Paper Girls Season 1: Ending Explained Recap and Review.

Time travel is a tricky business and these paper girls have gotten their hands dirty. Instead, we focus on the plight they find themselves in in 1999. The girls’ failed attempt to return from 2019 to 1988  was eventful, to say the least.

Their best bet for getting back from their sprawling paper route was to wait them out for SEVEN YEARS until they were able to jump onto the first fold (time portal) and shoot out of the nineties.

That understandably sucked for the quartet, who had long since ended their adventure: there were attempted memory ablutions, and the deaths piled up. All that, and the creators still found time to throw a pterodactyl into the mix.

The ending is packed with anxiety-provoking suspense, and if after all this time you’ve got the details a little muddled, who could blame you?

Nostalgia isn’t?

Pop culture has been obsessed with the ’80s for the last few years. We have shows like Stranger Things to thank them for being weird. But while Paper Girls will no doubt draw comparisons to much nostalgic ’80s media, the show isn’t interested in embellishing the beloved decade.

In fact, Paper Girls is a reminder that the ’80s really sucked sometimes. Paper Girls is more about embracing the future than reveling in the past. From Erin’s dream of becoming a senator to Mac’s desire to leave his difficult life at home behind and never look back, it’s a story about characters who want to move on.

Additionally, “Paper Girls” brings to light some of the bigotry and paranoia that were rampant in the 1980s, particularly when it came to racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and moral panic. At its core, the show is about reminding viewers that not all aspects of the 80s are fond memories.

According to Variety, in Brian K. Vaughan described the story as a “death threat” to times gone by and stated that he wants people to realize that humanity has come a long way since then, and that’s worth celebrating.

The sad reality of adulthood

Paper Girls may not want to dwell on the past, but neither does it portray the future as kittens and rainbows. When the children meet their grown-ups, they realize that life hasn’t gone as planned. Erin grew into a jaded freelance paralegal estranged from her sister. Tiff got kicked out of her dream college and ended up dating a guy she didn’t even like.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime

Mac died at the age of 16, never escaping his abusive home life.KJ found happiness, but it’s implied there was a split between her and her family as they don’t approve of her career aspirations.

The interactions between the children and their older versions convey a major theme of “Paper Girls”: the contrast between the dreamy optimism of youth and the sad reality of adulthood. The kids have yet to get burned or hurt as their adult counterparts try to find their purpose and deal with the unexpected curve balls life has thrown at them.

And if adult Erin’s unfortunate death revealed anything, it’s that years later, finding a happy ending isn’t always a guaranteed offer. In the end, children and adults could potentially learn something from each other.

Children need to prepare for life by taking some unexpected turns, while their older selves might benefit from remembering some of the things that nurtured them in the past.

Accepting the darker side of life

The young cast of Paper Girls watched many coming-of-age movies and ’80s classics while preparing for the show. One of those films was none other than Stand By Me (according to The Hollywood Reporter), which shares many thematic similarities with the Amazon series.

Based on Stephen King’s short story The Body, Stand By Me follows a group of teenagers who discover a dead body next to a railroad track, effectively ending their childhood while they know it. The film also examines how death of can affect young people, while also exploring issues such as abuse and dysfunctional families.

There’s no denying that he’s one of the greatest influences. Paper Girls is another coming-of-age story about children facing death and the harsh realities of the world.

However, the Amazon series takes it a step further by exposing some of the young characters to their own deaths, leading to moments of personal reflection and existential dread that linger forever. Erin and Mac spend much of the season knowing how and when they’re going to die, and when the credits roll on screen, they still haven’t fully digested the information.

Mac’s and Erin doomed fates

Luckily for Mac and Erin, there might be a way to escape their planned death dates. Before putting the girls in capsules and sending them back in time, Priora (Adina Porter)  tells them that they still have a chance to save their “sick people”. Friend” aka Mac. All they have to do is prevent the Time War, which is easier said than done.

Prioress also informs Erin that the future may be what she does, hinting that she still has time to make decisions, which will lead to a more promising outcome for her in the future, which of course makes sense given that adult Erin died mid-battle against a giant robot.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime

If war doesn’t happen,  it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever drive machines and have boxing matches. Prioress’ words also suggest that Erin can change the events that prevented her from achieving her goals and led to the consequences.

It remains to be seen how the gang will bend the rules of time to make it all work, but Prioress’ revelations gave them some hope and a reason to keep fighting for their respective futures. Stopping a terrible war and saving humanity is just an added bonus.

There is more to the story than some silly old Politics

If the point of “Paper Girls” is to remind viewers that the 1980s had its downsides, then its frequent reference to the polarizing president who ruled the United States for most of the decade is a way of making that point to emphasize.

Most references to the former president come in the form of newspaper headlines that highlight the Cold War paranoia of the period. However, the former supreme commander also appears as a manifestation of young Erin’s feverish dreams.

When Reagan first visits Erin’s subconscious, he is a supportive figure, helping her through a crisis. He tells her to be brave after she is shot and informs the 12-year-old that not all gunshot wounds are fatal. However, in the sixth episode, she prays for his insecurities by telling him that while bad things happen, he’s just waiting.

Let’s talk about mixed messages, right? Erin’s connection to Reagan is more personal than political, and there’s a reason for that.

The idea came from comics showing how many American kids looked up to the former president in the 1980s. Brian K Vaughan told The Daily Beast that before children were old enough to agree or disagree with his policies, Reagan seemed like a comforting figure. “He was basically Optimus Prime,” Vaughan recalled. “The Reagan years were formative eight years of my life, portraying him as an equal parts superhero and surrogate father.

Doctor Braunstein

In the final episode, Prioress mentions a woman named Doctor Braunstein who made discoveries that led to the outbreak of the Time War in the first place.

Prioress informs the girls that since he was linked to Quilkin, they will become part of the medical team. Institute founded by Tiff’s older self. This means that future Tiff successfully cracks the codes from Larry’s notebook, which he hid in his car before his memory was wiped.

In short, Tiff has finally mastered the art of time travel. But who is the mysterious brownstone the Prioress spoke of before her death? Well, it turns out the importance of the document in the development of time travel cannot be underestimated.

According to Nerdist, the comic book version of Braunstein essentially made it up just to finish it. above travels to the year 11.706 a. However, she was eventually rescued from the prehistoric era and brought to the year 2055.

The prioress, named Braunstein, noted that the girls eventually crossed paths with her, suggesting that she will eventually appear in the television series. Point. If that happens, it could mean a trip down memory lane for the gang.

Paper Girls Season 1 Ending

The final moments of Paper Girls’ epic finale take Tiff and Erin back in time. However, his friends are nowhere to be seen,  so it’s safe to assume they’ve traveled to another time after escaping in their pod. If that’s the case, the next chapter will cover more of the past and future.

Image Credit: Amazon Prime

The characters are thrown into situations where they are sometimes forced to face insurmountable odds without the strength of their quartet, making life more difficult.

In the comics, the characters traveled far and wide from prehistoric times to the far future, so the series has a lot of interesting source material to dig up.

Paper Girls is a fairly faithful adaptation of the comics, so anyone who’s read it can probably make some educated guesses as to where the show is going.

When the series breaks down the characters, which actually happened in the comics, it provides an opportunity to show how they developed as individuals and to highlight each girl’s respective strengths. Don’t expect a beat-for-beat recreation of the comics, though.

Christopher Rodgers has already assured fans that the series has room to experiment and grow beyond the events depicted in the source material. “I absolutely believe that ‘Paper Girls’ has a really thoughtful arc in the source material that we’d love to emulate,” she told Nerdist. “But at the same time, we want to surprise [viewers] and expand on what’s out there.

Read More: Paper Girls Season 2 Everything you need to know