'Girls' Recap, Season Four, Episode Six: "Close Up"
By Maggie Serota Twitter @maggieserota Feb 23, 2015 at 9:30am
Up until "Close Up," Shoshanna demonstrated far and away the most personal growth, followed by Marnie's brief bursts of self-actualization, before regressing into a toxic relationship with her Bon Iver stunt double of a philandering bandmate Desi. Now Hannah seems to be narrowing the maturity divide with a newfound altruism and dedication to helping others, thanks to some unadulterated coddling from her Mr. Rogers-eque therapist, played to gentle perfection by Bob Balaban. However, before we get to that, it's important to point out that although the show is ostensibly about the four titular girls, this season, Jessa, Marnie and, to an extent, Shoshanna have taken a back seat back seat to some of the male recurring characters.
The season's sixth episode opens up on Adam and Mimi-Rose's idyllic love nest. The two are cuddled up in bed before Adam wakes up and adoringly prepares a breakfast for them to enjoy on Rose's picturesque roofdeck, effectively making the couple look like they are living within the pages of an Anthropologie catalog. Frankly, it's not a bad life, especially one afforded to a professional artist amid the New York housing market. However, things hit a snag when Adam prompts Mimi-Rose to join her for a run and she abruptly rebuffs him by admitting that she can't engage in any strenuous activity because she had just had an abortion on the day before.
This is news to Adam, and it enrages him because he wasn't included in the decision. Of course, Adam doesn't have to be included in the decision because it is Mimi-Rose's and Mimi-Rose's alone to make. That being said, he is understandably thrown off by not knowing that the procedure was going to take place until after the fact, but it doesn't really justify the rage he flies into and the fact that he's clinging to the belief that he should have been consulted.
Mimi-Rose is clearly the logical one here and endures Adam's fantasies over the two of them having a child together after just weeks of dating.
"Crazier things have happened!" he argued. "My parents got married after a fucking week."
That's probably not a ringing endorsement for parenthood given the dysfunctional mess that Adam's parents raised.
The argument leads Mimi-Rose to reveal to Adam that their relationship on her end is predicated by want and not by need. By that token, Adam and Mimi-Rose's partnership is exponentially healthier than his relationship with Hannah, which was ruled entirely by neediness and co-dependence before she unceremoniously flew the coup for her failed grad school attempt. By the end of the episode, Adam and Mimi-Rose are waking up together in their usual embrace, even though Adam now knows that she pretends to be asleep so that she can enjoy those 15 minutes of spooning before Adam gets up for the day.
By contrast, Hannah wakes up until more bleak circumstances. Her apartment feels dark and cavelike, and the dividing wall between the two bedrooms is still demolished, exposing her to the constant sight of Elijah's huge bulge stuffed into his striped man panties. It looks like Elijah returned to Brooklyn just before he stuck a flag into a cornfield and claimed Iowa for himself. Hannah then channels all the grief of her trashed grad school dreams and failed relationship into the fact that Elijah ate her cereal without asking. They really need to get that wall fixed.
Things pick up when Hannah has that aforementioned breakthrough with therapist Bob Balaban, and Hannah does an about-face and directs her purpose in life from becoming the voice or her generation (or a generation) into a voice dedicated to helping others and sets out to explore a career in teaching. She brings this revelation up at brunch, the one scene where all four girls are together, and is greeted by a Greek chorus regarding how inherently selfish she is. Of course, Jessa is the harshest voice in the chorus and reminds Hannah of the old saying that people teach because they can't do. This is Jessa's entire contribution to the episode, and as usual, she is truly horrible. Fortunately, Hannah owns this advice, proclaiming, "I can't do, so I'll teach!"
Cracking her plate over Jessa's head would have been acceptable response, too.
Marnie is in something of a holding pattern with her Bon Iver stunt double. We're greeted by the sight of the two of them having sex against a wall to their own music. Of course they would be the kind of couple that would do it to their bland acoustic warble. How anyone can stay aroused while listening to the musical equivalent to the color beige is beyond me, but they're both complete human compost piles, so I shouldn't be all that surprised.
After the two are done giving the wall what for, Marnie and Desi are putting together their setlist for an upcoming show and the ensuing argument is symbolic of how each of them sees the relationship. Marnie thinks the set should be heavy on love songs while Desi wants to showcase their range and mix in their songs tackling political themes, including, God help us, a song they wrote for Marcus Garvey. The bickering escalates when Marnie compares their duo to She & Him, causing Desi to fly into an impotent rage and question their entire musical partnership. It's not the moment we're hoping for, which is for when the whole ill-fated union goes up in flames, but it's a decent build-up to some of the fallout we hope is ahead. Desi is definitely going to ruin this, but it remains to be seen if he does so by going back to his ex or shacking up with a new girl entirely.
As for Shoshanna, she's insisting on maintaining brutal honesty in her job interviews and manages to tank yet another one when she insults the interviewer Scott's soup company named after his ex-girlfriend named Tinsley. The two exchange some heated barbs over Shosh's lack of a job history and Scott's ridiculous Madame Tinsley graphics. Although Scott isn't going to give Shosh the job, he does want to take her out for drinks, which frankly, may be better than the job since Scott is played by the adorable Josh Ritter. Sure, Shoshanna always paired nicely with Ray, but hey: Josh Ritter. Perhaps Shosh could learn a thing or two from Lauren Graham in this department.
Speaking of Ray, we find him descending onto a community board meeting in the next logical step in his single-minded determination to end the noise pollution that is threatening his sanity. He even shows up with a model of his corner in tow, which he undoubtedly constructed by himself in a session fueled by espresso and unbridled anger. Ray is ultimately rebuffed by bureaucracy in the form of a ghost of impotent rage future version of himself played by Marc Maron. The character is neurotic, self-absorbed, and consumed with fury, so Maron is pretty much playing himself here. Ray's encounter with municipal red tape ends with him crafting his own campaign for a seat on the council.
As usual, Ray is a delight to watch, even if he's fueled by neurosis. In fact, this is yet another episode where the recurring characters come off as far more likable then the leads, save for Adam's tantrum over not being given a say in Mimi-Rose's abortion. The episode ends with Hannah packing up her resume and heading into a private school, presumably for a job interview. It should be interesting to see if this breakthrough introduces a more grounded and self-actualized Hannah, or if it's another fruitless detour in her meandering journey to find herself.
Maggie Serota is a Staff Editor at Death and Taxes and a freelance writer who loves TV more than life itself.
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Photos: HBO