Pen15 entered the scene with a huge hook: 30-something actors would play middle schoolers, surrounded by actual middle schoolers. Yet creators and stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle quickly make you forget the hook as their performances are so engrossing, painful, and full of truth, that it’s hard to second guess their middle school presence.

The show's extended second season is the end of the road for Pen15 even though Hulu reportedly has left the door open for more episodes. But just as middle school is short-lived (and you rarely feel like you are coming out on top) the show is making sure Maya and Ana get to flip the script and do exactly that. 

1. An impending end.  Perhaps it’s because the second season was interrupted by Covid, but there’s much reflection on death throughout. Ana deals with her Grammy moving in and meeting an untimely end. She contemplates the existence of God, which causes her to have a breakdown at a bat mitzvah. The pair also attend a walk for cancer where they have an intense encounter with a fellow middle schooler who is dealing with the disease. And there’s a very funny and traumatizing demise of a hamster named Daddy. It feels like a reflection on the current times while remaining true to what it feels like to go through giant revelations as a pre-teen — an existential crisis on steroids that’s beyond worth watching. That, or perhaps both creators were simply thinking about the early end to a show they’ve birthed through such love and care it will undeniably have an effect on the rest of their careers. 

2. The dawn of the shitty boyfriend.  In this season, Ana and Maya get their first boyfriends. In a very memorable scene, Ana has her first kiss while a distraught Maya stands right next to her, still physically touching her body as she goes through this monumental rite of passage. Steve (Chau Long) and Derrick are dudes who seem on the surface to give Ana and Maya what they feel they’ve been missing out on: High school boyfriends. But as their relationships evolve (as much as high school relationships can) it becomes clear that Maya and Ana would choose each other again and again in lieu of maybe any boyfriend that might come along for years to come. That said, one can’t help but wish Sam had gotten more of a shot at Maya’s heart.

3. The power of the stand-alone episode.  A stand-out episode this season is an episode devoted entirely to the character Yuki, Maya’s mother on the show, and in real life (Mutsuko Erskine). Maya directed the episode and one can’t help but wonder how much of this one is truth, and how much of it is fiction. When the family leaves for the day, the tired mother who clearly runs a household that would collapse without her, heads out to run errands when she runs into her previous lover, and the father of her older son, Shuji (Dallas Lui). What follows is a story of love lost, and love re-found, not to mention a beautiful tribute to Yuki guided by the eye of a loving daughter. 

4. Identity crisis.  As any good show focused on middle school should do, both Ana and Maya are continually plagued by an identity crisis. Ana gets swooped up into the idea of becoming a model when she’s scouted in a grocery store. Maya finds herself full of jealousy when her “so cute” Japanese friend, Ume, comes to visit and shadow her at school. The acute pain of trying to find yourself while also living perhaps your most free life in the eyes of your best friend walks a tightrope throughout the series, and that’s part of its genius. 

5. On the cusp of change.  Maya and Ana run away this season in the wake of Shuji being dubbed mature enough for a cellphone and Maya still being pegged as the baby of the family. Maya and Ana long for the freedom that high school will bring, but still cling to the safety of each other as they are bombarded with overwhelmingly adult experiences in one afternoon of dress-up and making sure Ana makes it to her modeling audition. In real life the creators are also on the cusp of change, having written their ticket to opportunity. They pose the question to the audience, will their friendship survive growing up? One can only dream that it doesn’t just survive, but hopefully, continues to thrive. 

Final Takeaway: For the millennial that experienced middle school in a similar era as Maya and Ana — or for anyone who had any middle school troubles at all — this season of Pen15 will likely be just as emotionally gratifying as the first, even though it seems the creators have aimed for a more wistful and contemplative tone here in lieu of the uproarious jokes and raucous soundtrack found in season one. Who can blame them as they struggle to say goodbye to such an epic time in life?