With five main characters, along with love interests, friends, and relatives, there’s always a lot going on in Rosewood, and Pretty Little Liars is known as a fast-paced series. The teen drama is so popular thanks to the strength of its characters and their choices, convictions, and personality traits. Every time a new clue in the puzzle of “A” is discovered, Aria Montgomery, Hanna Marin, Emily Fields, Spencer Hastings, and Alison DiLaurentis become even more layered and compelling.
While everyone has their own dramatic storylines and problems, heartbreak, and questions about “A” in every episode, there is one character who is the most memorable from each season of Pretty Little Liars.
Season 1: Hanna Marin
Many of Hanna and Caleb’s best Pretty Little Liars episodes are from season 1, which is one big reason why this is Hanna’s best season. But this beloved character also begins a journey of self-discovery in the show’s first few episodes.
Viewers see Hanna shoplifting, mourning the disappearance of her best friend Ali, and upset over her family falling apart and her dad marrying someone else. When Hanna meets Caleb, she loves everything about him, including the sadness they share over their family tragedies. When PLL fans look back on Hanna, this is when she realizes that she’s capable of being loved and that she can move past her parents’ divorce and find a relationship of her own.
Season 2: Aria Montgomery
Fans learn a lot about Aria in season 1 as she moves back home from Iceland and falls for her teacher Ezra. But it’s season 2 that really focuses on the complex nature of Aria and Ezra’s relationship and how this ruins Aria’s life, at least for a little while.
In season 2, Aria and Ezra split up and her dad, Byron, discovers their love affair. Of course, he’s really upset about it, and when Aria gets back together with the person she really shouldn’t be with, Aria proves that she’s confident, headstrong, and is always going to go after what she wants. Fans don’t love that Aria is in a relationship with someone who is so much older, but this is still a season when she shows her strong personality.
Season 3: Spencer Hastings
It’s easy to see Spencer as the main character on Pretty Little Liars as she likes being in control of everything. In season 3, Spencer thinks that the love of her life, Toby Cavanaugh, is dead, and she ends up in Radley.
This is a huge storyline for Spencer for two reasons: because the liars have always been scared of Radley and because Spencer finally found someone who understands her and she thinks that he’s gone forever. In this season, fans see Spencer at her worst, and as she struggles to figure out what’s real and what’s not, she proves herself to be much softer and more vulnerable than anyone anticipated. This is important as Spencer will need to admit when she’s having a hard time as she gets older and struggles more.
Season 4: Ezra Fitz
The best episode of season 4 “Free Fall” because this is when fans find out that Ezra seems to be on the “A Team.” It’s a massive discovery that shifts everyone’s feelings and beliefs about Ezra and makes Aria wonder who he is: the person who has treated her well and loved her (despite their problematic age difference), or an evil part of the game being played against the liars?
The true story of Ezra turns out to be even wilder than if he was simply helping “A” out. It’s definitely horrifying and difficult to realize that he once casually dated Ali and wanted to write a book about her. In this season, some of the mystery surrounding Ezra begins to fall away and viewers see that he has a lot to answer for. His backstory makes him more interesting and fans look forward to learning more and seeing how he can explain himself to Aria.
Season 5: Alison DiLaurentis
There are many scary Pretty Little Liars scenes, and Emily, Aria, Spencer, and Hanna experience a terrifying time in their lives when Ali comes back home in season 5. This is the season when Ali shares her story and when her friends wonder why she’s still not telling them everything.
Ali explains that her mom Jessica actually buried her alive, and Mona told her that pretending to die would be the best cause of action. Ali ran away and it became a game of survival. Now that Ali is back, she wants her friends to think of her as the Queen Bee once again but they’ve grown stronger in her absence and that becomes a big problem for her. It’s intense and memorable watching Ali fall from grace and wonder how she can keep playing this scary game.
Season 6: Emily Fields
Up until season 6, fans see Emily as someone who loves her family, is an incredible swimmer, and is a loyal friend. It’s sweet watching her fall for Maya St. Germain and Paige McCullers.
In season 6, Emily falls apart and has an incredibly intense arc. She sells her eggs to make money and it turns out that “A” implants her eggs into Ali, one of the creepiest parts of the whole show. She’s suffering while grieving her dad’s death and figuring out who she wants to be. While this isn’t an easy season for Emily, it’s her most important and powerful as it’s what teaches her how to stand strong and move forward.
Season 7: Mona Vanderwaal
After watching Mona doing terrible things on Pretty Little Liars, it felt inevitable that she would get a memorable send-off in the series finale. Fans love how Mona’s story wraps up (although it does continue in the spin-off The Perfectionists) as she’s living in Paris and has created her own dollhouse where she’s manipulating Alex and Mary Drake.
Mona has the best character arc out of anyone in the final season of the series. At first, it seems like she wants to become a better person and apologize for what she’s done, as she’s there for her old best friend Hanna and wants her to make her fashion dreams come true. But in the final moments of the show, Mona is back playing a game, and fans can’t help but laugh.
