Be aware there are spoilers for the entire first season of Netflix's The OA.

It's been a long wait for Season 2 of The OA. The puzzling fantasy series debuted on Netflix in December of 2016, sparking mixed reviews, endless theorizing, and plenty of passionate bar debates about what the heck actually happened in Season 1. Staged across eight episodes, loosely an hour each, The OA's first season unfolded a mysterious, dazzling, and often baffling story that somehow blended the Russian mob, angels, a scientifically pioneering kidnapper, resurrection, a pack of Midwestern teenage boys, a school shooting, and a series of dance movements that supposedly allow you to travel through dimensions -- all told by an unreliable narrator.

It was a lot to process, even when it was fresh, so it's no surprise if you've forgotten exactly what happened in the two-plus years since. If you don't have time to dive give another eight hours to a re-watch, we've got you covered with all the essential details you need to remember. Whether you're looking for a detailed recap, just need to brush up on a specific character, or want a refresher on what the hell that ending meant, check through the categories below for everything you may have forgotten.

And when you're ready to move on to season 2, be sure to check out our review of the next chapter in the ambitious sci-fi/fantasy series.‘

Prairie Johnson

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Image via Netflix

The OA begins with an impossibly intriguing premise -- a young woman (Brit Marling) re-emerges after seven years missing, except now, the once-blind girl can see, earning her the nickname the "Michigan Miracle" That young woman is called Prairie Johnson, the adopted daughter of an aging couple, who returns home to her small Midwestern town and, rather than trying to reacclimate to her life outside captivity, sets out on a mysterious mission to rescue the people who were held hostage with her -- especially one named Homer, for whom she records video confessionals and obsessively searches for online.

Prairie's adoptive parents are Nancy (Alice Krige) and Abel (Scott Wilson), an elderly couple who unexpectedly found Prairie in an off-the-books adoption ring and chose her over a baby boy they were planning to adopt. They are fiercely protective of Prairie, heavily medicating her as a child after signs of mental illness, and only more so after she returns from seven years missing, which leads to constant conflict with their now adult daughter. Prairie also has an FBI-appointed counselor, Elias Rahim (Riz Ahmed), who helps her process her trauma and is found mysteriously walking through her house at night in the finale. While Prairie tells BBA and the boys the story of Hap and Homer, she tells Elias the story of BBA and the boys.

In order to reunite with Homer, Prairie says she needs five willing participants to help her on her mission and quickly amasses an intimate if skeptical crew; four teenage boys and their middle-aged teacher, who meet at an abandoned house at night to hear Prairie's incredible tale.

BBA and The Boys

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They are:

  • Steve Winchell (Patrick Gibson): A quintessential problem child and meathead bully, with a depth of emotion and intelligence that only Prairie sees at first. He deals drugs, punches kids in the throat, and dreams of being a stunt man, and his parents want to send him to a brutal military camp called Asheville to get him in line, but through Prairie's meetings, he discovers a more mature, less volatile version of himself.
  • Jesse (Brendan Meyer): A soft-spoken stoner kid who hangs out with Steve. He comes from a broken family (his mother killed herself and his father left) and he lives with his sister Ally. He's a sad but kind kid, tangled up with drugs, and he offers BBA sympathy in her time of need.
  • Buck Vu (Ian Alexander): A transgender boy who goes to high school with Steve and Jesse (and buys his hormones from Steve). He has a sweet nature and sings in the choir, but stands up for what he believes in and is willing to sacrifice his own access to hormones to protect French. Buck's mother is supportive of her son's gender identity, but his father rejects it and insists on calling him "Michelle".
  • Alfonso "French" Sosa (Brandon Perea): On the outside, French is your classic high school overachiever; a star athlete and ace student who earned a full ride scholarship to the college of his choosing, but there's a lot going on under the surface. French also has a drug problem, though he hides it well, and takes care of his addict mother and his two younger brothers.
  • Betty Broderick-Allen, aka BBA (Phyllis Smith): BBA teaches at Crestwood High School, where all four boys attend, and starts the season eager to expel Steve for his violent behavior but ends up his biggest advocate. She's grieving the death of her twin brother, Theo, a drug addict who died after she turned him into the police, and is shocked to discover he left her everything in his will. Through the nightly meetings, she grows close to and protective of the boys, and ultimately gives up $50,000 to keep Steve out of Asheville.

Steve also has a girlfriend at the end of the season, Angie (Chloe Levine): A fellow outcast at school who meets Steve in their alternative school program. She also has an explosive temper that belies a deeper tenderness. She doesn't attend the nightly meetings but survives the school shooting along with them and has a bigger role to play in Season 2.

Nina Azarova

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When Prairie calls her first meeting, she starts her story by going back to the beginning, telling us about her childhood -- and it's probably not what you were expecting. Prairie Johnson was born Nina Azarova, the daughter of a powerful and wealthy Russian oligarch who owned a mine. Nina adored her father and their life in Russia, but she also experienced prophecies of the future -- terrifying dreams accompanied by a nosebleed -- and predicted a terrible tragedy that would shatter her life forever.

When Nina was just a girl, a powerful criminal organization called The Voi decided to send a message to her father and other industry titans by killing their children. On the way to school, a bus full of the wealthiest children in Russia -- including Nina -- crashes over a bridge, plummeting into a lake. Nina keeps her composure and swims out of the bus, halfway to safety, but she can't swim to the surface fast enough and, floating in freezing water, Nina dies for the first time in her life.

She awakens in an otherworldly afterlife, surrounded by walls that look like the night sky and meets a mysterious, maternal woman called Khatun. Khatun gives Nina a choice -- she can go back to the realm of the living, but it comes at a price. "You will know great love, but it will be very hard," she tells Nina. "You will suffer." All the same, Nina chooses to return to life, but first, Khatun takes her eyesight. "I will take your eyes because I cannot bear for you to see what lies ahead. It’s too horrible," she says.

Nina awakes back in the world of the living, rescued by her father, but when she returns, she is blind. Scared off by The Voi, Nina's father sends her to safety in America, where she lives with her aunt, talking with her father on the phone once a week. Soon after, she learns that her father has been killed by The Voi and she is taken by the Johnsons.

Hap and His Captives

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After we learn the story of Nina, it's time to learn the story of The OA. Or at least the start of her story from the perspective we're given. On the eve of Prairie's 21st birthday, she receives another vision that convinces her that her father is still alive. Leaving a note behind for Nancy and Abel, Prairie runs away to New York City, where she journeys to the Statue of LIberty, believing her father will be there waiting for her. He isn't, but she tries one last ploy -- playing the song he taught her on the violin in the subway station in the hopes that he'll hear her.

While her father never comes, another man hears her song: Hap (Jason Isaacs), the man who will hold her captive underground for the next seven years. Hap is an ex-ER doctor who grew obsessed with Near Death Experiences, aka NDEs, after hearing a "whoosh" when people died on his table before coming back to life. Hap recognizes her transcendent talent when he hears her playing the violin and buys her dinner at an Oyster House. He's extremely charming and generous, and Prairie thinks she may have found the father figure she was missing, so when he invites her to be a part of his study on NDE survivors, she accepts and travels back with him to his lab. Blind and trusting, Prairie is unable to see as he guides her into an underground cage and locks her up with four other captors.

They are:

  • Homer Roberts (Emory Cohen): A college football player with a warm heart, bravery, and commanding presence. He helps Prairie keep her sanity during their captivity, they share a bed divided by glass, and ultimately they fall in love. Homer has a child he's never met and is haunted by the idea they think he abandoned them. His first NDE happened during a football game that left him in a coma.
  • Scott (Will Brill): A heroin junkie who was captured by Hap while he was high. He's cynical, abrasive, sarcastic, and often openly hostile to Prairie for the way Hap favors her, but still has a loveliness in him (for example, he whispers to his plants at night to keep them alive without sunlight).
  • Rachel (Sharon Van Etton): A young woman who died during a car accident and came back to life with "perfect pitch". Her brother was paralyzed in the accident and she regrets that he never got to hear her new voice. Fans have a lot of theories about her because 1) her cell is the only one with dead plants in it, 2) her name is seen in Braile on the wall of an FBI office, 3) she is the only captor who never receives a "movement" in her NDEs.
  • Renata (Paz Vega): Renata is captured by Hap mid-way through the season, with the reluctant help of Homer, who clumsily seduces her. She's a Cuban woman who came back to life with a prodigious talent for playing guitar. She's not as close to the rest of the group and despises Homer for playing a part in her capture, but she ultimately is a key member of the group.

Every once and while Hap gasses one of their cells and pulls one of them out for a mysterious experiment. He is generous with Prairie and has a soft spot for her, allowing her to help him with chores upstairs. After a few years, Prairie devises a number of plans to escape. None of them work, and when she is caught running for her life, Hap cracks her in the head with the butt of a gun and she dies for the second time in her life.

The OA

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Prairie awakens in a sunny world with green hills sprawling all around, where she spies a small house. Inside, she finds Khatun and that same room from her first NDE, filled with galaxies and constellations.  Khatun once again offers her a choice; Prairie can stay in the afterlife and live a life of peace with her father, or she can go back to the world of the living and face even more suffering. Prairie decides that she cannot have peace while the others are still trapped in Hap's lair (mimicking an earlier moment when she refuses to eat unless all the captives are fed), and gives up the promise of eternal peace with her beloved father.

Khatun gives her a white bird, fished from her celestial pond and tells Prairie to eat it. She warns Prairie that they will never escape Hap as things are, no matter how much they plan. Handing Prairie the bird, she continues, "This will show you a way to another place, a form of travel unknown to humans, without it, you will stay a prisoner forever. It takes a lot of practice but with this, you may one day fly free." Khatun stands and reveals a great angel's wing beneath her cloak. When Prairie asks if she is like Khatun, the woman tells her she is the "original". The Original Angel.

"All five of you must work together as one to avert a great evil," Khatun says, then Prairie -- no, OA -- swallows the bird, which transforms into a radiant white light. When she wakes up, she can see again. She tells her fellow captives that they are all angels and she knows she has been given a gift that will allow them to escape, but not in the conventional sense -- they will travel dimensions and escape Hap's grasp that way, and somehow, the gift Khatun gave will allow it. They just have to figure out how.

The Five Movements

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Following OA's second encounter with Khatun, the captives start learning what they call the "Five Movements," a series of divine and/or cosmic gestures that are capable of extraordinary feats. Eventually, they realize, that when performed with "perfect feeling," the first two movements can heal the living and bring back the dead. When you have all five movements, they open up an invisible river that can transport you to another dimension.

It starts with OA and Homer, who always believes in her and never doubts her claims, no matter how crazy they sound. Scott, on the other hand, isn't convinced. "You know what? Go fuck yourself," he says when OA tells him what she learned on the other side. At the same time, the captives are cooking up a plan to figure out what Hap is doing to them in the experiments by trying to stay awake, but Scott won't help. Eventually, they work around that, but it takes them years to get it right.

Finally, Homer manages to stay awake and learns that Hap is killing them over and over again to record the soundscapes of their NDEs. Homer listens to one of his tapes and hears himself screaming, "I'm Homer!" "You're not Homer," someone replies. "Do you know Dr. Roberts?" It takes even more time before Homer is able to stay awake through one of his NDEs, but when he does, he awakes in the ceiling, crawling through the narrow confines in a hurry. An arm reaches up towards him through a panel in the ceiling, and he dodges it. OA told him he needs to find something living and eat it, so he chases a spider and falls through the roof into a bathroom where the urinals are overflowing with neon yellow sewage.

Homer runs out into the hallways, clad in his underwear and grabs a pink jacket, sprinting off before the nameless figures chasing him can catch up. He runs into a room with a window facing a bay, where he finds a large five-sided fish tank. Just before the guards catch him, he grabs a sea anemone and swallows it whole. After that, he has the second movement in him and he and Prairie spend years practicing and learning their two movements together.

One day, Hap comes for Scott when the gas is broken. Wide awake and terrified, Scott confesses everything -- OA can see again, and she's working with Homer on the movements to escape to another dimension. Hap kills him all the same and in his anger, he accidentally kills him for good, blood running everywhere. Hap drops Scott's body in the cell for everyone to see, but Prairie and Homer have their faith. They perform their movements all day and night, and in the morning Scott returns from the dead, a changed man -- and he has the third movement.

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Renata is given the fourth (Rachel never gets one), and though they are always searching for the fifth movement during their NDEs, they never find it. OA returns to Khatun's hut, but the angel is gone and her galaxies are blinking out into darkness.

The Fifth Movement finally comes when they least expect it. A local sheriff wanders into Hap's house and sees the captives, but Hap convinces the officer to let him go if he can save the old man's ailing wife. OA and Homer perform the movements over her crippled body and when she is healed, she gives them the fifth movement, saying she was given a mission to stay alive long enough to pass it on to two captive angels. "It’s a matter of will," she tells them. "Only a person of great determination can swim to another side."

Unfortunately, Hap is tracking the movements too and the moment they discover the fifth, the moment they have everything they need to escape, Hap immediately separates from Homer before they can touch, drugging her. He drives her far away from his lab and leaves her on the side of the road, furiously whispering threats. He's going to use the movements to travel to another dimension with her friends, and leave her alone in this dimension with nothing. "I don’t have to kill you," he says. "Even if you get back, we’ll be gone. In another dimension, all of us. And you’ll be all alone, with nothing. With no one”

That's the end of OA's story in Hap's captivity. We don't know what happened between being left on the side of the road and being returned to her adoptive family, but that brings us up to the beginning of the show, leading into the timeframe with BBA and The Boys.

The Ending

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OA has been teaching BBA and the Boys the movements so that she can travel to another dimension to find Hap and Homer. Once again, just as she finally has what she needs to travel, it's snatched away from her.

As Prairie finishes her story for BBA and The Boys, parents and school officials interrupt their meeting, horrified by the cult-like creepiness of what they see. Prairie is put on house arrest (you can clock the ankle monitor near the end of the finale), BBA is let go from her job, and the gang more or less goes there separate ways, receding back into the high school social groups that kept them apart in the first place. French even discovers a collection of books under Prairie's bed that convince him she made the whole story up. Until tragedy strikes once again.

Another premonition hits OA, blood dripping from her nose, but this time she knows what it means and she takes off running down the road toward the high school. Meanwhile, all the boys are in the cafeteria and BBA is packing up her things when an active shooter starts opening fire on the school. At the same time, BBA, Steve, Buck, Jesse and French step in front of the shooter and start performing the five movements, just as OA taught them. Hissing, sighing, bending and contorting in unison. As they finish, a cafeteria worker tackles the shooter, who lets off a spray of shots on the way down. Miraculously no one is hurt…except for Prairie, who stands smiling behind a bullet hole in the window, shot square in the chest.

So what does it mean? The ending left audiences divided. Was any of the story we were just told real? Or did OA make the whole thing up? Or maybe she just made up parts of it -- if so, how much? You'll have to tune in for Season 2 to get all the details, but there are certainly details in the final scene that suggest something otherworldly is going on. From the rushing wind in the trees, to the sound of a river just as OA talks about the invisible current. There's also the matter of the bullets that miraculously missed everyone but OA, not to mention the fact that she was driven to that very spot by a premonition. Eagle-eyed viewers will also notice an angel painted on the window in the cafeteria.

Ultimately, The OA's first season asks of you the same thing OA asks of her followers -- have faith, leave your door open and believe. Whether you want to embrace the story is up to you.