The semi-colon is only option if it's omitted from the last line of your code.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you here, but when I mentioned "statement," I (implicitly) meant a line containing a set of executable commands, since a semi-colon isn't required on any one of the last four lines of the following script:

use strict;
use warnings;

print "Hello, world.\n";

#
#
#
#
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My use of the term "statement" may not have been the best, in this context.

Your Nota Bene bears an especially crucial message and I appreciate you adding it. Thank you, and the message is well noted.

"The end of the script" is just part of the truth. It actually is "The end of a scope":

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'print $a'
print $a;
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'{print $a}'
{
    print $a;
}
-e syntax OK
$ perl -MO=Deparse -e'{print $a}print $a'
{
    print $a;
}
print $a;
-e syntax OK
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