Rewriting Pretty Little Liars: Revisit - Aria AND EZRA Should've Been A
A couple years ago, I rewrote the final A reveal for the tv series Pretty Little Liars because the series finale left many PLL fans (including me) greatly confused and disappointed. When I rewrote PLL the first time, it literally gave me a headache trying to draw a cohesive storyline from the plot-hole littered source of the show, and the book series is even more disturbing and darker despite its cohesiveness - not to mention its eye-rolling cliches and cheesiness at times. I told myself back then that I was done with the show and would likely never rewrite it again.
Now, rewatching it casually for the first time in almost a decade (I literally felt the grey hairs grow out of my head), I see that the show as a whole just couldn't run as is in 2025; specifically, the ick-inducing relationship between Aria and her literal English teacher Ezra. So, I'm back at it again y'all rewriting Pretty Little Liars for a show-line that would pass the vibe check for gen z.. sorta, I guess - I mean as a zillennial I'm a sucker for nostalgia so I'm gonna outline a PLL series that honors the nostalgia of the 00's but compliments the gen z aesthetic compared to shows like Euphoria.
*disclaimer: this is like a rough TLDR version for now, I might flesh it out later but no promises
First, let's fix/rewrite the biggest problem: the Ezra/Aria relationship.
In my rewrite (fan-fiction, ig?), Ezra would be revealed to be another teenager like Aria who stole the identity of the real Ezra Fitz to pass as an English teacher. In this version of the show, Ezra's real name would be Ezra Fitzgerald (like we learn from the show) BUT he'd be a fellow high-school student who met Allison when she paraded as Vivian Darkbloom. Ezra would be brilliant and years above the literary skills/knowledge of his peers, making passing as an English teacher easy. He would still be Board Shorts, meeting Allison when she attended a summer arts/acting camp as Vivian Darkbloom (I thought this made sense in context of the whole black-and-white retro movies everyone in this show seems obsessed with; Allison wanted to be an actress, Ezra wanted to write films/direct). Allison dumps Ezra and he became kinda obsessed with her, so he moved to Rosewood to learn more about Allison and "write her story," only to meet Aria and suddenly fall in love with her instead. Ezra would be what Toby was supposed to be; stalker-ish, creepy. Ezra learns about the creepy stalker group the N.A.T. club with Allison's brother Jason to better stalk Allison, but as he falls in love with Aria and begins stalking her instead, he realizes she's A and confronts her to team up because he loves her and believes that she's a victim to Alison, and Alison should suffer for it.
Allison would be alive and would actually fulfill the redemption arc. The girl buried in her yard would be Allison's twin under the alias Bethany Young. Allison was first hit in the head with a shovel by Melissa Hastings (triggering a crash-out character arc for Spencer like Betty in Riverdale), but then she was rescued by Mona when she was secretly invited to the barn party by Hanna. As a thank you, Allison teaches Mona all her tricks and promises her she'll be "part of the group" before running away as Vivian Darkbloom. Aria would kill Bethany Young with her younger brother's field-hockey stick (wrongly implicating Ian), then her and her family would move to Iceland to try to treat her recent patterns for unhinged spontaneous violence (i.e. wrecking her dad's office, etc.).
Upon return from Iceland, Aria realizes that Mona has been become the new Alli/queen-bee and wants to join the group, so she entices Mona as A (pretending to be Alison) and instructs her to become A/take the fall for A so that she can become part of the group. Mona is revealed to be A and for the rest of the show has no clue who A is, but presumed it was Alison.
I think in this version Mona would need to actually die, but she'd visit Spencer as a ghost because the two think the same.
Aria would've killed Maya because Maya would catch A creeping around her house in the red coat (this is actually Alison trying to figure out who A is so she can return home). Before A sneaks into Radley and kills Mona, she would say "Miss Aria You're a Killer Not Ezra's Wife" because Mona has realized that Aria is A and A thinks she killed Alison, but Alison is unknowingly alive.
Aria's motive for becoming A would be to find someone to blame for Allison's death because she thinks she killed her. By finding out her friend's secrets, she manipulates them to do whatever she wants them to, all while protecting her own secrets - seeing her presumed teacher and killing who she thought was Allison. Soon the power and control becomes too addictive for her and Ezra aggravates it further as a field-study for their writing.
TBH I'm struggling to think of a motive for Aria killing Allison aside from a buildup of their frenemy shit, but actually what I think might be tea is if Aria's family decided to take her to Iceland because Allison snitched on her for her erratic/misbehavior and Allison found out that Aria was a previous Radley patient. Aria would've killed Allison to protect her secret and so that she and their friends couldn't continue being friends without her, hence why the group is suddenly forced back together when she returns from Iceland as A.
Aria would be caught by Spencer when she realizes its like Scream and there are two killers; the endgame plan for catching A would be like writing their own movie, playing into the character's motifs of vintage movie stardom. I can't think of what the smoking gun would be off the top of my head, other than maybe Spencer would reread diaries Mona wrote during her time as A and realized it's similar to the script of Aria's favorite retro movie. Maybe Spencer would use Allison's diaries to lure out A.D. by treating them like a coveted manuscript for a movie Ezra and Aria want to star in, idk.
I think it would be more cohesive to the plot if the only A reveals were Mona, then Aria and Ezra. Or, in between Mona and A.D., have CeeCee or Melissa be revealed to be recruited by A because they thinks it's Alison disguised as Vivian Darkbloom when it's actually Aria. Ultimately, the primary storyline would be about how one liar (Alison) created a monster in Aria, the prettiest littlest liar. I think in the end Aria and Ezra would be arrested by police but then escape to France to live under aliases Daisy and J Gatsby, powerless against the liars because they no longer had lies to protect, but never quite guaranteed to be gone for good; it would be like a coming-of-age story about growing out of petty lying/vengeance and maturing to trust friends/partners when hurt/threatened. A major theme would also be that people can change for good, especially from who they were in high school.
This is all for now, may or may not revisit this and elaborate more in the future, but just thought it'd be fun to readapt such iconic source material.
