Girls – A Wedding

By Ruth Anrep

A wedding, heavy makeup and an epic Marnie meltdown? Hell yeah, “Girls” is back!

To quickly recap, at the end of the last season Shosh (Zosia Mamet) was heading off to Japan to start a new job, Hannah (Lena Dunham) had started dating Fran, Jessa (Jemima Kirke) was considering becoming a therapist and Marnie (Allison Williams) and Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) had made their relationship “official.”

Season 5 of “Girls” finally kicked off last night with a jump in time to Marnie’s wedding and unlike Hannah, this is a Rom-Com we cannot get enough of.

The premiere begins with Marnie in her flesh colored Spanx by the window, fearing it’s going to rain and resulting in her outdoor wedding being ruined. As she’s doing this, Shoshanna is steaming her Bridesmaids dress whilst talking about her ridiculously praised folding and steaming skills by the Japanese. Hannah now joins the two in a less than impressed mood, but an amazing “I woke up like this” sweater. It is immediately obvious from her entrance that Hannah is disgruntled with the wedding situation, looking as though she’d rather be anywhere else. Jessa then almost flies through the door as Shosh states; “You look so whimsical-slash-beautiful.” Shosh and Jessa are the only two remaining positive about the wedding ceremony with Shosh shutting down the idea of having a tent as being similar to a circus and Jessa assuring that even if it does rain, “They do wonderful things for fertility.” Meanwhile, Hannah remains silent.

It is not until Fran arrives that Hannah’s spirits are lifted. However, Marnie is annoyed that Fran (Jake Lacy) is intruding on her preparation with her close girlfriends. This would be an acceptable thought to have if it wasn’t delivered in a classically Marnie way- telling Shosh to ask Fran to leave, while stating to Fran directly that she doesn’t mind if he stays. As Hannah takes Fran to where the guys are set up, she tells him that she doesn’t think that Marnie should be marrying Desi, mainly because she doesn’t truly know him well enough to support her best friend marrying him. When Hannah and Fran enter the house, they are greeted with Ray (Alex Karpovsky) relaxing on the couch while Elijah, Desi and Desi’s friend “Wolfie” are involved in a pre-wedding meditation session. As Hannah is about to leave this odd men’s bonding session, Adam (Adam Driver) walks in and shares an awkward moment with Hannah before she quickly leaves.

This awkward vibe continues, if not escalates, when Adam and Fran are left alone in the doorway. What follows is just a lengthy sputtering of half sentences and words, making absolutely no sense and creating the most uncomfortable conversation in history. In this moment we are all Ray, looking on with utter confusion and frustration until he finally voices what we are all thinking which is: Why aren’t they unable to convey actual words? Stating it sounds like an “E.E. Cummings poem.”

Meanwhile over in the girl’s house, Marnie is morphing further into a Bridezilla as the makeup artist “Bebe” (not Bay-Bay) doesn’t seem to match Marnie’s artistic vision, rather aiming to create a look that is described as “Selena Gomez meets Jesus.” All Marnie can do during this is assure she is “chill” while looking as though she’s ready to flip a table.

Getting away from the craziness in both houses, Jessa and Adam smoke outside and discuss Jessa just trying to be “a source of support,” as well as Adam’s feelings regarding seeing Hannah with her new boyfriend. Somehow this conversation turns into a mak out session between the two and though short-lived, this could be a major story line this season.

Returning to Marnie and her on-the-verge-meltdown, we are joined with her critical mother and Hannah cannot cope with criticism mixed with Bebe (Bridget Everett) trying to change her look. Taking herself out of the situation, she escapes to see Fran in his car. After a session of car sex, Fran confesses to Hannah about Desi’s past 7 engagements, as well as the engagement ring’s original intent on being given to Desi’s ex girlfriend Clementine. At this news, Hannah insists she must tell Marnie immediately and, hopefully, stop the wedding without seeming selfish. But Fran asserts it’s a secret. As they talk about it further, it begins to rain heavily outside.

Now Desi is experiencing an extreme case of cold feet as he’s been through the engagement process so many times he can’t imagine this working out. His cold feet come in the form of a total breakdown as he dives into a dirty looking pond and floats in it while it rains. Surprisingly, Ray is the one to attempt to talk him back into getting married. As Ray sees Marnie as the love of his life, this is a true demonstration of his character. After discussing destiny in this gross pond, Desi is fully convinced that he should marry Marnie, though he missed the point of Ray’s speech about destiny.

As we near the end of the episode, we return to the girl’s house once more, where Marnie dresses in her eloquent gown despite her face being reminiscent of a contoured clown. Hannah’s reaction to Marnie’s makeup is what allows her to finally crack. She doesn’t flip a table, but she nearly breaks a chair and storms out.

In the upstairs bathroom, Hannah has a heart-to-heart with Marnie, as they both explain what’s been on their minds. Hannah’s issue with Marnie marrying someone she hardly knows and Marnie’s claim that Hannah has been nothing, but unsupportive. Marnie’s line here is probably one of the most heart breaking as she says, “The very least you could do right now is to pretend that I’m doing the right thing.” It’s another example of how the two characters’ emotions are dictating what they’re voicing.

After this, Jessa provides much needed support and helps Marnie get down the aisle. The girls begin walking to the ceremony in their gowns complete with yellow rain coats and hopefully towards a successful ceremony.