WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!
Last night was the night we've all been waiting for. After five andahalf seasons,A was finally revealed on Pretty Little Liars.And it's Cece Drake.
The big reveal happened in thefirst 20 minutes of the episode, sothe rest of the time we learned about why and how Cece became A.Apparently, she was born male —asCharles DiLaurentis. Though the show never outright said she was transgender, it was implied, and the writers and actors confirmedthe facton Twitter after the show.
During the episode, we saw Cece (or Charlotte at the time)as a child wanting to wear dresses and be treated like a little girl. Her mom was sort-of understanding, but her father wasdefinitelynot. We also saw Cecedoing things that her parents saw as "evil", like putting her sister in the bathtub, which they believed was an attempt to drown her.So, Cece is banished to amental institution (Radley), because her parents believedshe posed a threat to her siblings. But it's also probably because she's transgender. And that's just part of the problem with this episode.
There's no doubt in anyone's mind that A has major issues. PLL directorNorman Buckley confirmed that he feels she'spsychotic. She's tortured the Liars for years, and killed a lot of people.But her story makes you feel a bit bad for her, or at least understand why she's so angry.
ButCece being A is stillnot sitting well with millions of PLL fans. Thereare just too many plot holes, like why she feels so angry towards the Liars and not just her family. But aside from that, many, manypeople are disappointed that the "evil", screwed-upcharacter is a transgender one, because that's a negativestereotype about trans people, especially kids,that we are working towardsmovingfar away from.
Fans quickly tweeted their disappointment at the show, especially since it has handled LGBTissues so well so far. They expect more from I. Marlene King, the writers, and directors.
Butthat's not at all how the writers and the directors of the show meant for it to be interpreted — at least according to directorNorman Buckley. Normanis openly gay, and has directed the incredibly powerful and positive LGBTstorylines on The Fosters. He doesn't write for PLL, but he sees why the writers depicted A the way that they did. In a Twitter convo today, he defended the finale,while also admitting that it doesn't allmake total sense.
WhileNorman doesn't think thewriter meant to imply that being transgender makes you psychotic, or to contribute to that stereotype by making Cece A,that's how it was seen bymany people.Even if they didn't mean for it to be interpreted that way, it's stilldisappointing to fans to finally see a great actress on a popular TV show portraying a transgender character, only for thatcharacter to be the villain. Some are even saying that this might have been a quick — and ultimately,tacky — decision to by the writers, to capitalize on the fact thattransgender topics are so relevant and in thenews so much right now.
Was it a poor decision from everyone behind PLL to make the villain trans? Or was itjust one way of showing how difficult many kidshave it struggling with gender identity and being rejected by theirfamilies?Either way, it's a conversation that needs to be had, and just one more way Pretty Little Liars is unlike any other show on TV right now.
I'm Liz, the fashion and beauty girl at Seventeen.com. I'm basically a human guinea pig, testing every beauty product that comes into the office and changing my hair all the time. I love cats (even though allergic) and I can't read enough YA novels.
