1. Aria Montgomery
Aria is probably suffering PTSD from her traumatic Halloween misadventure, in which she was locked in a coffin with Garrett Reynolds’ corpse. Her other main stress is the secret she’s keeping from her boyfriend Ezra: he got his ex Maggie pregnant, and she kept the baby.
2. Hanna Marin
Hanna is dating Caleb — who did not die after getting shot — but she’s also received a lot of attention from Wren, Melissa’s ex-fiancee. They even kissed once, albeit briefly. Last season Hanna made sure that Mona stayed put in Rosewood, going so far as to testify on her former BFF’s behalf.
3. Spencer Hastings
Spencer recently lost her virginity to Toby, ignorant to the fact that he’s working with Mona. This is why you should never have sex with anyone, ever. Before he died, Garrett told Spencer about seeing Byron on the night that Ali was murdered, which Spencer seems to believe.
4. Emily Fields
Emily has had a rough go of it. She finally got over the death of her girlfriend Maya, only to start dating Paige, a girl her best friends were convinced was evil. Plus, she almost got murdered by Nate — and she has to deal with the guilt of killing him. (It was in self defense!)
5. Alison DiLaurentis
Ali is almost definitely dead. We even have a body now, as revealed at the end of the Halloween episode. So what’s with the hand that popped out of her grave? Right now, let’s just assume she’s seriously deceased. Unless, of course, the girl we thought was Alison was actually her twin sister…
6. “A”
We know who “A” was — but Mona’s unmasking didn’t stop “A” from continuing to terrorize the girls. Suspects include Lucas, Melissa, Noel, Paige, Jason, and basically anyone else who has ever appeared on Pretty Little Liars. Yes, even special guest star Adam Lambert.
7. Caleb Rivers
Hanna’s former bad boy boyfriend Caleb survived a gunshot and is now well enough to sneak onto haunted trains and make out with his girlfriend. Caleb knows there’s a new “A,” and even though Hanna has tried to keep their relationship quiet, “A” isn’t falling for that crap.
8. Paige McCullers
Emily’s girlfriend Paige seemed like bad news for a long time. (And OK, with good reason — she totally tried to drown Emily once.) Turns out Mona and Toby were trying to frame her for Maya’s murder. She’s now accepted as one of the good guys, but where did she get those martial arts skills?
9. Ezra Fitz
We learned earlier this season that Aria’s boyfriend Ezra Fitz is actually Ezra Fitzgerald — despite his apparent money troubles, he comes from a very rich family. Ezra’s brother Wes told Aria about Ezra getting Maggie pregnant, but Ezra doesn’t know he has a seven-year-old son.
10. Toby Cavanaugh
Is Toby really working for “A” by way of Mona, or is he actually a double agent? Er, triple agent. Either way, he has really amazing abs. Creator I. Marlene King has said that he’s not undercover, which means he really is one of the bad guys. That hasn’t stopped him from making out with Spencer, though.
11. Mona Vanderwaal
Mona swears she’s reformed and no longer crazy, but we know better than that. She’s still taking orders from “A” and has enlisted Toby in her evil plans. In the first half of this season, we saw that she was easily able to escape from the psych ward, but she’ll soon be released anyway. Yeah, great idea.
12. Jenna Marshall
Jenna once was blind, but now she sees. Toby’s step-sister (and former lover), Jenna is sometimes good and sometimes bad — she’s probably not all the way evil, though. In the Halloween episode, we learned that she thought Garrett killed Ali. She and Noel are dating, and it’s kind of sexy but mostly unnerving.
13. Lucas Gottesman
Another one of the girls’ morally ambiguous frenemies, Lucas has gotten a lot creepier over the past couple years. He was visiting Mona in the mental institution, which means he might be working for her, but we still don’t know for sure. Other clues that he’s on the “A” team have yet to prove anything.
14. Noel Kahn
Noel has basically dated every girl on this show — and who can blame them? He’s hot. He’s currently with Jenna and doesn’t seem to be directly involved with “A.” For a while it looked like he had something to do with Maya’s murder, but we eventually learned that he was just her weed dealer.
15. Jason DiLaurentis
Jason is Ali’s brother and Spencer’s half-brother (awkward). He thinks Ali is alive, but so far he hasn’t been able to uncover anything, and finding her body was probably a little discouraging. He was on the haunted train in the Halloween episode, not that that necessarily means anything.
16. Melissa Hastings
Spencer’s sister Melissa knows more than she lets on about Alison and the shady N.A.T. club. For a while, it seemed like Melissa might have killed Ali, but that was just what her parents thought. (Probably.) Melissa was the “Black Swan,” though she did it because “A” was blackmailing her.
17. Wren Kingston
Wren has a thing for much younger women. It’s not OK. He was engaged to Melissa, but he ended up cheating on her with Spencer. More recently, he’s been making moves on Hanna. He seems pretty broken up about her rejection, which is all the more reason he should try to find a nice woman his own age.
18. Ella Montgomery
Aria’s mom Ella is dating a much younger man! OK, not much younger, but young enough that people have noticed. Like the other mothers on this show, Ella is starting to realize something is going on with her daughter, but she’s currently distracted by Zack. Go get yours, girl.
19. Byron Montgomery
Aria’s dad Byron is also dating again. Gross, it’s Meredith, the former student he cheated on Aria’s mom with. Whatever, the bigger issue with Byron is that he may have been the last person to see Ali alive. Assuming Garrett was telling the truth, Byron confronted Alison on the night she was murdered.
20. Ashley Marin
Hanna’s mom Ashley gets her hands dirty more than many of Rosewood’s other parents. This is a woman who slept with a horny cop to keep her daughter out of jail. Recently, though, she’s settled down. Ashley is currently dating Pastor Ted. In the Halloween episode, she saw a ghost for some reason.
21. Veronica Hastings
Spencer and Melissa’s mom Veronica came into conflict with the girls when she decided to take on Garrett’s case. She was convinced of his innocence — although she was, at one point, pretty sure her daughter had killed Alison. Veronica has a weird relationship with Toby, Jason, and most everyone else.
22. Maggie
Maggie is Ezra’s babymama. Ezra doesn’t know that, but Aria does — and now Maggie knows that Aria knows. When Aria decided she wanted to tell Ezra the truth about his son, she was thwarted by Maggie, who lied to her ex because she wasn’t sure she wanted him in her kid’s life.
23. CeCe Drake
CeCe was the mean girl Alison wanted to be. She also used to date Jason. Even though she didn’t show up until Season 3, CeCe basically knows everything about everyone because Ali had a really big mouth. They were terrible influences on each other — or great, if you think their manipulation skills are impressive.
24. Holden Strauss
Holden started off as Aria’s alibi for going on secret dates with Ezra. He swears he’s not gay, but I’m not convinced. He has a double life as a Korean martial artist, which conflicts with his serious heart condition. Most recently, it was revealed that he attended the same Noel Kahn party that Maya did.
25. Garrett Reynolds
Dead but not forgotten. Garrett was finally exonerated for Ali’s murder, after which he snuck onto the haunted train to tell his side of the story. He explained to Spencer why Jenna thought he was a murderer, and that he thinks Byron is somehow involved. Then he got killed and shoved into a coffin. Bye, Garrett.
26. Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert is a former American Idol contestant, now a successful pop star. He performed on the haunted train in the Halloween episode, during which he was awkwardly flirty with Aria. It’s unlikely that he has anything to do with Pretty Little Liars’ mysteries, but hey, let’s not rule anyone out.
Read more: http://buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/a-pretty-little-liars-character-cheat-sheet
