Spoilers upon spoilers upon spoilers below
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS finally revealed who A is last night after years and years of build up. Now, the question has to be asked if we are all satisfied with the reveal. I for one am pretty satisfied although I was hoping Wren would be the ultimate big bad. CeCe Drake was revealed as A or Charles as we have been calling him this whole season. Charles, the lost DiLaurentis sibling, was a transgendered child and transition to Charlotte in her teens and Charlotte later created the identity of CeCe. I didn’t see this plot twist coming and for that I’m a fan of it. PLL has for so long been somewhat predictable so a plot development catching me off guard was fun.
The writers handled CeCe’s journey very well allowing for this surprise to work. She was thought to be an A suspect from the beginning but then it was revealed that she was on team Ali and not Team A. We thought we had seen the last of CeCe when Ally gave her a passport and she was off to France. In fact, that was the last time we saw her until last night. I found the story CeCe told to be compelling, very informative, heartbreaking and upsetting. PLL has always really succeeded at filling in the blanks when they actually take the time to do so.
And this brings me to the issues I had last night. There was just too much information given in one episode. We found out CeCe/Charlotte/Charles’ back story, that Mona killed Bethany and Sara is on Team A. That is a lot to process and in fact too much to process in one episdoe. Any random off the street would know as much as I do (someone who has watch every episode of this show) after last night and would able to pick up with the show when it returns. Yes, this was a big pay off for fans but a lot of this information could have been spread throughout this season. This has always been my biggest problem with this show; the finales have all the pay off so what is the point of watching any other episode.
The CeCe reveal was enough for this episode. I think we all knew Sara wasn’t who she said she was and did anyone really care who killed Bethany at this point? The murder I’m most interested in was Mrs. D’s and they left that unanswered. I think there will be a lot of positive and negative feedback on Charles being transgendered and CeCe being A but this PLL fan was completely satisfied with the reveal. It will make me go back and watch the series again to try and pick up on anything that I missed. Like I said, I convinced myself and hoped that Wren would be Charles.
I also loved that they flashed forward at the end of this episode instead of just waiting until next season. I want to know who “he” is and why is he coming after Ali and the girls. But more importantly, I want to know why they are all back in Rosewood. Also, did you notice any easter eggs: Ali was writing Mrs. Rollins on the board so not only is Ali a teacher, she is married. And Hanna had on a wedding ring, wouldn’t it be fun if her husband wasn’t Caleb? I’m ready for the next season of PLL!
Your turn TV Addicts. What did you think of the finale? Were you satisfied? If not, why? Sound off below.