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Girls Recap: Episode 7, ‘The Bounce’

By Reuben Levine

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Elijah makes a friend and Dil returns in another great season 6 episode

Of all the problems that Girls has had over the course of 6 seasons, none of them have ever come from focusing on Elijah. Girls has always known exactly what to do with Elijah, and that trend thankfully doesn’t change in episode 7, ‘The Bounce.‘ Even with the focus held tightly on Elijah, time is still made for Hannah and Marnie. Even then, it’s all about Elijah and his search for something greater.

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Episode 7 finds Elijah going out for an auction for a White Men Can’t Jump musical. He even has a typical moment of self-doubt, but that changes when he runs into Athena practicing her own (brilliant) audition and decides to actually go for it. This is all preceded by a visit from Dill, who is apparently looking for a place to hide after being caught trying to buy a white baby. A lot of stories happen off-screen in Girls, and sometimes they end up doing more harm to the show than good. A good example of this would be when Marnie’s ex boyfriend suddenly (shockingly, unbelievably) becomes a successful app develop rand his own office an employees. That was a step too far. Dill trying to buy a baby on the black market is just right.

While Elijah is off trying to make a future for himself, Dill hangs with Hannah at home. At first they treat each other fairly coldly, but the walls come crumbling down after she finally gets in touch with Paul-Louis. He doesn’t want anything to do with the baby and is relieved when Hannah lets him off the hook, which is exactly what we all knew would happen. But, as it turns out, that’s not what she hoped would happen.

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It’s great fun watching Elijah audition for a musical in front of aloof producers considering that he’s played by Andrew Rannells, who was in Book of Mormon. It’s also hilarious when he stumbles his age, first admitting that he’s 28, and then backtracking to 24. Elijah has always been vain with a mean streak, and he’s at his best in ‘The Bounce.’ While at the audition he constantly checks his phone to see what Dill has been up to, while Athena tells him to forget it. There is great potential here for Athena to befriend Elijah, but it’s going to take some time. He blows her off in the end, blaming it on their age difference. But he’ll crack.

“It turns out that what Girls has always needed was a little focus in order to make something truly great.”

A lot of time is spent on Elijah and Hannah, but Marnie gets some important character development here as well. She has come to the stark realization that not only is she out of money, but that she has been lied to multiple times about her parents. Her mother doesn’t want to loan her money, and when she goes to pawn some jewelry it is proven to be fake. Cue an oddly empathetic and considerate pawn shop owner, who tells Marnie the truth about her life and how she’s living it. The scene may not be all too believable, but it gets the job done. In the end, she ends up leaving a message on Desi’s machine telling him that she’s going to move in with her mother. Sometimes you have to take a step back to actually take on forward, and it’s about time that Marnie has realized that.

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Dill ends up admitting that he wants to get back together with Elijah, and the two do sleep together, though it’s not clear if it’s really going to go anywhere more than that. ‘The Bounce’ succeeds by limiting the amount of characters on-screen, and it doesn’t end up mattering that we don’t check in with anyone else besides those three characters. It turns out that what Girls has always needed was a little focus in order to make something truly great.

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