If Hollywood and self help books have taught us anything, it’s that from our lowest point comes renaissance. Such seems to be the case with Hannah Horvath, who, in the season two premiere of Girls, appears to have come a long way from where we saw her in the final moments of last season. Having presumably experienced a revelation as she sat alone on the beach at Coney Island eating day old wedding cake, season two Hannah is maybe, as the tagline says, almost getting it kind of together. She’s got a new lover, is begrudgingly playing Florence Nightingale to Adam (who, you’ll remember, was hit by a truck as he and Hannah almost kind of broke up in last season’s finale), is working three full time jobs, and is happily cohabitating – and sharing a bed – with her gay ex-boyfriend and new bestie Elijah. What could possibly go wrong?
As Hannah’s life is taking a turn for the grownup, Marnie’s is spinning in the other direction. After her drunken wedding make out with SNL’s Bobby Moynihan at the end of last season, Marnie is continuing to almost kind of fall apart. Downsized from her job, missing her friendship with Hannah and the comfort of being in a relationship, Marnie has a second drunken make out – this time with Elijah – and crawls into Charlie’s bed late at night because she doesn’t want to sleep alone. There’s a rock bottom in Marnie’s near future, and she’ll undoubtedly come back from it a very different woman.
Shoshanna’s bed – occupied by Ray in the first season finale – is empty once more, after some apparent confusion as to whether sleeping together makes two twentysomethings a couple. As tightly wound and gratingly endearing as ever, Shosh is focused on purging Ray from her life – defriending him, avoiding him at Hannah and Elijah’s housewarming, asking the universe to ruin his life in an Eastern-influenced spiritual ritual (as one does). Shoshanna, originally intended as a guest star rather than series regular, is quickly becoming a 21st century version of Bridget Jones. The resemblance was uncanny this week, especially in a scene between Shosh and Ray involving hurt feelings, emoji and a bottle of beer sloshed all over party guests’ purses.
It’s so easy to shake your head at these characters as they make sometimes colossally bad decisions, but it’s also impossible not to recognize yourself in Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna and Jessa. I’m happy to say my recollection of cavorting in bed with gay ex-boyfriends is blurred by the effects of the Wildberry cooler I drank as a young twentysomething, but crawling back to a spent relationship for some creature comfort is all too familiar. That was a few years ago, and I like to think I’ve got it more together now, but Girls is continuing to give me painfully awkward to watch reminders that it could all kind of fall apart in a heartbeat. It’s why I’ll be watching every Sunday night, and recapping episodes for you over the course of the season.
What did YOU think of the Girls season two premiere?