Does heartbreak really feel good in a place like this, Nicole Kidman? Does it?
In Forever, Judy Blume’s classic story is reimagined through the eyes of Mara Brock Akil, who sets the story in 2018 Los Angeles, with Keisha (Lovie Simone) and Justin (Michael Cooper Jr.) playing the starcrossed teenagers.
We knew going into the new Netflix show that Akil would be making many changes to the original story, using it as more of an outline and pulling from the themes of puppy love, first sexual encounters, and the public pressure that relationships can encounter. But did she end up splitting her main characters in half like in the book the show is based on? Sorry, spoiler alert!
Here’s a full breakdown of the ending to Forever on Netflix. And this goes without saying but there will be spoilers for the entire first season.
After seven episodes of ups and downs in Keisha and Justin’s relationship, the Season 1 finale sees the lovestruck teenagers getting ready to part ways for college on the other side of the country. Keisha has finally achieved her dream of getting into Howard University with a full ride and Justin has appeased his mom (Karen Pittman) by being accepted into her own alma mater, Northwestern, via his early admission application.
Decidedly set on making their final few months together as special as possible, the pair finally make amends after their spat between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, spending every waking moment by each other’s side. For months, they live in bliss while celebrating all of the moments leading up to their respective proms, which they accompany each other to.
Unfortunately, things take a turn at Keisha’s prom where her school rented out the Santa Monica Pier to ride rides, play games, and soak up the beginning of the summer a la carnival festivities. It’s at this event, surrounded by students who look like him, that Justin begins to wonder if he should go to Howard with Keisha, rather than Northwestern where he will be, once again, surrounded by a majority white student body. Justin’s offer to follow Keisha to Howard does not go as planned, however, as she is shocked by him nonchalantly talking about changing the course of his life for her.
Rather than spend their prom night doing things they may have intended to do — Justin did get a hotel room, by the way — the two argue about what comes next. Further conversations lead to Justin finally admitting something to himself and to Keisha, “Maybe we weren’t meant to be together forever? Maybe we were meant to be people we remember forever.”
As their lives move in opposite directions, Justin realizes it’s better to break things off now than to go two more months and have a drawn-out, painful goodbye before college. Keisha relents and says that he is right, but that if he’s breaking things off to do better for their respective futures, he has to finally admit to his parents that he doesn’t want to go to Northwestern.
Ultimately, Justin talks his parents into letting him defer Northwestern for a year and work on his music so that he can figure out who he is. Unsurprisingly, it does not go over well with his mom, but Justin has at least told them his truth.
After graduation and a summer at home, Justin and Keisha run into each other one more time as they prepare to head their separate ways — Justin, taking classes locally while working on his beats and Keisha going to Howard. During their chance meeting, Justin asks to take Keisha to dinner to say goodbye and she reluctantly accepts, but later admits that whenever she would be in the area where Justin was working on his music, she hoped to see him.
During the dinner, they talk about life, love, and Justin even hands off the bag he bought her all the way back in Episode 1. Justin also thanks Keisha for freeing him from the box he was him and for encouraging him to tell his parents the truth. As the pair are preparing to say goodbye, Justin kisses Keisha on the forehead and wishes her luck, telling her that maybe they’ll have a better shot at this in 10 years and the season ends with the two teens walking away from each other to the sound of “Moon River” by Frank Ocean.
The short and sweet of it is that Keisha and Justin’s love story sadly does end with the finale. But there is a moment of hope between the two at the end, which Simone has even mentioned in interviews.
Sitting down with DECIDER, the actress said she can absolutely see a future for the two characters if they can get past their previous issues, find themselves, and come back stronger in a few years. She even said she would be more than open to doing a Forever Season 2.
“I do see a future for Keisha and Justin. I do think that they will cross paths definitely again,” she said. Fingers crossed that they can bring back these two as they are clearly meant to be.
Forever is currently streaming on Netflix.