Pilot

> "*You're a witch, Melanie. A special one.*"
> ― Jane Lucas
>
>

**Pilot** (listed as *A Witch's Confession* in some sources) is the first episode and the season premiere of A Strange Place.

It was written by B.D. Hoffman and later directed by "Titan". It premiered on August 5th, 2018.

## Synopsis

Melanie Lucas is about to start afresh at Riverbank High School, despite the many obstacles including the arrival of New York socialite Corina Vanderwaal, the grievance of her spontaneous break-up with Connor Manning, the brutish run-ins with the undisputed queen bee Ava Thomas, and avoiding the title as the daughter of a dead man. But also to throw in the mix of all the drama, her mother has enlightened her on a family secret that will change the playing field as a whole.

## Recap

Melanie Lucas is introduced in her bedroom, she's finishing up some last-minute extra-credit homework while also stocking up her bag with essentials for the school day. Her mother, Jane Lucas, manifests in the doorway and Melanie's mood drops down tremendously.

Jane urges to have a chat with Melanie before she heads to school, but Melanie insists she's late. Jane makes note that it's only a few days away from her birthday, which Melanie just shrugs off before heading off to school.

Melanie meets up with new friend Corina Vanderwaal, having only arrived just last month from New York with her mother, Alexandra. Corina relishes on her early days in Riverbank where she acted out, then praised Melanie for sparking a change in her. Melanie seems distant and this frightens Corina, knowing full well the details of her father's death.

Melanie ignores Corina's attempts to push her back out into the dating scene. Carrying on with her normal morning routine she usually does when she gets to school, only to round a corner and bump into Connor Manning. Connor doesn't manage a sentence which leaves an awkward silence lingering around the threesome only to have Corina break the silence and drag Melanie away. This upsets Connor at his lame attempt to talk to Melanie once again and reignite their flame.

First period has begun and Corina and Melanie have English together with Miss Totterswoth. Melanie, being focused on her studies, listens intently to her English teacher, only to have her trance interrupted by none other than Corina alerting her of a boy who hasn't kept his eyes off of her the entire lesson. This is shown to be Noah Murphy, a mysterious kid at school who's parents presumably died in a car accident.

Melanie shrugs Noah's incongruous look and returns to the front of the class. The bell dismisses the class and Noah shoulders her on the way out, giving out a low grunt, which startles her. She looks to Corina who simply shrugs, holding in her anger.

While retreating back to her second-period class, Melanie is unfortunately cornered by resident mean girl Ava Thomas who threatens her a suspension of the swim team as she didn't turn up to any swim meets over the break if she didn't turn up to today's practice. Ava continues to berate Melanie for her style, oblivious of the tragedy that has befallen her, only to have Corina intervene and retort back her insults to Melanie. This stuns Ava who has never met Corina before only to storm away, swearing revenge.

Imbued with doubt about how the rest of the school year was to turn out, Melanie decidedly turns up to saxophone practice with her music teacher who tells her she better be keeping up with playing the piano as well as the guitar.

After she's dismissed, Melanie bumps into Connor who decides to apologize for Ava's behavior earlier. When inquired about why he's apologizing for her actions, Connor enlightens her that he's her tutor and felt it was his responsibility to do so. Melanie bursts out saying that it wasn't necessary and that he shouldn't feel so righteous feeling like he's doing a good deed when in fact he was only just annoying her. This upsets Connor and he storms off, she instantly regrets this and tries to apologize but he's already gone.

Melanie laments to Corina about her outburst with Connor only to have Corina reassure her that it's no big deal and that she shouldn't get so hung up over it. This confidence-booster helps Melanie get ready for swim practice and enter the natatorium. Ava commanding everyone to finish up some warm-up laps. As the swim captain of the Riverbank Vipers, it's her duty to take over practices if the coach doesn't turn up.

Corina is seated up in the stands spectating, still disgusted by the state of things, but nonetheless cheering her on even though it isn't a swim meet. Melanie notices jealousy and rage sparked in Ava who begins to kick Corina out of the natatorium for disturbance of her teammates. Corina fires back and this prompts Ava to go into an angry silence as she continues to coach the team.

At the end of the day, before Corina and Melanie departed, Corina made note of how strange Noah's behavior had been with her, Melanie dismisses this and the two finally depart for their respective cars. Melanie makes a startling discovery at her car, the word "WITCH" carved into her car door. Thinking this is the works of Ava, she curses under her breath only to have Noah emerge from the woods and slam his fists against the car. He smells her and curses, expressing how he knew he smelled a witch. Not sure how this insult pertained to her, she hastily got in her car and fled home. Connor watched this entire ordeal.

Melanie arrives home only to be greeted by her mother who seems frantic to introduce her to someone or something. Melanie tosses this up to be as her being a grieving widow and storms upstairs, still frightened by her interaction with Noah. Jane glances at the dining room table which is lined with herbs, remedies, potions and a giant book on the table; The Lucas Grimoire.

Ava finishes up some late night laps of the school pool and closes up the natatorium, she stumbles outside wrapped in a towel whilst texting someone on her phone. She trips over a bump and after catching herself she notices the dead body of Coach Desjardins, the swim team coach that was missing at practice earlier that day. She takes note of her being drained of blood and two puncture wounds in the side of her neck, before she can inspect the body more, Ava is attacked. A blur knocks her off of her feet and she's sent spiraling into a nearby car.

Jane strides upstairs, expressing urgency that she and Melanie talk. Melanie thinking this is one of Jane's rampant therapist lectures, keeps dismissing her but it's fruitless as Jane is persistent. Melanie gradually grows irritated and impatient with Jane's persistence and proceeds to scream at her to get out, stabbing her index finger in her direction which sends her flying out of Melanie's bedroom and smacking into the hallway wall, rendering her unconscious.

Melanie shakily nurses Jane back to health, still in awe after discovering the family grimoire. After regaining consciousness, Jane proceeds to inform Melanie of her family heritage, one with great perks, but also deadly consequences. Melanie is a witch, but a special one as not many witches are born with the innate ability of telekinesis and pyrokinesis, which is typically acquired when a witch is to join a circle of witches. Melanie shakes her head in belief, tossing it up as Jane being delusional after her father's death. When Jane manages to convince Melanie of being a witch after talking about how she magically threw Jane across the room and demonstrated a spell from the family grimoire, Melanie disappears into her room once again to process this information.

School is said to continue as normal as police investigate the sudden and tragic death of Coach Desjardins. The school is in a stir, mostly everyone speaking in hushed whispers about Ava's allegations of someone moving at superhuman speed. She's become a pariah at the school but she still manages to keep her head held high.

Connor discusses Melanie's strange absence from school with teammates, who all grunt in disgust, visibly annoyed with Connor's obsession with Melanie. The boys urge him to move onto Ava, but Connor just says that he's her tutor and only her tutor, and plus that she was a little nutty after what happened last night. Ava, upon hearing this, storms into the girls' bathroom a crying mess.

Corina walks out of a stall and notices Ava being a sobbing mess, being the kindred soul she is, she hands her a tissue and gives Ava a pep talk on how to handle haters. Ava hugs Corina in thanks and Corina departs from the girls' bathroom.

Melanie arrives late at school only to notice cold hard stares from everyone, but they're not on her. They're on Corina. She walks the halls oblivious to the disgusting stares as she fishes for something in her purse. Rachel Dillinger, Ava's best friend, shoulders Corina in disgust who finally looks up to attack but decides against it when she sees Melanie.

Melanie takes Corina somewhere private, ignoring the other students, and tells her about her "witch heritage" her mother told her the day prior. Corina laughs and pats her on the chest and says happy early birthday, making Melanie remember her birthday is set for tomorrow. Corina rambles on about plans and shrugs off the whole "witch" thing Melanie had told her earlier.

Noting the stares and cruelness set against Corina all day, Melanie sets out to investigate, first interrogating Rachel. Rachel says that Ava told everyone about Corina's "prank" by drugging Ava making her believe that she was moving at superhuman speed and attacked her as a way to climb up the social ladder. Although these were false, people believed it and Corina was hurt, disappearing into anonymity to avoid social backlash.

Melanie confronts Noah about how he knew of her being a witch, he informs her about his keen sense of smell then comes to the realization that Melanie had only just figured out her heritage and had no idea what the world like that outside of it was.

Noah then tells her of the supernatural world and how it is far more bigger than her and witches and that she be careful and wary when talking about such things because of "Hunters" who are humans imbued with hatred and a need to slay and kill every supernatural creature that threatens theirs and normal, unsuspecting humans livelihood and how he is, in fact, a werewolf.

In Chemistry class, a note is passed around the class to Melanie, who opens it to and turns to see Connor who nods towards her. He wants to meet later and talk, in private. Melanie excuses herself from class for a toilet break and as does Connor, the two then talk privately in the girls' bathroom, where Melanie feels incredibly uncomfortable.

Connor appeals to her interests on how he would be a good boyfriend and how much he misses her, pleading for her to take her back. Apologizing over and over again for her loss, his relentlessness is too much for Melanie who lets out a shriek of agonizing, emotional trauma which ends up breaking the basin in the bathroom, water showering Melanie. Connor in shock drags Melanie out of harm's way and holds her sodden body tight. Melanie shakes him off and runs away. Connor chases after her as Ava exits the bathroom stall from behind him.

After Melanie hears the story about what Ava saw on Coach Desjardins, she meets up with Noah in the school parking lot and proposes an idea on solving Coach Desjardins murder having a feeling that the supernatural was involved and that the Sheriff's station was to be having a hard time. Noah declines the offer and laughs it off, not wanting to get involved. This infuriates Melanie who sets a nearby bin on fire. This alarms Noah who races off.

Later at the Vanderwaal residence, Melanie and Corina study in her bedroom as Alexandra makes them mocktails in the kitchen. Corina presses conversation on her dating, what she and Connor talked about, and other stupid nonsense at school, avoiding the two topics Melanie wanted to talk about. The cruel rumors about her Ava started and Melanie's heritage. Before Melanie can ask, Alexandra barges into the room and hands the girls their mocktails. Alexandra proceeds to talk to the girls about the on-going drama at school and when she finally departs Melanie compares Alexandra to Mrs. George from Mean Girls.

Ava and Rachel study the damage done by Melanie. Ava claims that she heard the smash as well as Melanie and Connor in here, although she didn't see it, she has a feeling Melanie did it, but not sure how. Rachel tosses it up to delusion and that the drugs Corina had administered the day prior (Rachel believed this) was still taking effect. Rachel departs and Ava kneels down and notices a strange, powdery substance among the rubble of the broken basin.

## Episode Cast

### Starring

* ***Elizabeth Lail as Melanie Lucas (1/12)***
* ***Cameron Moulene as Connor Manning (1/12)***
* ***Janel Parrish as Corina Vanderwaal (1/12)***
* ***Penn Badgley as Noah Murphy (1/12)***
* ***Nicola Peltz as Ava Thomas (1/12)***
* ***Elizabeth Mitchell as Jane Lucas (1/12)***

### Guest Starring

* ***Judy Greer as Coach Desjardins (1/12)***
* ***Lily James as Rachel Dillinger (1/12)***