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'PLL' Can Explain Bethany's Letter Thanks To CeCe

by Kaitlin Reilly

Leave it to Pretty Little Liars to give you 10 questions for every one it answers. That's not to say that Season 6A didn't wrap up plenty of major mysteries, of course. The "Summer of Answers" definitely made good on answering a ton of our most burning questions about the series, from the truth about what happened the night Ali went missing to the person underneath the black hoodie. But while we may know that CeCe is Big A on Pretty Little Liars, there are a few questions fans still have about the little details we picked up along the way. like, for example, the letter Bethany supposedly wrote to Ali found in the DiLaurentis house. Knowing what we do now about CeCe's own Radley past, you have to wonder, was Bethany's note a Pretty Little Liars plot hole, or can it be explained without unraveling the answers from "Game Over, Charles"?

Just in case you need a refresher on the (admittedly complicated) Bethany/Ali situation, here's the deal. Back in Season 5, the Liars suspected that Ali was behind Mona's murder and was actually the A that had been tormenting them for years. It was an understandable mistake — Ali was in prime manipulation mode when she returned to Rosewood, and it only seemed to make sense that she had been acting as the ultimate elusive bully while everyone believed she was dead. Then in the episode "How The A Stole Christmas," Hanna and Spencer broke into Ali's house and found a note from Bethany that tells Ali that she's "excited" to visit her for Labor Day — aka the day that Ali went missing and Bethany was killed. Here's the note:

The note really make it sound like Ali had lured Bethany from Radley to kill her. That's part of why Ali was arrested for Mona's murder: it seemed that Ali had killed Mona because she knew the truth about Bethany. Now that we know Ali didn't kill Bethany — and likely had no clue who she even was — what's the deal with this note?

The biggest question about this note is who actually wrote it. If CeCe wrote the note, she would have done it to frame Ali and keep her in prison for Mona's murder, perhaps so she could eventually get Ali into her dollhouse like she did with the other girls when they were arrested. CeCe would do anything to keep Ali around, even if it meant have her imprisoned.

Another option? That the person who wrote the Bethany note was Bethany herself. We now know that she wanted to get out of Radley and seek revenge on the DiLaurentis family. Maybe she used this letter as a plausible explanation just in case she got caught sneaking out of Radley, letting her put the blame on Ali. She could have shown Radley the letter, saying that Ali invited her to Rosewood, which would have gotten both Ali and Mrs. DiLaurentis in trouble, something Bethany wanted anyway. Perhaps CeCe found Bethany's note and put it in the attic with Ali's other stuff, just in case she needed it.

Will we ever find out who really wrote the Bethany note? It's possible, though there's also a chance that Pretty Little Liars will leave this one up to interpretation. Either way, we have two explanations that definitely make sense and prove the letter can seamlessly fit into CeCe being A without opening up any major Pretty Little Liars plot holes.

For more on Pretty Little Liars, check out Bustle's podcast The Diary Room.

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