Charlotte Drake
Charlotte Drake is a fictional character in Pretty Little Liars, an American mystery drama television series based on the homonymous novel series written by Sara Shepard. Charlotte is a character that only appears in the television series and is portrayed by Vanessa Ray. The character is also featured in the Pretty Little Liars web series Pretty Dirty Secrets.
Charlotte was introduced in the third season using the pseudonym CeCe Drake. Acting as a best friend and mentor to Alison DiLaurentis, CeCe moved back to Rosewood two years after Alison's disappearance. Having stolen the game from Mona Vanderwaal, Drake acted as the leader of the A-Team, recruiting minions to do her bidding whilst also concealing her identity from them as Red Coat. Following the events from "A Dangerous Game", the group disbanded and her schemes were from then on primarily assisted by a single ally, later divulged to be Sara Harvey.
During the fourth-season episode "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", CeCe is revealed to be Red Coat. In the sixth-season episode "Game Over, Charles", Drake unmasked herself as Big "A", and revealed that she was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery. In the following episode "Of Late I Think of Rosewood", it is shown that Charlotte spent the subsequent five years at the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital. Charlotte is eventually released from Welby after the Liars lie under oath and testify in favor of her release as a favor to Alison. However, Charlotte is murdered by an unknown assailant merely hours after leaving Welby. Her death fueled the rise of a new "A", using the alias A.D., who was severely adamant on avenging Charlotte's homicide. During the sixth-season finale "Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars", the Liars discover that Jessica DiLaurentis has an identical twin sister, Mary Drake, a former patient at Radley Sanitarium who is Charlotte's biological mother. In "The DArkest Knight", Mary is revealed to be Spencer Hastings' biological mother, thus making her Charlotte's maternal half-sister. During "Farewell, My Lovely", Mona confesses to killing Charlotte after finding out that her mental health hadn't improved and her intentions were to harm the Liars again. In "Till Death Do Us Part", the elusive A.D. is revealed to be Alex Drake, Spencer's identical twin sister. Alex believed the Liars knew who orchestrated Charlotte's murder and was also set on physically replacing Spencer due to envying the upbringing she was able to have.
Casting and development
It was reported that Vanessa Ray was cast to portray CeCe Drake, who was later known to be Charlotte DiLaurentis. When Ray was announced to start filming again for Pretty Little Liars fourth season, she spoke about returning, stating: "It's so fun to do, and what a crazy character I get to play. She's sort of a sociopath. I think she's so weird because she's, like, 22 but hangs out with high-schoolers. It's like, 'Hey, girl! Get a life!'" Drake was characterized as a "beyond-charismatic twenty-something blonde stylist at a boutique that has one heel in the present, one in the past." Pretty Little Liars executive producer Oliver Goldstick stated that Drake acted as a mentor to Alison DiLaurentis, teaching her "the wicked ways of the world." Drake's is described as having a sociopathic personality: controlling, charming, seductive, dominant, and extremely intelligent. The character was also described by Ray as "off-the-wall, self-centered, bizarre fashionista."Story lines
Season 2
The character makes her first appearance in this season, during the episode "Unmasked", as the stranger in a red bathrobe who pays a visit to Mona Vanderwaal following her admission to Radley Sanitarium.Season 3
In "Blood Is The New Black", CeCe/Red Coat is seen buying black hoodies and gloves for her team members. The store owner says to the then mysterious entity: "So, are you buying this for a team?".During "Kingdom of the Blind", CeCe/Big A pours herself a drink as she is making another necklace, and puts the vodka bottle in the freezer next to a bodybag.
In "Birds of a Feather", CeCe/Big A is at the airport hacking the system of Radley Sanitarium in order to allow Mona having visitors.
During "That Girl is Poison", CeCe/Big A goes through Maya's purse, finding different items belonging to Maya St. Germain.
In "The Remains of the A", CeCe/Big A looks at rooms for rent in the newspaper and calls a number, ready to officially move to Rosewood.
CeCe Drake makes her first official appearance in "Crazy". The girls mistake her for Alison due to their physical similarities. CeCe spent what was described as an "intense" summer with Alison DiLaurentis in Cape May, New Jersey, prior to her disappearance. She previously dated Jason DiLaurentis and broke up with him the day after Alison went missing. Jason blames CeCe for the way Ali acted. When Emily and Nate are looking for something he wanted to purchase Jenna Marshall for her birthday, CeCe could tell Emily disfavored his interest on Jenna and assumed she had feelings for Nate. Thus, she steals Jenna's contact from Emily's cell phone, and prank dials Marshall to state she was Nate's girlfriend, and wanted Jenna to back off. Emily is frightened, but CeCe deduces she's grateful. At the end of the episode, Big A picks up a recorder which was in one of the dolls at Radley, that recorded the conversation between Mona, Aria and Hanna.
In "Stolen Kisses", CeCe/Big A collects a large sum of money from the bank.
During "The Kahn Game", CeCe reveals to Spencer and Aria that she was a student at UPenn and invites them to a frat party, promising Spencer that someone from UPenn admissions would be attending. Later, CeCe challenges Eric Kahn to a game of "Truth or Dare". At the end of the episode, A receives a key from a cat obsessed woman to the "unit A".
In "What Lies Beneath", Charlotte watches the news as she's hanging up black hoodies and moving boxes. On one of them, it is written the name "Hopkins", which is the first hospital that had done a sex change surgery.
During "Single Fright Female", CeCe is seen posting something at the front of the school when Spencer asks her what she's doing. CeCe tells her she's trying to spread the word about a fashion show. Once they catch a glimpse of Paige and Emily arriving to school, CeCe reveals to Spencer that her and Paige had a feud between the two over Emily Fields in which CeCe referred to Paige as "Pig Skin". In a flashback, CeCe and Alison talk in her car, and Alison tells her about how she'd set up Paige by writing her a love letter, pretending to be Emily. CeCe says she's proud of her. When Paige appears for the setup, Alison confronts her and threatens to tell her father, who is the deacon at the church. Paige screams at Alison to give her the note back, but Alison says that she owns her now. CeCe gleefully speeds away from the scene with Alison. CeCe proceeds to admit that she believed Alison was afraid of Paige. Later, Spencer helps her out at the boutique and CeCe saves her from a snake attack in one of the dressing rooms. At the end of the episode, Big A plays on the jukebox as she hands over a key to another black-gloved A.
In "Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno", CeCe remembers the photo of Ali and Cece bonding with lobsters in Cape May, NJ that Emily shows her, but she confesses to never really knowing who "beach hottie" was. CeCe stated "Honestly, there were so many hotties down there that summer". A flashback later showcases Alison visiting CeCe at Annie's Crab Shack to inform her that her period was late. CeCe then states to Emily that she was wearing protection but "not all the time". Ali comes to see her at Annie's Crab Shack and tells her she's late... like two weeks late. She was using protection, "just not all the time." At the end of the episode, A is sporting her Red Coat disguise in her lair whilst using a blow torch to burn a bobblehead Hanna doll.
During "Dead to Me", "A" purchases whiskey in a store.
In What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted", CeCe is at the Brew when Emily spots her and starts asking questions about "Beach Hottie," She leaves, stating that she doesn't have time to answer questions since she has to get pictures for her store's website. She winds up calling Aria, to ask if she could help with the photos, since the first photographer she hired was unprofessional. CeCe later leaves Aria and Wesley alone to go get some dinner and never returns. She calls to tell them her car got towed, but she is lying because she is sitting in her car while making that phone call. Only minutes prior, Jason and Emily were involved in an elevator accident - an act of deliberate sabotage. In this same episode, Jason relays a flashback to Emily of the night Ali disappeared. He recalled seeing 'Alison' arguing with Melissa near his house, but when he called her name, it was CeCe who turned her head around. At the end of the episode, two 'A's play "spin the bottle" with pictures of the Liars on whiskey bottles. The flask ends up pointing on Aria, but Big A turns it to Spencer and then, both of them drink the whiskey.
During "Hot Water", Hanna sees Wilden arrest CeCe in his police vehicle. CeCe later leaves Rosewood because Wilden believes she told people about him possibly getting Alison pregnant. As she's packing her bags, Emily quickly stops by her apartment in order to find out who took the picture of her and Alison at Wilden's boat. CeCe admits that it was Melissa and once Emily confronts her about Jason's memory of seeing Melissa talking to her at the DiLaurentis' backyard the night Alison went missing, she later reveals that Melissa was looking for the N.A.T. Club's footage. At the end of the episode, Big A cuts up pink roses, and puts them in a lowery wreath with a ribbon which says "With Deepest Sympathy", foreshadowing Toby's faux death.
In "Out of Sight, Out of Mind", Big A watches a man fishing up a cap belonging to a Rosewood Police's officer.
During "I'm Your Puppet", it was revealed that CeCe had a visitor pass to Radley signed by Wren and that she was secretly visiting Mona while she was admitted at the institution. According to Wren, he got into a lot of trouble for allowing her a pass at a time when Mona wasn't supposed to have visitors. But he let CeCe see Mona because she was desperate to see her since she stated to have been "traumatized by Alison" and wanted to act as a mentor for Mona. Apparently, it was Melissa who called CeCe to tell her that Mona was in Radley. The reasons as to why she did so are still unspecified. Mona would later admit to seeing CeCe while in Radley, though not recalling what they spoke about due to being on medication, in the episode "'A' is for A-l-i-v-e".
Season 4
In "Turn of the Shoe", Big A feeds dinner to a caged Tippi as it continues to speak in Alison's voice.During "Cat's Cradle", A looks at Emily's x-ray of her shoulder.
In "Face Time", Big A holds a broken mask of Melissa as she glues the broken pieces together.
During "Gamma Zeta Die!", Big A drinks a cup of tea while looking at a picture of Carla Grunwald, the house mother of Gamma Zeta Chi sorority.
In "Under the Gun", Charlotte hot-wires a car while wearing a mask of Emily's face.
When Toby and Caleb go to investigate Red Coat's flight plan in the episode "Crash and Burn, Girl!", they question Nigel Wright a second time until he reluctantly reveals that he was paid to set up an anonymous private flight by CeCe to the lodge at Thornhill on the night of the fire incident that took place in the episode "A dAngerous gAme" At the end of the episode, A is in a hardware store, buying house fixing supplies addressed to Emily.
During "The Guilty Girl's Handbook", Big A is seen drilling holes in the floor of the DiLaurentis house.
In "Into the Deep", Paige throws Emily a surprise birthday party at her aunt's lake house. While Aria and Emily are looking for Spencer outside, Emily spots a body floating face down in the lake. She rushes in panic and turns the body over to see that it's Jenna. Emily thinks whoever bashed her in the back of her head did it to make sure she didn't tell the Liars whatever information she withhold about Alison. Shana Fring later admits to Spencer at the hospital the person Jenna was afraid of was CeCe. At the end of the episode, Big A is seen playing the piano. She places a sheet of music in an envelope with the name "Toby Cavanaugh" written on it, whilst drinking wine.
After Caleb finds CeCe's address from an old cable bill in "The Mirror Has Three Faces", Aria heads there and talks to CeCe's old roommate. She reveals that Alison got CeCe kicked out of college after she pushed a girl down a flight of stairs at a frat party in "The Badass Seed". However, Alison later reveals in the seventh-season episode "Exes and OMGs" that Noel was actually responsible for this incident and later used this information to blackmail him. Jessica DiLaurentis is also featured in the episode. In it, she has a flashback of a time when she received a phone call from Radley Sanitarium saying that Alison had checked in. When she got there she encountered CeCe dressed as Ali. Jessica described their friendship to Spencer and Hanna as obsessive and toxic, stating that "they 'wore' each other's personalities". The girls realize that the "Alison" masks that Alison purchased weren't for them, she probably had them made for CeCe. At the end of episode, Big A throws Ashley's muddy shoe in the pile of Emily's collapsed house.
CeCe makes her first official appearance in the fourth season during the episode "Bring Down the Hoe". She is seen in an apartment filled with pictures of Alison DiLaurentis and the Liars, dating all the way back from Halloween 2008. We also see that she has a red coat, hinting at the fact that CeCe potentially spied on the Liars at the hoedown they attended earlier. CeCe is then shown in a black hoodie spying on Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz. Later, 'A' makes voodoo dolls of the five Liars: Aria, Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and the newest one, Mona. She takes the knitting utensil and stabs the Mona doll.
In "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", the Liars are convinced that CeCe did indeed murder Darren Wilden as a sketch of a blonde woman resembling her physical features is shown on the news. As the girls realize that there are in fact two Red Coats while saving Emily in Ravenswood, Spencer chases after one while Aria chases after the other. During a brief struggle in which her Alison mask is kicked off by Aria, CeCe is revealed to be one of the Red Coats, and is the evil one that had been working against the Liars. CeCe attempts to escape by grabbing onto a rope, only for it to snap. Aria tries to pull CeCe up as she pleads for Aria to help her, however she proves too heavy for Aria as her sleeve rips and she falls to the ground. As the Liars gather together they are unsure if CeCe is dead or not. While the Liars are contemplating calling the police, CeCe's hand is seen twitching, and when the Liars turn around she has seemingly disappeared.
During "Who's In The Box", Big A is spotted opening a secret basement in Ezra Fitz's cabin.
According to Travis in "Love ShAck, Baby", CeCe was last spotted in Maryland on the run from the authorities. It was also divulged that she made huge money deposits before Wilden died. Big A later hacks into a GPS System, hinting that she might be the one who messed with Emily's GPS car settings.
In "Close Encounters", A slices a picture of Ali and Shana when they were younger in half and symbolically lights the half with Shana's face on fire. There's a possibility that this person was Shana Fring. During "Bite Your Tongue", Big A shreds Radley's visiting documents and uses the shredded paper to line Tippi's cage. In "Hot for Teacher", Big A empties an envelope containing prescription pads with Wren's name and credentials. During "Free Fall", A collects the pages of Ezra's book.
During "She's Come Undone", it was revealed that CeCe witnessed a fight between Spencer Hastings and Alison DiLaurentis the night of Ali's disappearance and that Jessica DiLaurentis paid CeCe to be quiet about it. Big A is later seen reading Ezra's story by a fireplace.
At the end of "Cover For Me", Big A cuts a loose string on a wedding dress, foreshadowing the events of "Unbridled".
During the season finale "A is for Answers", CeCe is detained by Detective Gabriel Holbrook and questioned about Wilden's homicide. She confesses to knowing who murdered Bethany Young and that Alison is still alive. At the end of the episode, Jessica's dead body is dragged across the grass as Charlotte buries her on the Hastings' backyard.
Season 5
In "Escape from New York", CeCe is taken away by officer Barry Maple to be sent to jail, however, at some point she knocks him unconscious, steals his cop car and heads off to New York where Alison and the Liars are. Drake finds Ali and asks for her help since Alison owed CeCe a favor for helping her out in Ravenswood. Alison offers her a plane ticket to France and she leaves the country, under the alias of Vivian Darkbloom. When Emily catches Alison, she divulges that CeCe was being paid by Ezra for information. Ali further claims to have asked her to dress up as Red Coat only to distract "Big A". However, it's revealed much later that, unbeknownst to Alison, CeCe was the person who stole the "A" game from Mona and donned the Red Coat disguise during some of her missions. Ali also reveals that Drake was accountable for Wilden's murder.Drake is absent for the following three episodes, seeing as she headed to France. "Big A" later makes a comeback in "Miss Me × 100". She blows up the Cavanaugh's house and is seen texting the Liars while moving her belongings into a new lair.
During "The Silence of the E. Lamb", "Big A", opens up Ella's engagement party letter and takes a picture of the item before gluing it back together as if it were never open.
In "Scream For Me", "Big A" walks through Spencer's room, flipping up a hidden panel under a couch cushion that ultimately opens up a secret compartment at the Hastings house.
During "March of Crimes", "Big A" is at the Optometrics office Spencer frequented, eavesdropping on what is happening to Ali at the police station through the usage of her mp3 player.
In "A Dark Ali", "Big A" folds laundry, including a striped candy pinafore.
During "Taking This One to the Grave", "Big A" allegedly murders Mona Vanderwaal. She later replaces the baby Jesus ornament with a Mona doll and opens up the trunk of her car, revealing Mona's body. She then makes a snow globe with the picture of The Liars.
In "How the 'A' Stole Christmas", CeCe returns to Rosewood to comfort Ali on her first Christmas without Jessica. In order to remain unseen, Drake wears a white cloak and offers Alison a bottle of customized perfume before warning her the Liars were there and not "to say Merry Christmas", meaning she does not trust them. The two later escape the ball after Alison hands to Cindy and Mindy their clothes as well as "Alison" masks and blonde wigs to trick the Liars. At the end of the episode, "Big A" lights up a Christmas tree outside Spencer's house with the message "Merry Christmas, Bitches - A".
During "Over a Barrel", "Big A" sneaks into Holbrook's office and hacks into the Rosewood PD site on her computer.
In "The Bin of Sin", "Big A" shines UV light on the door which leads to an ice cream factory containing Mona's clothes, looking for the Liars' fingerprints.
During "Oh, What Hard Luck Stories They All Hand Me", "Big A" becomes angry when the tape is missing from the binding in Mona's book.
In "Out, Damned Spot", "Big A" drops Hanna's blood onto the clothes Mona wore when she died.
During "Pretty Isn't The Point", "Big A" walks into Mike's room and starts lifting the gym equipment as exercises.
In "Bloody Hell", "Big A" places a $20 bill in each of the bibles at Chester Women's Correctional Facility, to make the inmates beat Alison.
During "The Melody Lingers On", "Big A" shreds Paul Varjak's documents and uses the shredded paper to line Tippi's cage, paralleling an exact scene from the fourth season.
In "I'm a Good Girl, I Am", Charlotte plays with the Liars' dolls in a vehicle that escorts them to prison. After that, she prepares her tuxedo for the demented prom, foreshadowing the torturous events of "Welcome to the Dollhouse".
Season 6
During "Don't Look Now", "Big A" is seen seated in front of a computer looking at the location of the Liars, revealing she placed trackers in them.In "She's No Angel", "Big A" creates a doll-sized wig of Aria's hairstyle with pink highlights.
During "O Brother, Where Art Thou", "Big A" receives a present from her ally. The gift is unveiled to be a portrait of a young Charles DiLaurentis accompanied by a young Jason and Alison at his 12th birthday party.
In "FrAmed", "Big A" is monotoring footage from Rosewood's Art Gallery when her ally, costumed as Red Coat, arrives at their lair. At the end of the episode, "Big A" places six syringes in the trunk of her car, while Red Coat hands her an envelope from the driver's seat. The item contains two tickets to Rosewood High's prom.
During "Last Dance", "Big A" abducts Alison at her high school prom and takes her backstage to unmask herself.
In the mid-season finale of the sixth season "Game Over, Charles", CeCe is revealed to be the mysterious antagonist that has tormented the Liars throughout their senior year. At the ending of the previous episode, CeCe abducts Alison and takes her to Radley Sanitarium, where she recounts her story to Ali. Meanwhile, the Liars assist through a live feed in a vault at the Carissimi Group. Drake reveals to have been born as a boy named Charles DiLaurentis, and when he was 7 years old, he gave Alison a bath, but accidentally dropped her in the scalding hot water. Ali was saved by Kenneth, but as a consequence Charles was admitted to Radley. According to CeCe, as a child she frequently asked her mother to purchase her dresses but Kenneth despised his son for being feminine, so he used the bathtub incident as an excuse to send him away. Despite feeling lonely while residing at Radley, Jessica paid a visit to Charles as often as she could, in an attempt to make him feel less alienated.
When Charles was 12 years old, Bethany Young pushed Toby's mother Marion Cavanaugh off the roof of Radley, presumably to protect his femininity. However, Bethany double-crossed Charles and blamed him for Marion's homicide. The staff at Radley believed her accusations due to the fact that Charles was wearing a dress at the time and didn't want to be seen in it. Jessica paid off a young Officer Wilden to make sure Mrs. Cavanaugh's death was ruled a suicide. Charles was diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, though this was actually an accurate diagnosis for Bethany. For the subsequent 2 years he was heavily medicated with tranquilizers, but was let out to attend his symbolic fake funeral. After the funeral took place at Carol Ward's house, Jessica finally embraced Charles as her daughter. She allowed his return to Radley as a female, renamed Charlotte.
Charlotte dedicated herself to math as a way to escape reality, which allowed her to attend classes at the University of Pennsylvania. She thought going to school would be fun but it was easy for her since she already knew what she was being taught. One day, she called in a bomb threat to cancel classes. She used the opportunity to go to Rosewood High for yearbook picture day where she met Jason. She briefly dated him under the CeCe Drake alias, in order to get closer to her family. Jessica didn't know that CeCe Drake and Charlotte were the same person until the day the DiLaurentis were leaving for Cape May. Though initially angered at her children's incestuous relationship, Jessica allows Charlotte to go on vacation with the rest of the family. In Cape May, Charlotte became close friends with Alison and even planned on telling her they were related. However, Bethany found out about Mrs. D's affair with her father, thus ruining Charlotte's opportunity to tell her sister the truth. On Labor Day Weekend, the night of Alison's disappearance, Bethany stole Charlotte's clothes and snuck out of Radley to hurt Jessica at the DiLaurentis property. Charlotte broke out as well, in order to prevent Young from harming her mother. She stumbled upon a blonde in the front yard and bashes her in the skull with a rock. Charlotte immediately realizes that she actually hit Alison, not Bethany. Jessica buried Ali out of panic and paid Wilden to take Charlotte back to Radley.
The medical staff at Radley took away Charlotte's out privileges but once Mona was admitted to the sanitarium, she took advantage of her drugged up state and manipulated her into telling everything she had done as "A". After Charlotte permanently got out of Radley, she moved into Rosewood, where she purposely met the Liars, and began hating the girls due to their relief over Alison's disappearance. Charlotte kept seeing a blonde girl in a red coat that resembled Ali, so she sent Sara Harvey to dress up as Red Coat and act as a decoy in the night of the lodge incident at Thornhill. Melissa also secretly ordered Shana and Jenna to keep tabs on the Liars, since she too had her own suspicions that Ali was alive. Charlotte's intentions were to lure Alison out of hiding, but things took a left turn when Shana set fire to the lodge. Nonetheless, Aria, Emily and Spencer were rescued by Sara and Alison arrived just in time to save Hanna, therefore giving Charlotte the much needed confirmation that her sister was alive. She killed Wilden to protect Alison since he would have never allowed her to return to Rosewood, and sent Sara to his funeral disguised as the Black Widow to ensure he was deceased. Before Charlotte fled to New York, she snuck home to say goodbye to her mother, only to find her lifeless body laying on the DiLaurentis' backyard. Following her mother's passing, she saw the events in New York as the perfect opportunity to end the "A" game and begin a new life in Paris, but eventually came back due to her addiction to power.
Sara, dressed as Red Coat, sets a bomb to detonate inside of Radley as part of Charlotte's final plan to kill her family along with herself. The Liars managed to prevent any collateral damage from happening, since Spencer disabled the bomb while Emily punched Sara for betraying her. Charlotte then runs towards the roof and attempts to commit suicide. However, the Liars arrive in time to persuade her not to and Charlotte instead declares the ending to her reign as "A".
In the following episode "Of Late I Think of Rosewood", it is revealed that Charlotte spent the subsequent five years under medical care at the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital. Despite the Liars' hesitation to testify in favor of Charlotte's release from the hospital, the girls, aside from Aria, ended up lying for Alison and stated that they were no longer traumatized by the events her older sister had put them through. The court approved Charlotte's release, however, it is revealed that Mona confronted her that night and that Charlotte intended on hurting the Liars to which they got in a fight and Charlotte got thrown against a metal staple that killed her and soon thrown off by Mona, soon being found dead the following day after allegedly committing suicide. After the funeral, the Liars were advised to stay in Rosewood, since the authorities ruled the events of Charlotte's death a homicide and they would be possibly held in for questioning. A mysterious entity observes the Liars in a car before it drives off.
During "Charlotte's Web", Spencer finds out that Charlotte was killed in a copycat manner off a murder she wrote an essay about in college. The Liars later suspect Aria of being accountable for Charlotte's death after security footage at The Radley reveals that Ezra met up with her at the hotel and both left during the time her former tormentor was killed. When confronted by her friends, Aria decides to come clean about that night and reveals she couldn't sleep so she wanted to talk to Ezra and the two went for a walk around town. Around the time she departed with Ezra, both witnessed whom it appeared to be Charlotte entering the church moments before being murdered. At the end of the episode, an unidentified individual places flowers on Charlotte's fresh grave next to Jessica DiLaurentis', prior to walking over to a black car. Before stepping inside, their chauffeur states, "I’m sorry for your loss."
In "The Gloves Are On", Ezra refuses to talk about his whereabouts the night Charlotte was murdered and the Liars begin receiving text messages from their newest tormentor. At the end of the episode, an unseen person is holding a pair of Charlotte's signature black hoodies and gloves and dumps them into a garbage bin before searching for "UNIFORMS" on Google.
When the murder weapon is revealed to be a nine iron in "New Guys, New Lies", Aria, with Emily's assistance, tries to find out if Ezra is guilty. Unable to get into Ezra's loft as he is out of town, Aria breaks in. In the loft, she witnesses that Ezra's nine iron isn't missing, but then overhears a voicemail coming in from her dad and worries that Byron might have had something to do with Charlotte's death. Later, Aria checks Byron's car to see his golf clubs and its nine iron is missing.
After breaking into Sara Harvey's hotel room in "Do Not Disturb", and finding out that she's staying in what used to be Charlotte's former room at Radley, Aria and Spencer continue their investigation process in "Where Somebody Waits For Me". They discover a hole in the wall with a ladder leading down to a mysterious alley. There, they stumble upon an electric switchboard, presuming it was used upon Charlotte when she was admitted to Radley. They also uncover a secret passage that leads to somewhere out the back of the hotel which they suspect is how Sara has been getting in and out of the hotel unseen, fueling the possibility that she's avenging her former employer's death. Detective Tanner later divulges to the Liars that someone dialed Charlotte from the Two Crows diner the night she passed away. At the end of the episode, Spencer discovers that Melissa's broken suitcase handle matches the description of the alleged murder weapon.
Throughout "We've All Got Baggage", Hanna further fuels the possibility that Melissa could have killed Charlotte by telling Spencer and Caleb how she ran into her at a fashion show in London, years prior to Charlotte's murder. A flashback reveals that Melissa spent the entire night drinking and sobbing at a bathroom in order to get over the fact that Charlotte dialed Wren to inform him that his partner had buried Bethany Young. Due to the side-effects of alcohol, Melissa proceeded to grab Hanna's phone and dial Welby to have a word with Charlotte by pretending to be Alison. Hanna got into a fight with Melissa and eventually threw the phone at a mirror to prevent hearing Charlotte's voice from the other end. Emily visits the Two Crows diner and discovers the missing part from Melissa's suitcase, but is nearly run over by a car that steals the weapon.
In "Burn This", Emily stumbles upon an auto shop that appears to be fixing the same car that almost ran her over. After asking if anyone had brought in a dark gray SUV, one of the mechanic insists they can't help her. Emily comes backs to snoop around and lifts up a tarp covering a car. She sees paint and takes a picture of it before the same mechanic she had confronted earlier demands to know why she was there again. Emily tells him the car she was talking about matches the one she was investigating and asks if he knows who drove it last night. He says "Maybe I lent it to a friend. I can't remember". Emily holds up a picture of Melissa and asks if she was his friend. The mechanic denies, before looking back at the other guys and ordering Emily to leave. Later, Emily spots a pink dice keychain on Mona's keys as she's walking over to her car after leaving Hanna's engagement party. The object happens to fit the description of whomever called Charlotte the night she was killed. After being confronted by Emily, Mona states she can't talk about that subject outdoors. At the end of the episode, we see the mechanic that interacted with Emily wiping paint off the SUV, before reaching into the car and finding an enveloping containing several hundred dollars and smiling.
During "Did You Miss Me?", Mona confesses to Emily that she called Charlotte from the Two Crows dinner in order to obtain answers and to find out if she was planning to use anything against her or the Liars since she didn't implicate them at all whilst hospitalized at Welby. Emily questions Mona whether or not she was responsible for Charlotte's homicide, but Mona states she didn't show up at the diner. Later during the episode, Emily and Spencer witness Sara Harvey's helper leaving the city hall with a document he hastily hands her as she suspiciously drives off. The girls decide to pursue Sara's driver and distract him in order to investigate his bags. In them, they stumble upon a tube that contains Radley's floor plan. Spencer then instructs Emily to continue following him so she can get a copy of the document at the town's city hall.
In "Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars", Toby and Spencer study the replica map of Radley's floor plan and decide to head to the underground alley underneath Sara's hotel room to investigate it. Mona follows the two of them, and they stumble upon a floor containing an old Radley medical file belonging to Mary Drake. Mary was Jessica's identical twin sister who gave birth to Charles while she was still a patient at Radley Sanitarium. Since she wasn't stable enough to look after her child, Jessica and Kenneth fostered their nephew. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that Charlotte was in a secret relationship with Dr. Elliott Rollins, who was recruited by Mary to drive Alison insane so they'd gain full possession of the Carissimi Group's money.
Season 7
In "Tick-Tock, Bitches", Elliott commences his physical torture towards Alison at Welby, believing she's held accountable for his former lover's murder.During "The Talented Mr. Rollins", the Liars discover a credit card statement charged for an Amish Bed & Breakfast on Elliott's dresser. After discovering it was the same week he went to his family's farm with Alison, Aria and Hanna drive there in hopes to fill out some blanks in regards to who Rollins truly is. Shortly after arriving at the small community, they meet a pre-teen girl called Eliza. She proceeds to show them dolls that Charlotte had offered her named and styled after each of the Liars. Eliza further divulges that their former tormentor used to visit the area very frequently with Elliott and had witnessed them exchanging a kiss.
In a flashback during "Hit and Run, Run, Run", it's divulged that Alison was the blonde in the red sweater whom Ezra and Aria spotted the night of Charlotte's homicide. She followed her cousin to the church and up the bell tower, where the two argued over Ali's romantic involvement with Elliott. Charlotte heavily disapproved their relationship and accuses her cousin of merely visiting her in order to get closer to Rollins. Alison leaves the church moments before Charlotte is presumably murdered. At the end of the episode, Mona and Hanna listen to an incoming call from Jenna in Elliott's burner phone, which reveals his factual name as Archer.
In another flashback during "Wanted: Dead or Alive", it's revealed that Charlotte enlisted Jenna's help to track down her birth mother's whereabouts and come up with an alias for her faux psychiatrist. The pseudonym Elliott Rollins was later created so Archer could deliberately meet Alison and take advantage of her good intentions to benefit Charlotte's eventual release.
During "Original G'A'ngsters", the Liars investigate the storm cellar over at Aunt Carol's house and discover that Jessica had turned it into her lair and kept files on all of them as well as Mary. While searching through Drake's medical history, they find out that she had a second child. The gender of Charlotte's biological sibling is undisclosed.
In "The Wrath of Kahn", Spencer and Emily find a flash drive at The Kahn's cabin filled with footage from the time they were held captive in Charlotte's Dollhouse. After watching one of the videos, they discover that Noel Kahn was helping Charlotte torture them. During this episode, Aria and Jason team up to find out more details in regards to Mary's past and discover that Steven Kahn, Noel's father, orchestrated the adoption of Drake's second child.
Near the ending of "The DArkest Knight", Jenna and Noel both attempt to murder the Liars, partly for their own reasons but to also avenge Charlotte, whom according to Kahn "taught them a lot". During the cat-and-mouse chase, Noel ends up stumbling upon an axe that decapitates his head and Marshall is knocked down by Mary Drake just as she was about to shoot Spencer Hastings. Once the Liars stumble upon Spencer being cradled on Mary's arms, they deduce she's accountable for their friend's critical condition. Mary swears she'd never harm Spencer as she tearfully claims to be her birth mother, thus revealing that Spencer is Charlotte's biological sister.
During "These Boots Were Made for Stalking", Jenna walks into the police station in order to come clean about her actions and interrupts a conversation between Spencer and detective Marco Furey. Marshall reports that she kept a low profile after the events that took place at the abandoned school for blind students to avoid being harmed by Noel. According to Jenna, Kahn was accountable for Sara Harvey's homicide and she feared to be his ensuing victim. He recruited Jenna with the assertion that Charlotte left enough money in her will to afford Marshall another eye surgery. Nevertheless, Jenna suspected Noel of stealthily plotting to steal the cash all to himself since his parents had financially cut him off. In an attempt to spare her life, Marshall brought a gun to the deserted sight school as an act of self-defense and pretended to hold a grudge against the Liars. Later in the episode, Caleb threatens Marshall by warning her that the cops were uncovering inconsistencies in her allegations. However, Jenna assures him the police won't be able to prosecute her since Noel was the only person who could contradict her statement.
In "Power Play", Hanna is hanging out at Spencer's house when she spots a P.I.’s business card from Peter’s briefcase. She convinces Spencer to infiltrate the investigation in order to locate Drake, and theorizes that Mary might be able to help point them in the direction of “A.D.". Afterwards, Hanna picks up the phone and calls the P.I., pretending to be someone from Peter's office. After getting help from the P.I., Hanna and Spencer knock on several doors until they approach one house and much to their surprise, Pastor Ted Wilson opens the door. The girls show Ted a picture of Drake and ask him if he has seen her, to which Wilson informs them that he hasn't. Hanna offers to grab coffee with Ted at the Radley later to catch up, and she also asks him to call her if he happens to spot Mary. As the Liars turn away to leave, Drake shows up in the doorway. Ted turns to Drake and questions her on what she's truly doing there. Later, he reaches out to Hanna to talk and they meet up at Lucas' loft, where Wilson reveals to have lied about Mary's visit. Ted further confesses that Drake is an ex-girlfriend of his back when he was a college student and that she met up with him to inform they had a child together. Things get even more intricate when Wilson discloses to Hanna that said offspring was Charlotte and that he met his daughter prior to her sex change. It turns out that Ted used to run a summer camp for troubled boys, and Charles was a camper there. Wilson is disheartened when describing that he interacted with a "soft-spoken, sweet" boy without awareness they were related. Ted then showcases Hanna a picture of himself back when he worked at the camp, chaperoning Charles and Lucas Gottesman, whom he described as his son's "only friend". This revelation leaves Hanna stunned.
During "In the Eye Abides the Heart", the Liars are gathered at the Brew discussing Pastor Ted's mysterious photo of Charlotte and Lucas. Together, they wonder if Gottesman and Charlotte managed to stay in touch throughout the years. The girls decide to search Lucas's loft in an attempt to obtain answers, but Aria points out that the entire building could be bugged, considering his affinity for high-tech gadgets. Later, Emily and Hanna commence their search through Lucas's apartment. Hanna is quick to defend her friend, but while rummaging through a box of comic books, the two Liars come across a manila envelope tucked all the way in the back. Hanna reaches inside and pulls out another comic titled Arcturus. The author signatures at the bottom catches their eye, which reveal that it was conceived by Lucas and Charlotte. Aria soon joins Emily and Hanna, and they inspect the comic together. The content seems to be about a troubled boy who befriends a woman from outer space with magical powers. Together, they seek vengeance upon people who have hurt him. The girls can't help but notice that there are some eerily familiar drawings that resemble the electrical switches from Charlotte's Dollhouse. Almost immediately after this uncovering, Aria is seen on her phone, telling A.D. all about the comic through FaceTime. Back at the loft, Hanna pulls out the box where she previously found Lucas's mysterious comic, only to realize that it's missing. Aria is then seen bringing the comic to Rosewood High in the middle of the night. Her mission is to place the book in locker 214. Just as she starts to walk away after doing so, Aria appears to have a change of heart. She immediately doubles back to the locker, only to find a black hoodie hanging from the hook in its place. Near the end of the episode, Ezra spots Spencer at the airport with Wren Kingston. She immediately gets up and walks over to Ezra to quickly introduce him to her ex-boyfriend. Spencer then pulls Ezra off to the side and explains to him that she hasn't spoken to Kingston since before Charlotte's homicide. She met up with Wren in order to seek for enlightenment on his behalf about her half-sister given that he helped her sneak in and out of Radley.
In "The Glove That Rocks the Cradle", Spencer steals a flash drive from Marco. The item contains footage of Lucas admitting to the authorities that he wasn't Hanna's alibi on the night of Charlotte's murder and that the other Liars are capable of homicide. Gottesman is then shown clutching the comic book that Aria handed to A.D. and later spotted by Hanna awaiting someone at The Radley. He is finally caught by all of the Liars when searching through the contents of his apartment and they confront him in an attempt to learn more about his connection to Charlotte. Lucas claims to have been unaware that Charles transitioned into a female and took inspiration upon the narrative of their book. A worrying Gottesman further divulges that he may have fed Charlotte all the information needed to torture the Liars since they stayed in touch through e-mail. During high school, Lucas disclosed to Charlotte that Alison bullied him and the other girls did nothing to prevent her out of loyalty. An anonymous individual proceeded to return the graphic novel to Gottesman, along with a note instructing him to meet them at The Radley or else his former friendship with Charlotte would be exposed. The person who gave him the ultimatum failed to show up, prompting Lucas to run back to his loft. As it turns out, Gottesman was concerned about a second graphic novel that had never been completed because it continued his first book's revenge storyline, only this time turning the events into a game. In the final moments of the episode, A.D. is seen flipping through pages of the missing novel and starts drawing the next chapter of the story, which includes a gravestone nearby a tree.
During "Farewell, My Lovely", Hanna noticed rose petals falling from the church's bell tower which prompts her to investigate. There she finds Mona dressed like she used to in high school. Hanna is puzzled over the fact that her friend keeps referring to her as Charlotte. Mona divulges she killed Charlotte and through flashbacks we see the two of them engaging in a heated confrontation. After realizing that her health condition hadn't improved after all and her intentions were to torture the Liars again through even worse approaches, Mona held a screwdriver to Charlotte's back. She taunted her former tormentor to jump or else she'd push her. Shortly after narrating a portion of the events, Mona suddenly grabs Hanna and attempts to throw her off the bell tower until Caleb and Spencer arrive just in time to prevent any collateral damage from happening. Mona is then taken to the Lost Woods and discloses to Spencer she messed up killing Charlotte. Asking what she meant by that, Spencer coaxed the full story from Vanderwaal who revealed that a fight broke out. Charlotte cruelly assured Mona the Liars would never love her back, causing Vanderwaal to gain the upper hand and shove her against a wall. A metal rod impaled Charlotte's cervical spine, which broke her neck and left a cut on the back of it. After realizing what she had done, Mona began to peel rose petals before throwing Charlotte's lifeless body from the bell tower to make it look like a suicide.
In "Till Death Do Us Part", the elusive A.D. is revealed to be Alex Drake, Spencer's identical twin sister and Charlotte's maternal half-sister. She was born at Radley Sanitarium, the mental institution in which their mother had spent most her life in and out of. Prior to her birth was Spencer's, who was placed in the care of their biological father, along with his wife. Alex's existence was unbeknownst to the Hastings since she was born minutes after Spencer had already been given to Peter and Veronica. Mary, desperate to escape Radley, allowed Dr. Cochran to arrange Alex's adoption in exchange for $500,000 and a resignation from the psychiatric hospital. Alex was later adopted by a wealthy British couple. However, she began developing mental health problems at an early age, and the family that took her in refused to tarnish their name. This resulted in Alex being stripped off of her adoptive family and placed into an orphanage with her birth name. She then bounced around foster homes and orphanages for a large portion of her childhood. On her tenth birthday, Alex ran away from the Ambrose Home for wayward children and grew up leading a lonely life. As a teenager, she obtained a job bartending at a pub in London where she met Wren, who originally mistook her for Spencer. Kingston disclosed to Alex her blood relations to Spencer, Charlotte, and Mary. Alex was introduced to Charlotte prior to her death, when the latter flew from a transatlantic flight to France just to meet her. In a flashback, Charlotte is seen exiting a flight, talking to her future lover, Archer Dunhill. After promising to call Charlotte the next day he leaves and Charlotte gets a call from Wren, telling her that Alex is waiting for her in the airport. She says that she found twelve Alex Drake's and none were related to her. After Wren informs Charlotte that Alex looks a lot like someone they're acquainted with, she is stunned to stumble upon a girl heavily resembling Spencer before realizing she's her identical twin. According to Alex, the two bonded instantaneously and walked the streets of Paris until the sun came up, feeling like they'd known each other their whole lives. She goes on to clarify that Charlotte met Archer on the plane, and they initiated a romantic relationship. Spencer questions if Archer was on the A-Team as well, but Alex quickly dismisses her doubts by explaining that his severe mistreatments towards Alison at Welby was a stunt he pulled on his own. He persuaded Mary into assisting his scheme, believing that her niece was the mastermind who orchestrated Charlotte's murder. Wren and Alex eventually fell in love, and went on several double dates with Charlotte and Archer before she returned to Rosewood to continue the "A" game. During another flashback at a bar, Alex attempts to convince Charlotte to stay with her in London, thinking she allowed the Liars to have power over her. After she suggests departing with Charlotte to meet Spencer, she warns Alex to stay away from the Hastings as far as possible. Alex insinuates that Charlotte wants Spencer all to herself, prompting her to disprove Alex's hints of jealousy by stating that she only views Spencer as a "Doll". She insists on offering Charlotte a ride to the airport, but Charlotte declines, further justifying that a pre-meditated goodbye would be too hard to handle. The sisters share a final embrace and Charlotte gives Alex her favourite Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits record as a goodbye gift. Back in present time, Alex explains that Charlotte never returned to London, and the next time she saw her was when she first paid a visit to her grave. It is ultimately revealed that the person whom Ezra ran into at the airport with Wren before almost leaving for Maine was Alex. The couple was engaging in a heated argument over whether or not Alex's true intentions were justice for Charlotte's memory.
Reception
The character was initially well received by critics. Riley Sky of Dropkick Divas Media gave a positive review, saying, “as charming and manipulative as Alison DiLaurentis was, we get to see where Ali got those sociopathic qualities in CeCe Drake. CeCe possesses a charm eerily similar to Alison’s. While Ali "may" be dead, CeCe gives us a refreshing look at how Ali's life would have looked. This beyond-charismatic twenty-something blonde stylist that sure does have one heel in the present, one in the past, CeCe leaves us wanting more.”The character's reveal as transgender and the show's second "A" was met with a polarizing reception. Some television critics described it as "harmful", "transphobic", and as "a negative stereotype about trans people." One article stated that "a TV show adding a transgender character would be something to celebrate, since there is not nearly enough trans representation in media" but that the show "got it all wrong." Several other reviewers were also concerned because "the twist played into a long history of pop culture linking sociopathic behavior with transgender individuals."
However, praise was given to Vanessa Ray's performance. Entertainment Weekly's Isabella Biedenharn called her “fantastic” and “compelling.” The A.V. Club reviewer LaToya Ferguson wrote that the choice of having CeCe Drake being "A"/Charles was “the best decision” instead of choosing Wren. To her, it could have turned out worse, alluding to the Gossip Girl's reveal. Ferguson applauded Vanessa Ray's emotional performance, “reminding the audience why they were drawn to CeCe in the first place.” She highlighted how CeCe manages to make her wrongdoings acceptable, almost redeeming herself.
For her portrayal in the show's sixth season, Ray won a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV: Villain.