Ashley Benson Joins ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Stars At PaleyFest

Ashley Benson joined her co-stars Lucy Hale, Troian Bellisario, Shay Mitchell, Ian Harding, Sasha Pieterse, Janel Parrish and Keegan Allen, at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday for a very special event.

Pretty Little Liars was recognized at the annual PaleyFest panel; the first ABC Family series to be honored. Executive producers Marlene King, Oliver Goldstick and Joseph Dougherty also attended the event, and answered many looming questions, regarding the current drama-filled season.

The season four finale is quickly approaching, and some very big secrets will be revealed. The trailers for the episode show Alison telling the liars exactly what happened to her the night that she was supposedly killed and disappeared. Now that Ali is back, the cast members explained that the group dynamic will be changing; no longer will it be a group of four, but rather a group of five.

“The dynamic is going to change,” Pieterse said. “She’s now the victim and I feel like when it was the five of them Alison would have them under her thumb. And then it became the four of them.” While all of the girls are happy to know that Alison is alive and well, it may not be that easy to welcome her with open arms. “Alison’s totally changed. They don’t know anything about what’s she’s been through yet,” Pieterse continued. “Welcoming her back is going to be harder than it should be.”

In case you missed the big news, there is another character that will be making a re-appearance on the show, or rather a permanent appearance. Tyler Blackburn is set to return as Caleb, a series regular, for the fifth season that will premiere this summer. Blackburn left the show to pursue a short-lived spinoff Ravenswood.

When Caleb left Rosewood, he and Hannah (Benson) decided to take some time apart, but left the door open for a possible rekindling of their romance. However, since Caleb’s departure, Hannah has been getting pretty close to her new beau Travis. “She’s got choices! Give her options!” Goldstick said. Will Hannah and Caleb have a happy ending after all? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Fans are hoping that Pretty Little Liars will tie up any loose ends left from Ravenswood, since it was abruptly cancelled, leaving viewers with many questions left unanswered. “We’re going to try in as satisfactory a way as possible,” Dougherty said. “We knew where we were going but they [ABC Family] just told us to get off the train.”

The season four finale will air on Tuesday, March 18 on ABC Family. Season five is scheduled to debut on June 10.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]