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TV Review: Pretty Little Liars 6×10 “Game Over, Charles”

Warning: Pronouns will be switched around several times in the next few paragraphs. For clarification purposes, “Charles” will be used to reference flashbacks, while “CeCe” will be used to reference the present.

What happened when Charles tried to drown baby Ali?

CeCe recounts the moment when she and Ali were young and she went by “Charles.” Charles (Dylan Garza) would never leave his little baby sister’s side when they were younger. It was like having his own “living doll.” When baby Ali cried, Charles tried to put her in the bath tub to cheer her up but accidentally dropped her into the water, nearly drowning her.

Even though this was clearly an accident, CeCe says that she always wanted to wear dresses as a boy and Kenneth never allowed it. This was another reason why Kenneth sent Charles to Radley. However, Jessica DiLaurentis (Andrea Parker) assures young Charles that she loves him very much.

CeCe clarifies that Kenneth and Jason aren’t dead. They just can’t move, much like Mona couldn’t move when she was in the trunk of CeCe’s car last season. CeCe looks down on her father and points out that he never visited her. As the girls watch, they realize they feel sorry for Jason but not for Mr. DiLaurentis.

The only people who ever visited Charles for the next seven years were Jessica and Aunt Carol. When Charles turned twelve, Jessica even got him a yellow dress for Christmas and would even buy him the same clothes as Ali for the next several years.

Who killed Toby’s mother?

In a flashback, we see Charles, clad in a dress, as he talks to Bethany Young (Jessica Belkin) about getting out of Radley on the institution’s roof. When Marion Cavanaugh (Karla Droege) comes outside, Charles quickly hides, not wanting to be seen. Bethany promises to distract her but pushes her off the roof instead. She tells everyone that Charles did it, since no one would believe the boy wearing a dress.

It turns out that Jessica paid Darren Wilden (Bryce Johnson) off to make sure Mrs. Cavanaugh’s death was ruled a suicide. For years after that, the doctors put Charles on drugs but let him out for a funeral, a funeral for Charles himself. The DiLaurentis family held a ceremony for Charles’s “death” at Aunt Carol’s house and Jessica finally accepted Charles as her daughter, Charlotte (whom Charles/CeCe will be referred to as for the rest of the recap).

NEXT: Who killed Bethany Young and who tried to kill Alison DiLaurentis?

Jeremy Rodriguez

Jeremy is an aspiring entertainment reporter from New Jersey. He has collected countless issues of Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide since he was a child and loves reading the behind-the-scenes scoop of his favorite TV shows. His proudest moment was when he had laryngitis while interviewing B.o.B and was told by the “Airplanes” singer himself that he had “a great interview voice.” Jeremy spends his spare time obsessing about fictional characters, watching Disney movies (he’s not ashamed to admit he was 23 years old when he saw “Frozen” in theaters with absolutely no kids by his side) and plowing through endless hours of soap operas on his DVR. He is still trying to replace the void he has in his heart from when “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was canceled in 2003.