Author: Alyse Whitney

March 16, 2016 4:40pm PT by Alyse Whitney

 Freeform/Erin McCandless

Star Andrea Parker teases evil twin and “puppet master” Mary, how none of the Liars are safe from Mary, and how she wants the show to end.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for the season six finale of Pretty Little Liars.]

Rosewood just became an even scarier place. 

On Pretty Little Liars’ season six finale, the long-awaited twin was revealed as Mary Drake (Andrea Parker), Jessica DiLaurentis’ evil sister who is seeking vengeance for her daughter Charlotte’s (Vanessa Ray) death. And to add even more terror to the town, an “Uber A” going by “AD” is out for blood too, and Parker tells The Hollywood Reporter that Mary is working for the Big Bad.

Parker also spoke with THR about what other “secrets and darkness” are lurking around the corner, how Parker wants the show to end, and more about Jessica and Mary’s “complicated” family.

Marlene says the end of season seven will be a satisfying end to the “Uber A” storyline. Has she clued you in on how the show ends?

I pretty much know all the secrets and it is a blessing and a burden simultaneously. Keeping secrets from the fans is really hard. They are so invested and responsive and communicative. It’s a great relationship. It’s hard to keep secrets from them.

Oh my God, seriously? (Laughs.) I’m going to go the total opposite. I want it to end in a love fest and I’m shipping for all of the original couples to get back together.

What has it been like playing the villain? How is her personality different from Jessica’s?

We all know how much I love to be bad. It’s kind of my forte. For me, this is a real treat. Jessica had a really good heart and she was really trying to do her best. She made some monumental mistakes and choices that weren’t necessarily a benefit to her family, but she did her best. Now Mary is full of secrets and darkness. Though they are identical twins, I think their hearts are very different. I’m going to move in that direction, and as the scripts come in, it will be fun for me to break it all down and bring it to life. When we go back in April, I’m fired up to scare the bejesus out of all of you!

What do you know about Mary and Jessica’s relationship as kids, both before and after Radley? 

Family is complicated, as we all know. I would expect there was a lot of competition between them. I know that Mary has had some emotional problems and is not the most emotionally stable character. She was a patient at Radley years ago. I don’t know if she can be trusted. Her personality is very dark.

When Marlene came to you about the evil twin storyline, did you come up with a backstory for her, or did you collaborate on one?

We are still in the process of putting that all together. We had a big collaboration as we were shooting it, because I only found out at the table read of that episode. It wasn’t like I had a lot of time to prepare for the character. Since then, Marlene and I have been in talks, and we are actually going to get together next week now that she’s had time with the writers to see where it’s going to go. She’s going to fill in the cracks.

What can you tease on a larger level about her vengeance for Charlotte and how dangerous Mary is compared to other “As”? Is Mary “A”? 

“AD” is “Uber A.” My initials are not “AD.” Mary is not “Uber A,” but Mary is working with “Uber A.”

Is Mary a dangerous person who we should be worried about now that she literally drove Alison crazy?

I think all the PLLs should watch their backs. All of them. I don’t think any of them are safe — especially Hanna. Hanna is not safe! 

What can you say about Mary and Elliot’s relationship and what happened with Charlotte?

Elliot and Mary are loyal to Charlotte and they want to know what happened to her. 

What do you imagine Mary was doing when she was gone? Was she plotting the whole time?

I see Mary as a puppet master.

Pretty Little Liars airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Freeform.

Pretty Little Liars

March 16, 2016 11:19am PT by Alyse Whitney

 Freeform/Erin McCandless

Creator I. Marlene King teases the “satisyfing” conclusion for the series, the “scariest” villain yet, when Hanna’s fate will be revealed, and more about the twin twist.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the season six finale of Pretty Little Liars.]

Pretty Little Liars has gone through a few cycles of “A” villains in its six seasons, but the latest Big Bad will be its “biggest, baddest, and scariest” yet.

Creator I. Marlene King tells The Hollywood Reporter that season seven will be the “beginning of the end” of the show, with the “Uber A” storyline coming to a “satisfying” conclusion full of huge reveals.

On Tuesday’s season six finale, the new culprit “AD” was unmasked as Mary Drake, the twin of Alison DiLaurentis’ (Sasha Pieterse) mom (played by Andrea Parker, who was just upped to series regular). She was Charles DiLaurentis’ (Vanessa Ray) — who later transitioned to Charlotte — mother, and has been working with Ali’s husband, Dr. Elliot Rollins (Huw Collins) to avenge Charlotte’s death.

Although the show’s fate past this season seven has not been decided, King hints at a “homecoming” for characters from the past. Read on for more about a potential season eight, the huge twin twist, and how long fans will have to wait to see Hanna’s (Ashley Benson) fate.

How long have you had this twin twist coming with Jessica? What made you decide it would be her, rather than one of the girls, like how Ali had a twin in the series?

We definitely didn’t want to do the Ali thing because it was too close to the books. We started talking about Mrs. D having the twin when we originally started talking about the character of Charlotte and how important she was going to be to the show. It all organically came together a few seasons ago. I always told Andrea Parker [who plays Mrs. DiLaurentis and Mary Drake] that she was going to be around for a long time, even after she died. She didn’t know until last year exactly how that was going to happen.

Is this Big Bad going to be “Uber AD” now?

“AD” is “Uber A”and “AD” has crowned “AD”-self as “AD,” but fairly early on in season seven, the PLLs will crown this “AD” as “Uber A,”because it tends to be the biggest, baddest, scariest “A” of all.

No one is dead in Rosewood until you see a body, but Hanna looked pretty dead. What can you tease about her fate?

You will find out in the first episode of season seven what her immediate fate is.

What’s an overarching theme of seven seven? Will it be centered around “Uber A’s” storyline ending?

We have the beauty of one season — a relatively short amount of time — to complete this story, which allows us to go gangbusters in terms of pacing. And there is still a lot of story to tell, so it’s going to unfold and unravel more quickly than we’ve ever told story before. Which as storytellers, we love the ability to speed up the story. The finale really was explosive, and it launches the beginning of the end of PLL as we know it.

We don’t know the fate of PLL past season seven, and some of the cast members have talked about it being the last. Do you have any conceptual ideas past season seven?

We’re thinking right now about going out with a bang and ending this storyline in a way that is satisfying for everyone who works here, everyone who watches. That’s my immediate goal. And that’s all I’m 100 percent focused on right now.

With the storyline coming to a close, is there anyone you reached out to for this final season? Was there anyone on your wish list from the PLL world?

Everyone’s on my wish list! I have called everyone. We have literally called season seven thematically the homecoming, and I hope a lot of actors who are on other shows or under contract at other places can come back. We are working really hard to make sure everyone gets to come and be a part of season seven.

There was a big reunions with Ezria and Haleb. They don’t seem like the cheating types — was it all about emotion?

To me, they were both very organic moments for those characters. Hanna’s worried, she thinks she might die. Caleb triggers that flashback about not letting her down and she remembers how she let him down in the biggest way. I think it unfolded beautifully for those characters. And Ezria, they just can’t help themselves, you know? They can’t help it!

The Carissimi Group is still a bit of a mystery, but Ali had to sign over her stake in it to Elliot. Is it going to be a big part of season seven?

The Carissimi Group, we know, was a very well-funded organization that Charlotte used to fund her “A”-ness. In the finale Elliot says to Alison, “Charlotte would be really thrilled with the work you’re doing,” because Jason and Alison have turned the Carissimi Group into a non-profit to help people. What appears at the end of the episode is Elliot and Mary want control of the Carissimi Group, which is why they drove Alison crazy. She had to sign over all her free will when she went to the mental hospital.

Pretty Little Liars airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Freeform.

Pretty Little Liars

March 15, 2016 6:44pm PT by Alyse Whitney

 Freeform/Erin McCandless

The show revealed the new “A” and solved one of the season’s biggest mysteries with a huge twist. Find out which character may not be returning next season.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Pretty Little Liars’ sixth season finale, “Hush, Hush, Sweet Liars.”]

Pretty Little Liars may be one Liar short in season seven.

In the final moments of the sixth season finale, Hanna (Ashley Benson) was seen being dragged, unconscious and bloody, across the floor of the bell tower. Although the person who hurt her was not revealed, PLL finally unmasked its latest villain as Mary Drake, Mrs. DiLaurentis’ secret twin — and original “A” Charlotte DiLaurentis’ (Vanessa Ray) biological mother.

The twists don’t stop there. Mary was actually secretly working with Alison’s husband, Dr. Elliot Rollins (Huw Collins) to get Alison to commit herself into the psych ward. They did this by dressing up as the ghost of Mrs. DiLaurentis and Detective Wilden and “haunting” Alison, making her think she was hallucinating and going crazy. It turns out that Elliot was actually in love with Charlotte, and this was his way of proving his loyalty to her and her mother, Mary.

After Alison committed herself, Elliot revealed that she also signed over the Carissimi Group to him, a company which is still somewhat of an unsolved mystery. “We’ve finally taken back what was supposed to be mine,” Mary said. “And that’s what our Charlotte would have wanted.”

Earlier in the episode, Spencer (Troian Bellisario), Toby (Keegan Allen), and Mona (Janel Parrish) discovered that Mary was a patient at Radley who gave up her son Charles (who later transitioned to Charlotte) for adoption to the DiLaurentis family, but that is as much as the group knows so far. Before showing Hanna’s lifeless-looking body, they got one final text: “Thanks for giving me Hanna. You’re free to go. —AD.”

It looks like “AD” is the new “A,” and her reign of terror will continue in Pretty Little Liars’ seventh season. The next — and potentially final — season is expected to premiere in summer 2016. Creator I. Marlene King says the “Uber A” storyline will conclude in season seven, but has not confirmed when PLL will end for good.

What did you think of the show’s big twin twist? Do you think Hanna is really dead? Let us know in the comments.

Pretty Little Liars