Girls Recap: Marnie pulls the plug
Last night’s Girls was all bout Marnie, and saw her make a major decision in her relationship with Desi.
The only story that moved forward in last night’s episode of Girls, “The Panic in Central Park,” was Marnie’s. It’s rare that Girls devotes an entire episode to a single character, but it makes sense here as this is a major turning point in Marnie’s life. So, yeah, her and Desi are over.
This episode has been a long time coming. In fact, almost her entire relationship with Desi has been about waiting for the other shoe to drop. We’ve known since, well, forever, that Desi is unstable and their relationship just couldn’t work. This realization came to Marnie after a continuation of their fight from a couple of episodes ago in which Desi decided to renovate their apartment without consulting Marnie.
His mysterious, magically successful app startup from season two is gone, and Charlie is now broke.
After telling Desi that she wants some space — and Desi having a little breakdown — she sets off to spend the day on her own. Almost immediately she runs into Charlie, her ex-boyfriend from a few seasons ago that now sports a bold jeans look and a “new accent.” Charlie is a mess, though he insists on taking Marnie out. His mysterious, magically successful app startup from season two is gone, and Charlie is now broke.
He’s also a bit dodgy, leaving Marnie in a shop so he can fetch some money under the guise of finding a bathroom. He wants to take Marnie to a fancy party, which really just amounts to meeting a client to sell cocaine too. Marnie has a bit of fun as well pretending to be an escort and getting paid upfront. It’s actually nice to see Marnie cut loose a little, though everything about her night with Charlie is surreal and fleeting.
Charlie’s reappearance on Girls is just a catalyst to have Marnie figure out what she really wants.
After they sneak into the Central Park boating area — Marnie hilariously complains that “that’s not our boat!” — they end up falling into the water. For anyone that hasn’t been boating in Central Park, that water is disgusting. Just so you know. They end up back in Charlie’s apartment which is more of a hole in the wall than Marnie’s.
Charlie’s reappearance on Girls is just a catalyst to have Marnie figure out what she really wants. They plan to run away together, though that obviously doesn’t work out. After discovering that Charlie himself is an addict, Marnie goes home to break up with Desi. It’s doubtful that we’ll see Charlie again.
Desi and Marnie’s relationship is now over, though Desi believes that Marnie will eventually be murdered due her lack of worldliness. All in all, “The Panic in Central Park” is a relatively nice, quiet episode with major consequences. Unfortunately Marnie’s relationship with Desi never felt real in the first place, and it was understood that this was going to happen eventually. There are no surprises here outside of Charlie’s sudden, albeit farfetched, return. Just acceptance.
Next: Go inside last week's Girls.
When Marnie crawls into bed with Hannah and Fran at the end, it’s an emotional moment. To move forward, Marnie has to temporarily move backwards. That’s usually how life works out. As of now, it looks like Jessa and Adam are the only couple that will be together by the end of this season. In typical Girls fashion, it all inevitably falls apart.