It’s officially here! The HBO Max Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin premiere episode finally aired and it’s filled with dark, twisty drama! Read on to find out everything that happened in the first episode of the new show! (Or watch the episode here!)
The episode, titled Chapter One: Spirit Week, starts out with the familiar Pretty Little Liars theme song "Secret" by The Pierces, but the credits have a much darker and more sinister feel to it than the original PLL intro. Here’s the premise. In 1999, a group of friends is rocked by the sudden death of one of their own. 22 years later, their daughters are pushed together by a mysterious foe.
We start off with a flashback to Millwood, Pennsylvania on December 31, 1999. The date the original sin occurs.
A girl named Angela (Gabriella Pizzolo), covered in blood, stumbles around the party asking for help. She spots a girl she knows. She falls to her knees begging them to look at her and help her. Sydney (Kristen Maxwell) almost helps her, but Davie (Ava DeMary) leads her away saying “we talked about this”. The girls continue to dance. Angela climbs up and stands on the rafters. The whole party goes silent as Angela screams “can you see me now?” The girls plead for her not to jump, but she plunges to her death.
Everyone flees the party while Angela’s supposed friends stare at her dead body in horror.
22 years later, the girls are now grown adults with kids of their own. Davie has a daughter named Imogen (Bailee Madison) who is pregnant.
Imogen’s former friend, Karen (Mallory Bechtel), stops by. Karen, who is clearly giving mean girl vibes, hands Davie (Carly Pope) an envelope that was taped on the door. Inside the envelope is a party flyer that says “New Years Eve. Location to be disclosed. Party like it’s 1999!”. On the back is a note that says “Gone but not forgotten. You can’t ignore the past forever. The countdown is on.”
Meanwhile, Karen is going through Imogen’s closet taking back anything she ever gave her. Apparently, the friendship ended when Karen’s boyfriend kissed Imogen at Karen’s party.
Before Karen can storm off, the two girls find Imogen’s mom dead in the bathtub.
We flashforward to one month later, September 28. Imogen is now living with her mom’s friend Sydney (Sharon Leal) and Sydney’s daughter Tabby (Chandler Kinney).
Imogen and Tabby head to school. It’s Spirit Week, so there’s a lot of school pep all around.
Karen pretends to be sweet to Imogen, but then whispers “People may be polite to you, but trust me, no one wants your pregnant tragic ass here”.
Noa (Maia Reficco) has to wear an ankle monitor after getting out of juvie. Noa gets the first classic A text. “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time” it says. “Who teh fuck is this?” Noa replies. “Your conscience” is the response back. Side note: Noa’s boyfriend Shawn is adorable and sweet.
Tabby gets the next text. “What’s your favorite scary movie?” This time, the mysterious texter signs off as “Peeping Tom”.
Imogen gets a text directing her to look out the window. When she does, she sees a creepy figure staring at her.
Mouse (Malia Pyles) gets a text that says “Can Minnie Mouse come out to play? Xoxo, Mickey”.
Faran (Zaria) gets a text in ballet class that says “You’re gonna to slay as the Black Swan”. This time, the texter identifies as “Your No. 1 fan”.
Imogen has a moment of panic and wants to get an abortion. She and her mom had originally planned to raise the baby together. Imogen knows the father won’t help. However, she’s already six months pregnant. It’s too late for her to have an abortion.
While Noa is doing community service, she sees a creepy person staring at her. She runs to the Sheriff Tom Beasly (Karen’s dad) to report him, but she catches him getting a blow job from a young man in the squad car.
Imogen goes home and gets emotional when she finds her ultrasound photo taped to her mom’s mirror. Before she leaves, she finds the threatening note her mom received the night she was murdered.
Tabby gets a ride home from the manager at the movie theater she works at. He stops the car and tries to kiss her. They get interrupted by a creepy guy staring at them.
Imogen gets called to the principal’s office. He says some of Imogen’s classmates are triggered by her presence at school. Apparently Karen told the principal that Imogen shouldn’t have returned to school.
Imogen storms up to Karen and confronts her. She decides to fight back. She’s going to run against Karen for Spirit Queen.
Meanwhile, things start going bad for Karen. We see Karen having family dinner with her parents and her identical twin sister Kelly. They are all clearly intimidated by Karen’s dad, who insists that Karen be better than everyone else. After the toxic family dinner, Karen and Greg have a public fight at a pizzeria. Karen’s Spirit Queen posters get destroyed and posters for Imogen mysteriously appear. Karen finds a dead rat in her backpack, which Mouse gets blamed for. And someone puts a razor in Karen’s ballet slipper, which Faran gets blamed for. All the girls end up in detention.
Noa’s drug test comes back positive for cannabis (Noa has to undergo drug testing since she’s on probation). The school nurse decides not to tell the sheriff. However, she does put Noa in detention for a week.
All the girls end up meeting and bonding with each other in detention. All the girls think Karen sabotaged herself to pin the blame on the girls, so they are ready to cancel Karen!
What’d you think of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin? It’s completely different than OG PLL. You can see the tie ins, but it’s definitely a lot darker with a bit more of a horror theme going on. Love it? Hate it? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
