Netflix’s Intriguing New Show: The OA

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Netflix’s The OA. Credit: Netflix

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS.

You may know Netflix’s hit shows, Orange Is The New Black and Stranger Things, but now there’s a new show to rave about. Premiering on December 16th of last year, the show was created by producer and lead actress, Brit Marling. Marling plays a distressed young woman named Prairie or “OA” who has recently come home after have being reported as missing for seven years. Found after a video leaks of her jumping off a bridge, OA’s parents come to her rescue and take her home. Although despite being safely home, OA still has a lot to uncover. Where was she? Why did she leave in the first place? What happened to her? What are those scars? Who took her? Surprisingly in the midst of her new chaotic life, OA finds five friends: Buck (Ian Alexander), Alfonso “French (Brandon Perea), Steve (Patrick Gibson), Jesse (Brendan Meyer), and Ms. Smith (Phyllis Smith); all whom eventually help get her to the other side.

While there are many issues revolving OA and her homecoming, the main one that seems to consume her is getting back to Homer. You see her making videos, telling her story about getting kidnapped, and eventually what those scars are. These are all factors that go into OA getting back to Homer. She tells her story to her five new friends every night and requests that they leave there door open saying this “lets her in”. Through flashbacks, OA’s entire story is told from the moment she was born in Russia to when she saved the sheriff’s wife with Homer through their movements.

The movements are a vital part in OA getting back to her friends. When OA was away, she was kidnapped and locked in the basement of her captor along with four other people. During her time there they all learned they have a gift: the gift to come back from the dead. Soon after they also discovered they could transport themselves out of the basement through five movements. Because of her knowledge of these five movements, she teaches her new friends these movements in the hopes of dying and finding her way to Homer again.

Which brings you to the end of show, where OA is caught holding these meetings and is forced to stop. Although, when there’s a shooting at the nearby school in which Buck, “French”, Steve, and Jesse attend and Ms. Smith works, she gets a feeling. They all do. Suddenly OA is running  towards the school, while the boys are all hiding in the cafeteria under tables. As the shooter roams the cafeteria, all of the friends bad together and begin to do the five movements together, when a shot goes off. A close up of OA with a bloody chest appears on the screen. She’s taken to the hospital in the ambulance, when suddenly it goes white and we see OA say, “Homer?”

What a way to end a show, but what does all of this mean? If you’re not carefully paying attention, you can get lost in the plot and eventually confused. You might find yourself asking about the experiment or what OA means (Original Angel).