Paper Girls S1E4
Episode 4 "It Was Never About the Corn"
Flashback to 1988 Erin and her little sister, Missy, playing with those paper origami fortune tellers. You remember those, right? It's where you jot down random potential outcomes and once it is determined by a couple swipes of the origami thing. This scene just shows how close they were as kids.
2019 Missy is sitting at a desk with another man waiting for another person to arrive but never shows. Dude just ups and leaves in a huff. As soon as he closes the door Missy lets out a big "FUUUUUUCKK!"
Continuing where we last left off with Larry showing the girls the ginormous robot cool lookin' thingy, he explains to them that for the last 14 years this farm was been tasked with taking care of it. Larry also corrects them that the vehicle that brought them from 1988 was more of a lifeboat in which Heck and Naldo selflessly helped save the girls' lives. This robot is a "battleship" that Adult Erin is tasked to drive since the black sacred object is now paired and tethered to her after she inadvertedly activated it.
Erin doesn't receive this news warmly and yells at Larry until Tiff talks some sense. The original plan was for Erin and the girls to take the robot (him too!) to 1999 but with STF's help they will eventually get back to their time. That doesn't fly with her and just wants to take the girls home. They come to an agreement and they are set to leave in 6 hours.
While they are all collectively freaking out, Mac and her big brother have some quality bonding time playing with firecrackers and sparklers in the middle of nowhere. they sit on a random couch where they talk. Her brother apologizes for being such a bully in his younger years and acknowledges how severely rough their childhoods were. He sees this as a second shot to be be there for her and do it right this time.
Larry wastes no time to get Adult Erin prepped and familiar as she can be with the robot. Erin tries to alleviate the situation with a childish joke but Larry chastises her but it's all really because she can't seem to fathom the seriousness of it. In the middle of this session, Missy calls her in a rage because it turns out that the appointment she missed was to sell their late mother's house. She drove out of state only for her sister not make it so she's pretty pissed. After welcome herself inside Erin's house, she sees the sleeping arrangements from the paper girls and even a bloody shirt on the floor so she demands to go to her ASAP or she will call the cops. Great.
Intelligent and resourceful Prioress has officially managed to track down the social worker that was initially in charge of Mac's intake at a salon. She's definitely more friendlier with this woman so she doesn't have to resort to manhandling her in order to get more information. Sometimes, you just need to be kind to extract dat info. This is how she got the name to the doctor and his address.
Missy hauls ass to get to Larry's place for a quick chat but in the meantime little Erin is excited to see how her little sister grew up to be but Adult Erin stresses that she has to absolutely be out of sight. Plus, it's not going to be a happy reunion. They grew up resenting each other.
Tiff follows Larry and hands him a map she map that details all of their encounters with STF with times and locations with various other details that she hopes might help they get home. He takes a look at it and gives her a brief rundown of it. The pink (I will on this hill and say it was PURPLE) smoke/light the paper girls experienced in the pilot episode is a light based mind reset that the Old Watch use on people to restore "their" normality, most particularly STF Underground associates. Ablution. That's what it's called.
While Erin is all giddy in the upstairs room about the thought of peeking over at her sister when she arrives, KJ is a lot less enthused for her. This irks Erin which sparks in her own inquiry of how SHE isn't curious to see her own adult self. KJ replies back that if her mother had her way of turning out in her vision, then she doesn't care to see it IRL.
Erin and KJ end up making a pact that she won't give a hoot should she sneak back down to get a closer glimpse of Adult Missy on the condition that she doesn't rat her out for sneaking out of the house in an effect to get Mac back. She used Larry's computer to find big bro's address. They shake.
Dylan and Mac are awaiting to pick up his kids from school and concocts a plans to have Mac as a permanent family member of his household. When his daughters come walking up, the older one is snobby and not welcoming due to Mac wearing her leather jacket but the younger daughter, Alice (named after his step mom) who holds out her hand to introduce herself politely.
Missy gets to Larry's and OMGGGG Erin and Larry have to act like a couple and it is soooo awkward I am literally suffering from second hand cringe.
Upon asking how they met, they make an inside joke how Larry "knocked" her off her feet..ya know because he literally tased her in their first encounter. Visibly uncomfortable, she totally does not like him and thinks he's weird. During the conversation, KJ takes off with a bike and Larry curses outside.
With both the sisters alone, they have a very tense but brief confrontation that built from years of resentment. Just as quickly as it started, Missy storms off.
Mad Larry finds Tiff clinging to the robot (because homegirl is so amazed by it!) but once he calms down especially after practically saying that KJ and Mac might as well be dead because the Overwatch is relentless in dealing with stragglers and don't count on seeing those girls alive ever again. He does end up showing Tiff cool nerdy calculations when and where a folding begins?
"What a folding?" asks Tiffany
Well, it's a secret back roads to time travel which means that there IS a snowballs chance in hell that they can be brought back to their original time. And the one coming up is the one where they will enter through in just a few hours. Spent so much of his life documenting the farmer's almanac which prepped him to find these folding coordinates.
KJ arrives to Dylan's house but only his wife is there. She's a very friendly woman who assumed that she is one of "Jo's" AKA Mac's friends. She invites her inside the house so that she can wait for them to come back since they are grabbing a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant. She reluctantly agrees. There was an odd misunderstanding when she refers to Mac as one of her girlfriends. Obviously in a platonic way but KJ gets reallly skittish and goes on a rambling how they're just friends. Only friends. Nothing but friends. Just friends. lol
DING DONG!
Fucking hell it's Prioress at the door under the guise of a new neighbor. KJ takes a quick peak and runs for her life. Since she knows the name of the restaurant, she has a head start. Of course, the rattling motor of the bike and both of them seeing her ride off tips off Prioress. She drops the nice neighbor act and demands from the wife where she's going.
Things are bittersweet at Chili's where the older daughter is not destined to warm up to Mac and it turns into a very uncomfortable lunch time. Things come to a ahead where she refers to her big brother as Dr. Dildo so he pulls her aside and asks her to chill the hell out. Mac pulls the:
He tells her and people grow up and she needs to face the facts. They're family so they to work together. Okay, that sounded dorky but he really said he doesn't want to waste his second chance with his little sister and wants to see her live past 16 from when she died in the original timeline. They hug it out but this is when KJ walks in the establishment so Mac excuses herself to the bathroom.
In a huge panic, tense music and all, KJ urges that she has to leave with her RIGHT NOW and that the "murder lady" is already on her way to get deal with her. With no time left to lose, she chose to go.
Prioress notices immediately and it hot on their tail and follows them in her vehicle.
This scene was difficult to watch because you see the urgency but sadness in her decision to leave her brother without saying goodbye. The chance to live a better life with a proper parental figure to help straighten out her life. The emotion in her face was pretty damn heartbreaking.
Meanwhile, time is ticking down at Larry's compound where he meets up with Adult Erin where they discuss the troubles ahead of them. He brings up that it's not just them she should be worried about. The second both of them leave their original timeline tonight the Overwatch will immediately detect it and will now be after them. Grave truth, yo.
Just in the nick of time KJ and Mac get reunited with everyone else and they haul ass to the robot thingy because the folding just opened. It is time.
Prioress does actually reach the farm but it is too late. Just as she approaches the farm is when the robot is activated and comes banging out of the silo. To her utter shock the robot enters the folding and disappears into eternity.
It is now night time and she is still standing there in disappointment only then when someone comes walking up. Clearly, her superior, walks on up and says "It's not that I'm mad. Just disappointed."
