Weird Al Is Dead – As the second episode of Paper Girls begins, adult Erin (Ali Wong) freaks out in her room and refuses to believe she just saw a younger version of herself. She contemplates calling 911 but realizes she’d sound like a lunatic. Mac (Sofia Rosinsky), Erin (Riley Lai Nelet), and the others try to wrap their heads around what is going on. Mac questions whether they’re dead while KJ (Fina Strazza) worries about the guy she attacked. Adult Erin eavesdrops as the kids discuss going back and reversing what has happened. Tiffany (Camryn Jones) thinks the item they were given matters even though Mac says it could be a futuristic drink coaster. They begin freaking out when they hear the Alexa device talking nearby. Erin looks at the pictures of her parents before running away.

Erin makes adult Erin open the door before asking what happened to mom. She is told the important thing is that their mother isn’t suffering anymore. Once Erin learns that Missy is still alive, she asks where she is and whether they still hang out. Adult Erin explains she had some struggles and Missy wasn’t exactly there for her. She admits they don’t hang out much anymore and they’re single. Erin asks if she is happy only for adult Erin to call that a loaded word. While Missy has a whole life, Erin has a house, job, dumb little car, and Xanax. The only thing that has gotten better is that people in town have stopped assuming she owns a laundromat. Adult Erin works in the court system as a paralegal. When she says she doesn’t know what she wanted to be at that age, Erin says a senator and mother of four.

Adult Erin agrees to let them stay for the night at least. After she is asked whether they’re sick, adult Erin says that is unclear at the moment. Once she is asked about the blood, Erin tells her older self that she was shot in the stomach. Adult Erin begins them blankets and finds out that they ate all of her pickles. Prioress (Adina Porter) and others walk around with guns. They find the dead man on the ground before they’re asked if there is an update for Grand Father, but there isn’t. She finds a field hockey stick on the ground with KJ’s name on it. Tiffany and KJ tell Erin that they’re sorry about her mom before learning her dad died when she was nine. Erin tells them how they have all these rules for pictures of loved ones in China. Tiffany wonders if all their parents are dead. Tiffany reveals her hamster named Weird Al is dead.

KJ says she has a dog and had sea monkeys. Erin says she and Missy had them too. Then, she begins telling the others about a boy named Craig Wicksome and bringing her sea monkeys to school. Adult Erin takes pills and tries to give herself a pep talk. In the middle of the night, Mac sneaks out and rides away on her bike. She rides to the spot where her home was. Now, she only finds the concrete pad with her handprints and initials. KJ comes out and surprises her a short time later. Mac admits that she lived here. KJ says Stony Stream still looks pretty much the same if you squint. Mac says she passed where her school was and it is totally gone now. Mrs. Carson’s house is for sale too. Mac says her dad worked at the auto plant. Between the Japs and the Jameson, he barely had a job anyway. KJ asks her to stop with that because they aren’t coming for any dad’s job. After Mac asks her what the big deal is, KJ asks if she has ever heard of the holocaust.

Mac tells her to give her a break. KJ goes on about someone writing an antisemitic comment on her locker last year. Mac insists she wouldn’t do anything like that. Prioress releases more bugs to heal one of the young guys. When asked about the stick, Heck claims it belongs to him. Heck (Daniel Rashid) says KJ is underground and Lou is the leader. When asked how many more are in the cell, he mentions John Cale and even Andy Warhol sometimes. She gets mad, tortures him, and demands to know the truth. Heck hits her and tries to run away, but he is shot in the back a short time later. Prioress walks over and picks up a newspaper from the ground. Erin wakes up adult Erin to see if she’ll take them to the woods where they arrived. They go back and notice that the guy is no longer on the ground.

They also find it odd that all the blood is gone. KJ freaks out when she can’t find her hockey stick. Adult Erin begins documenting stuff using her smartphone while telling the girls about the phone and its camera. Tiffany asks her where she’d go if the phone broke. She thinks the device they got last night might be a computer too. Once they reach the location, Tiffany tells KJ that she should contact her older self since she doesn’t trust adult Erin. They discuss whether she is trustworthy and competent. Outside, Mac tells Erin how cool it was to see her home gone, but she would’ve liked to have seen the wrecking ball. Mac says she is free, but Erin is not. She needs to get back to Hell Day because her mom and sister need her. Mac is glad she didn’t find a sorry-arsed older version of herself with an alcoholic husband so she must’ve got out of dodge.

She is glad Erin didn’t die when she got shot. She apologizes for shooting her before promising it won’t happen again. Erin always thought she’d grow up and live in a house next to Missy’s house. She admits she expected more from herself, but Mac doesn’t think the future Erin is all that bad. Koko (Saurabh Pande) enters to help Erin. They talk about the power outage from last night and Koko not leaving his backup drives plugged in. He didn’t think he’d hear from her even though he had a lot of fun. Erin tells him that KJ and Tiffany are her nieces. She shows him the item while explaining she needs to get it repaired. Koko has never seen anything like it. Erin claims it is top secret and something she is dealing with for work. He thinks they should try charging it first, but that causes the charger to spark. The girls run over to find out what is going on.

Tiffany complains they’re never getting home, but Erin suggests otherwise. Koko goes into the back to look for something. KJ reassures Tiffany that they’re going to get home even though she doesn’t know how. Erin thinks it would be a good idea to find the other adults. They go home where Erin tries to use the Internet to track them down. While Tiffany uses the Internet, Erin talks to KJ to see how she is holding up with everything going on. KJ admits someone got hurt in the woods and she can’t stop wondering why it was her instead of one of the others. Erin never hurt anyone not even in sports although she likes a good baseball game every now and then. Young Erin sits down with them to talk about baseball while Tiffany searches for her own name. She finds out that she has her own institute so she’ll know how to get them home. The only problem is that she is in Cleveland and Erin doesn’t want to go there.

Adult Erin and young Erin begin arguing about giving up. Mac tries to find out what happened to her brother Dylan. Erin tells adult Erin that she is literally the worst version of how her life could’ve gone. She tells her that she doesn’t even know who she is because she is 12 and she has DVDs that are older than her. Young Erin wants to make sure she doesn’t turn into her in the future. Adult Erin tells her she quit the paper route after one day and the girls don’t even know her name because they just call her the new girl. Young Erin tells Tiff that whoever she turned out to be is likely way more helpful. When the girls leave, Mac insists it could be worse before saying she is sure KJ is the one in prison. They learn that the bus station isn’t where it used to be. KJ worries they’re not going to make it out of Stony Stream before it gets dark so they should find a place to crash.

Tiffany asks where the device is before suggesting they go back. KJ agrees while Mac and Erin refuse to return. Back at the house, Erin begins messing around with the device. She manages to get it turned on. It calls itself STF Unit 953 and asks if she wants to enable the system. She says yes but begins freaking out and trying to turn it off. The system starts arming. Once it arms, she gets in her car and drives away. Meanwhile, the girls decide to hang out at the abandoned mall. They talk about the old stores and events that took place at the mall. KJ tells Mac she remembers the first time she saw her over by the fountain while her brother was fishing out coins.

Tiffany thinks Mac’s brother is the one in prison. Mac curses her before calling KJ a stalker. They don’t know why Mac has to be mean all the time. Mac is tired of them talking about the good old days like they were actually good because they noticed how poor she was when they came to her house. She goes on to say they’re not friends anyway since they only got together one morning on their routes. Mac doesn’t want to go home. She used the computer to look up her brother and he is an ER doctor now. They think they should stick together, but Mac doesn’t want them coming with her to her brother’s place. She gets into an argument with KJ who she calls a psycho for hitting a guy with a hockey stick. She leaves them. Ozzie and Nora Brandman discuss the possibility of holding the house owner’s dinner again. Prioress visits while calling herself Karen.

She shows them the stick and asks if it belongs to them. Prioress acts like she is going to leave but shuts the door and attacks them instead. She leaves with the hockey stick and a picture of KJ.

 

Paper Girls Review

Having never read the comics and really knowing very little about Paper Girls, I didn’t have a clue what to expect. The series has some interesting ideas and it is effectively moody. The characters are starting to calm down and come into their own through two episodes, but I am not blown away by the series just yet. Although it has only been two episodes, little effort has been made to explain what is happening and who some of these people are.

It is still hard to believe we’re dealing with 12-year-old girls, but fans will be able to overlook that. The biggest problem for me is the pacing and action because it has been slow and tedious so far. Some viewers will likely find themselves getting bored midway through this episode since the action is slow and mellow. I hope the action picks up in the next episode.

Otherwise, my interest level is going to drop. The foundation for a thrilling, unique series is there and the characters are well established now so it should be time for the fun action scenes. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Paper Girls can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work at this link.