“Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” is a spinoff of the 2010 series of the same name. The 2022 series has been directed by Lisa Soper, Cierra Glaude, Maggie Kiley, and Alex Pillai, and is based on a novel written by Sara Shepherd. The murder mystery stars Chandler Kinney as Tabitha Hayworth, Malia Pyles as Minnie Honrada, Maia Reficco as Noa Olivar, Bailee Madison as Imogen Adams, Zaria as Faran Bryant, and Mallory Bechtel in a double role as Karen and Kelly Beasley. So let’s see what mayhem awaits the girls at Millwood High and whether they are able to get to the root of it.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is ‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ About?
It was the night of December 31st, 1999. A girl who seemed to be in a harried state, for some unknown reason, tries to find her way inside the warehouse where the students from Millwood High were partying. The girl was injured, her face smudged and splatters of blood clearly visible on it. She enters and asks for help from everyone, but nobody seems willing to help her. The girl finally reached inside, whimpering, and found her friends, Sidney and Davie. She asks Sidney to help her out, but Davie comes in between and reminds Sidney that they had decided to ignore the girl. The girl then climbs the beam of the warehouse and jumps from there. She seems to be in agony and pain for some unknown reason. Before jumping and giving away her life, she screamed at the crowd and told them that maybe now they would acknowledge her existence. A group of five girls, including Davie and Sidney, look at the puddle of blood and the dead body of their colleague, as if they knew something more as compared to what the others didn’t.
The narrative takes a leap of 22 years, and we witness a different generation at Millwood High. Imogen Adams was the daughter of Davie, who was present on that fateful night of 1999. Imogen was pregnant, and though she was still in school, she had decided to keep the baby. Her mother had always got her back, and it was because of her support that Imogen was ready to keep the baby and ready to face the consequences, if there were any. Just then, Imogen’s friend, Karen, arrived at her house. Through their conversation, you realize that once Karen and Imogen had been best friends, but the latter’s involvement with the former’s boyfriend, Greg, had led to some enmity. Karen and her twin sister Kelly had been friends with Imogen for a very long time, but now she wanted to end her relationship with Imogen once and for all. She handed over a flyer to Davie, which she had probably found in the post box, before going upstairs with Imogen. It seemed like an invitation to a party and read, “Party like it’s 1999.” On the back of the flyer, it was written: “You cannot ignore the past forever. Sweats of trepidation were clearly visible on Davie’s face, but she didn’t say anything to the girls. Moments after reading the flyer, Davie’s body was found in the bathtub by Karen and Imogen, and the letter “A” was written in blood on the walls.
After the incident, Imogen moved to Tabitha Hayworth, a.k.a. Tabby’s house. Tabby was the daughter of Sidney Hayworth who was also present at that party that happened in 1999. For some reason, Sidney and Davie had been close friends in high school, but they had hidden this fact from their daughters. Back in Millwood High, Karen was contesting in the election for being chosen as the “Spirit Queen”, and in all probability, was going to win it. Imogen received a message from an anonymous address, asking her to look out of the window. She saw a horrifying masked man standing outside the garden, looking at her. She was startled for a bit, but the man disappeared when she looked back again. She couldn’t fathom if what she saw was real or if it was merely a hallucination. Similar anonymous messages were sent to Imogen’s friend Tabby and a few other colleagues of theirs. Tabby received a message asking her about her favorite scary movie. Noa Olivar got a message that read: “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” The context of this message was that a few days back, Noa had to face disciplinary action for drug abuse. She had to regularly submit her urine samples in the school infirmary, wear an ankle monitor at all times and do community service. Though, in reality, she had never used drugs, she was covering up for her mother, Majorie Olivar. Minnie Honrada, a.k.a. Mouse, daughter of Shirley Honrada, received a message where she was asked if she would come out to play. Faran Bryant, during her ballet class, was chosen to be the prima ballerina, and soon after that, she too received a message which said that she would slay as the Black Swan, though she couldn’t decipher who had sent her the compliments. The masked man was making his presence felt. Noa saw him standing in a window, and staring at her, while she was doing her community service; Tabby saw him while coming back from her part-time job at the theater, with her manager, Wes. Faran caught a glimpse of him when she was practicing alone for her ballet. As a matter of fact, apart from being haunted by anonymous messages from a creepy stalker, all the girls had one more thing in common. Their mothers were batchmates at Millwood High, back in 1999, and all of them were part of the Y2K Survivors club.
What Was Imogen’s Plan To Get Revenge From Karen?
Now that her mother was not there anymore, Imogen had been wanting to abort her pregnancy. She knew that she couldn’t handle the newborn and the responsibilities that came with it all by herself. But the nurse told her that it was a bit too late for getting an abortion since she was already in her sixth month of pregnancy. Karen had apparently gone to Principal Clanton and told him that being around a pregnant girl made her and others very uncomfortable. Now the principal wanted to take some action, but he also wanted to be politically correct at all times. In season 1 episode 1 of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” we see that an agitated Imogen confronts Karen after her meeting with the principal and tells her that she will compete in the “Spirit Queen” elections now and make sure that she wins the title. Strange things happened to Karen after that announcement was made by Imogen. The next day, all the posters of Karen in the portico of Millwood High were torn and destroyed. Imogen and Tabby were held responsible for it. During the ballet class, Karen got injured as somebody had placed a blade in her shoes. She blamed Faran for it. Noa’s drug test came positive, even though she hadn’t consumed anything. And lastly, a dead rat was found in Karen’s bag, and she blamed Mouse for putting it there. The girls, serving detention, decided to team up against Karen, as they thought that she had orchestrated the whole thing just to hurt the people who had spoken against her and were not on her side. But the truth was that Karen was as unaware of it as the other girls. The girls later got a video where somebody was planting the blade and the dead mouse in Karen’s shoe and bag, respectively. The person was then seen tearing and scratching the posters and adulterating Noa’s samples. The girls, without even thinking twice, believed that it was Karen herself who did that, and now that they were all facing disciplinary actions, she was being boastful about strategizing everything so efficiently. It was actually the masked man, Mr. A, who had done it, but the girls were unaware of it. So they hatch a plan to demean and insult Karen in front of everybody; making use of a video clip of Karen that Imogen had in her possession.
In episode 2 of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” we see that approximately 6 months back, before Imogen’s and Karen’s relationship had gone sour, the former had attended a party organized by the latter at her own house. That night, everybody was intoxicated, and Greg made a sexual advancement towards Imogen. Karen’s sister, Kelly, saw them getting intimate. She presumed that Imogen was forcing herself upon the innocent boyfriend. Greg, too, confirmed that version, and Karen felt betrayed and asked Imogen to leave. Imogen came back, as she had forgotten her sweater, and found that Tyler Marchand, a colleague, was taking a video recording of a heavily inebriated Karen, who was falling all over the place. Imogen snatched Tyler’s phone and took Karen out of that room. For some reason, she had kept the phone back then, which allowed Karen to question Imogen’s intentions, at a later stage. Though she had her reservations about making the video public, she still went ahead and told the other girls that they could use it to embarrass Karen in front of everybody.
Episode 3: Ending Explained – Did Karen And Kelly Switch Places? What Did The Masked Man Want From The Girls?
In Episode 2 of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” Imogen had made up her mind to use the video clip against Karen. She was of the opinion that it would do the desired amount of damage without being too scandalous or defamatory. The others also came on board, and Tabby decided to put her part-time job at the theater to good use. She had earlier asked Wes to keep a double screening of films made by black directors like Jordan Peele, to which he had agreed. She knew Chip was the one who usually operated the projector, so she convinced him to do the needful. The clip was played on screen, and Karen felt embarrassed and insulted. She left the theater, but a seed of revenge was planted inside her.
Kelly, pretending to be Karen, went to her school and told Principal Clanton that she was withdrawing from the race for “Spirit Queen”, as she was the one who had destroyed her posters and had wrongfully put the blame on Imogen and Tabby. She tells Mr. Clanton that Imogen truly deserves to win the title. It is shown that Karen was home all this while and was getting depressed by reading comments of people calling her names and abusing her. Kelly, who always operated under her sister’s shadow, suddenly transforms into this mastermind and tells her to act according to her plan if she wants to take revenge. Imogen, after hearing that Karen had owned up to her wrongdoings, started feeling guilty about showing the video. She decided that she would give her title to Karen eventually. Imogen reached the dance party and saw Karen. She went up to talk to her, but weirdly, she said that she was not Karen but Kelly. Imogen had known the sisters for quite some time now, and it is as strange for her as it is for us to accept the fact that she mistook them for one another. Imogen goes on stage and sees Karen (or rather, whom she presumes to be Karen) sitting on the rafter above. She was about to throw something that was probably blood (as Kelly had given reference of the film “Carrie”, while talking about her master plan), but just then the masked man came from behind and pushed her down. Karen’s father, Sheriff Beasley, who was also in charge of the community service that Noa used to attend, was adamant about suing the girls. He blamed them for the death of his daughter.
The mothers of all five girls met, probably for the first time, after the Y2K party. Corey Bryant, mother of Faran, was a practicing lawyer at “Strode Prescot Ripley and Associates,” a legal firm in Pittsburg. She took matters into her own hands and decided to talk to Sheriff Beasley. Through the conversations of these women, who were once part of a tightly knit group, we come to know of a probable reason why the masked man, “A,” would be chasing their girls. The name of the girl who died at that Y2K party was Angela Waters. The girl was suffering from mental issues just like her mother. When she died in the harbor warehouse, nobody informed the police, as everybody just presumed that someone would have already done it. The police had found her body a couple of days after she died, and the Harbour Warehouse had been turned into a memorial since then. Imogen had gotten to know about that place when she had gone to the library and checked the yearbook for the year 2000. She got to know that their mothers were part of a “Y2K Survivor’s Group” and, secondly, that Angela Waters had committed suicide at the party(as per the newspaper reports).
When Imogen went there for the first time, we saw that the masked man was also present there. Maybe it was his den, and he was related to the estranged girl somehow. Even Sidney Hayworth used to visit that place to pay her condolences, as she felt the guilt of being somewhat responsible for the death of Angela Waters more than her friends did. We don’t know what the masked man exactly wanted from the girls, but one thing is for sure, he was seeking revenge for what happened in 1999. Imogen’s mother had been very rude and cold to Angela at the Y2K party back in 1999, and 22 years later, she was the first one to be killed.
Sheriff Beasley was not able to get the girls rusticated as Kelly went to Principal Clanton and gave evidence of the fact that her sister was in the rafters, as she wanted to do some harm to Imogen’s reputation. Imogen is surprised, and she meets Kelly (if at all she was Kelly) afterwards, who apologizes for the way her mother behaved with Imogen at her sister’s funeral, and tells her that she felt guilty as it was her master plan that got her sister killed. The third episode of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” ends on a cliffhanger when the girls see the masked man looking at them when they had a graveyard to honor the memory of their colleague, Karen. It is still not very clear what is the intention of the masked man, and what exactly he is trying to achieve. Karen and Kelly might have switched places, but no concrete proof is given by the makers to corroborate that theory.
Final words
The upcoming episodes of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” will shed more light upon who the masked man was and what was the nature of the relationship he shared with Angela Waters. The mothers, too, are hiding something, as deep down they have the fear that some or other information would surface and they would be put behind bars for the death of their colleague. Maybe they weren’t responsible for Angela’s death directly, but surely they were not revealing something that would complete the puzzle. We will get to know if there is some truth behind the theory that the twins swapped their places, and if it was actually Kelly who had died and vice versa. A similar kind of plot point was also used in the original “Pretty Little Liars” series, and it is quite probable that the makers would include something like that in the spinoff too. It would also be interesting to see the dynamics of the group, as Tabby and Imogen are still unaware of what Noa, Faran, and Mouse were planning to do. They had decided to testify against Tabby and Imogen, and tell Sheriff Beasley that it was they who had planned everything, thereby acquitting themselves of any criminal charges. But when it was decided that severe action could not be taken against the girls due to Kelly’s testimony, the real intentions of Noa, Mouse, and Faran could not come to light.
Imogen, Noa, Tabby, Faran, and Mouse are still not out of danger. They have no clue who the masked man is, and neither have they told their mothers about it, who might have some insight regarding the matter. All they know is a simple fact: if you want to stay alive, it is imperative to obey the commands of the masked killer.
