PEN15’s final episodes expose the melancholy and magic of growing up

“Do you think there’s ever a time that we won’t be friends?”

While on its face, PEN15 is incredibly farcical and comedic, and functions that way initially, throughout its run, it has delved deeper into tender explorations of the meeting of childhood and adulthood.

The series follows co-creators and stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle playing fictionalized teenage versions of themselves among actual teenage actors, set vaguely in the late ’90s/early ’00s when Erskine and Konkle themselves came of age.

Even at its most absurdly comedic, PEN15 has always been heartfelt and personal, but that is no more true in these final seven episodes. (Shortly ahead of their release, Hulu announced the episodes would be the last of the series on the heels of much critical acclaim including four Emmy nominations.)

Standouts include “Yuki,” a capsule episode that follows Maya’s mother (played by her real-life mother Mutsuko Erskine), and “Luminaria” Konkle’s directorial debut, a moving tribute to the lives lost to cancer and those they leave behind.

All of this creates a greater existential portrait of Maya and Anna on the brink of growing up, still young enough to play pretend but old enough to contemplate mortality, sex, and the biggest question of all: what their future together holds.

As the great, codependent female friends before them in Broad City and Shrill, Maya and Anna are more interested in each other than forming their own identities or experiencing life apart. But this makes sense for 13-year-olds who are coming to realize that at some point the world may force them to change.

Yet the magic of PEN15 and its central characters is Maya and Anna making the conscious choice to choose magic and stay young over living in a cold, cynical world, an intangible feeling nearly every viewer has chased themselves.

All episodes of PEN15 are streaming now on Hulu. Let us know what you think in the comments below!