‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ Episode 7 Recap: “Carnival Of Souls”

What the hell, Mouse?! Over the course of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin thus far, the Liars’ resident wallflower has proven to be much more complicated than her sweet exterior gives away — slasher villains aside, running a side hustle posing as parents’ lost kids may be the most haunting, disturbing thread yet. With three episodes left, the writers clearly want us to question A’s identity more than ever, with everyone from Sheriff Beasley to creepy manager Wes to Y2K outlier Sidney to one of Angela’s family members seeming like plausible options. But Mouse so casually threatening her own mother with a burner phone on a Pretty Little Liars show can’t be disregarded. Sure, she was terrorized by A shortly afterward, but when it comes to characters who could be lured to the A team, Mouse now seems fairly high on the list.

Unsurprisingly, this Mouse-centric episode (titled “Carnival of Souls”) opens with a flashback to her Y2K mom Elodie’s (Lea Salonga) teen years. Millwood’s annual carnival is in full swing, and Elodie has led Angela into the hall of mirrors. Glancing around shyly, she giggles before she and Angela start kissing, for what doesn’t seem to be the first time. Of course, once a repulsed Davie bursts in, Elodie immediately goes on the defensive and blames Angela for “attacking” her. In the present day, Mouse is stunned when she confronts her Halloween “dad,” Steve, and finds out that Elodie attends a grieving parents support group despite never actually losing a child.

Is the tension in Mouse’s household going to make up the bulk of the queer rep in Original Sin? Given how major (if rocky) Emily Fields’ storyline was for showcasing a lead lesbian character on TV in the early 2010s, I’m surprised at how straight the main girls’ exploits have been thus far.

Back at school, the girls are debriefing Imogen and Tabby’s recent A findings over lunch. They’re hung up on one key detail: How does killing Karen factor into A’s master plan? Mouse questions if Angela’s father is responsible, while Noa clings to Sheriff Beasley’s possible involvement — after all, he went to school with their moms. When Imogen questions how he could kill his own daughter, Noa points to his own demons. After all, she saw him getting a blowjob from one of the boys in her community service group.

There’s also the matter of Kelly, who accused Faran of setting A on her in the auditorium. It turns out that a bitter Corey had her car accident because she was so agitated by Faran’s tell-all, not because of any tricks from A. So is the girls’ tormentor looking out for them in some strange way? Or trying to turn their attention towards Kelly? Whatever the case, most of the girls agree on one thing: They’re not going to stop one serial killer from letting them enjoy the upcoming carnival.

The only one on the fence is Mouse, who admits to Ash that the event doesn’t have a great history in her family. When she was five and enjoying a day at the carnival, an unknown man attempted to lead her away before her moms finally found her, hysterical. Elodie has been paranoid about losing Mouse ever since, which honestly makes her ability to slip out and meet up with those parents all the more impressive… and concerning.

Our two sporty liars are facing opposite predicaments. Faran goes to see a specialist at Cherie’s request, only to be told she needs to take a break from dancing for six months if she wants any chance of overcoming chronic pain from her surgery. And Noa gets sent to a trainer to help with her shortness of breath at track. She’s given an inhaler to take before her sprints, but worries to Shawn that it could be seen as doping. A may have looked out for Faran, but something tells me they would leap at the opportunity to frame Noa all over again.

Meanwhile, Tabby takes steps towards confronting the trauma of her assault through — what else? — filmmaking. For their final assignment, her film class is tasked with writing and editing a short film based on some aspect of their life. During a shift at the Orpheum, Tabby gets fed up when Wes and Chip refuse to take her point about the dangers of skirting over violent rape scenes in the name of artistic intent. She even imagines stabbing Wes with her pen, which, fair! Things grow more frustrating when she attempts to report her assault at the police station, only to be roped into an impromptu interrogation with Sheriff Beasley. He’s looking into Tyler’s disappearance, which the show definitely didn’t forget about last episode! Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine a worse person to confide in than “Sheriff Slenderman,” as Tabby calls him, so she resolves to stick with telling the truth through her short film, for now. And when she notices a blood drive poster in Nurse Simmons’ office, she gets an idea for catching whoever attacked her (and possibly Imogen) once and for all.

Imogen is faced with the impending series of choices her own pregnancy is forcing her to make when she and Chip are assigned an infant simulator in health class. After Sidney calms the shrieking robot back home, she presses Imogen about her baby plans and convinces her to schedule an appointment with an adoption agency. The next day, she’s hit with another wave of whiplash when someone hides her fake baby (named Clarice, because the Liars are nothing if not cinephiles) in the storage closet with a classic A note: “You’re a bad mother.” Luckily, Chip is there to comfort her and even escort her to her adoption appointment.

It turns out that Tabby’s two best friends have plenty of chemistry themselves. Chip even asks Imogen to the carnival, and with Tabby’s blessing, she accepts. The two even share a kiss, with Chip rightfully calling her badass. Apart from being a film bro, he seems sweet! Imogen deserves a cute situationship right now, so let’s hope none of Wes’ creepier tendencies have rubbed off on sweet Chip.

Back at Mouse’s place, tensions between her and Elodie are reaching a boiling point. Her other mom, Shirley (Kim Berrios Lin), admits that Mouse has to live her own life at some point, sending her off on her carnival date with Ash against Elodie’s wishes. It’s all smooth sailing — Ash agrees to be Mouse’s boyfriend! — until they pop by that cursed hall of mirrors, and who should be waiting for them but A. Mouse narrowly escapes with a bewildered Ash as the lights flash red above her, only to literally run into a concerned Elodie.

See, she was already neglecting her dinner date with Shirley, but things truly took a turn when she received an anonymous text: “If you’re not honest with Mouse, your worst fears will come true.” Capitalizing on her panic, Mouse finally draws the truth out of Elodie. It turns out the man who took her was her biological father, and she was actually conceived when Elodie volunteered to be a couple’s surrogate. It’s an abrupt end to Mouse’s core mystery, nearly overshadowed by the revelation that Mouse herself sent the creepy text. Surely we haven’t seen the last of this guy.

The next day, Mouse recounts her encounter with A, and Tabby and Imogen are about to confide in the other Liars about their assaults when all five phones go off. And wouldn’t you know it? A is hitting them up with some post-mortem pics of their old nemesis Tyler. If these girls don’t get to the bottom of this Y2K thing soon, Sheriff Beasley definitely has some cells at the Millwood Police department with their names on them.

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