Goodbye, Rosewood. Hello, Millwood. Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin focuses on a new set of Liars who get wrapped up in A’s deadly grasp. The new HBO Max series premiered the first 3 episodes on July 28, and they did not disappoint. The latest A mystery is already weaving a tangled web of the past and present. Here’s a recap of the first 3 episodes:
‘PLL: Original Sin’ Episode 1: Imogen’s Mom Dies After Mysterious Message
The first episode begins in Millwood on December 31, 1999. A girl begs for help during the Y2K party. When she reaches a group of girls, a girl named Sydney wants to help, but her friend Davie tells her not to. As the clock winds down and turns to 2000, the girl jumps to her death in front of everyone.
Fast forward to 2022, Davie has a daughter named Imogen, who is pregnant. Imogen’s former friend Karen shows up to get some of her things. When Karen walks in, she hands Davie an envelope with her name on it, the A marked in red. Inside the envelope is a flyer for the Y2K party. Davie looks visibly scared.
“Gone but not forgotten. You can’t ignore the past forever. The countdown is on,” the note reads.
In the midst of arguing with Karen, Imogen hears a noise coming from outside her room. Imogen finds her mom dead in a bathtub full of blood. Karen runs out into the yard screaming.
One month later, Imogen is now staying with her friend Tabby and her mom. When Tabby and Imogen go to drop off the key at Imogen’s house, A is waiting behind the door.
It’s officially Spirit Week at school. Karen fakes concern for Imogen but whispers, “No one wants your pregnant tragic ass here.” After getting bullied by Karen, Mouse bumps into Noa. Noa has to do a drug test every morning and has an ankle monitor.
Noa gets a text from an unknown number, and the others start to get similar cryptic messages as well. During class, Imogen sees A out the window. Meanwhile, Faran gets the lead in Black Swan over Karen, who is bitter and racist in return. Faran calls her mom, who works at Strode, Prescott, Ripley & Associates (!), and asks if she’ll actually come to this performance since she rarely comes to school functions.
After Imogen is asked about what she’s going to do about the baby, she panics and goes to see the nurse. She wants to get rid of the baby. Imogen and her mom had a plan to raise the baby together, but now that’s not going to happen. The father is not going to help, so she wants to abort. The nurse stresses that Imogen is six months pregnant. It’s too late for an abortion.
In addition to her drug test and ankle monitor, Noa also has to do community service. Karen’s dad is Sheriff Beasley, who is supervising. He’s not doing too much supervising, though. Noa discovers Sheriff Beasley and a student doing a very inappropriate thing in the car.
Before heading to work, Tabby goes to find the camera she placed in the boy’s locker room, which shows very naked men. At the movie theater, it’s clear that her boss, Wes, is a total tool. He offers to give her a ride home, but it seems like there’s going to be a catch. He stops the car and begins to try and put the moves on. Thankfully, they both spot A and it ruins Wes’ plans.
Imogen returns to her house and goes through her mom’s things. She finds the flyer her mom received just before her death. Karen’s still causing trouble for Imogen and even goes to the principal about her. Imogen confronts Karen in front of everyone in the cafeteria. Imogen promises she’s not going anywhere. In fact, she’s going to run for Spirit Queen.
Faran is clearly the best ballerina, but she’s hiding a secret. She has scoliosis. Madame Giry claims she’ll keep Faran’s secret. While practicing for Black Swan alone at school, Faran notices A watching her. During dinner, Imogen brings up her mom’s flyer. She has no idea why her mother took her own life. “She would never leave me that way,” she says.
The janitor discovers A’s lair on the school campus. He tries to call the sheriff, but A slits his throat before he has a chance. The janitor just became A’s first (but likely second) victim. The next day, Karen’s posters have been defaced. Imogen and Tabby immediately think Karen is the culprit. Karen then finds a dead rat in her bag, and all eyes are on Mouse. Noa tests positive for cannabis, and Karen cuts her foot on a razor in her ballet shoe. She immediately accuses Faran.
All the girls get detention. Right then and there, they all make a plan to take Karen down. “I think we should kill Karen Beasley,” Imogen declares.
‘PLL: Original Sin’ Episode 2: Karen Beasley Dies
Six months ago, Karen and Imogen were BFFs. Things took a turn at Karen’s party when Kelly told her that Greg and Imogen kissed. Greg blamed Imogen. Karen didn’t believe Imogen and kicked her out of the party.
Imogen reveals to the girls that there’s a video from that party of Karen, and it could destroy her. They just have to go back to Imogen’s house to get the phone that has the video. Karen was completely wasted in the video and said some things she shouldn’t have said. All the girls decide that Karen should be taken down a notch, but Imogen hesitates. She thinks it could be a bad idea.
A sends the girls videos showing that he’s the culprit behind everything that happened to Karen, but they still think Karen is behind this. The girls discuss what they should do next. For Faran, there’s no question. They have to retaliate.
The movie night at the theater is a way to promote Imogen’s run for Spirit Queen and take down Karen. In front of all their classmates, the video of Karen rolls. She drunkenly talks about Imogen and her sex life with Greg. A humiliated Karen runs out of the theater.
Wes is getting ready to punish Tabby’s co-worker Chip when Tabby reveals that it’s her video. Wes conveniently sends Chip away so he can talk to Tabby alone. Wes is willing to make this her one screw-up and offers to give her another ride home.
Karen and Imogen meet at the cemetery. Imogen explains how she got the video. She returned to the house and saw Tyler filming Karen. Imogen tells Karen that she took Tyler’s phone before Karen did anything else that she would regret. Karen is pissed that Imogen kept the video all this time. “You knew one day you could use it to hurt me,” a furious Karen says. Meanwhile, A is watching them both inside the cemetery.
In a surprising move, Karen tells the principal that she destroyed the Spirit Week posters and drops out of the Spirit Queen race. Turns out, Kelly is faking being Karen. This is all part of a plot to get Imogen to the dance. They have Carrie-inspired plans for Imogen.
Tabby convinces all the girls to go to the dance together. Even Noa gets to go after getting permission from Sheriff Beasley. Everything is running smoothly for the girls until Imogen is named Spirit Queen. As she is crowned, the girls notice Karen and a bucket full of red paint up in the rafters. Suddenly, Imogen notices A. Karen and A tussle before A pushes Karen over the rafters. Imogen is left standing next to Karen’s dead body.
A immediately sends them a text: “To thine own self be true. One bully down. Five more to go. Keep quiet about me or you’re next.”
‘PLL: Original Sin’ Episode 3: Karen’s Death Causes Shockwaves
Understandably, the girls are freaking out over Karen’s death. Imogen swears she saw Karen in the rafters and A. “He pushed her,” Imogen says. They all realized they’ve seen this terrifying masked person before. “She didn’t fall. She was murdered,” Imogen adds.
But for now, the girls are staying quiet about seeing A and why Karen would have been in the rafters. Kelly begins to wonder if Karen did take her own life. Her dad wants to know why that would have been an idea in the first place, and the floodgates open.
Tabby’s mom remembers the night Angela Waters jumped from the rafters at the Y2K party. The girls felt guilty then, but they didn’t feel guilty enough to call the police.
Imogen starts to question if Karen ever even tried to frame them. Imogen knows that Karen was pushed by A. The girls contemplate complying with A’s demands in hopes that this will all go away. Imogen reveals to Tabby that her mom wrote the letter A in her own blood on the bathroom wall. She begins to connect the dots and becomes determined to find out what really happened at the Y2K party.
The girls are called to the principal’s office about the Karen video. Sheriff Beasley is out for blood, and Faran promptly tells him that his daughter was a bully. Imogen mentions the bucket, but Sheriff Beasley says a bucket wasn’t found at the scene. He threatens the girls and says he’s going to do everything to open up a criminal investigation into them.
The moms all have a meeting and initially don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is all happening to their daughters. Unfortunately, they stick their heads back in the sand for now. Meanwhile, Imogen does some digging and finds a news story about a body of a minor being found at Old Harbor Warehouses.
Imogen goes to the warehouse where Angela died and discovers a shrine for her. She hears something outside and quickly hides in a van. It’s A. He nearly catches her, but the dogs distract him. Tabby joins Imogen and they’re caught off guard by Tabby’s mom showing up. She explains the Y2K party and what happened to Angela. She says Angela was “damaged in ways we couldn’t imagine.”
Tabby definitely lies to her mom about there being only one copy of the video. Chip doesn’t have the flash drive. When he went to check the projection booth, it was gone. Turns out, Wes has the flash drive at his place. How convenient. Wes wants to have a movie night and dinner with Tabby, who is still very much a teenager. Tabby’s definitely feeling creeped out, so she quickly finds the flash drive before he even turns around.
Sheriff Beasley tries to get Noa to snitch on her friends, especially Imogen and Tabby. Noa offers up Sheriff’s idea to Mouse and Faran. Noa doesn’t have a lot of options considering her situation. Her boyfriend comes by to see her later and apologizes for accusing her of doing drugs. She reveals that she’s actually never done drugs. The night she got arrested, she was actually covering for her mom.
Imogen thinks it’s a good idea to attend Karen’s funeral. When Karen’s mom has to be escorted out, she screams at Imogen in front of everyone. Imogen quickly leaves the church. Tabby tells everyone she’s got the flash drive and is willing to take the fall for the video. The girls band together. Meanwhile, Sheriff Beasley has terrifying plans for the girls. He wants them expelled and sent to jail. “They will wish they were dead,” he vows.
The parents and daughters attend a disciplinary meeting that will determine their fate at school. The principal comes to the classroom to announce the decision has been postponed. Kelly came to see him and admitted that Karen was in the rafters with the intention of harming Imogen. All the girls get is detention.
After this close call, Tabby’s mom brings the other moms up to speed on what the girls know and the flyers. Imogen wonders what the moms aren’t telling them. Later, Imogen thanks Kelly for telling the truth about Karen to the principal. Kelly admits it was her idea for Karen to go up there, so she feels incredibly guilty. The girls bid farewell to Karen at her grave, but A’s not done with them yet. A’s just getting started.