‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ Episode 6 Recap: “Scars”

And just like that, we’re back in Rosewood. So far, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin has stuck to the creators’ promises and stood on its own just fine without the original Pretty Little Liars. As Tabby and Imogen’s teen sleuthing takes them back to the iconic town in Episode 6 (titled “Scars”), they break new ground as the skeletons in Faran’s closet loom over her Swan Lake performance.

“Scars” picks up right where Episode 5 (“The Night He Came Home”) left off, as Tabby confides in Imogen about what really went down at that summer bonfire. After receiving an unexpected invite, she cut her movie theater shift short to join in the festivities. But before long, she got dizzy and lightheaded, presumably from a spiked drink. Tabby attempted to walk home, but found herself coming to deep in the woods, an unknown boy on top of her. She found out later that Tyler was on vacation at the time, but otherwise, it could’ve been anyone. Imogen admits that she survived a similar assault that left her pregnant months earlier, but she remembers even less. They’re a heartbreaking pair of confessions that dovetail into the show’s central mysteries when the girls’ Angela Waters investigation brings them closer to the original Pretty Little Liars than ever.

After calling virtually every member of the Y2K graduating class, Imogen and Tabby finally track down a lead — he goes by “Crazy Joe” and lives out at the train yard, but hey, it’s something! A former friend of Angela, he recalls how “that gaggle of she-bitches” turned her head until things all came crashing down that New Year’s Eve. But when Imogen presses on about Angela’s family, Joe gives them a crucial nugget of information: After her death, Angela’s mother Rose showed up at the high school with a butcher knife aimed not at the girls, but at a gaggle of football boys. She got hauled off to — where else? — the Radley Sanitarium. In Rosewood.

It’s since been turned into a hotel, while Rose has vanished into the ether. With the other girls tied up in their own Millwood plots, Imogen and Tabby set off to the town that started it all to seek answers. While Tabby takes a jaunt over to Ezra’s Books (jail!), Imogen strikes gold when she tracks down one of the sanitarium’s former orderlies — that’s right, PLL fans, Eddie Lamb is back! After Imogen presents a picture of the Liars’ moms, Eddie recognizes them as the five girls who came to see Rose at Radley, posing as A. Waters (he also shouts out the Sisters of Quiet Mercy from Riverdale, which apparently exists in this universe, too!).

Eddie doesn’t know where Rose ended up after Radley shut down, but he does bring some news on the Angela front: Rose showed up at Millwood High suffering a psychic break after her daughter was raped and subsequently committed suicide. Could one of those boys Rose went after be important to whatever A is doing in the present day? Maybe even Sheriff Beasley? After their meeting, Tabby notices one more disturbing detail: A mysterious sixth A. Waters signature on Eddie’s old patient logs.

Back in Millwood, Faran is still dealing with the fallout of her “Kelly is really Karen” investigation — as Kelly tells her, Madam Cherie was ready to throw her out of Swan Lake before she intervened. Luckily, she gets a second chance of sorts when Cherie announces that the American Ballet Theatre’s director of repertoire will sit in on their next rehearsal. How a small Pennsylvania town’s high school remains one of the show’s biggest mysteries to me, but good for Faran!

This all-important rehearsal is a welcome distraction for her mother Corey, who’s the latest recipient of one of A’s creepy gifts. In her case, it’s a bloodied tattoo gun, harkening back to the night when a young Corey convinced Angela that all the Y2K girls were getting first initial tattoos on their shoulders, only to duck out of the tattoo parlor once Angela came under the gun.

Because Sidney is apparently the only one of these mothers who can muster up a shred of honesty for their daughters, Corey focuses her stress into her favorite hobby: Demanding perfection from Faran. After catching the ABT director’s eye despite Kelly’s bizarre comments about her scoliosis, Faran enjoys a celebratory dinner with her parents. Yet even that celebration takes a sour turn when Corey announces that she’s booked Faran a plastic surgery consultation to cover up the large back scar from her intensive spinal fusion surgery as a child. Faran always assumed it was necessary, but after Henry expressed his disbelief at the procedure, Corey’s further meddling rightfully raises her suspicions.

At least the question of Kelly’s identity has been put to bed for now. As the remaining Beasley twin rehearses in the school auditorium, she’s interrupted by her very own text from A: “Kelly or Karen?” Before she gets the chance to answer, A stalks out of the rafters wearing not their usual Texas Chainsaw getup, but the Swan Lake sorcerer’s gilded armor. We love an upgrade! As a dagger-wielding A chases Kelly around the auditorium in her Black Swan costume, they’re bathed in harsh red and purple lights that make the entire scene look like something out of Suspiria, or another Dario Argento film that Wes was eager to rope poor Tabby into a few episodes ago. When A finally has her up against the wall, she admits once and for all: “I’m Kelly!” A disappears, satisfied. But really, give the poor girl an opportunity to text back first!

Mouse and Noa have a bit less on their plates this week, but Original Sin is still happy to throw some bleak curveballs their way. After that disturbing revelation about Mouse’s side hustle aimed at grieving parents, her twisted therapy of choice comes back to bite her when the dad she spent Halloween with starts appearing everywhere she looks. Given how obsessed A is with the Liars’ mothers, answers about Mouse’s botched kidnapping seem imminent. Meanwhile, Noa rejoins the track team but takes a step back from her mother, who lashes out at her after resident golden retriever boyfriend Shawn stops by to chew her out. The hospital was miraculously willing to hire Marjorie back after 30 days of rehab after she was caught stealing drugs (an offer she ultimately didn’t take), which feels like some Grey’s Anatomy-level medical mismanagement when all is said and done.

Speaking of medical oversight, A finally manages to get through to Faran by way of some disturbing medical records deposited in her locker. “The scars go deeper than you think,” A’s text reads. “Yours and Angela’s. Corey did wrong by you both.” Turns out the super invasive spinal surgery 8-year-old Faran went through was totally unnecessary, and only happened at Corey’s request! As far as the Y2K moms’ sins go, this just might take the cake.

Just then, Cherie tells Faran that Kelly has dropped out of Swan Lake due to personal (i.e. masked killer) reasons, and she’d like Faran to dance the Black Swan after all. The Funny Girl Broadway drama truly has nothing on the Millwood High Swan Lake recastings. Faran agrees, but balks at Cherie’s offer to modify the costume to cover up her back scar. She ropes Henry into taking a new photo of her for her bio, which she updates with a tell-all entitled “The Mother Wound.”

“Tonight, I dance for all the girls who have been scarred. Inside and out,” Faran writes, detailing her mother’s medical oversight. Unsurprisingly, a mortified Corey leaves the school in tears. Although Mouse once again notices her Halloween client waiting in the audience, A is apparently a patron of the arts, because Faran’s performance goes off without a hitch. She’s enjoying the heights of her ballet career with her friends when her father bursts in with news: Corey was in a car accident. Could A’s Y2K body count rise by the end of the season? I wouldn’t count anything out just yet.

Abby Monteil is a New York-based writer. Her work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Insider, Them, Thrillist, Elite Daily, and others.