Girls season finale: The Greek chorus speaks, but Hannah’s hubris goes unpunished
By Jessica Allen - Monday, March 18, 2013 - 0 Comments
He said, she said: talking points on season 2 of the hit HBO show
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode summary: In the season finale, Hannah finds herself unable to meet her ebook deadline and reaches out to her father for help. But he suspects she’s up to her old shenanigans and being manipulative. Marnie confronts Charlie about being in love with him and Charlie admits that he still loves her. Ray accepts a promotion to manage a new location of the Grumpy Cafe to try and impress Shosh. But it’s not enough and Shosh breaks up with Ray. Hannah, who is in the middle of an OCD spell, calls Adam, who is trashing the boat he is building in the middle of his apartment. He races to her apartment in the middle of the night, shirtless.
She said: Well, if we can start with the end first, I feel like a lot of people are going to have trouble with the fact that Adam literally comes to rescue Hannah. I wonder if there will be people who suggest that they just lost all sorts of credibility by suggesting that in the end, all we want is to be rescued. But I have to admit, I did not take that scene as a man rescuing a woman. For me, it was an intimiate scene of friendship, and I didn’t find it to be sexualized. He’s odd. She’s odd. And their reunion had nothing to do with gender. Or maybe it did. Maybe I’m so brainwashed by the establishment that I can’t even see it. You know the recent cover story of Maclean’s about the CEO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, and her new book? I was talking with the story’s writer and I said something like, ‘I have never in my life even aspired to be the CEO of a company.’ And she said that was the very premise of Sandberg’s book: I’ve been brainwashed to think that it’s not even a possibility for me, as a woman. And at first I thought, Yeah, maybe. But after considering the idea, well, no, I don’t think so. And the most important people in my life, they don’t aspire to be the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company either. I don’t know those people, and I’m not sure that I’d want to. I’m really getting off topic here.
-
Girls: What can these characters possibly figure out? (Besides that they’re abhorrent.)
By Jessica Allen - Monday, March 11, 2013 at 12:34 PM - 0 Comments
He said, she said: talking points on season 2, episode 9
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode summary:
Hannah is anxious over her ebook deadline–and the fact that her editor has encouraged her to ‘make stuff up’ in order to make the project more sexy. Her OCD flares up and ends up landing her in the emergency room, with no pants on. Adam does his best to keep his behaviour in check to impress his new girlfriend. But after he sees Hannah on the street, old habits return. Shoshannah is filled with guilt after making out with a door man. Marnie sings what is supposed to be a celebratory song at a party Charlie is throwing at his new company. Charlie is annoyed, but ends up having relations with Marnie in his office.
She said: In my mind, there were three unwatchable scenes in this episode–maybe four. First, when Hannah sticks the Q-Tip into her ear; second, Marnie singing; third, Adam having sex; and fourth; Hannah sticking a Q-Tip into the other ear.
He said: God that was gross. Just disgusting.
She said: Very disturbing. I feel disturbed. Do you think Adam is purposefully trying to push his new girlfriend away, after seeing Hannah?
-
How Hannah’s mom is kind of like Han Solo
By Jessica Allen - Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 12:50 PM - 0 Comments
He said, she said: talking points on Girls, season 2, episode 8
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode summary:
Marnie learns from Shoshannah and Ray that Charlie has found success after selling an App. Shoshannah is feeling socially restless after spending a summer with Ray. Adam attends an AA meeting and winds up going on a date with another attendee’s daughter. And Hannah has OCD.
She said: I’ve heard from a few people that they didn’t like this episode, but I kind of loved it!
He said: I think they didn’t like it because it was very uncomfortable. I think you see pretty much all the characters acting out their turmoil in very ugly ways.
-
Parental failings and failing your parents, on Girls
By Jessica Allen - Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 11:00 PM - 0 Comments
He said, she said: talking points on Girls, season 2, episode 7
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode summary:
Jessa invites Hannah, who is suffering a urinary tract infection, along to visit her dad and stepmother (Petula, played by Rosanna Arquette)in the country. But the father-daughter reunion does not go the way Jessa had hoped it would.
-
Stupid people having flashes of insight OR insightful people living stupid lives?
By Jessica Allen - Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 10:35 PM - 0 Comments
He said, she said: talking points on Girls, season 2, episode 6
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode summary:
Hannah has one month to write an ebook. Jessa is depressed and living with Hannah. Shoshanah is eager for Ray to sign up for a seminar on how to achieve both success and happiness. Ray, who wonders why anyone would want that, is desperate to get his copy of Little Women that he lent Hannah back but it’s at Adam’s place. So he makes a visit and Adam and he unexpectedly bond. Meanwhile, Marnie is labouring under the misapprehension that she and Booth Jonathan are boyfriend and girlfriend, which she finds out is not the case at an artist party he throws and asks her to host. Hannah and Marnie are struggling to repair their friendship.
-
He said, she said: Hannah is vile, but maybe that’s the point?
By Jessica Allen - Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 10:45 PM - 0 Comments
Talking points on Girls, Season 2, Episode 4
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode recap:
Hannah kicks Elijah out of the apartment and she’s keeping all the furniture that George, Elijah’s ex-boyfriend, bought for him because George said she could. Elijah is not paying rent for the month, considering all the burritos he bought for Hannah, not to mention a butt plug. There are two dinners that don’t go according to plan: Jessa and Thomas-John’s dinner with Thomas-John’s parents and Hannah’s pad thai dinner with her friends, where Marnie ends up leaving after a confrontation with her ex-boyfriend Charlie and his current girlfriend. Shoshannah realizes that Ray might be living with her. And Jessa leaves Thomas-John and shows up at Hannah’s place, where they have a bath together.
-
He said, she said: America loves a comeback
By Jessica Allen - Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 9:56 PM - 0 Comments
Talking points on Girls, Season 2, Episode 3
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find previous conversations here.)
Episode recap:
Hannah has a meeting with an editor who says she’ll pay her $200 to write about her first-time cocaine experience. She then procures the drug from her downstairs neighbour, Laird, who is a recovering addict. Marnie has a run-in with the obnoxious artist, Booth, who kissed her last season. Elijah accompanies Hannah during a night of cocaine and dancing, and accidentally confesses that he and Marnie had sex. Hannah, high and livid, drags Elijah, along with Laird, to Booth’s place in order to confront Marnie about being a bad friend.
Best lines:
- One of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers gave me a lovely compliment on that shirt. They don’t construct a sleeve like that anymore. (Jessa to potential customer at her outdoor vintage boutique)
- I love when young people are passionate about something and then they just give up the second they have to struggle. (Booth to Marnie)
- You’re a con man who somehow talks people into paying way too much money for derivative art by convincing anyone who’s never heard of Damien Hirst that you’re a genius. (Marnie to Booth)
- This is not going to be a night of dancing around in your mother’s Volkswagen with a bottle of cough syrup and a box of McNuggets. (Elijah to Hannah)
- I am just so jazzed to write the f–k out of this story. (Hannah to Elijah)
-
He said, she said: Is it OK to talk about Lena Dunham’s body?
By Jessica Allen - Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 11:27 PM - 0 Comments
Talking points on Girls, Season 2, Episode 2
He said, she said is a discourse on the second season of Girls from two points of view. (Find the conversation on episode 1 here.)
Episode recap:
Marnie continues to struggle on the job front. Elijah and Marnie decide not to tell Hannah about their brief–only two or three “pumps”–sexual encounter. Shoshanah and Ray are in love. And so too are Jessa and Thomas John, post-honeymoon. Hannah calls 911 on Adam and breaks it off with her Republican lover.
Best lines:
- At least he’s speaking to you: George won’t even return my texts or Facebook messages. (Elijah to Marnie)
- I can’t take your criticism because I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drummer, ever since cutting off my camp shirt into a halter top. (Hannah to Elijah)
- You were with George for a very long time and he’s on Hotmail. (Hannah to Elijah)
- I think the world has like three curators it actually needs. (Ray to Marnie)
- It’s really terrible. You know what I realize? It’s because I’m painting something I love. I’m used to painting something that I hate, like my mom, or scenery. (Jessa to Thomas John)
- What’s wrong with a Republican? They’re just the same as Democrats. They’re all dirt bags. (Jessa to Hannah)
- I didn’t feel like it either [having sex] but I didn’t want you to have blue balls because it’s another thing I don’t believe in. (Hannah to Sandy, her Republican lover)
He said, she said, after the episode:
She said: I liked this episode more than last week’s. Did you read that article last weekend in the New York Times profiling the three boys in Girls–Adam, Ray and the good-looking guy who we don’t see at all in this episode? The article mentioned that the three actors had been non-stop referencing John Cassavetes. It just reminded me of one of the reasons I think I’m drawn to the show because in your twenties you’re not self-conscious about talking about John Cassavetes as an influence. And there’s a certain innocence that’s really easy to mock, I guess. They’re not ashamed, and maybe they’re making fun of it themselves.
-
He said, she said: Girls, Episode 1, Season 2
By Jessica Allen - Monday, January 14, 2013 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments
Did Lena Dunham just give the finger to her critics? And when did everyone start being so selfish?
My boyfriend of eight years and I had a memorable late-night conversation on a summer night out on our deck after watching Lena Dunham’s feature film Tiny Furniture. I had already watched all 10 episodes of the 26-year-old’s hit HBO show Girls. And, much to my surprise, he later burned through them on his own, with equal enthusiasm, inspiring more discourse. Whether that’s because he’s closer to Dunham’s age (he’s 29) than to mine (I’m 38), or simply because the show inherently elicits visceral responses from all its viewers, I can’t be certain. In any case, I decided to keep the conversation alive during Girls, Season 2.
Episode Recap:
Creator, writer and star Dunham brings us up to speed quickly after the season finale in which Jessa got married, Shoshanna lost her virginity, Marnie ended up single, Hannah’s boyfriend Adam got hit by a truck and Dunham’s character Hannah was last seen alone on a beach, eating cake. Hannah now lives with her ex-boyfriend Elijah, who is gay, or maybe bisexual. The episode opens with them spooning and later, discussing the themed parties they will host as enthusiastic roommates in their apartment. Hannah is having relations with a young Republican. Marnie loses her gallery job, and Shoshannah wants nothing to do with Ray, Hannah’s coworker at the Grumpy Cafe, to whom she lost her virginity.
Best lines:
- “When you love somebody, you don’t have to be nice to them all the time.” (Adam to Hannah)
- “I mean I love perogies, but on the other hand, I love perogies.” (Elijah)
- “Can I borrow The Fountainhead?” (Hannah to her new lover)
He said, she said, after the episode:
She said: My dad always used to get so annoyed with my brother and me swooning over and laughing at John Hughes’s films because he took offence to the way adults were portrayed in all of his movies. Adults are idiots in The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I feel like adults are also the idiots in this episode: Marnie’s mom, Elijah’s older gay boyfriend. I don’t know. It’s in the same vein.
He say: I don’ think so. The late Nora Ephron was a big fan. And she wrote a book called I Feel Bad About My Neck, so the adults aren’t idiots, they’re just drawn in an extreme way. In a quaint way, this episode really brings you up to speed. I forgot Adam got hit by a truck. I forgot Shoshanna had sex with the guy with the big face…
She said: The big face? What do you mean? Do you mean Ray?
He said: I guess so. God, Mamet is incredible.
She said: When she was karaoking Beautiful Girls? Who decides that wonderful detail? Is that Dunham? That song is just so perfect. And then Marnie sings Building a Mystery. My god.
