Things are really starting to heat up on Paper Girls in episode four, “It Was Never About the Corn.” Larry hatches a plan to get the girls back to 1988, but Mac has second thoughts about leaving 2019. Future Erin has a personal clash with her sister, while KJ tries to convince Mac to go home with her.
The Future Sucks | Beginning in an office with Future Missy (Abigail Lue), Erin’s future sister, being stood up by someone and lashing out as soon as she’s alone, while Larry (Nate Corddry) explains to the Girls that the robot in the silo is a battleship- and only Future Erin (Ali Wong) can drive it since she was paired with the device. Tiffany (Camryn Jones) realizes that the robot can travel through time and they can use it to go back to 1988, but Larry wants them to go to 1999 as part of some mission. Tiffany thinks they can still go back to ’88 and keep the Underground agents who took her walkie talkie alive so they can complete the ’99 mission, which Larry reluctantly agrees to, but KJ (Fina Strazza) tells them that they need to find Mac (Sofia Rosinsky) before they can leave.
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Family Matters | Speaking of Mac, she and Dylan (Cliff Chamberlain) are firing bottle rockets at a construction site and Dylan apologizes to Mac for bullying her when they were kids. As Larry teaches Future Erin to fly the robot and she refuses to take it seriously, he chastises her and she flips him off using the robot’s hand. Future Erin’s phone rings and it turns out to be Missy demanding to know why she didn’t show up to the meeting to sell their mother’s house. Future Erin tells her to come to Larry’s farm, while Prioress (Adina Porter) gets Dylan’s address from one of his coworkers.
Erin (Riley Lai Nelet) is excited to see Missy, but Future Erin tells her to stay out of sight when she arrives, as Tiffany learns from Larry that the Old Watch uses the pink sky to erase the memories of everyone involved in the time excursions, but he has no idea how the Girls avoided the mind wipe. Erin waits with KJ, who refuses to learn about her future self because, “If my mom got her way, I turned out exactly like her and I don’t need to see that.” Great line!
KJ looks up Dylan’s address on Larry’s computer to find Mac, who is introduced to Dylan’s two daughters, as Larry pretends to be Future Erin’s boyfriend to Missy. Future Erin and Missy immediately argue about their mom’s house and Missy storms off in a huff, just as Erin, who’s been listening at the door, gets her first period. When Missy comes back inside for her purse, Future Erin tries to apologize, but Missy is still pissed and drives off.
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The Farmer’s Almanac | Larry shows Tiffany a journal he’s been keeping for decades that tracks the time portals over the decades and how one of them will take the girls home. KJ heads to Dylan’s house and meets Dylan’s wife, explaining that she’s looking for Mac, and KJ gets flustered when Dylan’s wife calls her Mac’s girlfriend. Then, Prioress knocks on the door and KJ sees her and flees to the restaurant where Mac and Dylan are having lunch with his daughters.
At said restaurant, Mac clashes with Dylan’s kids and Dylan has it out with her, but still wants to fix their relationship, telling her that she deserves to be happy. Just then, KJ arrives and tells Mac that Prioress is after them, forcing the two of them to leave Dylan at the restaurant, which causes Mac to break down on the back of KJ’s bike. Larry, Erin, Tiffany and Future Erin wait for KJ and Mac to get to the farm and then get in the robot to leave through the folding in time, as Prioress pursues them on foot. She’s too late, though, as the crew gets in the robot and enters the folding, transporting them through time. Prioress is then met by her boss, a very causal looking dude in a Tupac T shirt played by Jason Mantzoukas, who tells her that he’s not mad, just disappointed.
Paper Girls is now streaming on Prime Video.
