The Liars

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

- Spencer to the girls before they left for college in "Game Over, Charles"

The Pretty Little Liars (or simply, The Liars) is a nickname for the five (sometimes six) girls - Alison DiLaurentis, Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, Emily Fields, and Hanna Marin, who are the original Liars. Mona Vanderwaal became part of the group after she was kicked off The A-Team and became a target herself. However, she did not really make much of an effort to actually befriend the other girls until Season 5, when the five of them decide to bring down Ali after assuming she is 'A'.

Members

 * Alison DiLaurentis (Founder; Former Leader)
 * Spencer Hastings (De Facto Leader)
 * Aria Montgomery
 * Hanna Marin
 * Emily Fields
 * Mona Vanderwaal (Season 4 onwards; on/off)

Allies

 * Toby Cavanaugh
 * Ezra Fitz
 * Caleb Rivers
 * Paige McCullers (kind-of)
 * Jason DiLaurentis
 * Jordan Hobart
 * Liam Greene
 * Lucas Gottesman
 * Mike Montgomery
 * Ella Montgomery
 * Byron Montgomery
 * Ashley Marin
 * Regina Marin
 * Veronica Hastings
 * Pam Fields
 * Carla Grunwald
 * Jake
 * Sabrina
 * Holden Strauss
 * Wesley Fitzgerald
 * Wayne Fields (before his death)
 * Maya St. Germain (before her death)
 * Shana Fring (before her betrayal and death)

Storylines

 * Alison DiLaurentis, the former "Queen Bee" of her clique and the most popular girl in school before her disappearance and alleged death. Although she cared for her friends, she enjoyed using their deepest, darkest secrets against them to keep them in line. Charming and manipulative, Ali was skilled at finding ways to blackmail and play with other. Although she was hated by many others adored her. She disappeared a year prior to the beginning of the series, and in "Pilot" a body is found and thought to be her's. The show's main premise revolves around the mystery of Ali's murder. Alison is later revealed to be alive, but is hiding from "A" who is still after her. Alison is currently widowed to Elliot Rollins, real name Archer Dunhill.


 * Spencer Hastings, the "Genius" of the group. She is an extreme perfectionist and overachiever who always tries to please her wealthy parents, who clearly show more affection towards her older sister, Melissa. Spencer tends to fall for her sister's boyfriends, such as Wren Kingston and Ian Thomas. Spencer had been the only person brave enough to ever stand up to Alison. Out of all of the girls, she is the most competitive. Spencer is currently dating Caleb Rivers.


 * Emily Fields, the "Jock" of the group. She can be described as the sweet, caring and kind girl, also being very sensitive. Emily was closest to Alison before her disappearance and was also in love with her. A closeted lesbian, Emily was later outed by "A". She also falls in love with and dates Maya St. Germain. During this time, she also befriends Toby Cavanaugh, Jenna's step-brother and Spencer's current boyfriend, even though everyone was distrustful of him for being accused of killing Alison, creating a strong friendship between the two. In the Season 2 finale, Maya was murdered by her stalker, Lyndon James, who also tried to kill Emily and her current girlfriend, Paige McCullers, in the Season 3 summer finale.. In Season 4, Emily got into a big accident because of "A", causing her to become unable to swim and wonder for her scholarship. Emily is currently single.


 * Aria Montgomery, the "Artist" of the group. Aria has a passion for art and literature. She is kind and very supportive. Aria returns to Rosewood with her family after spending a year in Iceland. At a bar, she meets Ezra Fitz and kisses him, only to discover on her first day of school that he is her English teacher. They decide to secretly continue their relationship and do so for some time, until eventually making their romance public. Then Ezra finds out about him having a child, the relationship is strained and is eventually ended when he gets a teaching job at Rosewood High again. However, Aria was dating Liam Greene, until she broke up with him for Ezra.


 * Hanna Marin, the new "It Girl" of the group who struggles with self-image issues and bulimia. Known as "Hefty Hanna" while Alison was alive, Hanna subsequently transformed herself into the most popular girl in school, along with her best friend, Mona Vanderwaal. She falls in love with Caleb Rivers, a phone hacker and relative newcomer to Rosewood. Hanna always sticks up for her friends. She started dating Travis Hobbs when Caleb left Rosewood. After Caleb's return, Travis broke up with Hanna. Hanna is currently single, after breaking off her engagement with Jordan Hobart.


 * Mona Vanderwaal, the "Outsider" of the group who always tried to befriend The Liars when Alison was their Queen Bee, but they rejected her at every try. For a while she was the best friend of Hanna, until her reveal in UnmAsked as the A|Original A who had been targeting the four girls. Throughout much of Season 3, she was working with The A-Team until being kicked off by Red Coat at the end of "A DAngerous GAme". She also receives her first official message from "A" as one of the Liars in "A is for A-L-I-V-"E. However, despite technically being a Liar herself, it wasn't until after the events of "Miss Me x 100", that the other girls (minus Alison) began to warm up to her. The bond with the four girls grew stronger once they found out she was alive in "Welcome to the Dollhouse" and lived through the traumatic experience alongside them. It is unknown if Mona is still dating Aria's younger brother, Mike, at this point.

Series
In the flashback of the "Pilot," the five original Liars seem very close with their leader, Alison DiLaurentis. Together, they share a tight bond, but every girl's secret deeply troubles their friendship: Spencer has a habit of crushing on, and later kissing, her older sister Melissa's boyfriends, specifically Ian, who has a secret relationship with Alison as well. Emily is a closeted lesbian harboring an unrequited crush on Alison. Hanna is an insecure bulimic, mostly due to Alison's constant taunting. Aria's father is having an affair with one of his college students, which Alison and Aria discover, and which Alison later blackmails him for. All of the girls secrets are connected to Alison, and she is privy to them all, claiming it was their secrets that kept them close.
 * -|Season 1=

They all share one huge secret: "The Jenna Thing". It was an incident where Alison convinced her friends to pull a prank on peeping tom Toby Cavanaugh. Alison made a firework, and planned to drop it in the Cavanaugh garage in order to scare Toby. The other girls seem reluctant to join, due to the flimsy plan having so much room for error, yet they all give in. As they suspected, the prank went wrong, but not as badly as they imagined. The firework ended up exploding and blinding Toby's younger stepsister, Jenna. Alison blackmailed Toby into taking the blame, earning his wrath.

The bond between the girls weakened as their secrets began to tear the group apart: Spencer and Alison constantly butted heads. Alison kept the other girls secrets over their heads and even blackmailed them, leading all four girls to harbor resentment towards her. The friendship was broken with Alison's disappearance. During a sleepover, Alison served her friends drinks and after they fell asleep, she left Spencer's barn, never to be seen again. After that night, Hanna distanced herself from the other three girls and befriended outsider Mona Vanderwaal, and Aria moved with her family to Iceland. Spencer decided to dedicate herself to her studies, and Emily refocused on swimming, crushed by Ali's disappearance.

A year after Alison's disappearance, Aria moves back to Rosewood. Though she and Emily immediately pick up where they left off, Hanna and Spencer seemed uninterested. Shortly thereafter, all four girls began to receive nasty messages from the ominous "A." This elusive stalker, along with Alison's body being found and the group becoming potential suspects, the bond is unbroken. Despite a rough start, the girls repair their friendship.

Soon they become as close-knit as they were before Ali's death. As a result, Hanna slightly distances herself from Mona. Their close bond is evident when Emily, Spencer and Aria grieve after Hanna is seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident. The remaining girls seem concerned when Emily goes to Homecoming with Toby, their past enemy. They alert her that it is likely he killed Alison. They are deeply saddened and angry when Emily ends up in the hospital later that night, blaming Toby for her injuries without getting the story straight. All season, it is obvious they care dearly for each other and will stop at nothing to protect each other.

Just as in the previous season, the girl's pact is stronger than ever. They take to the fight with "A," protecting even more secrets the group share and hiding them. They are all there for each other during hard times: "A" manages to ruin Spencer and Aria's relationships, Hanna struggles with her rivalry with her new devious, malicious stepsister Kate and her relationship troubles with Caleb, Emily struggles to get back on the swim team after "A's" drug incident and her girlfriend Maya inexplicably disappears like Alison. They group help each other bring "A" down, alerting Spencer, Mona turned out to be "A" while she was with her. They hear the altercation between them and go to the woods to help Spencer, with Hanna seriously considering ramming Mona down with her car and the girls pushing her down the cliff just as she's about to strike Spencer. By the season's end, they all rally around Emily when it is discovered Maya has been murdered.
 * -|Season 2=

Despite the girls remaining strong, serious cracks begin to form in their bond: Emily drinks herself into a blackout and leads the other girls to get setup by "A," making it appear as though they dug up Alison's grave. This trusts the group back into turmoil after five months of being A free. They band together yet again to fight off the new "A," strong dissent begins to occur when Hanna and Spencer begin to suspect Emily's new girlfriend Paige of murdering Maya and being the new "A," due to Mona planting evidence supporting their claim. It is discovered that Paige was in love with Emily long before either of them came out, despite knowing her conservative father would oppose. She wrote a love letter to her which Alison intercepted, and blackmailed her into doing her bidding. Aria joins in on their belief and stage an intervention to help Emily realize their suspicions. Emily fiercely defends Paige against her friends, and leaves to spend time with Nate, Maya's cousin who transferred to Hollis College to be involved in the investigation into her death. Emily has a good time, until Nate reveals his true intentions: he is not the cousin of Maya, he was her lover at True North, Lyndon James. He stalked her when she turned him down, and he ended up killing her. He thought he could move on with Emily, but he thinks she teased him, like Maya did. He planned on killing a bound and gagged Paige while Emily was forced to watch, however the Liars discovered Emily was in trouble and Caleb went into the remote cabin to attempt to save Emily. While Emily had stabbed Lyndon, Caleb held her and comforted her, only to get shot by Lyndon. A sobbing Hanna is seen outside being comforted by Spencer and Aria, strengthening the group once more.
 * -|Season 3=

The girl's friendship did not seem to take another major hit for the remainder of the season, staying strong and it is implied they even trust former "A", Mona Vanderwaal, to join the group in the season finale, possibly renewing her friendship with Hanna in the process.

Mona becomes more of a role in the group, showing the Liars "A's" computer and telling them specific things from previous seasons. It is unknown yet whether she is a permanent member or just a helper, telling them "A" related information. Since the fire at the end of Season 3, she has been "fired" from the A-Team which may mean she turns to the rest of the Liars for help. Meanwhile the other girls are still best friends, saving each other and discovering things together. In the ending of the season premiere, the new "A" is seen adding a Mona doll in the dollhouse with the Liars meaning she is officially in the group (in "A's" standards).
 * -|Season 4=

In the mid-season finale, the four Liars (Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily) found out that Alison is still alive. In the season finale, Alison reveals that Mona always knew she was alive.

Ali is back in Rosewood and the girls wonder if she can be trusted.
 * -|Season 5=

In EscApe From New York Emily, Hanna, and Spencer  (Not Aria because she is with Ezra) feel like Alison is leaving them again. When Aria finds out from Ezra that it was Shana, she kills her. As a result, the girls think that A is dead. In Whirly Girlie The Liars return to Rosewood to tell the police everything when Alison said she was kidnapped. The girls wonder why she lied; Alison showed Emily and Spencer a text she got (later revealed to be from Mona) and that's why she lied. They told Hanna but not Aria. At the end of the episode, Jason and The Liars found Jessica DiLaurentis's body.

In Surfing the Aftershocks The episode opens with Alison lying despondently on her bed. The girls visit, offering her water or something to eat but Alison does not say a word. Light fades into dark before light again, signaling days have passed. Ali is sad about mother's death. The day of Mrs. DiLaurentis funeral, The Liars are waiting downstairs for Alison. When Hanna comes downstairs, the girls ask her how Ali is doing. Hanna tells them that Alison is going to her mother's funeral, Emily thinks that Jason buried Jessica, but Spencer defends him, saying that she saw his face when the dog discovered Jessica's. Aria is still paranoid, thinking that the dog was A’s and that’s why it knew where the body was. Spencer assures her that it wasn’t ‘A’ and that dogs smell and dig. Emily tells Aria that ‘A’ is gone. Spencer tells them that since Mona knows the truth about Alison not being kidnapped, they still have her to deal with. She also alludes to the other person that knows the truth about what happened - Ezra. Alison comes downstairs, wearing one of Jesicca's dress. Kenneth is furious about it and asks her to go and change her dress. Jason stops them, saying they’re already late. When Jason leaves Ali asks the girls why her dad is so angry. Spencer tells Alison that her mother wore the same dress to her funeral as they all leave The next day in school The girls (Not Alison) are in Vice Principal Hackett’s office where he tells them that he is happy that they are safe and measures will be taken to prevent the press being at school. He tells the four girls he needs their assurance they'll do their part to keep the disturbances to a minimum. Hanna assures him that he won’t even notice they’re at school In the school hallway, Mona stops Aria and asks her to sign a card for Mr. Fitz, who, according to Mona, is back in Rosewood. Aria doesn't want to sign the card, but Mona tells her that she should at least do it for appearance’s sake. Mona says that they should be careful about how people see them. Hanna interrupts and takes the card from Mona’s hands to sign it, before passing it to Aria. Mona wonders what will happen when Ali returns to Rosewood high and reminds them that she knows Alison's story is bogus. Hanna asks her if she’s seen Noel and Mona replies by saying that he’s around somewhere, getting into mischief. Paige and Emily are talking when a new girl is staring at them Paige also tells her she'll take care of her the new swimmer who is staring at them and Emily walks over to talk to her to say stop when Mona comes up to Paige giving her the card for Mr. Fitz so she can sign it.The new girl continues to stare at Emily so she confronts her. It turns out it was just because the girl, Sydney, and that she is impressed with her swimming career. Sydney begs for some help with her swimming, asking Emily to watch her in the pool and give her opinions.Spencer is looking at Alison’s room from her window. Melissa comes up behind her and implies that Jason killed Jessica. Melissa wants to know why Spencer sent Toby after her to London. Spencer says that she didn’t send him Spencer wants to know why Melissa lied about seeing Toby in London. Melissa says that she wanted to keep Wren out of it. Melissa thinks that Spencer bringing Ali home safe and sound was a mistake and she should stay away from that family. Spencer reminds Melissa that they are both part of that family Alison and Hanna go to the funeral home to pick up the visitation book. Alison seems bothered by a painting she sees on the wall and leaves for a minute and the funeral director mistakes Hanna for Alison, Alison remarks that how easy it was once to tell them which one was which.

The Books

 * In the books, they were nicknamed first by the local news web page in Heartless after they saw the real Alison DiLaurentis.