Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead…

Jenna and Noel are responsible for Charlotte’s death, and now they are finding her vengeful sibling…before he finds them.



This theory sort of came from nowhere. I had my suspicions that Jenna was the killer, and I had a whole lot of confusion about what Noel was up to… and then this idea clicked. Jenna and Noel killed Charlotte, and Noel is making sure AD doesn’t find out.

Firstly I want to talk about why I think Noel and Jenna killed Charlotte, and how I think it happened.

So, according to Jenna, Charlotte and her were “friends.” I don’t think I’m alone in saying this is a lie. We have known for a long time now that Jenna feared CeCe.

So why did Jenna say she was friends with CeCe? She lied to protect the truth of what really happened the night Charlotte died.

I think Jenna teamed up with Charlotte in order to take Ali down once and for all. Jenna hated Ali because of “The Jenna Thing,” and as we know the first attempt at revenge by Shana didn’t work out, so I think Jenna took matters into her own hands. Charlotte never truly cared for Ali. We know this because she helped Archer fake a marriage to her so she could leave Welby, and Archer could steal back the Carissimi funds and they run could away together. Ali was a pawn in her plan. And Jenna made that plan even easier. Or at least tried to.

I think Jenna offered her services to help Charlotte find Mary in an “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” situation. Charlotte would involve Jenna in her plan to start a new life, if Jenna helped Charlotte track down her mother.

The night Charlotte died, she lured Ali to the belltower because she was “heartbroken” to find out Ali was with Elliot. This is an obvious lie because Charlotte was in on the plan. She knew they were together because it was her idea. I think her reason for going there that night was so Ali would follow, and Jenna could get rid of her once and for all. This way, Jenna would finally have her revenge and Charlotte could start her new life with Archer.

However, much like the night Ali was “killed”, the wrong blonde was hit. Jenna accidentally killed Charlotte. (PLL do love their parallels.)

Now whilst it is possible Jenna isn’t actually blind (clue: she stays in room number 303 and episode 3x03 is where the liars suspect she isn’t blind. Thanks @gabulous027!) I personally think Jenna gives us a great hint as to who it may have actually been.

Who do we know who has a past of helping people get fake passports etc? Noel!

In the same scene we find out Jenna was helping CeCe and got Archer a job at Welby, we find out that Noel was probably the person to help him get his new identity “Elliot Rollins.” Therefore, whilst Jenna and Noel were “helping” team Charcher, I think they had their own agenda.

In the flashback we see, Charlotte is singing Ali’s praises to Jenna who fires back subtle insults. Jenna clearly still hates Ali whilst CeCe loves her. Obviously this was before Ali had even met “Elliot,” which causes me to believe that in the meantime between Ali meeting him and Charlotte getting out, Jenna manipulated Charlotte. She convinced her of what a horrible person Ali was. Told her Ali would steal her man just like she stole everything else from her. This is why Charlotte decided to let Jenna and Noel kill her. This is why she lead her to the church that night where Noel was waiting for her.

Noel’s motive? His secret.

In 4x24 Ali implies Noel has been helping her because he needs some secrets keeping. A.k.a she blackmailed him. Assuming Ali is the only person who knows these “secrets” and they were big and bad enough for her to blackmail him with during her entire disappearance; it’s safe to say he might want them buried once and for all. Literally in the form of Ali dying with them.

“Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.”

So, the theory is: Jenna manipulated Charlotte which allowed the murder of Ali to be apart of the plan, and Noel was the person responsible for killing her, for his own motives and for Jenna. However, much like the original “that night” and in true PLL parallel fashion, there was a mix up and Charlotte was killed instead.

Clue! The roses Charlotte is holding when she is found dead are the same ones in the room when Charlotte is talking to Jenna. A connection between the two events? Is Jenna the common denominator that brings Charlotte and these flowers together? Did she leave them with her dead corpse out of guilt?

Sidenote! Assuming this is the truth behind Charlotte’s death, Archer probably didn’t know about it. If he “truly loved Charlotte” and was aware of the plan, he would know straight away what had happened and would have gone after Jenna and Noel for causing it. He can’t have known about the plan to kill Ali. Maybe Charlotte, vulnerable and in love, didn’t want him involved in case he was scared away by the extent of her scheming. Maybe she worried he cared for Ali too much to let it happen because he was such a great guy. Either way, he can’t have known about it otherwise Jenna and Noel would have been punished instead of (or as well as?) Alison.

So, Charlotte is dead. Noel and Jenna are guilty. Now they are trying to cover their tracks and put the blame elsewhere.

This is where the ever delightful Sara Harvey comes into the story.

Jenna and Sara’s friendship wasn’t random. It was a cover up. Jenna befriended Charlotte’s number one cheerleader in order to make herself and Noel seem like they were team Charlotte. They couldn’t be suspected as the murderers and so what better way of going about it then getting stuck in with the mystery solving?

In this scene, Sara nearly says a very important name that Jenna doesn’t want mentioned to Emily. I think she was going to say Noel’s name and here’s why.

In this scene, Jenna is obviously accusing Emily of being involved with Archer’s murder…. so what if, while they’re at it, the trio are also trying to frame them for Charlotte’s murder too? However, Sara being a pawn in the plan is unaware of the true intentions; to cover up their own crime.

Sara warned Emily about Noel (almost) because he is “vengeful” and wants to catch whoever did this to his “good friends” Charlotte and Archer. With Sara, it’s all an act. They are pretending they are trying to prove the liars did it, when in actuality, they did it themselves and are only trying to cover it up.

Sidenote! I think this might be the relevance of Aria’s file being missing. I think Noel stole it and plans on planting it somewhere as evidence or using something in it as evidence against her and her involvement in Charlotte’s death. (

This brings me on to Sara’s murder. I think it was Noel… Again!

So as this episode has shown, Sara is a liability. She almost mentioned Noel’s name (for the sake of the theory anyway!) to one of the liars which may have put Jenna and Noel in a very dangerous situation.

Now, based on the state Sara was in just before she was killed, I think she was on the run. I think she was on the run because she found out what Jenna and Noel were really up to and this is why she was killed.

We see her packing her bags. She is running away from someone. She is then shocked and afraid of who she sees at the door. Possibly the same person she warned Emily about? In this theory, Noel.

Noel killed her under Jenna’s instructions because she almost gave away their names and the fact they are working together, and the fact Noel is someone to be feared. That kind of information in the wrong hands, in the hands of people who might sell it to AD to get AD off their backs (*cough* the liars *cough*).. Extremely dangerous. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Sara had to go.

Noel knows someone is trying to avenge Charlotte, and is finding them before they find him and Jenna.

In this theory, Noel’s current behaviour can be explained by the fact he is trying to figure out who AD is. He wants to kill them before they find out what him and Jenna are responsible for; killing his sister, who he is trying to avenge.

Noel stole Mary’s Radley file and found out the name of the doctor who delivered her children. Dr Cochrane is named in the same file the liars find which confirms Charlotte has an older sibling capable of avenging her. (Link for older sibling theory at end of post.)

So Noel knows Charlotte’s older sibling is likely to be the person trying to avenge her death. He is contacting the doctor responsible for delivering the siblings in the hope that he can find out their identity and kill them before they kill him and Jenna.

Now onto the secret basement.

Noel must have been there before the liars. He stole his file because it had his “secrets” in it, and as mentioned above, possibly stole Aria’s as part of the scheme to frame them for Charlotte’s murder. He returned to the basement to look for more hints about the sibling after failing to talk to the doctor again, but saw the liars had discovered it too.

He lured them out with the car alarm and set the basement on fire because if he hadn’t, the liars would have found information on the second child and obviously, Noel needed to be at the front of the race if his plan were to work. If the liars knew the other child’s identity too, their own plans would mess with his, which might give AD more time to figure out what him and Jenna were responsible for. Unnecessary and avoidable hassle in an intense and dangerous situation. A quick fix for a big problem.

So there it is! I think Jenna and Noel killed Charlotte when they were supposed to kill Ali and now they are one step ahead of AD in AD’s race to find Charlotte’s killers… them. Both characters have good reasons for wanting to kill Ali (Noel’s secrets and Jenna being blind) but somewhere there was a mix up, causing them to eventually be the targets in AD’s witch-hunt…. AD just isn’t aware of it yet. Noel isn’t AD, he is trying to find AD before they find him.

(Oh, and for the record, I think Wren is AD. See the theory here, clues here and proof the sibling is actually older, so it can actually be him, here.)

Thanks for reading!