together to kill Shana when they discovered she’d turned for Jenna. In canon, I think this was the beginning of Alison’s redemption arc, seeing how easily someone who loved her could turn because of how cruel she’d been, but in this timeline we’ll say it infuriated Alison enough where she and Aria agreed Shana was a turn-cloak and had to go.
Haunted with Lies
Alison appeared to each of the girls before she was revealed to be alive.
She joked with Hanna that what happened to her was complicated, but insisted that each of the liars had a piece of the puzzle and if they put the pieces together they’d discover the truth. This made no sense.
The liars hadn’t even met Cece at this point, so how could the girls have put together that Cece hit Alison over the head, her mama buried her alive to cover it up, and Mona helped her disappear in exchange for her beauty appointments. Maybe Hanna could’ve pieced together the last part, but definitely not the full picture!
Alison also said that telling the truth to the wrong person at the wrong time was how she ended up where she was. How is that true? Granted, Ali followed that statement up with “you’re always better with a really good lie.” So, she basically just told us as the audience that she’s a pathological liar, and nothing she says should be trusted. Got it.
That helps us understand why the hell she told Emily she knew exactly who A was when she rescued her from the barn. At this point, Alison had no idea it was Mona, and if she did, she would’ve crushed her immediately. If she could dismantle the NAT club and bring the Rosewood Police Dept. to its heels, she could extinguish Loser Mona. When Emily asked to know who A was, Ali responded that only two could keep a secret if one of them is dead. Prime Ali is A evidence right there! She could’ve been covertly saying I could tell you the truth, but I’d have to kill you, and I don’t want to do that.
Aria’s scene could’ve been tweaked a smidge to fit this theory, but there wouldn’t need to be much changed. Aria confronts Ali about blackmailing her dad, and Alison is actually apologetic about it. She takes her diary pages from the hiding spot she already knew Aria would’ve put them in, tells her to stop drinking the Meredith tea, and admits to seeing A everywhere she goes. She also said she sees everything now. What an A thing to say.
Alison was also surprised Spencer hadn’t figured out who A was yet. What’s weird about this is that at this point A was Cece. Cece loved Ali and wanted to know if she was even still alive. So why would Ali be seeing her everywhere she went? How could Spencer have figured out that the random shop clerk who looked and spoke like Ali was their new stalker? When you look at each of these incidents under the notion of Alison being the Big A who took over after Mona, things start to make a lot more sense.
The Masks
The Ali masks are still an anomaly in the canon timeline. In season 4, we learn that Alison had the masks made so her “friends” could look like her. Yet, the only people we ever see wearing those masks are members of the A team.
After finding the mask in Alison’s stuff, the liars track down Hector, the one who made Alison’s mask. Melissa and Emily both wound up modeling for their own masks in exchange for information, but Melissa was smart enough to destroy hers. Emily’s mask ended up being used against her when she tried to anonymously go to the police about A.
Melissa was onto Alison at this point, trying to figure out whether or not she could still be alive. We know this because she admitted wondering if the masks were made more recently than her “death.” If Alison had been the one sending those messages to Melissa, pretending to be Ian after she killed him and then had been texting her threats, it’d make sense for Melissa to spiral like this.
We never found out how the A team got these masks or what friends Alison planned on giving them to. This entire storyline actually went cold, and they introduced those Mission: Impossible masks in season 7. That was embarrassing, and it’s even worse when you consider they were so proud of this that they carried it over into original sin. Although, I do have to admit it’s used way better in the spinoff.
Can’t Win a Game with No Rules
Both Alison and A loved to play games. Whenever the liars did something that would seemingly annoy Alison, A’s rules revved up on them. For instance, when Spencer said she was done treating Alison like some sort of martyr rather than the bitch she was, that was when things went left with Toby. A threatened him and put him in the hospital, forcing Spencer to end their relationship to protect him. This feeling of betrayal, thinking Spencer cheated on him with Wren, was what drove Toby to join the A team.
When she wanted the girls to know she was alive, she had them running around Ravenswood for two episodes. It could be argued that she was trying to expose Ezra, but she didn’t. Then, after all the dramatics and hoopla, they ended up right back outside Spencer’s barn for Ezra to find them anyway.
After coming back for good, Alison demanded all of the research Ezra collected for his book. In canon, they thought A was Shana and had been killed, so why was Alison so adamant about getting his research? Could it have been her need to destroy any evidence of her crimes and involvement as A?
Alison’s A texts in season 5 were also very similar to Mona’s texts at the end of season 2, in the sense that she only ever got texts in front of the liars or about them. She was also sneaking around town a lot when she came back from the town. She was caught on Spencer’s camera lurking in the backyard wearing the A hoodie. She’d been spotted in town a bunch. What was she doing? Maybe plotting?
Rewritten “Big A” Reveal
I want to be clear that I’d still have Mona as the original A. However, I would have had Alison behind the scenes doing A things and sending A messages when she needed to move something along.
For instance, I’d have Alison be the one to text Melissa from Ian’s phone after he was already dead. Alison would use the alias to cover her tracks and push things in the direction she wanted them to go.
In almost any Pretty Little Liars rewrite I do, I’d have the A reveal be in the dollhouse. This is no exception, so let’s get into how things would’ve ended differently, had Alison and Aria been the Big A behind it all.
The Dollhouse
At the end of season 5, Alison had been convicted of Mona’s murder. Instead, I’d have had Alison frame Melissa for the murder of Bethany Young. In this timeline, Alison was the one who killed Bethany to lured Bethany to Rosewood and hit her over the head with the intention of faking her death, but we are keeping the bit where Melissa found the body and buried it. I’d also scrap Alison coming back from the dead, because she’d be enjoying her power of anonymity way too much. That power was how she managed to get ahold of Melissa’s confession tape afterall.
Instead of having the girls be stolen from a police van, I’d do something similar to the Lodge Fire. I think it would’ve been an interesting reveal that the girls were supposed to be kidnapped on that night, but Shana foiled the plan by setting the building ablaze. We can keep Alison dragging the girls out, but we’ll say Cece, who I’d keep as a member of her A team, would drag Alison away, saying it was too dangerous to stick around now that the fire would attract attention.
In the dollhouse, helping Alison would be Cece and Lucas, who Ali had taken up blackmailing when she officially took the game from Mona at the beginning of season 3. I’d also have the dollhouse span over 10 episodes rather than the canon 2.
Over the course of the 10 episodes, I’d have the girls be put through various tests and torments, similar to what was done in canon. Aria would be excluded from the tests where the girls were alone, but she would participate in the group activities.
The vault would be a shrine to Alison made by Alison because she’s nothing if not a narcissist. Spencer would think of it as just another typical A lair where someone is obsessed with their dead friend. What else is new? Everyone was obsessed with that girl, even the liars technically.
The Reveal
For the final dollhouse episode, I would actually keep the prom concept. I would also keep Spencer coming up with a plan to escape. During the execution of this plan, the girls would essentially jump A, revealing Alison to be alive. This would be the reveal for both the liars and the audience, so it’d be a huge struggle and the girls would plead for answers.
Alison would shrug them off ominously, saying “it’s immortality my darlings,” before Hannah lands a punch, knocking out two of Alisons teeth. Aria and Emily would have to pull Hanna away while Spencer stood there in shock and disgust. They’d tie her up and just as they were starting to ask questions, the lights would go out and Ali would be gone before any of them knew what was happening.
Hanna would be fuming with fury, pacing and ranting about all the ways she’d rip Alison apart. Emily would be crying hysterically, devastated at what they’ve learned. Spencer would be in shock, unable to even process what was happening. Aria would be asking all the questions the audience had.
If Alison was alive, who’s funeral did they go to? Where’s she been all this time? Who helped her escape? Was Alison and her accomplice still somewhere in the dollhouse? With that question, Spencer would snap out of her own head and make a stance to get them out of there. It was now or never.
Just like in canon, I’d have a rescue team working on the girls. By the time the doors open and the girls make it out, Alison and her accomplice would be gone and in the wind. The girls wouldn’t say anything to the police, the same way they kept Charles Dilaurentis to themselves. I’d say instead of Andrew, Mona was the scapecoat chosen by Ali and Cece.
Hanna would be against allowing Mona to be railroaded, but Aria and Emily would convince her that the only way the police would believe them, was if they found Alison and proved she was alive. But there would be silence from Alison, from A. The police would have to release Mona due to lack of evidence. Years would go by, the girls would go off to college and start their lives without hearing a peep from their friend turned stalker.
Rewritten “AD” Reveal
Suspicious Murder
I like the idea of Alison surviving the dollhouse and just being on the run for the time-jump. It creates this feeling of unease for the girls because, although the stalking ended when the liars escaped the dollhouse, they’ll never truly trust that it’s over. And they shouldn’t.
After the time jump, Emily, Hannah, and Spencer are lured back to Rosewood with a photo of Aria sitting in the brew with a knife in the camera. The text would say. “I’ve come to collect my favorite doll. Come and find us.” – A
Obviously the liars would come running to Rosewood to save Aria, but they’d just end up trapped when they discover that Alison Dilaurentis’ body was found at the bottom of the bell tower, same way Ian’s had been all those years ago. They would be asked not to leave town and right when they start to discuss the A text and where Aria might be, a new text would come in. “Want to find your favorite doll? You’ve got 24 hours to bring me Ali’s killer or I’ll smash her to bits. Follow the yellow brick road, bitches.” – A.D.
Spencer would decipher this to mean Radley, which would still be the converted hotel. I actually like the idea of that renovation. It gives the town an even larger shadow of eerie history, which I think is pretty cool. Essentially, the girls would have to go through a series of unfortunate events to unravel the murder of Alison in time, which they aren’t able to do. This prompts a delivery to the barn of the board game.
The Finale
By the finale, the girls would be so worn out at this point. Days having passed with no word from Aria, Hanna would declare her to probably be dead, implying they’re next. Emily would tell her not to be so negative, and Spencer would be defeated.
Mona would chime in at this point to help, similar to canon. I’d also keep Mona as the killer here. It makes sense for her to have finally tracked Alison down, lured her to town, and killed her during their confrontation. Ali ruined her life. She destroyed her so badly that she became A just to cope with the torment. Then Ali even took that from her too. Tried to send her to jail for the dollhouse. Alison was responsible for all of it in Mona’s eyes, and she wouldn’t even say she was sorry.
In reality, she was inspired to start the game up again. That was enough to make Mona snap and kill the mean queen for good. Upon this reveal, Spencer’s phone would ring and it would be Aria. She’d put the phone on speaker and each of the girls would be shocked to hear Aria seemingly sounding fine. She’d insist she was, just having returned from a writing sabbatical with her publishing company. The girls would beg her to come to Rosewood and she’d agree saying she was at least a day away.
That night, Hanna would insist on going to Mona’s place to check on her. Worried for her safety, Emily and Spencer would come along. They’d push open the ajar back door and find Aria hovering over a dead Mona. This is when we’d get the final reveal and epic monologue.
Aria would explain that Alison contacted her after the lodge fire. She picked her because Aria was different from everyone else, but not different from Ali. She sensed it in Aria, the darkness inside her. She’d been spying on the other liars for years, feeding Ali, or A information.
When Spencer demanded to know why, and Hanna declared the betrayal worse than Ali’s, all Aria could reply with, was “sometimes the villains win” and a shrug. She’d try to escape with her black hoodie, but Aria would be overpowered by her 3 ex-best friends. The series would end very similarly to Mona’s ending in season 2, except Aria would be locked behind a jail cell rather than in a sanitarium.
Final Thoughts
I had so much fun coming up with this theory, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I like the idea of being super vague with the motive here because I think that adds to how haunting the betrayal truly is.
Let me know if you agree in the comments below!