Timing can be a real bitch. One minute you’re smugly in a long-term relationship, and the next you’re alone, your ex is in love in Rome, and your terminally single best friend is happily enjoying her new boyfriend within earshot. This is the plight of Marnie, whose certainty that she was the winner of her recent breakup with Charlie has been shaken by an ill-timed Facebook album on her ex’s feed. Couple this with Hannah and Adam’s newly official relationship status and she is in for one long summer. The debut season of
GIRLS has hinged on the relationship between Marnie and Hannah as they navigate their changing lives, tastes and opinions. In that spirit, this week we’ve divided the recap into the two sides of young love, blissful and broken.
On the blissful side: Hannah finally has what she wanted all along—Adam is officially her boyfriend. This means watching childhood home movies in bed, attempting to join his quest for fitness (with ice cream breaks, of course), and of course lots of happy couple sex. It’s the time in a relationship for discovering new things, and we certainly learn a lot of surprising things about Adam—he gives surprisingly earnest relationship advice to despondent Marnie, and is genuinely excited to include Hannah in his life, including inviting her to join him at a rehearsal for the play he is in. Despite being a devoted wood-worker, Adam is still an actor, and his performance impresses Hannah—until he suddenly quits and storms out. Adam feels that if the play isn’t exactly what he wants it to be, he’ll torch it. His impetuousness is shown again in a screaming altercation with a driver who nearly clips him and Hannah as they cross the street. His bombastic response to things not going how he wants puts a damper on their honeymoon phase. Another thing that puts a damper on romance? His choice to hop in the shower with Hannah and pee on her, thinking it will lighten the mood. Hannah has always appreciated his puerile sense of humour, but a golden shower isn’t exactly hilarious. Despite his attempts to smooth things over—outfitting Hannah in long-johns that match his own and making her a bedtime snack—their blissful idyll is clearly strained, with Hannah pointing out that he’s "not a very good apologizer." As she tries to convince him to rethink the play, it becomes clear that the exact thing Marnie finds so unsettling about Adam—his true blue weirdness—is just what Hannah likes so much. Is this why Hannah and Marnie are growing apart? Marnie is looking for the socially acceptable trappings in a boyfriend: a job, looks, good manners and good taste. Hannah just wants to love a weirdo, and have him love her weirdness back.
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