‘Pretty Little Liars’ Showrunner Marlene King Promises A ‘Great Final, Gigantic Mystery’

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Pretty Little Liars.

Pretty Little Liars left off with a mid-season finale that left many fans wondering how the series would continue, especially with the big revelation that CeCe Drake A.K.A. Charlotte/Charles Dilaurentis (played by Vanessa Ray) was A. As Marlene King reveals in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Charlotte’s leap from the roof of that building was anything but fatal, and Charlotte will feature prominently when Pretty Little Liars picks up with season 6.

“We will see her when we come back. The reason Alison stays behind and doesn’t leave with the other girls at the end of last night’s episode is because she wants to take care of Charlotte — she and Jason (Drew Van Acker) both become the family to her that she never had,” the Pretty Little Liars showrunner said. “[Charlotte] definitely is working to get better when we see her next.”

Ms. King also confirmed what many PLL fans have been suspecting, and that is that Pretty Little Liars will come to an end with its seventh season, but not before bringing a new mystery into the story.

“There’s a new mystery and a new story that starts up when we come back in the next episode, and that story will most likely end at the end of season seven. So it’s a great final, gigantic mystery twist — I think it’s the biggest we’ve ever had. And that feels like season seven is probably a good time to end that story. But we’ll see — we have a little time to play with it. But we’re definitely moving in that direction.”

Melty reports that the girls have had five years away from one another to learn and to grow – and to create new secrets in need of burying. For the most part, King says the girls have kept in touch via social media, but there are still elements from the past affecting their lives as Pretty Little Liars picks back up.

“We see [Ali] write her name on the board — so she’s gotten married. And she went to college at Hollis so she could stay close to Charlotte. Hanna’s (Ashley Benson) engaged — we saw the ring on her finger when she ran into that classroom. And the girls have spent five years apart — they’ve had five ‘A’-free years of life just to live a normal life — as normal as they can, having survived all of this,” Pretty Little Liars‘ Marlene King says. “There’s a very great scene in this first episode back where Aria (Lucy Hale) talks a little bit about the residual ‘A’-ness affecting her life, and it’s great performance. She did an amazing job with the scene. So they come back together — they’ve been apart for five years — and they’re very excited to see each other, but they still have secrets, too. They’ve had five years of being apart to need to cover up some of what they’ve been doing.”

Speaking of that great mystery coming into play as Pretty Little Liars returns, Ms. King alludes to Sara Harvey playing a big part in that and possibly in Emily’s life as well.

“Last we saw Sara Harvey, Emily (Shay Mitchell) punched her, and then right before they say goodbye, Emily says she heard Sara was getting out of the hospital, and we’re like, ‘What is she talking about? She just punched her, right?’ And then they’re all, ‘What happened to her wasn’t our fault,'” Marlene said of the Pretty Little Liars mid-season finale. “So something happened to Sara Harvey that we’re going to find out about when we come back. She’s a little bit of a mysterious character in our world, and it’s going to be fun to watch that play out.”

Pretty Little Liars returns in January on ABC Family.

[Featured image courtesy of ABC Family/Pretty Little Liars]