Girls - Season 2 Episode 6 - Recap and Review - Boys

Girls gave Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) her first brush with destiny this week, and that tiny realization of a dream came via an eBook deal. Of course, “Boys” never saw the completion of said project, so there’s no telling whether or not our leading girl will actually pull through on her one month deadline. We’re past the midway point of season 2… are these girls getting their sh*t together or not?

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Hannah: The episode opened with Hannah landing her very first book deal. Apparently, she’d managed to hook one of her prospective backers with her signature endearingly quirky yet overzealous personal essays. We’d heard a lot about these essays over the course of a season and a half, but up until this point we’ve only really gotten a few indications of how talented Hannah actually is as a writer. So much of the humor surrounding her as a character is that she’s brimming with self-worth but struggles with self-respect. Season 1 saw Hannah continuously having her sense of self-importance bite her in the ass. What happens if she actually gets what she feels she deserves?

The reactions to Hannah’s book deal were almost more important than the fact that she would have the opportunity to write and eBook in general. An eBook isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but it is certainly something. It’s an accomplishment worth celebrating and commending. Granted, we don’t know if she’ll actually be able to finish by the deadline. Shoshanna (Zosia Mament) was, of course, thrilled to have a grown-up friend with an actual book deal. Jessa (Jemima Kirke), on the other hand, was quick to drag Hannah into her pool of depression following the conclusion of her marriage. To her, a book deal meant nothing. Jessa and Shoshanna; we can call it a wash. We knew that Marnie’s (Allison Williams) opinion would matter most, and we had to wait to find out how she’d take the news.

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Marnie: Poor Marnie thought she’d started to get her act together, only to have everything blow up in her face, yet again. Booth Jonathan (Jorma Taccone) seriously rubs me the wrong way. He has this self-perpetuated brand of pretention that goes almost unrivaled on this show. This show is, in fact, a show about twenty-somethings who feel the world owes them some sort of prize for managing to continue existing in New York City. That is, in a sense, what your twenties are for, though. Booth Jonathan is much older and subsequently much less endearing.

After firing his assistant, Booth asked Marnie to host a part at his place. Marnie, considering this their first event thrown together, accepted. The party was sufficiently obnoxious and filled with lots of folks like Booth. Well, they were supposedly his people. Hannah showed up to support her friend and to catch Marnie up on the whole eBook situation. Marnie could barely make time to say hello, though. She had her new “actual” creative-type friends to pay attention to. By not giving Hannah the time to speak, she would remain a “writer” in a room of writers, if you know what I mean. This was Hannah’s first brush with legitimacy, and she’d have to go it alone.

Marnie’s fantasy night ended as a nightmare, all things considered. Booth revealed that he hadn’t even realized he had a girlfriend. He had hired (!) Marnie to host his party because, well, her chosen career path was that of a hostess. Once Marnie broke into tears, he attempted to turn the tables, whining about the fact that people use him for his talent and the prestige that comes along with it. Boohoo, nobody cares. In the end, Marnie called Hannah from the subway, having not even noticed that she snuck out. Hannah lied and made up the excuse of having to rush home to pour out all of the creativity she’d sucked up at Booth’s party. Marnie lied too, if only to keep the dream alive for a few more minutes. It’s funny to watch these two, in a sense, switch roles. Last season, Marnie was much more stable and structured. This season, Hannah is actually making legitimate strides, even if for every two steps forward she takes one step back. Well, Marnie, that’s what you get for not thinking Shoshanna was hip enough to invite to your bogus event.

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Adam and Ray: Shoshanna had been on Ray’s (Alex Karpovsky) ass to start himself on the path of one Donald Trump. I think it’s interesting to see the dichotomy between this couple. It’s always strange to compare someone with big goals and dreams to someone who is content with simply existing as is. Some people aspire to own the coffee shop, while others are happy just brewing the coffee. In this, Shoshanna’s frustration lies. She's often playfully mocked for her naivety, yet she has a real world perspective that the others, living in the dreamworld of Brooklyn, lack.

Ray may not see things the way his much younger girlfriend does. Having to pick up his copy of Little Women from Adam’s (Adam Driver) apartment after Hannah had mistakenly left it there pre-breakup, Ray found himself somewhat captivated by Hannah’s ex. Adam had “rescued” a dog from someone he’d deemed irresponsible as an owner. Adam, of course, had said dog (named Dog) locked away in his bathroom. The mutt was basically rabid. Agreeing to help Adam return the dog, Ray found himself venting to an unlikely source.

The two would venture to Staten Island via the ferry and would come to find that they had more in common than they’d initially realized. Ray intellectualizes everything while Adam doesn’t think too deeply on anything at all, but the hearts of their visions tend to be the same. In turn, their lives seem to be comparable.

I thought their inevitable fight surrounding Hannah was interesting to watch, mainly because it kind of mirrored how we feel about Hannah as viewers. She can be funny, entertaining, and even inspiring at times, yet she’s also somewhat helpless and hopeless. Adam stormed off just prior to clocking Ray, I’d assume, and left Ray with Dog. Ray got an earful from the daughter of Dog’s owner. Mostly, it was just typical backwards Staten Island trash talking (Trust me, I’ve been there!), but the girl unknowingly managed to strike a nerve in Ray, who’d recently been going through this existential crisis of sorts. The episode closed with Ray crying to Dog about how he is “nothing.” The girl couldn’t even get her nasty slurs right, but the awful aggression hit home.

What did you all think of Girls Season 2 Episode 6, “Boys”? Were you happy to see Adam Driver return? Where will Ray find purpose? Will things work out for Hannah? What does Marnie need to do? Where the hell is Jessa hiding?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Girls Season 2 Episode 6, “Boys”!