Who Is "A" on Pretty Little Liars? Meet Our Top 12 Suspects

Why It's Possible:

• Well, if Aria ends up being "A" (see below), it would only make sense that Ezra's in on the action too.
• We know Ali was dating an older guy, to whom she would only refer to as "Board Shorts." Ezra obviously likes younger girls, because he's dating Aria. Can you see the connection?
• Ezra seems pretty pissed when he finds out that the Ravenswood lair belonging to "A" has been infiltrated.
• In a recent episode, Ezra has a recording of Alison pleading for help.
• Ezra is desperate to get the diary Hanna stole from said Ravenswood lair — so much so that he ransacks Hanna's room looking for it.
• Remember that sketchy drawer of money Ezra has in his apartment? We never really got the full story on that.
• Ezra coincidentally shows up in Rosewood right after Ali's disappearance.

Why It's Not Possible:

• We've been tricked before. If Ezra really seems like "A" (which he does), it could be just to throw us off.
• He's reckless! He yells and smacks cars in the middle of Rosewood, rifles through Hanna's room with her mom downstairs, and listens to recordings of Ali in his classroom. "A" is a sneaky mastermind and never gets caught.

Why It's Possible:

• Most obviously, Mona was "A" once, and she could be "A" again. She still has the motive, and she definitely still has the crazy.
• In season four's Summer finale, she meets up with Shana, leading us to think she can't really be trusted.
• In this scene with Wren, Mona talks about loyalties and secrets, and it's hard not to detect that evil gleam in her eye.

Why It's Not Possible:

• Mona gets caught in the lodge fire with the rest of the girls. So, not only did Mona not start it, but she was put at serious risk of injury.
• Mona doesn't know who Red Coat is.
• It's clear that, while Mona was the original "A," someone has taken the game away from her and made her a puppet. This person, or "Uber A" can't be Mona too.

Why It's Possible:

• Ali likes to play games. Who says this isn't her latest masterpiece?
• This girl has a serious mean streak.
• Um, she faked her own death for two years.
• The girls' gut from the start is that "A" is for Alison, and they jump to that conclusion for a reason.
• Ali is revealed as Red Coat (or one of them, at least), and there's no way to prove which misdeeds were CeCe's, and which were Ali's.

Why It's Not Possible:

• She's alive, and it seems like she's genuinely scared for her safety.
• With the way she acted before, there are a lot of people who could want hurt her; perhaps she's telling the truth . . . and hiding for a reason.

And what about the girls? During the Halloween episode, Miss Grunwald insinuates that one of the main four might not be as trustworthy as we think. When Hanna says, "She can trust us. She knows that," Grunwald replies, "I wouldn't be so sure." So, let's talk about Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily.

Why It's Possible:

• The texts don't start until Aria comes back from her time abroad in Iceland.
• If Ezra's in on it (as we suspect), it would make sense that Aria is too.
• On more than one occasion, the girls have labeled Aria as "the best liar."
• A while back, creator I. Marlene King tweeted this. Many think she's referring to this scene where Mona calls Aria "Big A."
• If King has Aria pinned as "A," other seemingly harmless coincidences could be clues. Like Aria's name, and the fact that she's the one saying, "Sh," in the intro.
• Remember that time Mona said, "Miss Aria, you're a killer, not Ezra's wife"? Even though the girls figured out it was an acronym, where the first letters of the sentence spelled, "MAYA KNEW," the original sentence itself is an interesting choice.

Why It's Not Possible:

• In the Halloween episode in season three, Aria gets trapped in the box with Garrett's corpse, and she almost falls to her death off the train. Pretty strange thing to happen to "A."
• "A" filled Ella Montgomery's car with bees. Seems like Aria would have to be pretty committed to her master plan to put her own mother in danger.
• If she was, indeed, "A," she wouldn't get texts when the other girls weren't around and wouldn't expose her relationship with Ezra.

Why It's Possible:

• Spencer disappears along with Alison the night of her murder, and we don't know where she goes.
• During flashbacks to that night, we find out that Spencer and Ali got into a huge fight just before Ali's disappearance.
• She's a Hastings. She has the smarts, the cunning, and the financial means to pull something like this off.
• Spencer is not accounted for just before the lodge fire. Could she have started it?
• Spencer has a dark side and even joins the "A" team very briefly.
• When Alison and Emily have a secret rendezvous in season four, and when Spencer shows up, Ali frantically runs away.

Why It's Not Possible:

• Spencer is so devastated when she thinks Toby is dead and again when she thinks Toby is on the "A" team.
• Spencer finds Ravenswood and the "A" lair. Why would she show them both to the girls if she was "A"?
• Remember when Mona admits she's the original "A"? Well, let's not forget she proposes that Spencer join the team, and Spencer turns her down.

Why It's Possible:

• Hanna is the closest friend to Mona before we find out Mona's the original "A."
• Hanna's the only one who stands by Mona's side after the reveal. Plus, she spends a LOT of time in Radley visiting Mona.
• Hanna had a lot to gain from Alison's disappearance. She lost weight, changed her style, and effectively became the new It girl once Ali was gone.
• She's pretty good with technology. She's hacked Caleb's computer before, and she wouldn't be caught dead without her phone.

Why It's Not Possible:

• We've heard of self-sabotage and playing the victim, but Hanna got hit by a car in season one.
• Hanna's always kind of been the admittedly ditzy girl on the show, so it's hard to believe she could pull something like this off.

Why It's Possible:

• Let's not forget this scene, where Dr. Sullivan hypnotizes Emily and she has a flashback where she kills Alison. She later says she got mixed up, but did she really?
• Emily is the only of the four who had a real, emotional investment in Alison, who ends up breaking her heart.
• They never explained why Emily blacks out and wakes up at Ali's memorial, only to find it trashed.
• If Maya is, indeed "Uber A" (see below), then Emily would be the most likely accomplice, right? Just like Aria to Ezra.

Why It's Not Possible:

• Emily's been severely drugged, and a car has literally driven into her living room.
• When Maya gets murdered, Emily is devastated.
• Emily seems to be the only one of the four Ali trusts.

Why It's Possible:

• She has the biggest motive, because the girls blinded her.
• She's been involved with other bad people, like Shana and Garrett.
• She lied about her surgery's success. What else is she lying about?
• We know she was at odds with Ali before her disappearance. Even when the girls first meet her, she knows who Ali is . . . and Ali has already begun to receive texts from "A."

Why It's Not Possible:

• Well, in season four, Jenna falls under attack (by whom, we don't know), and winds up face down in a lake.
• There are a lot of times in the series where Jenna seems scared for her safety and at the mercy of someone else. Like when she leaves town, fearing that Nate is dangerous.

Why It's Possible:

• Wren seems to have a thing for younger girls, between his flings with Hanna and Spencer. He could have dated Ali, too.
• He starts working at Radley Sanitarium after Mona gets admitted for treatment.
• During one of her surreptitious visits to Aria, Ali specifically says, "I'm surprised Spencer hasn't figured that out." It might mean "A" is closer to Spencer than the rest of the girls, and Wren fits in with that logic.
• He's a doctor, giving him access to the drugs, medical records, and other supplies "A" seems to possess.
• This scene, where Wren is having a strange phone conversation and coloring in a drawing of what looks like Red Coat. His last words in the scene: "Just goes to show, you can't trust anyone."

Why It's Not Possible:

• During the Summer finale of season four, when the girls find the "A" lair, they find a picture of Wren with the note "Wren at Radley," meaning he's under the mystery villain's scrutiny.
• When Mona starts talking to him about trust and loyalties, he tells her he has no idea what she's talking about.

Why It's Possible:

• Melissa admitted to dressing as one of the two Queens of Hearts.
• When Spencer confronts Melissa about her association with the "A" team, she admits to being involved.
• She has motive to want to hurt Alison, who had an affair with her now-dead husband, Ian.
• Ian was on the NAT club, and Melissa was definitely tangled in that web too.
• Like we said above, if anyone in Rosewood has the smarts to pull this off, it would certainly be a Hastings.

Why It's Not Possible:

• Melissa Hastings has been in London for an internship.
• Melissa might really have gotten into this whole mess to protect Spencer.
• It's too obvious! Melissa has done a lot of shady stuff throughout the show's run, and she's been a pretty constant suspect.

Why It's Possible:

• We know Shana's involved with Jenna and that it's even a little romantic.
• Remember the Summer finale, where we see Mona and Shana coconspiring? Pretty fishy.

Why It's Not Possible:

• There's not a lot of hard evidence to implicate that Shana's pulling the strings. Sure, she does shifty stuff with shifty people, but that's about all we've got.
• Shana says she's on Ali side, and she proves it when she shares things only Ali would know.
• Along the same vein, Shana admits being involved but claims she only did so to go undercover for Ali.

Why It's Possible:

• Maya could be alive. We don't ever see the body, nor do any of the girls. Could she have faked her death like Ali?
• Mona's cryptic acronym implicates more than just Aria. The core message is "MAYA KNEW."
• If Maya is alive, she'd have plenty of time in her schedule, say, to orchestrate everything "A" manages to pull off.
• She lived in Ali's house while she was alive. Not to mention the fact that when Alison's mom comes back to Rosewood, someone's hiding out in the basement. Could be Maya.
• Bianca Lawson, the actress who plays Maya, has hinted about Maya's return, saying, "You never know. Maybe."
• Maya's crazy website, full of photos, videos, and blogs, is one of the big things she leaves behind. She could easily have created similar sites for other Rosewood citizens.

Why It's Not Possible:

• She doesn't have a strong motive. The only way she's related to the girls is through Emily.
• Um, she's very likely dead. Like, actually dead. Not just pretending.