'Twisted' Probably Won't Have A Second Season

UPDATE: We have seen the last of Danny, Lacey, and Jo. ABC Family has canceled Twisted . EARLIER: Have we seen the last of Danny, Lacey, and Jo? Sadly, the answer is... probably. After premiering in June of 2013, Twisted ended its first season this April. The series was ABC Family's answer to fans who wanted even more teen drama and mystery than Pretty Little Liars could provide. Unfortunately, while the show did well enough to sustain a 20-episode first season, there hasn't been a word from ABC Family on whether Twisted will come back for a second season. From the look of things, Twisted's time on ABC Family might be over for good.

That sort of sucks, considering that the show had just taken a huge turn in its story and left fans with a brutal cliffhanger. In the first half of Season 1, Twisted introduced us to 16-year-old Danny, who, we learn, murdered his aunt when he was just a kid. After Danny spends years in juvie for his crimes, he returns to his hometown of Green Grove, only to find that his former best friends Jo and Lacey aren't exactly thrilled to have "socio" Danny back in their lives. When Lacey's friend is murdered the day after Danny returns, the town starts to suspect Danny of the crime. As with any ABC Family drama, there's more than meets the eye — and, eventually, Lacey and Jo decide to help Danny find the real killer.

(This is Rico, Jo's best friend and easily the best character on the entire show.)

Twisted was lots of fun during the first half of Season 1, but by the end of the 10-episode run, the show had lost steam. Twisted wasn't Pretty Little Liars, which seems to throw in more red herrings and new questions with every episode. Twisted needed more stories to tell, and it greatly expanded its universe with the second half of the season, introducing us to more characters and giving existing ones larger back stories. Plus, we finally got an answer about why kid Danny killed his aunt — and while not particularly surprising, it did finally allow viewers to finally proclaim their love for this supposed "murderer" without judgement.

(Lacey was pretty game even when she thought he was a murderer.)

While I won't spoil the conclusion of Season 1 (you can check out the whole series on Netflix), there is a major cliffhanger at the end of Twisted's first s that sets up for a very interesting Season 2. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the show will ever get one.

You can blame the ratings. According to TVSeriesFinale, the show ended its run with an average of 1.29 million viewers, the same ratings that led to Ravenswood , ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars spinoff, being cancelled. The similarly toned The Lying Game was cancelled after an average of 1.27 million viewers tuned in. Given the low ratings, Twisted is definitely on the chopping block and it doesn't seem like ABC Family is in the business of saving low-rated mysteries. Pretty Little Liars is still going strong in the ratings, after all, and will be sticking around for a 6th and 7th season.

Unfortunately, with those ratings ABC Family doesn't have a real reason to bring back Twisted—even if fans really want a renewal. Let's hope that Twisted gets a second life on Netflix or Hulu... because it doesn't look like ABC Family cares anymore.

Images: ABC Family, the-socios/tumblr, carefulx/tumblr, whatdidyoufillmeupwith/tumblr, Twisted Wiki