GIRLS - Recap: I Guess My Brand is Tombstone Pizza

Episode 5 of Season 3 of GIRLS, “Only Child,” worked interestingly as an episode that compared the creative love of an artist to that of family. While attending her former editor’s funeral, Hannah (Lena Dunham) learns the news that her book is basically done, striking up more emotion from our anti-heroine than the fact that someone who’d very recently attended her birthday party laid dead a few feet over. As Hannah fought to save her life’s work, she attempted to make things right between Caroline (Gaby Hoffman) and Adam (Adam Driver) as someone who knows nothing about having a sibling. Meanwhile, Marnie (Allison Williams) began to slightly, maybe, almost take responsibility for some of her current circumstances, and Jessa (Jemima Kirke) did the same in her own way. Here is the Recap and Review of Season 3 Episode 5 of GIRLS, “Only Child”!

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Marnie:

Marnie spontaneously adopted the cutest kitten that’s ever existed, but knowing Marnie, she’ll probably be jealous of its spotlight by next episode. Marnie’s season in the aftermath of Charlie, however, has been totally more interesting to watch. She simply has nothing, and when you have nothing but your own thoughts, it’s substantially easier to see what has gone wrong. Marnie, finally realizing that she needs to take some ownership over her own life failures, oddly enough, looked to Ray (Alex Karpovski) for his particular brand of harsh criticism. Ray does love telling people what’s wrong with them. Marnie, on the other hand, believes her own myth. Hearing that she’s the phoniest thing on two legs from Ray didn’t go over so well at first, but what was funny to watch was that, even in all her disdain for him, she still knew to trust Ray over her own opinions of herself. They’re both in very similar positions during Season 3, so it only makes sense that the two closed out their arc this week with some spontaneous sex. Has it been a long time coming? I’d never thought about it, but now I think subconsciously we’ve been led to sense this for a while. Ray’s assessment that Marnie is a good person plagued by her own deep insecurities was perfectly displayed by her ending her time in his apartment with sex. Random casual sex is the red flag of insecurity.

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Jessa:

Jessa’s arc was fairly simple for Episode 5. She’s another character whose lack of responsibilities and roots has rendered her unlikable to those in her life, like Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet). The real problem here, if you ask me, is that there’s nothing worse than getting obnoxious advice from someone who hasn’t been through the same trials as you yet. Shoshanna is still in college, and even if all of us post-college grads can look at Jessa and shake our heads, she can’t yet. Not fully, at least, and she’s pretty hard on her cousin. Still, there’s also something totally frustrating about a slacker crashing in your personal space, so we can chalk Shoshanna’s tiny fuse up to that for now. In the end, Jessa decided to add a touch of innocence to her life by applying to work at a children’s clothing store. Yikes! We know how nannying turned out for her!

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Hannah:

Episode 5 began with David’s funeral, an event studded with socialites who, from Hannah’s perspective, stole the “show.” The situation was an awkward one for Hannah, who still knew nothing regarding the fate of her book deal with David. This is where the show first started commenting on family in comparison to Hannah’s love for her work. Hannah is unbelievably in love with her own creativity. This is someone who truly thinks of herself as entitled to success in the literary world; however, she’s dedicated herself to this book of essays so much so that it’s really the only thing besides Adam and maybe her friends that matters to her. Seriously, if we had to guess whether she’d choose a rave review from Michiko Kakutani or her relationship with Adam, could we even do so? Of course, it was absolutely inappropriate to ask David’s widow (Yes, his wife) about the fate of her book and for the contact information of another good publisher, but that’s Hannah. She’s shameless, but we know that she’s not necessarily connected within the world of publishing. She’s very much just someone who’s talented and dropped in Brooklyn. Hannah was basically kicked out of the event for daring to ask and grieving over her dead book more than her dead friend, but she did eventually land herself a meeting with another big publisher. Most of us would not have asked a dead editor’s weeping widow for a phone number of a replacement publisher, but we also wouldn’t have landed that meeting!

The subsequent meeting with two figures on this new publishing team was the perfect faux interview situation GIRLS could have drummed up for a scene. There’s nothing quite like having to sell yourself to people you don’t actually know or care about yet, and we’ve all been there. You’re forced to present the perfect version of yourself, and the conversation is entirely one-sided. “What is your brand?” was another great move for the episode to make, in that it was interesting commentary on the world of entertainment today. It’s not enough to simply be an artist. There has to be some sort of platform and image sold to be deemed marketable or commercial. By the time Hannah actually sat down for the meeting, these people had already read several chapters of her book, but that simply wasn’t enough. In the end, however, Hannah was offered an actual hardcopy book deal rather than an e-book deal.

As all of this was transpiring, Hannah attempted to juggle solidifying this new publisher with fixing Adam and Caroline’s relationship. Hannah, acting as Dr. Phil, knows next to nothing about sibling relationships as an only child. Meanwhile, Caroline and Adam are different shades of the same color. They’re both detached from society, lack the drive to be conventionally successful, and are full of endless opinions about everything else. Funny enough, Caroline also has flashes of Hannah in her personality, in that she’s self-obsessed in ways that Adam is not. Think back to Season 1 Adam, though, and you’ll see a whole lot more Caroline in him. This new heroic Season 3 Adam is so much more likable that he's almost a whole new character.

After her father sent her former contract to a lawyer cousin, Hannah learned the sad truth about her previous book deal. Her old publisher owns the rights to her book for three years, yet they aren’t interested in handling any of David’s old projects. Because they’ve already paid Hannah, though, her work remains trapped. This is where things took a turn for the worse with Caroline, who attempted to remain positive in her own outlandish and unreasonable way. We know Hannah has a tremendous sense of self-worth, but Caroline has that plus she lacks a sense of reality generally speaking. Hannah has a warped sense of how the real world works. Caroline lives on her own planet. She’s someone who honestly blames her setbacks in life on perpetual bad luck, as though luck is some kind of actual demon following her around. Of course Hannah can’t simply write a new book as suggested. Siblings, oftentimes, are reflections of you that are difficult to ignore because they’re cut from the same cloth. When Hannah kicked Caroline to the curb having reached her limit on craziness, Adam was surprisingly upset to hear the news, and Episode 5 ended with Hannah mourning the epic failure that was her life’s work, while Adam set out to look for his lost sister. The closest thing Hannah has ever had to a sister is her book, and now that’s lost too.

What did you think of Season 3 Episode 5 of GIRLS, “Only Child”? How will Hannah get out of this one? Are Marnie and Ray perfect or perfectly terrible for each other? Will Jessa get a hold of her life?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Season 3 Episode 5 of GIRLS, “Only Child”!