We’re over a week since Pretty Little Liars’ Big A calamity, and I’m still not at all recovered. It was revealed that Big A is Charles DiLaurentis, presumably the twin brother of Jason DiLaurentis and older brother of Ali, and he’s locked the liars (minus Ali, because she’s still in the slammer) in a weird, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt-esque bunker along with Mona to live out weird prom fantasies. If Charles is the same age as Melissa, Jason, Ian, and CeCe, I can't help but wonder: Does CeCe Drake know Charles DiLaurentis?
We know that Charles is Ali and Jason’s brother, seven years older than the liars, and, well, that’s really it. He also had a really lame time at prom, but we know not why or how (I’m picturing some Carrie-esque pig blood dropping, but that’s just me). That’s all I. Marlene King has given us. What’s interesting to me is that, clearly, none of the liars know that Ali had another older brother, even though Spencer had a sibling in the same grade. Did Ali even know? And, given Ali’s close-knit relationship with CeCe Drake, is Charles the person that CeCe has been guarding Ali from since the beginning of the show? My vote is that, yes, she had to have known Charles, in some form or another, and Charles is who CeCe has been protecting Ali from all these years.
I personally think that Charles never went to prom, and that's why he's got an obsession with it. This is because Mrs. DiLaurentis knew her son was crazy and had him put away in an institution (maybe Charles spent some time at Radley with Mona) before he grew up and participated in all of those important high school moments. I bet, as a young adult/child, he hurt Ali, and Mrs. DiLaurentis chose her darling daughter over one of her sons and this is why Charles has so much resentment toward Ali: He’s having her framed for murder, thus ruining her life, and he’s also making Mona act as Ali so he can live out these weird play fantasies of making Ali do things.
If the liars were in, let’s say, elementary school, their older siblings would be just starting high school, which is more than enough time to know the kids in your grade, even if there were a few transfers in. This would mean that CeCe would be aware of Charles and his crazy (and then his subsequent exile). The timeline is such that CeCe and Charles had to have grown up together, at least for a bit. This timeline, though, also makes sense that the liars don’t know anything about Charles. They were in entirely different schools at entirely different ages, and if no one were allowed to talk about him, how would they know? Rosewood is a town of secrets, and Charles is just another one. Nobody talks to anybody there, not even the grownups (especially not the grownups, actually).
So how does CeCe play into this? She knew that Charles would eventually come back somehow, to get revenge on both his mother (who sent him away) and his sister (who was the reason he got sent away), and CeCe knew what Charles was capable of. Obviously, she was concerned for Ali’s wellbeing. When Ali first went missing, CeCe went into high gear trying to find her, making sure that Charles wasn’t back in Rosewood. When Mrs. DiLaurentis was killed, CeCe knew Charles’ plan was well underway. Then that whole Wilden thing happened and CeCe had to flee.
This all must mean that Melissa knows Charles, too: They did grow up next door to one another. Perhaps the NAT Club — “NAT” is a Latin acronym for “we see all” — was keeping watch that Crazy Charles wasn’t coming back? Unfortunately for us, we won’t know a thing until Pretty Little Liars starts up again this summer, and I can’t wait. Until then, I will watch out for anyone named Charles, and I advise you to do the same.
Image: Eric McCandless/ABC Family; Giphy (3)
