So I’m going to start this review by saying I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of Girls, which was a surprise as much of it was centered around Hannah and her mom’s all-female retreat and the only one of the men that was in the episode was Adam. But it had some great moments like a return to Shoshanna in Japan, Hannah’s first lesbian moment, and Adam and Jessa taking things to the next level.
Hannah, Loreen and the trust circle
Hannah accompanies her mom, Loreen on a women’s retreat whereby she means to finally make a decision about whether or not she’s going to divorce Tad, Hannah’s father.
Loreen meets with other divorced women who share their horror divorce stories as well as their experiences afterwards – online dating, being able to do what they want. She and Hannah take part in yoga classes, dance classes, etc., and it really seems as if she’s embracing every aspect that the retreat has to offer in an attempt to make a better decision.
Hannah, on the other hand, is not that keen to partake, as she is told off multiple times for using her phone and grudgingly takes parts in the activities. She’s trying to find a way to break up with Fran, and it’s so bad that she explains to the yoga teacher that even though she hates all the activities at the retreat, she would still prefer to be there than with Fran.
It doesn’t make things easier that everything keeps telling her that Fran is such a nice guy. Her mother wonders if the relationship between her and Tad might have been the reason why Hannah cannot let anyone nice love her. It’s an interesting thing to note, but then again, is Fran really all that nice?
The yoga teacher notes that as well by saying, “Nice is a mask angry people wear to hide their inner assholes.” And that could be true, but I think to a certain degree Hannah discovers what it’s like to be with someone who has no regard for her feelings. A yoga moment between the teacher and Hannah turns into more when Hannah falls on top of her and the two of them start making out which results in Hannah going down on her, which would be fine if they were not in the middle of a sauna and with her head trapped in between the teacher’s legs means she’s really hot. When she says she can’t take it anymore, the teacher encourages her to go on for another 30 seconds, but Hannah refuses and gets up and dressed, meaning the teacher has to finish herself off, which results in some awkward crying.
In the end, Hannah feels like she made some bad decisions but it still looks like she and Fran are headed for a breakup, and Loreen decides she’s going to stay with Tad because she’s comfortable with him, “I like our house, and your father’s very nice, and he makes me laugh when he does that Chris Rock.”
Jessa and Adam and meeting the family
The Jessa and Adam scenes begin with them having sex – naturally – and they enacted some weird roleplay mid-sex as a high school students trying not to get pregnant. It’s wildly in character for both of them and fits so well with what we know about them.
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Later on in the episode, the two meet with Jessa’s half-sister, Minerva, who Jessa notes to Adam has slept with all the same people with her except for the fact that Minerva also slept with Jessa’s biological father, which sounds totally normal…
Minerva is recently divorced and receiving spousal support from her ex-husband even though she is richer because of their inheritance, and Jessa asks her for money to help her to pay for her to schooling to become a therapist. Minerva turns her down saying she’s not a good investment and that Jessa will change her mind and waste her money.
Adam, who Jessa introduced as her boyfriend, stands up for Jessa though telling Minerva that he believes in her and he would be more than happy to pay for her schooling. It’s a sweet moment between the two, and I really really hope that this means Jessa will complete her schooling and not take Adam for a ride.
The bigger question is now that are officially boyfriend and girlfriend, how long until Hannah finds out? And are we really ready to deal with her reaction?
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Yosh, Shosh, and the end of the Japanese dream
The final segment of the episode was about Shoshanna’s adventures in Tokyo (no Marnie this episode, yay!) and how she is coping with her post-job life.
It seems to be going good for Shosh as she’s working at a cat cafe and her very attractive boyfriend Yoshi drops by on his lunch hour to spend time with her. It seems like her own very beautiful and colorful Japanese dream.
Abigail, her former boss, drops in and full of apologies for Shoshanna, saying that she’s only in town for two days and intended to stay in a McDonald’s until she felt safe again, but Shoshanna agrees to take her out on the town and show her everything that Tokyo has to offer.
Halfway through their adventure, the two of them meet up with Yoshi who tells Abigail about how he intends to take Shosh to his home village to meet his grandmother, and then the two of them will lose their virginity to each other. This is funny for anyone who has been watching the series regularly as we know that Shoshanna lost her virginity ages ago when she was still with Ray.
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Yoshi goes to the bathroom, and Shoshanna breaks down to Abigail saying that she’s homesick and lonely, which prompts us to believe that she’s going back home. For me, it’s a little sad that we didn’t get to see more of Shoshanna’s progression into disenchantment with Tokyo, last we saw her she loved the city so much that she didn’t want to leave when she had a free ticket back home. Is it the job at the cat cafe? Is it pretending to be a virgin? I would like to know more about why Shoshanna is done with Japan.
Rating: 8/10
Favorite quote: “Honestly, I feel like I’m inside Katy Perry’s vagina.” – Abigail commenting on Tokyo
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