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| From left to right: Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke |
Well, well, well... things are back to normal on Girls this week, or so it seems. When we last left off, Charlie (Christopher Abbott) and Marnie (Allison Williams) were split up, Jessa (Jemima Kirke) was becoming a responsible babysitter, Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) was still a virgin, and Hannah's (Lena Dunham) relationship with Adam (Adam Driver) was on the rocks, but looking to finally be resolved. What better way to celebrate the changes in life than going to a warehouse party in Bushwick, which Jessa invited everyone to because of her faith that the next party will be the best party.
Things begin to unravel as Shoshanna reveals that Charlie's band Questionable Goods is playing at the venue. Despite stating that she wouldn't get involved, this drives Marnie to talk to Charlie in hopes of rekindling their flame. During the conversation, it is revealed that Charlie is now dating a girl who is dressed like a Navajo and thinks that Marnie is a Desperate Housewife. This sends Marnie into a quest to rebound, or at very least find answers to her problems.
Meanwhile Hannah notices that the notoriously reclusive Adam is at the party dancing with some perceived dykes. She is also reluctant to approach him, but he is excited to see her. She discovers upon meeting a girl named Tako with a 'k' (Roberta Colindrez) that Adam is a recovering alcoholic member of AA, which is supposedly a big part of his life. Hannah doesn't know this and goes on a quest to discover why he never told her these things.
Meanwhile Jessa is talking to Questionable Goods band member Ray (Alex Karpovsky) about his ex-girlfriend. Midway through, Shoshanna appears, panicking that she went into a bathroom and smoked a crystal cigarette, which Ray assures her is crack. During this time, the husband Jeff (James LeGros) shows up on the basis that Jessa unknowingly texted him to come to the party. Jessa leaves Shoshanna and Ray alone. She demands that Ray be her crack spirit guide and keep her from getting into trouble. After going on about kick boxing classes, Shoshanna takes off with Ray set to chase her.
Hannah finally catches up with Adam, and they dance for awhile before deciding to take off. Hannah wears Adam's backpack while sitting on the front of his bike. It scares her at first, but she becomes cool with it after awhile. During this time, Adam shares his dreams of a July 4th party in which he navigates a boat that will sink. When Hannah demands to get off and walk the rest of the way, Adam halts the bike and causes her to go face first into the cement.
Jessa and Jeff are now hanging out at the party and just discussing how they ended up together there. Jeff feels stupid for bringing a bottle of wine, which leads Jessa to toss it over the side of the railing onto some crusty punks who get mad at Jessa for "spitting on Charles Manson." They continue to have a good time before the crusty punks find Jeff and knock him out, resulting in a trip to the hospital.
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| Allison Williams |
While at the hospital, Jessa tries to cheer him up by calling him brave. However, Jeff begins to cry and demands to be comforted. Jessa reveals that she cannot go on dating Jeff. This is a tactic very similar to "Hard Being Easy" in which she proves that she cannot be smoten. She leaves him saying that they could still be friends, but Jeff is not into it. If anything, this proves that Jessa is not into long term relationships and may in fact just be using him for capitol gain.
Meanwhile Ray finally catches up with Shoshanna, whose skirt has somehow fallen off. After getting kicked, Ray is on the floor injured. Shoshanna begins to rub his groin to ease the pain in a way that she claims is nonsexual. Instead of turning into an awkward hit and run like "Hannah's Diary" where Ray could possibly leave, the moment plays out more like the "Hard Being Easy" episode moment where Marnie and Charlie meet with her being strung out. Was that foreshadowing this relationship (on top of the earlier mentions in the show that Ray is now single)?
Marnie eventually runs into Elijah (Andrew Rannells), who was Hannah's old gay boyfriend from "All Adventurous Women Do." She discusses how Charlie has broken up with her and how bad things are. Elijah laughs and complains about her similarities to Hannah, which causes a big dispute, similar to that previous episode, where it becomes an attack that Elijah was gay. In his defense, he states that he was auditioning for their production of "Rent," as if it was obvious then. The moment ends with Elijah furiously slapping Marnie for insulting him. At this point Marnie goes on a quest to find Hannah.
Meanwhile Hannah and Adam are duking it out in some random abandoned street. Hannah wants to know why Adam never told her about his alcoholism. He says that she never asked. In fact, there are a lot of reveals that Hannah didn't ask him about too much, and instead just complained to him and wanted to have sex all of the time. Hannah is left distraught and somewhat taken aback on his thoughts of him.
Marnie shows up and demands for Hannah to hop into the taxi that she arrived in. Marnie begins to decree Adam as a bad person based on comments that Hannah has made in previous episodes. This is the first actual interaction any of the major cast has interacted with Adam, and it's an interesting take on how word of mouth influences opinions. They end up giving Adam a ride back when Hannah insists. The episode ends with her smiling in the back of the taxi.
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| Left to Right: Dunham and Adam Driver |
For the most part, this feels like the episode that a lot of the plot points were building to. The notable one being the closure of Charlie and Marnie's relationship that has been in movement since "Pilot." Their lack of commitment to each other finally came to a crash in "Hannah's Diary" and this is only the sweet resolution and closure that is needed. Or is it? Maybe Charlie is secretly still into Marnie, which explains the quick rebound girl in the course of two weeks. However, this may leave Marnie to turn into a hopeless wreck. If this episode is any proof, Marnie may end up becoming an insecure character that doesn't approve of anyone else's relationships, just like the end of this episode where she tries to break up Adam and Hannah, though admittedly based somewhat on history.
Is this the end of Jessa's job as a babysitter? It is interesting to see her come a long way since "Vagina Panic" where she basically skipped her own abortion to have sex in a bar. She has probably developed the most throughout the show and has become the most responsible of the four. This may also be the point where she goes from being the promiscuous girl with multiple partners to taking relationships more seriously. The break-up with Jeff certainly proves that there may be some truth that she is realizing. However, will Jeff take it the right way, or will he fire Jessa for breaking up with him and start a whole new series of issues in his home life?
Shoshanna kind of gets a plot this week, though she still feels like a gag character who contributes little to the story. She definitely proves that she is timid in this episode by choosing not to talk to anyone for the first two hours of her time at the warehouse. However, I like to think that the Marnie and Charlie flashback in "Hard Being Easy" was foreshadowing the relationship between Ray and Shoshanna. This would kind of make sense, even with the comical line of Ray shouting "I'm your crack spirit guide" as he chases her. It would be an interesting, quirky relationship that could possibly boost her importance to the show in the final few episodes. Or it could just be "All Adventurous Women Do" all over again and Ray just disappears before anything happens. I'd prefer to see Ray stick around longer.
As for Hannah and Adam, things continue to get interesting. After that brilliant conversation in "the Return" last week, I have begun to wish for more from them. This week, I got a lot more of that. I really enjoyed the subtle jabs at Adam for wearing a shirt and finally having somewhat of a social life. However, it left me with another question on whether Hannah secretly walked into another relationship of his (possibly with Tako?) that explains the picture from "Hannah's Diary." Maybe his alcoholic anonymous business is what he does when he is not in his apartment, and he's dating one of the patients. It would make sense as Adam has stated that he thinks that he has outgrown Hannah in many regards.
However, there is continuing proof in this series that makes Hannah look like the fool. In this week's conversations with Adam, we continue to find out who he is. There is some depth to him that has been poorly misconstrued in the past due to a misunderstanding of the character. Here he comes right out and states that they never communicated about his problems. This opens a lot of doors to how Hannah is the bad person in the relationship, making things more complicated. Suddenly my desire for Marnie to break them up seems false.
I really hope that we get more of Adam out of his room and about interacting with other characters. He has taken too much of a beating in the first seven episodes to regress to that character. Maybe give more of a story involving his alcoholism? That would be interesting. I am still curious to know how they met, since Hannah has now claimed that she has never seen him outside of his apartment.
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| Zosia Mamet |
I am also just glad that we had the entire gang together in one spot for an entire episode. I have missed the comradeship of the four just talking things out. This isn't quite the level of fun that their scene in "Vagina Panic" was, but at the same time, these characters (save for Shoshanna) are more developed and different. While I still hold out hope that they'll just have a girl's night in episode, I am fine with them just meeting up at one point in the episode to sow up plot holes.
This is a rather satisfying episode because it answers so many of my old questions and concerns involving the relationships. While I still have some wonders if this is really the end for Charlie and Marnie, it was nice to see some sense of closure, as opposed to every other story line which seemed to restart the following week. It is also nice because for the first time in the series, we get female nudity from someone who isn't Hannah. Even if it is brief (and maybe unnecessary), it still feels good to know there are other people in this universe.
It was great to see Elijah again. However, is this foreshadowing for the return of many other characters that I thought were one offs? Maybe Tako will return in a later episode as well. Maybe that artist from "All Adventurous Women Do" will appear and be Marnie's man, as abusive as he was. Who knows.
Favorite moment: I think that the warehouse scenes were good, but when everyone began leaving, things got really interesting. I think that while it seems off right now, Ray chasing Shoshanna seems kind of brilliant and fun. I would just like to hope that these are the seeds of something greater, and not another throwaway moment like her appearance in "All Adventurous Women Do," which still feels pointless. Also, I just like the idea of more Ray on the show.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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I think the way they're developing the Hannah POV story-telling while also making her straddle the line between protagonist and villain is pretty great. Hannah's kind of like a lot of good friends I've had in the past too that most of the time you sort of despise but because you've shared so much time together and you know she'll come through when you really need her, you stay close. I think that's very accurate to real life and something not always shown in shows, usually you just have the goodie girl and the evil one and no in-between.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, glad the Adam storyline is developing a little more I thought he showed so more depth this episode, too. Oh and big props to the music department for using Mark Ronson's "Bang, Bang, Bang" when Hannah catches up with Adam when he's happily dancing at the Bushwick warehouse.