‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ Episode 2 Recap: “The Spirit Queen”

By
Alison Helms
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Pretty Little Liars Original Sin Episode 2 Recap
Malia Pyles, Zaria, Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney, Maia Reficco, and Alex Aiono in ‘Pretty Little Sins: Original Sin’ episode 2 (Photo by Barbara Nitke/HBO Max)

Episode two of HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin opens up at a house party thrown at Karen and Kelly’s place around six months prior. Imogen (Bailee Madison) is drunk in the kitchen when Karen and Kelly (Mallory Betchel) walk in. Karen, Kelly, and Imogen are super good friends at this point, and Imogen volunteers to tell Greg they need more alcohol since Karen won’t do it. She and Greg are currently fighting.

Tabby (Chandler Kinney) and Chip (Carson Rowland) show up and it’s obvious Chip doesn’t want to be there. He asks how long they have to stay just seconds after they arrive, and Tabby tells him to lighten up.

Imogen finds Greg (Elias Kacavas) and he begins to come on to her while she politely backs away. Kelly rushes to tell Karen what she witnessed, and reveals she saw Imogen and Greg kissing.

A very angry Karen finds Imogen and screams at her, “You kissed my boyfriend?!” That gets the attention of the partygoers. After Imogen corrects her that he kissed her, Greg rushes in blaming Imogen. It’s no surprise that Karen believes him over Imogen and reacts by calling Imogen a slut and telling her to leave.

Flash-forward to the present day and picking up right where the first episode left off, the five girls share stories in detention. Imogen tells them about when she stopped being friends with Karen and Kelly. She also reveals there’s a video from that night that someone made on their phone and if anyone saw it, it would destroy Karen. This piques Noa’s (Maia Reficco) interest. Faran (Zaria) asks if it’s a sex video and Imogen says it’s not.

They consider posting it on the internet but Mouse (Malia Pyles) reminds them the internet is forever. Tabby offers to show it on the big screen at the theater before the Jordan Peele double-feature.

The phone with the video is still at Imogen’s old house, and Tabby, Mouse, Faran, and Noa are completely freaked out when they go there to retrieve it. No one wants to linger there any longer than they have to, and they head to the local pizza place to eat while charging the phone.

Imogen will only say the phone belonged to a douchebag and after showing them the video Mouse wonders if it’ll backfire and make people feel sorry for Karen. Faran insists everyone at school would love to see her get knocked down a peg or two. They take a vote on whether to show it and Faran and Noa vote yes right away. Even though it was Imogen’s idea, she’s having second thoughts and suggests they sleep on it.

The girls call it a night and head home. When each girl arrives home, each is immediately questioned by their parents about why they’re in trouble at school. They each claim to have been framed and deny any responsibility.

That same night, each girl receives a video of an unseen person doing what they were accused of. Imogen joins Tabby in her room and asks if she’s watched the video. All the text messages with the videos make it appear Karen sent them and did the deeds.

The girls hop on a video chat and agree Karen did it all and set them up. They agree she’s a horrible person and decide to go through with the plan to release part of the video at the theater.

Thursday, October 1st: Tabby and Imogen are promoting the Jordan Peele double-feature while also campaigning for Imogen to win Spirit Queen when the infamous Karen walks in. She can’t believe the principal is letting Imogen run for Spirit Queen after what they did. Tabby tells her they didn’t do it and asks if she has anything she wants to confess. Karen wonders why she would have anything to confess to and reveals she’s going to the double-feature at the theater. (Tabby and Imogen’s reverse psychology worked.)

Noa tells her boyfriend it’s okay if he goes to the dance even if she can’t go because of her house arrest.

Tabby shows Chip (Carson Rowland) the video and he questions where she got it. He thinks it’s messed up and she justifies it by telling him Karen sent out videos of her own, including one of her torturing an animal. Chip agrees to screen it before the double-feature if she goes to the dance with him. She agrees.

As the teenagers descend on the movie theater and get settled into seats, the creepy masked person is there as well, just watching them. He spots the newly formed quintuple of friends.

The lights go down and the edited video of Karen plays. It starts off like a “vote for Karen for Spirit Queen” campaign ad and then switches to a video of a very intoxicated Karen the night of the party. Karen goes on about how hot she is and brings up Greg having a small penis and not lasting long in the bedroom…amongst other things. Just as Karen and the mystery guy filming her are about to play Show and Tell, the video cuts back to her cheerleading.

A distraught Karen flees the theater with her twin close behind. Manager Wes (Derek Klena) sees them leaving and rushes into the theater to see what’s going on. By the time he steps inside, the Jordan Peele movie has begun.

Pretty Little Liars Original Sin Episode 2 Recap
Bailee Madison, Chandler Kinney, Maia Reficco, Zaria, and Malia Pyles in ‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ episode 2 (Photograph by Barbara Nitke/HBO Max)

The five girls gather outside the theater and Imogen questions whether they did the right thing, trying to convince herself what they did wasn’t that bad.

Tabby heads back inside to find Wes questioning Chip about what happened. Wes got complaints about it from people who saw the video. Tabby confesses it was her video and that she asked Chip to play it. She adds that Chip even tried to talk her out of it and shouldn’t be blamed.

After ordering Chip to go home, Wes tells Tabby they could all get in serious trouble for what she did. She pleads with him not to fire her and he warns her this is her one and only mess-up.

As Imogen’s lying in bed, she has a flashback of eating with her mom. She recalls asking her mom (Carly Pope) if she can hang out with Karen and her mom answering with a warning. “Just remember something, Imogen. You are who you hang out with,” said Davie. Imogen asked her what she meant by that and her mom confessed she didn’t like Karen, calling her a bully and a mean girl (pot meet kettle). She didn’t want Imogen to be those things.

After that late-night flashback, Imogen receives a text and meets Karen in a cemetery (because that’s not weird at all). Karen wonders how she got the video and we’re treated to another flashback of that night. Imogen forgot her jacket and when she went back to get it, she walked in on what was going on between Karen and who we now know is Tyler (Brian Altemus). Imogen put a stop to it and took his phone.

Imogen justifies showing the video by sharing that she knows Karen put razorblades in her own shoes and mutilated a rat. Karen’s shocked and claims she didn’t do any of that. Karen tells Imogen to leave but Imogen doesn’t think she should be there alone at night. Karen responds by warning her to get out of her face and calling her a bitch.

After Imogen walks away, we see the creepy masked person standing there watching.

Friday, October 2nd: On their way to school Imogen confesses to Tabby she met up with Karen the night before in the cemetery. She explains that when she brought up all the stuff Karen did, she denied it. Tabby says of course she did because Karen is a sociopath.

Karen visits the principal and informs him that not only is she withdrawing from running for Spirit Queen, but she also – shockingly – confesses to destroying her own posters out of jealousy.

She returns home to a sobbing Karen… That’s right, it was really Karen’s twin Kelly who was at school confessing. Karen was reading mean comments on social media, hence the tears. Kelly seems all too pleased to inform her sister everyone really thought she was Karen.

They hatch a plan to get back at Imogen and it turns out Kelly isn’t the sweet peacemaker after all. “Those bitches like movies. Let’s give Imogen a starring role in one. I’m thinking we go with a classic, Carrie,” says Kelly.

Imogen’s the next student to visit the principal’s office. He informs her that Karen has recused herself from Spirit Queen. He adds that he owes her and Tabby an apology because Karen confessed. Since no one else is running, he congratulates her for winning Spirit Queen, tossing in “Like mother, like daughter.”

Imogen immediately rounds up her friends, confused and somewhat shaken. Imogen has no clue what her mom was like and when the principal said that, she realized her mom would have never shown that video to people. After a pep talk from her new group of friends, they agree to go together (minus Noa who’s still under house arrest) to the dance.

Speaking of Noa, while doing community service Sheriff Beasley (Eric Johnson) has an intimidating conversation with her. “Only thing I like about you is you know how to keep your mouth shut, don’t you?” asks Beasley. She realizes she has the upper hand and asks for a favor.

Noa gives her boyfriend the exciting news that Sheriff Beasley is letting her go to the dance.

Saturday, October 3rd: The girls get ready for the dance together. In an homage to dozens of teenage movies, the friends have the best time getting dressed, laughing and dancing around while putting on their party dresses.

Imogen reveals she plans to find Karen at the dance and apologize to her. She also wants to give her the Spirit Queen crown.

They arrive at the dance and fan out, looking for Karen. Imogen thinks she’s found her but Karen claims she’s Kelly. Imogen asks Kelly to tell her sister she’s looking for her because she wants to apologize. Kelly congratulates Imogen on winning against her sister, saying, “Not a lot of people can say they did that.”

After the fake congratulations from Kelly, we see a flashback of her and Karen getting red paint ready for their grand finale.

Faran abandons looking for Karen to dance with Henry and Mouse also jumps ship and goes outside with Ash (Jordan Gonzalez). Mouse opens up about why she goes by Mouse and touches on her childhood trauma but doesn’t go into detail because it’s too tragic for the night.

Chip finds Tabby and agrees to help look for Karen, while Noa and Shawn find a classroom to make out in.

The creepy masked person shows up just in time for the crowning of the Spirit Queen. As the episode draws to an end, we watch Imogen walk up on stage in slow motion while everyone cheers for her. Her friends spot Karen in the rafters with a bucket just as Imogen is crowned. They aren’t the only ones who see her; Shawn and Ash do as well.

Seconds before Karen is about to push over the bucket filled with paint, the masked stalker appears and attacks her. Karen falls and in a real déjà vu moment, the screen goes dark and then we see teenagers screaming as they run every which way.

As blood pools at Imogen’s feet, each of the five girls receive a text. It reads: “To thine own self be true. One bully down. Five more to go. Keep quiet about me or you’re next -A.”




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