What the hell, mouse?! During the course of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin So far, the Liars’ resident wallflower has proven to be much more complicated than her sweet exterior – evil villains aside, posing as the lost children of their parents can be the most annoying thread and disturbing so far. With three episodes left, the writers want us to question A’s identity more than ever, with everyone from Sheriff Beasley to creepy manager Wes, to Y2K, Sidney, one of Angela’s family members, showing up as reliable options. But Mouse so casually threatens her mother with a burning phone in one Pretty Little Liars the show cannot be ignored. Sure, she was terrorized by A soon after, but when it comes to characters who could be lured to the A team, Mouse now seems pretty high on the list.
Not surprisingly, this rat-centric episode (titled “Carnival of Souls”) opens with a flashback to her Y2K mother Elodie’s (Lea Salonga) teenage years. Millwood’s annual carnival is in full swing and Elodie has taken Angela to the hall of mirrors. Looking around shyly, she laughs before she and Angela begin kissing, for what doesn’t appear to be the first time. Of course, once a repulsed Davie explodes, Elodie immediately goes on the defensive and blames Angela for “attacking” her. Back in the present day, Mouse is surprised when she confronts her Halloween “dad”, Steve, and discovers that Elodie attends a grieving parents’ support group despite never having lost a child.
Will the tension in the Rat family make up most of the strange representative Original sin? Given how important (if difficult) Emily Fields’ story was to the emergence of a leading lesbian character on TV in the early 2010s, I’m surprised at how fair the main female leads have been so far.
At school, the girls are discussing Imogen and Tabby’s recent A findings over lunch. They’re hanging on one key detail: How does killing Karen affect A’s master plan? Mouse questions if Angela’s father is responsible, while Noa balks at Sheriff Beasley’s possible involvement – after all, he went to school with their mothers. When Imogen asks how he could kill his daughter, Noa reveals his demons. After all, she saw him getting lunch from one of the guys in her community service group.
There is also the issue of Kelly, who accused Farani of putting A in the auditorium. It turns out that a distraught Corey had her car accident because she was too disturbed by all of Faran’s words, not because of any trickery by A. So is the tormentor looking for the girls in a weird way? Or are you trying to turn their attention to Kelly? Either way, most of the girls agree on one thing: they won’t stop a serial killer from letting them enjoy the next carnival.
The only one on the fence is Mouse, who admits to Ash that the event doesn’t have a big history in her family. When she was five and enjoying a day at the carnival, an unknown man tried to take her away before her mothers finally found her, hysterical. Elodie has been paranoid about losing the mouse ever since, which honestly makes her ability to get out and meet those parents all the more impressive… and disturbing.
Our two sports liars are facing opposite hardships. Faran goes to see a specialist at Cherie’s request, only to be told that she needs to take a break from dancing for six months if she has any chance of overcoming the chronic pain from her surgery. And Noa is sent to a trainer to help with her shortness of breath on the track. She is given an inhaler to take before her sprints, but Shawn worries it could be seen as doping. Could have taken care of Farani, but something tells me they would jump at the chance to frame Noah again.
Meanwhile, Tabby takes steps towards dealing with the trauma of her attack with – what else? – making films. For their final assignment, her film class is tasked with writing and editing a short film based on some aspect of their lives. During a shift at the Orpheum, Tabby gets fed up when Wes and Chip refuse to take her opinion on the scandalous dangers of violent rape scenes in the name of artistic intent. She even imagines hitting Wes with her pen, which, right! Things get more frustrating when she tries 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 last episode! However, it’s hard to imagine a worse person to trust than Sheriff Slenderman, as Tabby calls him, so she decides to stick to telling the truth through her short film, for now. And when she notices a bloodbath poster in Nurse Simmons’ office, she gets an idea to catch whoever attacked her (and possibly Imogen) once and for all.
Imogen faces the impending series of choices her pregnancy is forcing her to make when she and Chip are assigned a baby simulator in health class. After Sidney calms the screaming robot in the house, she pushes Imogen about her plans for the baby and convinces her to make 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 Liars are nothing if not cinephiles) in the storage closet with a classic note: “You’re a bad mother.” Luckily, Chip is there to comfort her and even accompany her to her adoption appointment.
It turns out that Tabby’s two best friends have quite a bit of chemistry on their own. Chip even asks Imogen to the carnival and with Tabby’s blessing, she accepts. The two even share a kiss, with Chip rightfully calling it evil. Except the movie brother, it looks sweet! Imogen deserves a cute situation right now, so let’s hope none of Wes’ creepier tendencies have rubbed off on sweet Chip.
Back in Mouse Country, tensions between her and Elodia are reaching a boiling point. Her other mother, Shirley (Kim Berrios Lin), agrees that Mouse needs to live her life at some point, sending her on her carnival date with Ash against Elodie’s wishes. Everything is going smoothly – Ash agrees to be Miu’s boyfriend! – until they pass through that cursed hall of mirrors, and who should be waiting for them but A. Mouse narrowly escapes with a confused Ash as the lights flash red above her, only to stumble upon words for said a worried Elodie.
See, she had already neglected her dinner date with Shirley, but things took a turn when she received an anonymous text: “If you’re not honest with Mouse, your worst fears will come true.” Taking advantage of her panic, Mouse finally gets the truth out of Elodie. It turns out that the man who took her in was her biological father, and she was actually conceived when Elodie volunteered to be a surrogate for a couple. It’s an abrupt end to the essential rat mystery, almost overshadowed by the reveal that Rat herself sent the creepy text. We certainly haven’t seen the last of this guy.
The next day, Mouse confesses her meeting with A, and Tabby and Imogen are about to confide in the other Liars about their attacks when all five phones go off. And wouldn’t you know it? A is hitting them with some photos after the death of their old nemesis Tyler. If these girls don’t get this Y2K thing figured out soon, Sheriff Beasley definitely has some cells at the Millwood Police Department with their names on them.
Abby Monteil is a writer based in New York. Her work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Insider, Them, Thrillist, Elite Daily and others.
