The A Game
As Pretty Little Liars approaches the end, we’ve had it with “A”.
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When we were young and naïve, like the Pretty Little Liars (2010current), we were determined to identify “A”. Soon “A” was tormenting us too. Now we can’t look at AAA batteries or a healthy report card without flinching. We’ve been victimised by “A”, The A Team, The Red Coats, Uber “A”, Big “A”, Original Flavour “A”… and now “AD” is asking the Liars to play a game. “How dare you!” we hiss, whipping out our detective hats for one last shot at identifying really-real-we-swear-it-this-time “A”.
ORIGINAL “A”
Psycho stalker Mona Vanderwall (Janel Parrish) was identified as the Original “A” at the end of season 2 (November 2012). Her goal? Revenge on the Liars for being besties with her bully Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse). But Liar Spencer (Troian Bellisario) pushed her off a cliff during a fight in that episode and she was then locked up in Radley Sanatorium. Hooray for that one!
BIG “A”
CeCe Drake aka Charles DiLaurentis, aka Charlotte DiLaurentis ( Vanessa Ray) was revealed as Big “A” in mid-season 6 (2016). She took over the “A” Game by squeezing information about the Liars from Mona while they were both at Radley and she hired Sarah Harvey (Dre Davis) to wear costumes and confuse the Liars. Cece shared the “A” identity with her sister Alison, whose original disappearance kicked off the whole Liars drama. Her murder shortly after her release from Welby State asylum in episode 11 of season 6 (in January 2015) led to the rise of “AD”.
“AD”
Also known as Uber “A” to the Liars, “AD” has an axe to grind about Charlotte’s death. “This person targets the girls in a very different way than the “As” before. It’s much more personal and much more violating,” hints Sasha. Series executive producer Marlene King gloats, “Uber ‘A’ is the smartest of the ‘As’, the most intense of all the ‘As’, the most driven to win the game of all the ‘As’.” Gosh, all those type-A adjectives remind us of a certain Liar…