‘Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin’ Bosses on [Spoiler’s] Death & the Twin Question

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the first three episodes of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.]

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin knew exactly how to get us hooked: drop the first three episodes at once, kill off a character in the middle of a dance, and introduce an A who is terrifying.

Twenty-two years after a tragic death at a New Year’s Eve rave, the daughters of girls in attendance find themselves dealing with A. First, Imogen (Bailee Madison) finds the letter written in blood next to her mother’s body, then A stalks her, Tabby (Chandler Kinney), Noa (Maia Reficco), Mouse (Malia Pyles), and Faran (Zaria). He sets them all up to land in detention and blame school bully Karen (Mallory Bechtel) for it, leading the five to retaliate. Karen and her twin Kelly then plan to get the girls, specifically Imogen, back at the dance. But before Karen can re-enact Carrie, A pushes her to her death.

But how much was that about Karen and how much was that about the Liars? “That is a big part of the season-long mystery, and the first three episodes kind of tell a complete story, which is why those episodes drop together. But I think even in Episode 7 or 8, as the girls are starting to put together all of these disparate pieces from the past, the present, the question is, why did A kill Karen?” co-creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa tells TV Insider.

“It seems like A is trying to avenge something from the past. How does Karen fit into this? Why? Our girls have various reasons. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say Karen dies for not just her behavior in the present but also for her connection to the original sin in the past,” he continues. “It feels very thematically in keeping with the rest of the show. There is definitely a reason why, from A’s point of view, Karen had to die.”

Barbara Nitke/HBO Max

With twins, the question has to come up of whether that was even Karen who died. After all, Kelly had just pretended to be her sister earlier in the episode and Imogen, who had been close with the twins, thought she’d approached Karen at the dance only for the girl to say she was Kelly.

“We do answer the question of is it Karen or is it Kelly in the season,” co-creator Lindsay Calhoon Bring promises. “We have fun with that. In our minds, Karen and Kelly are such amazing schemers and such amazing tricksters and they have a history of fooling people and playing with people, so, we think they could really fool anybody. Those two are clever girls.”

Adds Aguirre-Sacasa, “twins are such a great horror trope. Even in the original PLL, there were iconic twins. One of the things that I think is surprising is — of course we play it for the fun caper of, is it one twin, is it the other, and Mallory is such an amazing actress — that we do play the emotional story of those twins. It’s one of my favorite stories, what’s going on with the Beasleys and what’s going on with Karen or Kelly and why. It is something that we play through the season, hopefully in a surprising, emotional way.”

Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Max

Because of the questions surrounding what led to Karen’s death, her father, Sheriff Beasley (Eric Johnson), is looking for someone to blame and focuses on the Liars, due to the video they screened of her drunk ahead of a screening at a local theater. Due to Noa’s past troubles with the law, she has more to lose, as he reminds her, and she, Mouse and Faran are tempted to let Imogen and Tabby take the fall, until that’s exactly what the other girls offer to do. In the end, the girls do decide to stick together (though there is no disciplinary hearing because Kelly comes forward about the planned prank, explaining why Karen was up in the rafters).

“One of the things that was a bit different for us in developing the show was beginning the show where the girls aren’t yet friends but they develop a friendship. For us, that was a big test. A tests the girls, are they going to be bullies like their mothers in Episode 2,” Calhoon Bring says. “I think this was a big test for the girls: Are they going to stick together because they’re stronger together than they are apart, or are they going to break apart and save themselves? That’s a friendship test that they pass, just deciding to stick together. I think it’s a really formative moment and sets them up for a successful relationship and friendship in the season.”

Related

Lucy Hale Teases She Might Appear in 'Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin'

As Aguirre-Sacasa explains, “you want drama, you want intrigue, you want alliances to form, and we felt like we had to tell that story. But the truth is we love when the girls are all together and they’re united. They’re so forged by what happens and obviously Imogen and Tabby live together and the other girls aren’t that intimate with each other. So we do like that story, but very quickly, you want these girls to be friends and you want them to have each other’s back because no one else in this universe does.”

And they’re definitely going to need each other because the third episode ends with the Liars spotting A watching them at Karen’s grave. Uh-oh!

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, Thursdays, HBO Max