‘Forever’ Ending, Explained: Do Keisha And Justin Break Up End Of Netflix Series’ Season 1?

Mara Brock Akil’s Forever fully displays first love, and it’s putting us in our feelings along the way.

Centered on characters Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards (Michael Cooper Jr.), the series adaptation of the Judy Blume classic novel is an ode to the puppy love in which the characters find themselves immersed. In the first episode of the new Netflix series, the two reconnect after going their separate ways in elementary school. 

The first scene sets the tone, as Cooper’s character Justin is frustrated with writing a report on the classic Shakespeare tale Romeo and Juliet.

It’s almost fate for them to both wind up at the party they meet at on New Year’s Eve, and throughout eight episodes, viewers get pulled into a whirlwind of a love story between the two teens in 2018. The characters are met with a fair share of outside factors like sextortion, overbearing parents and social media, to name a few, working against their yearning to be together.

Why is ‘Forever’ set in 2018 and 2019?

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen a love story that took place in a throwback kind of way, regarding 2018 and 2019. We don’t think of how nostalgic those years were, but they were very pivotal in history, being the two years right before a pandemic, and there was so much going on during those years,” Simone told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in our cast interview.

“I really appreciate even the music in those years. It kind of aided to the times and the story, this LA love story that’s going on,” she continued.

Akil told us that the decision to imagine Blume’s tale from 1975 in 2018 was intentional because, as a parent herself, she can recall how “our love was parented through catastrophic thoughts,” which she said “narrowed the space in which our young people can find love and figure it out.”

Keisha and Justin’s decision about their relationship

After a roller-coaster ride of emotions for Justin and Keisha, viewers will find them making the decision to ultimately part ways. Keisha will live out her dream of attending Howard University on the other side of the country in Washington, D.C., and Justin will find the courage to tell his parents of his dream of making music.

The ending, which is realistic for teenagers who are once again about to be worlds apart, is something that Simone said she hopes displays maturity because it ends things on a high note.

“I really want them to learn, especially from the ending, how to end things in a mature way,” the Greenleaf actor said. “And how to end things in a way that is communicated on both sides, that might not be where you’re at. I know right now — along with social media and everything, where you don’t have to see somebody — like, ghosting is a real thing. That’s a really big thing for teenagers, so just communicating with both sides would be my thing.”

So, where do Keisha Clark and Justin Edwards go from here?

In a perfect world, and if left up to the actors who portray them, these characters will reconnect. Akil said the two will have to see one another at some point when Keisha returns on her first visit home from school, but only time will tell.

“I think that, in reality, they’re going to see each other again very soon,” Akil said. “When you go off to college, there is that first return home. Funny, I have a son in college. Now, eventually, they stop. They have their own lives between summer and winter and spring breaks, but that first return home is still during the freshman year. So I sometimes wonder, where are they gonna see each other for the first time when they come back? You know, when Keisha comes back from school, what is Justin doing at this point? I also think there are versions of them where I envision them in their 20-something self, I don’t know, somewhere in a city like New York, Miami or wherever the scene is, and them running into each other. That is an amazing feeling. Just to see someone who loves you, wherever you might be. You might be in a relationship with someone else. Don’t you want to see that moment where they run into each other and be like, ‘Hey, oh yeah, that’s my ex?’”

Cooper said he wants the characters to link back up “immediately. Like, college, hopefully.”

Simone added, “Or hopefully before, I mean, we are talking 2018, 2019, so do they reconnect maybe during the pandemic or something? I hope so. The timeline fits, but I think they will be reconnecting pretty soon because I think there is this force between them that doesn’t keep them away from each other too long. Even if it’s, you know, at a summer’s length.”

Forever is now streaming on Netflix.