Season 1 Episode 01:
Homecoming
After 7 years missing, a blind girl, Prairie, is found and can now see. She also says her name is The OA, and a lot more mysteries surround her.Tropes present in this episode include:
- Daddy's Girl: The OA was very close to her biological father.
- Death by Childbirth: Prairie's biological mother. She was raised by her biological father alone before his death.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The OA suffered strange, terrifying dreams as a little girl in Russia. In particular, dreaming that she's trapped in an underwater tank. This became prophetic when her schoolbus ends up in a river.
- Eye Scream: Khatun agrees to let the OA return to life in exchange for her eyes. The scene cuts just as she reaches to physically pull her eyes out.
- Friend to All Living Things: After Steve's dog attacks her, the OA is strangely able to calm it down and make it like her.
- Friends with Benefits: Steve and one of his classmates. He wants to get closer to her emotionally, but she's only interested in sex.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Steve reacts violently to rejection. This is why his teacher, Betty Broderick-Allen, wants to expel him.
- Happily Adopted: The OA, known to the public as Prairie Johnson, was adopted by her parents from Russia.
- Intergenerational Friendship: The OA/Prairie Johnson (an adult woman) and Steve Winchell (a boy in high school) start to develop one. He helps her get wi-fi, so she poses as his step-mother to convince his teacher not to expel him. Deconstructed because when his parents find out, they're disturbed by it and afraid that she's taking advantage of him sexually.
- In-Series Nickname: Steve refers to the OA as "Crazy", at first derisively but later affectionately.
- Nouveau Riche: The OA's biological father.
- The Ophelia: The OA refuses to be called by her previous name, is obsessed with the internet, waxes philosophically at inappropriate times, and is generally very awkward around people.
- Throwing Off the Disability: The OA was blinded as a child, but somehow regained her sight after her disappearance. Everyone wonders how she could possibly see again.
- Unique Pilot Title Sequence: The title card for this episode doesn't come in until OA starts telling her story, almost 45 minutes in. All other title cards are at the beginning.
