ABC Family‘s flagship drama Pretty Little Liars is becoming a franchise. The cable network has given a straight to series order to Ravenswood, a spinoff drama from top-rated Pretty Little Liars, which has been renewed for a fifth season ahead of its fourth season premiere. Ravenswood hails from the same auspices as Pretty Little Liars: Warner Horizon Television and executive producers Marlene King, who developed Liars based on the Alloy books; Oliver Goldstick; Joseph Dougherty; and Alloy’s Leslie Morgenstein. Written by Liars co-showrunners King and Goldstick and Dougherty, the spinoff takes place in Ravenswood, a town near Liars‘ hometown of Rosewood PA, which has suffered under a deadly curse for generations. Ravenswood will premiere in October following the third annual Liars Halloween special. I hear the special will be used to introduce Ravenswood and its inhabitants.

The recent Season 3 finale of Liars hit a season high in teens (6.9 rating). It also became the #1 “most social” series episode on record, according to SocialGuide, and the first series episode to amass more than 1 million total airtime tweets (1,099,815) in TV history. Season 3 was Pretty Little Liars‘ most-watched season ever in adults 18-34 (1.7 rating), women 18-34 (2.8 rating) and women 18-49 (1.9 rating), and was ABC Family’s most-watched original series installment ever in its target 18-34 demo. For the 2012-2013 season to date, Liars is the #1 series across all TV in female teens. Season 4 of Pretty Little Liars will premiere Tuesday, June 11, when the series picks up the mystery of “Red Coat.”

This is the second hit Alloy/Warner Bros drama series to be prepping a spinoff, along with the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, which will air planted spinoff episode The Originals this spring.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva – tip her

Pretty Little Liars is ready to introduce some of the good people of Ravenswood, and we’ve got exclusive details on the spin-off’s cast of tortured characters.

The new drama finds five strangers suddenly connected by a fatal curse that haunts the city, prompting them to dig into their hometown’s mysterious past before it’s too late.

Read on to get the scoop on three Ravenswood series regulars who will make their debut during Liars’ third annual Halloween special, which will introduce the off-shoot’s titular city and its residents.

MIRANDA | She’s a feisty, disarming and unconventionally attractive 17-year-old. As a fiercely independent foster kid, she has tons of confidence, but it was hard-won. She uses her wits to cover her emotional scars. If you can break through the tough exterior, you’ve got a fearless, loyal friend for life.

ABEL | Hottie alert: The 17-year-old is a lone wolf and old soul with brooding intensity. He may have something dangerous lurking inside him — or maybe he’s just wounded and trying to hide it. His trust is hard to earn, but once you’ve got it, he’ll never let you down.

OLIVIA | Abel’s twin sister is a former prom queen who is struggling with a recent fall from grace. She used to be a carefree, happy teenager, but recent events have her questioning what’s important, what’s not and who her real friends are now that they’ve suddenly turned their backs on her.

Pretty Little LiarsSeason 3, Episode 23: “I’m Your Puppet” was overflowing with new clues. One of the best was Ms. Hasting’s memory of Alison(Sasha Pieterse) showing up at Spencer’s (Troian Bellisario) house, sporting a bloody lip and refusing to talk about what happened to her.

Later in the episode, Ali came to Spencer in an hallucination, and told her, amongst other things, that the person who hurt her that night was a girl. We have a feeling that whoever hurt Ali will be related to the ”A” teamand/or her murder.

So who was it? At this point, the list of female who’d want to hurt Ali is pretty much endless. That said, we have a couple theories we think are more likely — and more interesting — than others.

Ali herself. Let’s say Ali did fake her own death, which is not an entirely unlikely theory. In that case, we’d believe Ali would intentionally hurt herself and then make sure she was seen, to make it seem like something bad was going down with her, making her “murder” more plausible.

Ali’s twin. Another popular theory: Ali has a twin. If that theory turns out to be true, maybe Ali had a run in with her lookalike. If one twin killed the other, which is what most people suspect is the case if this theory is true, it would make sense if they’d tangled once or twice before that.

Spencer. Repressed memory, maybe? If Ali’s appearance really was a hallucination, perhaps this was Spencer’s subconscious trying to tell her something.

Of course, perpetually suspicious CeCe (Vanessa Ray) and Melissa (Torrey DeVitto) are also likely candidates

We miss you already, Toby (Keegan Allen)! In this week’s tragic Pretty Little Liars episode (Season 3, Episode 21: “Out of Sight, Out of Mind,”), Aria (Lucy Hale) lends Hanna (Ashley Benson) a push in the right direction, Emily (Shay Mitchell) makes a new friend, and Malcolm has discovered a very clever way to get his parents to buy him a trampoline.

Wherein Aria Realizes That Ezra’s Bed Is For a Lot of Things (Wink Wink) But Not For Jumping

Is Aria ready to cut the Ezria cord? And, uh… do we still care at this point? Granted, we love Ezria as much (probably more!) than the next person, but how many times can we see them on the brink of splitsville before we start to get over them? And given that Ezra (Ian Harding) needs this time to get to know Malcolm, maybe Aria bowing out is the right thing to do. (There, we said it. Don’t hate us!)

We also didn’t know what was going to happen when Aria helped Hanna push Wilden’s car into the lake, so we have to admit we were impressed by their strength — even if they probably should have thought things through first, since the car is about to be discovered by a fisherman. (He probably shouldn’t eat those fish.) Somehow, we can’t help but think CeCe and Wilden were setting Hanna and Aria up. Gulp.

Wherein Spencer Has a Crazy Night — and We Do Mean Crazy

Spencer (Troian Bellisario) has the saddest storyline of all the Liars this week, as she has to discover Toby’s body in the woods. We’ve been holding out hope that Spoby would finally get back together one day, but the odds of that happening seem to be slim, not that he’s dead.

But is that really Toby’s body — given that we can’t see his face? Either way, all the Liars needed a hug this week, but Spencer needs one the most. Our arms are open and waiting when you’re ready for them, Spence.

Is Spencer faking her meltdown in order to get some quality one-on-one time with Mona at Radley? And speaking of Radley, the Liars bring up all kinds of mysteries involving that place, including whether Mona was working with Dr. Sullivan to avoid jail. Given those flowers that Mona gave Dr. Sullivan as a thank you present a few weeks back, we’re definitely suspicious of the Liars’ not-so-trustworthy shrink.

Photo Credit: Eric McCandless/ ABC Family
Wherein Hanna Makes Quite a Splash

Hanna always seems to have car-related issues, doesn’t she? And while we appreciate her looking out for her mom’s best interest by making Wilden’s car and his police video disappear, we really think she’s gonna regret that decision. So where was the always-sensible Caleb to help give her advice? Clearly, Aria shouldn’t be the one giving Hanna advice anymore.

Even more interesting than anything happening to Hanna herself this week was what happened to her mom. Ashley is convinced she sees Wilden in a storefront, which suggests he’s still alive. Was CeCe packing a bag last week so that she and Wilden could hide out somewhere and make it seem like he’s dead? After all, we already know this show is big on fake deaths. In fact, maybe Wilden is hanging out with Ali where all the fake dead people on this show go.

Wherein Emily Now Has a Tiny Coffin In Case She Ever Needs to Bury a Pet Goldfish

We knew Emily was going to have a hard time accepting that Toby had turned to the Dark Side, but we didn’t know how much she would risk to clear Toby’s name. So did Emily’s investigation into Toby’s whereabouts contribute to his death? Regardless, we are freaking out about how Toby — or should we say E. Lamb — died. Rest in peace, you creepy but lovable dude.

There’s a saying that when one door opens, another one closes — and on PLL, when one creepy guy dies, another one pops up in his place. That was the case this week with the mysterious co-worker of Toby’s, whom Emily sees driving Toby’s truck at his home, and then later sees working in a factory on Olivia Drive. Did this dude kill Toby? And why is it that yet another cute guy on the show has to be evil?

So [Spoiler Alert] Spencer discovered what we’re meant to believe is Toby’s body in this week’s episode of Pretty Little Liars (3×21). Was it really him? Or are we being Punk’d..?

When a PLL fan asked Keegan Allen if he was going to be in the Season 3 Finale, “A Dangerous gAme,” Keegan said:

“Yes, but something’s going to happen at the end of the season that will make you possibly throw something at your television.”

Get ready to meet “Red Coat”! As you can see in this exclusive photo from Pretty Little Liars‘ March 19 season 3 finale, the ever crazier and crazier Spencer (Troian Bellisario) meets the until-now elusive “Red Coat” face-to-face for the first time. The details around her meeting with “Red Coat” are sketchy, but the show’s actors and producers have already heavily teased to EW that crimson-hooded spook largely factors into the season’s denouement.

On the subject of “Red Coat,” Bellisario says: “There is something about her that is so familiar that it’s almost more frightening than ‘A,’ which is a completely new terror.” Maybe that explains Spencer’s stunned look in the above photo? “There’s something about ‘Red Coat’ that they all recognize about their past. There’s some kind of haunting to it — not to say that there’s a supernatural element — but the girls are all kind of getting that feeling from it, that it’s more frightening than ‘A.’ This must be one person, and we must know them.”

Is “Red Coat” the “A” team captain? Is she CeCe (Vanessa Ray)? She’s “who you think it might be, yes,” says executive producer Oliver Goldstick, but “it’s not definitive. The finale is a shocker.” Lucy Hale — who plays Little Liar Aria — adds that the hooded villain “could be the keeper of a lot of answers and a lot of things that they’ve been searching for.”