What Does 'The OA' Mean? The Netflix Series Serves Up A Big Mystery

(Warning: this post contains spoilers from The OA Episode 1.) Netflix's latest drama, The OA, is filled with mystery and it's no surprise that fans have a lot of questions, the most obvious of which is what does The OA mean? For the main character, Prairie Johnson (played by Brit Marling), The OA actually refers to her. She is The OA. Of course that doesn't really answer the question, so the real question is where did Prairie go? How did she become The OA and what do those initials (if they are initials) stand for?

So far, it seems as though Prairie has the ability to predict her death, but also to live more than one life. When Prairie was young, her name was Nina and she lived in Russia. She used to have nightmares that she was trapped in an aquarium and she couldn't breathe. Although her father helped her get past the nightmares, Nina ended up getting into an accident with five other children and they all died by drowning, which seemed to prove her dreams were premonitions. These premonitions or visions continued throughout her life. Although her adoptive parents believed it was due to mental illness and started giving her medication, Prairie continued to have visions about her father.

It's anyone's guess what The OA stands for specifically, but it seems like indicate that it involves having the ability to connect to the "other side" or whatever one believes exists after death. Prairie had said that she'd died multiple times and we've now seen her die at least once (via flashbacks). Maybe she has the ability to live multiple lives and continue to connect to those who are dead.

Prairie also told the group of five that she gathered in the first episode that she could tell their fates, so it seems like she can also predict when people are going to die. Maybe this means she always has one foot in the living world while another is in the world of the dead. Also, was she always this way or did she just become this way because of the first time she died?

There are still so many questions surrounding Prairie and how she became The OA, but hopefully we'll get more answers as the show goes on and have a better understanding of where all of this is leading.