Girls – Homeward Bound

By starrymag | April 14, 2016

By: Ruth Anrep

 

This episode opens with Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) looking extremely depressed in her Harajuku girl outfit, as she heads through the airport in New York. Clearly not happy to be back and already annoyed by American culture, she screams “Why am I here?” as she exits the airport.

 

Cut to Fran (Jake Lacy) and Hannah (Lena Dunham) in a rented RV, on a classic road trip for the summer. Fran is beyond excited to escape the classroom and just spend quality one-on-one time with Hannah, for three months. Hannah seems as though she’s excited too, but you can see the fear building in her eyes.

 

As they pull into a rest stop, Hannah leaves the RV to use the bathroom to actually hide in. While in here she sends an oblivious Fran a text message saying she doesn’t want to go on this trip and he should go without her. Classic avoidance – I love it.

 

Once Fran receives her text, he runs in there after her and the two end up running around the bathroom and into the woods. After Hannah trips on a fallen tree, the two have a brief talk and they have a rather terrible breakup, ending with a “fuck you” from Fran and a pajama wearing Hannah alone at the side of the road.

 

Desperate for a lift (considering she was removed from the Uber app for her rating being too low) Hannah calls Marnie for help. Unfortunately, Marnie (Allison Williams) is in the studio with Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) who has taken the adult approach of not speaking to Marnie. I can’t imagine why she broke up with him. After this failed attempt, Hannah tries to call Jessa (Jemima Kirke), who of course doesn’t answer (clearly she’s still not ready to talk). So, as a very last attempt, Hannah calls Ray (Alex Karpovsky). Ray soon shows up in his coffee truck after driving several hours from Brooklyn to take Hannah home.

 

During the ride home, Hannah and Ray are discussing her decision to breakup with Fran and how Hannah just needs to follow her instincts. As a thank you for picking her up, his advice and being a good friend, Hannah decides to give Ray “road head.” Ray does attempt to stop her because he thinks it’ll impact upon their friendship, but Hannah does it anyway. Soon enough, Ray stops protesting and starts to enjoy what’s happening. Unfortunately, this soon leads to his veering off the road, crashing into a sign and having the truck tip over. Thankfully, both Hannah and Fran are fine, but something is seriously going on with Hannah’s decision making lately. I feel a mental breakdown coming (if not already here).

 

Hannah doesn’t even apologizes for damaging Ray’s $50,000 truck (just a bit more expensive than the $600 estimate Hannah gave for a coffee truck price). Ray is beyond annoyed at the situation, but mainly just at Hannah. As a car drives past to ask if they’re okay, Hannah decides to get in this stranger’s car because she doesn’t want to wait for the truck to be towed. She leaves Ray alone with the truck and heads back home with a total stranger, another extremely unwise decision.

 

Back home, Adam (Adam Driver) goes to visits his sister as she hasn’t been returning his calls, only to find out that she’s left. To further his worry, Adam finds what seems to be a suicide note saying that she’s scared she might hurt her baby. Laird (Jon Glaser) heads out to find her, leaving Adam to take care of the baby.

 

He decides to call Jessa to help him with the baby and pick up a few things they need to take care of her. It is here that we notice many frustrating differences between these two. Jessa has no idea about taking care of a baby while Adam knows exactly what she needs and provides comfort to her.

 

While at the apartment with Adam, Hannah calls Jessa again and she answers. Jessa finally tells Hannah she’s with Adam and that they are sleeping together. Hannah just hangs up.

 

After more mayhem, the baby spits up on Jessa and she runs to the bathroom screaming. Instead of helping her while she’s screaming, Adam just stands still, staring blankly at Jessa. In this moment Adam is the grown up asking, “You’re an adult. She’s a baby. Why do you need more help than a baby?” Jessa has no answer.

 

Back to Shosh, she has gone to a sushi restaurant and sees Scott (Jason Ritter), the boyfriend she stood up at the airport. The conversation is pretty nice until Shosh mentions she’s trying to get on welfare. Here things get nasty and he gets angry with her, leaving her to think about the meaning of privilege.

 

Back to the studio, Marnie meets Desi’s new girlfriend (Lisa Bonet). It turns out the reason Desi has been ignoring Marnie is because his new girlfriend thinks it’s the best that Marnie doesn’t exist to Desi unless it’s related to their music.

 

So, it turns out Hannah hasn’t been murdered by the random dude who picked her up from the side of the road, though she starts to get a lot of bad vibes. Don’t get into cars with strangers, kids! But the guy opens up about how he’s going to NYC to get out of an abusive relationship. Hannah reciprocates this honesty by opening up about her own struggles including her fresh breakup and the Jessa and Adam fiasco. Though compared to this horrible relationship this guy went through, her problems don’t seem as bad.

 

As they pull up and see the New York City skyline, the driver gets excited about finally getting there and his new opportunity at a great life. In this moment, Hannah seems to see the same hope as this stranger that “it’s a good place to start over.