Pretty Little Liars was a teen mystery about four high school bullies being stalked, blackmailed, and tormented as they frantically searched for clues about what happened to their missing queen bee, Alison Dilaurentis.
Sarah Harvey was first mentioned in the fourth season of the show, when it was revealed that the body everyone mourned as Alison hadn’t been hers all along. Emily and the other liars wanted to figure out who was buried alive in Alison’s backyard, and why someone went through so much trouble to make it be determined as Alison.
Emily met one of Sara’s friends, and she basically described the girl as a carbon copy of Alison. She was also a bully who ran their high school on amateur name-calling and occasional bouts of blackmail. The theory at this time was that she was the girl in Alison’s grave since they had gone missing around the same time.
In canon, it’s revealed that she was working with A all along, or since season 3. The timeline for her is pretty wonky, since she went missing at the same time as Alison, but is technically unaccounted for until Cece takes over the A game in season 3. She was the black-widow-and-red-coat, clearly parading around Rosewood, but also spent time in the dollhouse, looking rougher than Mona. Then, in court, she claimed Stockholm syndrome, but admitted to Alison in season 7 that she actually loved Cece and was more of a willing participant than she led on.
Most fans hate this character because she’s so confusing. When did she meet Cece Drake? How did they meet? What was her motive for stalking and framing a bunch of girls she didn’t know for murders they didn’t commit? Why was she looking so rough in the dollhouse if she was involved in its facilitation? There were just too many plot holes and inconsistencies, and instead of answering those questions, they just made her run out of every scene to take a shower, hence the nickname Shower Harvey.
Bethany Young, though, a girl who had been in Radley Sanitarium with Cece Drake for years was a different story. She was a fascinating mystery that plagued the show for seasons. She hated pretty much every Dilaurentis she came across and was there when Toby’s mom was killed. There were so many directions they could’ve taken her story, but instead of building on that, they used her to fill Alison’s grave.
What if Sara really was the girl in Alison’s grave, though? What if her role and that of Bethany Young, a much more interesting character, switched? What if Sara was the one buried alive and Bethany Young was the Red Coat who ended up in the dollhouse?
Marion Cavanaugh’s Death
I think the best place to start with this theory would be Marion Cavanaugh’s death, since chronologically, it’s the first time Bethany shows up in the story. In canon, this was before Charles transitioned and became Cece, so he was up on the roof with Bethany in a dress. Marion wandered onto the roof and Bethany pushed her off to keep Charles from being exposed. At least thats the version of events we get from Cece during her reveal in the Game Over Charles episode.
Personally, I don’t believe a word that came out that girls mouth, but it’s the only version of the story we got, so we have to take it at face value. In this alternate timeline though, I would change this up quite a bit.
I think it’s quite outlandish that there are so many mental patients with access to the roof. I know Radley staff were awful, but this was next level negligence. I would have included a scenario where Charles convinced Bethany to steal the keys from the freshly hired, Eddie Lamb. He was an orderly who we got to see quite a bit of in the canon show, so I think it could’ve been interesting to make him a scapegoat for this whole incident, saying it was his first couple days on the job. So we’ll have Charles and Bethany up on the roof when they hear someone coming and both kids hide.
That’s when Jessica Dilaurentis and Marion Cavanaugh would appear on the roof together and Jessica would be confronting Marion about Toby and telling her that she needs to keep her boy away from Alison. We did get a flashback at one point of Alison and Toby together in his house, and we’ll say this was days before Marion was carted off to Radley.
Jessica is on the board and abusing her power to intimidate Marion, but instead of backing down, Marion would call Jessica out and say Toby is a good boy. She should be glad a boy like her Toby was even interested in an evil stuck-up little bitch like her daughter. This whole thing would escalate and Jessica would push Marion off the roof in anger. Bethany and Cece would witness this entire encounter and it would change them both for the rest of their lives.
This would be the first instance of Bethany hating Mrs. Dilaurentis, who shortly after this is revealed to be entangled with her father. Charles would defend his mother and that would make Bethany resent him as well, a pit of anger just stewing up inside her. Jessica would take Bethany and Charles- eventually Cece out for family trips to the stables and other places outside of Rosewood. She even introduced Bethany to Alison at one point, pawning her off as a board member charity case.
While Bethany grew bitter and resentful of the Dilaurentis family, there was a different kind of change within Cece. For her, this was the moment she became the person who would grow into the big bad villanous A. She witnessed her own mother/aunt kill someone just for being rude, and getting away with it because of her power and influence. Cece eavesdropped on conversations of Eddie admitting to misplacing his keys and being blamed for Marion’s jumping. She was impressed, and learned how to be just as devious. She loved causing mischief and seeing how much she could get away with and pawn blame onto others. It became her favorite way to pass the time. That is what motivated her to become so smart. She couldn’t handle being outmanuevered, so she had to be more clever than everyone else.
The Night Ali Went Missing
Let’s fast forward to the night Alison went missing. I love rewriting this night, because the plot holes present annoy me immensely, and they were so avoidable too.
We’ll start off by saying that Alison met Sara Harvey during her time as Vivian Darkbloom and decided Sara be the perfect scapegoat. Much like Cece, Alison is a product of Jessica Dilaurentis and she didn’t care who she had to hurt if it brought her closer to her goal. At this point, Ali’s goal is discovering the identity of A, who was Mona at the time. The best way to do that was to disappear and investigate from behind the scenes.
So Alison lured Sara Harvey to Rosewood, under the guise of a yellow themed slumber party and hit her over the head with Spencer’s shovel before putting her bracelet on the unconscious girl. Before she could do anything else, Alison had to hide from an approaching Melissa, who found Sara and buried her thinking that her sister killed Alison.
We’ll also say that Bethany still escaped Radley that night to confront Jessica, and was still followed by Cece. Neither of them were in yellow, but Bethany did witness everything that happened with Alison, Sara, and Melissa. The only reason Bethany stayed in the shadows instead of exposing Alison, is because she figured that whole family would probably slaughter her together and call it bonding. Her experience with Jessica, Cece, and Alison had her scared for her life. She didn’t know Melissa, but she did see that girl find a body and immediately start deleting evidence, so that was enough to know not to trust her either.
We’ll say Alison already had her blackmail money from Byron, her mask money from Hector, and whatever other funds she was able to rack up and she disappeared. Bethany tried to follow her, but was caught by Cece, and they were both caught by Jessica who had them both brought back to Radley by Eddie Lamb, not Wilden.
Cece’s Takeover From Mona
I would keep the first two seasons of the show roughly the same, but I would say that Bethany Young escaped from Radley shortly before Mona was brought in. Cece was bored without her usual plaything, so that’s why she stuck to the fresh meat and learned everything about Mona so quickly. Once Cece was allowed outpatient privileges and able to attend college, she used her newfound A skills to track down Bethany, who had been secretly searching for Alison.
I would have Bethany be the one to start the lodge fire instead of Shana, and she would attempt to follow Ali, but Cece would hit her over the head and hold the girl captive. This is when Cece would start constructing the dollhouse and hold Bethany as practice while she prepared to kidnap all of the liars. Cece would be pissed at Bethany for keeping the Ali/Sara swapout a secret, and that’s what would inspire “the hole” idea that Cece often used to punish Mona in canon. Bethany would have been it’s original victim.
From what we see in canon, I think it’s safe to say that Bethany is a strong-willed person so it would take a lot of work for Cece to “break her in.” She would force her to do tasks that proved her loyalty like help her dig up Sara’s body from Alison’s grave so it couldn’t be exhumed by the police. At this point, Bethany would’ve rather went back to Radley than continue the torment from Cece, so the only thing that kept her cooperative was the information that Cece held over her head.
It turns out that Bethany’s mother had been killed when she was very young, but she had an older brother. They had different fathers, so they were separated as children. Bethany always resented her father for keeping them apart and then locking her away in Radley rather than helping her cope with the loss of her mother. Cece knew who and where Bethany’s brother was, and she was desperate for that information. It’s similar to how Toby was obsessed with learning the truth of his mothers death and how the liars were determined to find out the truth about Alison. Cece knew how much information provided her with power over people, so she would collect and harbor it, only issuing little segments as rewards.
Cece would continue giving Bethany tasks and made her the official red coat of the A team, giving her little nuggets of information to keep her focused and dedicated. I would remove the black widow aspect of this character though, and assign that role to Melissa. I do like the idea of Melissa continuously being blackmailed by Cece because of the whole burying Sara’s body debacle. I enjoyed the constant push and pull between Melissa and Spencer in general, so I think having her more involved would’ve been great, especially when it started from her trying to protect Spencer, but it resulted in her putting her in danger so many times.
When Cece convinced Bethany to attack Mona in her home and kidnap her, that was enough for Cece to reveal the identity of the brother Bethany had been separated from as a child. It was Wren Kingston, the same man who coincidentally was brought to this town by the girl Bethany had witnessed bury Sara all those years ago. He got a job at Radley looking for his sister, but she had run away only weeks before he started. Instead of staying loyal to Cece though, Bethany tried to tell Wren everything and convince him to run away with her to Europe, but Cece discovered this and Bethany went from reluctant accomplice to captive.
The Dollhouse
As I mentioned before, I would’ve had Cece force Bethany to attack and kidnap Mona as another loyalty test. As a reward, Bethany would finally get the full truth about her brother, but immediately choose him over Cece which would result in her being put in the dollhouse as a captive.
I would have Cece tell Bethany that she could earn her freedom by reestablishing her loyalty. This would give reason to why she looks so crazy in the dollhouse, but was still technically an accomplice, opposed to the canon timeline where it was literally never explained.
I also would give Bethany a form of Stockholm syndrome, regarding Cece, but kind of how the liars were with Alison. She was cruel and a master manipulator, but also outrageously kind when she wanted to be. As a girl who had lost her mother too young, been ripped away from her only sibling, neglected by her father, and then thrown in a mental institution for struggling to cope, she was Cece’s perfect victim.
Bethany would be kept in her own secret part of the dollhouse, as Sara was in canon, but I would have her feed Mona and the liars nuggets of information to help them during those few minutes when the power went out. She would be the one who planted the seed for Mona to realize she could escape her room during that time in the first place. I like adding this in, because Sara was literally so pointless in the dollhouse, but at least this gives Bethany some agency and a purpose for being there.
I would also have the girls discover Bethany in the hole rather than Mona, as a punishment for helping the girls on prom night. So at this point, the only thing the girls and the audience would know about Bethany is that she went missing from Radley around the time Mona was admitted, she drew those pictures of Mrs. Dilarentis before she ran away, and A had her held captive in a bottom of a hole in the dollhouse. They would be shocked to find her down there, and help Bethany out of the hole just in time to be rescued by Tanner and the guys.
Post Dollhouse
After the girls are rescued from the dollhouse, I would keep Cece escaping. I like the idea of Bethany reuniting with her father and running away again, because he is just too broken at this point to be a decent parent. He lost his wife and thought he lost his daughter, fell into alcoholism and wound up neglecting Bethany even after being given a second chance.
By this point, Wren has gone off to Europe with Melissa, so Bethany feels lost. She moves in with Emily and there’s a love triangle going on with them and Alison, until Bethany gets exposed as red coat by Cece during the Game Over Charles episode reveal. Rather than having the liars be separated, I’d have the entire reveal be up on the roof and just when Cece goes in to try and kill the liars after her monologue, I’d have Clark, the undercover cop who’d been following Aria all season shoot Cece and kill her.
In this scenario, I’d have wrapped the show here. We never needed that 7th season, in truth so we can just scrap the whole A.D. schnenegans in this case.
Final Thoughts
I genuinely hate the flop that is Sara Harvey in our canon timeline, so hopefully you guys enjoyed this rewrite of her character and the swapout with Bethany Young. I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments, so let’s chat below!
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