What Mrs. D Might've Been Hiding About Charles

The first half of Season 6 of Pretty Little Liars is called the "Summer of Answers," and for good reason: every mystery surrounding Big A will be unraveled by the midseason finale. That means we'll finally learn who Charles DiLaurentis is under the masks, as well as his reasons for methodically stalking and torturing the Liars for all these years. But now, a sneak preview for the episode "Don't Look Now" suggests something huge about Big A — Mr. DiLaurentis thinks Charles is dead. At least, that's what he is telling Alison, and there's a good reason to believe that Kenneth really does think that this mysterious Charles is no longer alive. Could Mrs. DiLaurentis have lied to her husband in order to protect Charles? It's extremely likely.

We still don't know much about Charles, but we do know now that he really did exist. Jason remembered "Charlie," but thought he was his "imaginary friend" — something that the DiLaurentis parents apparently tricked their son into believing. It now seems more likely than ever that Charles is Jason's brother, and that something happened during his childhood that made him live away from the family. But while I think that both parents originally sent Charles away, I'm not so sure that Mr. DiLaurentis knew where Charles really ended up.

We still don't know why Charles was sent away, but I think it had something to do with trying to hurt Ali. Clearly Charles has some sort of fascination with his potential sibling, and I wouldn't be surprised if that obsession started much, much earlier than we expected. Perhaps Charles tried to kill his sister when he was just a little kid, and their parents had no choice but to send him away. They could have wanted to protect Ali and Jason from the troubled Charles, so they lied about his existence entirely.

Charles could have been away from his family for years, perhaps living out his days in Radley, where his parents would come visit him in secret — but when Charles got out of Radley to come find Ali, it changed absolutely everything. I think that night, Mrs. DiLaurentis saw Charles "kill" Ali, and buried Ali alive to protect Charles' secret. Unfortunately for Mrs. D, Charles was now not only a troubled young man, but also a murderer. The only way to keep Charles from trouble was to fabricate a story in which he died, and have Charles leave Rosewood and never come back.

Mrs. DiLaurentis was on the board at Radley, and we know that she already covered up many of the terrible events that happened there. She might have been able to fake the death of Charles that way, too — she could have forged documents and bribed the Radley staff in order to make it seem that Charles died while under their care. She could have gone so far as to tell Mr. DiLaurentis that Charles had died in the hospital so that he did not suspect Charles of taking Ali. After all, wouldn't Charles be the first person you'd look for in kidnapping suspects?

One of the DiLaurentis parents is definitely lying, but I'm not so sure it's Kenneth. He may be just as in the dark as the rest of us are about Charles' whereabouts, because the truth died with Jessica. For more theories about Charles and Mrs. D, check out Bustle's Pretty Little Liars podcast below.

Images: ABC Family; Ohmylittleliars/WordPress