Red Coat

"She's everywhere and she's nowhere."
 * -| A=

- Mona about Red Coat

"Did you miss me?"
 * -|Alison DiLaurentis=

- Alison to The Liars

"I'm sure as hell I'm not going back to Rosewood."
 * -|CeCe Drake=

- CeCe Drake on the phone

Red Coat was an anonymous character that was first introduced on the finale of Season 2, "UnmAsked", and is the former disguise of Big A. She started a partnership with Mona Vanderwaal, the original "A", but eventually overtook it from her in the third season. She appears to have been the one who started The A-Team, and is presumably Big A, the leader. The Liars do not learn of her existence until the end of Season 3, when Emily remembers a blond female in a red coat at Alison's grave "That Night". Her red coat is destroyed in the fire due to The Incident at Thornhill Lodge, and she reincarnated into her new disguise as The Black Widow in Season 4. She was seemingly gone for the rest of Season 4, but returned in Season 5 working probably alone. The Liars have seen her once, without knowing she is "A".

In "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", it is revealed that Alison DiLaurentis is also a Red Coat but is not the bad one out to get the girls. Alison used the disguise to remain hidden while lurking in Rosewood. CeCe Drake also used this disguise once to help Alison distract "A".

Physical Appearance
Red Coat is shown to be a female in a red trench coat, black long sleeved blouse underneath, black leggings (sometimes blue jeans), black gloves, and black pistol boots. She also sometimes is shown sporting red nail polish. Red Coat is always seen with long, wavy (golden) blonde hair, which may be her real hair or it may be a wig.

CeCe wore an "Alison" Mask, to distract "A". The "A" Red Coat also wears the Ali mask. Big A's red trench coat is throught to have been destroyed in "A DAngerous GAme", but it was used again in "Under The Gun", therefore it is hard to assume if the costume still exists.

Series
UnmAsked
 * -|Season 2=

At the end of this episode, when Mona is sitting in her bed at the Radley Sanitarium, she receives a visit from someone wearing a red trench coat similar to the one Vivian Darkbloom wore. Mona looks up at her and says "I did everything you asked me to".

It Happened 'That Night' Hanna visits Mona in Radley Sanitarium thinking that her visits are helping. Mona turns and smiles, and Hanna thinks she's smiling at her, but she realizes Mona is actually smiling at the chair behind her. Mona hallucinates Alison sitting there in a red coat, with her natural blonde haircolor, reading "Lolita". Mona and the audience can see her, but Hanna can't.
 * -|Season 3=

 Blood Is The New Black  We see Red Coat once more wearing a red hoodie. She is seen buying black hoodies and gloves for her employees. The store owner says to Red Coat "So, are you buying this for a team?".

The Lady Killer

It is revealed that Toby is the second "A", and is also part of The A-Team. The dramatic irony is that the Liars don't seem to understand that both Mona and Toby are simply workers for Red Coat. In the same episode, we also see Mona talking to Red Coat on the phone (most likely) learning that there is a "change of plans". Since Red Coat is usually the one planning out all of the "A" schemes, it seems as if the caller was her.

Misery Loves Company

When Hanna goes to the boutique, she sees in the window's reflection a blond girl wearing a red coat (the same color as Vivian's jacket) across the street, watching her. When Hanna turns around, the girl has disappeared.

In the same episode, we see Mona and Toby talking in the A's lair. Mona refers to someone by saying "They need to understand she's in charge", which means Red Coat is a female.

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Inferno

Red Coat is seen in A's Lair using a blowtorch to burn a doll representing Hanna. The girl was seen wearing a red jacket and red nail polish.

Dead to Me

Emily remembers more of what happened "That Night". She remembers seeing Red Coat while being attacked by a member of the "A-Team" (which is later revealed to be Mona). She remembers that Red Coat had blonde hair. Emily says that she (Red Coat) is the one in charge.

Hot Water

Spencer sees Red Coat after her date with Wren. She manages to get away before Spencer can catch up to her.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Red Coat appears to Emily for a second time while she is in her car waiting to meet up with Toby. However, she quickly vanishes after Emily catches a glimpse of her entering Toby's workplace. It is presumed that Red Coat lured Emily by using Toby's phone.

I'm Your Puppet

Aria sees Red Coat while she, Hanna and Emily are in the morgue posing as candy strippers. Aria follows her, almost catching Red Coat before she slips into an elevator and escapes.

A DAngerous GAme

In the beginning of the episode we see Red Coat walking through the Rosewood High School. She caught Spencer's attention who followed Red Coat until Red Coat stopped at the girl's toilet. As Spencer touched her Red Coat turned around and was revealed to be Hanna Marin who wore the Red Coat in order to trick Spencer and find out if she was part really of the A-Team and knew who Red Coat was. Spencer however only joined the A-Team to find out if Toby was alive and to find out who Red Coat is.

At The Thornhill Lodge, Mona is heard talking on the phone to Red Coat who is flying over them in a plane, while Spencer, Aria, Hanna, Emily and Toby are working on a plan to reveal her identity. Spencer sees Red Coat get off the plane, and thinks it is Alison. After Toby and Spencer leave, the girls sneak in and corner Mona, but the cabin is suddenly on fire and Mona tells the girls it's Red Coat's doing. Locked inside, they urgently try to find a way out and Mona reveals she does not know who Red Coat is either. Someone saved Emily, Aria and Mona from the fire. Hanna wakes up groggily and sees Alison staring at her in the red coat. A moment later, she is gone. Mona and Spencer also claim they saw Ali, and they all draw the conclusion that Red Coat is Alison. Mona reveals Red Coat wears an "Alison" Mask, meaning it could have just looked like Alison.

TrAde Off
 * -|Pretty Dirty Secrets=

Red Coat is briefly seen wandering around the Halloween Spooktacular Store while Lucas Gottesman receives a phone call. This person's red trench coat looks different than the one Red Coat usually wears. Also, this person is wearing sneakers while Red Coat usually wears black heels.

'A' is for A-l-i-v-e
 * -|Season 4=

Red Coat did not have a physical appearance in this episode, but her coat is seen (with no hood) in the rubble at the Lodge. Since the coat is burned, we can assume this is the moment when A started to dress as The Black Widow.

Under The Gun

Emily is taken to the police station and is questioned by Lt. Tanner concerning a video that she received. The video featured someone wearing the red coat while wearing an "Emily" Mask, holding up a 'Guilty' sign.

Crash and Burn, Girl!

It is revealed by Nigel Wright that CeCe Drake set up a fake private flight plan in "A DAngerous GAme". CeCe paid Nigel to cover her tracks. It is unknown at the time whether he was lying or not.

Into the Deep

Red Coat is seen walking towards the DiLaurentis House at night. She waits until the lights go off in the house and goes under the porch and unscrews a panel, leading to a secret place. She then enters.

The Mirror Has Three Faces

Red Coat is seen entering Alison's old room. Hanna goes in there and sees Alison's old jewelry box. In the reflection of the box's mirror, you see Red Coat wearing the "Alison" Mask staring at Hanna, but she doesn't notice. Also, Mrs. DiLaurentis and Emily find Red Coat's secret room in Mrs. DiLaurentis' basement. It's a mess, filled with trash everywhere. Emily then notices holes in the ceiling of the room, and she realizes someone has been spying on her.

Bring Down the Hoe

CeCe Drake is seen in A's lair (which is later revealed to be only Ezra's lair) with a bunch of photos of the Liars and Alison. A red coat is seen sitting on her chair. At the hoedown, Red Coat is there but runs away. Spencer and Emily see someone moving in the pile of hay, and dig through. All that's left is the red coat.

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

In Ravenswood, someone traps Emily in a coffin and puts her on a sawmill, waiting to kill Emily. The girls see Red Coat run into the sawmill, and they try to get Emily out. Red Coat turns off the sawmill, saving Emily's life. The girls are about to chase Red Coat, when they see another Red Coat run up the stairs of the sawmill. Aria chases the Red Coat running up the stairs, while Spencer chases the one that saved Emily's life. After a tense fight between the two of them, Aria kicks Red Coat's mask off and it is revealed to be CeCe Drake. Spencer tries to chase the other Red Coat and notices she keeps stopping, as if she wanted to be followed. She leads Spencer into finding Ezra's lair (which was thought to be A's lair). Spencer believes this Red Coat is Alison. Carla Grunwald also reveals Alison is alive, further proving Alison is the second and the good Red Coat.

Grave New World The Liars crash the party in Ravenswood's cemetery in order to find the other Red Coat (whom they believe is Alison), before A does. In the beginning, they see Red Coat, but they lose her trail. The girls find a secret mansion and attempt to look for Red Coat in there, but fail. Ezra drives the girls back to Rosewood where they hear a branch snap and see Red Coat running away. The Liars run towards her and see Red Coat standing. She takes off her hood and turns around. It is Alison. She says she wants to come home, but needs their help. She takes off when Ezra shows up.

A is for Answers

Red Coat does not make a physical appearance here but Ali's Red Coat is seen in a photo shown to Veronica Hastings by Gabriel Holbrook. This is what informs Veronica and presumably the police that Alison is still alive.


 * -|Season 5=

EscApe From New York

It is revealed that Ali asked CeCe for help in Ravenswood in Now You See Me, Now You Don't. CeCe was trying to distract A by wearing the Red Coat disguise while Ali shut off the saw.

A:
Red Coat was the leader of the A-Team's former disguise. She is the person who stole the game from Mona (Original "A" who worked alone in Seasons 1-2) in Season 3, and is known off-show as Big A. The A-Team members don't even know the real identity of Red Coat. She was originally thought to be CeCe Drake, but this was disproved (see below).

It's also possible she has brown hair instead of blonde, because in "Under The Gun", Red Coat is shown in the Emily mask with brown hair, and in "The Mirror Has Three Faces", Red Coat's hair looks fake. Her red coat was found burned up in "'A' is for A-l-i-v-e" due to The Incident at Thornhill Lodge. We assume she then takes on her new disguise as The Black Widow (unconfirmed if they are the same person; if not, Red Coat has seemingly gone missing) where she attends Darren Wilden's funeral, wearing her signature Black Veil. It's shown at the end of the episode she was wearing a burned up Alison mask, meaning she was at the fire. Also, it was shown many times Red Coat has an obsession with Alison.

Red Coat, now reincarnated as The Black Widow, is the main antagonist for Season 5.

Alison DiLaurentis:
In "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", the girls go to Ravenswood and see that there were two Red Coats. Spencer follows one of the Red Coats, who she thinks is Ali (a "good" Red Coat) because she appears to be helping The Liars, and she leads Spencer to what seems like A's main lair (but is actually Ezra's lair). Spencer shows The Liars the lair and a female eye is seen watching the girls through the wall, presumably Alison. After the girls leave the lair, they run into Carla Grunwald, who tells the girls she saved Alison's life the night she went missing, proving Alison is alive.

Therefore, Red Coat #2 is confirmed to be Alison in "Grave New World". She claims that someone is after her, and she cannot come home. In Season 5, Mona claims she has proof that Ali is A, assuming she was the evil Red Coat all this time. Later, the girls find out it was a set-up against Alison.

CeCe Drake:
In "Now You See Me, Now You Don't", it's revealed CeCe is one of the Red Coats (known as the "bad" Red Coat until Season 5). Aria fights CeCe, and CeCe falls over the railing, but Aria hangs on to her. However, CeCe's sleeve rips and she falls. The girls run to her, and assume she is dead. When they turn around, CeCe's body is gone, meaning she escaped and is alive. Spencer then tells the girls she was chasing another Red Coat, who she believes is Alison.

In  "EscApe From New York", Alison confirmed that CeCe wasn't on the A-Team and she dressed as Red Coat, at Alison's request, to distract A in Ravenswood.