Girls – I Love You Baby

By: Ruth Anrep

Hannah (Lena Dunham) is going for a run to some badass beats (again, Manish Raval you’re killing it), perhaps trying to get her life a little more on track and just clear her head. Suddenly, she spots her parents on her doorstep. She attempts to avoid them and just keep running, but after twenty-three unanswered calls, they’re not letting her get away.

After an awkward reunion, her mother suggests they do some shopping for an outfit for Hannah’s reading. During this shopping trip, Hannah has some mother-daughter time and informs her mom about everything that’s been happening involving Jessa (Jemima Kirke) and Adam (Adam Driver). It’s just a mess.

Elijah (Andrew Rannells) shows up at the apartment while the ladies are out and joins Tad (Peter Scolari) on the couch. Clearly, he is distraught after what happened between him and Dill (Corey Stoll) and is seeking some support in Tad. He lays on Tad who gives him a huge “Carpe Diem” like speech about seizing things. I think this speech did more for Tad’s current confusion than Elijah’s heartbreak.

While this is happening, Adam is still looking after Caroline’s baby with Jessa and things are not going well. Jessa seems to have improved with taking care of the baby, but it seems Adam is constantly there to criticize her. On top of this, Jessa seems to be talking about Hannah quite a bit and it is doing nothing but infuriate Adam and the whole stress just leads to an epic fight.

Later, this fights escalates as neither of them can escape the presence Hannah seems to have in their relationship and Adam hits a breaking point after Laird comes back for the baby. Adam tells Jessa that Hannah is no longer a part of their lives. I was more than thrilled when Jessa responded saying that Hannah would always come first and she would never choose him over her (sisters before misters always), but she also completely blamed Adam for her behavior. Adam goes into full demolition mode, breaking everything in his path. Jessa locks herself in the bathroom to get away from Adam, but he punches through the door and their fight continues.

At least Marnie (Allison Williams) and Ray (Alex Karpovsky) seem to be going well, though as Marnie wants to bring Ray on tour with her when she promotes her new record. Ray, of course, says yes because the other option is for his girlfriend to go on tour alone and sing love songs with her ex-husband. With Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) taking care of the coffee shop, the timing seems to be perfect, especially seeing as the coffee shop is now having some success from those customers who actually have full time jobs and no hint of a hipster beard.

Success is happening for Hannah too as she gets dressed up with her parents and Elijah and goes into the city to The Moth reading series. The theme for this reading seems fitting considering Hannah’s situation: Jealousy. Her name does indeed get pulled to share her story and she tells the debacle that is going on between her ex-boyfriend and her best friend and of course it’s absolutely brilliant.

In this moment, it seems as though we’ve got the old Hannah back. The intelligent, hilarious writing is back but she also reveals much more than expected during this. She explains, “I was sad about what they thought I knew I was” (someone who would freak out if she found out). She also reveals that she heard the fight between Jessa and Adam and, specifically, that they were fighting about her. She left her little peace offering of a fruit basket at the door and left.

It seems Hannah is leaving the awful situation of “my ex-boyfriend is dating my best friend.” Reading out her writing seems to be a release for her as she realizes that she is not a part of the mess going on in Adam and Jessa’s relationship. She has let go.