Season 1

**Season 1**of Pretty Little Liars, based on the books of the same name by Sara Shepard, premiered on June 8, 2010 and concluded on March 21, 2011 on ABC Family.

The show premiered to 2.47 million viewers and retained a regular audience of 2.5 million viewers during its summer run. The summer finale scored 3.07 million viewers, achieving a series high. The show went on hiatus and returned with its winter premiere on January 3, 2011, with 4.20 million viewers, becoming one of ABC Family's top telecasts to date.

Rosewood is a perfect little town with a great many secrets, the ugliest which belong to the four prettiest girls in town: Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily, friends whose darkest secrets are about to unravel. One year ago, Alison, the Queen Bee of the group, disappeared, and the girls stopped being each other's BFFs. Now they start getting messages from "A" saying things only Alison would know. "A" spills their secrets, watches their every move and makes some very scary threats. The girls reunite to discover what's going on, is Alison back or is "A" someone else altogether?

## Storylines

### **Spencer Hastings**

Spencer is a perfectionist and straight-A student whose pressure to stand out in her overachieving family leaves her feeling alone... until she finds understanding in the unlikeliest of places, the arms of her sister's fiance.

### **Emily Fields**

Emily, an athlete trying to sort out her place in the world, finds herself drawn to her new neighbour, Maya, a free spirit who recently moved into Alison's old house across the street.

### **Hanna Marin**

Once-chubby Hanna has transformed herself into the current "it girl," but still battles the urge to binge. Shoplifting gives her a less-fattening thrill, but when she gets caught, the charges are dismissed only because her mother, Ashley, takes matters into her own hands, eager to keep her own reputation and the image of her daughter untarnished.

### **Aria Montgomery**

Artsy and electric Aria has just returned to town from a year in Europe and, while she tries to deny feeling hurt over her father Bryon's indiscretion with one of his ex-students at the college, and keep her mum, Ella, from finding out, she can't ignore the intense chemistry with Ezra Fitz, Aria's English teacher.

## Overview

Best friends Aria Montgomery, Emily Fields, Hanna Marin and Spencer Hastings grow apart when their clique leader and "Queen Bee" Alison DiLaurentis goes missing. A year later they all begin receiving messages from the mysterious "A", who threatens to reveal their darkest secrets. Aria has just returned from Iceland after a year or so with her family and still feels unable to forgive her father who cheated on her mother, who's still unaware of it; she also discovers that her new English teacher is the same guy she met and made out with at a bar the day before. Hanna is not the "It" girl of the school, along with former dork Mona Vanderwaal. Both girls indulge in shoplifting; later, Hanna gets in trouble, forcing her mother to sleep with a detective for her release. Spencer has feelings for her sister's fiance. Emily befriends a girl named Maya St. Germain, who's just moved into Alison's old house. Later, Alison's body is found buried in her old backyard.

Realising that "A" couldn't be Alison, the girls began searching for clues. Their initial suspect was Toby Cavanaugh, who took the fall for an incident the girls refer to as "The Jenna Thing". After an attack from her boyfriend, Ben, Emily bonds with Toby. Emily begins to believe Toby may not be Alison's killer, later confessing to him that she is a lesbian. Emily then starts going out with Maya, later developing a relationship with her. Emily later confesses to her parents about Maya and her sexuality, leading to a conflict between her and her mother. Maya was later sent to juvenile detention following the discovery of marijuana in her bag by Emily's mother. Toby is arrested for Alison's murder, but claims that he met Alison the night she disappeared to thank her for what she did. It is revealed that Jenna, Toby's stepsister, forced him into a sexual relationship. Emily decides to hold a memorial for Alison; however, the memorial was later destroyed, and a picture of her at its remains made her a suspect. Emily subsequently reveals her feelings towards Alison, after Detective Wilden tries to pin Alison's murder on her.

Meanwhile, Aria attempts to tell the truth about her father to her mother, but "A" tells her mother before she could. This led to her parents' separation and her brother, Mike's, change in behaviour.

Meanwhile, Melissa breaks up the engagement with Wren after seeing him kissing Spencer, leading to a conflict between the two sisters.

Hanna attempts to make her boyfriend, Sean, forget the old her, but it backfires.

The girls' next suspect was Noel, after Hanna is hit by a car while spying outside Mona's birthday party. Hanna witnesses Noel writing a message at the back of a car, owned by Ezra. Noel blackmails Ezra about his relationship with Aria, but is later framed by "A" for cheating on exams. Hanna and Sean later break up, after Hanna dances with Lucas at the Homecoming party. Ian returns in town, later reconciling and eloping with Melissa, to the surprise of the girls. Hanna later enlists Caleb's help to work on Emily's phone in order to talk to Maya. She eventually sympathises with him after discovering his poor home life and develops a romantic relationship with him. However, she breaks it off after she discovers that he was working for Jenna. Emily comes across Paige, a team mate of hers who began making homophobic remarks to Emily, though she later reveals herself as a lesbian. She and Emily later began dating, although Paige wants to keep things a secret. She and Emily later break up, and Emily dates Samara.

The girls discover that Ian was the guy Alison was seeing the night she disappeared and suspect he was the one who killed her. After finding more clues, the girls, with Garrett's help, set up a plan to blackmail Ian, but this backfires when Ian sends someone to meet them in his place. Spencer is confronted by Ian at the church. He corners her at the bell tower, attempting to kill Spencer. However, a mysterious figure pushes Ian off the tower, presumably killing him.

## Cast

See Also: List of Pretty Little Liars Characters

### **Main Cast**

* Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings
* Ashley Benson as Hanna Marin
* Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery
* Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields
* Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz
* Laura Leighton as Ashley Marin
* Chad Lowe as Byron Montgomery
* Holly Marie Combs as Ella Montgomery
* Sasha Pieterse as Alison DiLaurentis
* Bianca Lawson as Maya St. Germain

### **Recurring Cast**

* Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh
* Tammin Sursok as Jenna Marshall
* Ryan Merriman as Ian Thomas
* Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal
* Torrey DeVitto as Melissa Hastings
* Nia Peeples as Pam Fields
* Chuck Hittinger as Sean Ackard
* Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Rivers
* Brant Daugherty as Noel Kahn
* Brendan Robinson as Lucas Gottesman
* Lesley Fera as Veronica Hastings
* Cody Allen Christian as Mike Montgomery
* Lindsey Shaw as Paige McCullers
* Bryce Johnson as Darren Wilden
* Diego Boneta as Alex Santiago
* Julian Morris as Wren Kingston
* Nolan North as Peter Hastings
* Jill Holden as Mrs. Welch
* Jim Titus as Officer Barry Maple
* Eric Steinberg as Wayne Fields
* Yani Gellman as Garrett Reynolds

### **Guest Cast**

* Amanda Schull as Meredith Sorenson
* Steven Krueger as Ben Coogan
* Keith Pillow as Mr. Sheldrake
* Carlson Young as Amber Victorino
* Parker Bagley as Jason DiLaurentis
* April Grace as Agent Cooper
* Paula Newsome as Coach Fulton
* Josh Clark as Detective Breyer
* Anne Marie DeLuise as Jessica DiLaurentis
* Roark Critchlow as Tom Marin
* Heather Mazur as Isabel Randall
* Natalie Floyd as Kate Randall
* Patrick J. Adams as Hardy
* Sara Shepard as Miss Shepard
* Samantha Cutaran as Naomi Zeigler
* Rya Meyers as Riley Wolfe
* Helen Slayton-Hughes as Esther Potter
* Alona Tal as Simone
* Bety Le as Bridget Wu
* Connor Trinneer as Nick McCullers
* Daniel Travis II as James Leland
* Claire Holt as Samara Cook
* Paula Cale as Mrs. Ackard
* Paloma Guzman as Jackie Molina
* Tilky Jones as Logan Reed

## Navigational

**Specials:** A LiArs Guide to Rosewood | Pretty Little Bloopers | We Love You to DeAth