Toby is Charles/ big A, Cece is red coat/A, Melissa is uber A: A PLL NOVEL
This is a long but awesome theory explaining the game on PLL, the players, their motives, and why everyone is still playing.
**PLEASE if you like it, reblog it/ share it. I worked very hard **
Wren confirmed who stole the game on PLL in “I’m your puppet.”
Hear me out. Spencer used Mona’s game in this episode to get answers about Ali and A that were hidden at Radley. Spencer did not find the proof she wanted until she had what appears to be a hallucination of Alison. I say “appears that way” because you never know with this show.
Regardless, we seem to be relying a lot on Spencer’s subconscious, considering that Charles’ identity/ name came to her in a dream and now, boom, “Charles is A!” According to Spencer’s subconscious then, ALISON KNEW about Mona’s game. This area in Radley seemed rather deserted, abandoned even, yet Mona, Alison and Wren all knew about it. Wren ends up finding Spencer roaming around in this scene.
Gross cribs, old toys are scattered about, all of which give me the same vibe I got from some of the things in Charles’ vault. Spencer learns, as a result of Mona’s game and this hallucination, that Wren authorized visits between Cece Drake and Mona when Mona was not allowed to have visitors. He risked his job because Cece insisted on getting in to HELP MONA, he justified to Spencer. So that’s how Cece got in. Toby’s method was using Eddie Lamb’s ID/name to sneak in.
Wren alleges that he didn’t know Mona before she came to Radley, yet he has no problem bending the rules to get Cece into Radley? How did Cece get him to listen so easily? The way Wren referred to Cece when he explained this made it sound like he and Cece ALREADY KNEW EACH OTHER. This could be because Wren has been working for her.
Just before Wren walks in, Ali / figment of Spencer’s imagination Ali mentions that 6th grade was the best year ever. Spencer responds that she didn’t even know her then. The girls were in 6th grade THE SAME YEAR as the infamous Phantom of the Opera themed prom took place, the one where Cece was prom queen, Melissa and Ian were together, and for whatever reason, Charles made the girls recreate, with the implication that somehow Alison was responsible for Charles missing his chance at the throne, so to speak.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 6TH GRADE? Why was it the best year ever? Were Cece and Jason dating the year of his prom? Either way, Cece has been around longer than it seems. As soon as Mona went to Radley, according to Wren, Melissa called her because she knew Cece would want to help Mona deal with the damage caused by “the late Alison.” The problem with this is that Melissa believed that she buried and finished killing Alison, yet Cece knew that Alison was alive the whole time. This allegation about the phone call Melissa placed to Cece plays out a lot better if Melissa felt obligated or even forced to call Cece at this time. Melissa could fear Cece, and the same could hold true for Wren, because of the secrets Cece knows. Alison is said to have learned all of her tricks from Cece, and someone tried to kill Ali because she used people’s secrets as blackmail; this is definitely a plausible M.O. for Cece.
Wren narrated, OUT LOUD, the fact that Cece came to Radley to help Mona. We know that Toby was “pretending to help Mona” in the same manner. In fact, Toby also confessed to something vital out loud when confronted by Spencer in a black hoodie. He said, “I have been PRETENDING TO WORK WITH MONA so I could keep you safe” (emphasis added by me). That sounds a lot like he’s admitting out loud that he stole the game.
Mona said she thought Cece was Ali when she visited and can’t remember what they talked about because her medication hadn’t been changed yet. But Mona’s going to Radley in the first place was premeditated, and she knew exactly who she was talking to, she just can’t admit that to the girls. Why? Because then the girls, who are just starting to suspect that Alison is alive as Mona “tells them the truth,” would know that Mona has known Ali was alive this whole time. It is no coincidence that Mona and Cece both knew this fact and Cece was the first one called when Mona went to Radley. This is the storyline leading to us even meeting Cece. I think Cece came to Radley to make sure that Mona wasn’t doing anything that would reveal that Alison was still alive. Shana also said that she found out Ali was alive around the time that Mona went to Radley, another thing that’s not a coincidence in my opinion.
Cece is covering up that Ali is alive, yet Wren insists that Cece hates Ali because she got her kicked out of school. So Cece isn’t covering this up to help Alison, but more likely to help herself in some way. See, I have trouble believing that Mona and Cece knew that Ali was alive and knew NOTHING about another girl who “just happened” to be a patient at radley with ties to Jessica DiLaurentis, dying in Ali’s place, in Ali’s clothes in the exact same hole on the exact same night.
Cece became concerned when Mona started working with Toby, and I believe this happened BEFORE Mona claims it did, since I think getting Dr. Sullivan to come to Rosewood the night of Mona’s reveal was definitely A work. We have SEEN Cece in a lair and in a black hoodie, yet she has never been “revealed as A.” We have ALSO seen her in the red coat, and the two uniforms could symbolize her playing for both sides. Toby and Cece were both “helping Mona” at the same time, both with their own interests at heart. One of them had to have stolen the game. I believe Toby stole the game and Cece had to turn on the A team to prevent him from finding out Ali was alive. This argument will be even stronger if Toby and Bethany end up being revealed to be related, which is something I think might happen.
Also, when Spencer was in Radley, Eddie Lamb wanted to bring a book to her room, and Wren prevented this, commenting about a problem they had in the past at radley that was similar to whatever was going on in this scene. Eddie later says that he could tell when he met Wren that he had bad intentions and was in Radley for the wrong reasons. It seems like a lot of the people we know went there for the wrong reasons. Eddie makes this observation about Wren, Wren knows more than he has let on in the past, yet neither of them noticed Toby coming and going from Radley using Eddie’s name to do so? It’s like Toby is the only one who actually had everyone fooled, and I think he still has everyone fooled. I think when Cece returned to Rosewood, she came to carefully monitor both people on the A team. I don’t believe that Cece and Toby visited Mona without both of them knowing the other was visiting.
I think Mona believes that the game was stolen when she was in Radley, because the person who really stole the game has made it look that way, BY WORKING WITH CECE. Cece knew that Ali suspected Toby of being A way back before she went missing, and that Toby said he would offer his services to A if he found out who it was because the girls deserve a lot worse. Ali was trying to figure out who A was the night she went missing by encountering all her suspects. Toby had a pleasant conversation, thanking Ali from getting him away from Jenna. This could have been a trick, setting in motion his future as big A.
I think Bethany was Toby’s twin, and for some reason Bethany was sent away to Radley; something happened during their childhood, maybe Bethany displayed violent behavior. As Bethany grew up, she started having vague memories of her brother, but at this point, Mr. Cavanaugh and Jessica DiLaurentis were having an affair and neither one of them wanted Bethany finding her real family. So they told her she had a brother Charles, but he died as a child. Really, he is alive and is really named Toby. I think Cece has been in Radley before, and we KNOW she has at least gone there before as a prank, posing as Alison and dressed head to toe in her clothing. I think she met Bethany there and they talked about Charles. It’s possible that Bethany is the one who thought that Cece was Ali in Radley, and that Mona used that language when recounting the facts to the liars as a clue. Perhaps this is how Bethany was lured into Rosewood; Mona’s claim about Alison doing it could have been a near-truth and really Cece-Posing-As-Alison did it as part of the grand scheme for Ali to fake her death and flee town.
When Marion Cavanaugh went to Radley, she was killed when she and Bethany started interacting, to prevent Bethany from finding the truth. Jessica killed her, and blackmailed another lover of hers, Peter Hastings, that she would expose their affair if he didn’t help her cover up the incident. Peter paid off detective Wilden. When Marion died, Cece quickly figured out the truth and is paid off as well. Peter now knew, because of his involvement, that Toby is Charles. Concern that medical records hiding at Radley might expose the truth could explain his seemingly random endeavor to shut Radley down. “People lie but medical records don’t.”
When Cece found out about the role Wilden played in the Radley coverup and followed his obsession with solving the Alison DiLaurentis “murder,” she eventually realized that his existence was too dangerous if she wanted Ali to stay “dead.” So Cece killed Wilden, which Ali still believes was a favor to her. I think Cece’s end game was for Alison to go down for Bethany’s murder. Cece hit Bethany, saw Melissa Hastings burying her, allowed Melissa to believe it was Ali that she buried and used it as leverage against her.
Wren has kept a lot of secrets on Cece’s behalf. He keeps swooping in when Spencer and Toby are having problems because Cece wants Spencer to remain distracted so she can’t figure out the truth about Toby/ Charles. This also pins Toby and Wren against each other, which Cece is counting on; she would be screwed if they became friends. Wren knows about Melissa burying Bethany, and based on interactions at Radley, Melissa likely believed that Wren and Cece were both helping Mona as A. Melissa keeps her enemy close, thinking it’s to protect her secret. Little does she know that Cece also convinced Wren to prevent Melissa from learning that the body she buried was Bethany and not Alison.
The truth is out now, and Melissa is a smart girl, smart enough to know that she got played. She lies about seeing Toby in England; Toby insisted that he really saw Wren. Since Toby didn’t go to England to get Melissa back to Rosewood, he must have gone for another reason. Perhaps this was to confront Wren about his work with Cece and the cover ups, AND the secrets he kept about Toby, his mom, and his sister, Bethany. Armed with the truth, Toby/ Charles raised the stakes of the game. Cece hit Bethany, but technically Melissa is behind her murder, as Bethany was still alive when Melissa buried her. Cece is the only one who hasn’t been targeted by A, which is because it would make the identity of her opponent too obvious, and obviously A is for anonymous.
If anything happened to Cece, she could ruin all of Toby’s plans. Melissa has admitted to participating in A-like behavior to “protect Spencer,” claiming everything she did was to protect Spencer, even BEFORE IT ALL STARTED. This dates back to burying Bethany.. Now she knows how far A (Mona), red coat (Cece) and big A (Toby/ Charles) will go, so she has to stop this game without them realizing she knows anything. She obeys their threats, but goes under cover as black veil/ black widow to end the game. Cece knocked Toby out the night of the lodge fire, probably because Alison was supposed to show up there and he was never supposed to find out Ali wasn’t dead. Melissa was there “working for Cece” and “with Jenna and Shana” and maybe Wilden too, but she really was digging for answers. Wilden was blackmailed by Cece because she knew about the cover ups, and eventually killed when he went too far and tried to warn Ashley Marin of the danger. Hanna was left to burn because she exposed the association between Ali, Cece and Wilden.
It’s a clue that we saw Melissa on the phone with a cop the night Ali disappeared and that Melissa took the picture of Ali, Cece and Wilden on the boat. She is uber A, but still lacks the power to take the game down without turning herself in for killing Bethany. Toby/Charles is out for blood, but all everyone can do is keep playing the game until someone finds a way out. It ALL leads back to Radley!
