Newlyweds Thomas Jane and Jessa.

Elijah’s older boyfriend George dumps him in the first scene because of his youth (and the fact that he cheated with a woman) and it sets the tone for the major issue in this episode – adulthood. The challenges of growing up seem to be pretty serious road blocks for immature Hannah, and the others may think they’re faring better but under the surface they’re all just kids playing house (or in Marnie’s case, hostess). Let the immaturity ensue.
HANNAH Hannah’s love life is, as usual, somewhat fraught. Spurned Adam is making her the world’s creepiest breakup music videos (Umm, Adam? If you don’t want to seem like a stalker, don’t use the words “creeping around” as part of your first verse.) Hannah is mildly concerned he will murder her, but is obviously also enjoying the feeling of being the object of his obsession, at least for the dramatic value it brings to her life. She is also encountering a vaguely more grown up problem. Her new boyfriend Sandy is a Republican (this was foreshadowed in the first episode when she asked to borrow his copy of The Fountainhead). This causes tension between him and her gay roommate, and when Hannah helpfully makes a comparison to the fact that Elijah’s ex George was old and therefore still uses Hotmail, it was clear that the issues at hand were over her head. After an enlightening afternoon with Jessa and the puppy posse, Hannah decides to follow her advice and press him about why he hasn’t read her essay yet. He confesses he had read it, and that it “wasn’t for (him) exactly.” driving Hannah into a classic writer’s tailspin. When he gives the world’s most obnoxious notes (“I just didn’t feel like anything was happening in it. Nothing was happening.”)  Hannah can’t resist opening up the can of worms further by goading him into discussing his Republicanism. Stung by his dismissal of her work, she challenges his politics with generalities (gay marriage, guns, black people in prison) that make it clear that she isn’t truly political herself, but simply wants to get under his skin. That certainly works.
Click through for the full recap…
(more…)