Alison DiLaurentis

Alison DiLaurentis is a character in the television series Pretty Little Liars and had been best friends with Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily before disappearing the night of August 31st, 2009. She was the "It Girl" and the Queen Bee of Rosewood High School up until her disappearance. One year after her disappearance, her body is found buried in the backyard of Maya St. Germain's house, which used to be hers. The autopsy states that she suffered a blow to the head and subsequently suffocated to death as a result of being buried alive. Alison has an older brother named Jason DiLaurentis.

Appearance & Personality
Alison DiLaurentis was very well-known for her beautiful long blonde hair, heart-shaped face, and ocean-blue eyes. Although Alison appeared to be innocently kind and loving, she was a very flirtatious and playful young woman who possessed a wicked streak of deceit and manipulation within her. She always said that "secrets keep us close." Ali knew how to keep a secret, but she also knew how to use them against others.

Season 1 Flashbacks
The show begins with footage of the night Alison DiLaurentis disappeared. Alison, Aria Montgomery, Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin and Emily Fields were having a sleepover party in Spencer's barn. Alison scares them by sneaking up on them in the barn doorway. They all laughed and joked about it at the time. Sometime after the girls had fallen asleep, they begin to wake up one by one and realize Spencer and Ali are both missing. Spencer had left the barn and returns to tell the other girls that she looked for Ali everywhere and thinks she heard a scream.

Also in the "Pilot," Aria has a flashback to October 2008 (as we later learn) when she and Alison had cruelly run away from then-nerd Mona only to find her father, Byron, kissing another woman inside his car.

Spencer flashes back to a moment last summer, when Melissa was dating then-boyfriend Ian Thomas. She had been standing with Alison and Hanna in her kitchen when Ian and Melissa walked in. Suddenly, Alison announces that Spencer has something to reveal, but Spencer denies it, and is annoyed by her so-called friend's blunt betrayal. Outside, out of earshot, Ali had threatened to expose Spencer's secret in front of her sister, namely the fact that she had once kissed her sister's boyfriend Ian. Spencer had countered with a threat to expose Ali's involvement in "The Jenna Thing."

In "The Jenna Thing," it is revealed that one night when the girls were trying on clothes in Emily's bedroom, Alison spotted someone spying on them, who she claimed was absolutely Toby Cavanaugh. Alison immediately hatches a plan to drop a stink bomb in his garage as revenge. Emily and Aria try to back out, while Hanna and Spencer also share their reservations, but Ali is adamant that someone spying on them must be taught a lesson. Alison then orders Spencer to pass the match and ignites the firecracker, opening the door of the garage, and tossing it inside. But the prank went terribly wrong when the garage catches on fire, and Alison sees too late that someone - Jenna Marshall - was inside. As a result, Jenna was permanently blinded from the accident, and Alison made sure that Toby falsely took the blame for it. Alison had blackmailed him with a piece of information that Spencer could not overhear.

Also in "The Jenna Thing," while Emily is sitting by herself in a restaurant, she looks down at her bracelet and flashes back to the aftermath of "The Jenna Thing," when Alison had bought the other Pretty Little Liars friendship bracelets with their names on them. Alison had given the girls the bracelets in the same restaurant in which Emily is now sitting. At the time, she had even suggestively asked Emily to tie hers for her, indicating she knew Emily's secret.

In "To Kill a Mocking Girl," Hanna is being interrogated by Detective Wilden, who suspects Hanna of having tried to kill Alison out of jealousy. She assures him that nobody tried to compete with Alison, that it was pointless, and this in turn prompts her memory of the time in her chubby days when she asked Sean out to a party. She had asked him with nervous quavering voice, and Alison had stepping in, pointing out that everyone was going. She made eyes at him, and he accepted, perhaps because he really found Hanna charming or perhaps because Alison had been hard to resist.

At Noel's cabin party, Spencer suddenly recalls the night of "The Jenna Thing," when the girls had to deal with the aftermath. Alison had been standing in front of the Cavanaugh house, blackmailing Toby with something to get him to take the hit for the fire in the garage. Spencer had walked over to listen, and Alison angrily pushed her back, angry that she violated her order to stay away. She follows Spencer to where the other girls are standing and tells her friends that she would have not set off the bomb in the garage if she had known someone was in there, even though it seems that she did see Toby and Jenna in there. Hanna expresses her desire to come clean to the police and explain it was an accident, but Alison rails on Hanna, basically calling her a fat loser until Aria scolds her, forcing her to apologize. But Alison makes sure she gets her way and makes the girls flee the scene, letting Toby take the fall. Spencer remembers seeing Toby as he was taken away in the cop car to the police station.

It is later revealed that Alison was threatening Toby to take responsibility for the fire, but he had told her that he will make sure she takes responsibility. In turn, she had threatened that if he tells, she would tell everyone Jenna and Toby had a sexual relationship.

In "Can You Hear Me Now?" Aria watches her mother preparing dinner in the kitchen. She suddenly recalls the incident she witnessed, involving her father and Meredith kissing in his car. This time, she additionally remembers how Alison had tried to convince her to tell her mother what she saw. When Byron had tried to call Aria, Alison had warned her not to pick up, correctly suspecting that he would try to talk Aria out of revealing what she saw. Alison had warned Aria that she could risk losing both parents if she didn't tell.

In "Please, Do Talk About Me When I'm Gone," preparations for Alison's memorial sparks memories of a summer day that the girls had spent lounging by the lakeshore. Ironically, the girls had spoken about immortality and the fantasy of living in this moment forever. Alison had said that one could only attain immortality by dying young and leaving behind a beautiful corpse. Alison had also romanticized how fabulous it would be to die in a mysterious way.

Spencer recalls in a flashback who else was at the beach that day. Jenna had come to start a barbecue, wearing her now familiar shades before taking them off. Alison expresses her annoyance, and Emily comments on Toby's conspicuous absence. When Alison responds by joking about him being busy making animal sacrifices, Spencer rolls her eyes and points out how typical it was of Alison to taunt others. But, she softens when the girls all agree that this day was perfect, and then shares their dream that they would stay friends until they grow old.

After Hanna makes a comment to Aria about how she used to crush hard on Noel, she flashes back again to that day and remembers how she and Alison had spotted Noel with a girl named Prudence. Alison had torn into her too, suggesting that she was anything but chaste with Noel and provocatively suggests that she had gotten a boob job. Aria watches Noel applying sun block on the other girl enviously. As if reading her mind, Alison asks if Aria would also do something like that to get Noel's attention. She then teases Aria for falling for brainy guys, and calls Noel immature and simultaneously perfect for Aria, flustering her.

Later, Hanna remembers who else Alison had picked on that day. When Lucas had run in front of them to pick up his toy motor boat, she made a bunch offensive comments to him. Finally, Hanna exclaims "hey" as if to stand up to Alison and stop her from teasing him, but she then recoils and sits silent as Alison makes fun of her and Lucas trudges away.

And, Emily remembers more of Alison's snide remarks that day. As she puts on Maya's gift scarf before the mirror, she recalls how Alison had commented on Noel and Prudence heading to The Kissing Rock. She matter of factly informed Emily that people had gone there to kiss for hundreds of years. She then looked Emily daringly in the eyes and asked her who she would like to take to The Kissing Rock. Emily just smiled shyly while staring back.

In "The Perfect Storm," Emily is directed by "A" to the school library's copy of "Great Expectations," the same book Alison had been reading one day alone in the library. Emily had joined her on the floor, and Alison had stroked Emily's hair affectionately. Emily revealed her dream that Jenna could see again, and Alison said something about Emily's positive, perhaps naïve, attitude, to the effect of "that's why I love you, Emily." She then read her the passage of Pip's account of his ardent love for Stella: he loved her against reason and despite the fact that she basically played hard-to-get and gave him little hope for a future, in spite of her teasing. Quite fittingly, Emily then leaned in to kiss Alison, expressing her own love of the same nature. Alison actually smiled in return.

While reading the letter that she had written for Alison, Emily then remembers when she had been in the locker room with Alison alone. Alison was changing; she removed her towel to reveal her topless half and, before putting on her bra, made conversation about how she bought it in a French catalog, forcing Emily's already attentive eyes to stare. She had asked Emily to hook it, and after doing so, Emily had kissed her neck. Alison immediately turned on her, feigning shock, and cruelly let Emily know that their kiss meant nothing more to her than target practice for "the real thing." Abashed, Emily had turned, poised to leave, but Alison wouldn't let her escape the moment, reminding Emily that she was supposed to be giving her a ride home. Nevertheless, Emily remained, defeated and humiliated, showcasing Alison's control over her friends.

In "Keep Your Friends Close," Spencer tries to convince Melissa to reunite with Ian. Afterwards, she flashes back to the previous summer when she had been practicing her field hockey swing on the front lawn. Ian had walked by, and, under the pretense of correcting her technique, put his arms around her waist and leaned in to kiss her neck. Surprised, Spencer had turned around to face him, and this, too, ended in a series of mouth kisses. After Ian walked away, Alison called out from where she was standing a few meters away to let Spencer know that she saw her kissing her sister's boyfriend. She called it disgusting and basically called Spencer a skank to boot. (Evidently, she had been jealous.)

In "Salt Meets Wound," Hanna is in her wheelchair at the party Mona has thrown for her, when Noel walks in. Just the sight of Noel prompts Hanna to have a flashback about him at a different party, when Alison had manipulated a girl to dump Noel, who gave him a nasty look in return. Alison had claimed that they were all responsible, when it is obvious that the girls had been oblivious to how Alison had even managed to break them up in the first place. She claims that she did it for Aria, so she could have him instead, and that she only kills when they need food.

Later, Spencer sees a "Hilton Head" resort tag on Ian's luggage and has a flashback to Alison returning from an alleged weekend visit with her grandma in Georgia with the same tag hanging from her luggage. When Spencer tried to question Alison about the club's location being in South Carolina and her grandmother being in Georgia, Alison deflected the questions derisively, then expressed how eager she was to share her vacation stories with the other Liars. This is the day that Alison disappeared.

In "Know Your Frenemies," when Hanna is forced to eat a half dozen cupcakes by "A," she flashes back to one day when she had eaten an entire pie in her kitchen at home. Alison had walked in on her and Hanna quickly tried to clear the evidence by throwing it in the garbage; however, Alison had seen it anyway. Hanna broke down into tears, and Alison comforted her friend, hugging her and murmuring, "I understand." She then wiped away Hanna's tears and told her that she didn't have to feel that way, and she could show her how to get rid of it. Presumably, Alison had shown Hanna how to purge the calories she had just binged.

In "If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again," Spencer guiltily recalls how the night she disappeared, Alison had pressured Spencer to tell her sister about kissing Ian. (This was hypocritical considering the fact that Alison was secretly dating Ian. She probably did it in order to make Spencer look bad, ensuring Melissa and Ian stay broken up, and then having Ian all to herself.) Spencer refused, but Alison warned that Melissa would find out the next day, whether Spencer told her or not. Alison arrogantly claimed that Spencer and the other Liars were her puppets. Spencer furiously countered that she was sick of her games, that she would tell Melissa, but Alison was dead to her already. Alison appeared distraught, then left angrily, and after a moment's pause, Spencer marched outside after her.

In "The Badass Seed," the girls flashback to a college party Alison had taken them to, probably in an effort to spy on Ian. Ian had been flirting with a particular tipsy girl and had gone off with her to one of the rooms upstairs. Later, that girl took a nasty tumble down the stairs. The girls all exchanged looks after her fall, and in hindsight, they are left to question whether Ian, or Ali, had pushed that girl.

Later that evening, the Liars stood on the lawn, discussing the incident, as a stretcher passed by. When Alison showed up, she had seemed either oblivious to the girl's accident or indifferent. At the same time, the girls were afraid of being caught being underage at a drinking party, which was very likely with the police swarming about. Alison had taken charge of the situation, brazenly asking a police officer for a ride home in his cop car, claiming to be too tipsy to get behind the wheel, when in reality she didn't want to take the bus and was too young to even drive. She wisely explained, "the bolder the move, the less anyone questions it." The girls got into the car as Alison exchanged a look with Ian on the porch.

In "Monsters in the End," Emily makes a discovery after the Rosewood Founder's Festival. Emily reverts back to the last time she saw Alison before the sleepover; she had visited Emily in her bedroom to give her a snow globe as a souvenir gift from her vacation. As she had not bought any gifts for the others, she asked Emily to keep it a secret from them. She mysteriously alluded to the fact that it was more special than one would realize at first. This flashback prompts Emily to examine the toy, and at the bottom, she finds a key with numbers printed on it. Thanks to the clue, Emily, Aria and Hanna track down the matching location and uncover a flashdrive contained in a lunch box, housed in a storage unit that Alison had rented! The flashdrive contains secret videos, mostly of the girls in private moments such as getting dressed in their bedrooms; Alison had somehow known that they were being spied on while she was alive. There is footage of Jenna on these videos as well, meaning that the Liars hadn't been the only girls to be spied on.

In "For Whom the Bell Tolls," the girls corner Jenna to confront her about the incriminating video they found of her and Toby. Jenna discloses that Ali had visited her in the hospital on the day that she disappeared. She played the video footage of Jenna seducing her brother, and Jenna fumingly asked Alison were she got it. Alison replied that the guy she liked liked to make videos, perhaps vaguely referring to Ian. She threatened Jenna that if she ever told anyone about what they did (setting the fire), she would release the damaging videos. Jenna could only sit exasperated before Ali took the computer and moved to leave. Alison then turned to warn Jenna that if she ever returned to Rosewood, she would bury her. The Liars believe Jenna's account, given how it explains her seemingly strange speech at Alison's memorial dedication.

Season 2 Flashbacks
In "The Goodbye Look," after Jason returns to his former home in Rosewood, Spencer drops by to give him cookies in hopes of finding out information from him. It turns out Jason wants information from her, but when she is not specific enough about whether Ian actually confessed to killing Alison, he returns inside. While still standing on the stoop, Spencer flashes back to one summer when Ali and the Pretty Little Liars' were lounging in the DiLaurentis' front yard. Jason had stormed out of the house, accusing Alison of messing with his stuff. She had retorted back sharply, mocking him and his friends for being stoners, and the other girls laughed. When Jason went back into the house, they questioned Alison whether she had stolen what he claimed she had. She admitted it gleefully. When Emily asked her whether she was worried that Jason would rip apart her room in search of his things, she mischievously replied that he would never find what she hid. Just then, a smashing sound was heard from inside the house, though Alison seemed unfazed. Spencer snaps back to reality when Jason's porch light switches off.

In "My Name Is Trouble," Spencer is troubled sleeping alone in her house. She looks out her window and sees Jason inside the room opposite hers, newspapering the windows to conceal everything inside. It prompts her to flashback to a time when Jason was having a party with his friends, and a distraught Alison had come to Spencer's house seeking refuge from the grabby drunk boys at the party. She had been in a tearful state, but lashed out when the girls tried to show her compassion and support, insulting them and turning impersonal. Emily had been over at the time as well, and the two girls wondered what had happened to Alison that upset her so much. Alison pretended to be upset because her grandmother was ill.

In "Never Letting Go," the Liars lunch with Ali's mother Jessica, as per her request. There, she presents the girls with presents, four high-fashion dress. However, the girls are uneasy, as they remember Alison having picked them out and trying them on one afternoon. She compared the dresses to her friends: unique and belonging to her.

In "Surface Tension," after Toby shares news of the hockey stick discovery with Spencer, she flashes back to when Alison had asked Spencer to teach her how to play field hockey. Spencer had been happy to lend Ali her old hockey stick with the Rosewood Field Hockey team colors on it - blue and white. Aria had questioned Ali's motives at the time, knowing that Alison wasn't the biggest field hockey fan. She guessed that it was about a guy, which was probably correct. Spencer said that guys don't play field hockey, not putting it together that Alison was either interested in or already dating Ian, the field hockey coach.

Spencer then calls Aria to fill her in on the details of the find. Spencer immediately suspects Jason of having hurt Alison and trying to cover it up by burying the broken hockey stick and later trying to build a fence along property line, where the evidence is buried. Making Jason look even more incriminating is Aria's flashback of Jason the day that Spencer had been showing Ali how to hold the hockey stick. He had come looking for her on their mother's orders, unhappy to have to waste time looking for Ali. When he caught sight of the stick, he grabbed it from her and then threatened to hit her and Spencer let out a warning cry. When Jason turned around, Ali tried to whack her brother with the stick, but Jason moved quickly, and mockingly warned Ali that she wouldn't get a second chance.

In "I Must Confess," Spencer flashes back to the summer before Alison had disappeared. The girls had been standing in Hanna's kitchen, and Hanna's grandmother Regina had been over as well. She was talking about her two sons, Tom and Patrick, and Alison suddenly asked what it would take to cut one of them from her will. Regina was taken aback by the question, but Alison had pressed on, asking hypothetically, if one of her sons sold an expensive family heirloom to buy drugs, would that warrant dismissal from the family tree? Regina ultimately said yes. In retrospect, Spencer believes Alison to have been referring to her own family situation and thinks that Alison had gone to Georgia in order to try and get her grandmother to cut Jason out of her will.

In the prequel episode, "The First Secret," taking place Halloween 2008, nearly 2 years before Alison disappeared, viewers get to see Alison for more than a short flashback or two, acting as ringleader of The Pretty Little Liars.

One day, while Hanna is babysitting a young boy, Alison narrates a scary story about two blonde twins. In the story, after the twins get into a fight over a doll, one of them gets mad and stabs the other in the heart with a knife on Halloween. At that point, Hanna thinks that Alison should stop telling the terrifying tale, but the child was riveted. So, Alison continues on about how the murderous little girl was sent to the insane asylum—“until yesterday!” and vowed to kill every kid who goes trick-or-treating.

Later on, the five Liars walk together down a neighborhood street. Alison is bossy with regard to Hanna's costume decision and takes a jab at Hanna's weight. When Spencer goes on about her bid for class presidency, Alison mocks her and teases her about her big vocabulary. Just then, Noel drives up in a convertible with his jock friends to greet the Liars, particularly Alison. He invites all the girls to his party, since any friend of Ali's is a friend of his. The girls gush in excitement, and Alison mocks them.

They continue walking past a run-down abandoned house. A shadowy figure is seen in one of the upstairs windows. When Emily brings it up, Aria comments that she got a bad feeling from this place, feeling as if something bad had happened there. Spencer attributes the movement to typical Rosewood kid activity on Halloween, and Alison is equally nonchalant. After they walk away, someone opens the door, and a taxi marked "Radley Sanitarium," is seen parked across the street. Does this mean Alison's scary story wasn't an invention?

Later at the local costume shop, Noel startles Alison by grabbing her from behind and covering her mouth while wearing a scary mask. Alison is ruffled, but not upset. She then spotted the new girl in Rosewood buying a "Lady G." costume. Alison tries to intimidate her to buy a new one, declaring that that is her own costume choice this year. The new girl noncommittally agrees to think about changing her decision. Before walking away, Alison offers her name, to which the girl replies that she already knows it, and that her own name is Jenna. They smile pleasantly, if not fakely, at each other, and Alison strolls away with a basket on her arm. She then gets an anonymous text reading “I’m watching you” from a blocked number. Unnerved, she scans the store for the perpetrator, but discovers nothing. She then turns to be surprised once more by another person wearing a scary mask, but unlike Noel, this person does not reveal their identity. She barks "freak!" before walking away.

In Spencer’s living room later that day, Alison flirts with Melissa’s boyfriend Ian, who is holding a video camera in his hand. He films Alison talking about her grandmother in Georgia who used to be a sweater model. After a few more lines about her own photogenicity, she turns the camera on Ian and films him talking himself up. Alison immediately sets the camera down when Melissa and Spencer descend the stairs. Alison makes a comment about Melissa's support of Spencer in the presidential election, and Melissa comments that Alison wouldn't understand, as she's not a Hastings.

That night, Alison calls Hanna to ask if it had been the one who texted her in the costume shop and whether she had been in the costume shop in the first place. When Hanna replies in the negative, Alison doesn't bother to offer an explanation for the unusual question and hangs up.

The next day at school, Alison joins the other Pretty Little Liars at their table in the cafeteria, and a nerdy Mona tries to do the same. Alison makes a nasty comment, leaving her to nurse her wounds at Lucas' table. When Alison hears that Ben is telling everyone that he and Emily had sex, and Emily confirms the rumor to be true, Ali seems impressed.

Later, in a familiar scene, Aria and Alison go out for frozen yogurt. While they are out walking, Mona sees them and calls out to join them. Aria seems inclined to stop, but Alison propels Aria around a corner in attempt to lose Mona. When they think they've lost her, they stop in their tracks when they see Byron and Meredith making out in his car parked amongst the bushes. Byron was all smiles until he spots his daughter and her crestfallen face.

Next, Alison sits alone on her bed, writing in a notebook, when Jason enters without knocking. She immediately shuts her notebook sarcastically asks if he'd ever heard of knocking. He tells her if she wanted to keep him out, she should put a lock on her door, prompting her to ask what he and his friends do behind his. He says he will tell her for $20. When she forks it over, he says that they are making a movie, but if he told her what kind, he'd have to kill her. He then tosses her a package and says he found it on the porch. Ali makes Jason leave before she opens it. Inside, is a burlap doll with a red heart stitched on and a note pinned to its head reading, "It's my turn to torture you." Ali reads the note aloud, and looks around uncertainly. She then opens the radiator grill and pulls out a wooden box filled with her hidden belongings. She pulls the head off a porcelain baby doll and slipps the note inside, before recapping it and putting it back in the box, which she returns to the hiding place. Meanwhile, someone had been spying on her house with binoculars.

Spencer is in her living room making something on her sewing machine when Alison comes over. Alison informs Spencer that a friend on the election committee had let her know that Spencer might not win the election. Alison tries not to be too harsh, telling her that it will be a close race. Spencer is discouraged, afraid of her parents' reaction. Alison uses the opportunity to bash Melissa for purposely trying to outshine Spencer in her parents' eyes. After all, Melissa had made some of the phone calls in inviting people to Spencer's congratulatory party. Her motive in stirring the sibling rivalry is not totally clear. Alison plays with the needles and stabs one deep into the pincusion near the sewing machine as she offers to fix the election for her, and Spencer accepts.

The next day, Emily walks to school with Alison. Alison brings up the possibility of Emily going on the pill, but Emily confesses that the rumors weren't true, and she wouldn't be needing contraception yet. She asks Alison not to tell anyone, and Alison agrees, perplexed by Emily's odd behavior until she discovers Emily's secret later that night...

Later in the school hallways, Alison suggestively lets Spencer know that "it," meaning the election, had been taken care of. When the other Liars question the comment, she lies that she helped Spencer with her speech. Alison changes the subject by piteously asking Aria how her mother is. Aria shoots daggers at Alison and is about to respond when Lucas bumps into Alison, accidentally dumping his drink on her. Livid, Alison rejects Lucas' apologies, mercilessly calling him "Hermie" and publicly suggesting that he is really a hermaphrodite. When Alison walks away, Lucas growls that she would get what's coming to her, and Mona nods uncomfortably in silent agreement.

Next, an announcement over the school loudspeaker reveals that the election results are in, and Spencer Hastings was the winner. Smiling, but insecure, Spencer accepts people's congratulations, and Alison winks knowingly at her.

That night, the girls get dressed in Spencer’s bedroom. True to her promise to Jenna, Alison dresses as Lady Gaga or "Lady G" as she called her. Aria walks in and announces that she didn’t feel like going. The girls accept Aria's decision, sans explanation, but Alison does not. Suddenly, someone dressed in a burlap outfit with a doll mask is spotted outside the window. Spencer notices him/her, and the girls had all squealed with worry. The doorbell rings at that moment, presumably for a pizza delivery, but Spencer insists on having company to go answer it. When Alison and Aria are left alone, Alison criticizes Aria for being such a downer and not going to the party after she had supposedly worked so hard to score her an invitation. Ali threatens that she will reveal Byron's affair to everyone if Aria does not attend. In response, Aria shows Alison a meek defense and ultimately agrees to go.

At the Halloween party, Noel approaches the Liars and they all explain their costumes. Then he spots Jenna, also dressed as a sexy Lady Gaga and heads right over there to introduce himself.

When a Lady GaGa song starts playing and the girls are dancing, Mona, dressed in a catwoman suit, approaches Alison with a hello. Alison asks if she knows her, to which Mona mysteriously responds "no, but you will." Ali then approaches Jenna. She offers to befriend her, thereby making Jenna's popularity in Rosewood a sure thing, but Jenna turns her down, saying that she likes to pick her own friends.

Outside on the porch, Ali sulks and jealously called Jenna a slut. She then hands Spencer the ballots of incriminating evidence. Spencer immediately burns them in a nearby fireplace without even looking inside, despite Ali cryptically telling her that she would be surprised to know who her friends weren't and suggestively glances Aria and Hanna's way.

Then, Emily slow-dances with Ben on the dance floor. Jenna seductively dances nearby, and locks eyes with Emily ogles her moves and curves. Alison, turning her eyes from one to the other, approaches Emily, and alludes to her hidden sexual orientation. Emily looks frightened, but Alison lets her know that her secret is safe.

Some time later, the girls notice Ali is missing. Just then, they all receive the same text reading, “I’m in trouble, come alone” from Ali, directing them to the scary house's address. So, they all hurry over there.

They find Ali in a locked room. Seemingly terrified, she recounts how someone grabbed her and brought her there threatening to kill her with a knife. Nobody can get a signal to dial 911 from their cell phones, so Ali goes out alone. Then she screams, but the door is bolted so the girls can't escape couldn't open it. Through the keyhole they see a violent fight between Ali and costumed individual with a knife. Ali knees him and run off.

Next, the Liars had managed to escape through a conveniently open window. They go back into the house where Ali is swaying in a rocking chair, brandishing a red stained knife and looking completely insane, but she claims the whole thing was a hoax: Noel had been the zombie, the blood had been ketchup (which she meanly offers to teary-eyed Hanna), and the girls had “passed the test." Spencer is the only who voices her feelings of betrayal at Alison's mean prank, but Alison unabashedly counters that she now knew that she could count on them as her friends when she needed them. They all look really annoyed and betrayed by Alison's crying wolf, but remain silent.

Back at the Halloween party, Alison approaches Ian and flirtingly strikes up a conversation with him. But, Melissa cuts her off by spinning Ian around and planting a kiss on his lips. Disgruntled, Ali walks back to her friends.

Noel then approaches Ali to apologize, but she told him it was perfect—before realizing that he had been apologizing because he hadn't been able to participate in the prank, not because he had been too rough with her. Noel had been stuck at the party since his brother took the car. Alison was taken aback. Who attacked her then? Suddenly, a guy in an identical costume brushes past Alison and mutters "bitch." Alison looked offended, and the guy takes his mask off as he darts away. It's Lucas.

Then, Alison receives a text: “Dying to know who I am? You’ll find out. –A.” When Spencer questions the text, Alison calls it "a secret."

In "The Blond Leading the Blind," after the Liars find a note inside Alison's baby doll (Next time it'll be your face, not this pumpkin), they all have a flashback to Halloween 2008, a scene not included in "The First Secret." Alison and the Liars were taking a shortcut to her house and when they arrived, they found some smashed jack-o-lanterns on the porch and a note left under a knife. Aria reached out to take the knife, but Ali suddenly grabbed it. When the girls asked if the note says anything about who caused the destruction, Ali said it was Jason's "beer buddies," then, scared, she invited the girls to sleep over. They made excuses but Alison apologized about what happened, saying she had gone too far and the girls lkely stayed over. Back in real time, the Liars discover that the note was signed by "A," meaning Alison was a victim of "A" as well.

In "A Kiss Before Lying," Spencer goes at Hanna's to apologize about working with Caleb behind her back. Hanna forgives her and says that she had actually seen Ali with dark hair once before. She flashes back to a day when she was at a hair salon and heard a familiar voice talking to the stylist. The man refered to the dark-haired girl as Vivian Darkbloom. After he left, Hanna realized that "Vivian" was actualy Alison. Alison asked her what she was doing there, and she said that her mom made her an appointment. Hanna told Alison she liked her new hair. Alison told her that she was pretending to be someone else because she was getting bored of always being herself and suggested Hanna should try it sometime too. Alison asked Hanna to keep it a secret, then she took off her wig, smiling. When Spencer Googles the name Vivian Darkbloom, she and Hanna find out that the name was an alter-ego of Vladimir Nobokov, the man who wrote "Lolita," which apparently Hanna had seen Alison read.

In "The Naked Truth," when Spencer tries to understand what is it that links Jason to her family, she flashes back to a night when Alison and Spencer were in Spencer's bedroom. Alison was reading a magazine and Spencer studying for a test. They heard Spencer's parents arguing downstairs and Alison asked what it was all about. Spencer told her that her father saw Melissa and Jason making out the other night and he's upset because of that. Alison wanted to open the door to hear what going on exactly and then said that Melissa and Jason would be "a match frowned upon by the gods." Spencer didn't catch her drift until over a year later.

Season 3 Flashbacks
trashing Byron's office, pigskin scene, setting up Paige,

Appearances in Hallucinations and Dreams
After having a flashback of Alison in the "Pilot," Spencer looks out the window and sees into the window of Alison's house across from hers, a wavy blonde figure moving about inside. Spencer gasps, "Alison."



In "Moments Later," Hanna envisions Alison donned in a candy striper outfit visiting her in her hospital room. Shesmiles at Hanna and sits beside her. Weak, Hanna tries to ask her what happened that fateful night, but all Alison will say is that the four of them combined already know the truth. Additionally, she tells Hanna that "A" annoys her, and that she should really do something about that bitch. She reveals that it is dangerous for her to have come, but she did it when she heard Hanna was in trouble. When she leaves, a berry-colored lipstick stain - the same shade that Alison is wearing - is seen on the rim of a Styrofoam cup near Hanna's bed.

In "Blind Dates," Hanna tells Dr. Sullivan her true feelings about Alison, in hopes of letting go. Her roleplaying makes it seem that Alison is really there, taunting Hanna about her feelings. Hanna calls Alison the best friend she ever had, but also her worst enemy. Alison is condescending, but Hanna doesn't allow the mental torture to continue, not caring whether Alison approves of her anymore. In her head, Alison calls Hanna's friends things that Alison has given her and insinuates that Hanna can't live without her. But, mentally, Hanna lets the ghost know that she is over her, that she won't let her into her life anymore, and that she is ready to move on. After the talk with Dr. Sullivan, the office is trashed, and "Nosey Bitches Die" is written on a wall in red paint.

In "Over My Dead Body," Emily, on the brink of death having inhaled dangerous fumes, hallucinates that she sees Alison. Alison tells her that she liked her the most and that she was her favorite. She also questions if she really wants to be free of "A," and also questions whether she wants to stay in the position she is in or join her on the other side. Emily then asks if she knows who "A" is. Alison responds that of course she knows. After Emily asks her to tell her, she states she can't because "Two can only keep a secret if one of them is dead." She kisses her gently and Emily is awoken from her unconscious state by the Liars. She is so distraught that she believes what she hallucinated actually occurred. And someone did actually drag her out of that barn.

In "If These Dolls Could Talk," Spencer wakes up in the middle of the night in her living room to find Alison rummaging through the bag Jason gave her. Alison asks Spencer not to scream, claiming she only needs something from the bag. Alison asks Spencer if she is mad at her for never telling her about Jason being her brother too. Alison says that by sharing a brother, it practically makes them sisters and that Spencer deserves a more decent sister. If she had told Spencer the truth about Jason, it would have changed everything, and Alison didn't want that. Alison sees a bottle of pain killers on the living room table, and asks to take a couple "for the road."

Spencer informs Alison that Aria met with Duncan and he told her that he flew Alison back from Hilton Head the day she disappeared. Alison says Duncan "talks too much," but states she is glad that the girls haven't given up. She also says that it is now helpful the girls have the bag. She gives her a hint by telling her to look at the big picture instead of scrutinizing the individual pieces. Spencer asks what is in the bag that is so important, but Ali says she can't say. She states she misses Spencer and that everything the girls are dealing with is "some seriously messed up stuff." Ali informs Spencer, "here's the good news, you're getting warmer."

Suddenly, Spencer and Alison hear a noise coming from upstairs, so Spencer stuffs the bag underneath the couch and falls back asleep. She wakes up the next morning to Melissa complaining that the room is freezing and discovers that the living room door is hanging wide open. Spencer also sees the bottle of pain killers on the living room table uncapped. Spencer is left contemplating whether what happened with Ali was actually a dream or if she was really in her house.

In "It Happened 'That Night'," Hanna visits Mona in Radley Sanitarium thinking that her visits are helping. Mona turns and smiles, and Hanna thinks she's smiling at her, but she realizes Mona is actually smiling at the chair behind her. Alison is seen sitting there in a red coat, with her natural blonde haircolor, reading "Lolita." Mona and the audience can see her, but Hanna can't.

Posthumous Video Footage
Before disappearing, Alison had met with Ian at "The Kissing Rock," where they had made a makeout-tape. In the footage shown to the girls by Agent Cooper in "Know Your Frenemies," Alison teases Ian, "I know you want to kiss me." Ian replies, "Come closer." A struggle appears to occur, and the camera falls to the ground, losing focus on the other two. Then, Alison's hand falls into view of the camera; her hand grabs onto some dirt and leaves, before going limp. She falls down and you can only see her hand... it's not moving. But a bit later, she grabs at the dirt then lets go of it and laugh, then thanks Ian for coming. Ian puts his jacket back on and walks away. The girls had originally taken this video as proof that Ian murdered Alison, but upon seeing the additional footage, courtesy of "A," they are left to wonder.

Ian Thomas

 * Started: Before "Pilot"
 * Ended: Before "Pilot"
 * Reason: Her death

In "Surface Tension," Alison asks Spencer to teach her how to play field hockey, which happens to be the sport Ian is coaching. When Aria says that maybe Alison is interested in playing field hockey because of a guy who also plays, Spencer says that only girls play field hockey, not even realizing that Ian was the coach at the time.

In "Moments Later," Spencer finds a tree in the woods with the words "Ali + Ian" carved into it. It suddenly makes sense that the "older boy" Ali was seeing was Ian.

Viewers do not know much about their relationship beyond the few moments we see them flirting.

The Girls
Alison is the ring-leader of her group of friends, which consists of Hanna, Aria, Spencer and Emily. Alison had disliked Mona, who was dorky at the time and constantly made fun of by Ali. When Aria thought about being nice to her and waiting for her, Alison convinces her not to. Alison treats Hanna like her lackey, and Emily is hinted to be more than a friend. She also made fun of Lucas a lot and called him a hermaphrodite, or "Hermie," which led to Lucas smashing up her memorial.She as well did not like Jenna and refers to her as "Jenna the Jerk" and states she finds her creepy.

Aria
Alison has a more neutral relationship with Aria than the other three girls. She seems to have the loosest connection to Alison compared to the other three girls. They seem to get along and have a casual friendship.They don't get into many arguments, nor does Alison treat Aria like a lackey. However, Aria does follow Alison's suggestions most of the time. Alison mostly lets Aria do her own thing and does not often get involved in her personal life, other than the time when she suggest that Aria tell her mother about her father's secret affair. Of all the girls, Aria seems to be the most like Alison. They are both naturally independent and obsessed with their own sophistication. They are both also very romantic.

Emily
It is seem multiple times through out the series that Alison was not such a great friend to the liars. They had more of a Frenemy relationship. Instead of the usual supportiveness the other girls had with each other, she either left her friends annoyed with her or feeling bad about themselves. In "The Perfect Storm," we learn Ali and Emily had a relationship that was more than a friendship. She wrote Ali a love note and loved her more than a friend. Alison was leading Emily on though and had no real feelings for her more than friendship. However, in "Monsters in the End," she chose to give Emily the snow globe with the hidden key. Alison tells her to keep it safe because it's "a lot more valuable than it looks." This might mean that Alison trusts Emily more than the other girls.When Emily was on the brink of death In "Over My Dead Body", she hallucinates that she sees Alison. Alison tells her that she liked her the most and was her favorite. She also questions if she really wants to be free of "A," and also questions whether she wants to stay in the position she is in or join her on the other side. Emily then asks if she knows who "A" is. Alison responds that of course she knows. After Emily asks her to tell her, she states she can't because "Two can only keep a secret if one of them is dead."

Hanna
Alison bore Hanna the name "Hefty Hanna" mocking her weight, Despite being the sweetest of the bunch, Hanna was often cruelly mocked and teased by Alison. This is seen in "Know Your Frenemies" as well as in "Never Letting Go" and other episodes. In "Know Your Frenemies" we also find that Alison even convinces Hanna to throw up to lose weight. She also convinces Hanna not to eat in "Pilot" with the excuse she is being a friend. She is very mean to her during "To Kill a Mocking Girl" calls her a wannabe and other rude words leaving Hanna in tears. She doesn't stop until Aria tells her to. Alison tells Hanna that she didn't mean it and that she was freaked out about "The Jenna Thing". She usually leaves Emily and Hanna feeling bad about themselves. Hanna also has the most hallucinations about Ali such as in the hospital and with her therapist.

Spencer
Her relationship with Spencer is very different. She usually leaves Spencer annoyed with her and Ali distressed because Spencer is the only one of the four girls who could ever stand up to Ali, which fact first comes apparent in "Pilot, when they have their argument in Spencer's house, the night of Ali's disappearance. There, Ali threatens to tell Melissa about Spencer's kissing Ian or else she will. Spencer yells at her that if she should so say one word to her, she'll tell everyone the truth about "The Jenna Thing." Also in "If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again" she is again seen pressuring Spencer to tell her sister about Ian. (This is hypocritical considering the fact that she was secretly dating Ian, and Alison probably did it in order to make Spencer look bad while getting Ian to herself.) Spencer tells Alison that she is sick of her games, and Alison is dead to her already. Alison appears distraught, then Alison leaves angrily, and Spencer follows her.

Jason
She did not have such a great relationship with her brother Jason, due to his drug addiction and their mutual disrespect of each other's boundaries. Both had no qualms going into each other's room, stealing and breaking each other's belongings. Some glimpses of that were seen in "The Goodbye Look," "My Name Is Trouble," and "Surface Tension." In one instance, Alison had fled one of her brother's house parties in tears, blaming her distress on Jason and his friends' invasiveness in her room, but left the particulars vague.

Duncan
Alison had a some sort of secret friendship or relationship with Duncan before her death. Duncan met Ali/Vivian in a book store in Brookhaven. Vivian often spoke about her four friends to Duncan, which mean she trusted him to a certain extent. He reveals that he and Vivian met up at a place near Brookhaven quite often during the summer Alison disappeared. He also reveals that he knew Vivian's real name was Alison but was unaware of her death until Aria told him. During the friendship Duncan often took Alison up to his helicopter. He explains that he and Alison used to fly often and that she used to feel free, safe, and in control. He also mentions that he might have been in love with Alison.

CeCe
CeCe dated Jason, and sometimes hung out with Alison, but CeCe was very similar to Alison's attitude. CeCe taught Alison some of the wicked stuff she knew. And also Alison told CeCe some secrets about the girls. Cece and Alison had more of a big sister, little sister relationship.

Paige
Alison had an enmity of sorts against Paige Mccullers, whom she nicknamed as "Pigskin". Apparently, Alison once received a kick to the back from Paige after she annoyed her too much, but swore vengeance upon "Pigskin". Somehow aware of Paige's secret pining for Emily, Alison forged love letters in Emily's name and sent them to Paige, eventually leading to Alison intercepting one of Paige's own letters, which Ali used to blackmail Paige into becoming her "property". Cece speculates Ali to be rather intimidated by Paige.

Autopsy and Death
Alison seemingly died of suffocation, which is revealed in "The Jenna Thing" and mentioned once again in "For Whom the Bell Tolls." More information on her death is revealed in "Save the Date:" Alison had been hit from behind or was running away when she had been hit on the head. She had been hit so hard her cranium was dented, and her skull had been smashed in. The wound had come from a curved, blunt object (which Spencer believes to be her old field hockey stick). However, the impact had not killed her immediately. The autopsy found her lungs to be filled with dirt, implying that she had been inhaling dirt in the last moments before her death. This basically means her assailant had struck her, either knocking her unconscious or otherwise paralyzing her defenses, and proceeded to bury her alive. We later come to find in "Over My Dead Body" that the "curved, blunt object" actually wasn't a field hockey stick, but a shovel. Alison was buried by the same object that damaged her head. In "It Happened 'That Night'," Alison's body is stolen from her grave.

Trivia

 * Ironically, the name Alison means "truth" in Irish. It also means "noble" - everything Alison is not since she was a manipulative liar.
 * Sasha Pieterse, the actress playing Alison, could have played Hanna Marin, because she originally auditioned for the role of Hanna. Then the producers had her try out for Alison.
 * Sasha Pieterse and Ashley Benson share a resemblance to one another.

Book Comparisons

 * Alison disappeared three years prior to the first book. In the show, it was one year.
 * In the show, Alison dressed as Vivian Darkbloom to stay under "A's" radar. In the books, she didn't receive texts or notes from "A."
 * In the books, Alison was Spencer's half-sister. In the show, they're not related, but they share a brother, Jason.
 * In the books, Alison is actually alive and it is her twin sister Courtney who is dead. In the show, there has yet to be any direct mention of a twin sister.
 * The book character Alison (Courtney) never got texts from A, and had fewer secrets.
 * In the books, Emily kissed Alison in the house from the tree. In TV show, Emily kisses her in the library.
 * In the books, Jenna and Alison planned "The Jenna Thing" together because they both wanted Toby to go, but in the show, Ali does it on her own (with the four girls).