[12] For the second part of the season, ABC Family released a promotional poster on December 15, 2015, with the new-launched name for the network, "Freeform".

When the girls found out that Charles was coming to the DiLaurentis household (for his birthday), they plan on catching him as he is set to meet with Jason.

Subsequently, Charles kidnaps Alison at the prom; the girls began searching for her, along with Ezra, Toby, Caleb, Sara, Mona, and Clark (who is revealed to be an undercover agent).

CeCe then begins to explain her story and motives, revealing that she was born as Charles, but was not accepted by her father for believing she was a girl.

She explained that she did everything just to be closer to her family, and she became 'A' when she thought that the Liars were happy about Alison's 'death', so she wanted to make them suffer for it but couldn't stop the game because she grew obsessed with it.

CeCe heads for the roof to commit suicide (after her bomb attempt fails and Emily subdues Sara), but Alison and the girls convince her to stop, saying they now understand why she became 'A'.

Five years later, as the girls have each pursued their own path and have started adjusting to a life without 'A', they are once again called back to Rosewood when Alison asks for their help for her sister Charlotte to be released from the psychiatric hospital.

While the girls agree to help, Aria is the only who tells the brutally honest truth: she is still scared of Charlotte and doesn't want her released.

Eventually, a new 'A' rises, sending threatening messages with creep emojis to the Liars, determined to get answers on the night Charlotte was murdered.

After Ali sees what appears to be her dead mother and Detective Wilden, she starts to question her sanity and checks herself into the same hospital Charlotte attended.

Spencer, Toby and Mona work together to catch Sara, but instead they find old medical records for a woman named Mary Drake, and she was the one who gave birth to Charles while a patient at the Radley (now a hotel managed by Ashley Marin) 25 years ago, the DiLaurentis family adopted Charles as she was unable to take care of him.

They succeeded in committing Alison, and with Ali hospitalized, he has her money and the house as her husband, which is their revenge for what happened to Charlotte, as he was in love with her and Mary always felt an attachment as her birth mother.

Meanwhile, Caleb's protective nature starts to pinch Hanna and confronts him after finding out he put a tracking device on her car.

Spencer's PTSD worsens when she starts having flashbacks of waking up in her room in the dollhouse covered in blood with no memory of how it happened.

Aria meets Clark, a photographer who wants to work for National Geographic, while Emily's mom begins to worry about Sara after finding her on the roof watching the sunset.

Determined to give the unexpected scholarship money back, Hanna is willing to risk losing her chance at going to her school of choice.

Knowing what happened, Hanna decides to erase The Radley's security footage that shows Aria leaving the hotel with Ezra and arriving after Charlotte's time of death.

In the loft, she finds Ezra's nine iron isn't missing, but then she hears a voicemail coming in from her dad and worries that Byron might have had something to do with Charlotte's murder.

Hanna and Caleb devise a plan to recreate the backup hard drive and plant it in a garbage bin, making it look like they have given up the security footage.

Aria goes investigating into the closet and when she doesn't return, Spencer goes after her and discovers a hole in the wall with a ladder leading down into darkness.

Spencer discovers that Melissa's suitcase is broken with the missing part matching the description of the alleged murder weapon.

Emily visits a closed-up diner and discovers the missing part from Melissa's suitcase, and is nearly run over by a car that steals the weapon.

In a desperate attempt to discover Uber A's true identity, the Liars agree over Hanna's risky plan to go as a bait.

[45] It was later announced that Roberto Aguire was cast as Liam Greene,[46] Aria's new boyfriend, and that Australian actor David Coussins will recur as Jordan, Hanna's fiancé.

[47] On July 21, 2015, it was announced that one more recurring character will be introduced, the smart and sleek Yvonne, a politician's daughter who will cause some major drama for one of the Liars.

[48] It was later announced that Kara Royster will play Yvonne Phillips, Toby's new love interest, first appearing in the fourteenth episode.

After the fifth-season finale, fans could send their art to a website, where they would be given a chance to be used in ABC Family's summer ad and campaign.

[55] For the second part of the season, ABC Family released a promotional poster on December 15, 2015, with the new-launched name for the network, "Freeform".

The person behind the account claimed to have been fired after being a PA at the set of Pretty Little Liars after failing a drug test, and could therefore reveal information about the show.

[56] Showrunner I. Marlene King took to Instagram, where she posted a picture and reassured the audience that the claims were false and that the identity of 'A' had not been leaked.