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Girls Recap: Hannah and Jessa and Adam.

ByReuben Levine|

This week’s Girls saw the outing, so to speak, of Jessa and Adam.

Instead of reasonably moving things along like it originally looked like it was going to do, the fifth season of Girls has proven that it’s really no different from the others when it comes to character growth. This particular episode, titled “Hello Kitty,” saw Hannah in fine form. In fact, this was one of the top Hannah episodes. That is to say, it saw her at her most infuriating.

Things kick off with Hannah and Fran at odds, both still and again. Things aren’t quite healed from before, and this time Hannah decided it would be a good idea to flash the principal in order to keep from being fired. Hannah, of course, sees no problem with this, while Fran is livid. Fran, asking the questions that we all wish we could, wants to know if Hannah is “that broken.”

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That’s an interesting point, because yes, yes she is. Fran works as a character because he confronts Hannah on her behavior more than anyone else has done in the past. In instances like this he becomes a representation of what the viewers want to know. As vindicating as Fran’s probing is, it ultimately underline what is just another Hannah eccentricity. And there are just far too many at this point.

The majority of the episode takes place at one of Adam’s plays, and it’s one of Girls more brilliant ideas. The main characters, including Ray for some reason — he still has nothing going on — wander around a play which takes place in different rooms separate apartments. It’s wild stuff. It also means that Hannah and co. spend most of the time separated, only speaking to each other in short bursts.

"While more development for Elijah is welcome, in this case it’s just less interesting than what else is going on."

The rest of the episode follows Elijah and Dill. Dill is throwing a huge party at his place when Elijah finds out that he likes to sleep around. While more development for Elijah is welcome, in this case it’s just less interesting than what else is going on. This is where we find out that Dill is really a jerk. He tells Elijah that if he’s not okay with the situation he should leave — which he does after stealing some toiletries.

A drunken Dill visits Elijah at his apartment later and falls asleep, and that’s that. It does, however, give Elijah another chance to say one of his patented great lines when he refers to his friends as being poor. Every minute we spend with Elijah just feels like one more we could have had exploring Adam’s freaky play.

Back at said play, Marnie effortlessly refers to Jessa and Adam as “second tier friends” when Hannah wants to know if the two of them are sleeping together. In Marnie-land, Desi brings news that one of their songs is going to be used in Grey’s Anatomy. They want to move forward with their career, but there is tension there when Marnie double-checks that they’re still getting divorced.

Marnie also checks in with Ray just to tell her that she’s getting divorced and needs to be on her own. Remember that Ray had a thing with Marnie? Yeah, it doesn’t really matter. We see so little of Ray that his feelings for Marnie have become inconsequential. It just doesn’t matter.

In the best scene of the episode, and the emotional highpoint, Hannah says hello to Adam and Jessa while they’re walking away. It’s an awkward moment and nobody stays to chat, but Hannah has a little breakdown. In that moment her fight with Fran, whom she wanted to breakup with earlier in the episode, falls away. She apologizes and takes Fran’s hand while she tries to keep it together.

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Girls can be adept at quieter moments like that when it wants to be. This is where the current heart of the show is, and when it’s good everything else falls away. If Girls doesn’t tread carefully there might not be enough time in the season to explore this new dynamic before it’s over.