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Was Wren In An Institution With Charles On 'PLL'?

by Kaitlin Reilly

It's rare for a character who disappears for as much time as Wren does on Pretty Little Liars to hold viewers' fascination so strongly, but there's something about this doctor that just never sat right with me. It doesn't matter that Wren has been mostly M.I.A. for the past season and a half of Pretty Little Liars — all clues still point to the fact that Wren has something to do with the Big A conspiracy.But while many people are dead set on the idea that Wren is Charles DiLaurentis in disguise, I'm not quite so sure. What I am sure about is that he's involved with Charles in some way, and the latest theory is that Wren was institutionalized with Charles and his forever partner in crime. Hey, crazier things have happened, right?

We learned in the Season 5 finale that Big A's real name is Charles DiLaurentis, and from the appearance of Charles' "home movies," Charles is likely Jason's fraternal twin. While some theories suggest that perhaps he's not a twin and is just a brother (which would give A the OK to hook up with Jason's half-sisters Melissa and Spencer) I'm still on the fence. There's just been so much twin imagery on Pretty Little Liars that hasn't gotten a payoff, and it seems so perfect for Big A to be a part of this mirror image. That doesn't mean that Wren doesn't have a very serious connection to Charles — what if he was his friend from an institution years ago?

We don't know for sure if Wren has ever been to a mental hospital, but he does note that his family has a history of mental illness on the show. We know almost nothing about Wren's past or family, so for this hint to come out seems a tad odd. When Spencer goes to his apartment, she notes that he's meticulous and extremely organized, even joking that he might have a touch of OCD. While that certainly doesn't make people who deal with mental health problems monstrous or evil, it might suggest that Wren spent some time in a sanitarium, which is where many fans think that Charles has been all this time.

If Charles is really Jason's twin, that means that he's also the half-brother of Spencer and Melissa, who just so happened to be the people that Wren has gotten the closest to over the years. If Charles and Wren were childhood friends who bonded while in a mental hospital together, then it would explain why Wren sought out Melissa to date — Charles asked him to in order to keep tabs on his half-siblings. It would also explain why Wren, an outsider whose only real connection to the girls is through dating Spencer's sister, would get so wrapped up in the lives of all the girls. Not only does he work at Radley (where Spencer ends up staying and where Charles likely stayed before her) but he also macks on Hanna and acts as Mona's physician. He's inserting himself into their lives — but why?

Perhaps Wren didn't originally intend to act as A's henchman, but got involved slowly due to his relationship with Charles. We know that Charles wasn't always A — he stole the game from Mona when she was in Radley. Charles could have hired Wren to keep an eye on all things related to Spencer and the girls, which is how he learned that Mona was torturing them. At that point, Wren couldn't stop helping Charles — he knew too much for Charles to ever let him get out of the game.

It's a theory that would once again put Wren in the "shady as hell" box — which is probably where he deserves to be. If only his accent wasn't so darn cute.