What's Up With Rhys On 'PLL'?

Can we acknowledge for one second the seemingly overabundance of men that look like Jason DiLaurentis in the Rosewood area? Tuesday night's "FrAmed" brought up a whole new slew of questions for Pretty Little Liars fans, but on Bustle's podcast Taking This One To The Grave we can't stop talking about Rhys and why, with a huge finale promising "answers" coming up, the series introduced yet another apparent red herring. If you didn't wake up on Wednesday morning asking yourself who is Rhys Matthews on Pretty Little Liars, you probably didn't stay up most of the night scouring Tumblr for theories about the Jason lookalike like we did. So, what is Rhys' deal and how did he score his job at the Carissimi Group? Well, naturally, we've got some ideas.

It's definitely worth noting that my first thought when we met Rhys on Tuesday's episode was about his accent. That guy sounds British, and whether he's an American feigning an accent or a Brit trying to hide it, there's something there. Of course, we all know who else is British: many PLL fans' top Charles suspect, Wren Kingston. If all of our "Wren is Charles" theories aren't true, was the introduction of Rhys a way of I. Marlene King trolling us and the Drunkgate spoilers before they even happened? Possibly. But what's more important here is trying to figure out how and why Rhys ended up as part of this game — regardless of Charles' identity. Check out the latest episode of Taking This One To The Grave for all of the theories about Rhys that we could think of, and yet another round of Charles suspects.

From what he told us, Rhys is the figurehead of the Carissimi Group and based on what we saw in Tanner's surveillance footage, he's clearly working for Charles in some capacity. However, how ingrained he is in the A game and how much he knows about Charles is still unclear. It's entirely possible that he's just a young man with his eyes on some serious cash who's willing to do anything to get it — including sabotage Aria's photography exhibit. That fits into an interesting Tumblr theory that Charles is using Rhys to frame Jason, because there's really no denying the resemblance between those two.

Out of all of the theories that've popped up after "FrAmed" aired, this one seems to make the most sense regardless of whether or not Rhys knows everything about the A-game. He could be totally informed or totally ignorant and still have been an important part of Charles' plan to frame Jason for the photo-swap, while diverting the Rosewood PD's attention away from him as he gets ready to carry out his prom plan. Obviously, it's an assumption to believe that Charles is going after Jason, but it would make sense. Jason betrayed him and Rhys looks a lot like Ali's brother and Charles' former BFF. If nothing else, Charles is totally consistent in his dishing out of payback. This theory also fits in with PLL's frequent use of episode title double-meanings — Aria's photos were "FrAmed," and the only character that seems to have been "FrAmed" would be Jason.

It seems like the question here isn't necessarily about Rhys' identity, but rather about how involved and informed he in Charles' plans. Because, honestly, this guy might just be a mindless minion — especially now that Red Coat has returned. For even more theories and PLL obsessing, check out past episodes of Taking This One To The Grave below, and be sure to follow Bustle’s SoundCloud page for even more.

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Image: ABC Family

Intro Music: “A Tense Encounter,” Tom Howe via APMusicProduction: Noel Howard