The following article contains major spoilers for the season finale of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin follows Millwood residents Imogen Adams (Bailee Madison), Tabitha “Tabby” Haworthe (Chandler Kinney), Noa Olivar (Maia Reficco), Faran Bryant (Zaria), and Minnie “Mouse” Honrada (Malia Pyles), who are each being haunted by ghosts from their respective mother’s past. Over the course of the first season, these girls have uncovered the long-buried mystery of Angela Waters (Gabriella Pizollo), faced certain death at the hands of their masked, 7-foot-tall tormentor, and tried to bring justice to town for the first time in decades — for themselves and others. There’s been no shortage of death either, as A killed mean girl Karen Beasley (Mallory Bechtel) and several other bullies around town, ensuring they would stay quiet or face a similar fate. Not that they need another reason not to spill the truth with Sheriff Tom Beasley (Eric Johnson), a tool that constantly abuses his power, in charge. Going into the season finale, tensions are high, secrets have been (partially) uncovered, and the girls are on the verge of figuring out the whole truth about who hurt Angela and who hurt/is hurting them. Let’s break down the highlights of that explosive final episode.
The Truth About Chip
With Tabby’s suspicions growing about Chip (Carson Rowland) being the person who sexually assaulted her and Imogen, she begins to look for clues. She asks around to see if Chip was at the bonfire the night of her attack, as she already knew he was at Karen’s party the same night as Imogen’s attack. When nobody can directly confirm or deny if he was at the bonfire, Tabby confides her suspicions in Imogen, and the two come up with a new plan of attack: Search Chip’s room for the underwear that Imogen was wearing — and subsequently missing — on the night of the attack or other “souvenirs” he may have kept. Given Tabby’s close relationship with Chip, the girls have no problem convincing Chip’s mom to let them into his room while he’s working late at the movie theater, but their search is unsuccessful… though they do find a box of horror movies hidden away in the back of his closet that are known for gruesome depictions of sexual violence against women.
Unrelenting in their quest to find out the truth, the girls make a new plan: Confront Chip and accuse him to see what his reaction is. At the movie theater, Imogen and Tabby corner Chip and ask, manipulating him into believing that they have no intention of turning him into the cops for what he did, but rather that they just need the truth for “closure.” Chip takes the bait, admitting to both assaults, describing how his anger over Tabby not returning his feelings motivated him to assault her and how he took advantage of Imogen’s drunken state at the beach after Karen’s party. Following his confession, the girls tell Chip they’re going to turn him in, though they’re interrupted by A creeping out of the darkness. Frightened by the tall, masked man, Chip runs away, and A turns his attention to the girls. But, knowing what happened to Angela Waters and A’s connection to her, the girls plead with A to leave them alone, revealing that Chip hurt them in the same way as Angela was hurt before her death. Then, A chases after Chip, ready for his next kill.
The Truth About Angela Waters
At last, though far ahead of schedule for the original Pretty Little Liars, the truth about what happened to Angela Waters is revealed… and it does not make the mothers look good, especially Imogen’s. Taking us back to 1999, it’s revealed that Angela was assaulted by Tom Beasley, who happened to be dating Imogen’s mother Davie at the time. After Angela accuses Tom, Davie turns on her. But, the pranks Davie and her friends had been pulling on Angela weren’t enough for Davie. Instead, Davie gets the entire school to pretend that Angela doesn’t exist, silencing her amidst her accusations against Tom. They erase her, driving Angela to the brink after being relentlessly bullied, rejected by her secret girlfriend (Mouse’s mother Elodie), and assaulted. Thus, Angela snaps, arriving at the Y2K rave and killing herself, so everyone would finally pay attention. It’s a brutal, horrific, and tragic end for a girl mistreated by everyone around her.
The Truth About ‘A’
Following Faran revealing the truth about A and Karen’s death to Kelly (also played by Bechtel), A is ready to punish the girls for breaking their rule about keeping silent. To do this, he kidnaps the girls’ mothers and ties them up in the high school gymnasium, luring the girls to the school with the promise of saving their mothers. Only, A has other ideas in mind, giving them tasks to complete in order to save their mothers, using people from their respective lives to test them. For Tabby, Chip is tied up and waiting for her to carve an ‘A’ into his chest. Madame Giry (Kate Jennings Grant) is tied to a ballet bar for Faran. Steve (Alexander Chaplin) is tied up for Mouse to hurt after he tried to force her to keep posing as his daughter following the police finding her body. Noa is given the opportunity to inject, hurt, and potentially kill her mother’s drug dealer.
And, finally, Imogen is offered her mother’s corpse, which had been dug up, to face the truth about who Davie really was. But, the girls can’t go through with what A wants them to do… except for Imogen, who retrieves her mother’s missing diary pages from inside her dead mother’s mouth, detailing what she had done to Angela that had left her feeling guilty enough to be driven to kill herself. In a twist of fate, the girls refusing to go through with hurting those who have hurt them is what A wants, and restores a bit of his faith in people.
The girls still head to the gym to find their mothers, and the truth of A’s identity is revealed. Surprise! It’s longtime Millwood High Principal Marshall Clanton (Robert Stanton). Going back in time, it’s revealed that Principal Clanton was working at Millwood long before Angela arrived, but Angela’s mother Rose later revealed that he had a child he didn’t know about and asked him to allow her to attend, but to keep their kinship a secret. So, once Angela started to be bullied by Davie and her friends, Clanton had a front-row seat to the mistreatment and knew exactly who to blame once Angela killed herself. Thus, he finally decided to get revenge against Davie’s friends after her death.
However, the person under the mask that has been following the girls and on a murderous rampage through Millwood isn’t Clanton. That is his son Archie, Angela’s secret brother who was born with a deformity. Rose decided to keep him a secret from the world and mistreated/abused him. For example, she made him sleep in the cage that the girls found at the Waters’ old house, explaining how he grew into the monster he is today.
What’s Next in Millwood?
With her baby in the world, Christmas comes to Millwood and the girls are thankful for their nightmare finally being over. Principal Clanton is arrested. Clanton sends Archie after Imogen to pay for Davie’s sins, who goes into labor while being chased by a psycho killer and fights for her survival. She leaves Archie injured and recovering in the hospital. Alongside him is Sheriff Beasley, who had been shot by his wife after he threatened Kelly’s life once she revealed she knew the truth about what he had done to Angela Waters. Imogen decides to give her baby up for adoption, and the agency puts her in contact with a couple from Rosewood: Aria and Ezra. (Sadly, there are no appearances from the original cast.)
Aria and Ezra are willing to allow Imogen to stay in her baby’s life and get updates, so Imogen is ready to move to the next phase in her life. All is well for the girls… but they have yet to learn that Archie has woken up and escaped from the hospital, killing Sheriff Beasley for his crimes on his way out. Even without his father, Archie is ready to continue his mission and make everyone pay. In the final moments, Archie arrives at Chip’s doorstep, who is out on bail after being formally accused and charged with assaulting Imogen and Tabby. Once Chip opens the door, he gets one final breath as Archie ends his life.
The first season of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is streaming exclusively on HBO Max.