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There’s usually some semblance of deeper meaning in the titles of Girls episodes—“American Bitch,” “The Panic in Central Park” and so on—but last night’s was pretty on the nose: “What Will We Do This Time About Adam?” We didn’t see the aforementioned Mr. Sackler in last week’s edition but Adam has apparently spent the interim mulling over the surprising news of Hannah’s pregnancy—so much so, in fact, that he announces to Jessa that he misses Hannah and wants to raise her baby with her. (So does Laird, but that’s beside the point.)
When Adam tells Hannah as much at her local bodega, she responds firstly with confusion…and then by taking Adam to bed. The two spend the day together in an almost “One Man’s Trash”-like dream state, with the off-and-now-on-again couple picking out baby carriers, swapping childhood sleepover stories and alleviating Hannah’s fears of raising a baby.
It’s a late-in-the-game reminder of the characters’ considerable chemistry—and it’s always a pleasure to see Lena Dunham and Adam Driver bounce off each other—but it’s ultimately too late. As the duo frivolously discuss domesticity at a diner, Hannah’s bottom lip quivers and the spell is devastatingly broken: Adam can’t rescue Hannah this time.
Adam returns to Jessa, which at the very least is a boon to the latter’s mental health—following the divulgence of his baby-raising plans, Jessa spends the episode intermittently chain-smoking, vomiting and wearing bikini tops seemingly fashioned out of Fraggle Rock puppets. She ends up at a bar, where she commendably manages to maintain her sobriety but still winds up having sad bathroom sex with a barstool stranger. Some demons simply can’t be shaken.
Ray, surprisingly enough, is having a better day than all of the above. While working with Shoshanna on an oral-history project featuring Hermie’s old cassette tapes, they run into Shosh’s old boss, Abigail (Aidy Bryant). The trio go to lunch and there are some off-kilter sparks flying between Abigail and Ray, much to Shosh’s chagrin.
The meet-cuters have their own dreamy date of a day, going around the borough to ask elderly Brooklynites about life and love, culminating in a cute and appropriately awkward smooch at Jane’s Carousel. Apologies to Shosh, but with Adam and Hannah now finally off the table, Abigail and Ray are now my Girls couple to root for.
Choice soundbites:
“Honey, of course you don’t feel good. It’s 127-degrees in here and we are poor.”–Elijah
“My favorite show growing up was this obscure Russian cartoon about a tiny cup of borscht that had no father...Shaped me as a child.”–Ray
"Children—it’s good for them to hear loud noises and strange smells and be around strange men. You don’t want them to be boring.”–Jessa