GIRLS Season 2, Episode 9

Awkwardness is a part of life at all ages, but there is something specific about feeling awkward in your early twenties. You feel like you have some idea of how to behave like an adult, but then something happens – you run into your ex on a date for instance – and all of a sudden the overwhelming awkwardness feels so strong you might black out from it. Each person responds differently to it, but it tends to bring out the strange in all of us. This is certainly true of this episode of GIRLS, where each and every character is wildly awkward in their own way. Read on to see what feeling awkward will lead our girls and guys to do.
Hannah As we learned last week, Hannah has OCD, and it is immediately apparent this week that she is still suffering from it. She is on her way to her editor’s office, the one who assigned her the ebook and our heart broke for her as soon as the meeting started. He has not finished reading the pages she submitted, because he isn’t sure “who wrote them”. You see, he wanted the “chubby face with come on it” writer and got someone writing about friendship, more Jane Austen than Anias Nin. His helpful suggestion – if she’s not having enough sex at the moment, make it up – she can pull off writing a novel, correct? At home and once again struggling to write, Hannah manages to literally get a pain in the ass – more specifically, a splinter in her bum. After removing it, she opens a box of Q-tips and starts to clean her right ear when the OCD kicks in, leading her to jab her eardrum so hard she seems to puncture it. The noise it makes – a sickening squish-crunch – is still ringing in our own ears. She calls her parents for comfort and then off she goes to the hospital. She is treated by a brusque ER doctor, who points out she must be feeling rather silly (thanks Dr. Tips) and has no time to listen to her attempt to explain her mental state and struggle with anxiety that lead to the ear-cleaning snafu. He believes it is only an abrasion, but can’t tell from all the blood (comforting!) so suggests she see a specialist if it’s still bothering her in a few days. She asks if he could clean the other one out since it is feeling a bit uneven (OCD red flag) and he declines. It is the law of first major heartbreak that when you are feeling your absolute worst on every level you will run into your ex. Not only that, they will seem like their life has improved immeasurably since you. When Hannah sees Adam on the street outside the engagement party, which he explains he is attending with his girlfriend, Hannah takes another giant blow to the gut. Natalia is a cool girl name, and Hannah is on the street in a nightie coming home from the hospital. She and Adam have a moment when he calls her “kid” and she comes close to crying. She tries to salvage her pride with a mention of the book she is working on but Adam is already heading inside and she’s left knowing in this moment she lost. At home she sits on the edge of the tub, she begins to clean the other ear. Hannah’s anxiety makes her crave balance, but whether that balance can come in a healthy way or whether it will lead to two punctured eardrums is yet to be seen.
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