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Michelangelo "Mike" Montgomery is Aria's younger brother. He is suffering from the results of his parents' break-up, along with Aria, which involves several violent episodes. He is also sneaking around his parents, keeping secrets that Aria is aware of in general, but not privy to. He may be suffering from chronic depression.
Season 1
When Ella discovers that Byron has cheated, Mike picks up on the fact that she begins acting strangely. He asks Aria if she notices it too, but Aria lies to him. He is very upset when everything changes, and his parents leave the house.
In "The Homecoming Hangover," Mike deals with his parents separation badly and gets into a fist fight with another guy in the school hallways. Aria and Sean break up the fight, and Mike responds angrily to Aria, pushing her away.
To Aria's dismay, Mike starts hanging out with Noel after Aria has broken it off with Noel. Mike innocently reports that Noel is planning to out Mr. Fitz's relationship with a student -- at the dinner table in front of a horrified Aria and her father, who reacts by scolding his son for making unsupported allegations that could ruin a man's career.
In "Someone to Watch Over Me," when Byron finds out that Aria has a secret relationship with a boy, he pries in Aria's room, looking for clues. He almost discovers the truth, but Ella stops him in an argument, overheard by Mike. When Aria returns home, Mike scolds her for keeping a secret from her parents that is causing them to fight again; he blames her for their fight. Things were starting to improve between their parents' relationship.
Aria and Mike had agreed to make dinner for the parents as a way to a family date night, but due to the argument, Ella cancels, leaving the three to eat dinner alone. Mike is very upset, as he wants his parents' relationship to stabilize again, or better yet, go back to the way it was before.
Season 2
Even though Mike was the one who wanted his parents to get back together the most (and for Ella to come home), he is not contented with the situation and upset by how much has changed. Ironically, Aria is the one enjoying the return, not Mike.
In "Blind Dates," Aria goes to find and pick up Mike at the basketball courts, as per her mother's request, but only finds Mike's "old" friends and even, Jason. His friends let her know that Mike hasn't been around in awhile, and Jason theorizes that Mike is doing things his family obviously wouldn't approve of.
When Mike comes home, he scares her by not speaking up when she asks who's there. She also confronts him about his lies, but he brushes her off, as he is not dealing with his transitioning family situation very well.
Aria's dad picks up on Mike's abnormal behavior at home, but Aria denies what she knows, having been threatened by Mike that he would tell their parents that she has been hanging out with her friends.
Mike's attempted break-in
In the next episode, Jason DiLaurentis watchesMike trying to break into his house and brings him home, without calling the police, saying that there have been enough police around that house (it was the DiLaurentis' old home). When Aria begins lecturing Mike about breaking into people's house, he says he will return all the stuff he stole from Emily's garage if it makes her happy. Aria pauses, and then begins to figure it out, asking her if he's the one who body-checked her in the Hastings's house. He admits that he was, saying he felt really bad about it.
Picking up Mike from the station
In "Surface Tension," Officer Barry comes to the Montgomery residence to reveal that Mike had been arrested for breaking and entering. When his parents pick him up, Mike avoids his parents questions by walking away silently. Byron tries to force explanations out of his son, but Ella stops him, letting Mike go into the car so that she can talk to her husband. She argues that talking to him while being angry won't help their cause. Obviously, Mike's behavior is indicative of a bigger problem, which they need to discover, and they won't be any closer at finding out what it is if they lash out at him. When Mike comes home, Aria accuses him of stealing from Jenna, but she is thrown for a loop when he tells her it was stolen from Garrett Reynolds' (or as Mike calls him "Officer McFriendly") place; he claims to have actually stolen from a cop because he was looking for a gun. Aria is skeptical, but Mike assures her that he vividly remembers stealing the piece from Garrett's place, not Jenna's.
In "Picture This," Mike's behavior closely mirrors that of someone who is clinically depressed. He sleeps in his room in the middle of the day and is barely communicative with his parents when they speak to him (or to anyone in general). He has fallen out of touch with his friends and no longer engages in the activities that he used to, having abandoned lacrosse and basketball altogether. Ella finds out from Mike's school teachers that Mike does not seem to "be there" when in class, that he's completely checked out, probably because he is no longer able to concentrate. Ella's approach is to give Mike time and space until he is ready to communicate with them, but Byron wants a hardline approach and wants to force Mike to attend school sooner and behave properly again. When he visits Mike's room, he is shocked to find him in bed with the the door locked. He scolds his son for breaking the rules by locking the door, but doesn't mention Mike's attending school the way he had planned. Later, Byron reveals to Ella his concern that Mike is behaving the way that his brother Scott did...Did Scott commit suicide? Scott's fate is left vague, but Ella firmly denies the comparison, and the parents are left troubled by their son's confusing behavior.
