Mona Vanderwaal

Mona Vanderwaal
First appearance	"Pretty Little Liars" (book) "Pilot" (TV)
Created by	Sara Shepard
Portrayed by	Janel Parrish
Information
Nickname(s)	"A"
Aliases	"A" Alison DiLaurentis[1] Ali Dee
Gender	Female
Occupation	A Leader of her army
Significant other(s)	Noel Kahn (ex-boyfriend) Mike Montgomery
Relatives	Leona Vanderwaal (mother)
Residence	Rosewood, Pennsylvania

Mona Vanderwaal is a fictional character in the Pretty Little Liars book series by Sara Shepard, and its ABC Family television series adaption. She is portrayed by Janel Parrish.

Introduced in the recurring role of Hanna Marin's best friend, Mona eventually grew into a fan favorite character after her reveal as the omnipresent antagonist "A". Mona joins forces with a partner in the third season, who eventually takes her game away from her.^[2] After this Mona forms an alliance with the Liars. In the mid season finale of season 5, Mona is killed by "A", however, in the finale, it is revealed that she is actually alive and being held hostage by the new "A". Mona was the series' primary antagonist for the first two seasons and the first four books.

Storylines

Mona was once an unpopular girl in Rosewood who longed to be accepted into Alison's group and was continuously mocked by Alison. After Alison's disappearance, Mona befriended Hanna and together they underwent an "extreme makeover" and became best friends and two of the most popular students. With her newfound popularity, Mona becomes the new "Alison" of the school, constantly bullying Lucas Gottesman in the same sense Ali did and even telling Hanna that she will cut ties with her before she lets her drag her back down to the bottom. In the mid-season finale, Mona invites the Liars to her birthday party, but uninvites Hanna after "A" sends her a fake message. Hanna and Mona become enemies after this until Mona begins feeling remorse after Hanna is hit by "A" in a car at the party. They rekindle their friend but it gradually falls apart again when Mona attempts to break up Hanna's relationship with Caleb.

In Season 2, She becomes romantically involved with Noel Kahn, much to Hanna's disapproval, but is later dumped by him for Jenna Marshall. She and Hanna eventually become best friends again and Mona tries to become accepting of Caleb. When "A" begins sending threatening notes to Mona, she grows closer to the Liars and becomes a part of their group. In "UnmAsked", Mona is still helping the Liars, who haven't fully accepted her yet, and volunteers to drive Spencer out to the Lost Woods Resort where they find "A's" lair. Here it is revealed that "A" is actually Mona herself, who claims that she became "A" because of the Liars taking Hanna away from her. She and Spencer get into a fight near a cliff and Mona is accidentally pushed off. She survives, however, and is committed to Radley Sanitarium, after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Here, she is approached by someone, who wants to start a partnership and form an "A"-Team.

In Season 3, Mona joins the "A"-Team and begins recruiting people, including Toby Cavanaugh, while still continuing to fake mental illness at Radley. At Radley, Mona secretly gives answers to Hanna concerning Maya's death. Unbeknownst to Big "A", she secretly gives Maya's website to Hanna in code, leading the liars to eventually discover that Nate killed Maya. She is eventually released from Radley and returns to Rosewood High. She also recruits Spencer Hastings to join the team as well. In the finale, Mona reveals that she doesn't know the identity of her partner, whom she believes is the woman in the red coat, and gets kicked off of the team, becoming a victim of the monster she created.

In Season 4, Mona is still allied with Liars until she begins helping Ezra Fitz with his book because he blackmails her because of her illegal "A" activities. She also begins dating Mike Montgomery, so that she may get closer to Aria, but actually falls for him. In the finale, Alison reveals that Mona helped her the night she was hit over the head and convinced her to go into hiding, getting what she always wanted: Alison gone.

In Season 5, Upon finding out that Alison is returning, Mona starts an army of Alison haters to prepare for Ali's return. The team consists of Lucas, Melissa, Jenna, Sydney, and various other people treated bad by Alison. In the mid season finale, she is killed by "A" after acquiring information that proves Alison is "A". In the second half of the season, it is revealed that Mona never thought Alison was "A" and instead, it was a plot by "A" to get Alison into jail. Mona was to fake her death as part of this plan, so that she could find out "A's" identity, but Mike believes that "A" decided to double cross her and really killed her. In the finale, it is revealed that Mona is actually alive. She now has blonde hair and is locked inside Big A's dollhouse, being forced to pretend to be Alison.

Reception

The character is well received by critics and is often considered by fans as one of the series' best character, with many speaking out in disappointment after her supposed death.

References

External links

• ABC Family Biography