This season of GIRLS has been strong, with better writing and more focused plots—which I, a fair weather fan, wasn't expecting. Last week's episode, which followed Shosh to Japan, was perhaps the best the show's ever aired, and we got a solid follow-up this week, delving into two blossoming romantic relationships and two that seem a tad troubled.
Hannah and Fran experienced a shake-up in paradise last week after Hannah found naked photos of Fran's ex-girlfriends on his phone. Things didn't look any better for them this week, when Fran points out a few grammatical errors on one of Hannah's students' poems and the two inadvertently tear the assignment in half. This bubbles over later at school, when Hannah returns the poem to the poor child, who is then forced to watch the two of them have a very public and rather inappropriate lovers' spat in the hallway. It's never a good idea to date a coworker, but this is especially true if you suspect that coworker will bring up your sex life in front of an eighth grader.
It's hard to see these two working out in the long run—it's hard to see what brought them together in the first place, really—but certainly things are on the rocks. More on this in a bit.
The next couple on the chopping block (PLS GOD) is the Marnie/Desi dream team. The two have returned from their honeymoon in EhuaTOR and are embarking upon marital bliss—or at least they WOULD be, if Desi weren't such a raging moron. His newest endeavor involves building a wall in the middle of Marnie's apartment so they could have more space for his studio, but less space over all. And it ain't cheap. "The wall is pretty much going to pay for itself," he tells her, pointing out that she spends about $3K-a-year on tea while working in a coffee shop, but now that she can/will be forced to work at home, "in a little over a year this will all be paid off." Desi is an idiot. But Marnie would rather be with an idiot than be alone, so she returns to him, apologizes, lets him throw a small temper tantrum and then whine at her during sex.
Elijah goes on his first date with sexy anchorman Peter Russo Dill Harcourt, and we get to see his slightly more serious side. Indeed, ever-flippant Elijah's vulnerability comes to light when he tells Dill he "could be okay" with entering into the type of relationship "where I don't meet your friends," and Dill tells him no, and that he should not be okay with that. Elijah hobnobs with the celebrities, takes photos with tourists in Times Square, kisses Dill in public and spends the night at his place which, by the way, has a DOPE view. It's not totally clear where this is going, and there is something subtly sinister about Dill—he jokingly threatens Elijah, for instance, and is quite demanding in bed. Then again, THAT VIEW. Dill also has a fireplace. #TeamDill.
Last but not least, we have Adam and Jessa. Jessa has been avoiding Adam ever since he kissed her in last week's episode, but he manages to follow her to a women's-only AA meeting and confronts her. She tries to push him off, mostly because of her friendship with Hannah. Adam points out, perhaps rightfully, that Hannah probably wouldn't do the same for her. And after a blow-up with Hannah (more on that below) she comes around. They have rather "bad" sex on Adam's couch, and it's both adorable and appropriately cringe-worthy.
Unsuccessful coitus aside, it's a relief to see Jessa and Adam finally get together. They really like each other, and they fit each other, and whether they can figure out how to keep their parts inside each other comfortably or not, they are still the couple to root for.
Still, there's a lot more stuff here to unpack than the climax of the will-they-won't-they romance. The episode's name comes from the "Old Loves" Tumblr page, which is a real thing and plays a somewhat pivotal role this week. The Tumblr features photos of old celebrity couples you've probably forgotten about, like Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston, or Wilmer Valderrama & Lindsay Lohan, and in the middle of the episode Marnie wonders out loud to Hannah and Jessa what went wrong with all the stars' failed relationships. "Maybe nothing went wrong," Hannah says. "Maybe the relationship just lasted for the amount of time it was supposed to. Maybe all relationships have a finite lifespan."
It's an interesting line—we've been conditioned to think about a successful relationship as a forever-and-always kind of deal, but considering how prevalent divorce is now, it's worth considering whether eternity really is a worthy measure of accomplishment. Hannah brings this up in the context of potentially breaking up with Fran, and Marnie points out that if she does do that, she'll have to start out with someone new.
"People who work on things stay together," Marnie tells her before running back to Terrible Desi, and while that's partially true, it's not an entirely fair way to think about relationships. Sometimes there are insurmountable challenges. Sometimes something's not worth suffering through just so you can say you survived. Marnie warns Hannah that if she doesn't work on her unhappy coupledom she could end up alone ("like Cher"), but the fear of being alone can be more crippling than actually being alone, and Hannah can take a step towards some sort of self-actualization by recognizing that.
Hannah's relationship with Jessa is also hitting a rocky patch—when Hannah makes Jessa come with her to get rice pudding (pre-Adam sex). Jessa attacks her during a weird and dark moment, and in a recap of the show actress Jemima Kirke explained this was a defense mechanism—"I will make you hate me and make you not want to be my friend, and it's done, now I can go be with Adam, I'll take care of it before it hits me in the back of my head."
Before the episode aired I asked actress Jemima Kirke why she thought Jessa and Hannah were still friends, and Kirke didn't really seem to know. "I think that Jessa is only friends with them because of the longevity," she told me. "Hannah, for whatever reason, keeps her around." But these friends also tie Jessa to a part of her she's been trying to let go of, and they don't seem to be helping her move forward. Marnie and Hannah interrupt her while she's trying to study, and her loyalty to Hannah is keeping her from trying to feel out potential love and vulnerability. Just as Shosh is becoming a more fully-formed person on her own in Japan, Jessa might be able to grow up once she learns wholly to lean on herself.
Some notes:
- Marnie's neighbors who hate her say what we can't say.
- "Don't call me insane, you know my mother used to call me insane!" Why did no one drown Desi as a child?
- One of the reasons GIRLS has improved this year is that the writers keep gifting us with these fantastic details. Case in point: Desi made a tiny custom-made shelf for his Ray Bradbury Digest collection. Desi has a Ray Bradbury Digest collection.
- I love everything Jessa wears this season. That ribbed raspberry top is FIRE.
- "You're not returning any of my texts." "They're barely sentences! 'You need eat,' that doesn't even make any sense!"
- Ray is all alone. Poor Ray. At least he gets 13 hours of sleep.
- "There are actually a lot of weird instances in which the President and the First Lady don't even sleep in the same bedroom." Jesus, what class is Fran teaching?
- "[Fran] is actually not a good guy. He's a seemingly good guy." I can't tell whether Fran really is just a "seemingly" good guy, but man, those are the worst.
- "All my ideas are so fucking stupid." Yes, yes they are, Desi.
- Rice pudding bars are dumb.
Next week, Hannah goes on a getaway with her mom, and we go back to Japan!
