Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin Review Season 1 Episodes 4 and 5: The (Fe)male Gaze / The Night He Came Home

After a three-episode premiere, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin continues with a two-episode offering that provides better pacing but continues to fall short of the payoff. 

Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin Season 1 Episode 4, “The (Fe)male Gaze,” is a much faster and better-paced episode compared to the premiere episodes. The series starts to dig into some of the main questions and we start to see the girls spot some inconsistencies with Kelly.

The way Faran breaks down the little clues that something is off feels very true to an original Pretty Little Liars storyline. I’d go as far as to say that the deception feels a bit like when Jenna Marshall regained her sight and faked out most of Rosewood High. 

The constant horror movie references that were regularly peppered throughout the first three episodes don’t appear as much in the dialogue here and actually give the characters a chance to have real conversations with one another and a little more original personality.

I even like how the series starts to show us glimpses of 1999, and a bit of what happened with the moms and Angela. It serves to frame what should be the show’s primary mystery. However, it still feels like it takes a back burner to teenage drama. Yes, Imogen is trying to find answers, but there’s only so much she can do and the moms are not factoring into the story. 

Some of the problems are still there including the fact that the show continues to have scenes with little to no lighting that are detrimental to the audience being able to see the BIPOC actors. Chandler Kinney is giving an amazing performance when she rushes out of the school, but because the scene is so poorly lit, we cannot see any of it. 

Similarly, on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin Season 1 Episode 5, “The Night He Came Home,” there are a series of cut away moments meant to suggest something foreboding down dark hallways, but with a lack of lighting you cannot see. It’s not scary, it just makes me wonder why this cut’s there. 

However, the show also doesn’t follow through on the main tension. “The (Fe)male Gaze” is framed as an episode that would focus on Tabitha’s film class, however that storyline never really pays off and instead diverts into introducing the thread about the party in the woods where we have learned something bad has happened. 

Given that this is the halfway point in a first season, there should at least be a couple of answers or consequences to the character’s actions. Failing to do so doesn’t increase the stakes of the story and leaves us uninvested and asking “why?”

An example of this is Noa’s mom. We see a flashback of what happened between her and Angela and A corners Noa until she calls the hospital and informs them of her mother stealing pills. Yet, while this affects Noa psychologically, there seem to be no broader consequences.

It feels like the show is simultaneously trying to pull all its strings at once and just enough to make it so that it’s not worthwhile.

Individually, the girl’s stories are all presenting interesting concepts and topics to mull over. Mouse’s arc on these episodes where she pretends to be Rachel is intriguing and definitely draws my interest. However, the other material within the episode eats up time and presents us with different questions designed to pull our focus.

Overall, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin seems to be improving in terms of pacing, but the show needs to figure out a way to pace the stakes and which plot they want viewers to focus on. 

Stray Thoughts:

• Continuity continues to be a problem with this series. It feels like such a small thing but Ash literally says that the Orpheum isn’t doing a Halloween movie night this year and then Wes says they’re doing an all-day horror movie marathon. I could buy him looking for an excuse to hang out with Mouse, but he didn’t have to phrase it like that if that was the intention. Plus, there’s no way a theater is planning an all-day horror marathon in what appears to be about a week.
• Why did we need a ouijia board? Nothing happens with it. It’s a motif that is common in horror, but it only serves Imogen’s breakdown which feels delayed and poorly timed to just to draw the girl’s together. 
• We do get a nice shot of A’s trunk which has a sticker that says Army Reserve. I am tempted to call that a clue, but given how the show struggles with consistency, I am also ready to write it off as a misdirect.
• There’s a Rosemary’s Baby ending coming. That’s the only explanation for Imogen needing to be pregnant. 
• Does anyone believe Wes when he says he won’t make Tabitha feel that way again? She’s been pretty clear with how uncomfortable she is. 
• I appreciate the way that Chip recognized the problem with the film assignment and took steps to amend it. 

What did you think of these episodes of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin airs new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.

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