This week, the season ended with with a couple inopportune revelations and the opening night of Adam's Broadway debut.1. WE CALLED IT
Laird + Caroline, Laird + Caroline! They're having a baby! WTFFFFF?! Glad to see those two knuckleheads are happy together.
2. Hannah must actually be a good writer
Even though Hannah's writing had found fans in David Pressler Goings and that second editor she met with, I was always a little skeptical about her actual abilities. I'm honestly not sure why. Maybe I projected her social obliviousness onto her writing skills. At any rate, was anyone else surprised to see Hannah's writing get such validation?
3. It was nice to see Marnie appear so genuinely excited for Hannah
After all the ups and downs these two have had the last three seasons, I really liked watching Marnie (in her fluffy yellow towel no less) seem happy for Hannah. Allison Williams does a really nice job of portraying Marnie's insecurities and fakeness and I liked that there didn't seem to be any bullshit or agenda here. Hannah's success was special enough and big enough that even Marnie couldn't begrudge it.
4. Shosh finally had her meltdown
Ugh, poor Shosh. As we predicted all season, her "grand plan" of alternating between sex and studies went horribly, horribly wrong and she failed her Glaciology class, preventing her from graduating on time. But! She got to have the meltdown we've been waiting all season for and catharsis feels so good.
5. Oops! Will Hannah's parents have to mortgage their home to pay for her grad school?
Did anyone else pick up on Hannah's parents' simultaneous glowing excitement and mini-panic when she told them she'd been accepted into grad school? At one point Loreen alternates saying "you'll figure it out" with "we'll figure it out" and she and Tad exchange nervous glances and hugs. How's Hannah gonna pay for the Writer's Workshop? Hopefully she'll get some student loans or financial aid so the Horvaths don't have to take another mortgage out on their house...
6. Why couldn't anyone keep their mouths shut?
There was a nice parallel between Marnie tactlessly telling Shosh about her sexual relationship with Ray after she knew how distressed her friend was and Hannah telling Adam about graduate school moments before his big debut. What. The. Fuck. Each girl was so obsessed with getting her own secrets off her chest that she had no consideration for the recipient's feelings. They were like computers programmed to say these things, unable to change re-set when it became clear that the moment wasn't right. Will those exchanges cost Marnie her friendship with Shosh and Hannah her relationship with Adam?
7. In the words of Loreen, "hold the phone": Desi didn't kiss Marnie
I loved that Marnie went around telling her friends that Desi kissed her when, in fact, she kissed him. (Though, to be fair, he kissed her back.) But why did she interrupt the moment? I was surprised she didn't just have sex with him then and there. My guess is that for all she's into Desi, a part of her is still a little scared (or at the very least knows she's entering super murky -- and morally dubious -- territory by going after a dude with a girlfriend). She wants the satisfaction of knowing she can get Desi (after all, she admits to Hannah that she "uses sex for validation") without having to take on all of the risk.
8. Ray's presence stabilized Shosh but Shosh's absence stabilized Ray
I thought it was interesting that Shosh tells Ray that he was a stabilizing force in her life only to hear him reveal that though she might have motivated him to get his shit together in the first place, her absence is helping him keep it together.
9. Why was Marnie crying when she was spying on Desi and Clementine having a fight?
Was it because she knows she won't get to record with him? Because Clementine's bathroom confrontation freaked her the fuck out? Shouldn't a fight between the couple make her happy?
10. So, uh, will Hannah go to Iowa?
The episode ends with a great shot of Hannah reveling in her acceptance to the Iowa Writer's Workshop -- relationship troubles with Adam be damned. But will the Lena Dunham actually have her head out there? I'm inclined to guess that it'll be a "Carrie in Paris" fake-out moment. I bet we'll see her start next season in Iowa but I can't imagine she'll complete the two-year residency.
Best lines of the episode:
"Baby, if there's a note from the library, will you just leave it in there? I don't want to see it. It'll just stress my brain out." -- Laird
"I haven't been to a Broadway show since my parents drove me in to see a matinee of Falsettos...at which point they told me my grandparents were getting divorced." -- Ray