‘Pretty Little Liars’ Stars Talk Returning Red Herrings, And The End Of The Line

Warning: This article may contain spoilers for Pretty Little Liars.

Even before the end of Season 6, Pretty Little Liars began dropping clues that the usual suspects would be returning for what everyone is presuming will be Pretty Little Liars‘ final season. The character most prominently mentioned, and one PLL fans love to hate, is Melissa Hastings, who is played by Torrey DeVitto on the series, but she won’t be the only one returning to Rosewood for one final round with the Pretty Little Liars protagonists. The story arc of Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) was never really done to completion and Sursok now hints that Season 7 may provide an opportunity for closure for this Pretty Little Liars character.

Torrey DeVitto Reprises Her Role As Melissa Hastings On Pretty Little Liars

For some PLL fans, Melissa Hastings is a clever diversion from the main story arc, throwing the main protagonists, as well as many Pretty Little Liars fans, off the track of the real antagonists and DeVitto lumps herself in with that group confounded by Melissa’s ambiguous nature. In fact, Torrey admits that she’s even confused as to whether Melissa is a victim or a villain.

“It’s really interesting, every time I go in I feel like she changes script by script,” Torrey said. “Once I feel like I’ve got a grasp on her, something new comes about. I’ve been playing this character for six years and I feel like I’m constantly learning new things about her.”

The Pretty Little Liars actress adds that she does think Melissa has the best intentions and that her heart is almost always in the right place, but that things so often go wrong for her. Such was the case, when the eldest Hastings sibling buried Bethany Young alive to protect her sister (Troian Bellisario).

DeVitto says even that incident doesn’t necessarily make Melissa out to have the killer instinct, where Charlotte (Vanessa Ray) is concerned, but, then again, Torrey suggests that Melissa might be the killer anyway. One just never knows with Pretty Little Liars. The actress does say that, in her own opinion, the story arc focusing on the suitcase handle may just be a distraction from more important clues.

One has to wonder if Melissa would really put her own sister in harm’s way, but, as the Pretty Little Liars actress suggests, the sibling bond between her character and Spencer is not quite the same as it is in most real families. There’s just no telling.

“It’s not a sisterly relationship that I would particularly want in my family,” DeVitto shared. “But, at the end of the day, as crazy as everything is they have had each other’s back in very odd, pseudo-aggressive ways here and there… I personally don’t think she’s trying to do her harm. ”

“That could change, too,” adds Torrey.

By the time Pretty Little Liars ends, Torrey says she wants a big reveal for her character, because it seems like Melissa is hiding so much. Torrey points to the Bethany Young incident, suggesting that there must be more juicy secrets in Melissa’s closet just waiting to spill out into the light of day.

Pretty Little Liars Brings Back Another Red Herring: Jenna Marshall

Tammin Sursok recently revealed to her Instagram followers that her own Pretty Little Liars character, the one and only Jenna Marshall, was also returning for Season 7 of the Marlene King-run series, as a role reprisal which will mark Sursok’s first return, since her Season 5 departure. The sometime villain, sometime victim character may hold the key to many, if not all, questions and mysteries lingering in the air from the very beginning of the series. Much of the mystery of Pretty Little Liars still revolves around Jenna Marshall and her relationship to Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse), the N.A.T. club, and Melissa Hastings.

Tammin says coming back to Pretty Little Liars after so much time away has been a learning experience for herself, just as she predicts it will be for fans. She says PLL viewers will learn the answers to some of those lingering mysteries, but also will be perplexed with new questions. Sursok says her story arc will also tell fans where her Pretty Little Liars character has been for the last year and a half.

Ms. Sursok says she doesn’t know who the real villain is and she suspects no one on the cast knows, but she does know who she would like for the villain to be. Like many PLL fans, Tammin hopes Jenna will finally be outed.

“I suppose I hope it’s me! Wouldn’t that be funny – the girl you always thought was the villain, then you didn’t think she was the villain, and then she was? I think everyone hopes it’s themselves, because that would be the biggest thing for everyone to remember.”

Tammin says her favorite Jenna story arc was that in which the Pretty Little Liars character regained her eyesight, particularly because it gave her an opportunity to play with a variety of sunglasses. Jenna has been through a whirlwind as both victim and villain, but, even so, Sursok predicts Season 7 will be her best story yet.

The Season 7 premiere of Pretty Little Liars is set to air on Tuesday, June 21, on Freeform.

[Image by Freeform]