Just a question for you: Did you believe Mona's motive that she was over Alison, and that her motive for being A was because the liars stole Hanna from her??
In my opinion, there is little to no evidence to support this motive. You can say when Hanna ditched Mona, A would act, but doesn't A always act anyway?
The show was full of investigation into Alison's private life, and Alison being a bully. It seemed like A's motive had to do with what Alison did to him/her, and how the liars just went along with her. Just think about the key suspects (Jenna, Toby, Lucas, Melissa, Ian, etc.) - they were all affected by Alison. Then in the end, all there was to the motive was "I'm over Alison. This is because you stole Hanna from me."?? When were we shown any evidence that A became A really was about Hanna? Do you buy this motive?
Thank you very much for the compliment, Little baby25. :)
To answer your question, I think Mona herself was confused of what she was really so angry about at the time... But no, Mona was NEVER over Ali. I didn't believe that ever since she hallucinated in seeing Red Coat Ali in Radley reading Lolita behind Hanna. Mona was obsessed with Alison, and that obsession was part of what made her become "A". The entire foundation of "A" has always been an obsession with Alison (for both Mona AND CeCe). Mona could have been wearing Ali's skin so to speak in order to throw the girls off, but if anything, it only made her seem even more suspect... The one person we would suspect of being downright obsessed with Alison DiLaurentis was the girl who clearly idolized her prior to her disappearance. Mona couldn't help it... Alison had taken over her life.
The Mona and Alison angle has every bit of depth as the Alison and Jenna angle... Ali and Jenna were two sides of the same coin, Ali and Jenna were ultimately in danger of becoming identical in personality. Jenna (what with her literally living in darkness, open fascination with evil, and endless deceit) is a living example of what Alison COULD have turned into if she embraced the sociopath in her and never changed her ways. Everyone Jenna uses or cares about gets taken away from her... And her being given her sight back only for her to misuse it ended up with her losing everything in the end. Karma follows her closely... Unless she changes, Jenna will end up in her own type of prison similar to how Alison almost literally remained in one.
As for Mona's fixation with Alison, it's prevalent in the show even after the MonA reveal. As I said, Mona hallucinates and sees Alison in Radley, and while drugged, she thinks she's doing everything Alison is telling her to... never bothering to question how Alison is there because she knows how she's still alive. When Hanna visits Mona in the next episode, the last thing we hear her ask Hanna about is Alison... Mona wore an Alison mask in the 3x13 Halloween episode, and whenever Mona is talking to her boss like in both season 3 finales, she seems quite happy to be working for her, despite the fact that this was MONA'S game, and anyone else trying to call the shots would have BEEN shot by MonA. If there's one thing we know about her, it's that she NEVER steps down... And much later in season 3 when Spencer asks Mona how she can know Alison was never pregnant, she briefly replied with "Ali told me" in that same admiring way that Nerdy Mona used to convey. It really came to a head in 5A when Mona was trying to preempt Alison's rise back to power. She outright admitted to Hanna that Alison scares her to death, even now. Paige put it very well when she said that Mona became the very thing she was afraid of... and in a 5B episode, Hanna recalls a flashback where she asked Mona what would happen if Alison ever did come back... and it clearly unnerved her enough to lie awake at night afterward.
The Alison obsession will NEVER falter... because Mona has a hard time changing from what Alison turned her into. Hanna even tried to prevent it from happening to someone else in the Christmas special because those kinds of scars don't heal, they can only be prevented. She said at the end of that scene that people don't change and that they just get better at hiding it... just like Mona did in the recent scene between her and Alison in the time jump.
You can spot signs of Mona genuinely feeling envy over Hanna's friends and being a bitch about Lucas when Hanna spends less time with her. In the Homecoming Dance, Mona warned Hanna not to choose her friends over her. In 1x10, Mona had high standards for her birthday that included Hanna being there for all of it... and when Hanna couldn't do it, Mona drew the line. She ended up ruining Hanna's reputation, uninviting her from her party, and hitting her with a car... So in Mona's mind, Hanna DID screw up pretty damn bad by not spending enough time with her... You also might notice that in the finale of season 1 AND the finale of season 2 both, Mona is walked out on by the PLLs for weak excuses... leaving her to say "So it's just me. Again." There's also 4x01 when there's no room for Mona to sit with the girls at the pew, and 5x10 when she isn't able to console Spencer or the girls the way the PLLs did when they found out Ali was trying to frame her for Bethany's murder.
So all in all, it's both. Mona will ALWAYS be obsessed with Alison, she will never be over the girl she idolized in her chilhood and who she was burned by in all the worst ways... It turned her into someone whose life has been (mostly) negatively impacted forever. And at the same time, Mona was jealous of the girls taking Hanna from her. When you're all alone, you suddenly have all the time in the world to think and scheme. Mona's so good at stalking people because she yearned to be with them... making it perfectly comfortable for her to watch people when they don't even know they're being watched.
She's had too much practice, too much heartache, and too much time to perfect her plans born from anger... all because of Alison's brutal rejection and the alienation by her peers.
You've done it again, dude. Great insight! Everyone, read and learn!
^^ Preach !
^^ Yeah, wow!! So interesting!!
Just rewatched a few episodes from Season 1. I now really dislike the "song dedication on the radio to Hanna" clue.
On more than one occasion (and not just to Hanna), A called the liars her "BFF's". The first time was when the liars were in the woods trying to build a shrine for Ali and they heard some noises. Then they all got a texts like "Listen up, BFF's. It's hunting season and I'm on the hunt for liars" (or something like that). Also, when Noel got suspended for cheating, Aria got a texts from A taking credit for it, and it was signed "Your BFF, A". Hence it wasn't just Hanna whom A referred to as her BFF.
A better way to interpret this is that A seems to be someone who wants to get in on the liars' friend circle, someone outside looking in. When Mona sent herself A texts so she could join in on the liars, that was a major clue. Also, A was pretending to be Ali, and Mona was obsessed with Ali.
^ Mona's game was so more intimate than Cece's
On more than one occasion (and not just to Hanna), A called the liars her "BFF's". The first time was when the liars were in the woods trying to build a shrine for Ali and they heard some noises. Then they all got a texts like "Listen up, BFF's. It's hunting season and I'm on the hunt for liars" (or something like that). Also, when Noel got suspended for cheating, Aria got a texts from A taking credit for it, and it was signed "Your BFF, A". Hence it wasn't just Hanna whom A referred to as her BFF.
A better way to interpret this is that A seems to be someone who wants to get in on the liars' friend circle, someone outside looking in. When Mona sent herself A texts so she could join in on the liars, that was a major clue. Also, A was pretending to be Ali, and Mona was obsessed with Ali.
Exactly, and here's another one.
In 2x02, the PLLs were ordered by Dr. Sullivan to spend some time apart to reassess their own individual lives. When they're forced to sit at different tables, they get a text from MonA saying "Look at you, all alone in a crowd. I win! xo -A" We know that the first time we chronologically see Mona is in a cafeteria where Alison shuns her to go sit at the "loser table". That was a huge clue as to "A's" motive... If THAT was what "A" considered to be winning as opposed to torture, then "A's" gripe was being treated like an outsider and being cast out by her peers or those she wanted to be friends with. The writers didn't dwell on this though, or the fans would have caught on for sure. ;)
OMG, DiscoveringA. That's an AMAZING clue! That's the best one so far!
Just discovered another very obvious Mona clue while watching Never Letting Go (the fashion show episode). Noel got all the suspicion pointed to him when he couldn't stop the "Bitch is dead" thing from playing, and also when he couldn't answer to Aria's accusation of "the unplanned finale". However, who told Spencer to give the CD to Noel? Mona! Such an obvious clue that I missed, even though I already knew Mona was A from spoilers.
Awesome find. Definitely a huge "the bolder the move, the less anyone questions it" moment that Mona no doubt channeled her inner Ali for.
To a lesser extent, when Mona walked the runway the second time, she looked much darker and edgier than usual, and the music that was playing takes a shift to actually warn the viewers that she's dangerous. Watch again to see for yourself. ;)