Summary
A cracking start to the much-missed teen drama. Unlike the first season of the original series, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin feels much darker. Overall, an exciting episode that bodes well for the rest of the season.
This recap of the HBO Max series Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin season 1, episode 1, “Spirit Week,” contains spoilers.
Access the recaps, reviews, and news for Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin season 1, episode 1 recap
If everything fails with Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, at least we all got to enjoy that chilling theme tune again. The first episode starts on 31st December 1999, in Millwood, Pennsylvania. Angela calls for help, but no one pays attention to her due to the loud music, the several costumes, and the vibrant party. Finally, she comes across Sidney and begs for help, but Davie ushers Sidney away. As the countdown to midnight happens, Angela screams, “can you see me now” and jumps to her death.
22 years later. Davie is with her daughter, Imogen, who is pregnant. They’re disturbed by Karen, who not only brings a frosty atmosphere, but a letter addressed to Davie that apparently was taped to the door. Inside the letter is a poster for the ill-fated 1999 new year party. And written on the back of the poster is “GONE BUT NOR FORGOTTEN. YOU CAN’T IGNORE THE PAST FOREVER. THE COUNTDOWN IS ON”. Karen goes through Imogen’s closet, seemingly to take her clothes in revenge for Imogen kissing her boyfriend, Greg. Although, it’s something that Imogen denies doing.
When Karen calls all of Imogen’s clothes sh*t, they finally see a large puddle of water in the corridor. It leads them to the bathroom, where Carly has slit her wrists in the bathtub. It then cuts to one month later, on 28th September, Sidney is with her daughter Tabby. And it seems that Imogen has been staying with them since Carly’s death. But it doesn’t seem at first like Tabby is all that happy with having Imogen around; Tabby just claims that she just wants to give Imogen some space. When Tabby and Imogen walk to school, they both remark that they’re shocked that they didn’t know their Mothers were high school friends. Imogen goes to her former family home, but she’s unable to go inside, so she and Tabby walk away. But there’s someone inside the house watching them.
When Imogen returns to school, Karen tells her that no one wants her tragic pregnant arse there. When Noa comes to school, as she’s fresh out of juvie, she has to provide the headmistress a cup of her urine. It clearly distresses her, and she rants to her boyfriend, Shawn. Afterwards, she receives a text from an unknown number, as do several other students. In ballerina class, Farin gets one of the leading roles whilst Karen gets a much lesser role, something she is clearly very bitter about.
Feeling all alone, Imogen goes to Nurse Simmons and says she wants an abortion. But as she’s six months pregnant, she won’t be able to do so. As Noa performs her community service duties, she stumbles across Sherrif Beasley receiving oral sex. After finishing work, Wes drives Tabby home. But on the drive, he stops halfway for a smoke and tries to kiss her. However, when Tabby sees someone watching them, she gets Wes to drive off. When Tabby returns home, she goes onto her laptop and watches CCTV footage of Wes in the male changing rooms.
The ending
After Farin and Ben dance, Madame Giry warns her, through blackmail of knowledge over Farin’s medical history nonetheless, to practice more. Imogen learns from the principal that some of her classmates are triggered by her presence at school. Without evidence of who’s behind the accusation, Imogen assumes it was Karen and screams at her in the school canteen. And, to prove her point of not going anywhere, Imogen declares that she will run for Spirit Queen. During family dinner, it gets revealed that Karen has a twin sister, Kelly, and that their father is Sheriff Beasley. After the f**ked-up family dinner, Karen goes out for food with Greg and takes out her anger on him. So, in return, he tells her to f**k off and ditches her.
As Farin practices her dancing, she hears a noise and goes to investigate, only to be criticized by Madame Giry, who says she must build up her endurance. Imogen tells Tabby that she returned to her former house and found the invitation to the 1999 party. She adds that she’s confused as to why her Mom would commit suicide. At school, the janitor gets his throat slit after he stumbles across someone roaming around. On Wednesday, Imogen and Tabby arrive at school and learn that someone has vandalized all of Karen’s Spirit Queen posters. And during class, Karen finds a dead rat in her bag, which she blames on “Mouse”. Meanwhile, Noa is told that she has tested positive for cannabis, which she denies doing. As dance class begins, Karen screams out in pain due to razer blades being placed into her shoes, something that Karen quickly blames on Farin.
With Imogen, Tabby, Farin, Noa, and Mouse in detention, they all speculate whether Karen is to blame. Therefore, the five decide that payback, like Karen, should be a bitch. Their solution? Imogen suggests that they kill Karen.
What did you think of the HBO Max series Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin season 1, episode 1? Comment below.
