‘Girls’ season 4, episode 5 review: Lena Dunham, Adam Driver shine in best episode in years
When we look back at “Girls” season 2 (our favorite season of the show by a fairly large margin), what stood out to us was that this was a season that focused more on the thought-provoking, emotional moments. We almost prefer the series when it is not necessarily trying to be a comedy, and the humor comes naturally out of the situations and the interactions between the characters. That episode with Lena Dunham and Patrick Wilson front and center was a favorite, since you saw through their progression more of what Hannah truly wanted, and it stripped her of some of her neuroses and her character flaws that at times make her a difficult person to root for.
Sunday night’s “Sit-in” gave us an episode that was similar in many ways. Roughly 95% of it took place within Hannah’s old apartment with Adam, and it brought us little individual snapshots of various characters entering and leaving as she tried to cope with the reality that he had moved on with Mimi-Rose Howard (Gillian Jacobs). Everyone had an opinion, and we put the blameon both of them. Hannah should have set clearer definitions on what she wanted from him before leaving for Iowa, and if he was started to feel this way, he should have spoken to her about it the moment he realized that he wanted to date Mimi-Rose.
Each interaction with Hannah and another character was endearing in its own way. Jessa basically got into a fight with her, Ray used her as an outlet to complain about his own problems, and eventually, it was Marnie who actually shook a little sense into her with some simple advice: Let Adam go. If he is happy, you cannot change him from that. We’ve criticized the character for not evolving much over the years, but in this installment, she grew up tremendously in a very short amount of time. The final scene with Dunham and Adam Driver in the episode was superbly written and acted; they were talking about so many different layers in between the apartment and the relationship, and how “stopping by” can be indicative of a bump in the road for the long journey that is life.
Hannah now is devastated, and feeling completely alone within the walls of her storage unit. Still, she seems ready to move on, and without this sort of fallback, she is probably capable of more than she has ever been.
While this was by far the strongest episode of “Girls” in more than a year, we still have to nit-pick over her peeing in a garbage bin. We’ve felt the same way Hannah has before in our lives (so many of us have), and we’ve never had that temptation. You can always suck it up, use the restroom, and run back. That was the one moment the show became more of a sitcom. Episode Grade: A-.