GIRLS - Recap: Why Does Everything Have to Be Perfect?
GIRLS traveled to the anti-Hamptons tonight in an episode that finally found our foursome addressing their issues. Where do Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna go from here?
Episode 7 opened with Marnie prepping the lighthouse home for the arrival of her friends. Nametags were set in place designating each lady’s assigned quarters, the wine was prepped, etc. This is a typical Marnie attempt at planning healing. These friendships have been to Hell and back, partially in part to Marnie’s judgmental perfectionist nature, but I will say that Season 3 Marnie is clearly broken. We know that she’s damaged by her breakup with Charlie, but the girls don’t because Marnie would never truly go out of her way to admit to being vulnerable or weak. Playing grown-up is something that is common for twenty-somethings desperate for genuine adulthood, especially during times when we feel like life has truly passed us by or there is something that we’ve simply missed. Marnie feels left behind by her own life and yet she also has that awful self-entitled personality trait of taking no accountability beyond what she’s discovered with Ray.
HBO "GIRLS"Should we start the healing now in this horrifying wind tunnel?Upon the girls’ arrival, the initial troubles of the trip seemed to surround common vacation woes. The sand was too rocky on Hannah’s feet, everybody wanted every single bedroom, and “Spring Breakers” Hannah wasn’t permitted to walk barefoot through the grocery store in her bikini. That is, until Elijah arrived and added a totally new dynamic to the mix that turned Marnie’s plans upside down entirely. While the other girls shopped for groceries for Marnie’s meal straight out of the pages scribed by, of course, Julia Child, Hannah bumped into Elijah and promptly made amends. Needless to say, Hannah doesn’t actually make amends or prompt others to take responsibility for their actions, but sweeping issues under the rug allows for more entertaining characters in her life. Also, it helped that Elijah’s declared remorse is based in regret for sleeping with Marnie. Hannah had not been looking forward to this trip, and Marnie is the face of it.
Back at the house, shenanigans ensued and most of the girls, especially Hannah, began enjoying the company of Elijah, his boyfriend, and their two buddies. Marnie, on the other hand, stood julienning vegetables for a salad, portioned for four, only to find herself on the receiving end of another apology from Elijah. Honestly, I’m someone who usually finds Elijah pretty insufferable, but this was one of his more endearing scenes. Had finding love actually softened the man who’d once attempted to out Hannah’s dad after officially outing himself to his clueless ex-girlfriend? We’ll, we’d learn soon enough.
Hannah sometimes can’t help herself when it comes to orchestrating drama. She couldn’t help but meddle in Elijah’s supposedly healthy relationship, though we’d later learn that she actually had some great points. Elijah’s boyfriend, the man he allegedly loved, was indeed condescending to him throughout Episode 7, but I also didn’t buy for a second that Elijah actually loved him. Most of these characters, as highlighted by Marnie this week, are way too good, and thus seriously bad, at planning and posing their own happiness. Very little of it is real, and they never know why. By the end of the episode, Elijah professed his love to a contrary response. After realizing that this was seemingly not the kind of relationship he’d thought it to be, he shut his boyfriend’s explaining up, in an attempt to erase his own painful “I love you,” by unzipping the man’s pants.
HBO "GIRLS"
The relationship between Marnie and Ray is shaping up to be a highlight this season. Even away from him, Marnie was still fixated on his assessment of her. Elijah was quick to judge her for hanging with “Old Man Ray,” but before long she was questioning her own “daddy issues” with Hannah in their first real attempt at a heart-to-heart moment. Marnie’s relentless sense of self-doubt and fear probably was created by her absent father, but it was certainly funny to watch Hannah attempt to twist the situation around in order to “relate.” We, of course, know that Hannah’s parents are substantially normal suburban folks from the Midwest, yet she somehow managed to make it seem like that damaged her. At least Hannah was totally honest about initially dreading the trip before the too “made up” in this scene.
Basically, everything unraveled by the time Hannah trumped their make-up moment by inviting the boys to stay for Marnie’s special dinner for four. This was the time Marnie had particularly set aside for the girls to choose to heal, but the other women were, in reality, having no part of Marnie’s planned evening of forced sisterhood. I will say, though, the fact that Elijah’s friends were absolutely obnoxious in the criticism of the meal she cooked put me firmly in her camp.
Following dinner, we got a musical number this week! One of Elijah’s friends was a choreographer and helped Hannah and her friends throw together a routine that can be learned here:https://twitter.com/girlsHBO/status/435252993395785728
Perhaps most importantly, the entire episode truly served to lead into the explosive scene in which Shoshanna decided to give these friends of hers what they’ve been asking for. She exposed each of them, letting the “cruel drunk” in her take the wheel, and began the battle that shattered the most recent chapter of these friendships. Where they go from here, we don’t know. I will also say that Jessa, keeping up with her sobriety, was substantially good at mediating for the most part, though she took her dose of Shosh’s medicine as well. Hannah is a tremendous narcissist, and Marnie, as previously stated, is crippled by self-doubt. Have these girls had any fun in the last two years? It’s as though the pressure since Marnie slept with Elijah has been left to build, and Shoshanna decided to be the one to blow the lid off the pot. This is what happens when you take a trip with your friends, and you’re removed from the world that distracts you for your own protection on a daily basis. Why do you think they always force the Real Housewives to shack up on a girls’ trip in a foreign country for a week? Marnie certainly got exactly what she asked for with this weekend getaway, it just wasn’t at all what she planned or wanted.
HBO "GIRLS"
Episode 7 of Season 3 closed with the girls waking in silence, heading into the kitchen, and beginning to clean. Later, they waited together for the bus to arrive, maintaining the quietness in the wake of their explosive fight before one by one slipping back into the motions of their dance routine. Ah, a final moment of hope that real growth or healing might actually occur. And Marnie’s duck tasted like a used condom.
What did you think of GIRLS Season 3 Episode 7, “Beach House”? Do you think these friendships will ever work again or are they broken forever? Were you happy to see the return of Elijah?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of GIRLS Season 3 Episode 7, “Beach House”!