The time-traveling tale “Paper Girls” on Amazon Prime centers on four girls who are twelve years old. It offers a novel take on a genre that allows for the creation of intricate plots that are sure to confound the audience. The program makes use of the perspectives of four young girls and provides a forum for identity discovery, particularly in light of their future selves. The plot also permits more extensive time travel, of which the first season hardly touched. We’re left wondering what it means for the main characters because the ending teases a bigger time jump in the second season. Here, we’ve dissected the conclusion to determine how the show might proceed.
Spoilers ahead!
Paper Girls Season 1 Recap
Twelve-year-old girls Tiffany, Erin, Mac, and KJ are doing their paper route in the early hours of Hell Day, or November 1 of 1988. They meet two time travelers after a weird event, which places them in the year 2019. Erin, who is older and has no recollection of having gone back in time, is introduced to them. Even though she doesn’t know what’s going on, she assists the girls in determining their predicament and assisting them in returning home. This directs them to Larry, a member of the covert STF group that is attempting to change the timeline. They are up against the Old Watch, which does everything it can to maintain the status quo.
The sisters find themselves in 1999 after failing to return to 1988. They learn more about time travel and their futures at this point. In the end, they realize that chronology is irrelevant, and the plot comes full circle. They are only experiencing what has already happened. They are eventually apprehended by the Old Watch and confront Prioress, who has been after them all along.
They will be sent back to 1988, but their memories will be erased, the Grandfather, the head of the Old Watch, assures. The sisters initially think the plan is a good one, but after learning that Mac will pass away from cancer in 1992, they choose to use their autonomy.
Prioress turns out to be an unexpected ally, saving them from the Old Watch and sending them into the future where they have a better chance of healing Mac’s disease. When the Old Watch troops arrive, however, things take a worrying turn. The ladies are split up, with Tiffany and Erin ending themselves someplace in the past and Mac and KJ suffering an unknown destiny.
Paper Girls Season 1 Ending: Where Do Tiffany and Erin End Up?
The Old Watch and STF have been engaged in a protracted battle for control of the timeline. As a result of time travel, the past, present, and future are constantly confused, making it impossible to predict where the next battle will take place. Prioress has long been a participant in this. She sought to alter the situation by waging a combative campaign against STF, but the Grandfather objected to her strategies.
When she first meets Tiffany Quilkin, a young girl, she learns she has the power to make a difference without actually employing violence. In order to persuade elder Tiffany to stop Dr. Joan Braunstein from starting the war that would rage from the beginning of time to the end of time, she plans to send young Tiffany into the future. Her strategy, however, backfires when the troops attempt to stop her. Tiffany and Erin end up somewhere altogether different when she sends Mac and KJ into the future.
Tiffany and Erin find themselves at a drive-in theater as they leave the cornfield. They appear to be in the late 1950s or the early 1960s based on the style of the time and the film playing on the screen. This indicates that Prioress’s desire to alter the situation will not be realized. The Grandfather doesn’t even appear concerned when he realizes where the girls have gone. He is upset in Prioress instead for believing she could alter the future. Tiffany appears to have unintentionally taken the direction she didn’t want her to.
What Happens to Mac and KJ?
While we have a general idea of Tiffany and Erin’s location, Mac and KJ’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Prioress attempted to time travel the four of them to a future where they could influence an older Tiffany to make alternative decisions that would either put a stop to the conflict or prevent it from starting in the first place. Tiffany and Erin are left behind as Mac and KJ board the ship, separating the girls as the Old Watch warriors attack them. Where did Mac and KJ ultimately end up? In the far future. How far into the future is still a mystery.
The females get to travel far and beyond in both the past and the future, according to the comics. They only progress as far as 2019 during the first season. But the second season will undoubtedly crank it up a notch or two. The twenty-second century serves as a host for a few of their narratives in the comics because they are dispersed over time. The likelihood that Prioress sent Mac and KJ to 2019 or a year nearby is high. She wanted Tiffany to reconsider time travel as the girls grew older, which would have prevented her from working with Dr. Braunstein and preventing the Quilkin Institute from being founded, which is what it is in 2019.
For Mac and KJ, though, relocating to the 2020s or so appears less probable because Prioress also pledged to assist Mac in finding a cancer cure. In 2019, Mac’s accomplished medical brother promises to make an effort to save her, but there is no assurance because a suitable treatment has not yet been developed. The 2100s, for example, will have to be a little further for Mac. This time period also appears more appropriate because an older Tiffany will be better equipped to assist the girls and put an end to the battle because she will have more experience with time travel and may perhaps have done it herself.
Will Older Tiffany Invent Time Travel?
You must be aware that all it takes is one timeline to turn one person from a hero to a villain if you have ever watched even one time travel narrative. Similar to what occurs in the films “Dark” and “Predestination,” the person who is trying to rescue the world while they are young can be the same person who is trying to end it when they are older. It is unclear what each character’s aims are as a result of this intricate web of the past, present, and future. Tiffany seemed to be experiencing the same problem.
The 12-year-old girl seeks to find a way to return home and lead the life she was supposed to after being ripped out of her 1988 timeline. She discovers that the future is a little different from what she had anticipated when she meets her 1999 self. As a teenager, she had the goal of working hard and getting into MIT. She wished for this more than anything else. But what she desired in 1999 ended up being different. She left MIT and began living a life that didn’t appear to be at all what she had envisioned when she was twelve.
In 2019, Tiffany learns that she is the director of The Quilkin Institute after doing some research on her background. She and her friends are forced to flee before she can learn more about it, and they end up in 1999. She only understands the purpose of the institute once Prioress says she will work with Dr. Braunstein. Prioress urges her to change it, but it’s too late because time travel was already set up for Tiffany to create in the future.
Young Tiffany leaves Larry’s diary, in which he has recorded the locations of all the foldings that open the window for time travel, behind before the Old Watch can catch her. She is aware that the 1999 Tiffany’s memory will be erased and that she won’t remember her younger self visiting her.
She is aware that the Old Watch does not change anything that time travelers have touched, though. She then gives the diary to her elder self, who is afraid of forgetting the coolest thing that has ever occurred to her, with the note, “You discover time travel.” Young Tiffany is confident that the diary will enable her to understand time travel and achieve her lifelong goal of creating something wonderful.
Thus, after the memory-erasing process is complete, 1999 Tiffany will be sent back to her time and find the unusual diary in her car. This discovery will enable her to crack Larry’s codes and locate the foldings. She won’t be able to recall anything about the STF or the Old Watch, so she will search for others who are researching time travel. Eventually, this will bring her to Dr. Braunstein and her group, placing her exactly where Prioress didn’t want her to be.