TV Recap: Girls - "Close Up"

Left to right: Lena Dunham and Andrew Rannels

Welcome back to another round of Girls TV Recap. Following the amazing third season, this series will focus on season four and the perils that Hannah (Lena Dunham) and her friends face as she goes to Iowa. What new experiences will she face? What will everyone else do while they wait for her inevitable return? Come back every Friday for the latest recap including thoughts and predictions for each episode. Will it remain one of the best comedies on TV? You'll have to read to find out.

With things over between Hannah and Adam (Adam Driver), what exactly lies on the road ahead for the Girls protagonist? Not a lot is immediately clear in this episode, which feels more like a connector to whatever is about to happen next. While it is full of moments that may be crucial to the long run of the story, it isn't necessarily all that exciting and ends up putting the characters in an uncomfortable spot. What exactly is about to go down? If anything, it feels like a transition episode in which the next step of these characters lives are starting, or at least in some respects they are.

Adam Driver

Adam wakes up with Mimi-Rose (Gillian Jacobs) and begins to start his day. When she reveals that she had an abortion, he becomes paranoid about it. First, is it his and why did she abort without telling him? Mimi-Rose doesn't seem to care at all. This bothers him and they quickly begin to have a falling out when they realize that they weren't all that compatible. Adam wanted someone who felt mutual and that he could help them. Mimi-Rose just wanted someone to wake up alongside. They end up breaking up and leaving Adam off in his unknown world.

Meanwhile, things aren't looking too good for Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet). She goes in for a job interview and fails it. She ends up wanting to date the person that interviewed her. Marnie (Allison Williams) cannot agree with Desi (Ebon-Moss Bachrach) about what songs to play at an important performance. This leads to a discussion on how they see themselves as a band. They cannot agree and end up annoyed that neither is contributing when both are doing it in different and not noteworthy ways.

Hannah has Elijah (Andrew Rannels) move in with her, and he is a lousy roommate. He eats her cereal. She is distraught and goes to her therapist (Bob Balaban) for guidance. She considers helping people. In a group lunch, they discuss things and she decides that the best thing to do is to become a teacher. Nobody likes this idea, but she goes through with it, anyways. 

Meanwhile, Ray (Alex Karpovsky) is at a town meeting where he wishes to pass a law for his street. He sits around all day and to the incompetence of his community leaders, he decides to run for office. 

Rating: 3 out of 5

It often is hard to really top the magic of an episode as rich and powerful as "Sit In." With it chronicling the downfall of the Hannah/Adam duo, it also managed to leave questions on where things will be going for both of them. In the case of Adam, it doesn't look like anything will be working out immediately. Within presumably a month of the two getting together and upsetting Hannah, they are now separated due to their lack of compatible nature. What was their relationship for if they couldn't agree on the small things? There's oh so many questions that could be posed. However, it's so odd to see Adam casted to the side of the roads again. Maybe this isn't the end for Adam and Hannah no matter how much they always seem to be ending for good. The question is if it will stick this time. Who knows.

As for Hannah, it is nice to see her trying to get her life in order. While it is tragic that for the first time in the series' run that she is giving up on writing, it will be interesting to see her try and tackling a different career. In truth, it does seem like an oxymoron that she dropped out of one school and plans to teach at another. Maybe things will work out, but I feel like Hannah would be too unstable for things to work out. With Elijah as her roommate, that adds another level of pressure to things and I'm not entirely sure if things are going to work out. Hannah clearly acknowledges Elijah's bad influence, but she doesn't do much about it. That raises the question on if Elijah is secretly sabotaging everyone this season, speaking as he has been in every episode thus far and that itself is an odd occurrence.

I do like to think that if anything comes out of this episode, it is that Ray will indeed make a difference. He has always been a voice of reason despite feeling very often secondary. His control issues crossed with his growing power has made for a compelling character who practically came from nothing. It would be an excellent touch if he could make a difference. If anything else, it would be interesting to see this series try and tackle things with a sense of more importance outside of their own personal spaces. In fact, the fact that the town meeting didn't end properly is a nice note. However, I do predict that things will just fall apart for him and if he gets elected, he may end up succumbing to the thing that he hates.

Everyone else seems to have a standard continuity here. Marnie is remaining somewhat of a droll character. She isn't really doing much besides living a naive dream of her career. I don't necessarily know what this means, but it isn't going anywhere and that's bothersome. The only one doing worse is Jessa (Jemima Kirke), who practically did nothing this week. Also, Shoshanna has become somewhat of a great and problematic character simultaneously as she seems to have given up on her dreams while also settling for a get rich quick scheme. I don't exactly know what this means, but her failure to get moving is especially reflective of Hannah in ways that are at times unpleasant.

Overall, this is a solid move in the series. I thought that the Iowa story would last a little longer and we would see some progress being made. However, the choice to restart your life, especially halfway through a season, is especially bold and should produce interesting results. Some people have hit a redundant bent and the others are potentially going for greatness. I am curious to see how things pan out, even if I feel like the show's initial charm with its characters isn't going to last. I still feel like the season is going to reflect a drifting apart of the characters, which has been implicit this entire time. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.