‘Paper Girls’ Recap: ‘Blue Tongues Don’t Lie’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘Paper Girls’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Something that is often on our mind, regardless of how old we are… is the future. Because the events of tomorrow and beyond, both big and small… are supremely important to us. After all, without thinking about tomorrow… we don't believe we will be ready to face the day when it arrives. But on a larger scale, we truly do worry about how our lives are going to turn out and if we are going to be happy or not and it makes sense as to why we worry about the future in that manner. Because we put in a lot of work in this life to get what we want, and we want to avoid anything that keeps us from that. But what’s truly fascinating about our thoughts upon the future, is how much time we spend envisioning what it will look like.

For we truly try to manifest a future through imagination and of course, we often ponder upon, more so when we are younger, what it would be like to travel to the future and see the person we’ve become. But of course, we know that isn’t possible, so we stick with thoughts that push us and visions of a better tomorrow. But that doesn’t stop creative minds from pondering upon potential realities for us, such as what it would be like to travel to the future and learn about who we become from afar, and it just so happens that the next episode of Paper Girls on Prime Video, does just that. And that allowed for ‘Blue Tongues Don’t Lie’ to inform us… that it might be best if we stick to imagination and vision boards when it comes to thoughts of tomorrow, because the reality of who we might become could shock us. 

Because Mac finally made her way to her brother, Dylan, in this tale, and well… that meeting did not go as smoothly as she might have hoped. For starters, it totally freaked Dylan out. And when they sat down to catch up on decades of missing time together, Mac was treated to some horrible news. In that, the big reason that Dylan was so uncomfortable with this meeting, was because Mac was dead. In fact, she passed away at sixteen by way of an aggressive cancer, and while he did take her in and work to help his sister acclimate to the new century… the lesson inherent was clear. In that, outside of our circle of control… we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. So, it’s best sometimes that we worry a little less about tomorrow and enjoy today, because you never know. Also… that learning our future might lead to some genuinely awful revelations we might not want to face.

But while it was amazing to be treated to another unique and gritty time travel lesson… this is also a story that took the time to finally fill us in on what exactly is happening with the timeline. A feat accomplished courtesy of everyone else that Mac left behind. Because shortly after they went to the hospital to talk her into returning to Erin’s place with the rest of the group, a time traveler named Larry, grabbed Elder Erin and that brought everyone to his isolated ranch. Wherein he was able to explain that a war was going on. One where the ‘Old Watch’ was battling the ‘STF Underground’ in a fight to control the timeline. For the Underground believed that time travel should benefit mankind and the Watch believed that the timeline should never change and now of course, the Paper Girls are caught up in this eternal fight.

If anything, this episode once again proved that this is quite the intelligent series. Since it perfectly balances the wonder of science fiction with lessons about life and our worries about the future. Plus, it also doesn’t hurt that apparently a giant freakin’ robot is somehow going to play into the mix as well. But any way you slice it, this was a great episode. One that once again engaged and entertained and let the cast shine and well, now that our heroes have an idea of what’s going on, it should be interesting to see how they handle this news and the fight they’ve been conscripted into, and how Mac will handle the devastating knowledge of her future as the phenomenal first season of this magnificent series, continues along. Until next time.

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