Anyone who has a Twitter account knows that many fans were a bit, shall we say, disappointed by last night’s big BIG A reveal on Pretty Little Liars. Admittedly, some of the reactions were pretty funny (see here) and brought up some valid points, but I’m not pledging my allegiance to the I Hate Marlene King Club, at least not today (or ever, really. Woman is a straight up genius).
If you haven’t seen the finale yet, STOP READING NOW. If you’ve already watched and would like to hear why I think the reveal was actually pretty good, let’s do this.
So CeCe – yes, CeCe, as in girl CeCe, as in dated Jason CeCe, as in Ali’s BFF CeCe – was revealed as Charles DiLaurentis.
I would just like to say this was my original theory, right down to the whole thing where Mrs. D bought two yellow dresses on Christmas (one for Ali, one for her transgender child in Radley). I thought CeCe had grown up resenting Ali for the simple fact that she was allowed to be her feminine self, while CeCe (then Charles) was trapped in the body of a boy. The truth is that CeCe’s actions stemmed from a place of true love for her little sister and a desire to be a part of the family that rejected her. It’s actually pretty heartbreaking.
Marlene King has been promising a truly sad, dark A reveal for a while. In my opinion, she totally delivered. I really found myself feeling for CeCe/Charlotte/Charles last night. And yes, I originally thought CeCe would be revealed as A, but I was pretty surprised anyway when she pulled off her hood regardless (mostly because in the past few days I’ve been pretty compelled by the Wren theories and thought CeCe would be revealed as Red Coat. More on that later).
Let’s face it: If Wren, Ezra, Toby, Rhys, or even Jason was revealed as A, no one would have been shocked. After all, we’ve all sort of considered all the male characters because we were expecting A to be a dude. Wren would have been particularly disappointing for me. There are tons of clues that point to his involvement and then there was also the whole Reddit crisis – so Wren-as-A was looking pretty likely to me, and I knew that I did not want to see Julian Morris’s beautiful face under the hood. He’s been gone for so long. Talk about anticlimactic.
CeCe, on the hand, is someone we have always been confused by – can we trust her? Is she genuinely loyal to Ali? Where did she come from? Why did she dump Jason? (Also, let’s take a moment to talk about how she dated her brother. Ew. But that whole “why do you think he was always so mad? He was sooo frustrated” line was gold). She may not have been a huge part of the show in recent times, but at least they didn’t throw a rando like Rhys into the mix.
Part of what made the A reveal work for me was the way it was played. Four for you, Vanessa Ray (that’s the actress who plays CeCe). When she looked into the camera and said, “I love all my dolls. That’s why you’re still alive?” CHILLS. So good. I totally bought her as a completely deranged, profoundly sad, lonely mastermind.
Here’s what was disappointing, though: Sara Harvey was revealed as Red Coat and the Black Widow. I mean, really? She’s been part of the story for like, two seconds, and we’ve all hated her for both of those seconds. You know what would have been fantastic? If Red Coat and/or the Black Widow had been the twin of one of the liars. I mean, can you imagine? Red Coat is actually Spencer’s twin and she repressed the memory of having a sister (just like Jason did with Charles – after all, those two do share DNA). She could have been the crazy little girl we saw dancing at Radley and could have linked up with CeCe to bring their siblings down. It would have been mind blowing. Certainly more shocking and exciting than Sara friggin’ Harvey as A’s main ally.
With that being said, we have at least another season and a half to look forward to. Here’s hoping they finally make one of the liars go dark and/or reveal a hidden twin once and for all.
Until then, happy hunting, my fellow liars. Tell us what you thought of last night’s show below – there’s no right way to feel about this, so feel free to let us know if you hated it!
XOXO,
Z
[Lead image via]
Why I'm (Mostly) Satisfied With Last Night's Pretty Little Liars A Reveal
