Paper Girls season 1, episode 7 recap: Some Kind of Burping Trash Hole

In the last episode, we finally got to meet the adult version of Tiff in 1999, who had just taken a leave of absence from her time at MIT, much to younger Tiff’s confusion. The paper girls all crashed at adult Tiff’s apartment, giving younger Tiff a chance to see what her future would look like.

This includes getting to watch her future self giving the high school valedictorian speech on video. While she’s thrilled with this, Adult Tiff is less than impressed.

She takes her younger self out for coffee to try and impart some wisdom on her. KJ and Mac also take off for a secret mission of their own, leaving Erin all alone in the loft.

Paper Girls Season 1 Episode 7 recap – A tale of two Tiffs…

The two Tiffs argue about what the older Tiff should be doing with their life. The conversation escalates and Adult Tiff reveals to her younger self that she is adopted, and her mother has been lying to her, her whole life.

This revelation, which Adult Tiff didn’t learn until she was in college, caused her to not focus on school and get expelled from MIT. Meanwhile, the secret mission of KJ and Mac turns out to be visiting Mac’s grave since she will have been dead for several years by 1999.

On the way, KJ encourages Mac to try and seek out ways to keep from dying. Mac isn’t interested and views her early death as inevitable.

At the gravesite they’re surprised to see that Mac’s headstone has a visitor, Mac’s stepmother Alice, who is putting flowers on her grave. Alice spots Mac, but Mac and KJ run away before she can say anything.

Alice chases after the two girls, but they get away, leaving Alice to try and process the fact that she just saw her stepdaughter visiting her own grave, seven years after she passed.

Paper Girls Season 1 Episode 7 recap – Erin faces Larry again…

Erin meanwhile, is stuck back at the apartment, wondering why everyone seems to have forgotten that she used to be the main character of this series. She’s stuck with Adult Tiff’s current boyfriend, when Larry shows up at the door.

He’s been trying to track down the Tiffs, to let them know that a pile of junk from 1988 has shown up in his cornfield. He takes Erin back to look at the tear in time that has appeared.

He also calls Juniper to come and assess the situation as well. This appears to be very early in their relationship that we got to see the tail end of several episodes ago.

KJ, Mac, and the two Tiffs all return back to the apartment only to find that Erin left. They hurry to the farm to find her.

They arrive along with Juniper, and the whole group tries to assess the situation to see if the tear in time offers any possibility of getting the four girls back to their original time. Before they can do anything, Larry’s grandmother reveals that she has trapped a futuristic probe, that Juniper confirms was sent by the Old Watch.

While she destroys the probe with a shotgun blast, according to Juniper, it still means that the Old Watch are on their way with no apparent chance of escape.

Paper Girls Season 1 Episode 7 recap – Only one episode to go…

It’s a lot less fun watching this episode in a world where the series has already been canceled and you know that it won’t be getting the five or seven or however many seasons the creators were hoping there would be. Every new wrinkle in the story feels less like a new exciting storyline to follow, and more like a stressful detour from the storylines we already have and are worried won’t be wrapped up in time.

With this being the penultimate episode of the season, and now the series, it feels like there’s not a whole lot of action in this episode moving the plot forward. For the most part, everything is lined up for the final showdown of the season finale.

This episode needs to put just a few more tiny finishing touches on everything before we get there. It’s the perfect time to slow down, and really let the character moments shine.

And some of them are great. The relationship on display between KJ and Mac this episode is some of the best work we’ve seen from any of the four main girls in this whole show.

It may be because it’s really the only storyline in this episode where any of the four are spending any real time together. But it helps to solidify that these characters have truly become friends over the season, rather than just the group that got stuck on an adventure together as they were in the beginning.

It’s a nice moment to see, and I’m glad it’s in there, but like everything else in this episode, the ticking clock of the show’s cancellation now hangs over it. We’ve just got one more episode to go, and way too much left to ever hope to fit it all in.

So what will make it, and what will be left forever unfinished?

Let us know your thoughts of Paper Girls season 1 episode 7 in the comments below!

You can watch Paper Girls season 1, only on Amazon Prime Video!