A few days ago The Pretty Little Liars fandom got all their answers. After 130 episodes, spread over 6 years we finally found out who took the game over from Mona, we found out who had been torturing Aria, Spencer, Hanna, Alison and Emily, and why. 'A' had a face.
That wasn't it though. In a fast paced 42 minutes we found out who killed Toby's mother, who hit Alison in the head with the rock the night she went missing, who Red Coat is, who the Black Widow is and who killed Bethany.
For me personally I was happy with the reveals, I got a lot of frustrated closure. I have seen every single episode as they were released, and some episodes would anger me so much I must have said 'I will never watch this show again' a hundred times. It seemed like we would get answers, but all we got was more questions. In the finale of season 2 it was revealed that Mona was 'A' - just for her to then tell someone else that she did everything that they asked of her - frustrating!!
**SPOILER**
Within minutes of the last episode it was revealed that Cece Drake was behind this whole thing, she stole the game from Mona and made it completely her own. Yes, there are so many plot holes and some of it doesn't make sense - but I don't care. It was wrapped up nicely and it was justified. It made total sense for me, and it wouldn't be Pretty Little Liars if we weren't left with a lot of unanswered questions. At the end of the day it keeps us talking about it, genius move by the creators. They know that we will keep watching to find answers, and they never have to answer us.
Basically if you are wondering - Cece was Charles. Charles is Alison's brother. She was sent to Radley Mental Hospital at a young because she identified as female and her father didn't approve. This lead to Cece been locked away for years - within her time at Radley she was allowed days away to attend college classes, but instead she dedicated her time to be close to her family (even dating her own brother, icky). When Cece was in Radley she befriended a girl called Bethanny. Bethanny was certifiably crazy. This is when it all got fucked up. I have just tried to write down what happened and I had to delete because I was so confused. Basically Cece thought she killed Bethanny outside of her house, turns out she struck Alison instead. She thought she killed Alison by mistake. Alison didn't die. Alison dug herself out of her own grave and ran away. Years have passed, years filled with kidnap, murder, explosions, fires, cars driven into houses and one thing that always stuck with me is when Hanna was made to eat a box of cupcakes with cartoon pig icing in public all at once.
Even though we have been given a lot of information, we haven't nearly got all the answers we need. I honestly believe the writers may have lost their way a little bit, and I don't mean to sound nasty. They had a lot of twists and turns, so many characters coming in and out, so many dead ends. There was even a supernatural element with ghosts and psychics. They snow balled the show so much, trying to keep the main question unanswered for 6 years that they created so many more. Now we have our burning question answered it doesn't make sense to a lot of people.
I really thought this Buzzfeed article was both funny and a perfect example of a PLL fandom in melt down. How could a show have 47 questions that need answers for it to make sense? 47 Questions We Still Have After The “Pretty Little Liars” Summer Of Answers.
After finding out who 'A' was, the other thing that I wanted answered was about Maya. Why Maya? What did she know? Did she even die? On this show, if you don't see a body then don't assume anything. I would have loved Maya to be Red Coat. Instead the writers did the worst thing they could of - they made Red Coat a character we have only known for 10 episodes!! Sara! Who the fuck is Sara? And why was she not one, but two pivotal characters in the show?
I know one thing that people are struggling with is the fact that Cece is transgender, or at least it seems that way. I am not part of the community so my opinion means squat - but I don't have a problem with it. The big baddie of the show is transgender and I can understand how a lot of people would think that this would cast a bad light on the transgender community. The reason I don't think it does at all is because what it showed deep down was a troubled young woman, a woman abandoned by her family because she wanted to live her honest life. She was put in a mental institute, not dissimilar to a struggle a lot of transgender youth may have faced. However for the pure fact of entertainment Cece, a character on a TV show - not a reflection of transgendered youth, went crazy. It was a choice by the writers to create this back story, but this story was written three years ago and it has been developed. It has been announced Cece will be in the next half of season 6 and I think it will be incredibly smart of the writers to address the transgender storyline with the respect it deserves.
So all in all the last six years have been a rush, we have had drama, tragedy, comedy and romance. And after it all we have our 'A' - Cece Drake. The sneak peak of the five year jump looks insteresting, all the girls are back together after college, Alison is a married teacher with some man after her and Spencer has bangs!
