Is Jessica DiLaurentis Alive On 'Pretty Little Liars'? There's Actually One Way She Could Be -

Rosewood may be a small town, but it certainly has more than its fair share of secret family members. The Season 6A finale revealed that Big A was actually Charlotte DiLaurentis, aka Jason and Ali's secret sister, but the Season 6B finale may have trumped even that shocking family revelation. The Season 6B finale of Pretty Little Liars finally dropped the long-promised twin truth bomb, and it changed absolutely everything we thought we knew about the DiLaurentis clan. Apparently, the deceased Jessica DiLaurentis has an identical twin sister named Mary Drake, and it's a revelation enough to make any fans' head explode with questions and theories. Naturally, Jessica's evil twin is the main suspect in Jessica's murder — but given Pretty Little Liars' history with seemingly murdered characters, I'm thinking there's a possibility that Jessica isn't dead after all. How could this be possible? Well: Mary might have an even bigger role than originally thought if the show borrows from the books.

We don't know that much about Mary, but we do know that she wants to "take back" what was supposed to be hers. That includes money from the Carissimi Group, and, possibly, a place in Rosewood. It seems that, in many ways, what Mary really wants is Jessica's life — one with power, money, and family. It's more than just a longing for Mary: she feels entitled to this life. Why might Mary feel like she's owed this life? If the Pretty Little Liars television series is borrowing from the novels, it might be because one twin stole the other's identity a long time ago.

In Sara Shepard's book series, Ali has an identical twin named Courtney. Ali is straight-up evil (we're talking Regina George on mean girl steroids) while Courtney is a fairly typical, if somewhat unstable, teenager. Ali, however, manipulates her family into making them believe that Courtney is both evil and crazy, and has Courtney sent off to a mental institution. Years later, Courtney returns home for a visit, and switches places with Ali so she can escape the institution. That's when Courtney, posing as Ali, befriends the Liars. Ali, stewing in the mental institution as "Courtney," is furious at Courtney for stealing her perfect life. Finally, Ali gets her revenge on Courtney by killing her and going after her friends as A.

This plot line could work on the series as well — and it may mean that the person that we knew as Jessica was really Mary this entire time. Mary is clearly very resentful towards the life that Jessica had, and it may be because Mary was the original Jessica — perhaps a switch took place at some point when Mary was placed in Radley, leaving the real Jessica to assume Mary's identity and for the real Mary to go on and live the life that Jessica had. It would explain why the Mary we know today is so desperate to get what Jessica had: originally, she was the one living that life.

Could the TV show go the way of the books and totally blow our mind with a switch-up? Absolutely — but if so, we may need to keep a chart handy to remember which twin did what.

For more on Pretty Little Liars, check out Bustle's own PLL podcast, Taking This One To The Grave.

Images: Freeform; Giphy

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