The boy in the black hoodie. Before he became Spoby’s #1 fan, Season 1 Toby was the town pariah. Ian played the “creepy kid with a dead mom” role so well that we genuinely didn’t trust him for the first half of the season.

Yes, he’s technically a villain (hello, statutory), but Ian’s brooding charm convinced a generation that Fitzgerald books were hot. Season 1 Ezra is all tortured glances and “I can’t do this, but let’s do it anyway.”

The queen of the side-eye. Every time Melissa appeared, you knew Spencer was about to have a bad day. Torrey played “passive aggressive big sister” like an Olympic sport. Why Season 1 Still Works Looking back, the Season 1 cast worked because they felt like real archetypes thrown into a soap opera. They were glossy but grounded. The mystery of “Who is A?” was terrifying not because of the texts, but because we cared about the four girls getting them.

Let’s take a walk down the DiLaurentis driveway and remember the core players who made us afraid of our own ringing cell phones. The show lived or died on the bond between its four leads, and thankfully, they nailed it from the pilot.