Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin

Original Sin understands all the weird, wild details that made the original a pop culture phenomenon. A recap of “Chapter One: Spirit Week,” the premiere of ...

Reading Clanton’s “other students” comment as a euphemism for “Karen Beasley,” Imogen goes on the warpath, confronting Karen loudly in the cafeteria about her bitchiness (and, as a bitter aside, her boyfriend’s cowardice), then doubling down on her own continued presence at Millwood High by vowing to run for, and win, Spirit Queen — just like her mom. • Slasher A lures the school janitor to their evil lair (on school premises, naturally) at the 45-minute mark and brutally murders him … and then it’s never discussed again! • A hearty welcome back to the kinds of arts curriculum and cultural events that could only happen in a small Pennsylvanian town hell-bent on terrorizing its teen girl population. That Imogen doesn’t seem to have an actual OB-GYN to turn to in private, and that the school nurse then went and told the school principal what Imogen had been asking about, though? We won’t fully understand the reason for Karen’s ire until the next episode, but we know enough right now to understand that it has something to do with her boyfriend and Imogen kissing at some party in the not-too-distant past. On the day we meet Noa at her “job,” she sees Slasher A creeping in their herringbone boiler suit and leather murder mask inside a nearby warehouse, and in going to report it to Sheriff Beasley, accidentally catches him in the process of forcing one of the teen boys on the community service line to give him a blow job. As for Imogen, as if it’s not enough to both be a pregnant teen and a recent (scandal-adjacent) orphan, she’s got Karen literally breathing down her neck, trying to make her feel extra worthless because of it. An evident loner who finds more comfort in the internet than in the real world, she’s shocked into socializing when a very friendly, very cute guy named Ash taps her on the shoulder in the computer lab and personally invites her to the next Spectrum Club meeting. She does at least have her clearly smitten best friend, Chip (Carson Rowland), on her side, but that’s small comfort, as not even being both white and male confers on him enough power, as a teenager, to effectively push back against either their teacher or Wes (Derek Klena), their 36-year-old manager at the Orpheum Theater who also has an obvious crush on Tabby (though this one, at least, is presented as Bad). Why, specifically, is something we don’t know yet (much like why Imogen and Karen aren’t friends anymore or what the backstory of Imogen’s pregnancy is), but Pretty Little Liars is a franchise known for being a slow burn — we’ll get there eventually. To quote Imogen: “Gross.” There’s a knock at the door and Imogen stands to get it, in the process revealing a medium-small baby bump. She’s here to collect the last of her things from Imogen’s closet before the two put the final, bitter bow on their former friendship, but first, she’s got to give Davie an envelope she (again, apparently!) just found stuck on the Adams’ front door.

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin has dropped its first three episodes, and the pilot introduces us to the new liars in town.

When the group is confined to the same room talking about the reasoning behind their detention, they all associate it with Karen, given her non-friendly approach to all of them. While there is much more to be revealed, it is for certain that "A" is back to torment this group and target more victims along the way. She also finds the poster for the party that led to her mother's death earlier in the episode. The girl immediately links this response to her enemy Karen, who was very outspoken about her disgust towards her. She confronts him about the lack of diversity within the film list and given his unwillingness to hear her suggestions, Tabby decides to run her own Jordan Peele double screening and invites her classmates to join in. It's important to mention that Sidney was one of the friends that accompanied Davie at the 1999 party, so she could be one of the possible suspects behind the new "A." That is even hinted at when she tells Imogen that she would've done anything for her mother when they were teenagers. While she is getting ready to go to school, Tabby and her mother Sidney (Sharon Leal) are talking in the kitchen. Tabby sees it when she is heading home from her job at a movie theater in her manager's car. She questions the person who sent the text message about their identity, but isn't successful in getting a concrete answer. The next person to receive a text is Mouse, who is focused on her computer screen and doesn't take the message seriously when she decides to block the number. Before they go up the stairs so that Karen can take home all of her belongings that were left in her former friend's bedroom, she hands a letter to Davie that she found in front of the house. Fast-forward 22 years later, one of the girls from the 1999 party, named Davie (Carly Pope), has a daughter of her own, Imogen (Bailey Madison). The two are having a conversation at the dining room table when they are interrupted by a knock on the door coming from Karen (Mallory Betchel), a popular mean girl who goes to the same high school.