Diksha Sundriyal
Amazon Prime’s ‘Paper Girls’ is the story of four young girls who discover that time travel is not just a real thing, but also a reason for the ongoing war between two powerful secret organizations. While trying to get back to their own timeline, they discover a number of new things related to time travel. They discover the presence of foldings, they find out that the future looks a lot different than what they imagined, and they also discover that they are much more involved in the war than they initially thought. There are a number of other weird things that appear to be an important part of the story. One of them is the phrase “blue tongues don’t lie”. If you are wondering what it means, we’ve got you covered.
What Does Blue Tongues Don’t Lie Mean?
“Blue tongues don’t lie” is spoken by Larry at the end of the recording that he leaves for himself before ablution happens. Because it is not a commonly used phrase, we can assume that it is some sort of code that proves helpful in restoring the damage caused by ablution. To understand its importance, let’s look into the people who use it and what it means for them to hear this phrase.
‘Paper Girls’ introduces us to two organizations that are at war with each other because they believe in different things when it comes to time travel. There is the Old Watch, led by the Grandfather. They have made it their job to stop anyone from messing with the timeline. They believe that the mixtape of the world should not be tampered with, and should not be written over and over to suit one’s needs. The things that have happened should remain so, no matter if they are good or bad. Time travelers create chaos, and the Old Watch cleans up their mess while also trying to catch and punish them.
Then there is STF, who believe that time travel is a means to make the world a better place. Why allow bad things to happen when you can go back in the past and change the course of history? They don’t agree with the Old Watch and have created an elaborate network to bring down their regime. They have discovered foldings in time, through which they send travelers to the past and the future. However, they are well aware that changing the course of history requires much more than a few people going back and forth in time. This is why they depend on the locals to provide that support.
Every time they travel, they need someone in the present to provide backup, just in case the Old Watch comes looking. For this, they have created an underground network of people who live in the present but are aware of time travel and the Old Watch. They believe when STF tells them that they’ll make the world a better place, which is why they are ready to put their lives on the line for them. Larry and Juniper are a couple of such people. The thing that makes their job so dangerous is that they can’t run away from their present. While the travelers can jump through a folding and hide in another time, the underground network stays in the present where the Old Watch can easily find them.
Luckily for STF underground, the Old Watch doesn’t kill people but resorts to ablution. It removes their memories, sending them back on their merry way, unaware of any connection they might have had with STF. This seems to be a huge problem for STF, who’ll have to start from scratch every time they lose an operative to ablution. However, every problem has a solution. The underground is aware of such a scenario, so before their memories are wiped, they leave a recording for themselves, ending it with the phrase “blue tongues don’t lie”.
This is a secret code that either activates their brain, bringing back the memories that the Old Watch had tried to rid them of, or it is a clue that leads them back to their memories. Larry leaves the recording for himself and fully recovers his memories on hearing it till the end. However, Juniper doesn’t get to hear the end of her recording and lives blissfully unaware of her past with STF. This proves that the phrase is extremely important in retrieving the memories, which haven’t actually been removed but are repressed in some part of their brain. It isn’t surprising that STF came up with such a thing. If they can find a way to time travel, they can find a way to stop their people from forgetting who they are.
Read More: Why Does Old Erin Not Remember Young Erin in Paper Girls?
