Ranking All The A-Team Members From Pretty Little Liars

Imagine it's 2010, and you're scrolling through channels and land on ABC Family. There, you watch a show that'll change your life forever. That's right, you just stumbled upon one of the most popular teen dramas, "Pretty Little Liars."

A group of girls grapples with the disappearance of their friend Alison (played by Sasha Pieterse), and soon begin receiving anonymous texts from someone only known as "A". Of course, they think these texts are from Alison — you know, because of the A. That and the fact that the texts include secrets only Alison knew.

This "A" would go on to be an absolute menace who was hell-bent on torturing them for seven seasons. "A" didn't work alone, though — they had help from the aptly named A-Team. There were quite a few A-Team members, so we think it's time to rank them and what they brought to the team. 

Obviously, there will be spoilers, so if you haven't watched it, you've been warned. 

Next up is Sara Harvey. Sara disappeared the same night Alison did and was held hostage by "A" for five years in the Dollhouse. (If you've never seen the show, please watch the Dollhouse episodes, because they're a straight-up masterpiece.)

Seeing that she was with "A" for so long, Sara got Stockholm Syndrome and began working with them to torture the Liars. She was revealed to be "Red Coat" and the "Black Widow," but she has nothing on Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow. Honestly, Sara is a disgrace to the name Black Widow.

The show would be better off without her, and we wish the writers would've seen that as well. Instead, we had to suffer through her endless showers, bizarre alliances, and a death scene that no one grieved over (via Vulture). We think it's safe to say she's one of the most hated characters on the show.

Where do we even start with Shana Fring? She claimed that she and Alison were childhood friends since they were 3 years old, so she agreed to go to Rosewood and spy on Jenna and the Liars. Then she double-crossed Ali because she met Jenna and fell in love with her, but Mona would reveal in the Season 4 premiere that Shana and Jenna knew one another prior to her moving there — so if someone would care to explain, we'd appreciate it (via Reddit). Mona also says that Shana and Jenna were scared of Melissa, but it's never explained why.

Did we mention she straight-up shot Ezra and then pointed her gun at the Liars? Where'd this gun come from? YouTuber Mike's Mic made a valid point in Part 2 of his 'Pretty Little Liars' deep dive when he asked, "Shana, girl, don't you have school?" He's not wrong — in case you forgot, these girls are all in high school and are somewhere between 16 and 17 years old, so this is just a lot.

Speaking of awful Rosewood men, Detective Darren Wilden was also a part of the A-Team at some point. This is the one that really irks us. You're a grown man, why are you tormenting high schoolers? Not only that, but he's a part of the Rosewood Police Department and spends a great deal of his time harassing the Liars instead of trying to solve literally any case ever (via Screen Rant).

Wilden working with the A-Team is on brand, seeing that he's a rotten piece of scum. If you don't know, Wilden had a creepy and very illegal relationship with Alison. He was also sleeping with Hanna's mom Ashley because she didn't want him to prosecute Hanna for theft (via Teen Vogue).

It was confirmed that Wilden was on the Halloween train, and took part in putting Aria in a crate and then tried to throw said crate off the train. Other than that horrific crime, it doesn't look like Wilden took part in any other plans cooked up by "A."

Spencer's big sis Melissa was one of the biggest suspects when the Liars were trying to figure out who "A" was. This might have something to do with Melissa's boyfriend Ian having yet another illegal relationship with Alison. That being said, you can imagine that she would have beef with Alison — and she did.

However, Melissa wasn't "A.D." She would've been a better reveal, but the writers chose violence and decided that an evil British twin made the most sense — and we can't forgive them for that. That doesn't mean Melissa was entirely innocent — she was also blackmailed into being on the A-Team (via Bustle).

Here's some context: Melissa was pregnant and then miscarried, but she still pretended to be pregnant and then had a fake miscarriage. Naturally, "A" (aka Mona) found out and sent Melissa the infamous Black Swan dress, telling her to wear it or else everyone would find out about the baby (via HuffPost).

If you're a hardcore PLL fan, it's likely that you've come across the 'Aria is A' theory. Aria being "A" would make a lot of sense, as out of all the Liars, she didn't face the full wrath of "A." Not to mention she's the one who does the "shh" in the opening credits, and when she was talking to Adam Lambert on the Halloween train, she wrote her name on the window with a big A (via Latin Times).

Fans weren't the only ones who thought Aria would be "A" — Lucy Hale always expected it would be her character. "Honestly, I thought it was Aria. I thought for the whole eight seasons that they were eventually going to make Aria 'A'. There were so many things that, like, led up to it. She was always missing in action. I was wrong," she said (via BuzzFeed).

Though she wasn't "A," Aria did have a brief stint on the A-Team in Season 7. "A.D." had a file on Aria that she didn't want to get out, so she met up with irrelevant Sydney and dawned the black hoodie. Aria would have made a great villain — talk about wasted potential.

Now, this was an amazing A-Team reveal. In Season 3, Toby Cavanaugh reveals to Spencer that he's joined the A-Team. Jaws dropped everywhere, but executive producer Oliver Goldstick said it shouldn't be a big surprise. "Toby's had an ax to grind since Season 1 ... he still had a lot of anger toward the girls. His darkness isn't coming out of nowhere," he noted (via Popsugar).

That anger stems from Alison forcing Toby to take the fall for the "Jenna thing," or else she'd tell everyone about his inappropriate relationship with his stepsister (aka Jenna). We later find out it was Jenna who was forcing him to be with her, but Alison didn't care so long as she had something to hold over him. (Have we mentioned that Season 1 Ali is a horrible human being?)

We eventually find out that Toby only joined the A-Team to keep Spencer safe (via Refinery29). Even though he had good intentions, Toby still deeply hurt Spencer while he was on the A-Team; she was absolutely distraught during that time.

It's time to talk about Mona and why she's the best "A" the show had. You'd never suspect her and that's why it's so iconic. Mona had them all fooled and right under her thumb. Her greatest strength was the way she was able to play dumb when in reality she was a genius (via Bustle). She comes across as this vapid popular girl, only for us to find out that her plan had been in motion for years. 

Mona really put the Liars through it, but it didn't start off that way. Author Sara Shepard, who wrote the "Pretty Little Liars" novels, wrote a short story titled "It's Not Easy Being 'A,'" explaining what led Mona to don the black hoodie. It turns out that all Mona ever wanted was to be friends with the Liars — but everyone, except Hanna, shunned her. Ultimately, Mona couldn't let go of what Ali put her through, and that's when she decided she wanted revenge (via Teen Vogue).

Overall, Mona had an amazing character arc that felt consistent and fully thought out — unlike Alex and Charlotte, whose plots were all over the place.