The Best Theories About Aria's 'Pretty Little Liars' Ending

It's one of the most default places for most fan theories to wade into, but hey, this is PLL and frankly, anything can happen. Basically, Aria may have spent some time at Radley due to a severe mental health condition, and Reddit user EzriaEndGame raised this theory that everything we've seen on the show so far will have taken place only in Aria's mind.

What if in reality all 4 girls do not exist or they are dead except for Aria. Thereby all the events which occurred are all in her head as she spends her time at Radley, maybe having killed them or after experiencing a traumatizing event.

Which is pretty extra, you guys. Even for a show as regularly bananas as PLL undoubtedly is.

Hold onto your hearts, Ezria shippers, because this one is going to hurt. Reddit user marinaalexis suggested in a post that Ezra could die in the PLL finale, some time after him and Aria get married. The theory was apparently inspired by a Lucy Hale quote about Aria's PLL ending from an Elle interview, in which she said:

And she sort of has a happy ending, which is nice. I mean, as happy as you can be in Rosewood, haha, in PLL world, but yeah, we ended off on a very strong note for her so I was happy.

Which didn't exactly sound too convincing in support of the theory, but then marinaalexis elaborated on how it actually works:

That quote doesn't really seem compatible with Aria wearing a wedding ring and happily exchanging goodbyes with the other Liars in those pictures of the last scene.

I have a new theory that Ezra dies in the end, sometime after the wedding, which would explain why Aria is still wearing the wedding ring. Aria's the Liar Marlene mentioned who's leaving Rosewood for a while - maybe to get away and heal after Ezra's death. It's "sort of" happy because I mean, she lives, but it's not the cliche fairytale thing we're all expecting.

Bleak. But also it'd be easy to imagine Ezra dying to save Aria's life in what could be a final confrontation with whoever A.D. may be.

OK, I have to confess that I've been endorsing this theory since the very first season. There's an entire website dedicated to the theory that Aria is A, featuring extensive clues from every season that back it up.

Some major parts of the theory include the indisputable fact that all this A drama started as soon as she returned from Iceland; the time that she wrote her name on a window in the Halloween episode and stylized the second A of Aria the same as A does theirs; and the all-too convenient fact that nothing too tragic ever seems to happen to Aria as a result of A's tactics. Which certainly fits with Keegan Allen's account of the A reveal to People, and how he thinks audiences will react to it,

When it’s finally revealed, you could literally go back to season 1 and knowing who it is, you can be like, ‘Oh, wow. Whoa. This has been here all along, and I never noticed it.'

I'd love it so much if that was true, folks.

Remember Aria's uncle Scott? The one who never appeared on screen but who was referenced a fair bit by his brother, Byron, in regards to his vague history of mental illness? Well, Eliza Thompson of Cosmopolitan thinks that Aria's Uncle Scott could be A.D., and that the initials actual stand for Aria's Dad. That's right, guys, we have a potential double twist on our hands.

Thompson suggests that Scott went to Radley, where he possibly met Mary Drake. Aria was also conceived by the two, with Ella and Byron adopting her because Scott couldn't take care of the child.

That means that Spencer's plot line with Mary could have been a red herring this entire season to simply set up this twist. It could also explain why nothing bad ever seems to really happen to Aria. Then again, if it turns out to be true, then this could be one of the worse things that's happened to her for the entire show.

OK, this is a combination of the Aria is A.D. theory and the Scott is A.D theory, but I still like it a whole lot. In this one, as suggested by Uber-A on Reddit, Aria is Mary's daughter, who actually grew up in Radley with Charlotte before being adopted by Byron and Ella. As Uber-A points out in the post:

This makes sense why A.D burned Aria's file in 7x08. It was to keep her identity hidden. Now, whether Aria IS A.D or whether it is someone connected to her who is trying to keep her family tree a secret, I still think Aria could be a Drake, ending up good OR evil.

This would also potentially make Spencer and Aria sisters, and could make for a heartbreaking final showdown if it turns out to be true.

Like the Aria is A theory, the one says that Ezra has been A all along, but with the added twist that he's secretly a relative of Charlotte's too. Which, let's be honest, would be quite the bombshell to drop in the finale.

On Reddit, user dena_is_a provided an enormously in-depth breakdown of evidence that Ezra is A.D., and why it would also make sense for him to be a relative of Charlotte's. Particularly noteworthy parts of the theory include his apparent immunity to any of A.D.'s cruelty, the suspicious amount of "business trips" he took while CeCe was out of the country, and the bogus conceit that he'd been hanging around with 16 year-olds simply to write a book.

If all of this could possibly be true, then it could be that Aria may be forced to even fight Ezra to the death in the finale. Which, I can't lie, as much as I ship Ezria, is something that I would be very much excited to see.

If you have a spare hour or so, then be sure to dive into this amazingly detailed theory suggesting that Byron is Big A in PLL, but also that he's the father and murderer of Bethany Young. Pointing to the death of Bethany (which the theory frames as a tragic accident, and that Byron actually thought he was killing Alison) as the inciting event that triggers Byron's subsequent behavior as Big A, the theory is also backed up by a heap of believable evidence. Damn, it could be devastating for Aria if it turns out to all be true.

There's the fact that Byron's handwriting and A's handwriting are similar (as evidenced on Ian's suicide letter). Nothing bad ever happening to his daughter (how many more times do I need to say that?). The way that Alison and Byron are shown as having an tense attitude towards each other. And the time that Mrs. Grunwald said that one of the Liars had been touched by who Alison feared the most. Could that have been Byron?

We're all just going to have to sit tight and see if any of these theories actually come to fruition when the PLL finale airs on June 20.