Girls ‘She Did’: Taking A Step

While I’m not ready to shower Girls with universal praise just yet, the show definitely closed out its first season with one of its strongest episodes, at times managing to surpass its somewhat rushed plotting to reach a number of poignant character moments, culminating in a beautifully filmed sequence that puts a pause button on the story, rather than attempt to wrap up every storyline and establish new directions for season two.

Even Jessa’s marriage doesn’t feel like a step forward for her character: on the heels of Kathyrn’s speech last week about her becoming the person she was meant to me, she decides to marry the guy who was trying to have a threesome with her and Marnie just a few weeks back. If any of the plot lines are really rushed, it’s here: there’s no context for Jessa’s decision, it simply happens, and the only insight we’re given are the unsettled looks underneath all her smiling. It stretches the credibility of the episode’s setting, which is more of an excuse to bring all the characters together in one place and show us what a child Jessa still is, even with all her posturing of being traveled and exotic.

The only other ‘big’ change in the finale was the Ray/Shoshanna hook up we’ve been waiting for since ‘The Crackident’; and for once, Ray isn’t a complete douche bag for the entire episode, and his conversation with Shoshanna about how she ‘vibrates on a strange frequency’ was touching, in a weird, guy wearing a bow-tie kind of way. Now that the writers are going to keep Shoshanna around as a main cast member (originally, she wasn’t planned to be), I’m really hoping they let Mamet run loose with the part next season, because she’s a scene-stealer, and just the amount of fun seeing her and Ray try to forge a relationship could provide a season’s worth of funny material.

On the other end of the spectrum, Marnie’s far from ready to move forward and make a change in her life. She very nearly hooks up with Charlie at the wedding after a frank conversation about doing just that, and instead, gets shitfaced and makes out with the one dude at the party who would worship her endlessly. I could’ve done without Charlie walking back in and looking in on them – in all honesty, seeing Marnie self-destruct after getting the one thing she wanted in her life has been really fun to watch, even when she’s being whiny and uppity about the whole thing.

And really, that’s where the show is at its best, when it finds relatable strings to attach us to its characters. Adam’s been the show’s greatest example of this, and in reality, at times has felt like the center of this show. He’s certainly the strongest part – with each episode, his character’s been drawn in increasingly complex shades, and the unraveling of his hipster onion was some of the most mature, nuanced writing I’ve seen on TV in recent memory.

Anyway, they get into an argument, and Adam points out the fact that Hannah’s got a toxic love/hate relationship with herself that poisons everything around her. People come to a point where introspection becomes obsessive is damaging, and on some level, Hannah’s passive-aggressive rejection of him moving in shows an immature side that feels very similar to what Jessa is doing to herslef by getting married. She can complain about being ugly or not being a good writer, but that’s not going to do anything but make her feel ugly and like a bad writer. In some ways, all Adam wants is to smack her back into reality, but she’s too wrapped up in self-loathing to even realize he’s truly there, and not just hanging out in the fringes of her life.

Adam gets hit by a car during their fight (something telegraphed a little too easy, and cliched to begin with), and won’t allow Hannah to go to the hospital with him. Hannah then falls asleep on the F-train, and wakes up in Coney Island with nothing but her fancy shoes and wedding cake to eat. The season ends with Hannah sitting on the beach, eating her cake quietly and looking out into the unknown, leaving her with as much uncertainty in her life as we did when we entered it.

At times, the first season of Girls struggled to find its voice, bouncing between relationship study, existential drama, and slapstick comedy, experiencing its own share of ups and downs along the way.  I’ll have a lot more to share on my Final Thoughts of the season, which will post in a week or two when I can give the season a second run through.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts/observations:

– Jessa marrying douche man is really a stretch, although her attitude in their first meeting does feel more like set-up for something like this later on. Still, getting married? I like how none of the girls really address her seriously about it: in reality, they’re probably just waiting for the inevitable train wreck that is to follow.

– Shoshanna was so angry at Jessa (and all of them, maybe, I believe the ‘whores’ comment was plural). It’s not because she wore white, so why?

– for such an opinionated person throughout the first season, Marnie having almost no reaction to the whole wedding was a bit unexpected… as was her making out with the awkward chubby jokester. It fits her character (a girl who only likes guys who worship her until she gets bored of them), but it feels like a bit of a farce, even considering her intoxication.

– “My pussy be yankin'”… who doesn’t love a good wedding song?

what did you think of ‘She Did’? Feel free to leave your comments/thoughts below!