This week on Girls: Hannah and Fran lock themselves in a car together; Jessa (finally) feels guilty for keeping her and Adam’s secret from Hannah; Desi and Marnie set sound ground rules for the new phase of their relationship; and Shoshanna misses Japan and the successful person she was there.
1. Road trips sound like a great idea, but they only serve to tear people apart.
Two of my best friends will embark on a three week road trip this summer and I’m absolutely terrified for them. Whether it’s a short or a long distance, it doesn’t matter. Any time you spend an extended amount of time with someone in an enclosed space, you are at risk for a cycle of getting on each other’s nerves, arguing, and awkwardly trying to make up, as demonstrated by Fran and Hannah this week. Last time we saw Fran and Hannah in a car together, they were making out. Oh, how things can change in a just a few short weeks.
2. Even nice guys like Fran eventually find their tipping point.
Still reeling from last week’s drama (aka Hannah flashing her vagina to her boss to get out of an awkward situation), Hannah and Fran decide it would be a good idea to head out on the open road for their 3 month teacher’s vacation. Yes, that’s absolutely a good idea. Within minutes outside the city’s limits, Hannah is texting Fran from a rest stop bathroom, trying to convince Fran to drive off and leave her behind. During a chase across the rest stop campus, Hannah screeches that she doesn’t want to be with him anymore and just doesn’t know how to end it. Finally, Fran agrees, calls Hannah selfish, and then leaves her at the rest stop.
3. Guilt is the worst.
Of all the feelings, guilt has got to be one of the worst. Guilt is an awful mix of depression, sadness, nervousness, and regret. You can be happy-sad, but you can’t really ever feel happy-guilty. At the end of last week’s episode, Hannah found out that Jessa and Adam are something. It explains Jessa’s avoidance and inexplicable defensiveness a couple of weeks ago. Jessa spends much of this week’s episode trying to weigh her guilt with Adam, who doesn’t really care to give Hannah’s (or Jessa’s) feelings much thought as he struggles to deal with bigger issues.
4. Baby stuff is always heavy.
Laird and Caroline’s baby has played such an insignificant role in these people’s lives than I thought it would—at least up until this point. Usually a young couple’s first child, particularly when they are the first in a friend group to have one, drastically changes the dynamic of the friends. It ushers in a swooping sense of change. Suddenly, everyone’s on a mission to grow up. Similarly, I thought the arrival of the baby would be a catalyst for similar swooping changes in the girls’ lives. But then again, Laird and Caroline disappearing into the periphery of the show is very similar to how it feels like your friends with kids disappear into the periphery of your life until you have kids. Still there comes a time in nearly every person’s life when they begin looking at babies and those who have them a little bit differently.
I don’t think it hits Adam or his friends exactly how hard and life changing having a baby is until Laird discovers that Caroline has vanished after having not only horrible thoughts about doing horrible things to her baby, but also to herself. When Adam asks Jessa why she needs more help than a baby, he hits on one of the most poignant lines of the season.
5. “Once a cheater, always a cheater” isn’t just a made up thing people say.
Though Marnie and Desi are supposed to still be heading for divorce, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have any feelings for him. So when she sees him kissing another woman, she understandably loses her mind. Though, in a way, what did she expect? They got together by him cheating on his last girlfriend, Clementine.
6. Calling a young lady “Kid” is always insulting.
Even when Adam used to cutely call Hannah “Kid” it was still a little insulting. It’s a more polite and socially accepted way of calling someone foolish, impractical, and naïve. It’s like saying the other person is only playing dress up. Not cool. When Desi calls Marnie a kids after she tries to confront him about moving on so quickly, it was just as insulting. And in some ways, he is right. Marnie abruptly leaving Desi shortly after getting married is almost as childish as getting married to someone simply to convince yourself that you are, in fact, a grown up simply because you’re married. Then again, making out with a new girl while you’re still technically married and only freshly broken up is equally childish.
7. Eventually, your friends do grow up and don’t always have time for your antics.
After their breakup, Hannah calls Marnie who can’t drop her studio session to pick Hannah up by the side of the road. She could have easily taken a ride back to the city with Fran, calmly come to a good resolution, and been able to move on like adults, but instead, she opted for the typical Hannah route of making a big scene and getting everyone involved…and then gives Ray road head as a thank you for picking her up. You know, like friends do. It’s almost as if she needed a nail in her and Fran’s relationship coffin. As if she needed something to completely ensure that there’s no way that Fran could take her back.
8. No one likes returning home.
Shoshanna has returned home from Japan and she hates it. Though I don’t think that her irritation is due to culture shock exclusively, but is also deeply rooted in a fear of having failed and the uncertainty of how her life will turn out. She was supposed to be the one who was different from the rest of her friend group. She was supposed to be the one who makes it, but she’s no better off than the rest of them. She was successful in Japan. She was growing up. Coming back to New York is like taking a step back in her life when she should be moving forward.
9. If enough people call you selfish, you’re probably selfish.
After crashing Ray’s coffee van after he was kind enough to rescue her, Ray calls her selfish. It’s like the third time in just this one episode that she’s been called selfish. Not only does she seem remorseless for having anything to do with the accident, she’s impatient, unhelpful, and reckless, even going so far as taking a ride from a total stranger, which is quite a selfish move, leaving Ray to worry about both Hannah’s safety and getting his new van for his failing business repaired.
Well, only a two episode finale left. Is it just me or has this season just flown by? There’s still quite a few lingering questions that I’m uncertain whether or not they’ll get completely wrapped before season’s end: Will Fran and Hannah actually call it quits? What about Marnie and Desi? Can they keep it together long enough to see their music industry dreams come true? Shoshanna and Jessa have been the closest to happiness all season, and still their paths have been plagued with insecurity and doubt. Will they find some peace by season’s end?
