Uber A: What’s in a Name?
Marlene may have said too much.
Or, how I may have accidentally solved Pretty Little Liars’ big mystery.
It started with this picture.
No, this guy isn’t Uber A.
This is how I accidentally stumbled onto an answer I wasn’t even looking for.
I suspected the uniform was World War I era, so I did some searching and it’s exactly that. Now, World War I was essentially a war against Germany. So that got me thinking… you know, “uber” is a German word.
And then it all hit me. Hard.
In the teaser for the finale, ‘A’ says “Willkommen.” That’s German.
Marlene loves to call big A “Uber A.” That’s German.
Two German references about 'A.’
Why do that unless it has meaning? Why would 'Uber A’ speak German, anyway?
So I took the next logical step. I started researching character surnames to see if any popped up as German origin. And the results were shocking:
Hastings: English, Scottish
Montgomery: English, Scottish
Marin: French, Italian
Fields: English
DiLaurentis: Italian
Mona Vanderwaal: Dutch
Ezra Fitz(gerald): Jewish
Toby Cavanaugh: Irish
Caleb Rivers: French
Paige McCullers: Scottish, Irish
Jenna Marshall: English, Scottish
Wren Kingston: English
Noel Kahn: Jewish
CeCe Drake: English
Maya St. Germain: French
Andrew Campbell: Scottish
Sydney Driscoll: Irish
Lesli Stone: English
Bethany Young: English, Irish, Scottish
Gabriel Holbrook: English
Tanner: English, Dutch
Jonny Raymond: Norman, French
Lucas Gottesman: German
Only one solid hit out of that whole list. ONE.
Not only that, but according to Wikipedia “Gottesman is a fairly uncommon surname originating in Europe. Gottesman is of Germanic origin meaning man of God.”
“Man of God.” Literally.
My jaw dropped.
It was only a few posts ago I made a comment on how 'A’ enjoys playing God. And now the Biblical references suddenly make sense.
The name Gottesman was picked for a reason.
The name Uber A was picked for a reason.
Maybe they’re both German for a reason.
I remember Marlene made a tweet before the airing of 3x01, that the episode marked “the return of uber A.” We didn’t really know what that was supposed to mean at the time, but it sure makes sense now.
Like clockwork, Lucas Gottesman returns in 3x01:
And Aria gets stalked in the girls bathroom by a guy with black Converse, indicating the return of 'A.’
Uber A.
Who just so happens to have that same duck walk that Lucas has.
And what do the PLL’s find at the climax of the episode? Photographs. Lots and lots of them. We already know Lucas is a photographer who shoots on film rather than digital.
The Pieces Fit
Marlene tells us Uber A stole the game from Mona while she was at Radley. Lucas was one of Mona’s first allies, if you look back at the Halloween flashbacks. He was the one in a Babyface mask who called Alison a bitch at the end. He was also probably the person who took Noel’s place in the fake stabbing incident.
Lucas has been in Mona’s Army and he did some A-team stuff with her in the second season, just before she got sent to Radley.
So if anyone were to take over Mona’s “game,” Lucas seems like he was in the perfect position to do it.
Simple, right? Maybe so simple that most of us have totally overlooked it.
Personality
Lucas gives the impression of someone who just grows up slower than his peers. He’s kind of stuck as this overgrown child, still playing with toy boats as a teenager when everyone else is thinking about sex.
This might explain the childhood themes relevant to certain 'A’ scenes: clowns, candy, piggy banks, barns, horses, toys, “I am 8.”
He calls himself a nerd and uses self-deprecating humor. He’s obviously quite intelligent, and probably more so than he lets on.
He’s usually reserved and kind, but has shown outbursts of anger and aggression, especially regarding Alison. He destroyed her memorial in season one, and he’s always made comments akin to Alison deserving much worse than what she got…
Implying that if he were ever to discover that Alison wasn’t really dead, he’s a most likely candidate to dish out some good old fashioned vengeance.
Alison: Don’t touch me.
Lucas: It was just an accident.
Alison: Is that what the doctors told your mom and dad at the hospital?
Lucas: What?
Alison: I’ve heard the stories about you, Hermie.
Lucas: My name is Lucas.
Alison: You’ll always be Hermie to me. Do you still have both?
Hanna: Both what, Ali?
Alison: Parts, Hanna. He’s half guy, half girl.
Motive & Theory
Alison called Lucas “Hermie the hermaphrodite.” That’s pretty damaging for a teenager who is already socially awkward. But has anyone considered why Alison picked that name for him? Maybe there was some truth behind it for it to be an effective insult.
Maybe Lucas, in his childlike state, was into something not stereotypically male. Maybe he liked to play with dolls. Or maybe he cross dressed. Cross dressing has been known to pop up in thrillers, usually to throw the audience off by letting us assume we know the killer’s gender, then surprising us. Psycho is a notorious example.
We see blonde wigs popping up around 'A.’
Mona’s killer wears a blonde wig.
The Liars have referred to 'A’ as a “shim.” They’ve called Lucas same thing.
Did Alison witness Lucas doing something “girly?” Is that why she called him a hermaphrodite? This is something to consider.
But there may be a deeper motive than just name calling. Caleb mentioned that Lucas has a bunk bed. But Lucas has no friends or siblings that we know of, so just who was that second bed for?
Was there a sibling at one time? And if so, what happened to them?
The Crossroads & The Breaking Point
If I could pinpoint the exact moment when Lucas sets his path to becoming Uber A, I think it would be in episode 2x15.
Lucas and Hanna take a boat out on the lake to bring some fireworks for Caleb’s birthday party.
Prior to this, Lucas has been acting very sketchy. It’s suspected that he’d been in the lakehouse attic before, which turns out to be an A-team hideout.
He’s also called a crisis hotline several times. I suggest really listening to his words in those
calls, because he’s truly talking about his role on the A-team and he he lost the A-team cell phone. He’s being forced to do something he doesn’t want to do. His conscience is bothering him. He has a moral dilemma.
“I
need to talk to someone. I’m in a bad place and I don’t know what to
do. I almost got caught tonight … I was asked to do something
important, and I tried my best, but I screwed it up … you don’t
understand, it’s gone and I can’t get it back. All I could do is shut it down … They’re never gonna forgive me. They’re gonna make my life a living hell. I might as well be dead.”
"I’m in too deep. I have to do something, I don’t have a choice … I should have known better. I just got sucked in, and they made me feel like I finally had some power.”
He
gets out on the lake with Hanna, and we can tell Lucas is facing some kind of inner dilemma. There’s a critical decision he needs to make, and he needs to do it quickly.
On one hand, he can follow through with his
A-team orders and hurt someone he cares about.
Or, he can come clean and tell Hanna everything about Mona and ‘A,’ but give up the sense of power he’d attained in the A-team.
He’s undecided and shaky and so creepy that Hanna knocks him right off the boat.
And I think in that moment, in that cold water, Lucas realized he was truly alone in the world. And there was no turning back, because there was nothing to turn back for.
This is the breaking point; the moment that set Lucas on path to become Uber A.
New Attitude
Hanna: Lucas used to be so sweet.
Caleb: Hanna, the last word a guy wants a girl to describe him with is "sweet.”
Hanna: Well, now he’s a Sour Patch Kid.
Caleb: He’s just making up for lost time. You know, going through all the bad boy behavior he saved up for senior year.
When Lucas returns in Season Three, he’s taken on a whole new attitude. He’s dark, and a lot less wimpy.
Caleb: Dude, you tried to set fire to my girlfriend.
Lucas: Yeah, sorry about that. I was being ground down by a trivial beaurocracy.
Caleb: Hanna’s worried about you.
Lucas: Yeah, like you worry about a pet. Just tell her to save her energy. She’s got bigger problems.
Caleb: I know all about Mona being 'A.’ Hanna told me.
Lucas: That’s the tip of the iceberg. Lots more under the surface.
Caleb: Ancient history.
Lucas: More like current events. You know, ripped from today’s headlines.
Caleb: What headlines are we talking about?
Lucas: Icebergs turn over. Did you know that? They just roll over and bring up all of that buried junk. You don’t want to get too close when that happens.
So interesting! Strong implications here of Lucas is picking up Mona’s game where she left off.
Big Clues in Little Places
In 4x13, Mrs. Grunwald feels a great disturbance in the room with Spencer, Aria, and Emily present.
Emily: What did you see?
Grunwald: It’s not what I see, it’s what I feel. One of you has been touched by the one Alison fears the most.
It’s an intriguing statement…
Now, episode 2x10 is titled Touched By an A-ngel. So I figured that might be a good place to start looking.
I was stunned by what I found there.
This is the episode where Emily gets a massage from ’A!’ The masseuse steps out of the room, and someone in a black hoodie steps in.
Finally, in 4x01 Mona tells Emily that Lucas is the one who gave her the massage.
Literally touched by 'A,’ touched the one Alison fears the most!
Lucas.
It doesn’t get any more “touched” than a massage, and the message doesn’t get any clearer than this! They named this episode after this one scene, so you know it’s got to be an important one!
Consider This
Not everyone in a Black Hoodie is 'A.’
And I think we’ve been misled a lot as to who is doing what.
When we imagine Uber A, we generally think of someone in a black hoodie and black gloves, sitting behind a bunch of computer screens, spying on the whole town, sending messages, hacking computer systems, breaking into houses, robbing graves, and generally being everywhere at once.
Omnipresent, like God.
But maybe that’s not the case at all.
Maybe Uber A really isn’t uber human. Maybe he’s just an awkward teenager sitting in his bedroom.
But he’s so smart and so determined, he’s devised a plan that would pit his enemies against each other. So much that he barely has to lift a finger. Maybe he can just sit back and watch them destroy themselves in their own web of lies and manipulations.
We ask, who is 'A?’
Maybe they all are.