Summary
The story moves as expected, so tension/drama isn’t overly high. But it gets the job done, and while the early death may have been seen coming, it nevertheless affects the paper girls.
This recap of the Amazon originals series Paper Girls season 1, episode 5, “A New Period,” contains spoilers.
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Paper Girls season 1, episode 5 recap
The plan to time travel works! Even so, Larry is very agitated, and when the paper girls ask what is wrong, a purple light appears in the sky. Larry says they’re too late and warns them all to run. A large robot appears from the sky and kills Larry! That robot then scans the area for life forms as Adult Erin, Young Erin, Tiffany, KJ, and Mac hide in a trailer. To save the paper girls, Adult Erin climbs into the giant robot she used to time travel and battles with the enemy robot. Ultimately, Adult Erin is unable to defeat the robot, and she dies in the fight.
Prioress and a sworn of white-suited soldiers arrive and search the area. Tiffany tells the other paper girls that she believes that their minds will get wiped, and they’ll forget everything that happened. Instead, they return to “hell day” with their memories intact. But it’s not good enough for Tiffany; she wants to help and reminds the paper girls that there’s a war going on. As the group argue, Erin notices that there are flags everywhere, an unusual feature for Halloween. Tiffany checks out a newspaper and realises they’ve travelled to the date July 3rd 1999.
KJ accuses Larry of lying to them and only thinking of himself. After stealing some tampons from the newsagent, they sneak into a party for supplies. Well, except for KJ, who fears being caught/seen. However, it doesn’t take long for KJ to follow suit. And after spotting her older self, KJ learns she will grow up and move to New York. During the party, Mac tells Erin that she liked reuniting with her brother; on the other hand, she hated meeting his oldest daughter. Erin tells Mac that she’s sorry that she had to leave her brother. But Mac brushes it off and claims that she wouldn’t have fit in anyways.
The ending
KJ reunites with her dog, Patty. And it’s a joyous moment until Tiffany comments on how KJ has missed Patty’s whole life. KJ almost comes face-to-face with her older self, so she hides in the bathroom. And that’s when she witnesses Older KJ and Lauren snog each other. And whilst it may have been obvious to the audience where this was heading, it’s a huge shock to Young KJ. (Which, I have to admit, is very clever and quite similar to some “coming-out” stories in real life.)
KJ then rushes out of the house, and after being called an ar****le, she punches Mac. As a result, Tiffany loses it and storms off. She heads to a telephone box and calls her future self.
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