Pretty Little Liars Recap: Is Charles Actually Dead?

The secrets to Charles’ past were just blown wide open!

For a show that’s been known to starve its viewers of information, the Pretty Little Liars episode “Don’t Look Now” revealed some very vital pieces of information regarding Charles’ history — like the fact that Charles is, indeed, a DiLaurentis sibling and a former patient at Radley. Oh, and as it turns out, he might actually be dead after all? Let’s dig in!

Will The Oldest DiLaurentis Sibling Please Stand Up?

If you were wondering what it was that Mr. DiLaurentis told Alison (Sasha Pieterse) and Jason (Drew Van Acker) about Charles last week, your curiosity was finally appeased this week. Mr. D informed them that Charles is their older brother, who was born 15 months before Jason (and therefore not his twin). However, he was a troubled child and when Ali was just a year old he became too dangerous to have stay inside the house, so they institutionalized him at Radley. And since they moved to Rosewood after Charles had been admitted, no one else knew about him.

The family had hoped that Radley would make him better, but instead, he only got worse. However, Mr. D insisted that Charles wasn’t the one carrying out A’s vendetta. Why? Because Charles is dead, having killed himself via overdose when he was 16 years old. However, given the fact that Ali’s mother had Charles cremated and Mr. D was out of the country at the time, the Liars were hesitant to believe Charles was really gone for good. And the only way to prove his death was legit was to track down his Radley medical file.

Let’s Go Carol-ing

After stealing the file before it could get shredded, the Liars discovered that Charles had a frequent visitor throughout his captivity: Ali and Jason’s now-deceased aunt, Carol Ward. When Ali shared this newfound detail with her brother, Jason recalled the time he went to hide out at Carol’s house last year after the elevator incident and found his mother there, sprucing the place up. Mrs. D had decided to keep the place after Carol’s death, but for some reason she refused to let Jason into the house. Perhaps there was something — or rather, someone — there that she didn’t want him to see. Like a not-so-dead Charles, perhaps.

Determined to get to the bottom of this, the Liars and Jason went to Carol’s house to investigate. And surprisingly, they did find Charles… just not in the way they were expecting. It turned out that Charles wasn’t cremated after all because his tombstone was smack dab in the middle of the yard. Spencer (Troian Bellisario) concluded that this means A is assuming Charles’ identity and was someone he must’ve met while at Radley. The plot thickens…

Spencer’s Bloody Mess

Spencer’s addiction problems took an unexpected turn when she decided to befriend Ezra’s (Ian Harding) newest employee, Sabrina, in the hopes that she’d give her access to some pot. So get ready to see Spencer super stoned next week. In other news, she also started recalling forgotten memories of her time in the dollhouse, which involved her waking up covered in someone else’s blood. But was this just another one of A’s mind games or did Spencer actually commit murder? Right now, you’re guess is as good as ours.

Haleb Heartbreak

In what has to be considered the worst news of the night, Hanna (Ashley Benson) became so frustrated with Caleb’s (Tyler Blackburn) overprotective nature that she told him they should hit the pause button on their relationship and give each other a little space. Is your heart breaking, too?

But that isn’t necessarily the only ‘ship that started sinking. After getting locked in a dark room courtesy of A, Aria (Lucy Hale) met an attractive fellow photographer named Clark, and the two of them instantly hit it off. Watch your backs, Ezria fans. Those rooting for Emily (Shay Mitchell) and Sara Harvey (Dre Davis), on the other hand, probably enjoyed that late night swim they both shared together. The only real question now is, what ‘shipper name should they have: Samily or Emilara?

Oh Brother

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Alison may have come to accept Charles’ death by episode’s end, but Mr. D still had a few more devastating truth bombs up his sleeve. He felt that Ali deserved to know why exactly Charles was sent away. Basically, when she was just 11 months old, Charles attempted to drown her in the bathtub. While this could still be further proof that Charles is alive (and explain A’s obsession with Ali), it could also mean that someone else is hell-bent on finishing what Charles started. Tread lightly, Ali. You’re still a far cry from being safe.

Tell Us: Do you think Charles is really alive?

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