‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ Season 1 Episode 4 Recap: “The (Fe)male Gaze”

By
Alison Helms
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Pretty Little Liars Original Sin Season 1 Episode 4 Recap
Malia Pyles, Zaria, Bailee Madison, Maia Reficco, and Chandler Kinney in ‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ season 1 episode 4 (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Max)

Season one episode four of HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin starts off jumping back in time to 1999. Marjorie (Sarah-Anne Martinez) convinces Angela (Gabriella Pizzolo) to try smoking, but when a man comes over to see what’s going on Marjorie blames her friend. Marjorie shoves the pack of cigarettes and the lit cigarette at Angela, claiming Angela was smoking and she’s totally innocent.

Present day and Marjorie (Elena Goode) is at the hospital working when she notices a gift bag’s been left for her. Inside is a teddy bear wearing a shirt that reads: “Mother of the Year.” The A is in red. There’s a pill bottle stuck to the bear and written on it is “Addict.”

Another flashback to 1999 shows Marjorie got Angela that same bear as a thank you for taking the blame. The bear’s shirt reads: “Best friends forever.”

Once again, the scene switches to the present day. The girls are in detention when Imogen (Bailee Madison) receives a phone call from Mr. Thompson, a man her mom went to high school with. The conversation seems pleasant enough until she asks about Angela Waters. After telling Imogen he doesn’t know anything about Angela and can’t help her, he abruptly hangs up.

Later, the girls celebrate finishing two weeks of detention and Mouse (Malia Pyles) asks what’s next. They seem to think A is a thing of the past because they haven’t heard from him in two weeks. Mouse wonders if they’re planning on telling their moms what really happened to Karen. Imogen doesn’t think they should until they know what really happened with Angela Waters. Imogen explains that everyone she’s called has refused to talk about Angela.

“It’s like she’s a ghost or urban legend,” says Imogen.

After the girls part ways, Tabby (Chandler Kinney) sneaks into the boys locker room to retrieve her hidden camera. Greg and Tyler surprise Tabby and she’s forced to hide in a stall. They’re being disgusting and disrespectfully talk about girls they claim to have had sex with.

While sitting down at dinner, Sidney (Sharon Leal) shares the good news with Imogen and Tabby that there’s an offer on Imogen’s house. Imogen doesn’t seem excited and asks to be involved in the packing process.

Friday, October 23rd: Tabby’s in film class when they are given a new assignment with a partner and, of course, her go-to is Chip (Carson Rowland). The assignment is to select a director from the approved list, choose one of their movies, and recreate a scene from that movie explaining why it’s relevant today.

Faran (Zaria) sees Kelly (Mallory Bechtel) using Karen’s dance locker and asks if she’s switching lockers. Kelly acknowledges she is because she likes Karen’s better.

Faran gets her Black Swan role back and Madame Giry (Kate Jennings Grant) instructs her to get caught up by doing one-on-ones with Kelly. Faran questions if Kelly’s up to it considering she just lost her twin. Madame Giry assures her that Kelly has dedicated herself to Swan Lake and views it as a welcome distraction. She adds in a snide remark about how Faran can use all the help she can get.

Noa (Maia Reficco) gets back to training for the track team she was once a part of, but it’s obvious she’s out of practice. Her coach promises to get her back in shape.

Mouse and Ash (Jordan Gonzalez) meet up and he thinks she should come to his club’s meetings. Or they can hang out on Halloween, dress up, and get decked out…maybe find a party to crash. Mouse breaks it to him that her moms never let her out on Halloween because it’s too dangerous. Ash offers to help her pass out candy, and Mouse says she’ll try to sneak out on Halloween.

Imogen returns to her old house alone and has a flashback of when she and her mom, Davie (Carly Pope), first moved in when she was little. She hears a noise coming from the basement and just like a clichéd horror film she calls out, “Hello…anyone there?”

She walks down the stairs, and we see the creepy masked man is lurking under them. She’s not down there for long before she hears laughter coming from the porch. It’s the couple who are going to buy the house. She adopts a not-so-friendly attitude and asks if the realtor told them what happened in that house.

Later, Sidney asks Imogen why she told the buyers a woman was murdered in the house. Imogen confesses she can’t imagine someone else living there. Sidney doesn’t have sympathy and just rips the band-aid off, revealing Imogen’s mother had a lot of debt and she’s hoping the sale of the house would cover it. Sidney also reveals she heard from an old classmate that Imogen’s poking around and asking questions about Angela Waters.

Imogen explains she believes there’s a connection between what happened to Angela and what happened to her mom. She wonders why Sidney won’t tell her what it is. Sidney suggests she’s seeing things that aren’t there.

“Or are you trying to cover up something that actually is there?” Imogen counters.

Sidney suggests she move on from Angela Waters, but Imogen won’t let it go and asks, “What are you all hiding?”

Tabby and Chip go over which director they want to pick, and she has an idea for not only who to pick – she wants to choose Alfred Hitchcock – but which of his famous scenes they should reenact.

Monday arrives and Tabby and Chip (mostly Tabby) explain to the class how females have been attacked in horror films since forever. For their project, they’re going back to the famous shower scene from Psycho.

When the teacher says something about putting another vulnerable woman in Norman Bates’ crosshairs, Tabby points out how it’s funny that if there’s going to be a naked murder victim people assume it’s going to be a woman. On the contrary, their victim will be a male being murdered by a female.

“Horror from the point of view of the female gaze,” declares Tabby.

At lunch, Tabby fills the other girls in on the scene she’s doing and the role reversals. She asks who wants to be her modern-day Marion Crane leading lady and everyone except Faran has an excuse not to. Faran wants to know who she’ll be stabbing in the shower and Karen’s ex Greg (Elias Kacavas) catches their attention.

Tabby asks him to be a part of her film and with hardly any persuading he agrees after hearing it’s a shower scene with a hot girl.

Faran and Kelly practice alone and although Kelly tries to give Faran a compliment, Faran seems to be taking out her experiences with Karen bullying and insulting her on Kelly. Faran brings up that her sister seemed to think she was only cast as the Black Swan because she’s the only Black girl.

Kelly reminds her Karen never actually said “Black” and Faran’s had it. She claims Madame Giry only picked Kelly to work with her because her sister died. Faran gets the creeps when Kelly says something to her that Karen once said. “You just be a queen, girl.”

Sheriff Beasley (Eric Johnson) is being a bully and telling Noa he isn’t done with her yet. If she meets the requirements of her probation for one year exactly, her record will be wiped clean. Otherwise, there will be consequences.

That night Noa tells Shawn (Alex Aiono) that Sheriff Beasley’s really riding her. He wastes no time blaming her mom for everything and Noa defends her – again. Marjorie walks in and asks them if they want to go to a movie. Shawn says he can’t go.

Imogen’s going through the stuff at her house when she finds a Ouija board. She experiences a flashback of her mom showing it to her and wanting to contact the dead.

Imogen asks Tabby if they all can hang out tomorrow, confessing she wants to use the Ouija board to contact her mom.

Tuesday, October 27th: Henry (Ben Cook) confronts Faran about what she said to Kelly and wants to know why she’d say that. Faran explains that just because her sister died doesn’t mean she’s going to pretend to like Kelly; she isn’t wired that way. She points out how it’s hard to work with Kelly when she’s not even a good dancer.

Faran’s alarmed when Henry reveals that while she was in detention, he had been dancing with Kelly. Henry thinks she’s gotten a lot better and says, “It’s almost like I’m dancing with Karen again.”

Faran shows up to dance practice and apologizes to Kelly for being out of line. She brings up reading an article one time about twins and how if something bad happens to one twin, the other one can feel it too. Kelly agrees that’s true. Faran read that twins would do anything for each other and, again, Kelly agrees.

Faran notices Kelly’s leotard and asks if it’s Karen. Kelly doesn’t reply and instead says they should get started with practice.

The five friends gather at Imogen’s place and Imogen leads the séance, attempting to summon her mom. Imogen asks if her mom’s at peace and the planchette moves to yes. They’re all freaked out and Imogen orders everyone to take their hands off the planchette because one of them must have moved it.

She asks a series of questions, including “why did you leave me?” Imogen begins to cry and demands her mom say something after she abandoned her, leaving her all on her own.

Tabby tries to interfere, but Faran warns her to let Imogen work it out. Imogen screams, “F**k you! I hate you!” and wants to leave. Tabby reminds Imogen she’s wrong about saying she has no one; she has them now. And in true Tabby horror film fanatic fashion, she quotes Chucky, “Friends till the end.”

Pretty Little Liars Original Sin Episode 4 Recap
Maia Reficco and Eric Johnson in ‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ episode 4 (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Max)

Sheriff Beasley isn’t done terrorizing Noa and shows up to search her place under the terms of her probation – even though he hasn’t done it before. Her mom acts sketchy and grabs her purse, keeping it near her during the search.

When Beasley asks about some pills he found in the bathroom, Marjorie blurts out, “They aren’t mine.” (Real nice mother!) Noa tells him she got them from the school nurse to help her sleep.

After he leaves Noa asks her mom what’s in her bag and if she’s using again. Her mom insists sometimes she takes a quarter of oxycodone for her back.

Wednesday, October 28th: Noa goes through her mom’s bag and finds pills that don’t belong to her.

Tabby, Chip, Faran, and Greg go over the plan of sneaking into the locker room after school hours to shoot the scene. Tabby wants to make sure everyone feels safe and supported since it is an intimate scene. Greg uses the occasion to say something sleazy to Faran.

Imogen cleans out her old room and finds the journal her mom gifted her. She has a flashback of her mom telling her she wrote down everything when she was Imogen’s age and if she’s like her, she will keep it for life. A lightbulb goes off in Imogen’s head and she sets out to look for her mom’s journal. She finds several!

As Imogen reads her mom’s journals, she discovers pages have been torn out of one.

As Tabby and Faran are waiting to be let into the school by Chip, Faran starts to tell Tabby she has a crazy theory about Kelly really being Karen. However, before she can finish that sentence, Greg shows up.

Noa gets a text from A right after ordering a pizza that reads: “She never learned her lesson. Mommy was going to throw you under the bus again, just like she did with Angela Waters.”

After giving Faran a rundown of what she wants from her, Tabby begins to film the scene and is pleased with what Faran does. Tabby then turns her attention to Greg and explains what’s expected from him. She suggests that maybe Faran’s character slipped something into his drink and now he is a damsel in distress.

Greg takes off his speedo which pisses off Tabby. She goes off on him but neither Faran nor Chip back her up. Upset, she steps out for a break and memories spring up of a party in the woods, causing her to have a panic attack.

After getting it together, Tabby returns only to discover Chip’s the only one left. He explains he shot the rest of the scene and sent Faran and Greg home. Tabby’s mad but doesn’t say anything to Chip.

Noa goes downstairs to get her pizza after the pizza guy refuses to bring it upstairs. She finds the pizza on the ground smashed up and the glass on the door broken. She races back to her apartment and suddenly sees the masked man attempting to get into her place.

Noa takes off running, banging on doors, and screaming for help as he gives chase. He manages to grab her but gets away. She makes it to the roof and takes a running leap to an adjacent roof.

They engage in a standoff but then she realizes he has the advantage when her ankle monitor begins to beep. As she edges closer to the edge of the roof it stops. Sobbing, she screams, “What do you want!” He actually replies, “Punish the guilty.”

Noa asks who’s guilty and he simply states, “Your mother.”

Noa has a flashback of the night she was arrested while her mom stood by. She realizes what she must do. As tears run down her face, she calls the hospital where her mom works and informs them her mom has been stealing drugs. As she collapses to the ground, the masked man vanishes.

Tabby looks through the footage they shot and pauses the video on a closeup of Greg. The image upsets her, but we don’t know why.

Faran goes through social media and looks at photos of Karen and Kelly. It gives her an idea of what she can do to verify if she’s right that Kelly really is Karen.

Thursday, October 29: Faran wants to enlist Henry’s help in proving Kelly is really Karen. She tells him why she thinks this, and he isn’t on the same page. Faran wants him to offer to rub Kelly’s feet. If it’s Karen, she will have a scar on her foot from the razor blades that were put in her ballet shoes.

At lunch, Imogen shows the girls her mom’s journal with pages missing from her senior year. Imogen questions why a girl would rip out pages from her own journal. Tabby says, “Unless there was something so bad, she wanted to rip it out of existence even for herself.”

Imogen thinks it’s possible the pages are hidden in her house.

Noa shows up and is obviously distraught. She explains that A is back and he came after her in person. They want to know why he would come after her, and the episode ends with Noa confessing that, according to the text she received, it’s because of something her mom did to Angela Waters.




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