Girls - Season 2 Episode 8 - Recap and Review - It's Back

“It’s Back” revealed that general laziness isn’t the ultimate enemy of Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham), as the (anti)heroine of Girls began cracking under the pressure of her looming book deal deadline. As it turned out, the outstanding sense of self-importance instilled in Hannah comes coupled with a crippling case of OCD. Dunham has certainly taken some of the breathing space that a sophomore season provides to showcase flaws that are more endearing and less worthy of eye-rolling, having established solid characters and structure for their lives during its first season.

HBO "Girls"

HBO "Girls"

Marnie: Marnie (Allison Williams) kicked off the episode back to her old Jessa-hating ways, mocking her uncanny ability to run from anything or anyone in her life. Still, Marnie didn’t venture upstate with the rest of us, so what does she know? That’s where we find Marnie heading into the last few episodes of season 2; absolutely clueless as to how untogether she’s become. At least the other girls are sometimes willing to take a look in the mirror, even if for Hannah that means being forced by her parents to face a doctor surrounding her disorder.

Marnie had learned from Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet) that Charlie (Christopher Abbott) had sold his app, Forbidden, to a greater developer, landing himself an office and a team to work with on future projects. Marnie, still reeling from her “breakup” with Booth, would swing by to show her “support” for Charlie. The thing about Marnie is that she truly believes in her own righteousness. Hannah, for example, would know that she was behaving shamelessly. Charlie, looking more together than ever, seemed to have finally been vaccinated to Marnie’s “charms,” immediately recognizing her desperate need for his affection and attention. Who knows what next week will bring, though.

At home, Marnie vented to Ray (Alex Karpovsky) while Shoshanna was out and about, cursing the universe for damning those as "together" as she is, and rewarding those "messes" like Charlie. Ray is much better at encouraging others than he is at encouraging himself, and his tough love advice to Marnie was to "stop being the cartographer and start being the explorer." Fittingly, Marnie's "dream" is to be a singer. Yeah, Allison Williams has a nice enough voice, but could you picture Marnie sitting down to write countless songs, learn an instrument, etc. She would have the dream to be a superstar, not to be a singer.

HBO "Girls"

Shoshanna: Shoshanna ran into her richest Hindi friend while walking through the park with Ray. Radhika means "successful" in Indian, by the way. Ray wanted nothing to do with Shoshanna's far-out girlfriend, prompting her to attend a college party alone. Shoshanna's frustrations with Ray had begun to bubble over. Her incessant support has gotten him nowhere and gotten their relationship in trouble. That isn't to say that Ray isn't to blame, though. He is indeed thirty-three. He shouldn't be going to college parties, true, but he still lives like a college boy.

The theme of the party was clearly "high-class White Castle," which seemed like a stellar idea to me. Radhika can be my friend any day. Shoshanna spent the few minutes she managed to tolerate the party spilling to her friend about how her relationship with Ray is feeling a lot more like practice for raising a child. Thus, it made sense that Shoshanna closed out her arc this week by hooking up with the doorman, whom she'd deemed uncharacteristically attractive for that kind of a job.

HBO "Girls"

Adam: Adam Driver is doing a fantastic job of making Adam seem more relatable this season. Last season, his strange brand of affection was contrasted harshly with Hannah's need for genuine love, often vilifying him in the process. A single Adam, and more specifically, one we get to know personally, is much more likable.

I'll admit, I took a look at the staging for the A.A. scene, and I initially thought he was at an acting class considering the cast of peculiar folks around him. Having taken a liking to Adam following his story of Hannah's exhausting and relentless pursuit of his heart, a fellow member insisted that he call her daughter. Judging by the eccentric woman, Adam figured the girl would be, well, I guess, more like him? Instead, he found himself on a date with a girl who was probably the most "normal" girl to ever grace the series. Plus, Natalia was stunning. Charmed by Adam's rawness, things couldn't have gone better for the two. Also, I'm not sure we've ever seen Adam looking so happy! Next week, he'll get a Hanna run-in. Will everything fall to sh*t?

Hannah: Hannah began the episode looking back over her shoulder eight times following an ignored call from Adam. In her apartment, we caught a glimpse of her counting out eight potato chips. My initial thought was that she was living a day in the life of someone with OCD for her latest article, following her memorable stint as a one-night coke-head. As we came to find, Hannah actually suffers from OCD.

With her parents in town, Hannah's problem was put center-stage. Literally, her tics ticked off singer Judy Collins during her set, forcing Hannah to repeat affirmations in the restaurant bathroom mirror. In the end, her parents were forced to take her to see a doctor. Hannah continued an unwavering state of a denial, but as I previously stated during Marnie's segment of the recap, Hannah's sense denial is different than Marnie's. Lena Dunham always manages to let us in, someway somehow. We now know just how unimaginably aware Hannah is to ever aspect of her life, even if her vision is, at times, completely self-centered.

Suddenly, much of Hannah's antics make sense. I noted last week that I appreciated the way she analyzed situations as though she were recapping her life experiences. I do enjoy that, and that isn't necessarily a sign of OCD, but the way she explained her former obsession with life's little details to the doctor at the show's close shed a little light on her present day quirks. I'm sure the fact that the man nonchalantly referenced a very successful fiction book he published on the side didn't help, though. Her looming deadline might have been the reason as to why these terrible tendencies reared their ugly head again this week, but we were clued in to the fact that Hannah does feel pressure and a sense of responsibility to herself. In the past, we saw her as egocentric. Now that there's more to the story, we can be more forgiving.

What did you all think of Girls Season 2 Episode 8, "It's Back"? Do have a new perspective on Hannah? What will come of Shoshanna and Ray? Is Marnie in for a rude awakening?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Girls Season 2 Episode 8, "It's Back"!