Girls Recap: “Gummies” – Season 6, Episode 5
By Emily Scott
This week’s episode of Girls features a lentil, pot gummy worms, an outstanding guest performance by Daisy Eagan, and a major fight in the kitchen of a dim sum restaurant.
I will always and unapologetically love Girls. But as I watched this episode, I realized how much it felt like a different show than the one I had been watching. Past seasons were much more lighthearted and hilariously messy. But this more serious, more mature show is, for my money, just as great as the Girls I loved before. Just in different ways. So let’s dig in.
Hannah
We come to realize pretty early on that we are doubling down on the pregnancy storyline. So, now that it seems pretty clear, I have to come to accept the fact that Hannah’s having a baby. The first person Hannah tells is her mom Loreen, who is visiting from Michigan. At first Loreen is actually really supportive. But as Loreen self-medicates with pot gummy worms, things get a bit darker. Since Hannah’s father came out as gay, Loreen has just been trying to manage her crippling loneliness. And the idea of a grandkid just emphasizes that this is the last act of her life. Her image of what she would be as a grandmother used to include a partner – now it doesn’t.
Episode 57 (season 6, episode 5), debut 3/12/17: Lena Dunham.
photo: Craig Blankenhorn
But it doesn’t take long for Loreen to come around again – even if it’s because she’s stoned. Unfortunately for Hannah, though, Loreen spills the beans to Elijah, which ignites another big fight. I can get behind Elijah’s insistence that the baby is not a good idea. I feel that myself. But the crux of how hurt he is here is not that Hannah’s taking on something she’s not ready for. It’s that even Hannah, the hot mess in chief, is getting her life together and leaving him behind.
Earlier in the episode, Elijah was mourning the fact that a less-talented college friend is finding success as an actor. Now, someone else is moving on without him, too. In this case, it’s the person closest to him – Hannah. Elijah is still spending his nights bingeing on Adderall and faking disdain for the “adults” around him. And Hannah used to be in on that with him. Now she won’t be. And her decision feels like a betrayal. Like she’s going to be one of those boring, successful people who look down on him and his drug-fueled, aimless lifestyle.
But after two big fights with the two most important people in her life, Hannah finds herself face-to-face with…herself. Well, it’s Daisy Eagan, playing the actress Adam found to portray the Hannah character in his movie. It’s a great moment – Hannah is able to open up, essentially being honest with herself. As the actress tells her, “Kids are super easy. It’s being an adult that’s hard.” But it looks consistently like Hannah is improving in that latter category, against all odds.
Episode 57 (season 6, episode 5), debut 3/12/17: Becky Ann Baker, Lena Dunham.
photo: Craig Blankenhorn
Jessa and Adam
The glimpses we get into the movie Jessa and Adam are making are both hilarious and telling. Daisy Eagan does an incredible job as Mira, the fake-Hannah character. She killed both the weird and awful sexual scene with Adam and the highly emotional admission of her own insecurities. Honestly, I would one-hundred percent watch and enjoy that movie. Starring Daisy Eagan and Adam Driver, set in a near-perfect rebuild of Hannah’s bedroom inside Adam’s apartment.
But the performance causes a lot of tension between Adam and Jessa. First, Jessa tries to insist on a shot of Adam’s annoyance at the Hannah character, which Adam shoots down. Then, there is an emotional and lovely scene in which Adam comforts the Hannah character. Jessa’s anger is palpable. When she confronts Adam about it, he explains that the scene is about how they’ll only hurt each other.
"“It’s about the tragedy of realizing that a relationship is too intense to survive.”"
Um, Adam. That’s LITERALLY you and Jessa.
But the real issue is not the scene. It’s that Jessa, who admittedly did not read Adam’s script, has always thought of Adam’s relationship with Hannah as boring and pedestrian and surface-level. To Jessa, Hannah was just the thing that Adam did to pass time until he met her. Maybe it’s how she justified betraying Hannah – by telling herself that her friend’s relationship with Adam wasn’t deep, and her own relationship with him was vastly more profound. But when faced with the reality, via the script, from Adam’s own mind, she can’t handle it.
Episode 57 (season 6, episode 5), debut 3/12/17: Jemima Kirke.
photo: Mark Schafer
Marnie, Shoshanna, and Ray
Hey! Ray finally broke up with Marnie! At least someone’s making the right decisions! Go Ray!
Seriously though, Marnie’s egotism and vanity have got to stop. Or at least gain a degree of self-awareness. Ray spends the episode mourning Hermie, his boss and good friend who recently died. And Marnie can’t be bothered to spend that time with him. Or any time at all, really. Set up against Ray’s earlier interaction with Shoshanna, it has the effect of building a direct comparison of the two of them. Shoshanna shows real concern for Ray, and attempts to help him through his grief. Marnie makes an excuse to go to an exercise class. It may be a foreshadowing of Ray and Shoshanna getting back together. But it may just be that Ray needs Shosh to show him what a good friend looks like. If Marnie can’t even meet that basic requirement, how could she be a good partner to him?
As an older lady Hermie once interviewed said on the tape Ray listened to, “Don’t let the garbage get to you.” And, sorry, Marn. But you’re straight garbage right now.
Next: Girls Recap: “Painful Evacuation” – Season 6, Episode 4
Best Girl: Gotta give it to Shosh again, for being there for Ray. Also for the perfect delivery of the line, “I literally hate death.” Kudos, Zosia Mamet.
Most Improved: Hannah! Last episode she got a UTI from “wearing wet underwear for a couple of days.” This episode, her fetus is the size of a lentil and she’s figuring it out, despite setbacks. Because it’s what she wants.
Best Line(s): “I’m not a bad person, by the way.” – Marnie, moments after she was a bad person
“That was an ashtray person!” – Elijah, after mistaking a questionable character for Hannah’s mom