Pretty Little Liars

When your parents set you up with a guy, you assume he’s going to be about as dangerous as Barney the dinosaur. Such is not the case with Pretty Little Liars’ Holden Strauss (Shane Coffey), even though he has Aria’s (Lucy Hale) folks’ seal of approval. Could this shaggy-haired mystery man be hiding more from Aria than she realizes? (How do you say, “We’re getting suspicious” in Portuguese?)

Continuing in our tradition of looking closely at the top “A” suspects, here are the five reasons why we think Holden could turn out to be “A.”

1. He’s not a big fan of talking about himself.
Holden has been so secretive about his past and what he’s up to that we wouldn’t be too shocked if he has total amnesia, Jason Bourne-style. He’s alluded to having stuff to hide from his parents, but we’re still completely clueless as to what he’s doing while Aria and Ezra meet up, not to mention why he wants to spend so much time with her. Then again, if a guy supplied you with free Gummi bears, would you really give him a hard time about anything?

2. Are he and Hanna’s car already well-acquainted?  
Air hockey isn’t exactly a contact sport, but it was during his epic battle with Aria that we caught a glimpse of Holden’s ginormous bruise on his stomach. He claims it was from football (yeah, right), but we’re thinking it’s quite a coincidence that the bruise is right where Hanna’s (Ashley Benson) car would have hit him if he had been the person escaping from the greenhouse in Season 2, Episode 14: "Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares.” Or perhaps Holden has just joined a fight club (and we all know that you don’t talk about fight club).

3. He pops up right after the greenhouse incident.
Speaking of Holden’s bruise, the timeline works out for him to have been the guy fleeing the scene at the greenhouse, considering that we then meet him for the first time in the following episode after his supposed return from Portugal (Season 2, Episode 15: “A Hot Piece of A”). Quite the coincidental timing, dontcha think?

4. Could he be Maya’s ex from sober camp?
Sure, it’s true that the other girls don’t seem to know Holden that well, so it would seem unlikely that he would have a reason to viciously stalk them all. But maybe Holden knows more about them than we realize, as we can’t help but wonder whether he might be Maya’s (Bianca Lawson) mystery man from juvie camp. And we’re not sure that we completely trust Maya either, so who knows what these two might be plotting.

5. Holden seemed to already know about Aria and Ezra.
Holden caught on a little too quickly about Aria and Ezra (Ian Harding) when they ran into each other at the play, not to mention that Holden keeps asking about him, making us wonder if he already knew about the relationship. Perhaps Holden wants Aria to himself, and this is why “A” keeps tormenting Ezria? If so, he’s a lot better at stalking than he is at air hockey.

Think someone else is “A”? Check out our reasons why Lucas, Melissa, Paige, Mona, Maya, Noel, and Jason could be “A.”

Pretty Little Liars airs Mondays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC Family.

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