Girls - Season 2 Episode 7 - Video Recap and Review - Video Games

The best part about the sophomore season of a half-hour comedic series like Girls is that once we've gotten enough tiny glimpses into the lives of the characters, we're left with enough structure to start delving more deeply into what makes them tick. I'm often left with wanting more time spent with the girls on this show, not because Lena Dunham neglects to deliver weekly, but because the laughs keep the pace moving so quickly that episodes tend to flash by. In Season 2, given that much has been established prior, we're given more space to, say, spend an entire episode Upstate with Jessa's (Jemima Kirke) father.

HBO "Girls"

Jessa has been conspicuously absent for much of this season. Having spent a good chunk of the episodes thus far married or off lamenting, I was happy to see Girls dedicate this week to getting to know the girl behind the curtain. As Lena Dunham put it in her own episode recap, we know Jessa as an extremely liberal, free-spirited individual. Oftentimes, she can be very charming in her freedom. Other times, her lack of a tether leaves her looking disconnected or entitled. In catching up with her estranged father in the country, the character had to be taken back to "little girl" territory, revealing a heartbreaking root to her perpetual wanderlust.

Hannah (Lena Dunham) would accompany Jessa on her journey for answers. Having received a strange text from her father, one that Hannah noted was probably just a butt-text, Jessa took it as a sign from the universe to make the visit. I liked the way the show had Jessa continuously defending her father, even at times mirroring him herself. When he was hours late to pick the two up from the train station, it was Hannah who was annoying for getting fed up with waiting, as opposed to her father being selfish for "running a small errand." Poor Hannah had to pee next to the tracks!

Jessa's father's new girlfriend, Petula, had prayed for a "cushion" for her rocky relationship with Jessa. The cushion manifested as Hannah, who was slightly uncomfortable with the task of acting as a buffer. Hannah helped Petula tend to her pet rabbits, rabbits they'd eventually eat, while wacky woman mused on the "video game" that is life. You fight to get better and to get to the next level. Hannah complimented her metaphor, only to realize that this woman was probably kooky enough to believe that life really is some kind of Matrix-like computer existence. In a lot of ways, the couple were just humorous hippies. In others, they were very realistic, albeit far-out, folks living whatever kind of bizarre lifestyle suited them at the moment. Jessa's dad had a habit of running away, though, as we'd come to learn.

Petula had a son, Frank, who was maybe the strangest male character the show has drummed up thus far. He almost looked like something spat out of an SNL skit, so of course, Hannah was sexually tempted. Jessa put the brakes on that one as best she could, but once the seeds of an experience are planted in Hannah's brain, there's no stopping her from either humiliating herself or degrading herself or both. After Jessa's father refused to break plans he'd made with his girlfriend, Jessa and Hannah took a late-night joyride with Frank and his friend, who seemed like the antithesis of a guy Jessa would be attracted to. It's rare that Hannah is the voice of reason, but when Jessa covered Tyler's eyes as he sped around that windy road after the entire group had gotten high off of whipits, things could have gotten very ugly. It was a nice way for the show to accentuate just how dangerously extreme Jessa can get in her free-spirited ways. Sometimes "living life" crosses the line.

As we'd come to recognize, when Jessa's father burns her, she lashes out via her sense of "freedom." Hannah, after having convinced Tyler to pull over, ran into the woods and ended up in a nearby graveyard. Frank tailed close behind and ended up on the receiving end of Hannah's explanatory rant. Granted, I understand how some viewers find her ranting obnoxious, but she never fails to amuse me in her very literal "recaps" of how she was feeling during her latest experience. She speaks as though she's writing a review of her life. I, for one, am always appreciative of a Hocus Pocus/ Thora Birch reference. The two maybe, just barely, had something resembling sex in that cemetery. It lasted maybe a few seconds, whatever it was. Hannah was thankful to hear that she wasn't his first, that honor goes to Rihanna from down the street.

That night in bed, Jessa opened up, if only a little, to Hannah, admitting that she was most likely not in the right state of mind to confront her father.

Hannah: "Who's ever in the right frame of mind to see their parents?"

HBO "Girls"

By the episode's close, Jessa would have the confrontation she came for, whether she was ready or not. You had to feel for her when she broke down to her father about his absence from her life. You had to feel some rage in Jessa's defense as her father argued that she hadn't been reliable either. She is the child, and leaving a family behind to struggle isn't a casual act. Jessa essentially had to raise herself, yet her decisions mirror her fathers. He leaves, and she runs. Her father promised her one last family meal but ended up leaving the girls stranded at the general store. As the two walked home with their groceries, something in Jessa just snapped. Back at the house, she slipped out while Hannah dealt with her flaring UTI.

Jessa's Note: "See you around.- X"

If she wants a chance to escape her father, Jessa has to, in a sense, be her father. She has to go wherever the wind will take her next. At the train station, alone, Hannah decided to call her own parents out of the blue. At this point, her folks aren't used to receiving calls without a need. While they were baffled as to why Hannah would phone just to thank them for supporting her, it was still a great moment for Hannah as a character, as she continues to prove that these experiences she's gathered to glorify in her writing, aren't leaving her as cold-blooded as she sometimes seems. She is, in actuality, learning as an individual from her research.

What did you all think of Girls Season 2 Episode 7, "Video Games"? What will come of Jessa? Are you happy to see even a tiny bit of growth in Hannah? Are you enjoying how Season 2 is constantly delving deeper into these characters many have written off as unlikable?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Girls Season 2 Episode 7, "Video Games"!