Girls Recap: Hannah Does Some Adulting

Girls delivers a solid episode with “Good man.”

Girls has always been on shaky ground when it comes to the idea of being an adult. It was established early on that Hannah and her group of friends had a tenuous grasp on what it means to grow up. In the newest episode of Girls, Hannah is forced to be the grown up in an oddly reversed situation with her parents. Oh, and Elijah was there being Elijah.

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Within in the first two minutes of the episode we meet Jacob, a new character who is apparently already somewhat of a fixture in Fran and Hannah’s lives. To say that Jacob is out of his mind would be an understatement. He is also a plot device created to force Fran out of his home for a little while and into the apartment with Hannah and Elijah, which gets the job done even in its transparency.

We see Ray and Elijah working together, which brings out the best of both characters. Elijah isn’t keen on getting a “real job” like Hannah and Fran, and considers working with Ray to be just like regular work “except it involves Ray, and I can’t take my shirt off.” Elijah is consistently the funniest and most even-keeled character on Girls, and any episode to feature him is better for it. That’s just how it is.

This episode features a few different storylines to further the season, the most important one arguably being the situation with Hannah’s father. Season four, with the revelation that Hannah’s dad was gay, set up Hannah’s forced adult transformation. Hannah leaves work early — where she is forcing eighth graders to read Philip Roth — to tend to her father who is having a break down due to an online dating mishap.

Elijah is consistently the funniest and most even-keeled character on Girls, and any episode to feature him is better for it.

Girls balances the two well; Hannah is a complete child in dealing with her work, which she has somehow been able to hold onto, with the total about-face that occurs when tending to her dad. Elijah is eventually called in to fix the situation, though he backs out when he sees Hannah and her dad crying together in a restaurant.

The introduction of a potential love interest for Elijah could prove to be something, though it’s early days there. Marine and Shoshanna were both absent this episode, so the only other moving storyline involved Jessa and Adam. The two of them are still on rocky terms after kissing in “Wedding Day,” and they spend perhaps the episode’s best sequence at Coney Island.

Jessa has rules about “no touching” and that they are only friends — rules which are tested in a very typical Girls scene in Jessa’s apartment.

Next: HBO gives fans a look at Game of Thrones season six.

Girls is steadily moving forward in season five, which tends to be how every season goes before it makes a sharp left turn. For now, however, Girls is just doing what it does best, and it is doing it better than ever.

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