Charlotte DiLaurentis

Casting

It was reported that Vanessa Ray was cast to portray CeCe Drake, who was later known to be Charlotte DiLaurentis. When Ray was announced to start filming again for Pretty Little Liars fourth season, she spoke about returning saying, “It's so fun to do, and what a crazy character I get to play. She's sort of a sociopath. I think she's so weird because she's, like, 22 but hangs out with high-schoolers. It's like, 'Hey, girl! Get a life!'”

Development

CeCe Drake was characterized as a “beyond-charismatic twenty-something blonde stylist at a boutique that has one heel in the present, one in the past.” Pretty Little Liars executive producer Oliver Goldstick told TVLine that she “schooled Alison in the wicked ways of the world… She taught her everything she knows!” Drake's personality is described as the sociopathic qualities: controlling, charming, seductive, dominant, and extremely intelligent. The girls believe CeCe is “a lot” like Alison. Much like Alison, she is closest to Spencer. CeCe was also described as “off-the-wall, self-centered, bizarre fashionista.”

Season 2

The character makes her first appearance in this season, during the episode "UnmAsked", as the stranger in a red bathrobe who pays a visit to Mona Vanderwaal following her admission to Radley Sanitarium.

Season 3

CeCe Drake makes her first official appearance in the season three episode "Crazy". The girls mistake CeCe for Alison due to their physical similarities. CeCe spent what was described as an "intense" summer with Alison DiLaurentis in Cape May, New Jersey, prior to her disappearance. She previously dated Jason DiLaurentis and broke up with him the day after Alison went missing. Jason blames CeCe for the way Ali acted. When Emily and Nate are looking for something he wanted to purchase Jenna Marshall for her birthday, CeCe could tell Emily disfavored his interest on Jenna and assumed she had feelings for Nate. Thus, she steals Jenna's contact from Emily's cell phone, and prank dials Marshall to state she was Nate's girlfriend, and wanted Jenna to back off. Emily is frightened, but CeCe thinks she's grateful.

During "The Kahn Game", CeCe reveals to Spencer and Aria that she was a student at UPenn and invites them to a frat party, promising Spencer that someone from UPenn admissions would be attending. Later, CeCe challenges Erik Kahn to a game of "Truth or Dare".

In "Single Fright Female", CeCe is seen posting something at the front of the school when Spencer asks her what she's doing. CeCe tells her she's trying to spread the word about a fashion show. Once they catch a glimpse of Paige and Emily arriving to school, CeCe reveals to Spencer that her and Paige had a feud between the two over Emily Fields in which CeCe referred to Paige as "Pig Skin". In a flashback, CeCe and Alison talk in her car, and Alison tells her about how she'd set up Paige by writing her a love letter, pretending to be Emily. CeCe says she's proud of her. When Paige appears for the setup, Alison confronts her and threatens to tell her father, who is the deacon at the church. Paige screams at Alison to give her the note back, but Alison says that she owns her now. CeCe gleefully speeds away from the scene with Alison. CeCe proceeds to admit that she believed Alison was afraid of Paige. Later, Spencer helps her out at the boutique and CeCe saves her from a snake attack in one of the dressing rooms.

During "Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno", CeCe remembers the photo of Ali and Cece bonding with lobsters in Cape May, NJ that Emily shows her, but she confesses to never really knowing who "beach hottie" was. CeCe stated "Honestly, there were so many hotties down there that summer". A flashback later showcases Alison visiting CeCe at Annie's Crab Shack to inform her that her period was late. CeCe then states to Emily that she was wearing protection but "not all the time". Ali comes to see her at Annie's Crab Shack and tells her she's late ... like two weeks late. She was using protecting, "just not all the time."

In What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted", CeCe is at the Brew when Emily spots her and starts asking questions about "Beach Hottie," She leaves, stating that she doesn't have time to answer questions since she has to get pictures for her store's website. She winds up calling Aria, to ask if she could help with the photos, since the first photographer she hired was unprofessional. CeCe later leaves Aria and Wesley alone to go get some dinner and never returns. She calls to tell them her car got towed, but she is lying because she is sitting in her car while making that phone call. Only minutes prior, Jason and Emily were involved in an elevator accident - an act of deliberate sabotage. In this same episode, Jason relays a flashback to Emily of the night Ali disappeared. He recalled seeing 'Alison' arguing with Melissa near his house, but when he called her name, it was CeCe who turned her head around.

During "Hot Water", Hanna sees Wilden arrest CeCe in his police vehicle. She later leaves Rosewood because he believes CeCe told people about Wilden possibly getting Alison pregnant. As she's packing her bags, Emily quickly stops by her apartment in order to find out who took the picture of her and Alison at Wilden's boat. CeCe admits that it was Melissa and once Emily confronts her about Jason's memory of seeing Melissa talking to her at the DiLaurentis' backyard the night Alison went missing, she later reveals that Melissa was looking for the N.A.T. Club's footage.

In "I'm Your Puppet", it was revealed that CeCe had a visitor pass to Radley signed by Wren and that she was secretly visiting Mona while she was admitted at the institution. According to Wren, he got into a lot of trouble for allowing her a pass at a time when Mona wasn't supposed to have visitors. But he let CeCe see Mona because she was desperate to see her since she stated to have been "traumatized by Alison" and wanted to act as a mentor for Mona. Apparently, it was Melissa who called CeCe to tell her that Mona was in Radley. The reasons as to why she did so are still unspecified. Mona would later admit to seeing CeCe while in Radley, though not recalling what they spoke about due to being on medication, in the episode "'A' is for A-l-i-v-e".

Season 4

When Toby and Caleb go to investigate Red Coat's flight plan in the episode "Crash and Burn, Girl!", they question Nigel Wright a second time until he reluctantly reveals that he was paid to set up an anonymous private flight by CeCe to the lodge at Thornhill on the night of the fire incident that took place in the episode "A dAngerous gAme"

During the episode "Into the Deep", Paige throws Emily a surprise birthday party at her aunt's lake house. While Aria and Emily are looking for Spencer outside, Emily spots a body floating face down in the lake. She rushes in panick and turns the body over to see that it's Jenna. Emily thinks whoever bashed her in the back of her head did it to make sure she didn't tell the Liars whatever information she withhold about Alison. Shana Fring later admits to Spencer at the hospital the person Jenna was afraid of was CeCe.

After Caleb finds CeCe's address from an old cable bill in "The Mirror Has Three Faces", Aria heads there and talks to CeCe's old roommate. She reveals that Alison got CeCe kicked out of college after she pushed a girl down a flight of stairs at a frat party in "The Badass Seed". However, Alison later reveals in the seventh season episode "Exes and OMGs" that Noel was actually responsible for this incident and later used this information to blackmail him. Jessica DiLaurentis is also featured in the episode. In it, she has a flashback of a time when she received a phone call from Radley Sanitarium saying that Alison had checked in. When she got there she encountered CeCe dressed as Ali. Jessica described their friendship to Spencer and Hanna as obsessive and toxic, stating that "they 'wore' each other's personalities". The girls realize that the "Alison" masks that Alison purchased weren't for them, she probably had them made for CeCe.

CeCe makes her first official appearance in the fourth season during the episode "Bring Down the Hoe". She is seen in an apartment filled with pictures of Alison DiLaurentis and the Liars, dating all the way back from Halloween 2008. We also see that she has a red coat, hinting at the fact that CeCe potentially spied on the Liars at the hoedown they attended earlier. CeCe is then shown in a black hoodie spying on Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz.

In "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", the Liars are convinced that CeCe did indeed murder Darren Wilden as a sketch of a blonde woman resembling her physical features is shown on the news. As the girls realize that there are in fact two Red Coats while saving Emily in Ravenswood, Spencer chases after one while Aria chases after the other. During a brief struggle in which her Alison mask is kicked off by Aria, CeCe is revealed to be one of the Red Coats, and is the evil one that had been working against the Liars. CeCe attempts to escape by grabbing onto a rope, only for it to snap. Aria tries to pull CeCe up as she pleads for Aria to help her, however she proves too heavy for Aria as her sleeve rips and she falls to the ground. As the Liars gather together they are unsure if CeCe is dead or not. While the Liars are contemplating calling the police, CeCe’s hand is seen twitching, and when the Liars turn around she has seemingly disappeared.

According to Travis in "Love ShAck, Baby", CeCe was last spotted in Maryland on the run from the authorities, It was also divulged that she made huge money deposits before Wilden died.

In "She's Come Undone", it was revealed that CeCe witnessed a fight between Spencer Hastings and Alison DiLaurentis the night of Ali's disappearance and that Jessica DiLaurentis paid CeCe to be quiet about it.

During the season finale "A is for Answers", CeCe is detained by Detective Gabriel Holbrook and questioned about Wilden’s homicide. She confesses to knowing who murdered Bethany Young (the girl buried in Alison's grave) and that Alison is still alive.

Season 5

In "EscApe From New York", CeCe is taken away by officer Barry Maple to be sent to jail, however, at some point she knocks him unconscious, steals his cop car and heads off to New York where Alison and the Liars are. CeCe finds Ali and asks for her help since she owed her a favor for helping her out in Ravenswood. Ali gives her a plane ticket to France and she leaves the country, under the alias of Vivian Darkbloom. When Emily catches Alison, Ali tells her that CeCe was being paid by Ezra for information and then claims that she asked her to dress up as Red Coat only to distract "A". However, it is later revealed that, unbeknownst to Alison, CeCe actually was the Red Coat who stole the "A" game from Mona. Ali also reveals that CeCe did indeed kill Wilden.

In "How the 'A' Stole Christmas", CeCe returns to Rosewood to comfort Ali on her first Christmas without Jessica. In order to remain unseen, she wears a white cloak and offers Ali a bottle of customized perfume before telling her that the Liars were there and not "to say Merry Christmas", meaning she does not trust them. The two later escape the ball after Alison hands to Cindy and Mindy their clothes as well as "Alison" masks and blonde wigs to trick the Liars.

Season 6

In the mid-season finale of the sixth season "Game Over, Charles", CeCe is revealed to be the mysterious villain 'A'. At the ending of the previous episode, CeCe (then unknown) kidnaps Alison and takes her to Radley Sanitarium, where she recounts her story to Alison, while the Liars assist through a live feed in a vault at the Carissimi Group. She reveals to have been born as a boy named Charles DiLaurentis, and when she was 8 years old, she gave Alison a bath, but accidentally dropped her in the scalding hot water. Alison was saved by Kenneth, but as a consequence Charles was admitted to Radley. According to CeCe, as a child she asked her mother to buy her dresses but Kenneth despised his then son for being feminine, so he used the bathtub incident as an excuse to send him away. Despite feeling lonely while residing at Radley, Jessica paid a visit to Charles as often as she could, in an attempt to make him feel less alienated.

When Charles was 12 years old, Bethany Young pushed Toby's mother Marion Cavanaugh off the roof of Radley, presumably to protect his femininity. However, Bethany blamed Charles for Marion's homicide, which everyone believed due to the fact that he was wearing a dress at the time and didn't want to be seen in it. Jessica paid off detective Darren Wilden to make sure Mrs. Cavanaugh's death was ruled a suicide. Charles was then diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), though this was actually an accurate diagnosis for Bethany. For the subsequent 2 years he was heavily medicated with tranquilizers, but was let out to attend his fake funeral. After the funeral at Aunt Carol's, Jessica finally accepted Charles as her daughter and took her back to Radley, renamed Charlotte.

Charlotte dedicated herself to math as a way to escape reality, which allowed her attend classes at the University of Pennsylvania. She thought going to school would be fun but it was easy for her since she already knew what she was being taught. One day, she called in a bomb threat to cancel classes. She used the opportunity to go to Rosewood High for yearbook picture day where she met Jason, whom she began dating under the CeCe Drake alias in order to get closer to her family. Jessica didn't know that CeCe Drake and Charlotte were the same person until the day the DiLaurentis were leaving for Cape May. Though initially angered at her children's incestuous relationship, Jessica allows Charlotte to go on vacation with the rest of the family. In Cape May, Charlotte became close friends with Alison and even planned on telling her they were related. However, Bethany found out about Mrs. D's affair with her father, thus ruining Charlotte's opportunity to tell her sister the truth. On Labor Day Weekend, the night of Alison's disappearance, Bethany stole Charlotte’s clothes and snuck out of Radley to hurt Jessica at the DiLaurentis property. Charlotte broke out as well, in order to stop her. Charlotte stumbled upon a blonde in the front yard and bashes her in the skull with a rock. Charlotte then realizes that she actually hit Alison, not Bethany, thus revealing her as "Alison's Killer". Jessica buried Alison out of panic and paid Wilden to take Charlotte back to Radley.

The medical staff at Radley took away Charlotte's out privileges but once Mona was admitted to Radley, she took advantage of her drugged up state and manipulated her into telling everything she had done as 'A'. After Charlotte permanently got out of Radley, she moved in to Rosewood, where she purposely met the Liars, and began hating the girls due to their relief over Alison's disappearance. Charlotte kept seeing a blonde girl in a red coat that resembled Alison, so she sent Sara Harvey to dress up as Red Coat and act as a decoy in the night of the Thornhill Lodge incident. Charlotte's intentions were to lure Alison out of hiding, but things took a left turn when Shana showed up and set fire to the lodge. Nonetheless, Aria, Emily and Spencer were rescued by Sara and Alison arrived just in time to save Hanna, therefore giving Charlotte the much needed confirmation that her sister was alive. She killed Wilden to protect Alison since he would've never allowed her to return to Rosewood, and sent Sara to his funeral disguised as the Black Widow to make sure he was deceased. Before Charlotte fled to New York, she snuck home to say goodbye to her mother, only to find her lifeless body laying in the DiLaurentis backyard. Following her mother's passing, she saw the events in New York as the perfect opportunity to end the "A" game and begin a new life in Paris, but eventually came back due to her addiction to power.

Sara, dressed as Red Coat, sets a bomb to detonate inside of Radley as part of Charlotte's final plan to kill her family along with herself. The Liars managed to arrive just in time to prevent any collateral damage from happening, since Spencer disabled the bomb while Emily punched Sara for betraying her. Charlotte runs towards the roof and attempts to commit suicide. However, the Liars arrive just in time to persuade her not to and Charlotte instead declares the ending to her reign as A.

In the following episode "Of Late I Think of Rosewood", it is revealed that Charlotte had spent the subsequent five years under medical care at the Welby State Psychiatric Hospital. Despite the Liars' hesitation to testify in favor of Charlotte's release from the hospital, the girls, aside from Aria, ended up lying for Alison and stated that they were no longer traumatized by the events her older sister had put them through. The court approved Charlotte's release, however, she was found dead the following day after allegedly committing suicide by jumping off the local church's bell tower. After the funeral, the Liars were advised to stay in Rosewood, since the authorities ruled the events of Charlotte's death a homicide and they would be possibly held in for questioning. The impact of these events later fueled the rise of a new villain, severely adamant on avenging Charlotte's murder.

During "Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars", it is unveiled that Charlotte was a first cousin of Alison and Jason thus making her a niece of Jessica DiLaurentis who was given away to her and Kenneth by Mary Drake, Charlotte's biological mother and Jessica's identical twin sister. Mary gave birth to Charlotte while she was still a patient at Radley Sanitarium but since she wasn't stable enough to look after her child, Jessica and Kenneth adopted Charles. Charlotte was also in a secret relationship with Dr. Elliott Rollins, who was recruited by Mary in order to drive Alison insane so they'd gain full possession of the Carissimi Group.

Season 7

In a flashback during "Hit and Run, Run, Run", Alison follows Charlotte to the local town's church and the two argue over Ali's romantic involvement with Elliott. Charlotte heavily disapproved their relationship due to thinking that her sister was merely visiting her in order to get closer to Rollins. Alison leaves the church moments before Charlotte is presumably murdered.

In another flashback during "Wanted: Dead or Alive", Charlotte enlists Jenna Marshall's help to track down her birth mother's whereabouts and come up with an alias for Archer Dunhill. The pseudonym Elliott Rollins was later created so Archer could deliberately meet Alison and take advantage of her good intentions to benefit Charlotte's eventual release.

During "Original G'A'ngsters", the Liars investigate the storm cellar over at Aunt Carol's house and discover that Jessica had turned it into her lair and kept files on all of them as well as Mary. While searching through Drake's medical history, they find out that she had a second child. The gender of Charlotte's biological sibling is undisclosed.

In "The Wrath of Kahn", Spencer and Emily find a flash drive at The Kahn's cabin filled with footage from the time they were held captive in Charlotte's Dollhouse. After watching one of the videos, they discover that Noel Kahn was helping Charlotte torture them. During this episode, Aria and Jason team up to find out more details in regards to Mary's past and discover that Steven Kahn, Noel's father, orchestrated the adoption of Drake's second child.

Near the ending of "The Darkest Knight", Jenna and Noel both attempt to murder the Liars, partly for their own reasons but to also avenge Charlotte, whom according to Kahn "taught them a lot". During the cat-and-mouse chase, Noel ends up stumbling upon an axe that decapitates his head and Marshall is knocked down by Mary Drake just as she was about to shoot Spencer Hastings. Once the Liars stumble upon Spencer being cradled on Mary's arms, they deduce she's accountable for their friend's critical condition. Drake swears she'd never harm Spencer as she tearfully claims to be her birth mother.

Reception

The character was well received by critics. Riley Sky of Dropkick Divas Media gave a positive review, saying, “as charming and manipulative as Alison DiLaurentis was, we get to see where Ali got those sociopathic qualities in CeCe Drake. CeCe possesses a charm eerily similar to Alison’s. While Ali "may" be dead, CeCe gives us a refreshing look at how Ali's life would have looked. This beyond-charismatic twenty-something blonde stylist that sure does have one heel in the present, one in the past, CeCe leaves us wanting more.”

The character's reveal as transgender and the show's main villain "Big A" was received well by critics. Entertainment Weekly's Isabella Biedenharn called Vanessa Ray “fantastic” and “compelling.” The A.V. Club reviewer LaToya Ferguson wrote that the choice of having CeCe Drake being "A"/Charles was “the best decision” instead of choosing Wren. To her, it could have turned out worse, alluding to the Gossip Girl's reveal. Ferguson applauded Vanessa Ray's emotional performance, “reminding the audience (and characters) why they were drawn to CeCe in the first place.” She highlighted how CeCe manages to make her wrongdoings acceptable, almost redeeming herself.