With the release of the highly-anticipated PLL spin-off, “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” viewers are being introduced to a whole new setting and characters. This time around, making up the main squad of Liars are six-month pregnant Spirit Queen Imogen (Bailee Madison); movie aficionado Tabitha “Tabby” (Chandler Kinney); prima ballerina Faran (Zaria Simone); socially-awkward Minnie “Mouse” (Malia Pyles); and the track star Noa (Maia Reficco), who just returned to Millwood following her stay at a juvenile detention center. While everyone has a well-guarded past of their own – the undisclosed identity of Imogen’s baby’s father and Faran’s secret scoliosis diagnosis – Noa’s secret is different, because it’s not her own.
When Noa returns home from her stint in juvie, it’s revealed she was arrested for having drugs. Following her release, she must wear an ankle monitor, do community service, and report daily to their school nurse with a routine urine test verifying she’s staying clean. Noa is understandably overwhelmed with the restrictions imposed on her for a year and has to think ahead before getting involved in any potentially problematic situations. When “A” swaps Noa’s drug test sample, and it comes back positive for weed, she has another strike against her. This greatly worries her boyfriend Shawn (Alex Aiono), who thinks Noa has relapsed. The couple gets into a heated argument over the misunderstanding, which leads Noa to come clean about a big secret she has been keeping all this time.
Noa tells Shawn in confidence that she has never done drugs in her life. The night she was arrested for drug possession, she was actually covering for her mom, Marjorie (Elena Goode), who risked losing her job and her whole life had she gotten caught with drugs. The scene then cuts to a fleeting flashback of the night when Noa is being taken away by Sheriff Beasley as her mother watches on.
Though it’s understandable that Noa would want her mother safe, Shawn is rightfully baffled by how Marjorie could let her daughter take the fall for her. While the exact circumstances that caused Marjorie to ask Noa to take the rap for her misdeeds aren’t yet fully disclosed, could it be a hint of the many secrets Marjorie and the rest of the mothers harbor (like what might’ve led to Angela’s decision to jump from the rafters the night of the rave?).
Only time will tell! The fourth and fifth episodes of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” drop on HBO Max on Thursday, Aug. 4.