| This article is about A, the book character. You may be looking for A, a TV character. |
| “ | I'm still here, bitches. And I know everything. | ” |
— "A"
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"A" is the main antagonist of the Pretty Little Liars franchise. Originally based around Rosewood and it’s surrounding environment, "A" is the anonymous stalker who blackmails and tortures The Liars with an almost near-omnipresence.
A-game was originally created by Alison DiLaurentis to anonymously call her twin sister, Courtney for stealing her life for almost two years. Three years after the disappearance of "Ali", Mona Vanderwaal took the A-game after taking "Alison's" diary, where she read about the girls' secrets and the anonymous messages and calls towards Courtney. Mona retaliated against the girls for bullying her in the sixth and seventh grades by the girls, and for blinding her best friend Jenna Cavanaugh.
After Mona's death, Alison went back to being the "A" for stalking the girls, as she felt that if it weren't for them being in her backyard because of Ali's time capsule flag on the same day that Courtney switched hospitals, Courtney couldn't have turned into Alison and been friends with the Liars.
Finally the nickname "A" was taken by Ali's secret boyfriend and accomplice, Nick Maxwell with Alison as the mastermind.
History[]
First A[]
Mona Vanderwaal was the first "A" to be revealed. Mona used to be a "geek dork" bullied by "Alison" DiLaurentis's clique, Mona wanted to be a part of their clique. But everything change it when Mona witnessed The Jenna Thing, causing her to start hating Alison and her group of friends. Mona tried numerous times to make "Ali" pay for what she did, but her attempts were in vain.
After Ali's disappearance, she became the new queen bee of Rosewood Day, even befriending Alison's former group member, Hanna Marin. Even though Mona was aware that the girls were "innocent" of The Jenna Thing and Ali's mistreatment, she never forgave the girls for not preventing this. And she began to get even more bitter when Hanna, being her new best friend, has never apologized to her during the three years of friendship, for which she wanted revenge and her friend Jenna. Mona got the chance to revenge when she got Alison's diary when the St. Germain's moved into the DiLaurentis house. She sought to punish the Liars for The Jenna Thing and "Ali's" bullying.
During her stay, she harassed, stalked, tortured, and blackmailed the girls for an entire month, but it all came crashing down at the end of Perfect, when Mona accidentally sent Hanna a message on her personal phone. and not the one she used for messages. So she ran over Hanna with an SUV when Hanna was about to reveal to the girls who A was. Consequently, Hanna had amnesia for most of Unbelievable, until Emily Fields says something to Hanna that causes her to remember that Mona is A. During that, Mona is with Spencer Hastings in Mona's hammer and Emily sends her a message warning her that Mona is A. During a fight between the two girls on the Floating Man cliff, Spencer pushes Mona from the edge which causes her to die of a broken neck. Mona of the three "A's" was the least mean, she was "A" from the first book to the fourth book (Arc 1).
Second A[]
As the girls move into the big red house they are shocked to receive messages from a new person claiming to be "A". At first, they believe it's just a prank, especially since the first "A" got major news time. Then the girls believe it's Ian Thomas, who is the prime suspect of the investigation. Spencer is especially certain of this until finding Ian's body in the woods bordering her estate and the old DiLaurentis home. The girls all get a message from "A," saying "He had to go. -A".
However, this "A" is even more twisted than the first; Ian's body disappears and the town is largely convinced that it was a hoax. "A" even teases Spencer, stating, "Just because I said Ian had to go, it didn't mean he had to die." "A" pretends to be Ian, using an IM screenname of USCMidfielderRoxx, a testament to his alma mater and his love for field hockey. Through this new fake identity, "A" feeds Spencer some interesting information about her family, specifically her father's affair with Mrs. DiLaurentis and the possibility that Ali is her half sister. "A" proceeds to torment the girls even more: they force Spencer to focus more on her father's secret by enabling Spencer's surrogate mother to scam her and clear out her two million dollar trust fund. "A" taunts Aria with pictures of her and her mother's new love interest in compromising situations. They threaten to send these to her mother, even though Aria has tried to ward off her mother's new boyfriend. "A" lands Hanna in the Preserve at Addison-Stevens, a lush clinic for troubled patients. "A" sends Emily on a trip to the Amish community in Lancaster to dig up more dirt on Officer Wilden.
Throughout the second half of the series, the second "A" keeps up this forced information search with the girls, pushing them to find more information on Wilden and Jason DiLaurentis. "A" even plants the idea that they killed Ali. However, when Jenna is found dead in "Heartless", "A" plants all of their texts, pictures, etc. on a random lecherous construction worker. This is one of the same workers who was involved in building the DiLaurentises' gazebo when "Ali" was still alive. The girls believe it is all over now, though the fact that the suspect is such a random person bothers them.
Everyone in Rosewood is shocked when the DiLaurentises introduce the existence of a third child, Courtney DiLaurentis. She is the twin of Alison and was kept in various clinics because she was "ill". However, "Courtney" is actually Alison DiLaurentis herself. She reveals her true identity to each of the girls, hoping to gain their friendship and telling them she never died the night of the sleepover. She claims that Courtney must have gotten out of the house and ran into the construction worker, who killed her. Though the girls believe her and are glad to have their friend back, Aria is the most suspicious of her. It was recently discovered that Courtney liked to pretend to be Ali and she wasn't completely buying her story. Additionally, Wilden and Melissa are also suspicious of "Courtney". Melissa knew about the twins since high school, as their brother Jason confided in her. He told her they hated each other, but Spencer tells her about "Courtney's" statements that she and Ali shared everything together."
Ali's time is running out, for besides the few people suspicious of her, the police start to say that the construction worker has an alibi and might not be guilty. Her secret is further endangered when Aria finds and sends in a photo of a reflection of someone spying on the girls during the sleepover. The reflection is too blurry, but it is clearly a female. Ali takes Mona's idea and convinces Spencer that Melissa is the culprit. Meanwhile, she kidnaps Melissa- who has just figured out the truth- and keeps her in her family's Poconos home. She stuffs Melissa in a closet with Ian's corpse.
On the night of the school's Valentine dance, Ali convinces the girls to hang out with her at the Poconos home. They ditch the party and get wasted at her home. She asks them if she could reenact the night of the sleepover and hypnotize them. Everyone reluctantly agrees, and minutes later they wake up to find Ali gone and the door of the room locked. A letter is slid underneath, informing the girls of the horrible truth: The Alison that they had been friends with had been Courtney all along and the real Ali killed her.
Courtney was mentally unsound and wanted to be Ali so badly that she tried to drown her when they were children. One day, when she was home from the mental institute, Courtney stole Ali's ring and imitated her when she saw Spencer and the others sneaking into their backyard. Ali was sent to the new mental institute, the Preserve, in Courtney's place, and was forced to take her sister's messed up life. On the night of the sleepover, she spied on the girls, followed Courtney after her fight with Spencer, and killed her in revenge for taking her perfect life. She hates the girls for ruining her life and tries to kill them too by boarding up the entire home and setting it on fire. The girls, including Melissa, manage to escape, but no one knows whether Ali is alive, however Emily opened the door for Alison to escape before the Poconos blew up. She didn't know whether Ali escaped or not. It's hinted that she might have, as Emily hears a faint giggle in the distance as she visits Courtney's grave in the evening.
Third A[]
The third "A" seems to be Ali, as Emily desperately wants it to be. She torments them about the Jamaica Incident, Spencer's framing of Kelsey of drug dealing, Emily's baby, and Hanna framing Madison for the car crash. Later, A admits to killing Tabitha, and guess what? They're next. This new "A" seems to be more violent; so far, four people (Tabitha, Gayle, Kyla, and Graham) have been killed, and numerous more injured, under this "A"'s tenure.
By the end of "Burned", the Liars know that the Second "A", Alison, has had an accomplice the whole time, and that this accomplice is the Third "A". They believe that Alison did indeed survive the fire in the Poconos house, and thus that the Second and Third "A" are currently operating together to bring them down (and eventually kill them).
The Third "A" also knows as the Helper "A" is revealed to be Nick Maxwell .
Victims[]
Murders[]
- Courtney DiLaurentis ("Ali's Pretty Little Lies"): Second "A", with help from Third "A".
- Ian Thomas (Discovered in "Wicked", confirmed in "Wanted"): Second and/or Third "A"
- Jenna Cavanaugh ("Heartless"): Second and/or Third "A"
- Tabitha Clark (Discovered in "Twisted", confirmed in "Deadly"): Third "A".
- Gayle Riggs ("Stunning"): Third "A"
- Kyla Kennedy ("Crushed"): Most likely Third "A"
- Graham Pratt ("Crushed"): Most likely Third "A"
- Greg Messner ("Toxic): Second "A"
Survivors[]
- Hanna Marin ("Perfect"): First "A"--hit her with a car (which almost killed her, left her in a coma, and gave her partial amnesia)
- Spencer Hastings ("Unbelievable"): First "A"--tried to strangle her, tried to shove her off of Floating Man's Quarry
- The Liars ("Killer"): Second "A"--tried to kill them in a fire in the woods behind the Hastings' house
- Melissa Hastings ("Wanted"): Second "A"--knocked her out, kidnapped her, locked her in a closet with Ian's corpse
- The Liars and Melissa ("Wanted"): Second and Third "A"--tried to kill them by locking them in the Poconos house and burning it down
- Madison Zeigler (Occurred between "Wanted" and "Twisted"; revealed in "Burned"): Second and/or Third "A"--hit Madison's car (which Hanna was driving), knocking Madison out and leaving her badly injured
- The Liars ("Burned"): Second and/or Third "A"--tried to kill them by destroying their lifeboat, leaving them to drown
- Noel Kahn ("Crushed"): Second/Third "A"--severely beat him, leaving him unconscious. It is later revealed in "Deadly" that Noel survives.
- The Liars ("Deadly"): Second/Third "A" -- put them in a room full with cyanide.
Memorable Quotes[]
These are the first messages the girls received from the first "A":
Spencer (after flirting with her sister's boyfriend): Spencer, covet is an easy one. When someone covets something, they desire and lust after it. Usually something they can't have. You've always had that problem though, haven't you? -A
Aria (after finding out her romantic interest is her new AP English teacher): Aria, surprise! I wonder what your pig puppet will have to say about this...-A
Emily (after kissing the new girl): Hey Em, sob! I've been replaced! You've found another friend to kiss! -A
Hanna (after getting caught for shoplifting): Hey Hanna, since prison food makes you fat, you know what Sean's gonna say? Not it! -A
Mona's botched message to Hanna: "Oops! Guess it wasn't lipo! Don't believe everything you hear! -A"
Aria, Emily, Spencer after hitting Hanna with a car: "She knew too much. -A"
The second A's memorable quotes:
Honestly, bitches...did you really think I'd let you off that easy? You haven't gotten nearly what you deserve. And I can't wait to give it to you. Mwah! -A
(About Emily after the girls tell the police about New A): You all told, and one of you has to pay the price. Wanna know where your old BFF is? Look out the back window. It just might be the last time you see her...-A
(After the girls discover Ian's body in the woods): He had to go -A