Sara Being Black Widow On 'PLL' Actually Adds Up

All of the answers that Pretty Little Liars fans have been waiting for finally arrived in the Season 6A finale. The "summer of answers" concluded with a few jaw-dropping reveals: Cece Drake is Big A, while Sara Harvey is Black Widow and Red Coat. Yep, it's true: Emily's new boo and the alleged sixth victim of Big A's dollhouse was actually very much a part of this whole A game. Unfortunately, not every fan is satisfied with Sara being the woman in black at Wilden's funeral. Some people are calling BS and claiming that a Pretty Little Liars plot hole means Sara wasn't the best fit for the title.

It's not surprising that Black Widow's reveal was controversial. Going into the Pretty Little Liars finale, I knew that whatever answer the show gave us wouldn't satisfy all fans. Truth be told, I don't think there's any single answer that would make every fan equally satisfied. There are so many red herrings that it's up to each fan to figure out which clue is important and which is just a distraction to the larger issue.

However, there is one big reason why some people are suggesting that Sara simply cannot be Black Widow, and that's because her character hasn't been around long enough.

In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner I. Marlene King stated that we have seen Black Widow without a costume on in Season 4. As fans know, Sara didn't appear onscreen until Season 6, when she was revealed as another girl in the dollhouse. Because of this "clue," many fans assumed that Black Widow was none other than Melissa Hastings. It would make sense: she fit the physical look and was purposefully MIA from Wilden's funeral under the guise that she was interviewing for an internship. (Super sketch.) When Sara was revealed to be under the veil, however, fans were pissed. How could King just flat out lie to us like that? Maybe she didn't.

One possible explanation is that we did see Black Widow without a mask, just not walking around in Rosewood. Fans may remember that we saw a photo of Sara in the Season 4B premiere "Who's In The Box" — it just happened to be a stock picture, and not one of actress Dre Davis. At the time, the show wouldn't have needed to actually cast an actress as Sara since she wasn't a true character yet, but, yes, we technically did see her without the mask.

It's a bit of a flimsy excuse, but King definitely wasn't wrong about us "seeing" Black Widow in Season 4. While Pretty Little Liars is getting away on a technicality here, I'm always down for a good surprise, and the show definitely pulled this one off.

For more on the many Pretty Little Liars reveal and how they hold up, check out Bustle's podcast Taking This One To The Grave.

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