Talk:What Lies Beneath/@comment-98.151.59.3-20120816230223/@comment-5409042-20120817002105

A lot of fans point out that Aria is being the less tormented. This could be a flaw on the writers part. This could be because A uses people's secrets against them, and Aria is extremely good at keeping secrets (remember when Mona ask who's the best liar, everybody said "Aria!"; remember how she kept her relationship with Ezra secret from everybody for so long?). And Aria is the most well-grounded of the four, because of her surprisingly functional family — her parents raised her to be an adult.

By contrast, Hanna is raised by a single mother who has serious money problems; Spencer has the Hastings who undermine her confidence at every turn, and Melissa to contend with; Emily is under a lot of pressure naturally from her parents (and the show is consistent with making her have a slight alcohol problem), and then because of discovering her sexual orientation. Spencer also is the most adamant at finding out who is the murderer and who is A, and is probably the most dangerous of all four.

That said, I disagree that Aria is getting it easier. If you look at the final consequences, you will see that Aria's life is the one that has been most affected by A.

-- Hanna was run over, but that was over after a couple of days at the hospital and that's all (A could have revealed that her mother stole a lot of money, and that would've been the end for that family).

-- Emily got ulcers, that quickly healed and she was back on the swim team quickly enough. She did not even have to tell her parents about the deception with Danby, which could've had dire consequences.

-- Spencer was attempt framed, but the consequences of that were void, she didn't go to prison, she didn't have to pay anything. On the other hand, A could've gotten the family in serious trouble in many ways: for instance, had A revealed Spencer's father's business with the will, that would've completely destroyed the family.

On the other hand, Aria was hit by A several times with major, durable consequences. A is the one who revealed Byron's infidelity, and arguably this is the reason for a lot of the family turmoil that ended up in the divorce. A is the one who eventually made her parents realize she was seeing Ezra, and that had horrible consequences: Ezra does not have job. This simple fact is what is opening the whole can of worms and is at the basis of all the troubles Aria and Ezra are encountering (if he didn't have that problem, he would not be stressed about money, he would not have had to reach out to his family, they would not have been able to slitter their way back to him, he would have revealed Maggie in due time, etc.).

While it is entirely possible that Ezra job situation might be resolved miraculously (this is television after all), the truth is, if he can't be employed while in Rosewood, there will inevitably come a time when he'll have to decide to leave.

So the truth is, A might not have spectacularly hit Aria, but she is paying the price of those hits every day through her broken family and the rocky road in her (possibly doomed) relationship.