The rich text editor does not work with JavaScript switched off. Please either enable it in your browser options, or visit your preferences to switch to the old MediaWiki editor
They start in the first Halloween episode in the middle of season two. I just rewatched the series, trust me, there is absolutely no point combing through any of the episodes before that for clues, they clearly had no clue who was going to be A until 2B. The leaves only like 12-ish episodes with clues and they're actually pretty obvious. Things like Mona hacking into the principal's computer, giving Hanna one of her old cell phones, and things she says that hint towards her knowing more than she lets on.
I know there are many times Hanna would ignore her or ditch her, Mona would get jealous and then A would set up one of the girls somehow.
I thought some of the hints could help us put together hints or theories for these last few seasons and Charles/all the villians.
When Mona sends out a song over the radio to Hannah from "your bff A". That is pretty literally correct.
When Spencer met with Wren and Hanna was in the car and the guy on the radio said this next song is for Hanna from her best friend A I don't need you anymore is a clue to Mona too.
When we saw someone in the boat the night Caleb had birthday we saw like there was someone in the water keeping an eye on Hanna's and Lucas' conversation and then we see Mona and Noel coming and they're wet.
In season one where A hit Mona, it was to Camp Mona where everybody should wear a hoody (A-hoody). Also pretty obvious since Hanna and Mona no longer were friends.
And I guess just being non-suspicious make you wonder. Lucas and Mona were shown as the nerds who were victimized by Alison. With Lucas, the writers made him overly angry, and with Mona, she seemed too calm and forgiving for someone like her who likes to complain.
I thought the gum was a weak clue. Many people chew gum (Spearmint). Just because there was a gum wrapper in the diary, it doesn't really pinpoint to Mona, but the writer had to find some way for Spencer to figure out it was Mona.
Did anyone actually suspect Mona? I didn't have a chance to guess because I spoiled myself on Wikipedia. (I had to read Wikipedia to make sure it wasn't a supernatural show, and I read too much. ;P)
I prefered Mona as A because she was really part of the show, we saw her in majority of episodes in seasons 1 and 2, not like Cece as Big A.
2) The motive was very weak. Given all the things she did to the girls, we can't get a better motive than "Because you stole Hanna from me"??
You mean in 6B, as this new Big Bad ?! Like an ultimate and desperate revenge against Charlotte, Alison and the Liars who will lie for her ?
Believe it or not, YES. I always thought it was Mona, but started having my doubts around the time of the reveal. Thanks to the misleading greenhouse scene, I assumed at the time that Paige was the best candidate. There is no way that Mona could have smashed the side mirror on her car with one punch...
Even so, the thing about Mona being "A" was that "A" did so many things that would benefit Mona. I read the first book by the time the show came out, but stayed away from the others until "A" was revealed. In the first book, I could tell that like in episode 1, Hanna was caught shoplifting but NOT Mona?... The Wizard of Oz theme with Mona was a huge clue, the "I Don't Need You Anymore" song from her best friend "A", the Jungle Red lipstick that Mona was flaunting to Hanna two episodes before the writing on the mirror in 1x04... Yes, Jenna had the same lipstick in the next episode, but MONA HAD IT FIRST.... It even got a callback in the UnmAsked episode when Mona was applying Toffee Tango lipstick in the school courtyard. The lipstick kiss smear on the tarot card in the homecoming dance was a give-away that "A" was a girl, and when Mona was angry at Hanna over the birthday dilemma, she got damn sloppy as "A".... She had "A" send Mona Vanderwaal a text message out of the blue to further her plans and make Hanna miserable. But more importantly, before this even happened, she gave invites to Camp Mona hoping to see all the girls there, then walks off. As soon as the girls tell Hanna they weren't going, "A" messages them and gives them a reason to show.
This was a big one for me, and PLL writers learned to not make this mistake again.... In the episode following Hanna being hit by the car, literally EVERY visitor looked suspicious except for the four girls and MONA.... I'm not even kidding, it was hilarious. The big suspect is Noel, they make Lucas look like "A" as he creeps into the room to see Hanna after hours, Sean drops off orchids but doesn't appear in the episode, Melissa seems suspiciously fake when she's consoling Spencer about Hanna being hit by the car, and Ian looked like he just didn't care about Spencer at all. EVEN HANNA'S MOTHER ends up sending the girls a text to see Hanna by a BLOCKED NUMBER, making her look suspicious as well. This leaves Mona, who conveniently waves a white flag and shares an emotionally tender moment with Hanna as they rekindle their friendship together... Mona apologized to Hanna, and "A" apologized to Hanna on the cast... SO many clues in that one episode...
When Hanna was recovering in the next episode, Mona throws Hanna a party. Hanna knows about the hidden lasagna cash, and while Noel looks suspicious of being the one who stole it, he is NOT the one who planned the party... Mona was... so the opening was hers.
We also got clues that the PLLs didn't... In Careful What U Wish 4, Aria's mom sees "A" and hands her the gloves and coat (it was a coat before it was a hoodie). Based on the way she interacted with "A", she didn't know her personally, and the size of the coat and gloves AND interaction implied that Ella was talking to a teenager. So someone who goes to Rosewood High... We meticulously lived through "A" texts to get a feel for how this person communicates... Mona is the only one who uses the phrase "clue me in". She said it to Hanna once in 1x10 "[...] got a text from 'A', whoever that is, cluing me in onto the real reason you got skinny last summer". And then, in 2x11, Emily got a text from "A" that said "Clue Ella in, and I'll let you out." These little details mattered before the dialogue in PLL started to repeat itself a little bit more in later seasons... We learn in that same episode that Dr. Sullivan's file on "A" puts her at about 17 years old, so that crossed off a huge amount of suspects. I think I noticed that the partial birth date was also close to the date that Mona hosted Camp Mona on.
Paying close attention to the Halloween episode was key. It was the birth of "A", so "A" was sure to be sloppy at first with no experience. Mona was tormented by Ali, and then later that day, "A" sends her a calling card of a threat with the same motive. Mona told Ali that Ali didn't know her, but that she WILL... We hadn't known of any indication that Mona made herself known to Alison... unless she did it as the person who contacted Alison that Halloween and was about to make her presence both known and feared. Mona's Catwoman costume was also black and chic similar to the style of "A" and Jenna.
New clues that I'm seeing after knowing the story (so I guess they don't really count) are that Mona and Jenna were friends... "A", Jenna, and Garrett were all involved with the game because of the events in Over My Dead Body where the girls were caught with the murder weapon. We knew Jenna couldn't be "A" and Garrett was not a teenager... so neither one could be "A". Noel started dating Mona, and when he was, Mona took him along for some of her schemes... In A Hot Piece of "A", she takes Noel for a dip in the lake conveniently while something terrible is happening to Hanna in the boat... You can see her leading Noel away after shrugging off what the PLLs said about looking for her FRIEND HANNA... Noel is notorious for doing a poor job at keeping his girlfriends' secrets... He spilled the truth about Emily being at a diner in the truth or dare game which screwed over Jenna... He sabotages them because the real person he's out for is himself, and Alison to a degree. Later, there's an odd scene with Hanna and Mona going out for some retail therapy, and Mona sees Jenna and Noel in a restaurant through a window... She looks nervous as all hell, and we have no reason to think why this might be the case... And then it becomes clear. She didn't want Noel spilling her secrets to someone as dangerously conniving as Jenna. Jenna knew Mona was "A", but wanted to get inside information from Noel to use it against her. This, and because Noel left her for Jenna, is why Mona tried to burn Jenna alive in the DiLaurentis house as "A". She knew too much and needed to be silenced, and it also worked well for framing Garrett since Jenna had possession of page 5 of Alison's autopsy report, and was a significant threat to him.
I could go on, but I'll leave you with one final giveaway: Mona sending "A" texts to herself was very random of "A" to do, unless it helped "A" infiltrate the PLLs' inner circle. Mona acted as if it was the first time she'd heard of someone named "A" sending texts, but I'll admit she could have forgotten about "A" from her birthday almost a year ago prior. Even so, she also seemed to be faux afraid of "A" to garner sympathy from the PLLs and join their group like Mona always wanted. Mona has moments of sheer brilliance and cunning, but then drops it all to obviously play dumb for the crowd. She was obviously braver than she let on, and when she meekly raised her hand to say she had an idea during a brainstorming session, it was obvious she was trying to look weak when she really wasn't. Speaking of which, she sent herself a ridiculously weak "A" text toward the end "Break up Hanna and her hottie or you go back to being a junior high nottie", making it seem like she was faking the texts to join Alison's friend circle. Do not even get me started on her saying to Emily that her days as Nerdy Mona was TWO personalities ago and that she's suddenly a master computer analyst RIGHT before "A" tries to get Caleb framed for hacking school files.
The gum clue was TERRIBLE when all these gems were there for Spencer to pick up on... But it was suspenseful all the same.
Fun fact: Ever notice this season 3 indication that CeCe was "A"? Throughout all of PLL ever since season ONE, we were aware that "A's" handwriting always used distinct letter "T's". Other characters used that writing style, but Hanna only ever made note of it ONCE... When the girls are reading Ali's biology notebook that she and CeCe were writing to each other in, Hanna said to ignore the "G" and look at the "T" in the handwriting... CeCe's "T's" are distinct enough to separate her handwriting from everyone else... which means she was a prime suspect for "A".
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?
Mona brought the liars back together by starting the game in the first place. Hanna got together with the rest of the girls not to spite Mona but because the girls were all being threatened by a common foe so they naturally rebonded.
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.
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.
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. ;)
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. ;)
November is here -- and so are the fun festivities leading into the holiday season. From exhibits to festivals, and
Beautiful Booze, Beautiful Bars Okay we LOVE to drink in Chicago, but besides the beautiful booze, we also have some
It could very well be that I'm so tired of these characters after nine seasons that putting two strong guest stars (all right, fine, one guest star and one new series regular who's been mostly M.I.A. this season) on in the same week is enough to tip the balance of an episode to the win column.
The first guest star was Andrew Rannells of Book of Mormon and The New Normal fame, who injected some great energy into the episode as a devilish singer who likes to screw up the relationships of people he just charmed. (Nice touch: he bases his fake tragic backstory on the death of Disney parental characters, including Nemo's mom and King Mufasa.) It's not a character that makes any sense, but Rannells sells it so well, and the disruption grenades he lobs, pitting Robin against Lily and Ted against Barney over secrets they've been hiding, are a lot of fun to watch detonate. It doesn't hurt that he exits each devastating bit with a perfectly blasé line, "Later, skaters!" being my favorite.
About those revelations: Lily learns that Robin is on Marshall's side on the whole "judgeship versus moving to Rome" issue, and that Robin thinks Lily's been shifting the attention to herself all wedding weekend. Barney is genuinely hurt to learn that Ted was going to just skip town to Chicago right after the wedding without letting his (not really) best friend know in advance.
In a nice twist to tie things together, it turns out that The Mother knows Darren. In fact, she's in the same band of business-school musicians, and her role in the group keeps getting minimized by this guy from singer to glorified announcer; she calls Darren "The Devil," and has stolen his van but is too nice to really do anything to it. She explains all of this to Marshall, who gives her a pep talk about standing up for herself. She never has to, unfortunately. By the time she gets up the nerve to say something, Darren has accidentally broken a third bottle of very expensive scotch and gets punched by Ted. That seems a bit excessive just for breaking a bottle, but we have to assume the gang has already figured out that Darren has been pitting them all against each other. Otherwise, Ted must be drunk and crazy. Darren, sporting the world's least convincing pre-shiner, quits the band. Pleased, The Mother sends a double of very nice scotch to the best man, Ted, whom she has yet to meet. Like Rannells, Cristin Milioti funnels some much-needed new energy into each of her scenes. She's fun to watch; let's hope she doesn't disappear again.
And wrapping up (we hope) one of this story's more pointless storylines, Marshall finally gets to Farhampton. Rather than fight, Lily and Marshall do a callback to early in the show's history and put their argument on pause so they can embrace.
Ted Still Pines For Robin...Or Does He? It comes up again when Barney finds out that Ted is moving to Chicago the day after the wedding. At least Ted doesn't go on and on about it, but Barney can tell by Ted's face that Robin is the reason he's leaving.
Robin And/Or Barney Shows Signs Of Cold Feet Before The Wedding Nope; each of them was too busy having it out with Lily and Ted, respectively.
Guest Star From A Past Season Pops Up (Ex-Boyfriend, Old Boss, Ranjit The Cab Driver) Not so much this week, unless you count The Mother as a past-season guest star (she only appeared once at the end of last year, and is considered a series regular this season).
Baby Marvin Does Something Cute And/Or Disruptive) After being roughly jostled in his Baby Björn while Marshall ran toward Farhampton Inn, Marvin utters his first words in the van that The Mother stole: "Skunk junk." Now that's cute.
Gay Jokes About Barney’s Brother James Stinson (Wayne Brady)? No new James material this week, just a glimpse of him in flashback from a previous episode.
Ted Moves A Tiny Step Closer To Meeting The Mother Yes! Finally! The Mother picks up Marshall and Marvin and makes it to Farhampton Inn. She doesn't meet Ted, but she does buy him a drink, sight unseen, after he punches Darren.
Ted Is An Insufferable, Pretentious Prick About, Architecture, Wedding Etiquette, English Literature, Or Any Other Pedantic Bullshit Ted doesn't come right out and say it, but you just know that if he knew the scotch The Mother bought him was only 10-year Glen McKenna, he would have spit it out in disgust.
Public Transportation High Jinks The bus breaking down is what prompts Marshall to hike it to Farhampton and meet The Mother along the way.
Pop Song Montage Or Episode Outro Marshall runs to a new version of "Marshall Versus of the Machines" and the episode ends with Forest Whitaker's "Bad Books."
Barney Says Something Inappropriately Dirty About A Hot Woman Because, Come On, Barney Barney's been pretty chaste lately. No dirty talk this week.
"Legend…ary!", "Wait For It…," Or Any Pun On The Word "Bro" Barney calls going to jail for a bro, "Bro-ble, the most noble thing a bro can do for a fellow bro." He also gets a lot of mileage out of the catchphrase "That's the dream."
Retro Video, Instructional Tape, Book, Or Other Multimedia Project Starring Or Created By One Of The Main Characters (Robin Sparkles, Barney As A Fake Astronaut, Etc.) No, because we're not counting Lily's creation the Marshpillow.
Slap Bet The episode's tag concludes with Marshall winding up to deliver the fourth slap as Barney cowers and we get a "to be continued..." YES! YES! YES!
Unanticipated Wedding Hookup Not unless you count the perverse joy Darren gets from fucking with everybody's feelings.
A new analysis of the distribution of household income by the Congressional Budget Office shows how taxes and means-tested transfers such as Medicaid and food stamps affect US incomes. “The combined...
The Farm Bill has been held up by a dispute over new work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, among other issues. House Republicans passed a bill that includes...
Congress reconvenes for a lame-duck session next week and funding for President Trump’s border wall with Mexico will be front and center as lawmakers turn to unsettled budget items for the current...
Prepare for budget mayhem: “The budget bottom line is simple: Senate Republicans will have a very different fiscal agenda than House Democrats, and both houses’ tax and spending to-do lists will be...
With Democrats winning control of the House Tuesday, political experts are lining up to give advice on what they should do with their new powers. While there’s little chance of enacting significant...
Will divided government lead to anything beyond more legislative gridlock? President Trump and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive next speaker of the House, have both spoken...
Tuesday’s election results changed the outlook for some key tax and spending proposals. Here are 5 takeaways from the midterm vote: 1. The GOP’s “tax cuts 2.0” effort is dead. The Republican plan to...
The fate of President Trump’s new military branch could depend on the outcomes of the midterm elections, says Joe Gould of Defense News. The Pentagon is working on a plan to create the Space Force,...
The steady stream of top military officials moving from the Pentagon to defense contractors shows no signs of slowing down, according to a new report from the Project on Government Oversight (POGO),...
The founders of the United States envisioned Congress as a co-equal branch of government, but that model of government “is effectively dead,” a new analysis by The Washington Post and ProPublica...
The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell asked economist and data visualization specialist Jonathan Schwabish of the Urban Institute to create a chart that shows how unusual the large and growing...
National Security Adviser John Bolton, speaking Wednesday at an event hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Society in Washington, warned that the national debt is a societal threat with security...
The U.S. Treasury said Monday it expects to issue about $425 billion in debt this quarter, raising its 2018 borrowing to more than $1.3 trillion, a 145 percent increase from the $546 billion issued...
The Department of Defense initiated its first financial statement audit last December – “the largest and most complex financial audit ever,” according to a recent DoD report on military spending in...
Bond traders expect the U.S. Treasury to announce record-setting debt sales at the end of the month, Bloomberg’s Liz McCormick says : “Many strategists at primary-dealer firms predict that the...