Pretty quickly after the start of the series, Pretty Little Liars jumped into the drama. At the end of the episode, all the main characters are attending the funeral of Alison, their best friend who went missing a year prior, when they receive a mysterious and incredibly ominous message from someone who identifies themselves only as “A” and claims to know everything.
Throughout the series, all the Liars and their friends and family members are tormented by the members of the A-Team. They receive text messages, letters, gifts, and other strange messages that are sometimes threatening and sometimes reveal a deep secret of theirs. Pretty scary, right? While a lot of the messages were totally terrifying, there were also a few that were kind of lame.
To see 5 of the scariest (and 5 of the lamest!) messages from the A-Team, keep reading!
Creepy: Hanna’s Dental Work
No one likes going to the dentist. Whether it’s for a root canal or just a cleaning, going to the dentist is something that many people totally dread. But, we all know that it’s important to keep our teeth nice and healthy! During the fourth season of Pretty Little Liars, Hanna takes a trip to Dr. Ackard in order to try to find some dental records to figure out who was buried in Alison’s place… and things get terrifying.
After someone from the A-Team forces a gas mask onto Hanna’s face, she’s knocked out and wakes up some time later with blood in her mouth. As it turns out, “A” had snuck this creepy note into the inside of Hanna’s tooth.
Lame: Mona’s Red Herring
The identity of the members of the A-Team was a huge mystery throughout the series. People had all kinds of theories about how it might have been Melissa, Aria, Caleb, or even Alison herself somehow. There were a lot of mysterious clues and red herrings that were designed to throw us off of their identities, but none were as lame as this.
The first person to be revealed to be a member of the A-Team was Mona Vanderwaal, best friend of Hanna Marin and former victim of Alison’s cruelty. At one point in the series, before she was revealed to be “A,” she got a text message from “A” giving her order or do something or else. Did she send this text message to herself?
Creepy: The Fashion Show Disaster
Even though Mona was pretty lame for texting herself as “A,” we have to admit that this early clue that she was a member of the A-Team was pretty terrifying. In the second season of Pretty Little Liars, Mona was in charge of organizing a memorial fashion show that Alison’s mom had convinced the Liars to walk in.
But, during the middle of the fashion show, the backdrop that was showing a picture of Alison turned completely terrifying with a distorted face and creepy eyes. The lighting and the music changed and no one could seem to figure out how to shut it off. Since Mona was in charge of it all, it’s obvious now that she did all of it and she definitely did a good job scaring all of Rosewood.
Lame: This Baby Balloon
During the third season of Pretty Little Liars, Aria learns that Ezra has a son from a previous relationship. His parents were really disapproving of their relationship and tried to pay his ex off in order to get her to not keep the baby, so Ezra had no idea that he even existed. But after, Aria found out, she was conflicted about whether or not she should tell him.
When she left his apartment during one episode, she was greeted by a basket celebrating the birth of a newborn baby boy. On top of it was a blue balloon and the letter “a” in “it’s a boy” was colored in red. Although this is a clever way of reminding Aria that she’s keeping a huge secret, imagining Mona using a marker to color in that letter makes this message seem cheesy.
Creepy: Spencer’s Corset
Although a lot of the earlier messages from “A” were simply sent via text message, the A-Team started to get creative (in a terrifying way!) later on in the series. One of the most creative and creepy ones took place during the fourth season of the series.
The Liars take part in a charity bridal show for Jessica DiLaurentis, despite thinking that she’s definitely up to no good, and Spencer follows Jessica and a mysterious figure into the woods. When she comes back inside, she takes off the corset of her dress and sees finger bones inside with an ominous note. Yikes!
Lame: Tarot Card Tampering
There were two different messages from “A” in the homecoming episode during the first season of Pretty Little Liars. First, the Liars got an eerie threat in their fortune cookie, which we have to admit was pretty creative of “A” to do.
But then, at their homecoming dance, there was one that was totally lame. Although some people believe that tarot cards and fortune tellers can be scary, “A” trying to use them that way and writing a threat on one of the cards that the fortune teller pulled for Spencer was pretty lame. Especially considering it was only about her date.
Creepy: How Did A Do This?
When Emily was in the hospital for an ulcer, “A” managed to mess with her in a totally terrifying way and completely justified her future! The message that the A-Team sent with this one was scary and left us all wondering how they pulled it off.
While in the hospital, the tests that they were running on Emily to figure out what was wrong with her came back positive for human growth hormones, also known as HGH. This got her kicked off the swim team and “A” was happy to message her to claim responsibility for messing with her.
Lame: Hanna’s Cast
After Hanna was hit by a car, she was left in the hospital with a cast on her leg. As is tradition, she had sweet messages written all over her cast by her best friends… And then one from Mona, signed as the member of the A-Team that hit her with their car.
Although we totally get why this note on her cast shook Hanna up so much, it was pretty tame and not that creepy compared to other messages, gifts, and threats that the other Liars got throughout the course of the series. Even Hanna had worse things happen to her than a tame apology written on her cast!
Creepy: Emily’s Tooth Necklace
There were several points in Pretty Little Liars in which we thought that the Liars probably should have gone to someone. The police in Rosewood weren’t particularly helpful, but maybe the FBI should have gotten involved or something.
When Emily reached into her bag during class and pulled out a threatening necklace that had teeth strung in between each bead, we definitely thought they should have gotten help. Even though the teeth might not have been real or could’ve been purchased online, receiving a necklace with a scary message and a bunch of human teeth on it is so scary.
Lame: Emily’s Scholarship
Because Emily’s father was in the military, she almost had to move at one point in the early episodes of the series. In order to be able to stay in Rosewood, she needed a promise of a college scholarship in exchange for her staying on the swim team in Rosewood.
When Emily received a box of college merchandise, she thought that she had the scholarship in the bag! Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. It was just “A” trying to keep her in Rosewood and Emily’s plans at a bright future were dashed in a totally lame way.
Next: Pretty Little Liars: 10 Best Episodes, According To IMDb
