Sara Harvey (Pretty Little Liars)

Casting

On March 25, 2015, it was announced that Project Runway alum Dre Davis was cast as Kimberly Brown. The actress originally posted a photo of herself wearing a yellow top similar to the one Ali and Bethany were wearing the night of Bethany’s death, causing amongst critics and "Pretty Little Liars" fans alike speculation that she could be portraying Bethany. However, it was later announced she will instead be portraying Sara Harvey. In an interview with AfterEllen.com, Davis revealed she had to audition with two scenes — with one of them being a kissing scene leading to speculation that she'd be a romantic interest for Emily Fields, as the other Liars currently had love interests at the time.

Characterization and introduction

When the character was originally named Kimberly Brown, she was described as someone who "used to brim with confidence" but recently was "emotionally deprived and had to get her old self back". In the season four episode "Who's In The Box?", Sara's friends described her as the "Queen Bee" of their clique and the most popular girl at their high school prior to her disappearance. The character's description was compared to the likes of Alison DiLaurentis in many ways, which primarily included being self-centered, manipulative and deceiving. However, much like Alison, she could also be charming. One of Sara's friends Tina referred to her as the girl "who seems to be everything, have everything" and can make you feel special.

Her friends also revealed they sometimes wished she would've died before her actual disappearance just like the Liars had with Alison. During the season six premiere, "Game On, Charles", Sara makes her first physical appearance in A's Dollhouse, having allegedly been there for two years.

Working as A's accomplice

During the summer finale of the sixth season, "Game Over, Charles", Sara is revealed to be Charlotte DiLaurentis's ally and partner in crime. She was exposed as one of the three Red Coats, since she donned an Ali mask to distract Mona while CeCe trapped the Liars at the Thornhill Lodge. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pretty Little Liars showrunner and executive producer, I. Marlene King, revealed that Sara was the person who saved Emily, Aria and Mona after Shana Fring set fire to the lodge during the season three episode "A dAngerous gAme". Sara is also exposed as Black Widow, the mysterious woman dressed head to toe in black at detective Darren Wilden's funeral, whom CeCe sent to ensure he was dead.

Background

Sara was one of the main antagonists during the series' third and fourth seasons, dressing up as a decoy Red Coat and the Black Widow.

At her local high school in Courtland, Harvey was a popular girl who lead her own clique. On the summer of 2009, Harvey went missing and was last seen the day after Labor Day by one of her closest friends, Avery. It is unknown what happened to Sara or where she went. However, in 2011, she was hired by Charlotte DiLaurentis some time before the disbandment of the A-Team to assist her schemes.

Season 3

In "A DAngerous GAme", Charlotte, then known to the A-Team as Red Coat, sent Sara Harvey to pose as a decoy at Thornhill in order to distract the Liars and mantain Mona occupied. Charlotte later mentions in "Game Over, Charles" that she kept seeing a blonde girl in a red coat watching over the Liars and deduced the mysterious entity was Alison. So in order to find out, Charlotte organized the lodge party to trap the girls and lure Alison out of hiding, since she knew her sister would only show up if her friends were in grave danger. Nigel Wright was paid to fake a flight plan to Delaware by Charlotte but the plane actually made its way to the lodge since Sara landed it in a nearby field despite the fog surrounding the area. Shana Fring also showed up with Jenna Marshall to find out if the Liars were going to meet Alison at the request of Melissa Hastings, since she too had her own suspicions. However, both plans went awry and while Jenna wasn't noticing, Shana set fire to the lodge since she grew a hatred towards the Liars for blinding Jenna as she later admits to in "EscApe from New York". Sara managed to rescue Aria, Emily and Mona while Alison arrived just in time to save Hanna, giving Charlotte the much needed confirmation that her sister was indeed alive. Wilden was not too far from the Lodge and Charlotte used the momentum to kill him since he would've never allowed Alison to return to Rosewood.

Season 4

After killing Wilden, Charlotte sent Sara to attend his funeral during "'A' Is for A-l-i-v-e", dressed as the mysterious woman in the black veil to ensure he was deceased.

In "Grave New World", the Liars discover that Alison is alive as they had suspected and dressing up as one of the Red Coat entities to hide from "A", which leads them to look for suspects for the identity of the mysterious Jane Doe buried in Alison's grave. During "Who's In The Box?". Hanna is researching girls who went missing around the same as Alison and comes upon Sara's website set up by her high school friends. Hanna contacts them and they meet up to discuss Sara. Her former best friend, Claire, states that their other friend Avery last saw Sara on Labor Day. Later, Claire divulges to Emily that she had secretly wished for Sara to die even prior to her disappearance because of how horrible of a person she was. Claire says that if Sara gave you something, she in turn took two things away.

Season 5

After it is revealed during "Miss Me x 100" that Bethany Young is the person buried in Alison's grave, Sara fixes her parents a card and flowers, while sporting her black veil disguise.

Season 6

In "Game On, Charles", a young blonde girl is seen throughout the episode in "A's" dollhouse wearing the infamous yellow top that Alison and Bethany were both buried in. The anonymous figure first appears drawing on the wall of her captivity room and later carries out "Big A's" orders in delivering the girls food. The Liars manage to escape and the police arrive at the scene to find the blonde girl in her room. A police officer approaches her to ask for her identity and she reveals her name to be Sara Harvey. The Liars recognize her since they previously chatted to Sara's friends.

During "Songs of Innocence", Sara runs away from home to Emily's after her mom took her home from the hospital. Pam offers Sara to stay with the two for a while. Throughout the season, Sara and Emily develop a co-dependent romantic relationship with one another.

Throughout "Game Over, Charles", the Liars as well as Mona manage to break into a restricted room with Sara's aid who remembers a specific date meaningful to A. While the girls enter the room, Sara suspiciously leaves them behind. As the Liars and Mona discover a hologram which monitors a live feed of Charlotte at Radley telling Alison her story, Sara sets up a bomb to detonate inside of the sanitarium as part of Charlotte's final plan to kill her family along with herself. The Liars arrive in time to subdue Sara, while Spencer disables the bomb. Charlotte flees to the roof to jump and Alison begs the Liars to help her. Sara tries to escape but Emily grabs her hood and punches Sara in the face for her betrayal. After Emily knocks her down, something happens to Sara, which puts her in the hospital.

Sara returns to Rosewood in "Of Late I Think of Rosewood" to attend Charlotte's funeral and decides to stick around town, which agitates the Liars since they suspect that she'll leave word about what happened to her at Radley all those years ago.

During "The Gloves Are On", Spencer confesses to Caleb that after Emily punched Sara, she got back up but accidentally put her hands on some electrical cords, which began electrocuting her body, as the Liars watched in fear and shock. This left her unable to use her hands. It is also divulged that after this event, Sara was diagnosed with Stockholm Syndrome, having downgraded Charlotte at the court as a horrible person. However, Sara visits Alison at her job during "Do Not Disturb" and apologizes for lying under oath in order to reduce her criminal sentence, stating that she saw Charlotte as an older sister and mentor. Aria and Spencer break into her room at The Radley and find out that she's living in what was once Charlotte's old room while growing up in the infamous sanitarium. They then find a hole in the closet that leads to an underground floor, which in turn leads out of the Radley. Nonetheless, Alison, Emily and Hanna return a few days later only to find out that the hole in the wall had been sealed.

During "Did You Miss Me?", her helper goes to city hall to get a copy of The Radley's floor plan. He hands them to her as she suspiciously drives off. Later, she encounters Mona and tells her no matter what good deeds Mona does, none of the girls are ever going to fully trust her. Adding salt to the wound, Sara says that without games, Mona will remain lonesome.

Season 7

During "Along Comes Mary", Sara remains living in Rosewood and befriends Jenna Marshall. At the end of the episode, they are having drinks at The Radley when an unknown figure approaches the two and reveals themselves as Noel Kahn, who proceeds to join the duo.

Shortly after Emily Fields confronts Jenna about her connection to Charlotte in the following episode "Wanted: Dead or Alive", Harvey seems to regret forming her newfound alliance with Marshall. Harvey is later seen trying to escape from her room after packing her bags. When she opened the door to leave, she was shocked to see someone she recognized on the other side. At the end of the episode, Sara is found dead and laying naked in her hotel room's bathtub by a cleaner.

During "The Wrath of Kahn", Hanna witnesses Noel disposing Sara Harvey's broken phone. He later takes it back when Hanna fails to prove that he's A.D., but warns her to be careful or else she'd end up like Sara.

Reception

The reveal of Sara Harvey as both the third Red Coat and Black Widow received a generally negative reception from fans and critics, with many of them expressing severe discontent over the writers for picking a character that was physically introduced so late into the series.