This article is about A from Seasons 3-6. You may be looking for A (alias), Original A from Seasons 1-2, Uber A from Seasons 6B-7, or A (Book Character). |
“ | One of you has been touched by the one Alison fears the most. | ” |
— Carla Grunwald to The Liars
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Big A is the leader of The A-Team. She makes her first physical appearance in "UnmAsked". She stole the game from Mona Vanderwaal in Season 3. She directs the A-Team's members in what to do, while concealing her identity from them too. Her first disguise was as Red Coat. She hid in the shadows, while using another Red Coat as a decoy for physical appearances.
She is Alison's Attempted Killer, and Jessica DiLaurentis' burier, as revealed in "Game Over, Charles".
She is the main antagonist from Season 3 through Season 6A.
Overview
Charlotte was first introduced to the game and the A alias during her time at Radley Sanitarium, where she met the recently admitted Mona Vanderwaal. Charlotte was intrigued by Mona, who she described as the, "craziest girl". She snuck into Mona's room for story time and would listen to all the ways Mona made The Liars suffer. Mona also told Charlotte about how happy the Liars were when Alison died, which sent Charlotte over the edge, as she was secretly Alison's cousin and adoptive sister. She planned ways to insert herself into the Liars' lives and escaped Radley. She became addicted to the game and began upping the antics from Mona's original plans. She forced the Liars to commit crimes and break laws. She used their most dangerous and deadliest secrets to manipulate them to do her bidding. When Mona was finally released, Charlotte integrated her into the A-Team, among several others including Jenna Marshall, Toby Cavanaugh, Spencer Hastings - a double agent at the time, Sara Harvey, and Noel Kahn. She also murdered Darren Wilden and was responsible for the deaths of several others. After Wilden's murder, Charlotte fled to France but returned when she needed to play the game again.
Her fantasy eventually escalated and she saw the Liars as nothing more than dolls for her to play with. She wanted to play with them forever. She framed Alison for Mona's death and then kidnapped the remaining Liars, Aria, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna. She took them prisoner in her Dollhouse. She tortured them for weeks until they managed to escape alongside a fifth girl, Sara Harvey. Charlotte and her helper Sara Harvey were ultimately revealed in, "Game Over, Charles", when Charlotte told Alison her origin story. Afterward, Charlotte's plan to murder herself and Alison was thwarted and she was sent to Welby State Psychiatric Hospital for intense therapy. She was released from Welby five-years-later and planned to restart the game upon her release. However, she was murdered before she had the chance. Her death sparked the rise of the third, final, and deadliest, A.
Trivia
- On September 1st, 2009, she struck Alison over the head with a rock in a case of mistaken identity, as she meant to kill Bethany Young.
- Charlotte is the creator, owner, and operator of A's Dollhouse.
- She stole the concept of "the game" from Original A, who started it back in 2008.
- The third Red Coat and The Black Widow are the same person, Sara Harvey while Big A was only the second Red Coat.
- The original Red Coat from "UnmAsked" was actually red bath robe from Radley Sanitarium.
- Big A has many aliases, including: CeCe Drake, Paul Varjak, and Vivian Darkbloom (which she stole from her adopted sister/cousin, Alison DiLaurentis).
- Her characters pays a homage to the books, as Charlotte DiLaurentis parallels Courtney DiLaurentis.
- As seen in the endings, Big A enjoys drinking vodka.
- Vanessa Ray, the actress who portrays the character, found out CeCe Drake was Big A in the script for Game Over, Charles. The day she read the script was a few days before she got married on June 14, 2015.
- Big A's identity was decided at some point between "Kingdom of the Blind" and "The Remains of the "A"", according to producer I. Marlene King.
Disguises
- Black Hoodie, sometimes with balaclava or Ali mask
- Red Coat, sometimes with Ali Mask
- White Cape (at Alison's Ice Ball from "How the 'A' Stole Christmas")
- Tuxedo with mask (fake prom "Welcome to the Dollhouse")
- Red cape with Black hoodie and balaclava (at the Prom from "Last Dance")
Big A's Endings
- Red Coat is seen buying black hoodies and gloves for her team members. The store owner says to Red Coat: "So, are you buying this for a team?". ("Blood Is The New Black")
- Big A pours herself a drink as she is making another necklace, and puts the vodka bottle in the freezer next to a bodybag. ("Kingdom of the Blind")
- Big A is at the airport, hacking the system of Radley Sanitarium allowing Mona to have visitors. ("Birds of a Feather")
- She goes through Maya's purse, finding different things belonging to Maya St. Germain. ("That Girl is Poison")
- Big A looks at rooms for rent in the newspaper and calls a number, ready to officially move to Rosewood. ("The Remains of the "A"")
- 'A' picks up a recorder which was in one of the dolls in Radley, and it has recorded the conversation between Mona, Aria and Hanna. ("Crazy")
- Big A collects a large sum of money from the bank. ("Stolen Kisses")
- 'A' receives a key from a cat obsessed woman to the "unit A". ("The Kahn Game")
- Charlotte watches the news as she's hanging up black hoodies and moving boxes. On one of them, it is written the name "Hopkins", which is the first hospital that had done a sex change surgery. ("What Lies Beneath")
- Big A plays on the jukebox as she hands over a key to another black-gloved 'A'. ("Single Fright Female")
- Red Coat uses a blow torch to burn a bobblehead Hanna doll. ("Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno")
- 'A' buys whiskey in a store. ("Dead to Me")
- Two 'A's play "spin the bottle" with pictures of The Liars on whiskey bottles, to which the flask points on Aria, but Big A turns it to Spencer and then, both of them drink the whiskey. It's assumed it was Charlotte and Sara, since CeCe said earlier in the episode that she owes Aria. ("What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted")
- Big A cuts up pink roses, and puts them in a lowery wreath with a ribbon which says "With Deepest Sympathy", foreshadowing the fake death of Toby. ("Hot Water")
- Big A watches a man fishing up a cap belonging to a Rosewood Police's officer. ("Out of Sight, Out of Mind")